There has been a sharp fall in automobile sales in December led by a 47-per cent decline in sales compare to the figures of December 2007. Most of its fall came from medium and heavy commercial vehicles which saw a whooping 69 per cent decline over December 2007. 

While LCV sales were 9,245 units, a decline of 29 per cent over December 2007. The economic stimulus package has allowed 50 per cent depreciation for commercial vehicles purchases before the end of the financial year. This would hopefully stimulate demand.

Sales of passenger cars declined by 31 per cent in domestic markets. The Indica range sales at 6,749 units declined by 28.9 per cent. The Indigo range with sales of 1,673 cars, reported a 21 per cent growth over December 2007. The Sumo and Safari SUVs accounted for sales of 1,416, a decline of 58.8 per cent compared to December 2007.

Maruti Suzuki has shown a decline in figures for the third month in a row. Maruti' sales were at 56,293 units, down 10 per cent compared to last December's tally of 62,515 units. The sharpest drop came from Maruti 800 whose sales fell by 59.6 per cent.

General Motors India clocked 4,041 units (6,309) in December, 36 per cent less than it sold during the year-ago period.

However, the company said, on an annual basis, its sales grew by 9.5 per cent in the calendar year 2008 at 65,702 units.

Hyundai Motor India Ltd, the country's second largest car manufacturer and the largest passenger car exporter had a lot to cheer about. In a reccesionary market the company registered an overall 55.7 per cent growth in December 2008. The domestic sales grew by 19.3 per cent and exports saw a healthy jump of 96.8 per cent over the current month last year.

Two wheelers make up 75 per cent of vehicle sales. This sector also showed declining sales.  Hero Honda's sales in December slipped 10 per cent to 2.16 lakh against 2.4 lakh during the same period last year. Bajaj Auto reported 33 per cent decline at 1.19 lakh  from a figure of 1.77 lakh.

Industry data
The cumulative production data for April - November 2008 shows production growth of 6.56 per cent over April - November 2007. However, in November 2008, overall production fell by 6.11 per cent over the same month last year. The industry is registering negative growth in consecutive months and the extent of contraction is much greater than the rate of contractions in 2000-01 when all segments performed poorly last time.

Domestic Sales
The marginal growth in passenger vehicles segment during April - November 2008 was 1.10 per cent over April - November 2007. Passenger cars grew by 0.48 percent, utility vehicles fell by 0.21 per cent and multi purpose vehicles grew by 12.00 per cent in this period.

However, the sales in November 2008 for passenger vehicles fell by 23.71 per cent over November 2007 - with all sub-segments registering negative growth.

Cumulative sales of commercial vehicles segment registered negative growth. The segment fell by 9.35 per cent during April - November 2008 as compared to the same period last year. While medium and heavy commercial vehicles registered significant de-growth at 16.88 per cent, light commercial vehicles also recorded de-growth of -0.26 per cent.

In November 2008 commercial vehicles sales fell by 49.51 per cent compared to 2007. M&HCV fell by 63 per cent and LCV fell by over 33 per cent. Also, buses (M&HCV) fell by 32 per cent and even the smaller buses also fell by 26 per cent.  In fact the decline in buses has been since April 2008 with an exception in June.

Sales of three-wheelers registered a decline with a growth rate of 3.37 per cent in April - November 2008. While Passenger Carriers grew by 16.63 per cent during April - November 2008, Goods Carriers declined at  36.90 per cent . In November, three-wheelers fell by 23.12 per cent.

Two-wheelers registered a growth of 3.76 per cent during April-November 2008. Mopeds, motorcycles and scooters grew by 4.57 per cent , 2.89 per cent and 7.48 per cent respectively. Electric two-wheelers segment grew by 43.47 per cent. However, two wheelers sales registered decline of 14.68 per cent  in November 2008 over same month last year

Exports
The period from April - November 2008 saw automobile exports registering a growth of 33.03 per cent with all segments except Commercial vehicles, registering positive growth.

Passenger vehicles and two-wheelers segment grew by 66.39 and 30.98 per cent respectively. Three-wheelers exports grew by 11.69 per cent in this period. Exports of commercial vehicles declined at  6.77 per cent in this period.