Auto retail sales surge 26% in Feb 2026

The overall automobile retail sales in February 2026 surged 25.62% Year on Year (YoY) to touch 24,09,362 units, registering a record according to sales data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) on Thursday (March 5, 2026)

The sales were led by almost all segments baring Construction Equipment (CE).

While two-wheeler retail sales at 17,00,505 units grew 25.02% YoY, Passenger Vehicles (PV) retail sales at 3,94,768 units surged 26.12% YoY. Commercial Vehicles (CV) retail sales were at 1,00,820 units, an increase by 28.89%.

In February 2026, three-wheeler segment witnessed retail sales of 1,17,130 units, up 24.39% YoY and the Tractors segment grew 36.35% to 89,418 units as per FADA data.

The CE segment, however, de-grew 1.22% to 6,721 units.

“The strong performance extended the momentum seen after GST 2.0, with improved affordability and market confidence translating into broad-based retail growth, FADA said in a statement.

“Despite being a shorter month, retail performance remained exceptionally strong across segments,” it said.

The PV inventory reduced further to 27–29 days, moving closer to FADA’s recommended 21-day benchmark and indicating healthier wholesale-retail alignment.

Retail auto market moving towards stable growth phase

According to FADA the market appears to be moving from a sharp rebound phase to a more stable growth phase.

FADA president C S Vigneshwar said: “Feb’26 has turned out to be a landmark month for the Indian auto retail sector, further strengthening the positive momentum seen after the GST 2.0 announcement.”

Noting that the growth surpassed the previous best of February 2024, Mr. Vigneshwar observed the growth was broad-based across almost all segments.

Overall, the next three months still appear cautiously optimistic—the growth momentum is intact, but compared to the sharper optimism seen earlier, the survey now indicates that the industry may gradually move from a phase of strong rebound to a phase of more stable and calibrated growth, FADA said.