Passenger car sales jump 15% in June

New Delhi: Improved sentiment and speculative purchases towards the second week of last month have fuelled the sales of passenger cars in India, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Wednesday.
Total passenger car sales grew 15 per cent to 1.60 lakh units in June this year compared with around 1.4 lakh units in June 2013, the SIAM report said.
“This was the highest-ever June sales and we hope the trend of double-digit growth going forward,” Vishnu Mathur, Director General, SIAM, told reporters here.
Excise duty cuts
He said because of the speculation that the Government might not continue with the excise duty cuts on cars in early June, companies saw increased footfalls at the showrooms, which turned into better sales too.
Total passenger vehicles sales also grew 11 per cent to 2.19 lakh units during last month against 1.97 lakh units in the corresponding month previous year.
2-wheelers, commercial vehicles
Total two-wheelers segment also grew 13 per cent to 12.61 lakh units from 11.16 lakh units in June 2013.
However, total commercial vehicle sales are still in negative (-9 per cent) zone year-on-year at 51,119 units during June against 56,194 units in June 2013.
Overall, the grand total of all vehicles sold during June grew 12 per cent to 15.78 lakh units against 14.07 lakh units in the corresponding month last year.