The coronavirus lockdown added to the woes of automakers in March with sales of market leader Maruti Suzuki declining 47 per cent during the month.

The sector has been witnessing a sharp slide, hit by an economic slowdown and the transition to BS-VI norms.

Maruti said it sold 83,792 vehicles in March, down 47 per cent from a year earlier, although it said the number was not comparable with 2019 given the suspension of operations from March 22 because of the lockdown.

With this, the company ended 2019-20 with sales of 1.56 million units, down 16 per cent from 1.86 million in the previous fiscal.

“Consumers’ decision to postpone their purchase of vehicles and higher prices of end products because of the spurt in input costs will pull down the demand significantly in the coming fiscal. Many manufacturing units have already cut down their production levels. Given that the automotive sector contributes 6-7 per cent to India’s GDP and more than 40 per cent to the manufacturing value added, even a temporary halt in production will have large repercussions for the economy,” Dun & Bradstreet said in a research note.

Hyundai clocked domestic sales of 26,300 units in March, a fall of 41 per cent year-on-year. The fall during the previous fiscal was less severe than Maruti at 11 per cent with sales at 4.85 lakh units.

Sales of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) plunged 88 per cent in March with the company selling just 3,384 units. For 2019-20, the company recorded a sales decline of 27 per cent year-on-year to 1.86 lakh units

Veejay Ram Nakra, CEO (automotive division) at M&M, said, “Our performance in March has been muted on account of the impact of the current lockdown and the disruption in our BS-VI ramp-up. The latter was planned between February and March, but was affected because of the challenges with regard to the supply of parts from global and local suppliers.”

Tata Motors’ sales fell 68 percent year-on-year to 5,676 units in March. For 2019-20, the maker of Nexon and Harrier clocked sales of 1.31 lakh, down 38 percent.

Mayank Pareek, president of passenger vehicles business unit at Tata Motors, said, “Sales was affected by the Covid-19 outbreak and the subsequent nationwide lockdown. Our BS-IV vehicle stock is near zero in the entire network.”