During pandemic, car sales zoomed in Bihar

Mercedes, Toyoya, Skoda, Volkswagen were the top sellers

Economists are baffled to find the residents from Bihar going for high-end luxury cars during the Covid-19 time when India faced severe economic slowdown as a result of lockdown.

According to a report of the state transport department, as many as 894 highly expensive cars such as Land Rover, Mercedes, BMW and Toyota Fortuner were sold in Bihar in between April 2020 till date when the pandemic left the economy in a bad shape.

Of the total vehicles sold, 21 are Mercedes, nine each Jaguar Land Rover and BMW, seven Volvo automatic, 200 Toyota Fortuner, 291 Toyota Innova Crysta and 157 Safari. Besides these, a good number of Jeep Compass, Skoda and Volkswagen were also sold.

What was interesting was that the sale price of such cars remained higher than the nonCovid-19 period. Official statistics reveal against 296 expensive cars (in the price range of Rs2 million and more) sold in 2019-20, a total of 590 such cars were sold in 2020-21 and 304 in 2021-22 till Sept 11.

Economists stunned

“We are literally stunned to find sudden increase in the sale of such expensive cars beyond reach of the common man during the Covid-19 period when monthlong nationwide lockdown slowed down the Indian economy and left millions jobless. So, who are buying these luxury cars during this critical time?” asked prominent economist Professor D M Diwakar from Patna’s AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies. He added that black money could have been invested to buy such cars.