The Automotive Distributors Association (ODD) announced the automobile and light commercial vehicle sales figures for October. The announced data reveal that there is a very serious contraction in the automotive sector. So much so that the total automotive sales in October were recorded as 56 thousand 746 units. While 40 thousand 512 of these were automobiles, light commercial vehicle sales were 16 thousand 234. These figures mean a 40.1 percent decrease compared to October 2020.
Although the announced data seem to be negative, when we look at the January-October period, we see that this year has been a little more active. Because the total number of sales in the January-October 2021 range was 614 thousand 891 units. This rate is 4.5 percent higher than the same period last year. While the increase in automobile sales was 2.2 percent compared to the same range of the previous year, light commercial vehicle sales increased by 13.2%.
The numbers reveal that the last 10 years have had the worst October
According to the data announced by ODD, October 2021 made history as the worst October in the last 10 years. Because last month’s sales figures revealed a 13.8% contraction. When we reduce this data to automobiles only, we see a 19.6 percent contraction this time. However, we cannot say the same for the light commercial vehicle market. Because light commercial vehicle sales in October 2021 were 5.2 percent higher than the average of October for the last 10 years.
Automotive sales figures for January-October reveal that citizens are turning to low tax rates. Because 54.9 percent of the automobile sales realized in this process consisted of C segment vehicles. 30.8 percent of the market dominance appeared as B segment vehicles.