Covid Effect: Passenger Vehicle Sales Down By Nearly 50%

The Covid pandemic has taken the world by storm. The economic effects of the virus have been visible from the early days since a major part of the economic activities had stopped. A similar effect has been seen in the Indian Automobile market with the sales volume plummeting by 49.6% in the month of June. The passenger vehicles sales went from 2,09,522 in the month of June last year to 1,05,617 in June this year as the auto industry has been reeling from the effects of the pandemic and is looking for recovery.

The two-wheeler sales also went down by 36.56% and came down to 10,13,431 in June this year as compared to the 16,49,475 vehicles that were sold in June last year. Scooter sales were down by 47.37% at 2,69,811 units sold against 5,12,626 units sold during the same period. Motorcycle sales also took a hit and saw a decline of 35.19% at 7,02,970 as against 10,84,596 in the same period last year.

A senior from the automobile industry commented that it will take 3-4 years for the industry to recover from the slump and reach 2018 levels. The disruption in the supply chain related to the pandemic also came at a time when the auto industry is dealing with a slowdown. The automakers have also had to increase the price of its vehicles due to the adoption of tougher emission regulations by the govt., which has also driven consumers away.

The spread of the virus and subsequent lockdown across the nation had forced the automakers to report 0 sales in April, making the situation worse for the sector. While Maruti Suzuki’s sales in June went down by 50% against the same month previous year, Hyundai reported a 49% drop in sales for the same tenure.