The 2017-18 financial year turned out to be a major success for the Indian automotive industry, which has registered almost double-digit growth during last fiscal year. India overtook Germany as the fourth largest global automotive market, right behind China, the United States and Japan. The total vehicle sales in India during FY 2018 grew by 9.2 per cent with total sales of 4.02 million units, compared to Germany, which saw a growth of a decent 2.19 per cent, with total sales accounting for 3.81 million. This includes the sale of passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, sold during April 2017 -March 2018.
Sharing his perspective of the growth of the country's automotive market, Rakesh Batra, Partner and Automotive Sector Leader, Ernst and Young India, said "FY18 was a milestone year for the Indian automotive industry, as it overtook Germany to become the fourth largest global automotive market. The sales volume built upon last year's momentum to register a double-digit growth - first time since FY12 - helped by improvement in the rural economy and partly due to demonetization-influenced low base in the second half of FY17."
Based on the sales report shared by the Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturers a.k.a. SIAM, the country domestic sales and exports in the automotive market saw a major surge across all segments. In the domestic market, the passenger vehicle market saw a growth of 7.89 per cent, with sale 3.28 million vehicles in April-March 2018, majorly led by utility vehicle sales, which itself saw a growth of 20.97 per cent. Within the passenger vehicles segment, a sale of passenger cars, and vans grew by 3.33 per cent and 5.78 per cent respectively, over the same period last fiscal year.
India's two-wheelers sales registered a growth at 14.80 per cent in April-March 2018 with a sale of over 20 million vehicles, against the industry's performance during last fiscal year. Within the two-wheelers segment, scooters and motorcycles grew by 19.90 per cent and 13.69 per cent respectively, while mopeds sales went down by 3.48 per cent in April-March 2018 over April-March 2017. As for the commercial vehicle segment, total sales grew by 19.94 percent during April-March 2018. Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVs) segment saw a growth of 12.48 per cent, while Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) segment grew by 25.42 per cent, during the same period. On the other hand, the three-wheelers segment saw a growth of 24.19 per cent in April- March 2018 over the same period last year.
Talking about his expectation from FY 2019, Batra said, "We expect the Indian automotive industry's growth to carry the momentum forward in FY19 across a majority of segments, with some moderation in CV growth." He further added, "The upcoming elections will also likely provide a boost to vehicle sales. In the medium term, the industry is facing large investments in R&D and product development towards implementation of upcoming regulatory changes, especially to meet BS VI emission norms, besides a push towards electric vehicles (EV) and improvement in safety standards."
As for production, the industry produced a total of over 29 million vehicles including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three-wheelers, two-wheelers and quadricycle during April-March 2018. The industry registered a production growth of 14.78 per cent compared to the 25.3 million vehicles made during April-March 2017, over the same period last year.
