While two wheeler and passenger car sales have been witnessing steady increase in the past few months owing to pent up demand and festive season rush, commercial vehicle segment continues to find itself in the red this October.
Difference in the fortune clearly indicates that businesses are still feeling the impact of the ongoing pandemic while people are willing to invest in private mode of transport in a bid to practice social distancing.
Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) has release retail sales figure for the commercial vehicle sector which aims to paint a clearer picture of the actual market condition compared to the wholesale figures. The retail sales figures are based on the registration data collated by FADA in association with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
However, it is to be noted that the data is from 1,257 of 1,464 RTOs across the country as the ones in Andra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Lakshadweep and Telangana are not yet on the Vahan 4 system.
Last month, Tata Motors topped the CV retail sales chart with 15,316 units registered. This represents a market share of 34.43% and a YoY decline of 41.3%. The second placed Mahindra fared better with a YoY decline of 14.18% at 14,982 units sold in October 2020. Ashok Leyland which has a strong hold in South Indian territories finished last month with a tally of 5,259 units, a huge decline of 45.50%.
Maruti with its Eeco Cargo and Super Carry managed to capture 4th spot in the CV market with sales of 2,286 units which is only 0.22% lower than the October 2019 figure. VECV (Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles) is the only other player to have its October sales figures in four digits. The company clocked retail sales of 2,176 units at a YoY decline of 30.9%.
| No | CV Retail Sales | Oct-20 | Oct-19 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tata | 15,316 | 26,090 |
| 2 | Mahindra | 14,982 | 17,457 |
| 3 | Ashok Leyland | 5,259 | 9,649 |
| 4 | Maruti | 2,286 | 2,291 |
| 5 | VECV | 2,176 | 3,153 |
| 6 | Daimler | 847 | 977 |
| 7 | Force | 439 | 827 |
| 8 | Isuzu | 346 | 541 |
| 9 | Others | 2,829 | 2,852 |
| – | Total | 44,480 | 63,837 |
Daimler, Force and Isuzu managed to sell 847, 439 and 346 units in October 2020 respectively, all in the red when it comes to Year-on-year growth rate.
If we see the month-on-month growth trend, most OEMs post positive CV retail sales growth in October 2020 with Maruti and Force Motors being the only exceptions. While this indicates that things are finally starting to move in the right direction, industry experts remain cautious about a sustained momentum.
We will have a better and clearer picture of where the Indian automotive industry is headed by looking at the sales figures of Q1 2021. Some fear that the ongoing demand increase will subside soon after the festive period.