Notwithstanding the pandemic situation, the festive season beginning ahead of Dasara has seen a steep rise in the sales of both two-wheelers and cars in the city. There is around 20% growth in the registration of new vehicles during the recent Dasara festival, compared to last year and dealers are optimistic that the trend will continue during the upcoming festivals such as Deepavali, in the district.
The lockdown in March this year and the subsequent liquidity crunch has hit vehicle sales. Ugadi, the Telugu New Year, hardly witnessed any sales. The Union government had asked automobile manufacturers to switch over to BS VI emission norms with effect from April 1, 2020, and told them that the sale of BS IV vehicles would not be allowed after March 31, 2020.
The economic crisis and the unwillingness of prospective buyers to invest on vehicles, seems to have prompted automobile manufacturers to postpone the launch of new models. The opening up of public transport and continuing pandemic threat led many buyers to go for personal vehicles, mostly two-wheelers, to minimise the risk of travelling in buses and autos during the last few months.
The big buy happened this Dasara festival season with many people buying cars and two-wheelers. “The cars and two-wheelers registered in the district from October 17 to November 5 is around 10,000. The Dasara registrations has helped us narrow down the gap in revenue. We are optimistic that the revenue will increase during Deepavali and become positive by Sankranti,” Deputy Transport Commissioner G.C. Raja Ratnam told The Hindu.
“The revenue collections till October 2019 was ₹238 crore as against ₹205.8 crore till October this year. This negative growth of (-) 13% is very little compared to other districts in the State, where the decline is much higher,” he says.
“The festival season had seen a surge in demand for new cars. The demand would have been much higher, if we had more stocks,” says Sunny of Jayabheri Maruti.
“The total sales of cars of all brands in Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam district in October are around 3,500 in October this year as against the normal sales of 2,000 a month. “If there were adequate supplies, the sales would have been of the order of 4,500 this month,” he says.
Kumar Raja, GM (sales) of Mango Hyundai, attributes the supply scarcity to the pandemic situation and decline in production.
