Tough times persist for the Indian Auto Industry and even tougher times lurk ahead. The Passenger Vehicle sales saw a dip of -21% in May’19 v/s May’18. The de-growth extent is now increasing every month and has questioned the viability of many dealer establishments. Considering the stats – on an average two vehicle dealerships have shut every week over the past two years! With the Indian automotive retail sector incurring losses of at least Rs 2,000 crore in this period, over 205 dealers have wound up operations and shut 300 outlets as their business turned un-viable and an estimated 3,000 people have lost their jobs.
Source: ET
Base effect along with high finance cost and liquidity constraints has primarily pushed to subdue automobile sales in May. Lower consumer sentiment and the recently concluded general election also had a major part in sales slowdown. The high inventory levels at the dealerships has been a consistent concern and all OEMs are trying their part to lower the dealer stock which is even more hampering the monthly offtake volumes. Let’s see how the OEMs fared in May’19 –
The nation’s top automaker, Maruti Suzuki reported the highest Market Share fall in May’19. It lost a staggering 3.1% MS in May’19 owing to low wholesale volumes in the month. It registered a YoY degrowth of -25.1% and Maruti’s loss was primarily Hyundai’s gain.
Hyundai was the biggest winner in May’19. Though it saw a degrowth of -6%; the OEM registered an increase of 2.9% in terms of Market Share. A lot of this success could be attributed to the launch of the sub-compact SUV Venue.
Mahindra establishes itself as a clear No.3 post XUV300’s launch and sells a staggering 7,403 units more than the 4th ranked Toyota.
Toyota topples Tata & Honda to become the 4th best-selling OEM. Glanza effect? We shall let you know shortly.
Tata grappling with low performance? Maybe yes, maybe no. Tata has recently taken a stand to lower dealer stock and is clearly visible from the recent communication it shared to its channel partners –
Nissan+Datsun are unable to understand on how to recover from the monthly shortfall. The OEM registered the highest YoY degrowth at -48%. No wonder; in 2017-2018 Nissan had the most number of dealers shutting shop (38 dealers to be precise)!
Another shocker of May’19 was the decline of FCA volumes. FCA now ranks last in the table and Skoda has effectively pushed the Italian carmaker to the bottom. Fiat is primarily on its deathbed and could sell only 14 units in May’19; while Jeep sold a meager 977 nos in the past month.
Market Shares figures for May’19 –
