Car sales grow 13%

The latest numbers for September indicate that car sales in India have gone up 13% over the same period last year, with 56,764 units being sold. This would mean approx 650,000 to 700,000 cars for the year. Buses and Trucks grew by about 44% during the same time. The successful completion of the Golden Quadrilateral project is said to be behind the boom.

Though I know the infrastructure in the country is improving, I suspect that infrastructure growth is not/will not keep pace with the growth in automobile sales, especially in the cities. Clearly, urban planners have to rapidly improve the state of the transportation infrastructure if they want to avoid gridlock in the cities.

PS: By way of comparison, the U.S. sells about 16 million cars every year and China sells about 3.25 million cars every year. Perhaps we should bet on when the Indian car market will break the 1 million mark. I would bet on about end-2004 to mid-2005. Any takers?