Shriram Finance's July 2026 Mobility Bulletin shows truck rentals held steady on key routes despite weak monsoon and flooding, while EV and three-wheeler sales posted sharp growth.
Key points
- Rentals Barely Moved, Even With Flooding In The Mix
- Year-On-Year, The Picture Looks Very Different
- Cargo 3-Wheelers And EVs Had A Genuinely Strong Month
- Fuel Trends Tell Their Own Quiet Story
- Frequently Asked Questions on Commercial Vehicles
By most accounts, July should have been a rough month for freight. Flooding hit parts of Gujarat, Kerala and the Himalayan belt, rainfall was patchy enough to disrupt agricultural transit in other regions, and global market uncertainty didn't help either. And yet, according to Shriram Finance's latest Mobility Bulletin, truck rental rates on most major trunk routes barely budged — which says something about how balanced freight supply and demand actually were, even with the weather working against transporters.
Rentals Barely Moved, Even With Flooding In The Mix
Table of Contents
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1. Rentals Barely Moved, Even With Flooding In The Mix |
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2. Year-On-Year, The Picture Looks Very Different |
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3. Cargo 3-Wheelers And EVs Had A Genuinely Strong Month |
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4. Fuel Trends Tell Their Own Quiet Story |
Bengaluru-Mumbai and Kolkata-Guwahati saw the biggest monthly moves, up roughly 2.1% and 1.9% respectively, while Delhi-Hyderabad and Mumbai-Kolkata edged up around 1%. A few of the busiest corridors — Bengaluru-Kolkata, Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata — stayed essentially flat month-on-month. For an industry that just absorbed floods in three regions at once, that kind of stability isn't nothing.
Year-On-Year, The Picture Looks Very Different
Zoom out to a full year and the routes tell a much stronger story than the monthly numbers suggest. Delhi-Kolkata rentals are up 15% compared to last July, Bengaluru-Mumbai has climbed 11%, and Kolkata-Guwahati is up 9%. So while the month-on-month picture looked calm, the underlying trend over the past year has actually been one of steadily rising freight costs across the country's busiest corridors — the kind of gradual increase that's easy to miss looking at any single month in isolation.
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Cargo 3-Wheelers And EVs Had A Genuinely Strong Month
Sales data buried in the same bulletin tells a more dramatic story than the rental numbers do. Cargo three-wheeler sales jumped 47% year-on-year in July, goods carrier sales rose 29%, and tractor sales climbed 31%. Electric vehicle sales overall were up roughly 148% year-on-year, with electric 3-wheelers and 2-wheelers growing 97% and 114% respectively — numbers that make the EV shift in commercial last-mile transport look less like a slow transition and more like something that's genuinely accelerating right now. Sudarshan Holla, Joint MD and COO for Commercial Vehicles at Shriram Finance, pointed to steady freight rates as a sign of a stable operating environment for transporters, adding that the coming festive season should be the next real test of demand for the logistics sector.
Fuel Trends Tell Their Own Quiet Story
Fuel usage moved in two different directions during the month. Diesel consumption dropped almost 6% from June, while petrol usage inched up about 1% over the same period. But diesel was still running 9.4% higher than a year ago, which the bulletin linked partly to increased use of diesel-powered irrigation pumps in areas hit by weak rainfall — an indirect reminder of just how tightly freight, fuel and agriculture are connected in India. FASTag data added another data point worth noting: transaction volumes fell 4% month-on-month and collection values dipped about 1%, both pointing to somewhat lighter highway traffic in July compared to the month before. None of these numbers move the needle much on their own for anyone running a fleet of trucks, but together they build a fairly clear picture of a market that's cooling slightly in some places while genuinely heating up in others, particularly around EVs and cargo three-wheelers.
Frequently Asked Questions on Commercial Vehicles
Q1. Did truck rental rates rise or fall in July 2026?
Ans. Most major trunk routes stayed largely stable month-on-month, with modest increases of roughly 1-2% on routes like Bengaluru-Mumbai and Kolkata-Guwahati, despite flooding and weak monsoon disrupting freight in several regions.
Q2. How much did EV sales grow in July 2026?
Ans. Overall EV sales rose around 148% year-on-year, with electric two-wheelers up 114% and electric three-wheelers up 97%.
Q3. How did cargo three-wheeler sales perform in July 2026?
Ans. Cargo three-wheeler sales increased 47% year-on-year, alongside a 29% rise in goods carrier sales and a 31% rise in tractor sales.
Q4. What happened to diesel consumption in July 2026?
Ans. Diesel consumption fell almost 6% compared to June, though it remained 9.4% higher than the same month a year earlier, partly linked to increased use of diesel-powered irrigation pumps in low-rainfall areas.