Auto retails picks up speed

CHENNAI: Auto retails picked up speed in August, according to the latest data from the Federation of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (FADA).


On a year-on-year basis, total vehicle retail for the month of August saw 8% growth. Except tractors which decreased by -32%, all the other categories were in green.

Two-wheelers, three-wheelers, passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles were up by 8.5%, 83%, 6.5% and 24% respectively. When compared with August 2019, a pre-Covid month, total vehicle retails continued to fall by -7% though PV showed a double-digit healthy growth of 41% and CVs turned positive by 6%. All the other categories were in red.

With semi-conductor supply continuing to ease, auto retail and PV segment especially, is gearing up to have the best festive season in a decade, said a FADA statement.

FADA president Manish Raj Singhania said, “Auto retail for the month of August 2022 saw an overall growth of 8%. August opens the door for festival season to kick in. While dealers anticipated good Ganesh Chaturthi in August, the results thus far have not been encouraging. In spite of good monsoons, the festive season began with a dampener. When compared with August 2019, total vehicle retails fell by -7%. While PV outperformed handsomely and CV also turned positive, all the other segments were in red with two-wheelers, three- wheelers and tractors falling by -16%, -1% and -7% respectively,” he added.

“While the two-wheeler segment has grown by 8.5% YoY, it continues to face Covid blues due to underperformance of Bharat and is still not above 2019 levels. This coupled with price hikes has made the two-wheelers out of reach for most entry level customers. With erratic monsoon, the crop realisation has been low and flood like situation has restricted customer movement,” he said.

The three-wheeler space continues its healthy double digit growth (up 83% YoY) and has now also equalled 2019 sales for the first time.

“Electrification is also the highest in this category as e-rickshaw leading the way. There is a clear indication that customers are now preferring electric vehicles over ICE vehicles as ICE three-wheelers continue to see double digit de-growth when compared to pre-covid levels,’ said Singhania.

The CV segment continues to witness an upswing in economic activities post monsoon and saw a growth of 24% YoY. “This along with the government's infrastructure push, new launches by OEMs and better conversion in fleet operations have kept the segment in the green. Apart from this, the passenger carrier segment is also showing good demand due to increased buying from educational institutions,” he explained.

“PV segment continues to be on a bull run (up 6.5% YoY) as demand for all sub categories of vehicles except entry level remained strong. This is also aided by new feature rich launches which OEMs are doing for the last few months. With semi-conductor shortage slowly becoming a passe, vehicle availability has definitely improved but waiting period continues to remain due to high demand in higher feature rich variants,” he said.

Inventory in both PV and two-wheeler is at 30-35 days right now.

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