“The waiting period on the high requirement, high trim vehicles have gone really out of hand. Some vehicles have gone more than a year which is not a good sign of customer satisfaction but overall passenger vehicle demand is strong and we are hoping the supply chain issues go away so that we can convert it into retails also,” says Vinkesh Gulati, President, Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations.
He added, “So overall, rural India is where the current challenge lies for us. It is becoming a bigger pain point and the kind of enquiry level or demand which we normally saw from rural India is not coming back post the second wave of Covid. It is clearly evident that the entry level cars are not moving much and the two-wheelers are not selling. If you see the latest number of tractors also, there is a negative situation which is clearly evident in rural India or Bharat, which saved us post the first lockdown but has been ineffective in post second lockdown. So overall, that is not a good sign. If rural India goes up, it is overall positive for everybody but for the auto industry, this is a major concern today.”
