NEW DELHI:  Sales of passenger vehicles declined 51 per cent to 1,43,014 units in March as against 2,91,861 units sold in the same month last year and this figure, experts say, will fall further with many states continuing on lockdown.“Automobile industry witnessed one of its sharpest decline in domestic sales in March due to subdued demand and consumer sentiments which was further aggravated by the COVID-19 outbreak in the country,” Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM, said. 

The industry now pins hope on how the ban would be lifted once the lockdown period gets over. Officials have indicated that the industry may be allowed to start manufacturing process in limited capacity. “The auto industry is engaged in a dialogue with the government on policy measures which could minimise the impact of COVID on the Indian economy and especially the domestic automobile industry. There would be challenges on the supply side; demand side and also on the issue of availability of finance which would need to be addressed to bring back growth in the sector,” said Rajan Wadhera, President, SIAM.

The coming months are going to be tough for the auto sector as there are no signs of revival in the near future. SIAM projected that the country will witness a huge drop in auto sales which could be as high as 35 per cent for some segments — higher than the 18 per cent de-growth of FY20. 

According to the Siam data, commercial vehicle sales alos fell 88 per cent last month to 13,027 units as compared to 109,022 units in March 2019. Two-wheeler sales fell 40 percent decline at 866,849 units in March 2020. Total domestic auto sales fell 45 per cent to 1,050,367 units in March as against 1,908,097 a year ago as the industry fights multiple challenges such as delayed launches, labour shortage and productivity losses among others.