New Delhi: India came in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic that was fast spreading across the globe around March 2020. Subsequent halt in the economic activities and the nationwide lockdown thus resulted in a steep downturn in the already stressed auto sector in the country.

According to the latest data by the industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the month of June 2020 witnessed a 51 percent drop in total domestic sales at 1,094,363 units as against 2,253,407 units in the same period last year. This includes the production of PVs, three-wheelers, two-wheelers and quadricycles.

Passenger vehicles once again moved to negative with 49.6 percent decline in domestic sales at 105,617 units in June 2020 as compared to 209,522 units sold in the same period last year.

Total two-wheelers saw a 38 percent decline at 1,013,431 units in June 2020, compared to 1,649,475 units in June 2019.

Meanwhile, three-wheeler sales for last month stood at 10,300 units, compared to 51,885 units in June 2019 marking a decline of 80 percent.

Following the historic month of zero sales in April and partial resumption of operations in May and June 2020, Q1 FY 21 reported 75.5 percent decline in auto sales at 6,084,478 units as against 1,491,216 units in April- June 2019.

As per the SIAM data, passenger vehicles (PV) witnessed a degrowth of 78.4 percent in domestic sales at 153,734 units in April-June 2020 as compared to 712,684 units sold in the same period last year.

Total commercial vehicle sales declined 84.8 percent at 31,636 units in Q1 FY21 as against 208,310 units in the same period last year.

While all the segments were in red, the highest drop was seen in three-wheeler sales at 91.5 percent 12,760 units in the period under review, as compared to 149,797 units in April-June 2019.