34% Registration Growth in Automobile Segment Shows Signs of Economic Recovery

Automobile registrations across the country rose by 34 per cent last month as compared to July last year with passenger vehicles showing 63 per cent hike, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) said.

FADA President Vinkesh Gulati said July continued to see robust recovery in auto retails as demand across all categories remained high after states eased Covid-led lockdowns. The low base effect also continued to play its part.

Data released by FADA showed three-wheeler registrations were up by 83 per cent with 27,904 registrations in July 2021 compared to 15,244 in July 2020.

Commercial vehicles witnessed an upswing of 166 per cent to 52,130 registrations versus 19,602 in same period.

Two-wheeler registrations totalled 11.32 lakh last month compared to 8.87 lakh in July last year, marking an upturn of 27 per cent.

Passenger vehicle registrations edged higher by 63 per cent to 2.6 lakh from 1.6 lakh in the year-ago period.

However, tractor registrations rose by 6 per cent to 82,388 last month compared to 77,257 in July 2020.

That took overall vehicle registrations to 15.56 lakh in July 2021, up 34.2 per cent from 11.6 lakh in July 2020.

"Passenger vehicles are witnessing high demand, especially with the buzz around new launches and compact SUV segments," said Gulati.

"The waiting period due to supply-side constraints has been persisting and is now becoming a deep- rooted issue for OEMs," he said.

Gulati said the two-wheeler segment continues to see positive demand year-on-year but the rate of recovery remains sluggish.

"Customers at the bottom of the pyramid suffer with poor disposable incomes and rural markets have seen high Covid cases during the second wave."

The month of August has begun on a positive note as demand and enquiry levels continue to improve across all categories, said Gulati.

FADA India represents over 15,000 automobile dealers having 25,000 dealerships including 30 associations of automobile dealers at the regional, state and city levels accounting for 90 per cent of market share.