The second wave of Covid-19 will push back recovery in the auto sector to pre-Covid peaks by five years.

Bosch Ltd managing director Soumitra Bhattacharya, who was upbeat about a V-shaped recovery in the auto segment, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2020-21, now feels the industry will take another year to reach the four million sales volume of 2018-19.

“We had earlier said that it would take from 2018-19 another four years to reach the same peak. However, tractor sales had reached their peak in three years itself. For passenger cars, the timeline was four years but it may take five years to achieve the pre-pandemic levels. Without the second wave, India had a chance to go near-about to the peak in certain segments. Now, we see another setback and whether it is one month or two months... we need to watch out,” said Bhattacharya

The second wave of the pandemic is bound to affect the supply chain because of the local lockdowns.

“There will be supply chain disruptions as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) source their components from all over the country. As far as Bosch is concerned, all our units are running except for the one in Nasik where there is a complete lockdown,” said Bhattacharya.

Shortage of chips, which is affecting most OEMs, is likely to continue through 2021, he added. Chip shortage is a global crisis and India cannot be delinked from that. Natural disasters like snow in the US and fire in a Japan factory are deepening the crisis, Bhattacharya said.