Slowdown continues: Domestic passenger cars sales plunge 36% in July

New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS) The slump in domestic passenger cars' sales continued with the segment's off-take plunging by 35.95 per cent in July.

Industry observers cited high cost due to GST and lack of adequate liquidity as the main reasons for the sales slowdown.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), passenger cars sales in the domestic market dropped to 122,956 units from 191,979 units sold during July 2018.

Among the other sub-segments of passenger vehicles, the number of utility vehicles sold in India went down by 15.22 per cent to 67,030 units in July 2019, while 10,804 vans were sold last month, down 45.68 per cent from the corresponding month of 2018.

Overall, passenger vehicle sales declined 30.98 per cent in July to 200,790 units from 290,931 units.

In the commercial vehicle segment, domestic sales were down by 25.71 per cent to 56,866 units last month, SIAM said.

Similarly, the data pointed out that three-wheelers' sales decelerated. The segment's off-take went down by 7.66 per cent to 55,719 units during the month in consideration.

In addition, overall sales of two-wheelers, which include scooters, motorcycles and mopeds, edged lower by 16.82 per cent to 1,511,692 units.

Accordingly, the total sales of the Indian automobile sector declined by 18.71 per cent during July 2019 to 1,825,148 units across segments and categories.

However, exports across categories were higher by 4.22 per cent to 414,596 units.