Dealers’ body says M&M is leader in CV market, Tata Motors disagrees

Tata Motors has questioned the latest numbers released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) that showed it trailing Mahindra & Mahindra in the commercial vehicle segment.

According to the data collected by FADA based on vehicle registrations by various auto dealers, Mahindra & Mahindra’s market share in the commercial vehicle category has skyrocketed to 40 per cent in August 2020 from 23.5 per cent last year even as Tata Motors’ share has shrunk to 26 per cent from 42 per cent in the same period.

While Tata Motors claims that this market share data have limitations in reflecting actual sales, as all vehicle dealers are not members of FADA, Mahindra & Mahindra says it has outperformed the industry due to its well-thought strategy.

FADA is the apex national body of automobile retail. It is only for the second time — after July 2020 — that FADA is releasing vehicle registration-based OEM market shares.

On market share

Asked about the declining market share, a spokesperson for Tata Motors told BusinessLine that the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the apex body of all OEMs, publishes accurate data on market shares every quarter after collating authentic sales numbers for each quarter directly from all OEMs.

“The market share data, as published by FADA (that you refer to), have limitations on comprehensiveness and reflecting actual sales, as all vehicle dealers are not members of FADA and hence do not share their sales numbers with it. In August 2020, Tata Motors recorded total CV sales of 17,889 vehicles.”

Vinkesh Gulati, President, FADA, said that its data is not restricted to its members. “FADA’s data is based on Vahan. SIAM figures are actually stock transfer from OEM to dealers. and not actual customer sales market share.” he said.

Veejay Nakra, CEO – Automotive Division, M&M Ltd, told BusinessLine: “Despite challenging times, we have been witnessing good traction in the small and light commercial vehicles. This is driven by the need for movement of essential goods and commodities, e-commerce demand and SME materials movement.”

Awaiting SIAM numbers

SIAM did not release numbers of CVs for July and has so far not released August wholesale numbers either. According to data released by Tata Motors, it sold a total of 17,889 CVs (including exports) in August 2020, as against the 24,850 CVs (including exports) in August 2019. If only domestic sales are considered, Tata Motors sold 16,837 CVs in August 2020, as against 21,824 CVs in August 2019. But these are sales done to dealers. By the same yardstick M&M sold 15,299 CVs (excluding exports) in August 2020, as against 14684 CVs in August 2019.

FADA, on the other hand, reports market share numbers based on actual vehicle registration. This has shifted market share calculation from wholesale to actual retail sales.