Hot wheels! Motown remains on track as wholesale shipments rise by double digits in November

New Delhi: Wholesale shipments of cars, two-wheelers and three-wheelers to dealers rose by strong double digits on a year-on-year basis last month, as consumer demand continued to persist after the festive season.“Passenger vehicles, two-wheelers and three-wheelers marked all-time high sales in November 2025,” said Rajesh Menon, director general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). He attributed the sales momentum to “support from the government’s progressive GST 2.0 reforms.”

According to data collected by dealer lobby group Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), registrations of passenger cars and three-wheelers – a measure of retail sales – were largely in line with those of wholesale sales. However, according to FADA, two-wheeler registrations fell 3% year-on-year to 2,546,184 units last month, against 2,627,617 units in November 2024. Month-on-month, sales decline was 19%.

The strong wholesale growth was largely due to manufacturers building inventories at dealers to meet demand during the wedding season, dealers said.FADA had earlier this month attributed the fall in two-wheeler registrations in November to strong buying in the preceding festive month of October, delayed crop payments and uneven supply of preferred models.

Fada president CS Vigneshwar remains optimistic and expects momentum in the segment to pick up on the back of robust harvest and onset of wedding season.

The country’s top carmaker Maruti Suzuki confirmed that this was the best November in its history. “Our sales last month are the highest we have ever seen for the month of November in the last 40 years (since commencement of operations),” Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer, marketing and sales, Maruti Suzuki, said in an interaction earlier this month. “Our retail sales were up 31%. For eight of our models, we have no vehicles available for shipment in our factories.” While sales of small cars (less than 4 meters long and taxed at 18%) rose 38% last month, those of larger vehicles (taxed at 40%) rose 17%.

Maruti Suzuki has pending bookings for 150,000 units. Inventories in the canal amount to approximately 120,000 units.

Production teams, Banerjee said, work on holidays to reduce waiting times and ensure timely delivery to customers. The company expects the momentum to continue in December.

Car companies Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) also reported strong sales, with volumes each up 22% to 57,436 units and 56,336 units respectively. “The industry is optimistic that continued supportive policy reforms and improved market sentiment would continue this growth trajectory well into 2026,” Siam’s Menon said.