[GTO]

As per release received from www.jato.com.

We'll be no.4 soon . Related thread here.

• Indian Vehicle Market posted the world's 2nd highest volume increase in 2017

• India was the world’s 5th biggest vehicle market behind Germany and ahead of the United Kingdom

• Passenger car sales totalled 3.23 million units, up by 7.7%

• For the first time, SUVs counted for more than 20% of the market

Solid 2017 for the Indian vehicle industry as new car and light commercial vehicle sales soared by 8.8% to a record of 3.61 million units. Therefore, last year’s results broke the last record achieved in 2016 when 3.32 million vehicles were sold. Good economic conditions along with better deals and more cars to choose from boosted sales and allowed India to keep its key position in the global ranking. It was the third year in a row of growth, and at the same time the highest percentage growth since 2012.

India was the world’s 5th largest vehicle market getting very close to Germany, in the 4th position, as the gap between them reduced from 287,000 units in 2016 to only 96,200 vehicles last year. These encouraging results were possible thanks to a solid volume growth which was the world’s second largest after China. Both passenger cars and light commercial vehicles drove the growth with increases of 7.7% and 19.2% respectively.

“The Indian car market is firmly heading to the world’s top 3. This time, there is enough evidence to predict strong growth in the coming years as more car makers localize their production and more modern models hit the roads. It is likely to see India ahead of Germany this year” said Felipe Munoz, JATO’s global automotive analyst.

City-cars and subcompacts counted for almost 2 in 3 cars sold in India in 2017. However, only the subcompacts posted a positive change with volume up by 9.7% to 1.11 million units, or one of the world’s biggest markets for this kind of car. The city-cars’ volume remained stable at 987,800 units, down by 0.4% compared to 2016 figures.

SUVs were the third largest segment with sales totalling 693,900 units, up by a massive 31.8%. India is one of the latest markets to join the SUV boom just as USA, Europe and China have done already. These vehicles counted for 21.5% of total passenger car sales, or 3.9 percentage points more than the share seen in 2016. The arrival of small, cheaper and more modern SUVs is boosting this segment as the figures by subsegment show: B-SUVs volume grew by 36.5% to 508,400 units.

[V.Narayan]

A proud day for me. Some may grumble about roads and parking. I would say in 30 years all this will be solved for. It may seem long to an individual but is a moment in a nation's journey. In 1982 when I started my career it was well nigh impossible to conceive that we would ever produce even 1 million of cars+vans+buses+trucks put together !! - that's how stifling the Govt license Raj was. I mentioned this in an earlier post that in my first few months, as a flunkey, one assignment of mine was to collate data to submit to the Govt as to why my employer, a truck manufacturer, should not be penalized for producing a couple thousand more trucks than permitted by the license. As a nation we will face our full share of challenges and step backwards occasionally. But on the whole it is onwards and upwards.

[Rajeevraj]

Definitely a good positive metric indicating how far we have progressed. But with the infrastructure no where close to keeping up with this growth, our absolute lack of discipline on the roads and our relatively lax rules and regulations, one tends to wonder whether this is a good or a bad thing.

[Zappo]

The way I see it, the infra will keep playing catch-up with the boom in the car sales for another 15 years at least. While new modern, wide roads and elevated flyways will keep coming up across India they will not be able to match the growth in vehicular sales for at least another decade+.

Finally as the market will start maturing the growth rate will also stabilize and may even start plateauing. This is when the infra will finally catch-up, with not just enough roads and bridges but also by providing sufficient alternate modes of shared transport options like metro grids in most cities, seamless connectivity from these to the last mile, local transport hubs etc. And then we may see the second boom in the vehicular sales. Although those vehicles may not exactly be the kind that we see or think of today in terms personal transport.

[racer_ash]

Originally Posted by Zappo

The way I see it, the infra will keep playing catch-up with the boom in the car sales for another 15 years at least. While new modern, wide roads and elevated flyways will keep coming up across India they will not be able to match the growth in vehicular sales for at least another decade+.

Absolutely agree.

Take the case of the UK, which is a fraction of the size of India and having more than 90% of its sales. I am sure the number of cars on the road at any given point of time in the UK will be greater than that in India. But its all due to the well developed road networks, the motorways and the like that make it a great deal better than driving in India.

While there is some negative perception being circulated like 'Cities will become living hell' as quoted by a famous businessman, I believe there are some measures that can be taken to address this problem.

1) Decentralize growth away from cities. If I had an employment opportunity in my hometown, I would have never moved to a city. Decentralization would ensure even spread of automobiles.
2) Even within cities, spread the footprint of companies/industries away from 'Hubs' that result in lopsided growth. Everyone drives to the same part of the city resulting in huge traffic snarls
3) Improve infrastructure. By infra, I don't only mean roads and bridges but also the supporting alternate infra like footpaths/cycle tracks etc. I used to cycle 10 miles one-way to my office in the UK and motorists used to have utmost respect for me on the road. Here in India, I cant cycle 10m outside my house without the risk of someone killing me.

Finally, am really proud at this 'soon to be' milestone and I can only see better days ahead for our country. We may be late, but we will eventually get there and when we do, everyone is going to take notice (they already are).

[The Brutailer]

Volumes are fine, but is quality there? If we are such a major car consuming country then why does a small country like Thailand get better quality cars and motorcycles? Why this bias? We are advanced in every way. Then why does every other company treat us as a 3rd world country? Either sell the highest quality car in India or else get penalised by the government, that should be the norm.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

A proud day for me.

In a way, yes. It speaks to our country's tremendous improvement in per capita income and of course, the economy in general.

But given the unimaginable crowding that has happened in the major cities; add to that, infrastructure that isn't just playing catch up but woefully losing that battle, shouldn't the focus be on effective mass transportation than just the no. of cars on the road?

Metro cities around the world have made it prohibitively expensive to own a vehicle; not to buy one but to keep one.

From an outsider point of view, I'm thrilled at this news. But knowing the ground reality, only gridlocks in every metro city come to mind.

The silver lining in this is every family who buys their first car, the dark cloud is one which buys their 3rd/4th car. Pretty courageous of me to say this, eh?

[ACM]

This is good growth BUT..

This by numbers (volume) not value.

So even if our numbers match Germany the value of the business may not even be 1/3rd by value compared to Germany due to the difference in sale price of cars bought in the two markets.

[V.Narayan]

How do the countries compare on manufacture/sale of all motor transport be it 2 or 3 or 4 wheelers or multi-axle. Would some one have that data?

[The Rationalist]

Let me tell you as someone who hates traffic even in a small city like Kochi, this is good news. Of course the chaos will increase, but do you think there were no problems before cars came to the world? There were problems, but then we came up with solutions too. Thats how societies evolve .

I’m sure by the time my kids become adults the chaos would be gone and we would have gone long ahead and those alive at that time wouldn’t believe that they thought it wasn’t correctable ever.

Most of us want to enjoy cars and suddenly, we don’t want anyone else to buy anymore cars! What kind of attitude is that? Its aspirational for most families. I still remember the days I dreamed of owning cars for our middle class family. We bought the first car when I was 21 and Dad was 60. We didn’t have the mobility of our neighbours till that time. I would want most Indians to be able to own a car, because it changes their social status overnight. I have lived through that.

[deetjohn]

There is one entity who will be thrilled by this development. No, it is not the auto manufacturers nor is it the prospective customers.

But it will be our Government!

Apart from bragging rights, it gives them a lot of money. The amount of tax Automobile industry gets the Indian government is really substantial.

When someone buys a new car, more than 50% is going to the government in one way or the other. That is true even for the A segment. And the higher you go, the fatter it gets.

There are taxes included in the ex-showroom price, then road tax on top of that, and tax on insurance too. And we haven't even talked about tax on fuel, spare parts or labor. Or the taxes levied on factory, suppliers, dealers, employees etc.

It is a highly lucrative industry for the country.

[AMG Power]

It would be almost primitive to be excited about this statistic. We should be WELL past the stage of getting excited on the number of vehicles we manufacture and instead be worried to hell about it.

Development by itself is good. Not lop sided development. Manufacturing cars without worrying how it would effect the country is just what will happen in India.

We don't have the law enforcement to take care of the existing traffic violations happening every second in almost every manner so what will we do with the large numbers coming out further?

The average driving skills of our population which have been on a huge downward trend decrease in direct proportion to the number of vehicles being manufactured and put on the road.

Elevated roads may have been a solution but we have the metro elevated instead of it being underground as it is in most countries - another example of our inability to think ahead. Take a look at NCR and Bangalore's MG Road and other roads - where is there space to widen these roads?

Cities like Bangalore are already a living hell in most parts. How many other cities will become a living hell is a question that will be answered with time.

What comes after hell?

We'll find out soon.

[vb-saan]

This is definitely good news IMO! And in a short span we have come a long way from the time of having a Maruti 1000 as a luxury car. As someone who has lived outside India for a long time, I can really see how the infrastructure has improved year-on-year; it’s not just added no. of cars with no roads.

[Samir Taheer]

Exactly my thoughts. When glanced across the thread title, this is the first thing that case to my mind!

We may soon be the No.4 Worldwide in sales, but as far as quality and choice goes we are deprived - In a nut shell, nothing for us to be proud about!!!

In reality we do not even get the basic features or more importantly the safety feature that a lot of our neighboring countries get. We are only just starting to see Air-bag in basic models - Who's to blame? Manufacturers or the Government?

Originally Posted by The Brutailer

Volumes are fine, but is quality there? If we are such a major car consuming country then why does a small country like Thailand get better quality cars and motorcycles? Why this bias? We are advanced in every way. Then why does every other company treat us as a 3rd world country? Either sell the highest quality car in India or else get penalized by the government, that should be the norm.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by ACM

This is good growth BUT..

This by numbers (volume) not value.

So even if our numbers match Germany the value of the business may not even be 1/3rd by value compared to Germany due to the difference in sale price of cars bought in the two markets.

I never thought the "muhaavrein" I learnt in school would ever come in handy but this one seems to fit the bill.

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