India's leading automobile dealers association on Monday said sales will take longer to recover than they did after the first wave of Covid-19 infections last year as the virus spreads to villages and smaller towns.
Auto sales, especially cars and sport-utility vehicles (SUVs), bounced back strongly last year as buyers rushed to buy private vehicles to ensure safety and maintain social distance.
With infections now spreading to rural areas, a recovery is expected to take longer, the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) said. The association said it expects sales to return to their peak levels of March 2019 only by fiscal year 2023 - about two years from now.