Challenges continue to dog the Indian auto industry

Challenging times are not yet a past as far as the performance of the Indian auto industry is concerned. Sales of passenger vehicles contnue to be in the slow lane. They continue to decline along with most other industry segments, the exception being the two wheelers segment with a stellar performance by scooters. Scooters undoubtedly are the shining stars of the Indian auto industry at the moment. Getting into details, the industry produced a total of 1,773,678 vehicles including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three wheelers and two wheelers in November 2013 as against 1,644,723 in November 2012, registering a growth of 7.84 per cent over the same month last
year.

The growth continues to be on account of growth in two wheelers production. The overall domestic sales during April-November 2013 grew marginally by 2.73 per cent over the same period last year. Again this is because of growth in two wheelers sales. The sales of Passenger Vehicles declined by (-) 5.34 per cent during April-November 2013 over the same period last year. Within the Passenger Vehicles, Passenger Cars, Utility Vehicles and Vans dropped by (-) 4.97 per cent, (-) 3.62 per cent and (-) 12.23 per cent respectively during April-November 2013 compared to the same period last year.

The overall Commercial Vehicles segment registered a de-growth of (-) 17.51 per cent in April-November 2013 as compared to the same period last year. Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVs) registered negative growth at (-) 26.81 per cent and Light Commercial Vehicles also dropped by (-) 12.52 per cent. Three Wheelers sales declined by (-) 7.83 per cent in April-November 2013 over the same period last year.
Passenger Carriers and Goods Carriers declined by (-) 8.29 per cent and (-) 5.70 per cent respectively in April-November 2013 over April-November 2012. Two Wheelers registered growth of 5.78 per cent during April-November 2013 over April-November 2012. Within the Two Wheelers segment, Scooters and Motorcycles grew at 18.70 per cent and 3.32 per cent respectively, while Mopeds declined by (-) 10.49 per cent in April-November 2013 over April-November 2012. During April-November 2013, overall automobile exports grew by 5.52 per cent. Passenger Vehicles, Three Wheelers and Two Wheelers registered growth at 9.64 per cent 16.98 per cent and 3.41 per cent respectively,while Commercial Vehicles declined by (-)12.31 per cent during April-November 2013 compared to the same period last year.