BUSINESS PV RETAIL SALES UP 34% IN JANUARY

NEW DELHI: Automobile dealers' body FADA Thursday said passenger vehicle (PV) retail sales in January increased by 33.97 per cent to 2,71,395 units as manufacturers continued to dole out year-end offers last month as well.

According to Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), which collected vehicle registration data from 1,081 out of the 1,437 regional transport offices (RTOS), PV sales stood at 2,02,585 units in December 2018.

"As predicted, healthy inquiry levels seen in December finally showed signs of conversions with the year-end offers continuing in January, especially by passenger vehicle OEMS which has helped the customer in making the final purchase," FADA President Ashish Harsharaj Kale said in a statement.

Consumer interest, which had remained buoyant, has slowly but surely started converting to sales in better percentages, he added.

"Overall positivity compared to the previous months, backed by good retail offerings, has helped PV sales. New launches in the month also added to the overall excitement and got the attention of the buyer," Kale said.

In the two-wheeler category, FADA said retail sales stood at 11,89,679 units in January as against 11,41,209 units in December, up 4.25 per cent

"Two-wheeler growth rates are not at a healthy high and are seen positive due to a huge de-growth in December," Kale said.

FADA said commercial vehicle retail sales grew marginally to 53,732 units in January from 53,712 units in December.

"Commercial vehicle growth is flat, and has substantially dropped from the high growth rate it had maintained through year to date," Kale said.

Three-wheeler retail sales, however, grew by 11.86 per cent to 50,344 units last month as compared with 45,008 units in December 2018.

Total retail sales across categories stood at 15,65,150 units in January, up 8.5 per cent from 14,42,514 units in December 2018.

On the outlook for the next few months, FADA said it is hopeful of uptick in retail vehicle sales driven by a positive interim budget

Besides, assured income to farmers should bring in potential customers, it added.

"This will hopefully pull up the demand for two0wheelers, light commercial vehicles and tractors," Kale said.

The inventory of twowheeler dealers still continues to be very high, as retail sales were still under pressure, he added.

"We hope that two0wheeler original equipment manufacturers (OEMS) will take a realistic stock of the situation prevailing on the ground and reduce wholesale billing," Kale said.