Small Cars, The Choice Of 2010 In India

By By: Vicky.in

Published: Tuesday, December 28, 2010, 15:00 [IST]

There has been a turbulent growth rate in the Indian car industry this year of which the global players dominated to their might. The success strategy behind all these global players is the launch of small cars to their platform. The market, which has the volume of 2 million units, has the 70% volume of small cars. Such an attempt has witnessed the arrival of the great among the global car makers, Toyota, Volkswagen and GM so as to enter the world"s second largest growing car market. GM"s Beat hit the headlines during the year beginning as an end product of the company"s unstinted design over 27 months. The car was set to roll down to counter the popularity of Maruti"s Alto and Hyundai"s Santro, i10 and i20. GM priced the car at Rs3.34-Rs3.94 lakhs and came as a follow up of GM"s Spark. GM manufactures this Beat in its Talegaon plant as the second car in its 300 series platform on the lines of Chevrolet Cruze.

Since its launch GM has sold 33845 units of Beat in India which is powered by 1.2 lit petrol engine. With the diesel variant of Beat on the cards, GM is pinning on the hope to market this car around 150 countries in the world. Then followed Nissan"s Micra, launched in July at Rs3.98-Rs5.29 lakh pricing to mark the bang entry of Nissan into the Indian small cars segment. Micra began the series of launches proposed by Nissan for the period till 2012 out of which 5 models will be localized to grab 5.5% share in the Indian car market. Micra is powered by a 1.2 lit petrol engine with 1.5 lit diesel engine in the offing. Since its launch there has been a tremendous response to this car with advance booking. Till date, Nissan has sold 5371 units with the export figure crossing 15737 units.

VW"s Polo is another small car that hit the roads in 2010. Coming on two engine versions, 1.2 lit petrol and diesel engine, the car is priced Rs4.34 (petrol) and Rs5.32 lakh (diesel). With the launch of Polo, said VW, there will be hard drive for the expansion activities in the Indian market for the company. The short term vision is to gain at least 10% share in another four years, since there has been speculation that the industry will grow to 5 million by that period. Since its launch from the Chakan plant, Polo has seen the sale volume of 17000 units in the domestic market. This followed with the launch of Vento on the platform of Polo while VW"s subsidiary in India, Skoda launched its Fabia premium hatchback.

Amidst these drives, Ford entered with its Figo to stamp its presence in the Indian small cars segment. Ford launched this Figo this March by offering two options, 1.2 lit petrol and 1.4 diesel for Rs3.5 lakhs and Rs4.48 lakh respectively. The car did not let the company down as sales pricked up gradually over the months- 58000 units till November. Ford manufactures this Figo from its Chennai unit and exports the car to South Africa and Nepal. Ford claims that Figo marks the beginning of series of car slated for the Indian car market by which there will be 8 new models before 2015. The power drive from the market leader in the Indian car market, Maruti Suzuki could not be resisted by any other maker. Maruti launched the new Alto with K-series engine, Alto K-10 at Rs3.03- Rs3.16 lakh. Since its launch in August this year the company has sold 50000 units while the sale of its Wagon R hit a new mark after the refinement of the small cars. In all Maruti strained to retain its 50% share in the growing Indian car market.

Article Published On: Tuesday, December 28, 2010, 14:11 [IST]

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