India is under a nationwide lockdown starting from 24th March 2020 for the next 21 days. Automobile Industry was already grappling with the BS6 emission norms adoption and now it faces the Coronavirus epidemic. Automotive manufacturers have a problem in hand as the sale and purchasing of BS4 vehicles would become illegal by 1st April 2020. COVID-19 struggling Auto dealers have unsold BS4 inventory at their disposal as dealerships are temporarily shut down and customers are at home. BS4 two-wheelers company are counting their losses as the deadline date for selling BS4 motorcycles is just a week ahead with prospective customers unable to visit dealership due to the lockdown. Two-wheelers companies had earlier initiated BS4 bike discounts to clear the space for the new BS6 compliant models arriving in the Indian market.
Curfew is now imposed in major parts of India with a restriction on citizens movement thus affecting customer movement to the dealerships. With zero customer engagement, the dealerships are looking at a severe financial losses thus compounding their woes. Social distancing is important for curtailing the Coronavirus spread thus citizens have been advised to stay at home.
The Federation Of Automobile Dealers Associations had earlier informed by giving out a statement on the 17th March 2020 that "the counter sales have fallen by over 60-70 % across auto dealerships in these past few days. So with the enforced lockdown, the dealers business would have come to a standstill".
2019 was a difficult year for the Automobile industry in general and coronavirus effect plus BS4 deadline sales seem to compound it further. It’s not just the two-wheelers but the four wheeler-dealers are giving BS4 Car Discounts on the existing Bharat Stage-IV vehicles. “The two-wheeler BS-IV inventory at dealerships across the country stood at around 8.35 lakh units valued at around Rs 4,600 crores” as was claimed by FADA President Ashish Harsharaj Kale to some of the media outlets.