Vehicle sales in August were up 8% in August, according to FADA data released here on Thursday.
Manish Raj Singhania , President, FADA, said, “While dealers anticipated good Ganesh Chaturthi sales in August, the result thus far has not been encouraging.”
In spite of good monsoons, the festive season began slowly and when compared with the pre-Covid levels of August’ 19 , total vehicle sales fell by 7%.
Three-wheeler sales were up by 83.1 4% at 56,313 units compared to 30,748 units in August 2021. According to Singhania, the goods category was marginally down one percent to 6,012 units as against 6,073 units in the same time last year.
Three-wheeler sales continue to see healthy growth with sales at par with 2019 levels. Electrification is also the highest in this category with e-rickshaws leading the way, a clear indication that customers now prefer this option. ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles continue to see double digit de-growth when compared to pre-covid levels. .
Two-wheeler sales at 10,74,266 units in August showed an 8.52% growth up from 9,89,969 units sold in the corresponding period last year. Singhania said two-wheelers continue to face headwinds due to under performance of Bharat at (a reference to rural India) which is still 16 percent short of 2019 levels. This coupled with prices made two-wheelers unaffordable for most entry level customers. Erratic monsoons have also led to low crop realisation and floods have restricted customers movement.
As for passenger vehicles, sales were 2,74,448 units, up 6.51% over August 2021 and surpassed 2019 levels by 41%. Singhania said the P V segment continues to be on a bull run with demand strong across all categories except the entry-level. He added that with the ease in the chip crisis, vehicle availability has improved but the waiting period continued for higher feature rich variants.
Commercial vehicle sales increased 24.12% to 67,158 units. HCVS were up 50.45% while LCVs and MCVs grew by 17.2 % and 45% respectively. Other sub segments were however down by 22.29% to 2,531 from 3,257 units in August last year. All in all, C V sales were 6.16 percent higher than the pre-pandemic levels of August 2019.
The bad news came from tractors where sales were down 31.72% to 49,305 units from 72,208 units in August 2021.
FADA believes that with easing of chip supplies, the PV segment will see the best ever festive season over the last decade. If vehicle prices continue to remain stable and there are more health related threats, “we may see an up-stick growth in the most awaited two-wheeler space”.
The press release adds that with the Government’s push in infrastructure spending, CV sales will also increase.
Overall, FADA has changed stance from ‘cautiously optimistic’ to ‘optimistic’ as it enters the festive period.