The semiconductor shortage continues to haunt many of the passenger vehicle manufacturers in India, including the market leader Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) and others like Hyundai Motor India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Toyota and Honda who have reported decline in sales in January.

MSIL has reported a 7 per cent decline in its domestic sales year-on-year (YoY) to around 1.29 lakh units as compared with 1.39 lakh units in January last year.

“The shortage of electronic components had a minor impact on the production of vehicles which are primarily sold in domestic market. The company took all possible measures to minimise the impact,” MSIL said in a statement.

Hyundai Motor India also reported a decline of 15 per cent YoY in its domestic sales to 44,022 units in January as compared with 52,005 units in January 2021.

Japanese subsidiaries Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Honda Cars India had also reported decline of 34 per cent and 8 per cent respectively in their monthly sales during the month. However, the companies said they were positive about the overall situation in the coming months.

“Despite the supply chain and Covid-related challenges, we have started off 2022 on a promising note. The sales in the month of January’22 got partially impacted owing to the weekend-lockdowns in some cities but overall, the situation looks positive and steady. All of our production output have been getting dispatched to our dealer partners in time, meeting the demand for the Honda models. The market situation will improve with the reduction in the Covid-caseload as we move forward,” Yuichi Murata, Director, Marketing and Sales, Honda Cars India said.

Homegrown utility vehicles maker M&M also reported a decline of three per cent in its domestic sales during the month.

Higher sales from Tata Motors

However, ‘Nexon’ maker Tata Motors that had beaten Hyundai Motor in domestic sales in December, continues to keep its spirit high with better sales in January as well. It sold 40,777 units of passenger vehicles in January, a growth of 51 per cent YoY as compared with 26,978 units in corresponding month last year.

Kia India, Nissan India, MG Motor and Skoda Auto India also reported growth in their sales.

Two-wheelers skid

Meanwhile, the two-wheeler industry except Suzuki Motorcycle, continues to see decline in sales for the consecutive months in January as well. Apart from market leaders like Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HSMI), other manufacturers such as TVS Motor, Bajaj Auto and Royal Enfield reported double digit decline in their respective sales in January.

Hero MotoCorp reported a decline of 23 per cent in its YoY sales to 3,58,660 units in January against 4,67,776 units in corresponding month last year. Similarly, HMSI recorded sales of 3,15,196 units last month as against 4,16,716 two-wheelers in January 2021.

In the commercial vehicles segment, most of the companies showed growing trend during the month.

However, in tractor segment, both M&M and Escorts reported decline in sales.

“Industry wholesales continues to be impacted in January, due to unseasonal rainfall in certain part of country, high base of last year and inflationary impact on short term demand leading to higher level of channel inventory in certain geographies,” Escorts said.