North lags behind South in sale of inverter ACs

Lack of awareness to blame

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Highlight: Out of total ACs sold in North, the share of inverter ACs is around 50% as compared to 80% in the southern region

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 6

When it comes to sale of room air conditioners (ACs) with inverter technology, the northern region is far behind its southern counterpart despite these being more energy efficient and having not much difference in the cost of acquisition.

Out of total ACs sold in North, the share of inverter ACs is around 50% as compared to 80% in the southern region. Nationally, the inverter ACs command 60% share. Overall, the domestic room AC market is estimated at 65-70 lakh units per annum.

“The adoption of inverter ACs has increased in the past couple of years owing to improvement in consumers’ understanding of the technology which is more energy efficient. However, the adoption is faster in South than in North. The consumers and local technicians in North still apprehend it’s a complex technology and this is the main factor behind the slow adoption rate in North,” said Gurmeet Singh, CMD, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Ltd.

“The cost of acquisition of inverter ACs has also decreased over the years. Now, since the cost of these ACs is only 7-8% higher than non-inverter ACs, we foresee faster adoption in near future,” he said.

On growth, Gurmeet Singh said, “In the current fiscal, we foresee a 30% growth on the residential side over the base of 2019-20 and around 40-50% growth compared to 2020-21, based on early sales trend.”

According to dealers, with the increasing disposable income of consumers and the rise of middle class, AC has become a necessity and not a luxury anymore. Besides, the companies expect a healthy growth from tier-II and tier-III cities as power situation has improved in these towns.