India’s automotive sector sales including passenger cars and two-wheelers recorded a fall of 18 percent in the overall sales tally for January. The factors for this have been attributed to lockdowns and curfews because of the Omicron, and other constraints.

Total domestic sales for January 2022 were at 1,406,672 units as against 1,733,276 units in January 2022.  These numbers were released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

The two-wheeler sales were down by 21 percent at 1,128,293 units in January 2022 against 1,429,928 units sold in January 2021.

Passenger vehicles continued to be affected by global shortage of semiconductors with domestic sales down 8 percent. In January 2022, OEMs sold 254,287 units compared to 276,664 units during the same period last year. For the UV segment, sales in January 2022 was 116,962 units as against 111,494 units in January 2021.

 OEMs also continue to face production challenges and there has been improvement on the M-o-M sales. Around, 24,091 units of three-wheelers were sold against 26,794 units in January 2021, a 10 percent drop in domestic sales.

Rajesh Menon, Director General, SIAM said, “Sales in January 2022 again declined compared to January 2021, due to both Omicron-related concerns and semiconductor shortages. There is clearly a demand issue for two-wheelers due to lower rural off-take of entry-level models. The three-wheeler segment was also affected.”

According to Menon, "The passenger vehicle OEMs were unable to meet the market demand due to supply side challenges resulting in January 2022 sales being even lower than January 2021."

Production was down across PVs, and two and three-wheelers. SIAM only releases CV numbers on a quarterly basis.