AYUSHI KARMumbai, June 1

The Covid 19 pandemic hasseverely aff��ected domesticsales in the three-wheelerauto segment. According todata released by the Society ofIndian Automobile Manufac-turers (SIAM), domestic salesfor three-wheelers are almostat a two-decade low. Sales in2020-2021 were below the do-mestic sales in the 2002-2003.Experts suggest that Covid 19,and consequent lockdownsimpacted micro-mobility ofpeople creating a negative im-pact on the rickshaw industry,which is the largest customersegment in this space.

The three-wheeler segmentis made of two categories: thepassenger segment and thecargo segment. The decline inoverall numbers is largely dueto a decline in sales in passen-ger vehicle segment. Accord-ing to global analytics com-pany, Crisil, 82 per cent of thesales in this segment are inpassenger vehicles while 9per cent are in the cargo seg-ment.

People’s movement hit“During the pandemic mobil-ity services have been severelyhit in comparison to manu-facturing,” said Hetal Gandhi,Director at Crisil Research. Asa result, the movement ofpeople using public transporthas been dented in compar-ison to the movement ofgoods. According to Gandhi,freight demand has picked up

to near 2020 levels by the endof fi��scal 2021. However, overallsales of the three-wheelerauto segment continue to re-main poor due to their focuson passenger movementvehicles. In fact, if sales in thepassenger-carrying four-wheeler vehicles (LCV buses)are compared to the passen-ger-carrying three-wheelersegment, the decline in salesis similar, according to CrisilResearch data.

Rakesh Sharma, ED, BajajAuto Ltd, said: “While three-wheeler sales had staged a re-covery by Q4 and reached upto almost 80 per cent of theirnormal levels, they declinedby 50 per cent in April 2021and are expected to fare worsein May. This is entirely the con-sequence of the lockdowns.”Lockdowns result in a reduc-tion of public transport usageand the closure of institu-tions such as schools, offi��cesetc has aff��ected the daily earn-ings of the three-wheelerdriver. “Since almost 90 percent of three-wheelers pur-chased are fi��nanced, the re-duction in earnings impairs

the ability of drivers or own-ers to service the EMIs, lead-ing to a loss of retail sales,”said Sharma.

EV transitionExperts also suggest that SIAMdata for domestic sales couldalso be showing a skewed de-cline in sales, since the mar-ket is transitioning to electricthree-wheeler vehicles whichare largely supplied by the un-organised sector, thus not re-gistered with SIAM. Transitionto EV, however, appears to alsobe a business opportunity.

Thus, despite an overall 66per cent decline in three-wheeler sales last year, Ma-hesh Babu, CEO, MahindraElectric Mobility Ltd, remainsoptimistic, “While the overallthree-wheeler industry hasdeclined last year, the sales ofMahindra Treo EV range hasincreased by 9 per cent. Goingforward, we expect electricvehicles and other alternativefuels to expand into the mar-ket share of traditional smallcommercial vehicles in bothpassenger and cargosegment.”

Limited mobilityimpacts segment

3-wheeler sales hit a two-decade low in FY21

With lockdowns, usage of public transport went down