FADA has released the industry sales number for November 2022 reporting highest ever sales for the auto industry in a month except for March 2020. Cumulative auto industry sales stood at 23,80,465 units, a growth of 25.71 per cent over 18,93,647 units sold in the same month last year. Cumulative sales however were up by a marginal 1.52 per cent over pre-covid November 2019. March 2020 was considered an exception as automakers had looked to clear stocks of BS4 vehicles as the country switched to BS6 in April.
Commenting on how November’22 performed, FADA President, Mr. Manish Raj Singhania said, “November 2022 has clocked highest retails in the history of Indian Automobile Industry with March’20 as an exception when retails were higher due to BS-4 to BS-6 transition. Auto Retail in November’22 saw an overall growth of 26%. The baton was passed by the positive run of festive sales to the Great Indian Wedding Season (from 14th November to 14th December) where around 32 lakh weddings will be solemnised across the country. All categories were in green with 2W, 3W, PV, Tractor and CV growing by 24%, 80%, 21%, 57% and 33% respectively.”
Two-wheeler sales stood at 18,47,708 units for November 2022 – up 23.61 per cent year on year. However, compared to pre-covid 2019, sales were marginally down by 0.86 per cent (18,63,731 units sold in Nov 2019). In terms of manufacturers, Hero MotoCorp continued to lead the charge with 6,36,064 units retailed followed by Honda and TVS with 4,62,163 units and 2,70,551 units respectively. Bajaj and Suzuki rounded out the top five manufacturers in terms of sales.
“The 2W segment showed a huge growth of 24% YoY but fell marginally by 0.9%, when compared to Nov’19, a pre-covid year. This segment is slowly turning the tides from negative to positive as the same can be witnessed from retail sales due to the ongoing wedding season,” Singhania said.
With 3,00,922 units retailed in the month, Passenger Vehicle sales were up 21.31 per cent over November 2021 and up 5.12 per cent over pre-covid 2019. Interestingly numbers were marginally down (by 1.78 per cent) over November 2020 (3,06,385 units sold). Focusing on the manufacturers, Maruti Suzuki remained firmly in the number one position with 1,23,409 units retailed followed by Hyundai with 44,859 units and Tata with 40,723 units sold. Mahindra and Kia rounded out the top five.
“The PV segment showed a growth of 21% YoY and 5% when compared to 2019. Better availability of model mixes from past months, new launches and increase in rural demand continues to keep the segment in healthy condition. Compact SUV and SUV category coupled with higher variant models continues to rule to roost,” Singhania added.
In the three-wheeler segments, total retails stood at 74,4732 units a growth of 80.34 per cent over year-ago numbers of 41,296 units. Sales were more-or-less flat as compared to pre-covid November 2019 (71,833 units) however with a slim growth of 3.68 per cent. Demand for electric three-wheelers continued to remain strong in the month and while internal combustion model sales too posted growth over November 2021, numbers were down from pre-covid 2019.
Commercial Vehicles too followed the growth trend as with the remainder of the segments. With 79,369 units sold in the month, the segment posted a 32.80 per cent growth over November 2021 and a 6.37 per cent growth over the same month in 2019. Key growth drivers for CV sales remained the government’s push for infrastructure development along with increased inter-city and inter-state passenger movement.
Tractor sales for the month stood at a healthy 77,993 units, posting a growth of 56.81 per cent year on year (as against 49,737 units in Nov 2021). Numbers were up an even stronger 61.34 per cent over pre-pandemic Nov 2019.
FADA said that as per the Reserve Bank of India’s Consumer Confidence Data, buoyancy among customers which was in part helping bring buyers to showrooms. Other factors included the ongoing festive and wedding season. The dealer body said that demand in some segments could further grow with the roll in of the harvest season as farmers received money in hand during this period.
The body though cautioned that sales in the two-wheeler and entry passenger vehicles segments could be affected by the hikes in the repo rate by the RBI. FADA also cautioned that semi-conductor shortages could again play a part in slowing down industry sales with China again seeing phases of covid-related lockdowns.
