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The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) has found that in February, two-wheeler sales went down 8 per cent year-on-year.
FADA, which released its monthly vehicle registration data on Wednesday, said that two-wheeler sales were down at 11,25,405 units in February as compared with 12,22,883 units in the same month last year. The passenger vehicle (PV) sales also declined by more than 8 per cent year-on-year to 2,15,276 units during the month, as against 2,34,632 units in February last year, industry body said.
“After a month of spike in PV sales in January, which was largely due to year-end stock clearance getting extended and a few new launches which generated some excitement, the industry is once again witnessing downward trend, as February turned out to be one of the slowest months for auto retails during this financial year,” Ashish Harsharaj Kale, President, FADA, said.
Indian auto sales are experiencing a prolonged slowdown, as it hass already seen six months of low sales and growth reversal, and positive triggers in the near term appear a few, he said. “Starting with the huge hike in insurance costs in September, we have seen a lot of negative factors come together in the past few months, leading to major postponement in purchase decisions and overall weakening of consumer sentiment,” he said.
Inventory levels
The commercial vehicle (CV) segment also declined by 7 per cent to 61,134 units in February, as compared to 65,789 units in the corresponding month last year.
The total sales across categories also declined by 8 per cent to 14,52,078 units during last month as compared with 15,79,349 units in the same month last year.
FADA said auto dealers across the length and breadth of the country are in a high stock situation across all categories, and inventory levels of PVs and CVs are now back to the unsustainable levels seen in November 2018.
“Given the current environment, FADA urges our manufacturers to take a realistic stock of the current retail situation, and recalibrate their production to regulate dealer invoicing in these two months to facilitate return to stock normalcy for dealerships to maintain a sustainable business environment till the industry again hits the high growth trajectory,” Kale added.
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