New Delhi: Vehicle registrations gone down on both sequential and year-on-year (YoY) basis in February this year. With fuel prices continuing to show the upward trend, it has resulted to the automobile industry. The fuel price hike has directly hit the automobile business.

The data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) reported that vehicle registration was gone down by 13.43 per cent to around 14.99 lakh in February, compared to over 17.31 lakh units reported for the corresponding period of last year. Similarly, the registration count declined on a sequential basis to around 14.99 lakh in February from over 15.92 lakh in January 2021. The President of FADA, Vinkesh Gulati, fuel prices are at its historic high and has put a dampener in sentiments. This in-turn has pressed brake on sale of entry level price sensitive category.

However, in February 2021, registration of personal vehicles grew by 10.59 per cent on a YoY basis to 254,058 units. Similarly, tractor registration rose 18.89 per cent on a YoY basis in February to 61,351 units.

In contrast, two-wheeler registration fell by 16.08 per cent to over 10.91 lakh units.

According to FADA President Vinkesh Gulati, "Auto registrations continued to fall in double digits by (-) 13.43 per cent YoY in the month of February. While 'Tractors' maintained their outperformance compared to the broader market, passenger vehicles witnessed double digit growth on low base of last year as India started transitioning from BS-4 to BS-6 emission norms."

"This coupled with the global semiconductor outrage kept waiting period of PV as high as 8 months."

Gulati said that enquiry levels also narrowed as many educational institutions were still reluctant to open. "Overall CV segment continues to falter as availability of finance, negligible sales of passenger buses due to closure of educational institutes and supply side constraints kept the registrations in deep red."

(With inputs from IANS)