Highlight
- Auto industry expects sales of cars this festive season
- Its hopes are pinned on new launches, better production in the festive season
- PV sector has sold 12.53 lakh units this year as compared to 9.41 lakh units last year
The auto industry expects car sales to pick up this festive season on the back of new launches and improved production, but is cautiously optimistic on the road ahead once the festivities are over.
“We expect the festive season this year to be one of the best in terms of sales of passenger vehicles on the back of new launches and better production activity. The industry has been producing an average of over 3 lakh units in the last 4-5 months, which is the highest in retail. is helping,” Vinkesh Gulati, president of the automobile dealer’s body, told PTI in an interaction. He listed an uncertain monsoon in some parts of the country, inflationary pressures and the imminent threat of a Sino-Taiwan war as some of the challenges in the days ahead.
FADA represents over 15,000 automobile dealers across the country. Hardeep Singh Brar, Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing, Kia India said that supply chain issues are now showing signs of easing, and the market sentiment remains bullish. “We are hopeful that a good festive season is ahead of us in terms of sales.
Shailesh Chandra, President, Passenger Vehicles and Electric Vehicles, Tata Motors said that the company does not see any concern about customer demand till the end of the festive season. In an analyst call, he said the automaker expects improved vehicle supply in the second quarter with better semiconductor availability. “The challenges we see ahead are that higher inflation and interest rates could start to impact auto demand, while there is no tension in the second quarter,” he said.
As far as Tata Motors is concerned, the company is focused on demand generation activities, Chandra said. Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Director (Marketing and Sales), Maruti Suzuki India said that at present the demand is stable. “We have to look for retail, currently we are concluding on the basis of wholesale and pending bookings… retail sales have been lower than wholesale sales for the past few months… we also need to see how the economy is overall and how inflation and interest rates play out,” he said.
Due to these factors a change in customer sentiment can be seen, he added. Elaborating on the overall performance of the industry, he said that in the April-July period of this financial year, the passenger vehicle industry has witnessed a growth of 33 per cent over the same period of the previous financial year.
Srivastava said that the PV sector has sold 12.53 lakh units this year as compared to 9.41 lakh units last year. He said the stock of the industry was around 1.20 units in the beginning of April which has now increased to around 2.12 lakh units as wholesale has exceeded retail. He said, “So we need to be careful going forward how it looks in the future market scenario. At the moment, due to high pending payments, whatever is being produced is being pushed into the market. “
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