The Indian automotive industry, which includes passenger cars, two-wheelers, commercial vehicles, and more reported no sales in the month of April 2020. On the flip side, Mahindra & Mahindra has announced that its Farm Equipment Sector (FES) sold 4,716 units in April 2020 in the domestic market, while it exported 56 units as well.
Cumulatively Mahindra pushed 4,772 units in April 2020, as against 28,552 units for the same period last year. Although it was a sharp decline in growth the for company, having sold 27,495 units in the domestic market during April 2019, and overall 27,495 units. Its domestic sales saw a decline of 82.8% while overall sales slumped by 83.3%. Exports were down by 94.7% against 1,057 units from April 2019.
President of Farm Equipment Sector at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Hemant Sikka said that the lockdown extension impacted business, but dealers were partially open for a few days. He added “Going forward, several positive factors including a good Rabi output, opening of procurement centres by the Government, indication of good crop prices, reservoir levels etc., augur well for tractor demand. However, the rate of improvement will depend on how quickly the on-ground sales operations, including the start of NBFCs, are normalised, following the relaxation of the lockdown.”
After the Indian automotive industry has been going through turmoil for the last 15 months, then then the tragic lockdown due to the coronavirus was enforced, the Indian automotive industry has taken a massive beating, to say the least. With no production taking place in the month of April 2020 at all, and with dealerships being shut down, the auto sector in India reported zero sales and zero production for the entire month for the first time in history. Mahindra stated that it was only able to execute the sale of the tractors in the month of April as dealerships were open for just a few days. However, with ports having opened partially, some automakers were able to manage a handful of export sales in April 2020, with Mahindra exporting 733 units.
