Among the many sectors of the economy that have been seriously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the automotive sector has had to face a larger share of the problems. The sector was already struggling to stay afloat with the sales graph steadily declining. Then came the issue at the dealers’ end where they were stuck with the BS-IV models and they went right up to the Supreme Court for some relief. And now the lockdown due to the Coronavirus threat. As per an Economic Times report, companies planning for new launches of their models are now seriously considering holding back till the economy gets back to some level of normalcy and the overall consumer sentiment improves.
New launches may be pushed back till the festival season in India of September-October 2020.
Companies like Toyota Kirloskar Motor are claiming that they are still evaluation the precise impact of the lockdown and any new launch will have to be a nuanced one taking all the factors into consideration.
At Hyundai, the South Korean major had just before the lockdown launched its all-new Verna. The cars have reportedly reached some dealer points and the prices have also been announced. However, there has hardly been any offtake since the lockdown has interfered. The company wants to unveil a reworked Tucson model this August. Whether they can stick to this date is still to be seen.
Hyundai’s subsidiary Kia Motors is also similarly mulling its options for release of Sonet, a compact SUV around the same time as Tucson by Hyundai. The Sonet is built on the same platform as the Hyundai Venue.
From the marketing perspective, the companies may keep releasing information and even some online advertisements to keep the customer interest alive and on top of the mind. There is no clarity if they would want to push the existing models first as and when the lockdown is lifted and wait for a more opportune time for undertaking new launches or go the whole hog. There is a sense of uncertainty that the disease has created.
For most automobile companies, the larger challenge could be to resume full-scale production in their factories, especially with several workers going back to their hometowns.
The automobile companies will take stock of the ground situation only after the lockdown is first lifted and the decision on the limited opening up the economy that the government has been sending signals about comes through.