New Delhi / Passenger Vehicle Sales See Worst Ever Monthly Drop since 1998

The Indian auto industry has now seen its worst ever monthly sales decline in over two decades. For the tenth straight month, the year-on-year monthly sales of the Indian auto industry have been falling. The month of August 2019 has seen the worst decline since 1997-98. The percentage sale of two-wheelers is also at a three-year low.

The overall passenger vehicle sales dropped by a significant 31.57 per cent last month with 196,524 units sold as compared to 287,198 units in August 2018. The biggest hit was taken by the passenger car sales which declined by a massive 41.09 per cent, selling 115,957 units as compare to 196,847 units in August 2018. Utility vehicles sales saw a decline of just 2.2 per cent with 71,478 units sold compared to 73,085 units sold in August last year. The van segment on the other hand again saw a massive drop of 47.36 per cent with sales of 9,089 units in August 2019 as compared to 17,266 units sold in August 2018.

Two-wheeler sales too saw a decline of 22.24 per cent with 1,514,196 units sold in August 2019 as compared to 1,947,304 units sold in August 2018. Scooters, motorcycles and mopeds saw a decline of 22 per cent, 22 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. Medium and heavy commercial vehicles too saw a massive decline of 54.3 per cent with 15,573 units sold last month as compared to 34,073 units sold in August 2018. Light commercial vehicles too saw a decline of 28.21 per cent with 36,324 units sold as compared to 50,595 units sold in August 2018.

In total, the Indian auto inc. sold 9,732,040 units of vehicles in August 2019 as compared to 11,570,401 units sold in August 2018, which is a decline of 15.89 per cent. It may not look like much but when you dig deeper, the rot is all the more evident and a segment by segment analysis reveals that almost each and every vehicle segment in India is taking a massive hit as far as sales are concerned.