Mahindra sold a total of just 3,383 units in March 2020 as against 27,637 units during the same month last year with 88 per cent sales decline
Mahindra & Mahindra endured a terrible month in sales last time out as it posted a massive year-on-year decline of 88 per cent. The month of March 2020 was predicted to be one of the worst in the Indian automotive history as the nationwide lockdown would take its toll by a big margin. The Coronavirus pandemic is running wild with the death toll and infected patients across the country increasing day-in and day-out.
As the factories of the carmakers were closed, the production was completely stopped leading to a large mass of people losing jobs directly or indirectly. The same scenario prevails across all the industries as there is no definitive answer to when the economy will be back on track as no cure has been invented yet and the recommended ways of preventing the infection are by practicing social distancing and maintaining good sanitation.
With the sales figures of March 2020 are out, it is hard not to see why every brand is affected. Mahindra & Mahindra, the homegrown passenger Utility Vehicle specialists, usually ends up third or fourth in the manufacturers’ table monthly but the awful scenario endured by the market had led it to slip down to eighth position.
Last month also marked the final period to clear out the BSIV stocks before the supreme court allowed for changes in a recent adjudication. Mahindra registered a total of just 3,383 units in March 2020 as against 27,637 units during the corresponding month last year with a massive year-on-year decline of 88 per cent.
Mahindra secured only 2.4 per cent market share as opposed to 9.6 per cent in March 2019. The drop in sales comes at a time when Mahindra was also preparing to introduce new generation versions of the Scorpio, Thar and XUV500. The second generation Thar and Scorpio are expected to debut in the coming months but the inauspicious conditions may delay their respective launches.
We do hope the auto sector will get back to its progressive ways sooner rather than later but everything depends on how we tackle the pandemic and suppress it!