The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) said this will lead to an increase in vehicle prices, which may have an impact on sales in the fourth quarter. Two-wheelers account for 60 to 70 percent of total vehicle sales. Two-wheeler sales fell 11.2 percent to 11,33,138 units in December. High inflation and the high cost of gasoline are the main reasons behind the decline in sales. Apart from this, the increase in sales of electric two-wheelers has also affected gasoline-powered two-wheelers. Hero MotoCorp, one of the world’s largest two-wheeler companies, has experienced a significant decline in its retail sales. As a result, the company’s market share fell to 29.1 percent in December from 34.8 percent in the same month last year. The company faces stiff competition from Honda’s two-wheeler unit.
However, passenger car sales rose about 8.2 percent to 280,016 units in December. FADA said that in the past calendar year, passenger car sales set a record with 34.3 lakh units. One of the main reasons for this is the increased demand for utility vehicles.
Maruti Suzuki, one of the largest auto companies, experienced a 17.96 percent decline in December production to 124,722 units. There were 1,52,029 units in the same month last year. The company has said that a shortage of electronic components has had some impact on vehicle production in the past month. The company has taken steps to reduce this impact. Maruti’s production in the mini car and compact car segments fell 21 percent to 83,753 units. There were 1,06,090 units in the same month last year. This segment includes cars like the Alto, S-Presso, Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift, and WagonR. Production of the Super Carry light commercial vehicle stood at 587 units last month. This was higher than the 3,262 units in the same month last year. The company’s wholesale sales fell nearly 9 percent to 139,347 units in December.