The coronavirus pandemic has affected the automotive sector adversely by bringing the production and sales to a standstill. With the Government easing a few of the restrictions amidst lockdown, auto manufacturers have begun resuming their business partially. The first few days of the retail business are quite scary for the automobile dealers as the customers are demanding to redeem their booking amount and cancel their vehicle purchases in order to conserve cash post lockdown.
Due to the coronavirus crisis, customers are only taking the delivery of vehicles for which the full amount has already been paid. Most of the customers are avoiding the purchase of a new vehicle due to which the footfall has reduced to a trickle.
According to a report, there had been an impressive number of confirmed customer bookings for a number of vehicles before March lockdown. Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos received the maximum number of bookings due to their terrific design elements and strong technology quotient. The British brand MG Motor also received quite a good number of bookings for its debut model Hector.
|
OEM |
Brand |
Booking Backlog |
| Kia Motors | Seltos | 50,000 |
| MG Motors | Hector | 20,000 |
| Hyundai Motors India | Creta | 20,000 |
While the dealerships have opened for business, customer footfall is negligible. The coronavirus crisis is forcing everyone to maximize their savings and avoid fresh purchases. More than 70 percent of new cars in India are sold on finance backing and lucrative EMI deals coming from OEM-backed finance companies or the super aggressive private and public sector banks. The overall portfolio of new vehicles is heavily supported by the finance that leads to most of the purchases.
Around 1000 dealerships have resumed their operation this week across India. There have been more inquiries for the BS4 vehicles, probably due to the high price of the BS6 vehicles and heavy discounts available on them.
Source - ET Auto
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