[nakul0888]

Originally Posted by 2cents

I find it curious that Kerala is ahead of Karnataka, TN, and AP+Telangana. Kerala is smaller than others in both area and population, and I thought economically too! Looks otherwise. Other states definitely have more number of dealerships each, so..??!!

You can thank his highness Mohammed bin Rashid al maktoum ruler of Dubai for the performance of us Malyalees. Repatriated money coming into Kerala from outside contributes significantly to the Kerala economy. In fact a significant number of Malayalee millionaires and billionaires make their bucks outside Kerala first and then invest back into Kerala. Even when we Malayalees choose not to go outside the country we still don’t get our head start from Kerala, we will migrate to other states like Bangalore , Mumbai , Hyderabad and make money there.
About 3/4th of my high school friends are now not in Kerala. Most of them are either in gulf or in Bangalore.
I don’t know why we Malayalees do this. But we just can’t seem to be productive in our home state. Only when we move outside can we seem to do anything.

[Latheesh]

Originally Posted by kuriancjohn

With regards to Kerala, what I have observed is the sheer number of "small" cars on the roads, especially in the tier-2 towns. That could be a factor when analyzing how Kerala beat the heavy-weights like Karnataka.

Yes, it is true. It is a major market for Maruti that one of the dealer (Indus?) win the best dealer award every time. I remember reading about delivery of ~ 1500 cars in one day by them. Significant percentage of these small cars are owned by daily wage workers as their earning is high comparing to other states. Few of Maruti cars in my locality are owned by daily wage workers (fitter, electrician, construction worker, studio cameraman, medical store sales man etc)

Originally Posted by PearlJam

Kerala is really surprising. I would assume that Kerala would do even better if the data also had a break up of luxury car numbers

Yes, we do not have many super expensive cars but high end cars are many even in small towns.

Two wheeler: Even brands like KTM has 2 showrooms in my small city, and Enfield brand showrooms are 4 (2 in city limit and other two in the district limit).

Traffic is horrible during peak hours that I started walking/cycling and using public transport whenever I visit my home town.

[deemash]

Originally Posted by PearlJam

Kerala is really surprising. I would assume that Kerala would do even better if the data also had a break up of luxury car numbers

That is just because Kerala has money flow from the Gulf region

[Amity]

I am surprised that Haryana has almost double the sales as compared to Punjab. Punjab has more population and is generally perceived to be a richer and flashier state which should ideally have resulted in higher automobile sales.

One of the reasons may be Haryana's proximity to Delhi. I am sure more than half the cars registered in Haryana are from Gurugram and Faridabad-the NCR cities. Many of the Delhi residents also register their costly cars in Haryana.

[SamitMukherjee]

Originally Posted by NaXal

What is surprising though is how Assam with poor road infrastructure, lower population, lesser road network or even lower number of actual business/industry is out numbering Bihar/Jharkhand/Orissa?

Assam's road conditions and infrastructure are not that bad. I agree, it may not be as good as KA, GJ or MH but it is definitely not far behind. In fact, it is mostly at par with West Bengal. Roadways has always been a major form of communication in Assam.
I clearly recall, boarding day bus at 8am from Guwahati for Tinsukia (500 Km apart 2-laned road then) and reaching there by 6pm and this was in early 2000's, with 2 breaks of 20 minutes each. Now part of this road is 4-laned and we have Volvos doing service. Compare this to travelling between Kolkata and Siliguri in Day bus.
Assam has witnessed drastic infrastructural developments post 2000's. But there are lot more to happen.
North East people always have a knack to buy cars and bikes. People from neighbouring N.E states come to Assam for job and settles there. Thanks to all these, fifteen years back, there used to be only 3 Maruti dealership in Guwahati, now the number has gone up to 10 (Nexa included). OLA/UBER also contributes a lot in car sales figures of this state.
Now with the opening of luxury brands like Audi, Mercedes etc. car sales have gone up exponentially.

Originally Posted by NaXal

I guess somehow people from other North Eastern states are buying vehicles from Assam based dealership? Because numbers just fall from a cliff when you see Tripura / Nagaland / Meghalaya / Arunachal.

Except for luxury brands, not many people from neighbouring states purchases cars from Assam.
Instead some people from Assam purchases car from Meghalaya due to lower taxes in this hilly state.

This case also applies to WB, where people from Sikkim buys luxury cars from WB.

[CarJunki]

I think the data from kerala is not so surprising.
I have been there and driven through the highways of kerala.
In most other states in south India, residential area roads are probably wider than national highways in kerala.
Width of road in BDA residential layout (Bangalore) is minimum 40Ft+Storm Drain compared to national highway width of 60Ft in kerala.


Having said that, possibly number of cars getting onto roads on a regular basis is far lesser. When vehicle becomes a prestige issue it tends to be kept parked in the lot for display.

Just as example: the traffic junction close to electronic city in Bangalore sees movement of more than 600,000 vehicles per day, 6 days a week. This includes busses trucks and others. Data is slightly older (2 years).

[deemash]

Originally Posted by CarJunki

Having said that, possibly number of cars getting onto roads on a regular basis is far lesser. When vehicle becomes a prestige issue it tends to be kept parked in the lot for display.

Well said! I personally know a person who owns a Honda City which will always be parked in his car porch in front of his Home. He uses Santro for daily errands.
When queried why City is not being used, he said the same "prestige".

Population density is more in Kerala and if everyone comes out in cars, God also cannot save God's own country.

[Vishfull]

As per the 2017 data from Niti Aayog, the population density of Kerala is 4th in India, behind Delhi, Bihar and West Bengal (excluding union territories except Delhi). To compare, it is 315 for Maharashtra and 276 for Karnataka, where as it is 819 (Per Sq. Km) for Kerala. For Delhi it is 9340 though

In the same scale, Kerala stands at number 10 in per capita income. But the Kerala is a state with a huge middle class population unlike other states where the poor constitute a majority(Just a guess, not based on any data). This could be the main reason why Kerala is buying more cars.

I am living in suburbs of Kochi. While I travel through the small roads, I could see a car parked in 3 out of every 10 houses. And almost all new houses are constructed with a parking lot, waiting for a new car

[bsdbsd]

I read the post twice or thrice to make sure what I read was correct. Kerala being ahead in numbers is surprising given the surface area of the state. I agree with many of the comments posted here about why it could be the case.

One thing I cant wrap my head around is that, I find Kerala's roads are better than the ones in KA. I am a Bangalorean/KA native and a PR. Many of my pleasant experiences were on KLs roads (minus the people and road width). What am I missing?

[rupak.choudhury]

Originally Posted by NaXal

What is surprising though is how Assam with poor road infrastructure, lower population, lesser road network or even lower number of actual business/industry is out numbering Bihar/Jharkhand/Orissa?

Assam has very good road infrastructure & network as opposed to what is usually fed in the news. Yes, the population is on the lower side, but the overall development is on an upscale. Previously there was the insurgency issue, which once got subdued, development has taken over the reins. Also, Assam being the most developed state in North East, the business is flourishing well for everyone in Assam & results are proving the same.

Originally Posted by NaXal

Infact Assam isn't far from beating West Bengal with just a gap or around 20%?

Aapke muh mein ghee shakkar ! Hopefully, we'll be there soon. I know that our Dealership in Guwahati has been selling more vehicles than any individual Dealership of WB. So, it goes without saying that we're trying really hard to do well & get noticed.

Originally Posted by NaXal

I wonder if these numbers are based on how many cars are despatched to a Assam based showroom or actual cars registered with Assam state RTO?

This has to be certified by the original post member. However, usually the Whole Sale numbers are always taken into consideration. So, it'll be safe to presume that 'despatched to Assam' figures would be the one.

Originally Posted by NaXal

I guess somehow people from other North Eastern states are buying vehicles from Assam based dealership? Because numbers just fall from a cliff when you see Tripura / Nagaland / Meghalaya / Arunachal.

It used to happen previously. Now with GST, the rates of vehicles are same across the country. As such, no cross selling happen due to price factor. But yes, availability issues does help the Assam Dealerships to get a marginal 5% extra sales from the neighboring states.

[jassi_jeeper]

Wow, Haryana buys more cars than us Punjabis! I could never imagine that! I was under the wrong impression that Punjab would outnumber Haryana many fold!

[petroguzzler]

Originally Posted by SpideyBoy

The Zonewise Toppers are as mentioned: Kerala for South;

The sales numbers for Kerala in this time period may be high due to a surge in replacement demand after the devastating floods last year.

[niteshbids]

Originally Posted by jassi_jeeper

Wow, Haryana buys more cars than us Punjabis! I could never imagine that! I was under the wrong impression that Punjab would outnumber Haryana many fold!

A major contribution to Haryana numbers would be from Gurugram and Faridabad with them being in NCR and have tons of money due to industries in Faridabad and Manesar and huge number of corporate offices in Gurugram.

[sparky@home]

One of the collateral damages for the high number of vehicles sold in Kerala, also translates to one of the highest number of road fatalities in the country, I think. Approximately 4200 lives were lost on the roads, and the number of grievously injured were around 31600, last year. The high literacy does not translate to good common sense for driving on the road.

[rapid_fire]

One interesting thing to note is the large “middle income class” in Kerala. Here the percentage of Below proverty line people is 7% when compared to 21% national average, and its second best after Goa (source Wikipedia).

It is not the replacement for flood affected cars that reflected in the sales. The flood happened in August 3rd week. If you check the Quarster wise sale, we can see the sales in the state were better in Q1 and Q2 (before the flood) and then there was a dip in Q3 and Q4 (after the flood). I think, untill december 2018, most people in the flood affected areas were slowly recovering the aftermath of the flood (hosese were destroyed, partially or completely, Electronic appliances were damaged, it took atleast 1 month to get my house livable again). As far as I can see, now most of the people are completely recovered from the effects of the devastating flood, and might be looking for replacements for their lost wheels.