The growth rates of automobile sales are likely to slow down in the forthcoming months of the advancing fiscal. The quality of progress seen in the first quarter of the Financial Year 2011 is not expected to continue in the remaining two quarters of the year.

The sales of automobiles were also hampered by the introduction of 8 new models along with 11 new varieties of the existing ones.

Matters were not that worsened by the recent hike of 2% in the excise duty and the sales didn’t slow down. Also, the stable retail rate of interest helped matters along with increase in the prices of commodities.

As the last quarter ended on 30th June, the sales of passenger cars increased by 33.43% with 433.641 sales, and truck sales increased by 56.34% 126,737 units sold.

It is expected that the passenger car segment will grow by 12-13% in the current Financial Year, and that the commercial vehicles segment, like buses, etc. will grow at a rate of 17-18% in the present Financial Year.