Mahindra sees a massive 88 percent sales dip in March amid coronavirus lockdown

Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Wednesday reported a steep 88 per cent decline in total sales at 7,401 units in March.

The company had sold 62,952 units in the same month last year, M&M said in a statement.

In the domestic market, sales were down 90 per cent to 6,130 units last month compared to 59,012 units in March 2019.

Exports dropped by 68 per cent to 1,271 units as against 3,940 units in the year-ago month.

In the passenger vehicles segment -- which includes UVs, cars and vans -- it sold 3,384 vehicles in March this year, against 27,646 vehicles in the same month last year, down 88 per cent.

In the commercial vehicles segment, the company sold 2,325 vehicles as against 24,423 units earlier, a dip of 90 per cent.

"Our performance in March has been muted on account of the impact of the current lock-down related to Covid-19 and the disruption in our BS 6 ramp-up plan," Veejay Ram Nakra, Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Division, M&M Ltd.said.

The latter was planned between February and March but was affected due to the challenges of parts supply from global and local suppliers, he added.

"We have been able to clear our BS 4 inventory, but for fewer than 100 vehicles. However, there are many vehicles that are sold, but not yet registered because of the closure of RTOs," Nakra said.

For 2019-20 fiscal, the company reported 22 per cent dip in total sales at 4,76,043 units compared to 6,08,596 units in 2018-19.