Passenger vehicle October retail sales up 11% on festive demand: Report

Automobile dealers' body FADA on Tuesday said retail sales of passenger vehicles in October increased 11 per cent to 2,48,036 units against the same period last year, driven by festive demand during the month.

According to Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), passenger vehicles (PV) sales stood at 2,23,498 units in October 2018.

Two-wheeler sales increased 5 per cent to 13,34,941 units last month as compared with 12,70,261 units in the year-ago period.

Commercial vehicle sales, however, declined 23 per cent to 67,060 units as compared to 87,618 units in October last year.

Three-wheeler sales saw an increase of 4 per cent to 59,573 units last month.

Total sales across categories rose 4 per cent to 17,09,610 units in October, as against 16,38,832 units in the same month last year.

"October retails were in the positive, giving a much-needed respite to the auto industry - especially to our dealer community - after months of de-growth," FADA President Ashish Harsharaj Kale said.

The festival season saw very good footfalls at dealerships across most of the geographies, the consumer sentiment was positive, and purchase decisions were concluded as used to be during the growth years, he added.

Kale said two-wheeler inventory has reduced from an alarming level while PV inventory is also at reasonable levels.

"CV inventory has also reduced, although with retail continuing to be weak further wholesale regulation is required to reach FADA's 21 days recommended levels," he added.

With the auto industry heading into the unknown territory of BSVI transition, more needs to be done towards inventory reduction to avoid dealer losses, Kale noted.