The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) released Vehicle Retail Data for October’22 and 42 days festive period.
Commenting on how October’22 and Festive Period performed, FADA President, Mr. Manish Raj Singhania said, “Auto Retail for the month of October’22 saw an overall growth of 48%. With most of the month under the festive period, the sentiments were extremely positive across all categories of Dealership outlets.
Even when compared to the pre-covid month of 2019, overall retails for the first time closed in green by growing 8%. Except for 3W, which saw a marginal dip of -0.6% all the other categories like 2W, PV, Trac, and CV grew by 6%, 18%, 47%, and 13% respectively.
Festive’22 brings cheers to the Auto Industry as for the first time customers of every category came out in good numbers and took part in festive purchases thus making it the best in the last 4 years. As anticipated earlier, the PV segment saw the best year in a decade by outgrowing 2020 numbers by 2%. When compared to the pre-covid festive of 2019, overall retails were up by 6%. All the categories were in green with 2W, 3W, CV, PV, and Trac growing by 2%, 2%, 14%, 18%, and 55% respectively.
The 2W segment showed a huge growth of 51% YoY and for the first time, 6% compared to Oct’19, a pre-covid year. With both Navratri and Deepawali majorly falling in a single month, the month of October saw double footfall at Dealerships. Dealers say that sentiments have also started improving at the rural level but the same needs to sustain for at least the next 3-4 months. Apart from this, new launches and good customer schemes also played a pivotal role in helping revive demand.
The 3W segment showed a massive growth of 66% YoY but was marginally below the red line in 2019 by de-growing -0.6%. The sub-category figures clearly show that a shift is happening toward EV adoption while ICE vehicles are no more favorites. In a few pockets due to permit issues, new vehicle sales have taken a hit during the month.
The PV segment showed a growth of 41% YoY and 18% when compared to 2019. PV segment continues to see extremely high demand, especially in SUV and Compact SUV segments including higher variants in most of the product categories. With better vehicle availability coupled with new launches, the segment also witnessed the best Festive Period in a decade by surpassing 2020 festival sales by 2%.
The CV segment continues to come back on track by growing 25% YoY and 13% compared to 2019. Festivities ignited better fleet sales. With Mining and Infrastructure projects increasing in various regions, demand has been keeping well and is also coming back on track.”
With festivities ending, the immediate next month generally witnesses a certain amount of softness in sales. While farmers will start receiving their crop realizations, the overall sentiment continues to show some headwinds, especially in the 2W rural segment. For auto retails to show strength, the 2W segment will have to grow for at least 3-4 months over pre-covid months to come out of the woods.
The CV segment is anticipated to see continued demand due to rising infra projects and government spending. While the PV segment continues to outperform, demand in the entry-level segment continues to show some softness.
Most of the OEMs will now start migrating towards manufacturing OBD-2 norms vehicles. This will definitely see a steep price increase across all categories of vehicles as and when they hit the market. Also with year-end coming close, many customers wait for vehicles manufactured in the new year.