Friday, 12 Sep, 2025
Passenger vehicle wholesales rose to 2,93,865 units in the last month as compared to 2,64,442 units recorded in July 2021. Similar to PV sales, two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicle sales increased 10 percent and 73 percent year-on-year in July 2022.
According to the data released by the automobile manufacturing body Society of Indian Manufacturers (SIAM) on Friday, passenger vehicle (PV) sales in India rose by 11 percent year-on-year in July 2022 as a result of improvement in semiconductor chip supplies, which allowed manufacturers to ramp up production of cars and utility vehicles even as their order backlog continued to grow.
The global chip shortage has choked the output and sales across several industries, including smartphones, medical devices, and more evidently, automobiles. Their demand had far exceeded the supply even before COVID-19, but the pandemic-induced lockdowns forced the chip-making facilities across the world to shut down. The Russia-Ukraine war has also threatened the supply of chips. This is on account of two key raw materials, i.e., neon and palladium, which are still at risk of being constrained (Russia supplies over 40 percent of world’s palladium and Ukraine produces 70 percent of neon). However, the Indian automobile industry's sales of PV, three-wheeler, and two-wheeler vehicles are currently rising as there is a sign of improvement in global supply chains.
The accompanying chart shows the rise in passenger, three-wheeler, and two-wheeler vehicle sales. As per the data available with SIAM, passenger vehicle wholesales rose to 2,93,865 units in the last month as compared to 2,64,442 units recorded in July 2021. The growth would be even higher if the sales of TATA motors were included too, but the manufacturer stopped reporting the monthly number to SIAM.
If we take a further look at SIAM's data, the dispatch of passenger cars rose by 10 percent to 1,43,522 units in July 2022 from 1,30,080 units in the same month last year. Furthermore, utility vehicle sales increased by 11 percent to 1,37,104 units in July 2022, up from 1,24,057 units in July 2021.
Similar to PV sales, two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicle sales increased 10 percent and 73 percent year-on-year in July 2022, respectively. If we take a deep look into SIAM's data, sales of motorcycles increased 4 percent to 8,70,028 units and sales of scooters went up 28 percent to 4,79,159 units. While three-wheeler sales increased to 31,324 units in July 2022, up from 18,132 units in July 2021.
Despite the double-digit growth in sales of PVs, some industry experts like Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM, stated that the market for entry-level passenger cars, two-wheelers, and three-wheelers is yet to recover as sales of two-wheelers in July 2022 were below the July 2016 numbers and sales of three-wheelers were below July 2006 numbers. Experts also argue that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) third hike in repo rates in a row, to combat high inflation, will increase the cost of auto loans, making it more difficult for entry-level vehicles to recover.
