Rural Telangana sees uptick in two-wheeler sales in pandemic

Hyderabad: Two-wheeler sales have jumped up in rural areas of the State in the corona pandemic period. Not only the brand new ones, but even the second-hand vehicles that are in good condition are also in demand since the Unlock began in June.

People from villages and towns are the ones who decided to buy their own vehicles and this rush was not seen in district headquarters or in GHMC limits during the pandemic period.

And there are a few reasons for this trend observed this season. Public transport was not like before and there were restrictions on plying of sharing autos and private travels connecting urban, semi-urban, and rural areas within the district. This hampered movement of men folk staying in villages who move regularly two and fro for work or trade-related activities. Also, the fear of not traveling in groups, that they do regularly, also played a part.

According to D Dinesh Reddy, an automobile dealer, normally two-wheeler sales in GHMC limits per month equals the sales in the rest of the districts in the state. However, this time sales in rural areas were considerably high. Also, second-hand vehicles were in demand and their prices were also quoted a tad high. A second-hand bike that used to be sold for 30,000 in pre-Covid was sold between Rs 35,000 to 40,000 now, Dinesh Reddy said.

Also, a majority of them bought vehicles paying full cash not preferring to opt loans.

Dependence on work from home in the private sector, closure of educational institutions meant people are staying indoors and hence two-wheeler sales were not like usual in GHMC limits

The automobile dealers are expecting a jump in sales from October which is the festival season. Telangana Automobile Dealers Association president Ramakoteswar Rao predicted increased sales in the coming weeks for both two-wheelers and four-wheelers. Sales are a bit high in September and we are expecting it to continue in the coming weeks.