Car sales in India hit a record monthly high in August, industry data showed, as consumers flocked to showrooms in a booming auto market flooded with new models and cheap loans. Sales of cars are likely to remain strong in the ongoing festive season as the fast-expanding industrial sector boosts incomes and farm output in rural areas picks up after a strong monsoon.
Sales of passenger cars jumped 33.2 percent in August from a year earlier, reaching 160,794 units, data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed. Sales of trucks and buses grew 28 percent to 52,030 units. "We are going to exceed the projections (for this financial year)," said Vishnu Mathur, SIAM's director-general, referring to a previous forecast for annual growth of 12-13 percent in the year to March.