PV sales drop 17% in April to 7-year low

Tight credit conditions after the NBFC crisis and higher upfront insurance payout exacerbated the slowdown in passenger vehicle sales, which dropped 17% year-on-year in April, it's lowest in over seven years, data from apex automobile industry body showed.

The industry produced a total of 23,63,376 vehicles including passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three wheelers, two-wheelers and quadricycle in April 2019 as against 26,46,257 in the same period last year, registering a decline of 10.69% over the same month last year.

The sale of passenger Vehicles declined by 17.07% in April over the same month last year. Within the passenger vehicles, the sales for passenger cars, utility vehicle and vans declined by 19.93%, 6.67% and 30.11% respectively, Society of Indian automobile manufacturers data showed.

The overall commercial vehicles segment registered a decline of 5.98% in April as compared to the same month last year. Medium & heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCVs) declined by 13.56% and light commercial vehicles declined by 1.10% over the same month last year.

In fact, the automobile industry witnessed a decline across all segments, according to the data.

Three wheelers sales declined by 7.44% in April compared to the corresponding period last year. Within the three-wheelers, passenger carrier sales registered a de-growth of 9.24% and goods carrier declined by 0.17%.

Two wheelers sales registered a de-growth of 16.36% in April and within the two-wheelers segment, scooters, motorcycles and mopeds declined by a whopping 25.89%, 11.81% and 5.88% respectively in April.

Exports

In April 2019, overall automobile exports declined by (-) 0.05%. While passenger vehicles exports grew by 11.60%, commercial vehicles, three wheelers and two wheelers registered a de-growth of 54.32%, 7.53% and 0.04% respectively in April over the same period last year.

Experts said auto sector slowdown since the last fiscal has hit the sales of banks' and NBFCs.