Continuing to ride the increased momentum in sales ever since the Coronavirus lockdown was relaxed last year, Mahindra & Mahindra reported its strongest growth in passenger vehicles in over a year.
The company’s passenger vehicle sales jumped 41% for the month of February, a welcome relief in a year when they’ve so far been down 23%.
February is likely to be one of the company’s best months in recent years, as it has been struggling to catch up with rivals after its core market — that of utility vehicles — was attacked by a slew of new brands like Kia and MG.
However, things seemed to have taken a turn for the better in February, with utility vehicle sales jumping 44% on year to 15,380 units, one of the highest in the company’s recent history.
Veejay Nakra, Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Division attributed the numbers of continued robust demand.
“Demand continues to remain buoyant for our range of SUVs and Pick-ups and we have a robust order pipeline,” he said.
For the same month, rival Maruti Suzuki was reported a 19% increase in its UV sales at 26,884 vs 22,604 in 2020.
However, like Maruti Suzuki and other automakers, Mahindra & Mahindra too is feeling the heat as semiconductor chip supplies have dried up due to Coronavirus-related shut-downs and reallocations.
An increased demand for communication and computing devices has led chipmakers to divert some of their capacity to these higher-margin segments, causing supply shortages in the automotive sector.
“Supply of semiconductors, as we all know, is a global issue and it is likely to continue for another 3 to 4 months. Going forward, we will continue to monitor the situation and closely work with our suppliers to minimise this supply risk,” Nakra pointed out.
M&M’s commercial vehicles division continued to bleed, as volumes were down 33-46% in its medium and heavy CV division.
Three-wheeler sales too were down 39% at 581 units.
The growth in tractor sales, meanwhile, moderated slightly in February to 24% on year. Nevertheless, for the year so far, the company’s tractor sales are up 13%.
M&M sold 27,170 tractors during the month.
“Tractor demand continues to be robust with Rabi sowing at an all-time high, supported by healthy reservoir levels and higher liquidity with farmers, on account of timely and robust procurement of Kharif crops. The outlook for the industry continues to be positive given the all-time high estimates of Rabi production and strong rural cash flows. In the exports market, we have sold 976 tractors, a growth of 43% over last year,” said Hemant Sikka, President – Farm Equipment Sector.
TVS MOTOR CO
TVS Motor Co to reported a 21% increase in two-wheeler sales for February, led primarily by a 35% jump in exports to 89,436.
Domestic two-wheeler sales grew slower at 15% to 195,145.
Together, overall two-wheeler sales for the company was up 21% on year.
The company’s three-wheeler sales were down at 13,166 from 17,370 last year as public transportation continues to be under pressure due to fears of the viral contagion.
Nevertheless, take together, overall sales of the company was up 18% on year at 2.98 lakh compared to 2.53 lakh units in Feb last year.