The Indian car story today

Once the Indian car story was limited to Ambassadors and Fiats and names like BMW or Mercedes were rarely heard. Then Maruti 800 came in and changed the way Indians moved. Today, India is one of the world’s fastest growing car markets and global carmakers are fighting to get their bit of the lucrative market. Amidst all this, the Indian car buyer is spoilt for choice.

Among the fattest investors is the French car maker Renault. The company recently announced launch of five cars between mid-2011 and mid-2013, including small cars in 2012.

Then there is Toyota Kirloskar Motors that is ready to launch its first hatchback Toyota Etios in the country by year end. The company expects to sell 63,000-64,000 Etios in 2011. Toyota Etios is a 'designed for India' car and Toyota expects it to account for almost 50 per cent of its total sales after the launch.

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It is common knowledge that India is a country that prefers small cars and the compact car segment accounts for more than 70 per cent of the total car market. The country’s infrastructure is one of the reasons for this choice. Also, Indian car buyers are very particular about the fuel efficiency.

With the current economic condition, India is aiming at about 35 per cent growth in car sales with more than half a million cars already sold in the first four months of 2010-11.

The country saw an array of new cars like Ford Figo, Nissan Micra, Volkswagen Polo etc being launched in the first few months.

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The top three positions are held by Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hyundai who make the most economic and India friendly cars. Other carmakers like Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Volkswagen and Ford are gradually entering the compact car market, trying to get a piece of the lucrative pie.

Some of the new competition in hatchbacks in the market include Maruti Ritz, Chevrolet Beat, Ford Figo, Volkswagen Polo, Fiat Punto, Nissan Micra et al.

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It is not just the small car market that is performing well, even the luxury car market is doing exceptionally well. Carmakers like Mercedes, BMW and Audi are launching a number of products that are doing very well. Even brands like Bugatti, Bentley, Porsche etc are coming with their super cars to Indian shores.