India’s passenger car sales rose to a record in July as economic growth and new models from Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG boosted demand.
Sales rose 38 percent to 158,764 vehicles from a year earlier, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement today. That’s the highest monthly total the association has recorded, said Vishnu Mathur, director general of the grouping.
Ford, Volkswagen and other automakers are introducing new models and expanding factories to tap rising demand for automobiles in India, Asia’s second-fastest growing major economy. Car sales may gain about 12 percent to 1.71 million vehicles for the year ending in March, the association said last month.
“Consumer confidence is high due to overall economic growth,” Mathur said in New Delhi, where the association is based. “This demand is likely to continue in the coming months.”
Ford said on July 15 that it got more than 25,000 bookings for its Figo in about 100 days. The automaker started selling the car in India in March.
New models such as the Figo, Volkswagen’s Polo and the Micra from Nissan Motor Co. are raising competition for Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., the nation’s largest carmaker, and Tata Motors Ltd., the maker of the world’s cheapest car, the Nano.
