Automobile dealers’ body FADA on Thursday said retail sales of automobiles in India grew by 8.31 per cent in August this year due to increase in vehicle registrations across all major segments.
According to the data released by Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), total vehicle retail sales in the country stood at 15,21,490 units last month as compared to 14,04,704 units in August 2021.
Retail sales of passenger vehicles (PV) stood at 2,74,448 units as against 2,57,672 units in the year-ago month, a growth of 6.51 per cent.
Retail sales of two-wheelers (2W) also increased by 8.52 per cent to 10,74,266 units in August 2022 from 9,89,969 units in the same month last year.
FADA said the three-wheeler (3W) segment witnessed the highest growth rate last month, growing 83.14 per cent to 56,313 units as against 30,748 units in the same month a year ago.
Commercial vehicles (CVs) also registered a strong growth of 24.12 per cent at 67,158 units as against 54,107 units in the same month a year ago.
FADA President Manish Raj Singhania said the August retail sales were not encouraging nor as per the expectations of the dealers, who had expected a good start to the festive season with Ganesh Chaturthi.
“When compared to August 2019, a pre-COVID month, total vehicle retail declined by 7 per cent. While PV did well with a growth of 41 per cent, CV also turned positive with a growth of 6 per cent thus coming out of the COVID blues. All other segments were in the red with 2W, 3W and tractors down 16 per cent, 1 per cent and 7 per cent respectively,” he said.
Singhania said that though the 2W segment grew by 8.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis last month, “it is facing the COVID blues due to poor performance of India (Rural India) and is still below 2019 levels”. not above”.
“With the price hike, this has put the 2W product out of reach for most entry-level customers. With erratic monsoon, crop realization has been low and flood-like situation has restricted the movement of customers,” he said.
On the other hand, the PV segment remains strong as demand for all sub-categories, except entry-level vehicles, remains strong.
“This is also aided by the new feature-rich launches that OEMs have been doing for the past few months. With the semiconductor shortage slowly eroding, the availability of vehicles has certainly improved, but the high demand for high feature variants has led to waiting periods,” Singhania said.
Similarly, he added that the CV segment is also witnessing a pick-up in post-monsoon economic activity.
The government’s infrastructure push, new launches by OEMs and better conversion of fleet operations have kept the segment in the green, he said, adding, “The passenger carrier segment also showed good demand due to increased purchases from educational institutions. Used to be”.
3W Space has now equaled 2019 sales for the first time ever. Electrification is also highest in this category, with e-rickshaws leading the way.
“There is a clear indication that customers are now preferring electric vehicles over internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles as ICE 3W is witnessing double-digit decline as compared to pre-COVID levels,” Singhania said.
On the outlook, FADA said, with the ease of supply, the PV segment will surely witness the best celebrations (Navratri and Diwali) in the last decade so far.
“Also, if vehicle prices remain stable and there are no further health hazards, we may see an uptick in the much-anticipated 2W space, which has not shown the necessary growth since the last festivals.” While Onam and Navratri fall in September, the month also has a 15-day period of Shradh, which is generally considered an inauspicious period for buying a vehicle.