The lowest ever sales in history has been experienced by the Indian automobile industry with overall domestic sales shrinking by 17.98% in the month of November 2008 since there was a huge decline in the commercial and passenger vehicle sales.

For the month of November, the total vehicle sales in the domestic market stood at 711,281 units as against 867,243 units in the corresponding month a year ago, claims the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

Dilip Chenoy, director general, SIAM said, “This is the worst ever total performance. All the segments have not fallen together drastically in such a fashion earlier.”

On the other hand, the sales of commercial vehicles fell by 49.52% last month to 20,637 units from 40,879 units in the year-ago period, whereas, passenger car sales also saw a downfall by 19.38% to 83,059 units from 103,031 units in the same month last year.

SIAM reported, “During November, sales of car market leader Maruti Suzuki India plunged by 24.84% to 57,554 units compared to 43,258 units in the same month last year.”

The country’s second largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor India, also saw a negative growth of 23.32% at 19,041 units against 14,601 units a year ago.

“The sale of Logan by Mahindra Renault declined by almost five times at 300 units compared with 1,560 units in the same month last year,” said SIAM.

Tata Motors, however, has seen marginally rise in the sales at 12,516 units as against 12,502 units in the same period a year ago.