Indian dealers retailed 507,768 passenger vehicles in October 2026, down 14.23% on 592,032 in October 2025 and up 18.86% on September's 427,213, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, which counts registrations on the government Vahan portal. FADA called it the third-best October on record (Autocar Professional, 6 November 2026; the 507,768 total is also reported by webindia123).
Why the year-on-year number is negative
FADA says the decline reflects an exceptionally high base. October 2025 carried both Navratri and Diwali, plus demand released after the GST 2.0 rate cuts. This year's Navratri window retailed 191,426 passenger vehicles, down 18.20% on a year earlier but up 15.64% on Navratri 2024. Urban retail fell 15.30% and rural fell 12.44%, the reverse of the two-wheeler pattern, and urban markets were 61.7% of the total, up from 61.1% in September.
Tata pulls clear of Mahindra
Maruti Suzuki retailed 211,996 cars for a 41.75% share, down from 42.15% a year earlier. Tata Motors took second place with 73,449 (14.47%, up from 13.52%), ahead of Mahindra on 64,982 (12.80%). In September Mahindra had edged Tata by 89 units, so the two swapped back, this time by 8,467. Hyundai followed with 58,099 (11.44%), Kia with 30,799 (6.07%) and Toyota Kirloskar with 28,727 (5.66%, down about 25% year on year). JSW MG Motor retailed 7,082 and VinFast India 2,571, against 142 a year ago.
Electric slips to 7.30% as supply runs short
Petrol and ethanol took 41.60% of retail (48.96% a year earlier) and diesel 16.57%. CNG and LPG took 24.59%, hybrids 9.94% and battery-electric 7.30%, roughly 37,000 cars against about 21,000 a year ago and a best-ever October for electric passenger vehicles. The share is below September's 8.45%; FADA says demand ran ahead of supply, so availability was the binding constraint. CNG, hybrid and electric together reached 41.83%, just above petrol.
Ten months and the stock problem
India has now retailed 4,323,120 passenger vehicles from January to October 2026 on the sum of FADA's monthly prints. FADA counts April to October of its financial year at 3,068,353, up 16.41%. Channel stock is stuck at 43 to 45 days, unchanged from September, and FADA expects the Dhanteras-to-Diwali wave to bring it back to about 30 days by the end of the calendar year. Dealers also flag a possible post-festive lull and the first repo-rate increase in over three years; 51.65% expect growth in November. SIAM published October dispatches on 13 November (519,060 passenger vehicles, up 12.4%), and the dashboard model table now shows the October top 10, led by the Maruti Suzuki Wagon R at 23,747. Open the live India dashboard for the monthly retail series and the fuel mix.