The festive retail vehicle market in India has mostly lost momentum during the current Navratri period, with passenger vehicle registrations plunging nearly 22% from the previous year, and two-wheeler registrations have also seen a decline. This is according to provisional data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA).
Overall vehicle registrations fell 6.52% to 11,23,086 units, compared to 12,01,479 units during the Navratri period in 2025. Commercial vehicles (CVs) were the one of the only segments to register growth.
Passenger vehicle registrations fell 21.91% to 1,82,728 units from 2,34,004 units the previous year. Two-wheeler registrations also dipped 2.79% to 8,34,075 units from the earlier 8,58,027 units in 2025. This weakness also extended to three-wheelers, where registrations fell 7.51% to 45,735 units. Additionally, construction equipment registrations dipped 1.97% to 2,240 units.
Commercial vehicles were among the few segments to report growth, with registrations rising 1.12% to 35,618 units.
Now, despite the decline in the registrations from teh previous Navratri, Sai Giridhar, the President of FADA is positive that the data suggests a fundamentally healthy market, noting that nearly 11.23 lakh vehicles were registered in just 10 days. He added that 2024 was the last truly comparable festive period because the decline in 2025 was largely due to last year's longer 11-day festive window and the rollout of GST 2.0.
The industry does remain cautiously optimistic ahead of the Dhanteras-to-Diwali buying period, when dealers will look for stronger demand to offset the subdued Navratri, he added.
On the brighter end, we saw electric vehicle retail sales rising 26.78% to 1,17,437 units from 92,628 units a year earlier. Giridhar said EVs accounted for close to 10.5% of festive vehicle sales.
Electric two-wheeler registrations jumped 33.41% to 75,758 units, while electric car registrations climbed 25.97% to 12,305 units. Electric three-wheeler registrations increased 10.51% to 28,086 units. Electric commercial vehicle registrations recorded the sharpest growth, surging 95% to 1,288 units from 657 units.
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