Wholesale PV sales crash on rising costs

Slower GDP growth continued to pressure consumer demand, says SIAM

Chennai: In this Friday, Aug 23, 2019, photo cars are seen parked in a dock at the Chennai Port Trust. Automobile sales in India witnessed its worst-ever drop in August with despatches in all segments, including passenger vehicles and two-wheelers, continuing to plummet as the sector reels under an unprecedented downturn, industry body SIAM reported on Monday, Sep 09, 2019. (PTI Photo/R Senthil Kumar)(PTI9_9_2019_000066A)

Continuing a downward trend, wholesale passenger vehicles sales in the country declined by 6.2% to over 2.62 lakh units in January 2020, as rising cost of vehicle ownership and slower GDP growth continued to put pressure on consumer demand, industry body SIAM said on Monday.

The domestic passenger vehicle sales, which includes sales of cars, utility vehicles and vans, stood at over 2.8 lakh units in January 2019. As per the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, car sales fell 8.1% to over 1.64 lakh units in January 2020 as against over 1.79 lakh units in the same month last year.

Sales of utility vehicles were up 2.57% to 84,929 units, while that of vans fell by 27.68% to 12,992 units in the last month.

Rajan Wadhera, president at SIAM, said, “Sales of vehicles continue to be stressed due to rising cost of vehicle ownership and slower growth in GDP.”

He added that the industry was hopeful that the recent announcement of the government on infrastructure and rural economy would support growth of vehicle sales going forward, especially commercial vehicles and the two-wheeler segment. The total two-wheeler sales in January 2020 declined by 16.06% to over 13.41 lakh units as compared to over 15.97 lakh units in the same month last year. While sales of motorcycles declined by 15.17% to more than 8.71 lakh units, scooter sales were down 16.21% to more than 4.16 lakh units.

The data showed that wholesale sales of commercial vehicles, which are seen as one of the indicators of economic activity in the country, fell by 14.04% to 75,289 units in January 2020, as compared to 87,591 in January 2019. Under commercial vehicles segment, sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles fell 34.64% to 22,534 units, while that of light commercial vehicles were down 0.68% to 52,755 units.

SIAM director general Rajesh Menon noted that wholesale sales continued to dip in all segments, barring the three-wheeler segment, which saw a growth of 12.69% to over 60,903 units.

Vehicle sales across categories registered a decline of 13.83% to over 17.39 lakh units, down from sales of more than 20.19 lakh units in January 2019. “We are hopeful that the response that we have received to the ongoing Auto Expo will help further improve consumer sentiment. Already there have been 70 unveilings and launches so far,” he added.