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India’s passenger car sales rose to a record for the second consecutive month in August as economic growth and new models from Nissan Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG boosted demand.
Domestic sales rose 33 percent from a year earlier to 160,794 units, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement in New Delhi today. The jump is the 19th consecutive increase, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Ford Motor Co. and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. are among carmakers who unveiled at least 10 models in India this year as expansion in the world’s third-fastest growing major economy stokes demand. India’s government estimates annual vehicle sales may double to 3 million by 2015, helped by rising incomes and the creation of new jobs.
“The Indian consumer now has more models to choose from,” said Deepesh Rathore, New Delhi-based India managing director at IHS Automotive. “Going forward, most customers expect interest rates to rise, and therefore they want to lock in purchases at current rates.”
Domestic passenger vehicle sales, which include vans and sport-utility vehicles, gained 34 percent to 204,227, the statement said. Vehicle exports declined 7.4 percent to 38,279.
Nissan, which began selling the Micra small car in July, sold 1,182 units. Volkswagen sold 3,211 units of Polo last month after introducing the hatchback earlier this year.
The surge in car sales, stoked by a doubling of per-capita income in India over the past eight years, has also brought in industrywide waiting lists for the first time in more than a decade.
India’s economy may expand 8.5 percent in the year to March 31, the most in three years, the central bank said on July 27. That’s encouraged a consumer spree in the second-most-populous nation fueling the second-fastest inflation rate in the Asia Pacific and prompting the bank to raise rates four times in six months to try to damp price gains.
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