Amid the Coranavirus outbreak across the world, the automotive industry is staring at an unprecedented slowdown. In India, car and bike dealerships have now started re-opening, amid the ongoing lockdown. However, while the intention of opening the dealerships was to get some business during the slowdown, a lot of dealerships have started receiving cancellation request from customers that were scheduled to take deliveries in the coming weeks.
A few dealership, however, have started delivering vehicles to customers who had made their full payments before the country-wide lockdown was imposed. But due to the continuous cancellations being received, dealership owners are concerned about the sustainability of business during this period.
Ever since the dealerships opened, customer footfalls have been negligible. As a result, new bookings are scarce. In contrast, dealers are losing the revenue that was scheduled to be coming in during the next few weeks. This is causing a lot of outlets to cut salaries of its employees, or even lay-off a part of its workforce.
As per various research reports, 70% of Indian new car buyers take finance options. However, owing to the economic slowdown across the country, people are now hesitant to commit for loans and the resulting EMIs. This is causing the customers to delay their purchase decisions.
There is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel though. Some experts do believe that sales of affordable cars will increase once the lockdown is lifted as office-goers will prefer to avoid public transport for the sake of social distancing.