Partial lockdown in several parts of the country hit sales of cars, SUVs, vans, bikes and scooters during April as showrooms remained shut while those open wore a deserted look.
As per data shared by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturer, passenger vehicles closed April with sales of 261,633 units which was a fall of 16 percent compared to the average monthly sales of three months of January to March when the industry saw 311,194 units.
No year-on-year comparison data is available due to the strict national lockdown in effect in April 2020 which led to zero sales during the month. The above data does not include sales of Tata Motors, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo.
Sales of two-wheelers during April stood at 995,097, which was 31 percent lower than the monthly average of 1.45 million sold during January and March.
While showrooms remain shut in most parts of the country automakers have been forced to advance their maintenance shutdown by a month to May due to a number of business disruptions.
Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Honda Cars, Honda Motorcycles and Scooter, Toyota Kirloskar, MG Motor, Yamaha and Mahindra & Mahindra announced temporary plant closures. Other companies like Tata Motors are rationalising output as per demand.
Since retail off-take has been impacted automakers are trying to avoid a pile of inventory by cutting back on production. The lockdown has also hit the supply chain system involving component supplies.
Rajesh Menon, Director General - SIAM, said, “Supply chain related production challenges continue with the lockdown restrictions in many parts of the country. The demand has been clearly impacted by the second wave of Covid-19, both in terms of low consumer sentiments and closure of dealerships due to lockdown restrictions.”
On May 10 the apex association of automotive dealers, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) also spoke about lower sales during April based on the vehicle registration data sourced from the regional transport offices.
Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Goa are some of the states that have announced full lockdowns, putting automotive sales in the non-essential category.
“The first 9 days of May have seen extremely lean sales due to lockdown announced by the majority of states. Even where dealerships are open, the walk-ins have dropped to 30 percent and customers are delaying their purchase decision,” FADA said in a statement.
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