NEW DELHI: At 1.75 crore units, automobile sales in FY 2021-2022 is the lowest in 10 years, reveals Siam data. The last time the industry had reported sales lower than this was in FY12 as the figure in FY13 stood at 1.78 crore units.
Compared to FY 2018-19 sales, the peak year for the automobile industry, sales in FY22 were down by a whopping 87 lakh units. In FY2018-19, the industry had reported sales of 2.62 crore units.
While sales of all four segments of the auto industry in FY22 are below even FY 2018-19 level, the biggest culprit for this abysmal performance is attributed to poor demand for two-wheelers. Two-wheeler sales in FY22 stood at 1.34 crores, which also is the lowest in 10 years.
Hit hard by the slowdown in rural demand amid poor performance of the agrarian economy, the rising cost of ownership and rising petrol prices, two-wheeler sales are showing no signs of improvement for the past few years. Since electric vehicles are fast becoming popular, it is unlikely that sales of petrol-run two-wheelers will reach their glory years.
Kenichi Ayukawa, President, SIAM said, “The year gone by was full of unforeseen challenges and new learning for the industry.” He added, “Despite some recovery from a low base, sales of all four segments of the auto industry are below even 2018-19 level.
While some segments like Commercial Vehicles and SUVs are seeing improvement in demand, the mass segments like two-wheelers and smaller cars are facing serious affordability issues. Of course, our immediate challenge in most segments is semiconductor availability.”
Hit by global shortage of semiconductors, passenger vehicle sales in FY2022 rose by 13% over a low base of covid-hit FY2021 to 30.70 lalk units. In FY 2018-19, PV sales stood at 33.77 lakh units. Similarly, three-wheeler sales jumped to 2.61 lakh units last fiscal from 2.19 lakh units in FY21 while commercial vehicle sales increased to 7.16 lakh units from 5.68 lakh units in FY21. On an annual basis, overall auto sales in FY2022 dropped 6.3%.