The enforced lockdown caused by the Corona virus has had a bad impact on the sale of passenger vehicles. According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers’ Associations (FADA), an association of vehicle dealers, retail sales of passenger vehicles declined 86.97 percent to 30,749 units in May. It was 2,35,933 units in May 2019. FADA collects vehicle registration data from 1,225 regional transport offices (RTOs) out of 1,435.
Two-wheeler sales fell 88.8 percent
According to the data, two-wheeler sales in May declined by 88.8 percent to 1,59,039 units from 14,19,842 units in the same month a year ago. Similarly, sales of commercial vehicles declined by 96.63 percent to a mere 2,711 units from 80,392 units in May 2019. Three-wheeler sales also fell 96.34 percent to 1,881 units from 51,430 units in the same month a year ago. Total vehicle sales in May fell by 88.87 per cent to 2,02,697 units in May from 18,21,650 units in May 2019.
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“At the end of May, about 60 per cent of the 26,500 outlets had showrooms and 80 per cent of the workshops were in operation,” said Ashish Harshraj Kale, president of FADA. The May registration figures do not reflect the exact state of demand, as lockdowns continued in many parts of the country during this period. He said that despite the opening of several dealerships in the first ten days of June, the demand is quite low.