Vehicle registrations in January falls over 9% YoY

New Delhi: Vehicle registrations in January 2021 declined 9.66 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis.

On Tuesday, data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) showed that over 15.92 lakh vehicles were registered in January 2021, compared with over 17.63 lakh units in January 2020.

The fall comes after December 2020’s registration rose on a YoY basis.

Notably, December 2020’s rise was the first positive growth in a month during the current financial year.

At that time, 18.44 lakh vehicles were registered compared with over 16.61 lakh units in December 2019.

In January 2021, registration of personal vehicles fell 4.46 per cent on a YoY basis to 2.81 lakh units.

Similarly, two-wheeler registration fell. It slid by 8.78 per cent to 11.63 lakh units.

However, tractors’ registration rose 11.14 per cent on a YoY basis in January to 60,754 units.

As per the data, dealer inventory continues to fall with personal vehicles’ inventory ranging from 10-15 days and two-wheelers’ inventory from 30-35 days.

“After witnessing a one off growth in December and January, the auto registration fell once again by 10 per cent YoY. Auto industry clearly misjudged the demand which returned post-lockdown. Industry’s under estimation of post-Covid rebound along with chipmakers prioritising higher-volume and more lucrative consumer electronics market has created a vacuum for semiconductors,” FADA President Vinkesh Gulati was quoted as saying in a statement.

“This has resulted in a shortage in supply for all categories of vehicles especially Passenger Vehicles even though enquiry levels and bookings remained high. New launches and SUV’s continued to see high traction and helped in restricting the overall PV registrations fall by a bigger margin.”

Besides, he cited recent price hike undertaken by OEMs as adding to the woos as two-wheelers which became more expensive for lower and middle income class.

“Commercial Vehicle registrations were also hit due to vehicle financing still not back to normal and high BS-6 cost.”

In addition, FADA said the Centre’s announcement of scrappage policy though voluntary is in the right direction.

“The spend on infrastructure projects like roads and public transport will help build traction for commercial vehicles over a longer period of time,” FADA said in the statement.