Ketan Thakkar
The company told analysts that the unsold stock totals about 1.5 lakh units. With the Supreme Court allowing 10% of unsold inventory to be registered, Hero MotoCorp will be offering discounts of Rs 10,000 on a motorcycle and about Rs 15,000 on a scooter to clear inventory that remains unsold.
Performance in March has eclipsed declines during events such as demonetisation in late 2016, implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) in 2017 and the global financial crisis of 2008, experts said. Passenger vehicle sales are seen at 145,000-150,000 units in March, halving from the year-ago month. Two-wheeler sales are expected to have slipped below a million units.
The move reflects the acute distress the industry is going through after a nationwide lockdown forced by the Covid-19 virus outbreak resulted in shuttering of manufacturing facilities and dealerships for automobile companies.
Having assured government that auto component makers will not retrench any work force including temporary workers, the part makers are urging the vehicle makers to release their timely payment and also requesting the government to extend the sops, so as to ensure that their cash does not dry up quickly.
The Indian automotive market is transitioning from BS IV emission norms to BS VI emission norms from 1st of April 2020. Meanwhile, Isuzu said that a firmer date will be announced closer to the launch. “We wish all people and our customers safety in the confines of their homes and urge everyone to take all safety precautionary measures to ward the pandemic away,” the company further added.
Hero MotoCorp will invoke force majeure to suspend full payments to vendors as sales come to a standstill
The passenger vehicles subsidiary will be headed by Shailersh Chandra, who is presently the electric vehicles business head at Tata Motors. Chandra will take over as the president of the passenger vehicles business from 1 April from Mayank Pareek, who is set to retire.
Mahindra & Mahindra is partnership with two public sector units is working with an existing manufacturer of high-spec ventilators to help them simplify design and scale up capacity, said Pawan Goenka, MD of Mahindra & Mahindra a few days after the chairman Anand Mahindra announced that the group will offer all possible support to deal with COVID-19 contagion.
Mahindra & Mahindra’s Managing Director Pawan Goenka says that companies across the board will face a period of virtually no revenue but some level of fixed costs.
The lockdown across the country to combat the Covid-19 pandemic has jeopardised Rs 6,400 crore worth of unsold BS-IV vehicle stock with dealers as it cannot be sold after 31 March when BS-VI norms become effective.
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