India has officially overtaken Japan to become the third-largest vehicle market in 2022, just behind China and the US. With a sale of more than 4.25 million vehicles riding on pent-up demand and enhanced production by carmakers, India left Japan behind which sold nearly 4.2 million vehicles.

According to the Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM), there was a sale of 4.13 vehicles including passenger and commercial vehicles between January and November 2022. In addition, the sales volume of December as reported by India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki was skyrocketing. With December domestic sales of 113,535 units, the overall sales in India have crossed the 4.25 million mark.

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Interestingly, original equipment makers (OEMs) like Tata Motors have made a change to quarterly reporting of wholesale and retail sales numbers. It means that the data from Tata Motors is still awaited. Moreover, as per the data from automotive websites, China has shown a growth of 1.7 per cent in vehicle sales (26.75 million units) in 2022. On the other hand, the US witnessed a 7.8 per cent YoY decline to 13.89 million.

Karan Asrani, owner of Mumbai’s Krishna Group is overwhelmed with India topping the list to become the third-largest vehicle market in 2022. He says, “It is expected that the sales volume of vehicles will see an upward trend with the inclusion of pending fourth-quarter sales figures for commercial vehicles. Not just this, but the year-end results are yet to be released by Tata Motors and other OEMs.”

Looking at the record of the last few years, there has been terrific growth in vehicle sales in India. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the sales of vehicles took a drastic fall below 3 million units. In the following year, the sales recovered and touched the 4-million mark. Foreseeing the market trends, Karan Asrani is sure that India will see a colossal growth in the sales of vehicles in 2023.

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Another interesting fact as per the report in Nikkei Asia is that vehicles powered by gasoline including hybrid vehicles accounted for a majority of sales in India. Furthermore, Asrani stated that the shortage of automotive semiconductor chips dragged production volumes during 2021 and the initial months of 2022.

“The shortage of semiconductor chips turned out to be good as it created pent-up demand and long waitlists for the delivery of vehicles. 2022 was a good year for the Indian automotive industry, and the coming years will witness more growth as India’s population seems to touch newer heights,” concluded Asrani.

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