PV retail sales jump 11% in October on festive demand

TOTAL SALES ACROSS CATEGORIES ROSE 4% TO 1.71 MILLION UNITS IN OCTOBER, AS AGAINST 1.64 MILLION A YEAR AGO

NEW DELHI: Automobile dealers’ body Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada) on Tuesday said retail sales of passenger vehicles (PV) in October increased 11% to 248,036 units against the same period last year, driven by festive demand during the month.

According to Fada, passenger vehicles sales stood at 223,498 units in October 2018.

Two-wheeler sales increased 5% to 1.33 million units last month as compared with 1.27 million units in the year-ago period.

Commercial vehicle sales, however, declined 23% to 67,060 units as compared to 87,618 units in October last year.

Three-wheeler sales saw an increase of 4% to 59,573 units last month.

Total sales across categories rose 4% to 1.71 million units in October, as against 1.64 million units in the same month last year.

“October retails were in the positive, giving a much-needed respite to the auto industry, especially to our dealer community, after months of de-growth,” Fada president Ashish Harsharaj Kale said.

The festival season saw very good footfalls at dealerships across most of the geographies, the consumer sentiment was positive, and purchase decisions were concluded as used to be during the growth years, he added.

Kale said two-wheeler inventory has reduced from an alarming level while passenger vehicles inventory is also at reasonable levels.

“CV (commercial vehicles) inventory has also reduced, although with retail continuing to be weak further wholesale regulation is required to reach Fada’s 21 days recommended levels,” he added.

With the auto industry heading into the unknown territory of Bharat Stage-vi emission regulations transition, more needs to be done towards inventory reduction to avoid dealer losses, Kale noted.