 "Used cars sales grow 15% in 2016; dealers expect uptick in demand from Feb")
The used passenger car market has grown by around 16 per cent in 2016, selling around 3.5 million units. This is despite a steep drop in growth in November owing to demonetisation. Used car dealers, however, expect a revival in demand around the next quarter.
Shubh Bansal, co-founder and chief of marketing and growth, Truebil, said that on the whole from January to November the industry had grown 15-18 per cent. “Roughly, around 3.5 million used cars were sold this year so far as against three million cars last year. The organised sector, however, is clocking a much faster growth rate, at around 35 per cent year-on-year.”
The organised sector comprises around 17-20 per cent of the overall used car market in the country. Around 35 per cent of the transactions are customer-to-customer, and the remaining is part of the unorganised industry.
The unorganised sector deals in cash transactions, and it had pulled down the overall growth in November, which fell by around 40 per cent.
Vinay Sanghi, founder and CEO of CarTrade.com, agreed that the overall industry growth this year had been in the range of 15-17 per cent, which is in line with expectations. He added that a revival was likely soon after demand was tapered down by weak sentiments in the wake of demonetisation.
Bansal too added that dealers expected a spurt in demand for used cars during February-March, as the effect of demonetisation wanes.
Truebil, a virtual marketplace for pre-owned cars, said in its Online Classifieds Used Cars Report 2016 that Maruti, Hyundai and Honda were among the most researched used car brands on the company’s platform this constituting 41.06 per cent, 18.42 per cent and 9.32 per cent respectively of the total searches (see box).