Indian Automobile Industry News March 2015

The financial year 2014-15 ended with impressive growth in commercial vehicles sub-segment while the overall automobile sales in March 2015 remaining more or less stagnant as compared to March 2014. In fact, the month's domestic sales of automobiles showed a very minor decline of 0.15%, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) released automobiles figures for the month of March 2015. The domestic automobiles production was however up by 2.35% for the same period.

The total Passenger Vehicles segment sales grew by 2.66% in March 2015 compared to same month previous year. The passenger cars recorded a growth of 2.64% and Utility Vehicles grew by 3.8% while Vans declining by 0.89%.

The Commercial Vehicles registered a growth of 2.14%, with the two sub-segments going the opposite ways. Medium & High Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVs) registered a growth of 23.01%. The Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) segment, the overall growth was negative at -9.89%, with Passenger Carriers growing at 19.92% while Goods Carriers having a sales decline of 14.07%.

Among the Two Wheelers sub-segments, only Scooters registered a positive growth of 11.14%, while Motorcycles and Mopeds declined by 5.22% and 4.98% respectively in March 2015.

Three Wheelers sales were up by just 2.68% in the March 2015, with Passenger Carriers growing at 4.17% while the Goods Carriers declining by 2.32%. The Two Wheelers segment declined 0.84% in March 2015.

Automobile exports in March 2015 were down 6.57% over March 2014. Exports of passenger vehicles declined 9.9% while commercial vehicles exports grew a moderate 3.4%. The rise in three wheelers exports was 35.13% while two wheelers declined by 12.23%.