New Delhi, Jun 10 (Agency) Due to restrictions by various State Governments retail sales of vehicles registered a 55 per cent month-on-month drop in May 2021, data released on Thursday by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) revealed. According to FADA figures, passenger vehicle sales was down 58.96 per cent from 2,08,883 in Apr to 85,733 in May this year. Similarly, two wheelers registered a de-growth of 52.52 per cent to stand at 4,10,757 in May.
Three wheeler sales was down by 75.90 per cent to 5,215. Commercial vehicle retail sales figure was at 17,534 with a drop by 65.91 per cent. Tractor sales was also down by 56.60 per cent to stand at 16,616. Total 5,35,855 vehicles were sold in May against 11,85,374 in Apr 2021, thus marking a drop of 54,79 per cent. Commenting on sales figures, FADA President, Mr. Vinkesh Gulati said, “The second wave of COVID has left the entire country devastated as there may not be a single household which did not get affected. Apart from urban markets, this time, even rural areas were badly hit. May saw continued lockdown in most of the states.”
Auto Retail fraternity is in dire need of support. While a handful of OEMs (Tata Motors – CV, Renault, Bharat Benz and HMSI) have announced financial help to their channel partners, others are yet to do so. Hence, FADA humbly requests all those OEMs which have still not announced any financial assistance to kindly do it urgently, said FADA in a release. FADA also demanded that instead of restructuring, banks should allow a moratorium of 90 days to all categories of dealers without keeping a turnover limit. “Since the current lockdown has already lasted well over 30-45 days and is still continuing in South India, revenue for most of the Dealers are negligible as there was minimal sales. Due to this, dealers will not be able to repay their loan tranche payment which is getting due,” it said. FADA said that the first nine days of June has seen better than expected retails due to pent up demand which was there in the system when states started implementing lockdown. If the trend continues, the sales may be almost similar to June last year.