Deepika Agrawal 
Vehicle retail sales for the festive period of FY2023 saw a significant jump of nearly 19% to 37.93 lakh units as compared to 31.95 lakh units sold during the festive period last year, as per data shared by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA). The record sales were achieved during the 42-day period of festivities in India, starting from 15th October and going on till 25th November. The dates span the first day Navratri to 15 days post Dhanteras due to time lag for vehicle registration.
Record sales across segments
Increase in sales was recorded in several vehicle categories such as two-wheelers, three-wheelers, commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles. The segments showed respective rises of 21%, 41%, 8%, and 10%. The surge in two-wheeler sales was contributed majorly from the rural areas. It jumped from 23.96 lakh units in festive period of FY2022 to 28.93 lakh units this festive season.
Decline in tractor segment
However, the tractor segment witnessed slight decline of 0.5%, falling from 86,951 units last festive year to 86,572 units this year. The segment initially saw an 8.3% decrease in sales during Navratri, but made a remarkable recovery by the end of the festive period, thus bridging the gap with only 0.5% decrease. This turnaround again highlighted the purchasing power in rural India.
SUVs dominate passenger vehicles segment
In terms of passenger vehicles too, there was an initial underperformance during Navratri but the situation improved by Deepawali, ending with a 10% growth rate. SUVs remained the highest demanded vehicles with OEMs pushing to dispatch vehicles to dealers to keep the inventory levels at near to all time high levels. The segment saw a jump in sales from 4.96 lakh units in festive period last year to 5.47 lakh units this festive period.
Three-wheelers and commercial vehicles
Retail sales of three-wheelers increased from 1.01 lakh units in festive period of FY2022 to 1.42 lakh units in festive period of FY2023, witnessing a jump of 41.39%. Similarly, commercial vehicle segment saw a YoY jump from 1.14 lakh units to 1.23 lakh units, witnessing a jump of 8.11%. The data provided by FADA has been collated in collaboration with Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India and has been gathered from 1,355 out of 1,442 RTOs. It doesn’t include figures from TS & LD.
