Domestic auto sales may drop up to 25 pc this fiscal: MG Motor India A A

Domestic auto sales may drop up to 25 pc this fiscal: MG Motor India A A

New Delhi: Hit by the coronavirus pandemic, auto sales in India could drop by up to 25 per cent in the ongoing fiscal from an already low base of the previous year, according to a top official of MG Motor India.

With the health crisis likely to peak in April-June period, the expectation is that sales in the quarter will decline by as much as 40-50 per cent.

“The worst case, as I see for the industry, is may be a 25 per cent decline this year…the best case probably is 11 per cent down,” MG Motor India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba told PTI.

Commenting on how he sees the industry coming out of the crisis, Chaba said, “In April, May, June, my feeling is that in any scenario, industry will be down by at least 40 to 50 per cent.”

Stressing on how crucial the April-June period is, he said, “You will see more uncertainty…this is the time where you will see the peak of cases (coronavirus infection). Hopefully by June, we start seeing light at the end of the tunnel and we can see how this whole thing will be coming to an end. I hope we go through this quarter.”

Elaborating on the challenges ahead for the industry, he said, “In July to September I would like to believe that the economy will start limping back to a new normal economy. Let’s say 70-80 per cent of normal or 50 per cent of normal, and it will start limping back.”

So at that point of time, Chaba said, “The huge issue for most of the industries, including auto industry is going to be harder to generate the demand, because most of the consumers may not be in the right frame of mind and are not going to buy things like car.”

At that point, he said, the question of demand stimulation will arise for which the industry would need government support. “Here I think the government may have to move into the next mode. Also, along with that the industry as well as government have to do something on demand stimulation so that the customers are coming to a better frame of mind and they move on to new phase of their lives,” Chaba said.

When the festival season starts in September-October, Chaba said, “Hopefully, we have come out of, the majority of the issues are over, still the virus would be there and precautions, everybody has to keep. That’s the new normal. I think by festival time we would at least come back to the last year level but last year was already low base for the industry. At that low base we can come equal for the industry.”

According to industry body SIAM, in the fiscal ended March 31, total vehicle sales across categories in India were down 17.96 per cent at 2,15,48,494 units as against 2,62,66,179 units in 2018-19.

Similarly, passenger vehicle sales were also down 17.82 per cent at 27,75,679 units in FY20 as against 33,77,389 units in FY19.

Hoping that by 2021 things will be better for the industry, Chaba said,”I think it should start taking off from January February onwards next year. So this is how I see it.”

On steps taken by the company to endure the impact of the health crisis, Chaba said, “We are calibrating our business. We are doing a lot of planning and forecasting what can be the various scenarios of the market in the next nine months to 12 months. Accordingly, we need to have a new cost structure in place so that we can survive.”

He, however, asserted that “even in that worst case, we have given a pledge to our employees that we will not release or will not do a single job cut. All employees are safe in our company, because that’s also part of community.

In talks with 3 medical device cos to manufacture ventilators: MG Motor India

In talks with 3 medical device cos to manufacture ventilators: MG Motor India

New Delhi: MG Motor India is in talks with three medical device makers, including GE, to produce ventilators at its Halol facility to help meet demand during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a top company official.

The company, which has also launched a hunt for a low-cost ventilator design through a challenge, is also developing its own ventilator and hopes to be ready with a prototype within a week as part of its three-pronged approach to get into ventilator manufacturing considering the shortage during this health crisis.

“We are talking to medical equipment companies like GE and some other companies, which already have established and approved designs. If they can tell us, then we can start manufacturing based on their design in our plant,” MG Motor India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba told PTI.

He further said all three companies have responded positively and that can be the fastest solution if there is a design approved by the medical body already and everything is in place.

Besides, he said, “In the last 10 days, our engineering team is busy making a prototype. I’m happy to say that we have already made the drawings and everything. We have talked to the medical experts, our prototype should be ready in the next one week. If that prototype is approved, then our own designed ventilator can be manufactured by MG in India.”

However, this approach will take some more time as it needs regulatory approvals, he added.

The company has also announced a Rs 10 lakh grant through its “challenge to youngsters and young engineers that if they want to make a low-cost design, we are going to help them”, Chaba said.

On the manufacturing of ventilators, he said MG Motor India will create infrastructure at its Halol facility and would even carve out a separate unit if need be.

“If the car demand is not too much in future then my existing manpower can work on this project. We may have to have some new capex for this kind of a thing, although I don’t know exactly how does that look like. But then we will look at putting the right capex into this project to make the ventilators,” he said.

On the other hand, Chaba said that if the demand for the company’s vehicles continues and have waiting period as it is now and “if our people get busy making the cars, I feel we would carve out a separate unit for ventilators.”

“If we have to recruit more people, we will do it to have more people into this project because this virus is not going to go away in the next three years or so,” he said, stressing that even if vaccines are developed for the coronavirus it is going to take long to make them available at a mass scale.

He further said that in India at the moment there is a huge gap between demand and supply for ventilators.

“We don’t want to make this as a profit making venture. If we can keep it low cost and operate at breakeven and supply to the community, to the government, it will be a great service,” Chaba said.