FADA Releases August’21 Vehicle Retail Data In The Indian Market

* Total vehicle retails for the month of August’21 rises by 14.48% on YoY basis. When compared to August’19 (a regular pre-covid month), retails are still down by -14.75%.

* On YoY basis, all categories were in green with 2W up by 6.66%, 3W up by 79.70%, PV up by 38.71%, Tractor up by 5.50% and CV up by 97.94%.

* Both Tractors as well as PVs continues to see robust demand as they grow by 35.98% and 31.67% when compared to August’19, a pre-covid month.

* FADA first raised demand supply mismatch in Jan’21 due to shortage of semi-conductors in few brands. This has now become a full-blown crisis with no light in sight.

* FADA warns of a lacklustre festive season specially for PV Dealers as inventory level continues to dip due to non-availability of the fast-moving variants.

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) today released Vehicle Retail Data for August’21.

Commenting on how August’21 performed, FADA President, Mr. Vinkesh Gulati said, “Auto Dealers are facing the most challenging phase of their business career as Covid-19 after-effect continues to play spoil-sport. While until last year, when demand was a challenge, supply is becoming a bigger problem currently due to shortage of semi-conductors, even though there is high demand for passenger vehicles.

Every dealer by now starts planning for a bigger offtake in anticipation of a bumper festive but due to supply issues, inventory levels are at lowest levels during this Financial Year.

The 2W market is highly price sensitive. With multiple price hikes, increased fuel cost coupled with Educational Institutions remaining closed, the impact could be felt on the overall segment. Customers continued to fight financial battle due to Covid related health issues and hence remained away from dealerships resulting in low enquiry and lower sales. This has its impact on the entry level segment which continues to face the biggest brunt.

CV segment continues to witness some recovery coming back majorly due to low base of last year. While SCV’s had already shown good recovery due to intra city goods movement, M&HCVs are picking up pace only in specific geographies where the Government is rolling out infrastructure projects. Acquisition cost post BS-6 implementation along with financers keeping away from the segment and high fuel cost continues to restrict recovery in CV demand.”

Near Term Outlook

With OEMs drastically cutting down productions due to unavailability of semi-conductors & ABS chips, shortage of containers and high metal prices, customers for the first time may not get a vehicle of their choice and lucrative schemes during this festive season. Ultra-frequent price increase is also keeping entry level buyers at bay.

Customers especially at the bottom of the pyramid are shifting their priority from saving instead of spending. This will hence keep demand for 2-wheelers a concern. Though, with Educational Institutions slowly opening up, a ray of hope can be seen for an improved demand in 2-Wheeler category in coming months.

FADA thus sees that the near term outlook will continue to remain a mixed bag with PVs witnessing demand-supply mis-match and 2W facing a demand crunch.

Inventory at the end of July’21

Average inventory for Passenger Vehicles ranges from 25-30 days

Average inventory for Two – Wheelers ranges from 20-25 days

Liquidity

40.6% Dealers rated it as neutral

37.8% Dealers rated it as good

21.7% Dealers rated it as bad

Upcoming Festive Season

44.9% Dealers rated it as Good

40.4% Dealers rated it as Neutral

14.6% Dealers rated it as Bad