[sarathlal]

The figures stood at 3.61 million units for the year 2017.

Four countries ahead of us in terms of sales are;

• China - 25.8 million
• United States - 17.23 million
• Japan - 5.16 million
• Germany - 3.71 million

And the ones on our heals are:

• UK- 2.9 million
• France - 2.54 million

Other interesting notes:

• India already enjoys fifth position in terms of number of cars manufactured. Team-Bhp link (India becomes the 5th largest car maker in the world)
• Brazil is the fastest growing market ahead of us with figure of 9.4% YoY, whereas its 8.8% for India.
• Compact cars (under 4 meters) make up 75 percent of India’s passenger vehicle demand.
• Luxury car sales figures stood at 39,000 units.
• India’s automotive volumes, are higher than the combined volumes of Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.
• Lower penetration levels, improving road network, greater buying abilities and addition of several new models have boosted the sales.
• In India, there are only 32 vehicles per 1,000 people, compared to around 800 vehicles per 1,000 people in the United States.
• Suzuki Motor Corporation, expects India’s car market to become the third largest in the world by 2020.
• As per estimates, India’s passenger vehicle demand will grow to more than 6 million units by 2020.

Source

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

The figures stood at 3.61 million units for the year 2017.

Four countries ahead of us in terms of sales are;

• China - 25.8 million
• United States - 17.23 million
• Japan - 5.16 million
• Germany - 3.71 million

[*]Suzuki Motor Corporation, expects India’s car market to become the third largest in the world by 2020. [*]As per estimates, India’s passenger vehicle demand will grow to more than 6 million units by 2020.[/list]

Thank you for sharing this data. And now also the largest 2-wheeler market in the world at 17.6 million units sold in 2017. In the mid-1970s JRD Tata had begged and petitioned the Govt to permit Tata steel to add a fresh capacity of 1 million tonnes of steel and year after year it was denied by our bureaucrats who felt that steel production should not be encouraged by the 'profit seeking' private sector even though the country was desperately short of steel.

Read this interview by Rahul Bajaj on how industrial licensing terrorized the nations entrepreneurs and investors and transferred over weaning and debilitating power to the bureaucrat and politician. Imagine being summoned by a quasi-judicial commission to answer to the crime of producing more (ie adding the GDP) and therefore by extension paying more excise duties and indirectly maybe creating more jobs. Such was the venality of all powerful bureaucrats before 1985. I want to highlight these issues from the recent past of how India has struggled and stumbled to get to where it is. These are mistakes we should not repeat - I guess we will make some new ones. The economic terrorism of the license raj is sadly receding from India's collective memory and even those like me in our final working years were young juniors when that sordid period started unfolding in 1985.

http://www.business-standard.com/art...2701287_1.html

Relevant exerpts below -

It was the early seventies and the heydays of the Licence Raj. I was just 35 years old but as chairman and managing director of Bajaj Auto, I was summoned by the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Commission. My "crime"? I had produced more scooters than what was permitted under my industrial licence. The rules stipulated that a company could produce only up to 25 per cent in excess of its licensed capacity.

I went to Delhi to face the three-member commission in New Delhi without a lawyer. M A Chidambaram, chairman of Automobile Products of India (API), which manufactured Lambretta scooters, had been invited as a competitor. He tried to show that his scooter was superior by saying it weighed about 100 kg and that the Bajaj (then Vespa) scooter weighed only 94 kg. I replied, "Yes, the Lambretta scooter is 100 kg of silver, the Bajaj scooter is 94 kg of gold!".....

The Licence Raj years were difficult and disastrous for the country. I used to spend my time in the corridors of Udyog Bhavan instead of the factory, and became friends with many in the Directorate General of Technical Development, including even the section officer, H C Sharma.

It was not easy to get an industrial licence either, because political equations mattered. Bajaj Auto, for instance, was pipped to the post in 1958 for the first industrial licence to make scooters and three-wheelers by the Chennai-based M A Chidambaram. T T Krishnamachari, who was industry minister then, called up Chidambaram, who was then a Bajaj dealer, to tie up with the Italian two-wheeler manufacturer of Lambretta scooters. We had made an application for collaboration with Piaggio, manufacturers of Vespa. A few months later I got the bad news - Chidambaram had been given the licence and there was no more capacity available! Bajaj had to wait two years for its turn.

The Licence Raj did not always mean that there was no competition - in the seventies there were half-a-dozen two-wheeler manufacturers - Ideal Java, Enfield, Rajdoot of Escorts and Lambretta - slugging it out. However, only Bajaj Auto's products had a 10-year waiting period. We faced competition, but I focused on three things: cost, quality and volumes. Others failed to do so and they could not compete with us on quality or price.

[SmartCat]

Graphical representation of long term potential of Indian market (number of vehicles per capita)

[Amit_breakfree]

Originally Posted by sarathlal

[*]India’s automotive volumes, are higher than the combined volumes of Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia.

And still look at the options and types of cars, be in terms of safety, engine, equipment, etc. they get and what we have here.

Australia is a matured market, but we must be at par with the other three countries.

Agreed that we are a very price conscious market and Maruti's domination doesn't lets any other car maker to flourish, but this is just a sad situation.

Hopefully, we can also grow in terms of quality as well and not just numbers.

On a second note, our cities are blocked with just 32 cars per 1,000 population. I shudder to think what will happen even if we reach 100/1,000, let alone excess of 500/1,000 what the developed countries enjoy.