Passenger vehicle registrations grew marginally in November: FADA

Automobile registrations across the country dipped by nearly 19 per cent in November from the year-ago period but passenger vehicles marked a growth of over 4 per cent, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) said on Tuesday.

FADA President Vinkesh Gulati said the automobile industry saw one of the best recovery rates since unlocking began as November continued to see positive momentum by growing 29.32 per cent on month-on-month basis.

However, on year-on-year basis, the negative slide continues with degrowth of minus 19.29 per cent.

Three-wheeler registrations were down by 64.98 per cent with 24,185 registrations in November 2020 compared to 69,056 in the year-ago period.

Commercial vehicles witnessed a downswing of 31.22 per cent to 50,113 registrations versus 72,863 in November 2019, data released by FADA showed.

Two-wheeler registrations totalled 14.13 lakh last month compared to 17.98 lakh in November 2019, marking a slide of 21,4 per cent.

But passenger vehicle registrations edged higher by 4.17 per cent to 2.91 lakh from 2.79 lakh in the year-ago period. And tractor registrations rose by 8.47 per cent to 49,313 last month compared to 45,462 in the year-ago period.

That took overall vehicle registrations to 18.27 lakh in November 2020, down 19.29 per cent from 22.64 lakh in November 2019.

Gulati said new launches and especially compact SUV's continued to show good demand in passenger vehicle segment. The shift in two-wheeler segment continued from 100cc to 125 cc and above categories due to good harvesting coupled with Dhanteras, Diwali and marriage season.

With festive season now over, heavy rains in certain parts of the country leading to crop damage and pent-up demand almost negligible, demand revival now solely depends on the year-end schemes.

"If the supply chain issues in passenger vehicle segment are controlled, we may see continued growth in December," 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.