The Indian car market and industry will continue to grow strongly as small cars are snapped up by rising numbers of urban middle class consumers according to Vinay Kothari, board member at Force Motors, a maker of utility vehicles in India.
Speaking at the IESE Business School’s Automotive Sector conference in Barcelona, Kothari said that projections for rapid market growth in India reflected demographic and income trends. In addition, the market is also facing a lift from the arrival of a number of small low-cost cars – such as Tata’s one-lakh car – that will enable owners of two-wheelers to more easily upgrade to four wheels.
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Renault is also planning a sub-Logan ‘one-lakh fighter’ that would be made in India with Bajaj Auto.
The Indian light vehicle market could be approaching 5m units a year by 2013 from under 2m now, Kothari said.
“And small cars are growing very strongly. By 2015 the market for small cars in India could be as much as 3m units a year,” he added.
But isn’t congestion in India’s big cities already at a level suggesting road capacity is at saturation point? If there is barely room for the two-wheelers to park, where will all the four-wheelers go?
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By GlobalDataKothari told just-auto that the primary market in India for the new breed of small of cars is not in the big cities but in the smaller cities and rural areas where incomes are growing and space is not such a problem.
“You won’t see very many Tata one lakh cars in Mumbai or New Delhi,” he said.
Dave Leggett
