Breaking News:Car Retail Sales Jan 2026 – Maruti, Hyundai, Tata, Mahindra, Toyota, Kia, Skoda VW, BMW, Mercedes– What Just Happened

Car retail sales grew by 7.22% YoY in January 2026 with strong demand across SUV/compact-SUV segments

After taking a look at the wholesales (company to dealer), let us now take a look at the retail sales (dealer to customer). Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) released Vehicle Retail Data for January 2026 where growth across all segments remained highly positive. Overall retail sales stood at 27,22,558 units with a 17.61% year-on-year growth. While passenger vehicle demand improved by 7.22%, it was double digit growth across two wheelers (20.82%), commercial vehicles (15.07%) and three wheelers (18.80%). Tractor sales were also up 18.80% on a year-on-year basis.

Car Sales January 2026

Car retail sales, which stood at 5,13,475 units in January 2026, grew by 7.22% over 4,78,915 units in January 2025. It was also a significant improvement over 3,79,671 unit sales of December 2025, marking a 35.29% growth. New product launches, a spurt in buyer sentiments at the start of the New Year, and special schemes and discounts offered, have all had a major role to play in this growth.

A positive sentiment was also seen both in rural and urban areas where rural sales were up 40.8% while urban sales improved by 59.2% YoY. It was also on a year-to-date (YTD) basis that car sales showed off strong growth. There were 38,45,801 units sold in the April-January 2026 period, a 10.24% rise from 34,88,523 units sold in the same period last year.

Fuel wise breakup of Car Sales Jan 2026

Passenger vehicle powertrain mix in Jan’26 remained largely stable. Petrol/ethanol continued to lead at 47.5%, though with a marginal decline. CNG/LPG grew to 22.9%, reflecting strong demand for cost-efficient options, while diesel edged up to 17.1%. Hybrids saw a steady rise to 8.9%, and EVs, at 3.6%, remained small but showed clear growth over last year, indicating a gradual shift toward electrification.

Breaking up retail sales on an OEM-wise basis, we Maruti Suzuki as market leader with 2,16,043 unit sales last month with a 42.07% market share. This was a marginal YoY improvement from 2,14,494 units of January 2025 while MoM sales too shot up over 1,50,123 units in December 2025. At No. 2 was Hyundai Motor with 65,914 unit sales last month. Interestingly, in wholesales, Hyundai was at No 4.

Next in line was Tata Motors with 63,558 unit sales and also displaying a positive sentiment from 54,885 units of the same month last year to command a 12.38% market share. Close behind was Mahindra, both in terms of sales and market share. Mahindra retail sales stood at 63,366 units in January 2026 with a 12.34% share in this segment.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor sales stood at 35,053 units followed by Kia India with 29,954 units sold. Skoda also posted a year-on-year growth at 9,794 units, up from 9,562 units while MG Motor India has suffered a decline to 5,926 units from 6,762 units. Honda Car sales also fell sharply to 5,848 units whereas there had been 7,968 units sold in Jan 2025.

Renault India accounted for 4,839 unit sales last month, well over 3,966 units reported in January 2025, with strong sales coming from the Duster. The company expects to see a further spurt in sales with the 2026 Duster which is planned for launch in March 2026. Nissan India sales dipped to 2,387 units last month, but is expected to pickup in coming months thanks to new upcoming launches of Gravite and Tekton.

Luxury Car Sales January 2026

In the luxury passenger vehicle segment, BMW India took the lead as its sales went up to 1,962 units from 1828 units. Mercedes Benz, on the other hand suffered a decline to 1,806 units from 1828 units. Jaguar Land Rover also suffered a decline in demand to 442 units from 512 units.

Stellantis Group (Jeep / Citroen) added 1,532 units to total retail sales, a growth over 1,170 units of the same month last year. Force Motors nearly doubled their sales count to 1,152 units from 643 units while Vinfast added 435 units to the total tally. BYD India sales dipped to 231 units from 338 units on a YoY basis. There were others that added 3,233 units to total retail sales last month, a growth over 2,101 units of January 2025.