How has been the passenger vehicle sales for the month of November 2021?

In the month of November, passenger vehicle wholesales fell by 19% as the data put out by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Clearly, it was once again the semiconductor shortage that had a deep impact on vehicle production and downstream deliveries to dealers. The passenger vehicle dispatches fell sharply from 264,898 units in Nov-20 to 215,626 units in Nov-21.

The story was roughly the same for two-wheelers also, just that the fall was a lot sharper. In fact, two-wheeler sales was lower by 34% yoy as it fell from 16,00,379 units in Nov-20 to 10,50,616 units in Nov-21. If you look at automobiles across categories, the fall was 31.79% from 18,89,348 units in Nov-20 to 12,88,759 units in Nov-21. Across the board, the biggest headwind for the industry was the global semi-conductor shortage.

Ironically, this is the peak festive season, when most of the auto manufacturers were hoping that the revenge buying would make up for the losses of the pandemic, but that was not to be. In fact, the PV sales in Nov-21 were the lowest in the last 5 year history. The only fear is that if Omicron situation worsens, then it could also start hitting production, adding one more risk plate to the auto sector.