
While wholesale despatches have shown growth for the past few months, retail automobile sales registered growth in December — first time so far this fiscal.
According to data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) on Monday, retail sales across categories grew 11 per cent during December on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis.
The growth was on the back of a good crop season, better offers in the two-wheeler segment, new launches both in passenger vehicle as well as two-wheeler segments and a fear of price increase in January.
While retail sales of PV had shown growth in previous months also, December for the first time saw sales of two-wheelers move into the positive territory, growing by 12 per cent y-o-y.
The sales growth is not surprising as being the calendar year ending month dealers clear their stocks as consumers prefer new year manufactured vehicles. To push sales during the month both manufacturers and dealers offer discounts which are greater than earlier months. —FE