Automobile dealers in India: dealer list, data and rules

Car, two-wheeler and parts dealers by state and city in Starleads' data, the top vehicle companies by sales, the RTO and GST rules for dealers, and how to reach them within TRAI's rules.

By Kavita Khatri · Published 30 October 2026 · 17 min read

In this article · 9 sections

The quick answer
What counts as an "automobile dealer"
Automobile dealers in India by state and city
By state
By kind of automobile business
Lists that sit next to automobile dealers
Automobile companies in India and their dealer networks
The rules every automobile dealer works under
Used vehicle dealers need an RTO authorisation certificate
GST on vehicles changed on 22 September 2025
Checking a dealer is real
How to build an automobile dealer list, step by step
Selling to automobile dealers without breaking TRAI's rules
Where Starleads' automobile data falls short
Questions people ask
How many automobile dealers are there in India?
Who are the top automobile dealers in India?
Is there a list of automobile dealers in India as a PDF download?
Which cities have the most automobile dealers?
Does a used car dealer need a licence?
What is the GST on cars and two-wheelers now?
How do I become an automobile dealer?
Can I call automobile dealers from a bought list?

The quick answer

No government office publishes a list of automobile dealers in India with phone numbers. The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) says it represents over 15,000 dealerships with over 30,000 outlets, but it does not publish a member directory, and each carmaker's "find a dealer" page shows only its own brand. Starleads' Automobile Dealers & Service Centres list for India had 25,756 businesses on 30 October 2026: new and used car dealers, two-wheeler showrooms, spare parts sellers, service centres and tyre shops in 98 cities, 91% of them with a mobile number. It is strongest in Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Karnataka and thin in the east and south, so check the city you need before you buy.

This guide is for people who want to sell to automobile dealers, such as makers of spare parts, lubricants, tyres, batteries and accessories, finance and insurance firms, software and signage companies, and for people who want to study the trade before taking a dealership or opening a parts shop. It covers the kinds of businesses that call themselves automobile dealers, where they are according to Starleads' counts, the biggest vehicle companies by retail sales this September, the rules that apply to new and used vehicle dealers, the GST rates that changed in September 2025, how to build a dealer list step by step, and how to contact dealers within TRAI's rules.

What counts as an "automobile dealer"

When people search for automobile dealers in India they mean different businesses, and each is reached differently. An authorised Maruti Suzuki or Hero showroom belongs to a dealer group that signs a dealership agreement with the manufacturer. A spare parts shop in Kashmere Gate buys from distributors and sells to garages. A used car dealer buys from owners and sells to buyers, and since April 2023 needs its own authorisation from the RTO (see the rules section). Decide which of these you want before you collect any numbers.

Type of dealer	What they do	Who sells to them	In Starleads' data (30 Oct 2026)
New car showrooms (authorised dealers)	Sell new cars for one manufacturer, often with a workshop and a parts counter; many dealer groups hold several brands	Finance and insurance firms, accessory makers, signage, software and training firms, staffing agencies	Cars – New: 1,549 rows, 99% with a mobile number
Used car dealers	Buy and sell pre-owned cars; some are brand-run used car outlets, most are independent	Inspection and valuation services, finance companies, detailing and repair shops	Cars – Pre-Owned: 1,328 rows, all with a mobile number
Two-wheeler showrooms, parts and service	Sell new motorcycles and scooters, spare parts and repairs	Parts, lubricant, helmet and accessory brands, two-wheeler financiers and insurers	Two-Wheeler Dealers, Parts & Service: 6,549 rows, 98% with a mobile number
Spare parts and components dealers	Wholesale and retail of car and commercial vehicle parts, often in dedicated auto markets	Parts makers and importers, transporters, packaging suppliers	Automobile Components & Parts: 3,413 rows, all with a mobile number
Garages and workshops	Independent repair, servicing, wheel alignment and denting-painting	Parts and lubricant brands, garage equipment makers, paint suppliers	Car Repair Garages & Workshops: 12,903 rows, a separate list
Accessories and car decor shops	Seat covers, audio, lighting, coatings, fitments	Accessory makers and importers	Car Accessories & Car Decor Shops: 7,061 rows, a separate list

The first four rows are categories within the 25,756-row Automobile Dealers & Service Centres list, or a list of their own for two-wheelers; garages and accessory shops are separate lists. The all-India automobile list also carries labels such as "Automobile" (3,470 rows), "Two Wheeler Parts & Spares" (1,887), "Four Wheeler Parts & Spares" (1,731), "Four Wheelers Service & Repair Centre" (1,670) and "Tyres" (1,649). All figures in this guide are counts of contacts in Starleads' data, taken from the list pages on 30 October 2026, not an official census of India's automobile trade.

Two numbers put the list in context. FADA's own description says its members run over 15,000 dealerships with over 30,000 outlets across two-wheelers, three-wheelers, cars, commercial vehicles and tractors. Starleads' "Cars – New" category has 1,549 rows in 21 cities. So if you need every authorised showroom of one brand, the manufacturer's dealer locator is more complete than any bought list; a contact list earns its keep when you need many brands, parts shops and service businesses in one sheet with mobile numbers.

Automobile dealers in India by state and city

Starleads' automobile list is concentrated: Maharashtra, Delhi and Rajasthan hold 60% of the 25,756 rows. That reflects where the source directories are strongest as much as where the dealers are, and the gaps matter if you sell nationally.

State	Automobile dealers & service centres	Cities and what stands out
Maharashtra	6,491 (49 cities)	Mumbai 3,737, the largest city list, led by components and parts (719), new cars (335) and used cars (243); Pune 2,624, with most rows in Chinchwad (140), Bhosari (136) and Hadapsar (116)
Delhi	5,328	Biggest categories are components and parts (1,166), "Automobile" (639) and two-wheeler parts (535); 385 used car and 320 new car rows
Rajasthan	3,659 (25 cities)	Jaipur 1,620, clustered on M I Road (151), Transport Nagar (61) and Ajmer Road (52); then Kota, Udaipur and Jodhpur
Karnataka	2,810 (12 cities)	Bengaluru 2,783, almost the whole state list
Punjab	1,397 (23 cities)	Ludhiana 1,321 (95% of the state), led by two-wheeler parts and spares (483), mostly in Miller Ganj (120) and Focal Point (109)
Gujarat	1,334 (60 cities)	Surat 508 and Vadodara 411 have city lists; the rest is spread thin across many towns
Haryana	934 (16 cities)	Gurugram 526 and Faridabad 385
Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu	699, 505, 371 and 249	Chandigarh has its own city list (484); Telangana and Tamil Nadu are small
West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and others	64, 35, 20 and fewer	Too thin to rely on; use the garage and accessory lists or OEM dealer locators instead

What the figures show:

The parts trade is the biggest part of the list. Components and parts (3,413), two-wheeler parts (1,887) and four-wheeler parts (1,731) together outnumber new and used car showrooms (2,877) by more than two to one. If you sell parts, lubricants or tools, your market in this data is the parts dealer and the workshop, not the showroom.
Ludhiana is a two-wheeler parts town. In the separate two-wheeler list, Ludhiana has 652 rows, behind only Delhi (1,039), Bengaluru (1,026) and Mumbai (768), well ahead of cities many times its size.
Pune's rows sit in its industrial belt. Chinchwad and Bhosari are in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area, where many vehicle and component factories are, and Pune's biggest category is components and parts (636).
The south and east are better covered by other lists. The automobile list has only 249 rows in Tamil Nadu and 64 in West Bengal, but the car repair garages list has 1,677 in Tamil Nadu, and Chennai (574) and Hyderabad (715) are among its top cities. The accessories list has 883 rows in Tamil Nadu.
Labels are messy. Delhi's state list has city values such as "Ndia" and "Enquiry" on about a hundred rows, and the free sample of the all-India list includes a garments firm and an electronics shop that have no business being there. Filter by category and look through the sample before you rely on a file.

Live today: the Automobile Dealers & Service Centres in India list has 25,756 businesses in 98 cities, 91% of them with a mobile number and 20% with an email address. The biggest city lists:

By state

By kind of automobile business

Lists that sit next to automobile dealers

Two-wheeler dealers, garages, accessory shops and tyre dealers are in lists of their own:

Automobile companies in India and their dealer networks

Many people who search for automobile dealers are really asking which companies the dealers represent. The best public measure is retail registrations: FADA collects them every month with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways from the Vahan registration system. Its September 2026 retail data release (published 6 October 2026, data from 1,468 of 1,469 RTOs) counts 25,36,920 vehicles sold at retail in September 2026, 31.82% more than a year earlier, which FADA itself calls a base-distorted figure because buyers delayed purchases in September 2025 ahead of the GST cut.

Segment	Retail sales, Sept 2026	Biggest companies by share of that month's retail
Two-wheelers	17,90,188	Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India 26.19%, Hero MotoCorp 24.26%, TVS Motor 20.37%, Bajaj Auto 9.28%, Royal Enfield 5.71%, Suzuki Motorcycle 5.69%, Yamaha 3.59%, Ather Energy 1.71%
Passenger vehicles	4,27,213	Maruti Suzuki 39.59%, Mahindra & Mahindra 13.42%, Tata Motors 13.40%, Hyundai 11.75%, Toyota Kirloskar 6.57%, Kia 6.24%, Skoda Auto Volkswagen 1.98%, JSW MG Motor 1.52%
Three-wheelers	1,32,570	About 65% electric, according to FADA
Commercial vehicles	1,03,557	The first September above one lakh
Tractors	76,906	Down 12.58% on August

Three things in the release matter to anyone selling to dealers:

Car dealers are carrying a lot of stock. FADA puts passenger vehicle inventory at about 43 to 45 days at the end of September, against the 21 days it recommends, with 60% of car dealers holding more stock ahead of the festivals. A dealer sitting on six weeks of cars is short of working capital and wary of new spending until it moves.
Electric is now a real share. FADA counts about 3.34 lakh electric vehicles sold across categories in September, around 13% of retail, with 11.58% of two-wheelers electric. Chargers, EV service tools and EV insurance are now things dealers buy.
Dealers are hopeful but cautious. 75.57% of dealers surveyed expected growth in October and 78.28% over the next three months; FADA calls the mood "cautiously optimistic" and names price increases as dealers' main worry.

The share figures are for one month and move from month to month. For a manufacturer's official dealer count, use the company's own website and annual report, not a third-party list.

The rules every automobile dealer works under

You do not need a licence to sell to automobile dealers, but knowing their rules helps you judge whether a dealer is genuine and what they worry about.

Used vehicle dealers need an RTO authorisation certificate

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' notification G.S.R. 901(E) of 22 December 2022, the Central Motor Vehicles (Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Rules, in force from 1 April 2023, set up the framework for dealers of registered (used) vehicles:

No one may act as a dealer of registered vehicles without an authorisation certificate in Form 29B from the registering authority (the RTO) where they do business. The application is made online in Form 29A, and if the RTO does not decide within 30 days it is deemed approved. The certificate is valid for five years and must be displayed at the place of business.
When an owner hands a car to such a dealer, the owner files Form 29C on the portal, signed by both. From then on the dealer is the deemed owner and is responsible for the vehicle, and can apply for the transfer of ownership.
The dealer keeps an electronic inventory in Form 29E and a trip register in Form 29F, may drive a car in its possession only for test drives, repairs, fitness or PUC checks, and may not park stock on public roads.

For a seller this gives a simple check: a used car dealer who cannot show an authorisation certificate number is either very small or not following the rules. New-vehicle dealers work under separate trade certificate provisions of the same Central Motor Vehicles Rules, which let them move and demonstrate vehicles that are not yet registered.

GST on vehicles changed on 22 September 2025

The 56th GST Council meeting release of 3 September 2025 moved most vehicles and all auto parts to new rates from 22 September 2025:

18% (down from 28%) for small cars: petrol, LPG or CNG cars up to 1,200 cc and diesel cars up to 1,500 cc, in each case no longer than 4,000 mm; motorcycles up to 350 cc; three-wheelers; buses, trucks and ambulances; and a uniform 18% on all auto parts, whatever their HS code.
40% (up from 28%) for larger cars beyond those limits, including hybrids above them, and motorcycles above 350 cc.

This is why FADA's 2026 releases keep referring to "GST 2.0": the cut made small cars and most two-wheelers cheaper and moved demand. For parts sellers, the single 18% rate removed the old arguments over which part sat in which slab.

Checking a dealer is real

A dealership is usually a proprietorship, partnership or private limited company with a GST registration. You can confirm the GSTIN and legal name on the GST portal and a company's directors on the MCA site; our company search guide shows how. For an authorised showroom, the manufacturer's dealer locator confirms the brand relationship.

How to build an automobile dealer list, step by step

Pick the segment. Decide whether you are after showrooms, parts dealers, workshops, two-wheeler shops or accessory stores, using the first table. A lubricant brand wants parts shops and garages; a dealer management software firm wants showrooms with a workshop.
Pick the cities by the counts, not by habit. Use the state table and the list pages to see where there are enough businesses. For example, Ludhiana has more two-wheeler parts rows than most state capitals, and Pune's parts trade is in Chinchwad and Bhosari.
Look at the free sample. Every Starleads list page has 60 real rows to download free in Excel. Check the category labels, how many rows name a person and how many have an email, and whether off-category rows appear.
Buy the narrowest file that covers you. A city, state or specialisation list (such as Cars – New) costs ₹499, and the all-India automobile list costs ₹1,999 plus 18% GST. To mix industries, for example automobile dealers, garages and tyre dealers in three cities, use the list builder.
Clean it for your purpose. Filter on the category column, remove rows outside your segment, and add the OEM brand for showroom rows (the business name or website often shows it, such as "Koncept Hyundai" or a marutisuzuki.com website).
Add what a list cannot give you. For each brand you care about, compare against the manufacturer's dealer locator; for big dealer groups, find the group's head office and purchase head, who often buys for all outlets.
Scrub numbers before calling. Check every mobile number against the DND (NCPR) registry and keep a record of who asked not to be contacted (next section).

Selling to automobile dealers without breaking TRAI's rules

Dealers are busy on weekends, on the first and last days of the month (when targets close) and during festive weeks. Weekday mornings in the middle of the month are better, and in October and early November most car showrooms will not discuss anything that does not sell a car this week.

Before any promotional call or SMS, follow the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's rules:

DND (NCPR). Mobile users can block all commercial calls and messages or only some categories through TRAI's preference registration, by calling or sending an SMS to 1909. One of the eight categories is "Consumer goods and automobiles", so a dealer may have blocked exactly the kind of message you plan to send. Check numbers with our DND check guide.
DLT registration. Promotional and transactional SMS can be sent only through a registered entity, header and template on the operators' DLT platforms; see our DLT registration guide. Promotional calls must come from the number series meant for them, not from a staff member's ordinary mobile used in bulk.
Consent and opt-out. Say who you are and why you are calling, and stop when someone asks you to. Email to a business address should name your company and offer a working unsubscribe.

What works with dealers in practice:

Talk about their numbers. A parts dealer cares about margin and credit days; a showroom about footfall, conversions and stock days. "Our filters carry 30 days' credit and we deliver to Miller Ganj twice a week" is more useful than a brochure.
Find the decision-maker. In a family-run dealership the owner or a son or daughter in the business decides; in a large dealer group, a purchase or admin head at the head office does. Our guide to purchase managers covers the second case.
Respect the OEM relationship. Authorised dealers often must buy parts, accessories, signage and even software that the manufacturer approves. Ask first what they are free to buy.
Follow up on WhatsApp only after a first conversation, and use a WhatsApp Business account rather than mass forwarding from a personal number.

For opening lines, see our cold calling tips; for tyre and battery dealers specifically, our guides on tyre companies and battery and inverter companies cover those networks.

Where Starleads' automobile data falls short

It is not a register of authorised dealers. It has no column for the brand a showroom represents, and it will not have every outlet of any one manufacturer.
Coverage is uneven. Most rows are in the west and north; Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and the North-East have very few.
Emails are scarce. Only 20% of the all-India automobile rows have an email address, against 91% with a mobile number; 47% have a landline. This is mainly a calling list.
Contact details age. The list was rebuilt in October 2026, but dealers change hands and numbers change. Starleads does not promise that every number connects; the sample and coverage figures on each list page show what you are buying.
It is business data only. Starleads does not sell lists of vehicle owners or car buyers, which are private individuals.

Questions people ask

How many automobile dealers are there in India?

No official count is published. FADA says it represents over 15,000 dealerships with over 30,000 outlets across all vehicle types. Starleads' Automobile Dealers & Service Centres list has 25,756 businesses, including parts dealers and service centres, plus 6,549 in the separate two-wheeler list; these are counts in Starleads' data, not a census.

Who are the top automobile dealers in India?

No public ranking of dealer groups is based on audited data. What is public is which companies sell the most vehicles: in FADA's September 2026 data, Maruti Suzuki led passenger vehicles with 39.59% of retail sales and Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India led two-wheelers with 26.19%. Large dealer groups usually hold several such brands across many cities.

Is there a list of automobile dealers in India as a PDF download?

Every Starleads list page has a free sample PDF and Excel file with 60 contacts, with numbers partly masked in the PDF. The full list comes as an Excel workbook, which is easier to filter by city and category than a PDF.

Which cities have the most automobile dealers?

In Starleads' data: Delhi (4,435), Mumbai (3,737), Bengaluru (2,783), Pune (2,624) and Jaipur (1,620), then Ludhiana (1,321). For two-wheelers, Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Ludhiana and Pune lead.

Does a used car dealer need a licence?

Yes. Since 1 April 2023, anyone dealing in registered vehicles needs an authorisation certificate in Form 29B from the RTO, valid for five years, under G.S.R. 901(E) of 22 December 2022.

What is the GST on cars and two-wheelers now?

Since 22 September 2025, 18% on small cars (petrol up to 1,200 cc or diesel up to 1,500 cc, and up to 4 metres long), motorcycles up to 350 cc, three-wheelers, buses and trucks, and on all auto parts; 40% on larger cars and motorcycles above 350 cc.

How do I become an automobile dealer?

For a new-vehicle showroom you apply to the manufacturer, which sets the investment, space and staff requirements. Our guide to getting a dealership walks through the process, and our distributor agreement guide explains the contract terms to read carefully.

Can I call automobile dealers from a bought list?

Only within TRAI's rules: check each number against the DND registry, use registered headers and templates for SMS, identify yourself, and stop when asked. Many dealers will have blocked the "Consumer goods and automobiles" category or all promotional calls.