Tata Motors reports 50% jump in PV sales to 35,299 units in Dec

Homegrown auto major Tata Motors on Saturday reported a 50 per cent jump in total passenger vehicle sales to 35,299 units in December 2021.

The company had sold a total of 23,545 units in the same month a year ago, Tata Motors said in a regulatory filing.

In the third quarter ended December 2021, the company said its total passenger vehicle sales stood at 99,002 units as compared with 68,806 units sold the same period in the previous year, up 44 per cent.

"Tata Motors PV business growth journey continued and set several new milestones during the quarter despite witnessing a shortfall in production due to the ongoing semi-conductor crisis," Tata Motors President (Passenger Vehicles Business Unit) Shailesh Chandra said.

A decade-high quarterly and monthly sales were recorded. In addition, the company also posted a calendar year sale of 3,31,178 units in 2021, the highest-ever since the inception of the PV business, he added.

"Records were also created on the EV front as EV sales witnessed a new peak of 5,592 units in Q3 FY22 (growth of 345 per cent versus Q3 FY21)," Chandra said.

Electric vehicle (EV) sales also touched 10,000 units in the first nine months of the ongoing fiscal and crossed 2,000 monthly sales landmark for the first time in December 2021 at 2,255 units, he added.

"Going forward, semiconductor supplies will remain the key source of uncertainty. Additionally, the impact of the new strain of COVID-19 needs to be closely tracked. We will continue to work on a business agility plan and take proactive actions to mitigate these risks," Chandra said.

On the commercial vehicles front, the company said it sold 34,151 units in December 2021 as against 32,869 units in the year-ago month, up four per cent.

For the third quarter ended December 2021, the total CV sales stood at 1,00,070 units as against 89,323 units in the same period previous fiscal, a growth of 12 per cent.

"The SCV (small commercial vehicle) and ILCV (intermediate and light commercial vehicle) segments continued to benefit from the growth in e-commerce and the increasing need for last-mile delivery," Tata Motors Executive Director Girish Wagh said.

Construction and infrastructure spending by central and state governments plus rising activity in sectors such as mining, petroleum-oil-lubricants and allied industries facilitated the demand for M&HCVs (medium and heavy commercial vehicles), he added.

"Going forward, we expect the situation to remain fluid as the semiconductor shortage continues, instances of COVID-19 begin to rise and underlying demand continues to remain under pressure," he said.

Wagh added that the company is keeping a close watch on the evolving situation and sharpening its agile, multi-pronged approach to fulfilling customer orders.