Passenger Vehicles Industry in India: How much competitive is it?

An Analysis of Passenger Vehicles Industry in India to understand the latest trends and the key players: Indian economy holds the fifth-largest position in the auto market in 2019 and was expected to cross Germany by 2020 in terms of a number of sales. However, the recent pandemic has flipped the side to a completely opposite direction thereby causing a drop of over 17% in the industry.

Several Government initiatives and promising actions by the major automobile players of India was helping this industry to outperform at the world-class level by making the country a leader in this industry. The domestic Indian market is predominantly ruled by two-wheelers and passenger vehicles. The growing middle-class and young population has made the two-wheelers market the dominant one in terms of volume.

This article aims to study the Passenger Vehicles Industry in India including its current trends, biggest players, recent developments, and Government initiatives.

The Passenger Vehicles Industry in India

Passenger Vehicle (PV) is a motor vehicle which has at least four wheels where no more than eight seats are allowed in addition to the driver’s seat for transporting the passengers. Generally, cars are considered as passenger vehicles.

In India, the small and mid-sized cars selling is holding the highest position in terms of sales of the passenger vehicles (PV) industry. The PV industry recorded a market share of 12.9% in India until June 2020. Out of the total automobile exports of 4.77 million, PV accounted for 677,340 exports until June 2020. In 2019, over 3 million PVs were produced and sold domestically.

Currently, Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai are the top players in this industry. Maruti Suzuki with sales of over 208,000 Alto cars, 200,000 Dzire, and 192,000 swift cars reported in 2019 domestic sales of 1.75 million.

However, domestic sales in the PV industry recorded a decline of 9.1% until March 2020. Maruti Suzuki has already started selling BS-VI compliant vehicles that include Alto, Eeco, S-Presso, Celerio, WagonR, Swift, Baleno, Dzire, Ertiga, and XL6.      

Latest Trends in the PV Industry in India

The entire automobile industry attracted Foreign Direct Investment of US$ 24.21 billion in the 10 years from April 2000 to March 2020. The growing demand has made the way for the industrialists to invest more in India’s ever-growing industry.

The announcement by Jaguar Land Rover in May 2019 of the launch of its locally assembled Range Rover Velar has made JLR cars quite affordable. The deal between the Tata AutoComp Systems (Tata Group’s Auto-component segment) and Prestolite Electric (based in Beijing) happened in January 2020 aims to enter the Electric Vehicles market by starting a joint venture of their own.

Force Motors’ investment of US$ 85.85 million focuses on the development of the two new models in the coming two years. MG Motor India is also planning to launch affordable Electric Vehicles in the next 3-4 years. 

The Indian Government announced in the Budget of 2019-20 to provide tax deduction of Rs. 1.5 lakh for the interest paid on the loan taken to buy Electric Vehicles thereby promoting sales of such EVs. It is also planning to facilitate the start-ups involved in the EV space by setting up the incubation centers. 

(FIG: PV Market Share Manufacture wise – FY19)

— FAME II (Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles Phase II)

It is also notable to mention here about the Government’s initiative that approved the FAME II scheme (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles Phase II) w.e.f. April 2019 under which allocation of Rs. 10,000 crores were made to promote electric mobility in the country over the three years 2019-20 to 2021-2022.

The scheme aims to provide incentives on the purchase of such vehicles to promote electric and hybrid vehicles. They primarily aim to electrify the public transportation and shared transportation.

— Bharat Stage VI Norms

Introduced in 2000, these norms are the standards implemented by the Government to control air pollution by vehicles. The norms are based on various stages and as the stage goes up the rules become stricter.

Thus, BS-VI stage compliance would require more robust technologies and investment into such technologies to upgrade the vehicles. Consequently, the buyers will also need to pay more to buy the vehicles as the making cost goes up.   

Market Leaders in the Indian PV Industry

As mentioned earlier, the PV market is predominantly led by Maruti Suzuki with more than 50% market share. The industry analysts believe this is due to their planning to empty the BS-IV inventories and keeping the BS-VI compliant vehicles available ahead of the time.

No matter what there are other players too who are contributing not as much as Maruti Suzuki, but their little contribution makes the Indian Automobile Market the fastest-growing market to be ready to compete at the global level. Let us see who these big players are, how are they contributing and what do they have in their baskets. 

Here are the top seven passenger vehicle Makers in India:

Rank	Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)	PV Sales FY20	PV Sales FY19
1	Maruti Suzuki	14,36,124	17,29,826
2	Hyundai Motor India	4,85,309	5,45,243
3	Mahindra & Mahindra	1,86,978	2,54,351
4	Tata Motors	1,31,197	2,31,512
5	Honda Cars India	1,26,899	1,83,787
6	Toyota	1,14,081	1,50,525
7	Ford India	66,415	92,937

— 1) Maruti Suzuki India Limited

The largest car maker of India, Maruti Suzuki is a subsidiary of Japan-based Suzuki Motor Corporation. They have already launched BS-VI compliant Tour S CNG & Tour S in this year. It has already crossed the 20 million sale milestone in the year 2019. It is leading the market by reaching the target of cumulative sales of one million utility vehicles. Until June 2020 it has recorded sales of more than 1.5 million units. 

— 2) Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL)

The subsidiary of a South Korean parent company Hyundai Motor Corporation, HMIL is the second-largest carmaker in India. Its Santro car had been recorded as a runaway success. It was the first automotive company in India to achieve the export target of 1 million cars in just 10 years. This year, its Hyundai Venue car has been awarded as the Indian car of the year. It sold in 2019 545,243 cars however its market share declined in that year.

— 3) Mahindra & Mahindra Limited

The decades-old Indian multinational vehicle manufacturing company, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited. The largest tractors manufacturer in the world records the highest production in India of cars. With the introduction of SUVs in 2019, they reported a 2.21% growth in PV sales. In a challenging time, XUV300, Alturas G4 and Marazzo have helped M&M to add sales of about 27,000 units additionally. 

— 4) Tata Motors Limited

The world’s leading automobiles manufacturer and an automobile arm of the Tata Group, Tata Motors has extended its presence globally by setting up Joint Ventures with Fiat and Marcopolo. It holds a 45.1% market share in the commercial vehicle segment in the year 2019. To improve electric mobility infrastructure in the country it has created a separate vertical by joining hands with Tata Power. 

— 5) Honda Cars India Limited

As the leading premium car manufacturer of India, Honda Cars was established with the specific purpose to cater PV industry with the latest technology-based vehicles. It is a subsidiary company of Japan-based Honda Motor Co. Limited. It recently launched WR-V compact SUV with robust features in two different trim options and in both petrol and diesel fuel choices. 

— 6) Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited

It is a subsidiary of the Japanese parent company Toyota Motor Corporation. Among the carmakers, it holds the fourth largest position in India. In 2012, it started One Make Racing Series with the Etios car and witnessed an overwhelming response from the youngsters.

— 7) Ford India Private Limited (FIPL)

It is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company and since 2019 Mahindra and FIPL joined hands to set up a Joint Venture. It is the number 1 Passenger Vehicle Exporter in India competing with Hyundai. It exports in 35 countries almost 40% of its engine production and 25% of its car production. 

Also read:

• Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) – What are they?
• Public vs Private Banks in India: Which is performing better?
• [Snapshot] Chinese investments in Indian Unicorn Startups

Impact of COVID-19 on the Indian PV Industry

With the current situation of the global pandemic, the biggest challenge these car makers will face is the changing customer preferences. Due to the Work from Home concept, the demand of the Passenger Vehicles has seen a sharp fall in the six months so far as compared to the last year.

The industry experts estimate that the customers’ preference during this time has gone back to the original small and compact cars for which Maruti Suzuki is leading the market as always. However, for SUVs and MPVs the market may not be as good as for the small and affordable cars.

The luxury cars will too see a downfall. The predictions are also against the promotion of EV sales as they need advanced technology and are quite costly. Many startups are under a red zone meaning they are already falling short of cash and liquidity making it difficult for them to survive. Interestingly, the used car business will gain as the customers may face liquidity crunch to some extent.