If August 2020 proved to be an august month for passenger vehicle (PV) and two-wheeler manufacturers, who clocked despatches of 215,916 units (14.16%) and 1,559,665 units (3%) respectively, then the just-announced September 2020 despatch numbers by apex industry body SIAM indicate a substantial month-on-month improvement. At 272,027 PVs (26.45%) and 1,849,546 two-wheelers (11.64%), the month-on-month increase is 26% and 19% respectively.

However, prescribe this growth last month to vehicle manufacturers increasing their deliveries to their dealers across the country, stocking up on inventory in anticipation of fresh consumer demand from the Navratri and Diwali festivals. Also, it needs to be kept in mind that the September 2020 growth has come on a low year-ago base: September 2019 – PVs: 223,317 units / -23.69% and Two-Wheelers: 1,656,774 / -22.09%.

While the current market and consumer sentiment is much better than the April-July 2020 period, the higher kharif acreage in rural India, lowered automobile loan interest rates and a rash of new models across the PV and two-wheeler segments are expected to bring cheer to India Auto Inc. However, hope lies eternal and sales data miners will have to wait till the festive season is over to really find out if the OEM optimism was well placed. Will there be fireworks in terms of vehicle sales numbers, will consumers, who are increasingly taking to online purchase, click away to OEM happiness, are the few green shoots of recovery in the industry real? Lots of questions at this stage.   

Till the answers to these queries arrive, let’s look at how the passenger vehicle and two-wheeler players have fared in the domestic market September 2020 through these detailed statistics, both year-on-year as well as month-on-month.