New Delhi, Jan 7: In a significant development, India has managed to surpass Japan in auto sales in CY 2022, as per latest industry data, Nikkei Asia reported. With this, India has now become third-largest auto market in the world for the first time in history.
Notably, the overall new-vehicle sales for India peaked at least 4.25 million units, based on preliminary results, topping the 4.2 million sold in Japan last year.
As per Nikkei Asia, India's automobile sales volume is expected to jump even further up with the inclusion of pending fourth-quarter sales figures for commercial vehicles, along with year-end results yet to be released by other automakers such as Tata Motors.
In 2021, China remained the global world leader in automobile sales with 26.27 million units, followed by the US at the second position at 15.4 million vehicles, and Japan at 4.44 million units.
Nikkei Asia further reported that India's automobile market has fluctuated in the recent times as the country managed to sell 4.4 million vehicles in 2018 but the volumes dipped below 4 million units in 2019 and the sales further plummeted below 3 million-unit mark as the covid-19 pandemic triggered a countrywide lockdown in 2020.
Sales recovered in 2021 to approach 4 million units, but the shortage of automotive chips weighed on growth. Last year vehicles powered by gasoline, including hybrid vehicles, managed to account for the most auto sales in the country in CY 2022, added the Nikkei Asia report. Electric vehicle sales accounted for a very smaller portion in terms of overall numbers.