Passenger Vehicles sales slip by 8% in February: Automobile dealers

Automobile dealers’ body FADA Wednesday said retail sales of passenger vehicles (PV) in February declined by 8.25 per cent to 2,15,276 units as compared to the same period last year, hit by lower offtake by end customers. According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), PV sales stood at 2,34,632 units in February 2018.

Two-wheeler sales declined by 7.97 per cent to 11,25,405 units last month as compared with 12,22,883 units in year-ago period.

“After a month of spike in PV sales in January which was largely due to year-end stock clearance getting extended and 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 month for auto retail during this financial year,” FADA President Ashish Harsharaj Kale said in a statement.

Domestic auto sales are experiencing a prolonged slowdown as it is already been six months of downturn with no positive triggers visible in near term, he added.

“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,” Kale said.

Auto dealers across the country are in a high stock situation across all categories and inventory levels of passenger and commercial vehicles, which had seen partial correction in the past two months, are now back to the unsustainable levels seen in November 2018, he added.

Total automobile sales during February declined by 8.06 per cent to 14,52,078 units as compared with 15,79,349 units in February 2018.