Corona Crisis: Cars Sales Plunge By 52 Per Cent

New Delhi: Automobile sales in the country has crashed following the three-week lockdown and coronavirus scare, bringing it to a 20-year low. Passenger vehicle numbers fell by 52 per cent, with biggies like Mahindra and Tata Motors seeing 82 per cent and 70 per cent drop in sales respectively.

Country’s biggest carmaker Maruti Suzuki recorded a drop of 47 per cent compared to March 2019 selling just 76,240 units. South Korean giant Hyundai saw sales fall by 41 per cent in March 2020.

Mahindra sold just 3,383 units while Tata did 5,676 units. Toyota dispatched 7,023 cars, a 45 per cent drop. Honda did 72 per cent lower sales at 3,697 units.

Ford’s numbers fell by 58 per cent recording just 3,510 units.

New entrants Kia Motors reported 8,583 units, which is significantly lower than the 15K units it did in February. MG did 1,500-odd sales in March, 2020.

Sales of light commercial vehicles also fell 62 per cent.

Things are equally grim for two-wheelers. TVS reported 56 per cent sales drop and Hero MotoCorp 42 per cent. Also, over 7 lakh BS4 two-wheelers are reportedly lying with dealers while the deadline for selling them reached on April 1, 2020. The Supreme Court, however, gave a breather of 10 days to sell 10 per cent of the BS4 stock when the lockdown ends.