CARS AND TWO-WHEELERS did not find many takers in the year affected by the pandemic, an outcome which was quite evident when lockdowns, localised restrictions, and job/income losses took away the appetite to buy new vehicles for personal mobility. Consequently, domestic sales of automobiles in India in 2020-21 went below the 2015 levels.
Although this might sound worrisome, the situation was not very different globally. Globally, car sales in 2020 were the lowest since 2013-14, shows chart 1. Though this isn’t a like-for-like comparison — overall auto sales in India and cars globally — it still shows that demand for