This is one of the highest ever sales decline reported by the car industry in India

Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in unprecedented side affects across the globe. While clearly the outbreak of this virus is a serious health hazard, it seems like it is all set to put many industries on ventilators very soon. Due to the outbreak, many industries like hospitality/aviation etc, have been hit directly and other sectors like automotive are also facing heat.

Indian auto industry was anyways going through troubled times due to change in emission regulations and an overall weak economic growth. However, thanks to the current 21-day lockdown, sales for all OEMs have fallen by historical margins. Lockdowns at factory, constrained supply chains, overall restrictions on movements of non-essential goods, all have played their part in the worst March closing for all OEMs. While looking at sales figures, it is to be noted that these numbers represent total number of cars shipped by OEMs to their dealer partners and not to end-customers.

Maruti Suzuki March 2020 Sales

Talking about country’s largest car manufacturer, Maruti managed to sell just 76,240 units in March’20. It clearly is a historical low as usually the figure of monthly sales for Maruti comfortably stays above the 1-lakh units mark. However, interestingly, even though Maruti reported a degrowth of 47% on a Year on Year basis, its market share went up by 3.9%. Usually, Maruti has over 5-7 vehicles which attain monthly sales of over 10K units, however in March’20, only two of its products, Baleno and Alto managed to reach sales numbers of 10K+.

Hyundai India March 2020 Sales

Country’s second largest OEM, Hyundai too had a disastrous March. In an ideal world, it would have been readying its plan to launch the next generation i20 in the country, however considering the ongoing situation, the launch might get delayed by some months. Talking about sales figures, Hyundai reported a degrowth of 41%, when compared with its sales from March’19.  It sold just 26,300 vehicles in March’20, while it has a monthly average of around 40-45K units. Just like Maruti, it too got an opportunity to increase its market share by 3.3%, majorly due to an extremely poor performance by other OEMs.

Kia Motors India March 2020 Sales

In the last few months, sales of Kia Motors was the only shining spot in sales of OEMs across India. While there is no base data available for Kia from March’19, we can confidently say that March’20 has been difficult for the South Korean automaker too. While it has managed to claim third largest OEM spot for second month consecutively, it too has suffered with lower sales, compared to its last 3 months average. In March’20, Kia reported sales of 8,583 units out of which 7,466 belonged to Seltos, and rest to Carnival. Still, it is a commendable feat for such a young brand in the country.

Toyota India March 2020 Sales

Toyota has found itself at a relatively unusual position as fourth largest OEM in the country. It sold 7,023 units in March’20, compared to 12,818 units in March’19. Toyota saw its overall sales decline by 45% however it managed to increase its market share by .6%, from 4.4% to 5%. Interestingly, Toyota has now discontinued Etios twins and Corolla in India. While removal of Etios twins is easy to comprehend, there will still be many potential customers missing out on Corolla.

Tata Motors March 2020 Sales

Tata Motors registered a sales decline by 68% in March 20. This is despite company’s constructive attempts to refresh its entire portfolio and some additional product launches too. It lost its market share by 2.1%, when compared to its position in the market from last year.

Honda Cars India March 2020 Sales

Honda too saw its sales decline sharply from 17K+ units in March’19 to just 3,697 units in March’20. It also saw its market share getting eroded by 3.3%, from 6% to just 2.6% in March’20. Honda had planned to launch new-gen City around this time which would have certainly helped it with some solid launch dispatch numbers. The launch got delayed due to Covid-19 outbreak and it is unclear as in by when Honda plans to launch next-gen Honda City. Without upcoming City, it will be difficult for Honda to claim its market share back, in a market which has been moving towards SUVs since last few years.

Mahindra March 2020 Sales

What comes out as a surprise is finding Mahindra on 8^th spot as far as OEM-wise sales are concerned. Up until recently, Mahindra was usually found on 3^rd spot consistently. However, it clearly is one of the worst hit OEM, registering its sales decline by a whooping 88%. Its market share too slipped from a commendable 9.6% in March’19 to a meager 2.4%. The high base of last year can be partially attributed to the launch-dispatch numbers of XUV300, which was a new product last year.

Ford, Renault, MG – March 2020 Sales

Ford too reported a degrowth of 56%  in its sales when compared to its sales numbers from last year. However, its decline in market share is just limited to .4%. Renault too saw its sales falling to almost half, slipping from 7,127 units to 3,269 units in March’20. MG, other new entrant in the Indian market had been struggling with supply related issues due to lockdown in China. In March’20, it faced double whammy of lockdowns across the globe. However, it still managed to sell 1,518 units last month.

Nissan, Skoda, Jeep, VW – March 2020 Sales

OEMs like Nissan, Skoda, FCA and Volkswagen saw their sales decline to 3-digit numbers. Such sales numbers will make the entire business proposition financially unsustainable and many dealers and ancillary companies may go bust if there is no relief planned in the immediate future.

Car Sales March 2020

No	Brand	Mar-20	Mar-19	Diff	%
1	Maruti	76,240	1,45,031	-68,791	-47.43
2	Hyundai	26,300	44,350	-18,050	-40.70
3	Kia	8,583	–	–	–
4	Toyota	7,023	12,818	-5,795	-45.21
5	Tata	5,676	17,810	-12,134	-68.13
6	Honda	3,697	17,202	-13,505	-78.51
7	Ford	3,510	8,271	-4,761	-57.56
8	Mahindra	3,383	27,637	-24,354	-87.76
9	Renault	3,269	7,127	-3,858	-54.13
10	MG	1,518	–	–	–
11	Nissan	826	2,902	-2,076	-71.54
12	Skoda	451	1,401	-950	-67.81
13	Jeep	163	1,521	-1,358	-89.28
14	VW	131	2,751	-2,620	-95.24
–	Total	1,37,390	2,88,821	-1,51,431	-52.43