Two-wheelers drive up India’s automobile exports in H1 FY2014-15

The Dollar Business Bureau | @TheDollarBiz India’s overall automobile exports continue to perform well, growing by almost 20% y-o-y in the first six months of FY2014-15, while domestic sales remain slow. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), most of the increase in exports was due to growth in two-wheeler exports, which grew by around 27.84% y-o-y during April – September 2014. Commercial vehicles exports grew 15.55%, while three-wheeler exports increased by 13.27% y-o-y in April – September 2014. However, passenger vehicles exports declined by almost 1% in H1 FY2014-15.

Source - SIAM

Automobile production is also up. According to SIAM, the industry produced a total of 2,227,140 vehicles in September 2014, which is up about 22.45% from September 2013,  and up around 15% from August 2014. However, the growth is mainly driven by two-wheelers and SIAM says that overall automobile sales are yet to stabilise. Domestic sales are expected to improve in the coming months due to the arrival of the festive season. In April-September 2014, three-wheelers sales in the domestic sector grew by 17.8%; two-wheelers sales by 16.41%; and passenger vehicles grew by 4.25%. However, commercial vehicles sales declined by 10.14% in H1 FY2014-15, said SIAM.  

This article was published on October 18, 2014.