car sales: Car sales in slow lane as parts crunch bites

Sales of passenger vehicles continued to remained subdued, despite strong demand in the local market, due to the global shortage of semi-conductors which restricted production at some of the country’s leading automakers.But even as market leaders Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor India both reported a decline of 10% in monthly sales at 121,995 units and 44,001 units, respectively, Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Skoda Auto India fared well to report robust growth in volumes on back of new model launches and somewhat on a lower base. “The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles, mainly domestic models,” Maruti Suzuki said in a statement, adding, the company took all possible measures to minimise the impact.

Yuichi Murata, director (marketing and sales), Honda Cars India, explained even though customer sentiment continues to show improvement, supply chain issues remain a challenge which is impacting industry’s ability to meet the growing demand. “We are hopeful that the situation improves sooner than later, so that the demand-supply equation can be more balanced,” said Murata. At Honda Cars India, wholesale volumes fell 13% to 7,874 units in April.

While traction in the local market is expected to continue, the Covid curbs in China may further strain the supply chain, fear industry executives. MG Motor India said while the demand for MG products Hector, Astor, and Gloster continue to exhibit positive momentum in enquiries and bookings, production remained ‘volatile and immensely impacted’ by the global supply chain constraints amid fresh lockdowns in different parts of the world.

“The brand is closely monitoring the situation caused by the new Covid waves and is aligning its efforts to address it,” the company added. MG Motor India sold 2008 units, which in a decline of 22% over 2,565 units sold in the year-ago period.

Home grown auto major Tata Motors bucked the trend to grow sales by 66% to 41,587 units last month.

At Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) too volumes shot up 57% to 15,085 units in April. Atul Sood, associate vice-president, (sales and strategic marketing), TKM said, “Demand continues to peak in the new financial year, as we close the month of April with an overall growth of 57% over wholesales in April 2021. Along with the Crysta, Fortuner and the Legender, the Camry Hybrid too has received very encouraging booking orders”.

Czech carmaker Skoda also saw volumes grow nearly five-fold to 5,152 units on back of new launches – sedan Slavia and SUV Kushaq.