New Delhi, The festive season boost, along with pent-up demand, accelerated domestic passenger vehicles' sales in November on year-on-year basis.

However, the sales momentum slowed on the sequential basis.

According to industry data released on Friday, passenger vehicles sales increaed by 4.65 per cent in November on YoY basis. The category includes sub-segments of cars, utility vehicles and vans.

A total of 264,898 passenger vehicles were sold in the domestic market from an off-take of 253,139 units sold during the like period of 2019.

Nevertheless, the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed a sequential growth in sales during October.

In October, a total of 3,10,294 passenger vehicles were sold in the domestic market.

Among sub-segments, the data showed that car sales in the country fell by (-) 2.77 per cent to 149,949 units in November, compared with 154,223 units during the year ago period.

In October, car sales stood at 182,692 units.

As per SIAM, the data does not include sales figures from some key players such as Tata Motors.

In terms of utility vehicles, sales grew by 17.16 per cent to 103,525, while vans' off-take went up by 8.23 per cent to 11,424 units against the same month a year ago.

However, the data revealed that three-wheelers sales went down to 23,626 units in November 2020 compared to 55,778 units on YoY basis, marking a decrease by (-) 57.64 per cent.

Besides, two-wheeler sales were 1,600,379 units in November 2020, compared to 1,410,939 units, representing a growth of 13.43 per cent.

"We have witnessed an increase in wholesale numbers in the month of November, where Passenger Vehicles grew by 4.65 per cent and Two-Wheelers by 13.43 per cent over the corresponding month of last year, primarily on account of the festive season," said SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon.

"The retail sales of two-wheelers lags behind the wholesale sales numbers but would even out over a period, as OEMs engage with their dealers. While the festive season brought back some fervour in specific segments, the overall economic scenario would determine the industry's performance going forward."

According to Shruti Saboo, Associate Director, India Ratings & Research: "In November 2020, PV and 2W industry grew at 13 per cent each. This was partly on account of inventory stocking at the dealer level in the anticipation of demand in the Diwali season."

"The PV industry continued to benefit from the shift towards personal mobility as well as demand for new launches in the Utility Vehicles as could be seen from the retail sales which grew by 4 per cent in November."

In addition, she cited that the large gap between wholesale and retail sales in 2W segment would lead to inventory pile-up at dealers and thus may impact the production level in subsequent months.

"Despite being an affordable vehicles, 2W growth on retail side is constrained by lower demand from students as colleges remain shut, and also from first time job entrants as offices are largely operating in work from home mode," Saboo said.

"3W continue to suffer, declining by 58 per cent, as commuters remain wary of using public transport to avoid the spread of infection, as well as lesser usage of the vehicle for last mile transportation due to virtual operations of schools, colleges and offices."