INDUSTRY SPEEDOMETER

electric two-wheelers were up 24% year-on-year (due to the extra day in February because of 2024 being a leap year to a certain extent) but were flat compared to January at 81,963 units.

In February 2024, the passenger vehicle industry recorded wholesales of 373,177 units as opposed to 335,324 units of February 2023, growing at 11.3%, Srivastava said.

The retail numbers are lower, estimated to be around 335,900 units against 301,900 units last year, which is also an 11.3% growth. However, the difference between wholesale and retail is about 40,000 units, which

THE stock level is now 300,000 units, which is around 25-26 days of stock in the industry have been added to the stock. The stock level is now 300,000 units, which is around 25-26 days of stock in the industry, he added.

"So far since July of last year, we have seen pending bookings significantly come down and stock in the channel had come down. But not only is it pretty high again, the luxury for OEMs to push wholesale against retail is not there anymore," Srivastava told Mint.

However, inventory addition alone may not be cause for alarm.

According to Jay Kale, senior vice president, Elara Capital, it is normal for passenger vehicle makers to increase dealer inventory in the fourth quarter of the fiscal as they normally bring down production in December. “Hence, wholesale is normally higher than retail in Q4. For two-wheeler makers, after a good festive season dealer inventory had come down to comfortable levels this year and hence there is more scope for adding inventory this year. Also, with the preponement of the marriage season this year, companies want to be well stocked for demand,” Kale said.

Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) continued to drive demand for passenger vehicles and accounted for 51.5% of all passenger vehicle sales in February, with the segment expected to account for just over half of the entire industry's sales in FY24. “We saw that rural growth cumulatively was at 11.7% between April and February, higher than growth in urban sales at 8%,” Maruti's Srivastava said.