Following the news that the year-on-year (y-o-y) passenger vehicle sales in India grew by 23% in February 2021;

Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, a leading research and consulting company, offers his view:

“All OEMs, except Ford and Skoda, witnessed y-o-y increase in their sales volumes. The robust growth in monthly passenger vehicle sales indicates that India has overcome the COVID-19 blues. A number of factors such as positive consumer sentiments, new launches of feature-loaded vehicles, availability of several affordable variants across customer segments and improving customer willingness to choose safer vehicles have contributed to the growth. In addition, increasing inclination towards personal mobility amid the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a major growth driver.

“Mass market cars such as Swift, Baleno, Wagon R, Alto and Dzire were on the top list. SUVs including the 2020 launched Creta and sub-compact Venue and Vitara Brezza also made it to the top 10 list in February 2021. Tata with bolstering sales of Nexon SUV, Altroz and Tiago hatchback topped the sales growth chart with 119% y-o-y increase.

“However, chip shortages slightly impacted the supply for India-bound OEMs and this could affect production for both domestic sales and exports over the next few months. In addition, the increase in fuel prices will be a factor restraining sales growth to a certain extend but not enough to wash-off the boost created by attractive line-up that is recently or to be launched in the country. Launches such as Renault Kiger, Swift 2021, Tata Safari, Hector 2021, Citroen C5 Aircross and others will add significant volumes in the upcoming months.”