Oct retail auto sales fall on supply shortage, cost pressures

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SME Times News Bureau | 18 Nov, 2021
Semiconductor supply shortages as well as inflationary pressures dampened India's overall vehicle retail sales on a year-on-year basis, in October 2021.

Accordingly, the data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) showed a fall of 5.33 per cent during the month under review from October 2020.

The vehicle retail sales fell to 13,64,526 units last month from 14,41,299 units sold during the corresponding month of 2020.

However, on a sequential basis, the overall vehicle retail sales for last month was higher than 12,96,257 units sold in September 2021.

Similarly, last month's overall retail sales figure, when compared to the October 2019 (pre-pandemic) period, showed a decline of 26.64 per cent.

In October 2019, the overall vehicle retail sales stood at 18,60,098 units.

Notably, the 42-days festive period during 2021 saw retail sales falling by 1 8.21 per cent to 20,90,893 from the corresponding period of last year.

On YoY basis, passenger vehicle (PV) retail sales fell 11.38 per cent during the month under review from the level of October 2020.

The PV retail sales declined to 228,431 units last month from 257,756 units sold during during the corresponding month of last year.

However, two-wheeler registration declined by 6.07 per cent to 9,96,024 units.

Similarly, tractor retail sales fell by 20.78 per cent to 44,262 units.

"We have witnessed the worst festive season in last decade. Semi-conductor shortage which was already a full blown crises showed its true colours when in spite of an above healthy demand, we could not cater to customers' need as SUV, Compact-SUV and luxury categories witnessed huge shortage of vehicles," said FADA President Vinkesh Gulati.

"On the other hand, entry level cars saw subdued demand as customers in this category continued to conserve money due to their families healthcare needs. The 2W category continues to face the brunt of low sales with entry level category being the biggest spoilsport. The rural distress in retails coupled with frequent price hikes, triple digit fuel prices and customers conserving funds for healthcare emergencies kept the demand low."