Passenger vehicles sales touch all-time high of 38L units in ’22

NEW DELHI: Domestic passenger vehicles sales rose by 23 per cent to a record of 37.93 lakh units in 2022 led by the likes of Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors as the companies rode on easing of pandemic-related challenges and semiconductor shortages to cash in on pent up demand, especially for SUVs.

Other manufacturers like Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Skoda India also reported record sales in 2022.

“The industry wholesales in January to December 2022 were just short of 38 lakh units. It was 37.93 lakh units against 30.82 lakh in 2021, which is a growth of 23 per cent,” Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer, Marketing & Sales Shashank Srivastava told reporters in a virtual conference.

He further said the 2022 wholesales are “the highest ever in the industry for a calendar year” and the last highest was in 2018 which was 33.3 lakh units.

“So, this is about 14 per cent higher than the highest ever,” he added.

On the reasons for the growth, Srivastava said, “I believe this resurgence to the highest ever level is partly because of the better availability of semiconductors because last year was badly affected by the semiconductor issue.”

Also, he said in 2022 there were fewer challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding there was also “an element of pent-up demand”.

“We have seen in the last three years, there was a decline in the overall industry numbers,” Srivastava added.