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Exports of passenger vehicles from the country declined by 39% in the last financial year 2020-21 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The decline in exports in the last financial year was mainly during the first half.

India was the world’s fourth-largest manufacturer of cars and the seventh-largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in 2019.

The pandemic affected exports of passenger vehicles due to the lockdown and other logistics and supply chain issues. Although the industry tried to improve exports in the second half, despite its efforts the figure for exports was much lower than the previous financial year.

According to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), a vehicle manufacturers’ association, exports of passenger vehicles declined by 38.92%to 4,04,400 units in the last financial year.

Passenger car dispatches declined by 44.32% to 2,64,927 units last fiscal compared to 4,75,801 units in FY20. Overseas shipments of vans saw a steep 42.16% fall during the last fiscal to 1,648 units from 2,849 units in 2019-20. Similarly, utility vehicle exports declined by 24.88% to 1,83,468 units in 2019-20.

“While the exports of passenger vehicles had dropped by a whopping 58% in the first half of FY21 due to the pandemic and resultant lockdowns, marginal improvement due to multitude of efforts by the OEMs in the second half of FY21 led to the year closing with an overall decline in exports of passenger vehicles by 39 per cent,” SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon told PTI.

Most of the major PV exporters saw a significant drop in their overseas shipments in the last fiscal. The country’s leading exporter Hyundai Motor India shipped 1,04,342 units in 2020-21 fiscal, down 38.57% compared to the previous fiscal.

Maruti Suzuki India exported 94,938 units, down 5.34% from the year-ago period. Ford India shipped 46,064 units to overseas markets during the period under review, down 64.96% from FY20.

Nissan Motor India exported 32,390 units last fiscal, down 59.25% from the 2019-20 fiscal. Volkswagen India exported 31,089 units during the period under review, down 44.1% from 2019-20. Besides, General Motors India exported 28,619 units, down 47.84% from the same period last year.

Kia Motors India and Honda Cars India however witnessed an increase in overseas shipments last fiscal. Kia exported 40,440 units during the period, an increase of 88.43% over 2019-20. Similarly, Honda Cars shipped 5,151 units in 2020-21 up 37.54% over 2019-20.