Vehicle sales up 27% in June, still away from pre-Covid levels: FADA

However, the overall automobile retail sales declined 8.68% compared with the corresponding month in June 2019, indicating that the broad-based recovery has yet to kick in

Registration of automobiles across categories rose 27 per cent year-on-year in June as improved availability of semiconductors enabled automakers to increase output and dispatch more vehicles to dealers, said the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) on Tuesday. But when compared with June 2019, the overall retail sales declined 8.68 per cent. A similar declining trend was seen when the June quarter of FY23 is juxtaposed with the corresponding quarter of FY19.

Overall, retail sales in the three months to June contracted by 8.13 per cent when compared with the corresponding period in FY19, shows the data released by the dealer body.

The trend reveals that a broad-based recovery — encompassing all segments -- continues to elude the world’s fifth-largest auto market.

Whichever way one sees it, the continuing pain in the two-wheeler segment is evident. Hit primarily by the rising cost of ownership and also prices, the sales in the segment slipped 13.6 per cent when compared with Q1FY19, indicating that two-wheelers still have some distance to cover to reach the pre-pandemic levels. Three-wheelers, too, crimped 12.8 per cent in the same period.

Meanwhile, retail sales of passenger vehicles, tractors, and heavy commercial vehicles in Q1FY23 offered some relief. The three have zipped past pre-pandemic sales and are on a strong growth path.

While passenger vehicle sales grew 17 per cent to 7.9 million units over the Q1FY19 figure, tractors advanced 34.72 per cent to 158,169 units and heavy commercial vehicle sales increased 17.05 per cent to 66,836 units.

“The commercial vehicle (CV) segment showed strength for the first time (in June) as it grew by 4 per cent over June 2019, a pre-Covid month. The Bus segment, along with LCVs, is showing good traction,” Vinkesh Gulati, president, FADA said in the statement.

Two-wheeler sales -- which advanced 20 per cent YoY in June over last year’s low base -- continue to suffer due to poor market sentiment, especially in rural India, high cost of ownership, ad inflationary pressure, said Gulati. Three-wheelers have seen the volumes contract owing to a rapid shift to electric. Apart from this, permit issues and frequent price increases remained the biggest dampeners.

The PV segment continued to see robust growth in June. An increase in wholesale sales clearly shows that semiconductor availability is now getting easier. Waiting periods, especially in the compact SUV and SUV segment,  remain high. New vehicle launches are seeing robust booking, reflecting a healthy demand pipeline, the FADA said.

Average inventory for passenger vehicles ranged from 15-20 days at the end of June and for two-wheelers, it stood 20-23 days.