Indian car sales plunge, Chinese car sales rocket

Indian car sales plummeted 16% last month to 133,747 units from 158,767 in July, making it the first decrease since January 2009 and the largest decline since November 2008, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). The director of SIAM, Vishnu Mathur puts the fall to both rising fuel costs and high interest rates.

The market's biggest car manufacture, Maruti Suzuki had production problems and lost about 17,000 sales because of this. Tata was hit severely, especially with the Nano city-car, which saw sales free-fall by 48% in the last two months. However, bus and truck sales increased 24% in the same month.

The Buick Regal sedan is one of the best-selling vehicles
in China

China saw a small 6.7% increase in car sales, as 1.01m vehicle were sold last month. For the last two years, China only ever saw double-digit increases, hinting at a possible slowdown. Combined passenger and commercial vehicle sales inflated just 2.2%, to 1.3m units.

Chinese car sales have been steadily slowing over the last few months as Government incentives perish. In addition, numerous cities have started controlling vehicle ownership to curb congestion and pollution. Last year saw Chinese car sales soar to 18m, rising 32%.