BENGALURU: Passenger car sales got a boost as the segment grew 15.26 per cent in December 2014 at 1,52,743 units when compared to the year ago period.
However, motorcycles saw a dip of 3.52 per cent to 7,79,908 units even though overall two wheelers saw an increase of 4.52 per cent driven by scooter sales, according to automobile industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).
Commercial vehicles continued on their recovery path as the category rose 9.01 per cent to 51,000 units sold in December 2014.
The segment is likely to see some dip in sales as the government did not extend the December 31, 2014 deadline to continue with excise cuts. Car makers had already announced price increases since January 2015 and the excise cuts roll back will add to the prices of cars and other categories of automobiles.
“There will be some negative impact. Customers have advanced their purchases in December so there could be an impact on sales in January and February,” Sugato Sen, Deputy Director General of SIAM said on the roll back of duty cuts.
Passenger vehicles grew by 3.67 per cent in April-December 2014 over the same period last year. Within the passenger vehicles segment, passenger cars and utility vehicles grew by 4.99 per cent and 5.49 per cent respectively, while vans declined by (-) 12.63 per cent in April-December 2014 over the same period last year, SIAM data said.
“Vehicle prices were down for the nine months in the previous calendar year due to excise duty reductions. It helped in creating a positive sentiment thus helping growth in sales,” he said.
Though the company sold only 1.8 million cars in 2014, Sen said that this was better than negative growth. “We expect a low single digit sales growth of around one per cent during the financial year. We are not anticipating negative growth this fiscal,” agencies quoted Sen as saying.