Demonetization Effect: Commercial Vehicles Sales in November Derailed
Published On Dec 02, 2016
Demonetisation seems to have disrupted post Diwali celebrations for commercial vehicle manufacturers in India. Major CV makers, barring Ashok Leyland, have filed low sales numbers for November 2016 in comparison to November 2015.
CV sales had started to look promising during Diwali after a long time, but with demonetisation, the gold run for the truck and bus makers in the country seems to have been paused for an uncertain period of time.
Despite people wanting to buy trucks before BS-IV and mandatory air-conditioning norms kick in, lack of cash has certainly become a big hurdle. Here’s how CV makers fared last month as compared to the same period a year ago.
Mahindra and Mahindra, one of the fastest growing CV brands in the country managed to sell only 12,644 CV units during November 2016 in comparison to 14,801 CV units it had sold in November 2015.
Tata Motors, considered as the heavyweight champion of the Indian commercial vehicle industry, sold only 20,538 commercial vehicles in November 2016. It had sold around 24,030 commercial vehicles in the same month last year.
Ashok Leyland has been quite busy carving more space for itself in the Indian CV industry. The brand, contrary to many expert forecasts, managed to register growth, despite demonetisation. It sold 9,574 units in November 2016 as compared to 8,971 units in November 2015.
The joint venture between Eicher and Volvo also failed to stand against the demonetisation of old INR 1000 and 500 currency notes. VECV, which had sold 3,639 CV units in November 2015, managed to sell only 3,176 units in same month this year.
SML Isuzu sold only 639 commercial vehicle units in November this year, registering a degrowth. The CV maker had sold more CV units (683) in November last year.
Possible Solution
CV manufacturers in the country will have to come up with ways to encourage consumers towards using e-banking for making down payments and other related transactions. Though, cash flow will become normal in the near future, encouraging consumers to make online payments will only take the sales figures up.
Moreover, as we step forward towards the end of the current fiscal year, no CV brand in the country will like to see their sales figures dwindling any further.