According to a survey put together by CARS24, a home-grown auto-tech startup, a considerable percentage of the commuters will now look at using private cars in the post COVID-19 world.
The nationwide lockdown is bound to have an impact on consumer trends and buying patterns. It is likely to also alter the way people used to travel before COVID-19 lockdown.
According to the survey, 46 percent respondents said that they have decreased their budget due to the global pandemic, out of which, 50 percent said that they will be purchasing pre-owned cars once the lockdown is over.
In another interesting finding, 22.5 percent of the consumers who were planning to buy a new car last year would now prefer to buy pre-owned car because of their limited budgets.
In addition to the reduction in the budget of the buyers due to the global pandemic, family requirements and the risk of Infection have emerged as the major reasons for buying a car amongst the consumers.
The report further revealed that while 42 percent feel that they now need to buy a car for the family, 53 percent of the consumers think of buying one within next 6 months.
“Global pandemic has surely transformed the way we used to live and has forced us to think of making a change in our usual practices including the way we used to commute. Understanding that social distancing will stay in our lives for a little longer period in the post COVID world, people are more inclined towards owing a private vehicle to commute in the future,” said Gajendra Jangid, co-founder and chief marketing officer, CARS24
“They are not only limiting their budgets for high priced assets but are also planning to invest their hard-earned money much more wisely and are keener to buy a pre-owned car instead of a new one. Expecting the change and the way people will buy cars in future, we expect that ¼ of our consumers would like to shift to online car selling/ buying platforms in the post COVID world,” Jangid added.
But all this does not mean affordability and convenience of public transport will not attract daily commuters. Unlike top metros where consumers intend to buy cars increased, respondents from non-metro cities feel that they would like to switch to two wheelers instead.
The analysis further revealed that 55 percent of the consumers who were using cabs as their primary mode to commute before COVID would now like to shift to private cars while 15 percent said that they will switch to 2-wheelers.
CARS24’s survey was interviewed over 3,600 consumers in 11 metros and 37 non-metro cities to understand their sentiments towards car ownership in the post COVID world and conducted using various digital platforms.
Comprising over 59 percent of the respondents from the metro cities and 41 percent respondents from the non-metro cities, 30 percent of the respondents, interestingly, do not own a car. The report comprised 83 percent male responders and 27 percent female responders.
Reporting by Megha Vishwanath @ CNBC18