Passenger vehicle (PV) sales declined by 19.44 per cent y-o-y in November this year on account of the global semiconductor shortage. The semiconductor shortage is resulting in longer waiting periods. On the other hand, two-wheeler sales went down by 0.75 percent this year while three-wheeler sales logged a rise in November, as per the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) data.
Despite a fall in PV sales, Maruti Suzuki India has emerged as the segment leader in passenger vehicle sales. The automobile behemoth reported sales of over 1 lakh units in November 2021 versus over 1.46 lakh units in November last year. Hyundai Motor followed closely with sales of 37,272 units in the same period and Tata Motors reported sales of 28,841 units.
“PV continues to face the brunt of semi-conductor shortage. While the new launches are keeping customer’s interest high, it is only the lack of supply which is not allowing sales to conclude. The extended waiting period is now starting to make customers jittery and this may lead to loss of interest in vehicle buying,” FADA President Vinkesh Gulati said.
Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motocycle and Scooter India (HMSI), TVS Motor Company, Bajaj Auto and Suzuki Motorcycle India (SMI) are the top players in the two-wheeler market. Hero MotoCorp reported sales of over 5.30 lakh units in November while HMSI reported sales of 3.66 lakh units in the same period. On the EV front, Hero Electric Vehicles (7,021), Okinawa Autotech (5,367) and Piaggio Vehicles (4,199) have reported great sales numbers.
Gulati believes that though the two-wheeler sales figures are at par with last year, customers have decided to stay away from two-wheelers due to incessant rains and floods, high acquisition price and rising fuel costs. He added that there are no signs of this situation improving.
Apart from the two-wheeler segment, Bajaj Auto has also emerged as a key player in the three-wheeler segment. Bajaj Auto logged sales of 14,667 units and had a market share of 36.25 percent in November 2021 while Piaggio Vehicles reported sales of 4,774 units and had a market share of 11.79 percent in the same period.
In total, India purchased 18, 17,600 vehicles in November this year compared to 18, 68,068 last year. Of these, 14, 33,855 were two-wheelers; 40,493 were three-wheelers and 2, 40,234 were passenger vehicles. Total numbers of tractors purchased in this period were 45,629 whereas the commercial vehicles sold stood at 57,389. Of the total number of commercial vehicles purchased, 36,078 were light commercial vehicles, 14,972 were heavy commercial vehicles and 3,647 were medium commercial vehicles.
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