Mahindra & Mahindra, India’s second biggest home-grown auto brand, reported strong numbers for July that indicated that demand continues to be strong in the auto sector despite the interruption caused by the second wave of COVID-19.
The company nearly doubled its total vehicle sales to 42,983 in July this year from 25,678 vehicles in July of 2020.
In fact, this year’s number is higher than that of 2019, when the company had sold 40,142 vehicles and COVID was yet to make an appearance.
In the farm division too, tractor sales continued to remain elevated — despite strong sales in the recent months that fed the ‘suppressed demand’ for tractors.
The strength in the auto division was visible across the spectrum, with the UV category reporting a 91% jump in July sales to 20,797 from 10,898 last year.
In pre-pandemic July 2019, UV sales were 16,003.
In terms of the crucial CVs with capacity of 3.5 tonne and above, the company sold 428 units in July, compared to just 125 units in 2020 July.
However, this segment is far from being out of the woods yet. In July 2019, the sales in this segment were around 1,085 units.
Three-wheeler sales are also coming slowly back on track. They were at 2,148 units in July 2021, compared to 83 last year and 4,674 in the year-before.
Tractor sales remained strong despite fears that the pent up demand would be exhausted after nearly a year of extraordinarily strong sales.
“We have sold 25769 tractors in the domestic market during July 2021 with a growth of 5% over last year,” pointed out Hemant Sikka, President – Farm Equipment Sector.
“Demand remained buoyant in July as crop sowing operations gained traction with monsoon picking up pace across all the regions. Easing of COVID curbs & robust farm incomes on account of record Rabi crop procurement has bode well for the rural economy. We continue to stay bullish on tractor demand in the coming months owing to revival of monsoon, hike in MSP of key Kharif crops & upcoming festival season. In the exports market, we have sold 1460 tractors with a growth of 55%”.
Veejay Nakra, Chief Executive Officer of the automotive business said more than 90% of the company’s dealerships and workshops are now operational.
“We have seen significant increase in activity levels, enquiries and as a result, sales across our product portfolio.
“While supply of semiconductors continues to be a global issue and we are doing everything to address it on priority.”
He said July sales benefited from the launch of new models.
“We launched the Bolero Neo for the new age customer’s looking for a tough, powerful, go-anywhere authentic SUV. We also launched the Supro Profittruck range of SCV’s offering guaranteed higher mileage and payload and have on-boarded Ajay Devgn as the brand ambassador. Both launches have received very positive initial response and we are confident of building on this in the coming months.”