Car sales volume in India 2021, by OEM

In 2021, Maruti Suzuki sold approximately 1.3 million cars across India. This made it the leading car manufacturer in terms of car sales in India, followed distantly by Hyundai and Tata. The automobile sector across India witnessed a further slowdown due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the same year.

Is the Indian automobile market in trouble?

There were more than 295 million vehicles registered in India in the financial year 2019. Vehicle registrations grew at a compound annual growth rate of over 10 percent between 2017 and 2019. However, due to economic slowdown, the introduction of new Bharat Stage Emission Standards VI (BS-VI) in 2019, and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the domestic sales of vehicles have been in decline since the financial year 2020 for two consecutive years. This was expected to continue in the financial year 2022.

New trend – electric vehicles

With strong government support through policy initiatives such as the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 introduced in 2013, Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) in 2015, and further FAME phase II in 2019, India was aiming to achieve 30 percent private electric vehicle ownership. As two-wheelers were the most popular type of automobiles for the last decade, in the financial year 2021, the majority of electric vehicles sold in India were also two-wheelers. The demand for electric vehicles was expected to rise significantly in the future.