Passenger vehicle sales rebound in Jan
NEW DELHI: Retail sales of passenger vehicles (PVs) in India rebounded sharply in January as automakers offered a range of discounts to clear unsold stocks while slowing dispatches of new vehicles to dealers to help trim inventory.
Sales of trucks and buses as well as two-wheelers, however, remained subdued last month, showed data issued on Thursday by lobby Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA.
Registrations of cars, sportutility vehicles (SUVs) and minivans surged 34% in January, when compared with the preceding month, to 271,395 units, indicating an uptick in consumer sentiment in the domestic market.
Retail sales of PVs had fallen 3% to 202,585 units in December despite a host of year-end discounts by companies. Most of the top automakers recorded either a small increase or a decline in factory dispatches, or wholesales, in January to help dealers control their inventory. The dealers were saddled with unsold stocks because of subdued consumer sentiment in 2018 amid higher fuel costs and financing rates.
Wholesales at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the largest carmaker, rose a marginal 1% year-on-year in January to 140,600 units.
Second-ranked Hyundai Motor India Ltd reported a similar 0.6% increase to 45,803 units in wholesale dispatches.
Wholesales at Mahindra and Mahindra increased by just 1% year-on-year to 23,872 units in January, but Tata Motors posted a 11% decline to 17,826 units.
Domestic automakers report their monthly sales performance in wholesales and not retail sales.
Ashish Harsharaj Kale, president, Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, said consumer interest, which had remained buoyant, has slowly begun to convert into retail sales.
“As predicted, healthy inquiry levels seen in December finally showed signs of conversions with the offers at the end of the calendar year continuing in January, especially by passenger vehicle manufacturers, which has helped the customer in making the final purchase,” said Kale.
Retail sales of commercial vehicles fell 0.04% month-onmonth to 53,732 units in January, as fleet owners refrained from replacing their existing vehicles or adding new ones.
A liquidity crunch at nonbanking financial companies has slowed down credit flow to fleet operators, while revised axle norms has increased the load carrying capacity of trucks.
Tata Motors, the largest commercial vehicle maker, has reported a 9% year-on-year decline in sales to 11,694 units in January. Overall, sales of commercial vehicles fell 6% year-onyear to 37,089 units.
In the motorcycle and scooter segment, retail sales grew at a modest 4.2% sequentially in January to 1.19 million units as an increase in third-party insurance and farm distress continued to hit consumer sentiment.