The passenger vehicle domestic wholesales surged 8.4% year-on-year to 42,18,746 units in FY24 against 38,90,114 units in the previous fiscal year, driven by the country’s emerging sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment, according to the latest data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). In the fiscal year gone by, the sales of utility vehicles witnessed a growth of 25.8% year-on-year to 25,20,691 units against 20,03,718 units in FY23. In contrast to this, the sales in the passenger cars segment, including hatchbacks and sedans witnessed a degrowth of 11.4% year-on-year to 15,48,943 units in FY24 against 17,47, 376 units in FY23.
Among automobile manufacturers, the sales data of Tata Motors was not revealed. The domestic sales of Maruti Suzuki— the country’s largest automaker—however, grew by 9.5% to 16,06,870 units against 17,59,881 units in FY23. The maker of Grand Vitara and Brezza exported 2,80,712 units during the year under review, growing by 9.8% YoY, as against 2,55,439 units despite the Red Sea crisis in the last six months of FY24.
This was followed by South Korean automaker Hyundai, which sold 6,14,717 units, witnessing a growth of 8.3% against 5,67,546 units in FY23. The manufacturer of Creta sold 1,63,155 units in the international market, against 1,53,019 units in FY23.
Mahindra and Mahindra, the country’s largest SUV manufacturer, witnessed a growth of 28% in the domestic market, with sales of 4,59,877 units during the year under review, against 3,59,253 units in the same period last year. The manufacturer of XUV700 and Scorpio exported 11,135 units against 10,622 units in FY23.
While passenger vehicles showcased a strong momentum, sales of two-wheelers also witnessed a recovery path with a growth of 13.3% to 1,79,74,365 units in FY24, against 1,58,62,771 units in FY23. Amongst this, the motorcycle, scooter and mopeds segment grew by 13.9%, 12.5% and 9.1%, respectively.
Notably, the three-wheeler segment witnessed a remarkable recovery by almost reaching its peak and growing 41.5% YoY, to 6,91,749 units, as against 4,88,768 units in FY23.
The commercial vehicle segment, however, witnessed a marginal growth of 0.6% to 9,67,878 units against 9,62,468 units in FY23.
“Domestic commercial vehicle industry had a marginal growth to 9.7 million units and within that, some drop was experienced in LCVs (light commercial vehicles) and SCVs (small commercial vehicles) due to degrowth in CNG segment. The growth in commercial vehicles was also impacted due to migration to higher tonnage trucks which created higher payload capacity, that is not reflected in the number of units,” says Vinod Aggarwal, President, SIAM.
“Overall exports remained under stress during the last financial year with a sizeable drop in Commercial Vehicles, Two-Wheelers and Three-Wheelers, though Passenger vehicles grew marginally. However, good recovery was seen in the last quarter, especially for two-wheelers, indicating better potential for the current year,” he adds.
