According to the automobile dealers’ group FADA, retail sales of cars increased 8.31% in India in August of this year as more vehicles were registered in all key sectors). Total retail vehicle sales last month were 15,21,490 units, up from 14,04,704 units in August 2021.
Passenger vehicle (PV) retail sales increased by 6.51% to 274,448 units from 257,672 units the previous year. Two-wheeler (2W) retail sales increased by 8.52% to 1,074,266 units in August 2022, up from 989,969 units in the same month last year.
The three-wheeler (3W) segment experienced the largest growth rate last month, increasing by 83.14% to 56,313 units, up from 30,748 units in the same month a year ago. Commercial vehicles (CV) also increased by 24.12% to 67,158 units, up from 54,107 units in the previous year.
FADA President Manish Raj Singhania said August retail sales were not encouraging and not as per expectations of dealers, who anticipated a good start to the festive season with Ganesh Chaturthi.
“When compared with August 2019, a pre-COVID month, total vehicle retails fell by 7 per cent. While PV outperformed handsomely by growing 41 per cent, CV also turned positive by growing 6 per cent and thus came out of the COVID blues. All the other segments were in the red with 2W, 3W and tractors falling by 16 per cent, 1 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively,” he added.
Singhania said although the 2W segment grew 8.5 per cent last month on a year-on-year basis, “it continues to face COVID blues due to underperformance of Bharat (rural India) and is still not above 2019 levels”.
“This coupled with price hikes has made the 2W product out of reach for most entry-level customers. With erratic monsoon, the crop realisation has been low and flood-like situation has restricted customer movement,” he said.
