Tiruchy: Festival season brings cheers for auto industry as car sales pick up

TIRUCHY: Navratri and Diwali have brought great cheer to the automobile industry. 

After a tepid few months post lockdown, car sales have picked up in October, say sales managers and showroom owners. 

Most carmakers have reported a growth in sales in October 2020 compared to the same period last year. While luxury cars have seen sales equal to that last year, smaller cars and hatchbacks have seen a considerable increase in sales. 

Managers attribute the trend to the aversion of the public to travel in public transport due to the pandemic. Pent-up demand for cars has also led to an increase in sales. First-time car buyers have also increased.

"Since the showrooms were closed for two months, there was a lot of pent up demand.  Bookings have been picking up since August. October has been especially good. Car sales have increased by 30% compared to the same period last year. Most auto dealers in Tiruchy have reported a 30% increase over October 2019. There has been a good demand for entry-level cars like Eeco, Alto, and mid-level cars like Swift and Swift Dzire," said SP Annamalai, Managing Director, PL. A Motors.

People who regularly travel from Tiruchy to Chennai or nearby districts are now choosing to invest in a car instead of using public transport. Even people with cars are going in for second cars for their family members.

"People want to travel safely now. Sales are doing well and have increased compared to last quarter. We are getting lot of bookings. and July months were dull because of e-pass restrictions. It's picked up post-August. Our cars start at Rs 10 lakhs and we have seen numbers equal to our last year's figures in September and October," said Wajid Ahamed, General Manager, Skoda Gurudev Motors.

In fact, newly launched cars are also in great demand. The New Hyundai i-20, which will be launched this week, has got 140 orders in Tiruchy even before launch.  "We have never seen so much demand before the launch of a car. Sales have been really good. Cars under Rs 10 lakhs like Santro, Grand i10, Grand i10 NIOS have seen good sales. Sales have increased by 20% over last year October," said Jaya karna, Chairman, Oxina Group of Companies.

A notable observation was that people are buying cars more in cash as compared to credit.
 "We have seen an increase in people buying cars in cash. Online purchasing has also increased post the pandemic. Cash purchases have increased from 5% in September to 12% in October. This has been a surprising change. Our business has been on par with last year with a slight increase," said KP Prabhakar, Sales Manager, Mahindra Shiva Automobiles.