Domestic passenger vehicle sales witnessed an increase in January on a year-on-year basis due to base effect, along with low interest rates and pent-up demand. Sale of passenger vehicles increased by 11.14% in January 2021, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) released on Thursday.
The data showed that 276,554 lakh passenger vehicles were sold last month compared to over 248,840 lakh units during the same period of 2020.
In December, a total of around 2.53 lakh passenger vehicles were sold in the domestic market.
As per SIAM, the data does not include sales figures from some key players such as Tata Motors.
The category includes sub-segments of cars, utility vehicles and vans.
A total of 153,244 passenger cars were sold in the domestic market, down 1.16% from an off-take of 155,046 units during the like period of 2020.
In terms of utility vehicles, sales grew by 37.26% to 111,494, whereas vans' offtake went down 5.95% to 11,816 units against the same month a year ago.
The data also revealed that three-wheelers sales went down. The segment's off-take declined by 56.76% to 26,335 units from 60,903 units sold in the corresponding month of last year.
In contrast, two-wheeler sales rose 1,429,928 units in January 2020, compared to 1,341,005 units, representing a growth of 6.63%.
Overall, automobile sales across categories rose 4.97% to 1,732,817 units last month from 1,650,812 units sold during January 2020.
SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon said: "Supply chain challenges including rising price of steel, unavailability of semi-conductors and higher container charges, continue to be obstacles in smooth functioning of the industry."