On April 8, automobile dealers body FADA said that year-on-year growth in passenger vehicle (PV) retail sales in March increased by 28.39% to 2,79,745 units as compared to the year-ago period of market disruption. Was seen due to. COVID-19 led to the lockdown.
According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA), which collected vehicle registration data from 1,277 out of 1,482 regional transport offices (RTOs), PV sales in March 2020 stood at 2,17,879 units.
However, two-wheeler sales fell 35.26% to 11,95,445 units last month as compared to 18,46,613 units in March 2020.
Commercial vehicle sales also decreased by 42.2% to 67,372 units from 1,16,559 units a year ago.
Similarly, three-wheeler sales fell by 50.72% to 38,034 units in the previous month from 77,173 units in the year-ago period.
However, tractor sales grew 29.21% to 69,082 units last month, compared to 53,463 units in the same month last year.
Total registrations in the categories fell by 28.64% to 16,49,678 units from 23,11,687 units in the same period last year.
FADA president Winkesh Gulati said automobile registrations had a double-digit decline last month compared to March, which was seen in a seven-day lockdown due to the coronavirus epidemic.
“According to Pew Research, the financial crisis brought on by COVID-19 has driven nearly 32 million Indians out of the middle class, in years of economic gains. It also had an impact on two-wheelers as its highest growth in the past few months Hui.
Mr. Gulati said that high fuel prices and price increases acted as a double whammy.
“This has not only caused havoc in the entry-level customers’ minds, but has also kept them away from going to the showrooms,” he said.
Mr. Gulati said that the sales growth of PVs and tractors may be linked to several factors such as last year’s low base due to the transition from BS-IV to BS-VI.
“According to a FADA survey, 47% of PV dealers said they lost more than 20% of sales due to supply shortages,” he said.
Commenting on the decline in commercial vehicle sales, Gulati said that high BS-VI price, low finance availability, repayment pressure due to moratorium period were some of the reasons for the decline in sales in the segment.
On the sales outlook, he said, “April comes with festivities like Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Baisakhi and Poila Bovakh. This coupled with the wedding season is generally a high sales period. At this point, COVID-19’s The second wave is not only spreading rapidly, but is trying to destabilize the growth that India has been able to achieve in the last few months. ”Gulati said that any stalemate at this point would have caused the auto There will be impediment in the pace that arises for the industry.
He said that sales have started to be affected by the increase in cases of COVID-19.
“The effect of the same can be seen in the two-wheeler category where the level of investigation is low. This coupled with the lack of semiconductor will disrupt passenger vehicles, but also two-wheelers due to lack of ABS.
.
Leave a Reply