NEW DELHI: Passenger car sales in India rose 10.39pct in November - the13th consecutive month of growth - as the domestic auto industry continues to drive on the slow road to recovery.
According to the data released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic car sales in November stood at 1,73,111 units compared with 1,56,811 units in the same month last year.
Overall passenger vehicle sales during the month grew by 11.4pct to 2,36,664 units as against 2,12,437 units in the year-ago period.
"It is the 13th consecutive month of growth for the passenger cars. We posted some growth during November but rural off take remains pretty low and is pulling us down," Siam Director General Vishnu Mathur told reporters here.
The growth has come from recent launches like Maruti Baleno and Renault Kwid. There has also been some positive impact of the festival season which extended into some part of November, he added.
"It's a slow recovery process that is happening in the car segment but the situation in the rural markets is not very encouraging," Mathur said.
When asked about the sales forecast in the remaining part of the fiscal, he added: "As we said earlier, we expect the passenger vehicle segment to grow in the range of 8-10pct".
During the month, market leader Maruti Suzuki India posted a growth of 10.57pct in its passenger vehicles sales at 1,10,599 units. Its car sales rose 8.71 % to 89,479 units during the period.
Rival Hyundai Motor India saw its passenger vehicle sales increase by 22.92 % to 43,651 units in November, driven by newly launched SUV Creta.
Its passenger car sales jumped 6.55pct to 37,771 units during November compared with 35,448 units in the same period of previous year.
Honda Cars India's sales stood at 14,276 units as against 11,612 units in the same month last year, up 22.94pct, SIAM said.
Homegrown Tata Motors' domestic car sales were at 9,172 units compared with 10,286 units in the same month previous year, down 10.83pct.
Utility vehicles major Mahindra & Mahindra saw its sales rise 37.27pct to 18,686 units as against 13,612 units in November last year, riding on new model TUV300.
As per Siam data, motorcycle sales rose 1.58pct to 8,66,705 units in November as against 8,53,257 units sold during the same month last year.
Mathur said: "Lack of growth in the motorcycle sales is a cause of concern of us. Even the scooter sales, which is an urban phenomenon, have gone down."
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