Auto mkt sentiments impacted as farmers suffer crop losses

Home grown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today said that market sentiments are affected and a "worry" persists on the sales front as farmers in several states are facing heavy crop losses due to hostile weather conditions for agriculture.
"Sentiments in the market are definitely impacted," company's Vice President - Sales Automotive Division - Jyoti Malhotra told reporters here today.
He was asked whether the company had seen any impact on purchase of vehicles because of losses suffered by farming sector in several parts of the country including Punjab and Haryana as inclement weather conditions caused widespread damage to crop in February, March and April months this year.

However, the company said it was too early to say its impact on the purchase of automobiles.
"It is very difficult to say the impact on the market immediately...But there is a worry," he further said.
Among other states, Punjab and Haryana had witnessed crop damage on over 1.11 lakh acres and 13 lakh acres respectively due to rains and hailstorm.

About 36 per cent of Mahindra & Mahindra's volumes come from rural areas in the country, said Malhotra who was here in connection with the launch of new age XUV 500 here.
He said that the company was working on a strategy especially for the rural sector in order to deepen its presence.

As part of its initiative to expand its reach, the company has planned to tap atleast 3,000 tehsils out of 6,000 tehsils in the country.
"At present, we have 1,700 touch points across the country and we plan to tap 1,300 tehsils more," he said.
The company expected the automobile industry to perform better than last year.
"The industry this fiscal should perform better than last year. Last year, the industry grew by about 5 per cent. The economic revival being seen and lot of initiatives by the government on infrastructure sector are being talked about and all these things have to be materialised," he said.

On new launches, Malhotra said the company will roll out nine products including new platforms, refreshes of current models.