NEW DELHI: Vehicle registration, which also highlights retail auto sales, fell over 16% year-on-year (YoY) in December 2021 to 15.59 lakh as against 18.79 lakh in December 2020, as per data shared by Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA).
While passenger vehicle retail sales fell 11% last month to 2.45 lakh units, two-wheeler sales, effected by bad rural sentiment and rising ownership cost, fell nearly 20% in December to 11.49 lakh units.
FADA President Vinkesh Gulati said, “The month of December is usually seen as a high sales month where OEMs continue to offer best discounts to clear the inventory due to change of year. It was however not the case this time around as retail sales continued to disappoint, thus wrapping up an underperforming calendar year.”
He added that with semi-conductor shortage continuing to play spoil sport, PV sales in spite of huge bookings in December closed in red.
On two-wheeler sales, Gulati, said, “The 2W segment however was on a different trajectory when compared to PV. High cost of ownership, bad rural sentiment, work from home and the latest threat of omicron continued to impact sales.”
On near term outlook, Fada said that various state governments have once again announced Covid restrictions.
“Work and education from home have resumed and will have a negative effect for auto retail. With the fear of healthcare expenses rising again, the customers are shying away from closing their purchase decisions,” it added.
India on Wednesday reported 58,097 coronavirus cases, the highest in around 199 days. A total of 2,135 Omicron cases have been detected so far.
