According to a senior executive of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Association, Indian car market may register flat growth this fiscal.

Maruti’s sales grew by 8.6 per cent to 59,060 cars in January. But the total car sales in India declined by 3.2 per cent year-on-year to 1.10 lakh vehicles sold during the same time. Hyundai, the second largest car maker and Tata Motors saw a decline of 13.5 per cent and nine per cent respectively in January. Honda reported a 26 per cent fall to 5773 vehicles sold in January. Mahindra and Mahindra too reported a fall of 17 per cent to 17320 vehicles.

Exports showed growth of 13 per cent to 21530 units of cars in January majorly contributed by Hyundai, which gained 21 per cent in the sales volume. Maruti reported a moderate three per cent gain.

After the depreciation on commercial vehicles and excise duty cut announced by the government earlier, automobile industry is awaiting a third stimulus package. They expect this to improve the availability of finance and provide concessional interest rates to the auto sector. Such measures from the side of government could pull the auto industry out of a decline, thus contributing towards some incremental sales towards the end of the fiscal resulting in a flat growth.