Automobiles: The wonder decade

India’s drive to the top of the small car heap took off in the late 1990s. Ten years on, and some painful consolidation later, India is THE mini hub and the world is its market. The Market Vrooms The car market has zipped from 577,000 units in 1999-2000 to 1.2 million units in April-November 2009-2010 Analysts estimate the current fiscal to close at 2 million units (including SUVs) Global CEOs like Nissan-Renault’s Carlos Ghosn are already pegging the next decade to take the market to 6 million units The Mini Rocks A bunch of MNC players flooded the market with tech savvy small cars The competition expanded the market thanks to new products and a price war between market leader Maruti and newbies Tata Motors and Daewoo The Tata Indica, a local breakthrough and India’s first homegrown car, was launched in 1998 The Tatas followed it up with a global breakthrough 10 years later with the world’s cheapest car, Nano As India’s appetite for the small car grew, so did local competence. The result: a top quality component base and frugal engineering skills More MNCs lined up for small car action, even those like Toyota and Honda not traditionally mini players From tweaking existing models and even phased out variants for India, MNCs are now developing car architectures or platforms with India as the lead country; for instance, Toyota and Honda Ticket to Ride As the biggest small car market in the world and the fastest growing car market after China, India is now a bonafide auto hub Global auto companies are looking to tap the market and its engineering expertise MNCs like Nissan Renault want to replicate the Nano formula, and not just for India As oil prices zoom, the small car is the flavour of the month everywhere, except the US. And India is the belle of the ball ET Comment Go east Most analysts now agree that the heart of auto country is moving eastwards, towards India and China. The good news is, between the two markets, there's little overlap. While China is a sedan market, India is a hatch heaven. India's small car focus is suddenly hot property for global auto majors. European and Japanese companies are already using India for contract manufacturing. The next step is to use homegrown Indian technology for cost-effective engineering. This, along with marketing savvy, will be the next big leap for the industry. That the local market will by then by three times bigger won’t hurt either.