Domestic sales of automobiles in the country posted a robust growth of over 25 per cent in August 2009, fuelling hopes of an even better performance in the coming festival season.

The industry sold 10,08,702 units in August as against 8,11,341 units sold in the same month last year, figures provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed.

Passenger car sales continued to grow for the seventh straight month in August, rising 25.59 per cent, while sales of motorcycles soared 25.94 per cent in the same month, SIAM said.

In terms of units sold, domestic passenger car sales stood at 1,20,669 in August 2009 against 96,082 units sold in the same month last year. Bike sales increased to 6,11,173 units against 4,85,270 units in the corresponding month a year ago.

Cumulative production data for April-August 2009 shows a growth of 11.23 per cent over the same period last year.

For the April-August 2009 period, domestic sales of passenger vehicles grew 11.97 per cent over the same period last year. Passenger car sales grew 13.47 per cent, utility vehicle sales showed a negative growth of (-) 0.10 per cent while sales of multipurpose vehicles grew 22.67 per cent during the period.
 
The overall commercial vehicles segment still registered negative growth at (-) 2.19 percent during April-August 2009 compared to the same period last year. While medium and heavy commercial vehicles registered a negative growth at (-) 23.54 per cent, sales of light commercial vehicles grew 21.75 per cent.