The Indian auto industry, which was heading towards negative growth territory, managed to stay in the positive zone in the fiscal ended March 31, thanks to the government's stimulus packages, recording a 0.71 per cent increase in total vehicle sales.
With a late surge in the last quarter of the fiscal, total vehicle sales in the country stood at 97,23,391 units compared with 96,54,435 units in the last financial year, according to the figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers on Wednesday.
"Had it not been for the stimulus packages, sales would have been down three per cent or no growth, while commercial vehicles would have had a decline of 30-40 per cent," SIAM Director General Dilip Chenoy said.
The two-wheeler segment would also have registered a decline of three per cent or zero growth, he said, while forecasting a single digit growth for the three major segments in the ongoing fiscal.
In the financial year 2008-09, the domestic passenger car sales rose by 1.31 per cent to 12,19,473 units from 12,03,733 units in the April-March period of the earlier fiscal.
In March, total passenger car sales in the domestic market increased marginally to 1,29,358 from 1,28,098 units in the same month last year. While, motorcycle sales during the month was up by 2.98 per cent at 5,22,000 units against 5,06,884 units in the corresponding period a year ago.
Total two-wheeler sales in March also jumped by 3.65 per cent at 6,54,017 units compared to 6,30,976 units in the same month last year.
Commercial vehicle sales during the month, however, dipped by 26.22 per cent to 41,881 units from 56,768 units for the year-ago period, SIAM said.
According to SIAM in the fiscal 2009-10, passenger vehicles are expected to have sales of 18.9 lakh (1.89 million) to 19.2 lakh (1.92 million) units.
