In fact, sales dropped across vehicle categories last month, indicating slowing demand, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers or Siam, trade lobby showed on Monday.

Pune: Passenger vehicle (PV) sales in Asia's third biggest car market declined 17.07 per cent to 2,47,541 units in April, the worst monthly fall in nearly eight years, as weak sentiment, high insurance costs and a liquidity crunch dented car sales.

In fact, sales dropped across vehicle categories last month, indicating slowing demand, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers or Siam, trade lobby showed on Monday.

Scooter sales also dropped 26 per cent to 489,852 units, down from 6,61,007 units sold last year. Motorcycle sales last month declined 11.81 per cent to 10,84,811 units as against 12,30,046 units a year earlier.

Total two-wheeler sales in April declined 16.36 per cent to 16,38,388 units compared to 19,58,761 units in the year-ago month.

Sales of commercial vehicles, a barometer on the economy, were down 5.98 per cent to 68,680 units in April, down from 73,049 units sold last year .

Vehicle sales across categories also fell 15.93 per cent to 20,01,096 units from 23,80,294 units in April 2018, Siam said.

Last month, the country's biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki said it sold 4,58,479 vehicles in the three months ended March 31, down 0.7 per cent on-year, and forecast a weak rate of growth for the current fiscal year.

"Some kind of recovery in sales will come only after the general elections are over as consumers resume thinking on discretionary spends," Vishnu Mathur, Director General at Siam said.

Tata Motors on Monday reported 22 per cent decline in-group global wholesales, including that of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), at 79,923 units in April 2019.

Global wholesales of all Tata Motors' commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in April 2019 were at 31,726 units, lower 20 per cent year-on-year, the company said.

The company further said its global wholesales of all passenger vehicles last month were at 48,197 units, down 23 per cent from the year-ago month.

For JLR, global wholesales were at 35,451 units. Jaguar wholesales for the month were 13,301 units and those of Land Rover for the month were 22,150 units.

"Indian auto sales are experiencing a prolonged slowdown as it has already seen 6 months of slowing sales and growth reversal and positive triggers in the near term appear few," Ashish Harsharaj Kale, President at Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, had said earlier.