Vehicle sales in India decline by 38 pct in June

Source: Xinhua | 2020-07-22

Passenger vehicle sales in India declined by 38.34 percent in June to 126,417, compared with 205,011 units last year, said the latest statistics released by the country's Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) on Tuesday.

Two-wheeler sales too dipped by 40.92 percent to 790,118 units as compared to 1,337,462 units in June 2019.

The FADA, collected data from regional transport offices (RTOs) across the country, also showed that commercial vehicles like trucks and tractors plunged by 83 percent to 10,509 units during June, against 64,976 units in June 2019.

Total vehicle sales across all categories was down by 42 percent and stood at 984,395 units in June 2020, as compared to 1,607,166 units in the same month a year ago.

Commenting on vehicle sales in June, FADA president Ashish Harsharaj Kale said that Unlock 1.0 under the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with an increase in demand from the rural market has boosted the retail sales with respect to the numbers in May.

At the end of June, almost 100 percent dealership outlets were operational across the country, barring a few cities and towns which have once again implemented stringent lockdown, he added.

According to him, vehicle registrations in June are still not indicative of the actual demand situation as lockdown woes continue in some parts and the supply side is far from its complete potential.

Overall weak economic sentiments coupled with a rising number of COVID-19 patients has led to weak consumer confidence especially in Tier-1 cities (top cities in India with high density of population), as customers stopover from concluding their purchase as fear of community spread, added the FADA president.