An article giving an update on the automotive situation in India

An article giving an update on the automotive situation in India :

Local car sales rose 7% in November to 171,131 autos from 159,939 a year earlier, showed data issued by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Thursday. The industry body, however, expects car sales to fall in December from the year earlier.

SIAM does not expect to meet the forecast of 2% to 4% growth in car sales for this [financial] year and we may revise the forecast in January.

In October SIAM downgraded its growth outlook for car sales to 2%-4% from its earlier projections of 10%-12% in July and 16%-18% in April.

Higher fuel costs, expensive loans and prolonged inflationary pressures have forced customers to defer new vehicle purchases in Asia's third-largest automobile market. Demand remained subdued even during the festival months of September and October.

The Reserve Bank of India has raised key lending rates 13 times since March 2010 in an effort to tame high inflation, while India's oil refiners have raised gasoline prices by 17% since January due to volatile crude oil prices.

But demand for diesel cars has soared as the federal government continues to control prices of the fuel due to its direct impact on inflation.

Market share of diesel cars is expected to cross 33% this [financial] year from 27% last year.

Sales at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., India's largest car maker by sales, fell 17% from a year earlier in November to 73,078 autos.
The Suzuki Motor Corp. unit had said its diesel cars have been in short supply, demand for which has outstripped that of their gasoline counterparts.

Car sales at Hyundai Motor Co.'s local unit rose 11% to 34,878 autos, while sales at Tata Motors Ltd. grew 92% to 23,540 units, helped by its ability to supply enough diesel vehicles.

Truck and bus sales soared 35% to 66,264 vehicles, helped by robust demand for vehicles from Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland Ltd.