Car sales in India continue to grow while Germany's luxury car manufacturers report strong increases in June sales, pointing to increasing demand in China, the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
Car sales in India continue to grow while Germany's luxury car manufacturers report strong increases in June sales, pointing to increasing demand in China, the United States, Britain and elsewhere.
Vehicle sales in India rose more than 31 per cent in June, nearly matching the jump from the month before, and an industry group said it expected the trend to continue.
Car sales rose nearly 31 per cent to 141,184 vehicles last month, while commercial vehicles jumped more than 44 per cent to 52,211 vehicles, according to data released on Thursday by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, an industry body that represents over 40 vehicle manufacturers in India.
Meanwhile June sales for the BMW Group, which includes Mini and Rolls-Royce as well as BMW cars and motorcycles, were up 12.2 per cent on the year, with 143,157 vehicles delivered.
Audi, a unit of Volkswagen AG, said it sold 99,250 cars worldwide last month - a year-on-year increase of 8.7 per cent. Deliveries to China shot up 61.6 per cent to 21,436.
India's rapidly recovering economy has likely encouraged buyers. From 2003-2008, economic growth averaged 8.8 per cent a year, before slumping as the global recession roiled the economy. Since then, growth has recovered to nearly pre-recession levels, hitting 7.4 per cent in the fiscal year that ended March.
Sales of cars and other vehicles are generally seen as an indicator the health of the country's economy, and the society predicted they would continue to rise in line with growth.
Overall vehicle sales were up more than 31 per cent to 1.2 million vehicles, compared with 917, 645 in June 2009, the data showed.
The organisation also said that car sales for the fiscal year that began April 1 were likely to touch 1.7 million, a growth of more than 12 per cent.
Audi's US sales rose 14.3 per cent to 8,601 and deliveries in Britain were up 11.6 per cent to 8,665. But deliveries in western Europe as a whole dropped 5.3 per cent to 55,400, led by a 19.9 per cent decline in Germany.
Audi said it sold 554,950 cars in the first half of 2010 - a 19.1 per cent year-on-year rise. It plans to exceed the million-car mark for the full year as it did in 2008 and is on course for a sales record.
BMW said its six-month group sales were up 13.1 per cent to 696,026 vehicles. While deliveries of BMW cars were up 14.1 per cent, those of the compact Mini rose by a less spectacular 7.6 per cent.
"In some cases, the automobile markets are recovering much faster than expected," BMW marketing executive Ian Robertson said in a statement. He added that "we aim to continue this upward trend in the second half of the year."
The BMW group doubled sales to China in the first half, with 75,615 vehicles delivered. BMW and Mini deliveries rose 11.9 per cent in the United States to 23,331, while Britain saw growth of 20.4 per cent and several other European markets also grew.
