After taking a look at the wholesale sales performance of the car segment in May 2026, let us now take a look at the retail sales performance. India’s passenger vehicle retail market recorded healthy growth in May 2026, with total retail sales reaching 4,02,591 units, compared to 3,26,656 units in May 2025. This led to a gain of 75,935 units and a YoY growth of 23.25%. However, compared to April 2026, retail sales declined marginally by 1.17% as volumes fell by 4,07,355 units.
India’s total vehicle retail sales grew by 9.55% to 25.31 lakh units in May 2026, led by strong 23.25% growth of passenger vehicles. However, compared to April 2026, total retail sales declined by 6.75%, passenger vehicles by 6.10%, two-wheelers by 7.19% and commercial vehicles by 18.33%. Tractors remained a bright spot, registering 11.17% YoY growth, indicating continued strength in rural demand.
Car Sales by Fuel – May 2026
Passenger vehicle fuel preferences continue to evolve. Petrol vehicles still lead with 45.76% share, but down from 48.15% a year ago. Diesel has also decreased from 19.32% to 16.23%. In contrast, the share of CNG increased from 19.93% to 23.34%, while EVs increased from 4.51% to 6.63%, reflecting the growing acceptance of alternative powertrains. Hybrid vehicles remained largely stable at around 8% market share.
car retail sales may 2026
Maruti Suzuki remains India’s largest carmaker by a wide margin with retail sales of 1,64,925 units in May 2026. Sales increased by 33.31% year-on-year, with the company adding more than 41,000 units compared to the same month last year. Tata Motors took the second position with 55,544 units, registering a strong growth of 39.25% YoY. The company added 15,656 units in May 2025 and gained 13.80% market share.
Mahindra stood second with 51,311 units, a growth of 10.43% year-on-year. While Mahindra continued to register good sales, Tata’s strong growth helped it widen the gap in the retail sales rankings. Hyundai retained the fourth position with 46,223 units, a growth of 12.80%, while Toyota rounded off the top five with 26,294 units, registering a marginal growth of 6.34%.
Kia India delivered 24,644 units in May 2026, registering a healthy growth of 33.57% over the previous year. The brand added over 6,000 units and maintained a market share of 6.12%. Among mainstream manufacturers, Renault and Nissan emerged as the fastest growing brands. Renault’s retail sales increased by 70.59% to 4,217 units due to strong demand for Duster and Kiger. Nissan recorded an even stronger growth of 84.36%, with sales rising to 2,959 units.
BYD continued its rise with 686 units, while VinFast recorded 1,238 units, as the Vietnamese EV brand continued to expand its presence in India. in luxury segmentBMW reported 16.88% growth at 1,371 units. However, Mercedes-Benz sales declined 12.64% to 1,327 units. JLR sales declined by 11.25% to 363 units, while Jeep sales declined by a massive 30.90% to 208 units.
market share analysis
Maruti continued to strengthen its hold on the market and accounted for about 41% of all passenger vehicle retail sales. Tata and Mahindra stood second with 13.80% and 12.75% shares respectively, while Hyundai had 11.48% shares. The top four manufacturers – Maruti, Tata, Mahindra and Hyundai – together accounted for about 79% of India’s passenger vehicle retail market in May 2026, underscoring the concentration of market share among major OEMs.
month-on-month trend
While overall retail sales declined slightly compared to April, Maruti was one of the few major manufacturers to post positive month-on-month growth, increasing sales by 4.05%. Renault also recorded 3.18% MoM growth, while BYD recorded the strongest monthly gain at 46.27%. Most other brands saw mild declines, including Tata (-3.72%), Mahindra (-7.11%), Hyundai (-2.58%), Toyota (-2.64%) and Kia (-2.31%).