Covid-19 hits passenger vehicle exports; shipments tumble 39% in FY21

Passenger vehicle exports from India declined by 39 per cent in the last fiscal as disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic put brakes on the overseas shipments.

Most of the damage was done in the first six months of the last fiscal when pandemic-led lockdowns and other logistics, supply chain issues impacted the export of vehicles. Industry tried its best to catch up in the second half of the fiscal when things became relatively better but could not match up to the FY20 performance.

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According to the SIAM data, passenger vehicle (PV) exports declined by 38.92 per cent in 2020-21 to 4,04,400 units from 6,62,118 vehicles in 2019-20. Passenger car dispatches declined by 44.32 per cent to 2,64,927 units last fiscal compared to 4,75,801 units in FY20.

Similarly, utility vehicle exports witnessed a 24.88 per cent decline last fiscal compared to 1,83,468 units in 2019-20. Overseas shipments of vans saw a steep 42.16 per cent fall during the last fiscal to 1,648 units from 2,849 units in 2019-20.

"While the exports of passenger vehicles had dropped by a whopping 58 per cent in the first half of FY21 due to the pandemic and resultant lockdowns, marginal improvement due to multitude of efforts by the OEMs in the second half of FY21 led to the year closing with an overall decline in exports of passenger vehicles by 39 per cent," SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon told PTI.

Most of the major PV exporters saw a significant drop in their overseas shipments in the last fiscal. The country's leading exporter Hyundai Motor India shipped 1,04,342 units in 2020-21 fiscal, down 38.57 per cent compared to the previous fiscal.

Maruti Suzuki India exported 94,938 units, down 5.34 per cent from the year-ago period. Ford India shipped 46,064 units to overseas markets during the period under review, down 64.96 per cent from FY20.

Nissan Motor India exported 32,390 units last fiscal, down 59.25 per cent from the 2019-20 fiscal. Volkswagen India exported 31,089 units during the period under review, down 44.1 per cent from 2019-20.

Besides, General Motors India exported 28,619 units, down 47.84 per cent from the same period last year. Kia Motors India and Honda Cars India however witnessed an increase in overseas shipments last fiscal.

Kia exported 40,440 units during the period, an increase of 88.43 per cent over 2019-20. Similarly, Honda Cars shipped 5,151 units in 2020-21 up 37.54 per cent over 2019-20.