Vehicle registration in India falls to its lowest in 8 years in pandemic year

India's total vehicle registrations dipped by 29.85 per cent to the lowest in eight years in the financial year 2020-21, as per the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA). The registration figures fell to 1,52,71,519 units as compared to 2,17,68,502 units in fiscal year 2019-20.

Except tractors, all other categories of vehicles were in red in FY21. Two-wheeler (2W) saw a dip of 31.51 per cent, three-wheeler (3W) category fell by 64.12 per cent, commercial vehicles (CV) and passenger vehicles (PV) saw a dip of 13.96 per cent, all of these were way below the FY13 levels.

Passenger vehicles registrations were at 23,86,316 units last fiscal as compared to 27,73,514 units in FY20 while those of two-wheelers came down to 1,15,33,336 units as compared to 1,68,38,965 units in the previous fiscal. Registration of three-wheelers were at 2,58,174 units as compared to 7,19,594 in FY20 while CV registrations were at 4,48,914 units as against 8,81,114 units, as per FADA.

Only tractor registrations saw a growth of 16.11 per cent last fiscal at 6,44,779 units as compared to 5,55,315 units in 2019-20.

On comparing with the previous month of March, vehicle registrations in April of 2021 were down 28.15 per cent at 11,85,374 units versus 16,49,678 units. For April 2021, no comparison has been made with April of 2020 as FADA said that the country was under complete lockdown last April and not a single vehicle could be sold, thus, a year-on-year comparison is not possible.

This year in April, auto registrations saw a double-digit fall as most of the Indian states started going under lockdown from the beginning of the month, be it partial or full lockdown. "Unlike last year, the lockdown this time around has been imposed by state governments. Due to this, there have been no relief announcements which have come out till now either by the Center or the RBI and auto Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)," FADA President Vinkesh Gulati was quoted as saying by PTI.

He asked the automakers to handhold their dealers the way they did last year, saying that"situation is very grim in most states and dealer principals as well as their teams are fighting for their survival from Covid". He also requested the RBI to come out with guidelines/notifications for relaxation of loan repayment equivalent to the tune of number of days of lockdown each state has announced.

(with inputs from PTI)