Indian car makers’ sales to dealers jumped 26.8 per cent in December, their biggest monthly rise of 2025, as tax cuts made several models more affordable and spurred demand, industry data showed on Tuesday.

Car makers sold 399,216 units in the final month of 2025, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) said. For the full year, sales grew about 5 per cent, faster than 4.2 per cent growth in 2024.

Car sales in the country are on a tear since the government in September implemented tax cuts that lowered the levy on sports utility vehicles (SUVs) with engine capacities over 1,500cc to 40 per cent from 50 per cent earlier and to 18 per cent from 28 per cent on small cars.

For the October-December quarter, car dispatches grew 21 per cent to a record 1.28 million units, spurred by festive-period demand, considered an auspicious time for big-ticket purchases.

That has prompted brokerages to raise their sales growth estimates for the year to March 2026, with Nomura and Elara Capital expecting an 8 per cent rise in car dispatches.

At the start of fiscal 2026, car makers said they expect growth of just 1 per cent to 2 per cent, down from the previous year’s 2 per cent climb, citing cooling demand and increased competition.

The carmakers have said they expect growth momentum to sustain in the final quarter of the fiscal year, led by interest in newly launched models.

JSW Motors SUV debut

Billionaire Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Motors will enter the Indian passenger vehicle market through a plug-in electric hybrid (PHEV) SUV, which is slated for a June launch, according to a Moneycontrol report.

The vehicle is likely to be priced at around ₹45 lakh, sources said, putting the homegrown brand in the premium segment and in direct competition with global names such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz. So far, only luxury carmakers have offered PHEVs to Indian consumers.

“JSW Motors will make its debut in the passenger vehicle segment with a hybrid model later in the year 2026. Our planned facility in Chhattrapati Sambhajinagar will be at the forefront of this endeavour,” JSW Motors CEO Ranjan Nayak told
Moneycontrol.

The last time India saw the entry of a new automotive holding brand was in 2022, when Hero MotoCorp launched the Vida brand of electric scooters. A year earlier, Ashok Leyland introduced the Switch brand for electric buses.