India's domestic sales of passenger cars rose by ~2.8% in May 2012 while two-wheeler sales jumped ~11% and commercial vehicle sales were up ~9%, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) in New Delhi showed on Monday.

Auto makers sold 163,229 cars in the local market last month as compared to 158,809 cars sold in the year-ago period, according to the SIAM data.

Two-wheeler sales stood at 1,192,688 units in May vs. 1,070,603 units sold in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

Truck & bus sales stood at 62,025 units in May vs 56,841 units sold in May 2011.

Maruti Suzuki's sales dipped by ~6% to 72,309 units. However, rival Hyundai Motor India's sales rose by 3% to 31,939 units. Tata Motors' car sales were up 6.7% at 17,371 units.

In May, total sales of vehicles across categories grew by 10.5% to 15,13,032 units as against 13,69,070 units in the same month last year.

"This is the slowest growth since October last year when car sales witnessed a decline of 23.77 per cent," SIAM Director General Vishnu Mathur said today.

"The softening of interest rates, which was expected to happen has not materialised and continues to be high. Moreover, the high prices of petrol have also affected sales and the overall sentiment in the market is very negative," he added.

Increase in prices of vehicles following the excise duty hike in the Union Budget has also had a major impact, Mathur said, adding that even the sales of diesel vehicles had tapered off.

"In the premium and executive segment, which are generally considered to be not price sensitive, the demand for diesel vehicles has slowed down," Mathur said.

At such a time, if the Government goes ahead and decides to tax diesel vehicles more, the overall demand will suffer all the more, he added.

According to the SIAM data, motorcycle sales in the country grew by 7.2% during the month to 8,87,634 units from 8,27,746 units in the same month last year.

Market leader Hero MotoCorp posted 10.7% jump in sales at 5,02,676 units in May. However, Bajaj Auto's sales fell by 5.3% to 2,06,751 units during the month.

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India's (HMSI) sales surged 45.45% to 88,334 units, while TVS Motor's sales fell by 14.5% to 47,175 units.

The scooter segment's overall sales were up 34.4% at 2,35,185 units vs. 1,74,985 units a year ago.

HMSI's scooter sales grew by 65.5% to 1,24,123 units in May, while Hero MotoCorp sold 36,312 units, up 24%.

TVS Motor's scooter sales declined by 2.4% during the month to 34,936 units.

Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicle sales fell by 10.5% to 22,227 units during the month compared to 24,858 units in May last year.

According to SIAM, light commercial vehicle sales grew by 24.4% to 39,798 units in May 2012 from 31,983 units in May 2011.

In the three-wheeler category, sales fell by 3.3% to 37,184 units from 35,988 units in the same month last year.