Tata Motors reported monthly sales of 53,511 vehicles in April, up compared to 28,844 vehicles in the same month last year, but down from 69,440 in the previous month of March.
Last year, April had seen confusion with regard to the Supreme Court ruling on BSIII to BSIV transition, which had kept the sales in April low.
This April, commercial vehicle sales in the domestic market came in at 36,276 units compared to 16,017 units last year and 49,174 units in March this year.
“After the headwinds experienced in April 2017 owing to the Supreme Court ruling on BSIII to BSIV transition, the sales were affected as there was huge pre-buy and no demand as a consequence, and no supply of BSIV vehicles,” Tata Motor said.
Tata Motors said factors like lower interest rates, inflation under control are boosting the economy thereby leading to continuing demand in the commercial vehicle segment.
The medium and heavy truck segment sold 14,028 units, an increase by 317% over last year, and compared with 16,886 units in March.
The restrictions on overloading in the States of UP, Rajasthan and Delhi continue to bolster the demand for higher tonnage vehicles,” it said. Various sectors like auto carriers, 3PL players, cement, steel and oil tankers are also driving growth.
The intermediate and light truck segment reported a strong performance at 3,229 units, growth of 94%, over last year and compared with 5,737 in March.
“This growth has been due to new product launches, E-Commerce and increased rural consumption on the back of farm loan waivers, rising rural wages and increased Minimum Support Price (MSP) for crops,” it said.
The cargo and pickup segment reported a significant growth with 14,620 units, up by 84%, over last year and compared with 19,464 units in March.
With the hub and spoke model developing, the small vehicles are in demand for the last mile connectivity across both the rural and urban markets,” Tata Motors said.
The need for inter-city and intra-city trips, narrow village roads and long highway hauls carrying small loads drives the demand for SCVs.
The commercial passenger carrier segment posted a growth with 4,399 units, 46% increase over last year. This was led by the robust demand for school buses with the onset of the annual school season.
PASSENGER VEHICLES
Sales of passenger vehicles in India was at 17,235 units as against 12,827 units last year and 20,266 in March.
“Tiago continued its strong growth momentum in the passenger cars segment and the strong demand of Nexon resulted in 3X growth of the UV segment,” it said.
The company’s sales from exports (from CV and PV) in April 2018 was at 3,010 units, a growth of 41% over last year, but down from 6,443 in March.