Total vehicle sales decline by 2.7% in November, two wheeler retails down 1%: FADA

The total vehicle retail sales declined 2.7 percent on a YoY basis in November, Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) said in a statement on Wednesday. When compared to November 2019 (a regular pre-COVID month), overall retails continued to fall by 20 percent, FADA said.

The two wheeler retails were down 1 percent in November 2021, private vehicles by 19 percent and tractors by 9 percent on a YoY basis, FADA said.

“Auto retail for the month of November continued to remain in negative zone despite Diwali as well as marriage season in the same month. The unwanted rains in southern states further spoiled the party. Unless rural India starts showing signs of strength, overall retails will continue to remain weak," FADA President, Vinkesh Gulati said.

While the two-wheeler (2W) segment saw almost at par sales compared to last year (which itself was a bad year), overall sentiment remained low as marriage season also didn’t help in revival except in one or two states. Apart from this, crop loss due to incessant rains and flood in southern states, high acquisition price as well as fuel costs kept the customers away. Further, there are no signs of increase in inquiry levels which is a bigger cause of concern, FADA said.

On YoY basis, three wheeler and commercial vehicle were up by 67 percent and 13 percent. Two wheeler, private vehicle (PV) and tractors fell by 1 percent, 19 percent and 9 percent respectively, FADA said.

Semiconductor crises continued to haunt PV sales as despite huge bookings. Dealers were unable to satisfy customers due to supply issues resulting in long waiting periods. Commercial vehicles lead by Medium and Heavy Commercial vehicles (M&HCV) continued to show growth over last year (on low base) but has a long way to go when compared to pre-COVID times. The spread of new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’ once again has halted normalcy to prevail in life as educational institutes and offices defer opening plans, FADA said.