India is set to become a world centre for small cars, as A and B segment vehicles take over 80% of accelerating domestic sales, and OEMs push harder for manufacturing efficiencies which can deliver cars at the prices demanded by cost-conscious consumers.
‘Small is the new big,’ declared MM Singh, managing executive officer for production for Maruti Suzuki, at the AMS India conference in Pune this week. Swamy Kotagiri, vice president of global engineering at Magna’s Cosma division, added: ‘India is becoming a global hub for small cars.’
|  Singh: costs down 36% | The second AMS India conference was held in one of the country’s three key automotive production centres, Pune in Maharashtra state, from December 1-3. Delegates heard from Dr Surojit Gupta, deputy director of automotive trade association SIAM, that India had resumed its growth with nine model launches and five facelifts in the year to October, and that the automotive sector was expected to reach 10% of GDP by 2016. |
He said that €11 billion of investment was planned for automotive production, half of which was committed. After plateau’ing at 1.4 million units in the economic turmoil of this year, MM Singh expects 12-14% growth next year and a doubling of automotive production every three years in the future.
Indeed, the conference opened as India’s press was reporting the national economy in ‘zoom mode’, with Q3 GDP growing at 7.9%, and manufacturing with even stronger 9.2% expansion.