I have written earlier on the effort made by multinationals in India on making products exclusively for Indian consumers. Honda Brio is new addition to that list; another notable recent addition would be Toyota Etios, again in the car segment. Brio is according to economic times the fourth new car to hit the Indian roads in the last ten days. This is in stark contrast to the pre-liberalization days when the choice use to be limited to either an Ambassador or a Fiat and Maruti 800 in the later days.For both Honda and Toyota the new small cars are the cheapest cars in their stables, and both the companies are looking at them to drive volumes and reach out to tier II and tier III cities. But one does feel that it is a little too late, hope not too little though, given their reputation. Were they expecting that Indian's would line up for Corolla's and Cities. Though these models do sell and would keep selling, but would never be volume drivers. In that even the American auto makers (supposed to have lost their nimbleness to the Japanese) have had better offerings in the segment, in fact Figo has turned out to be a game changer for Ford in India. But then maybe they made an entry and the consumers will decide the winners.
Perhaps one more realization for the auto makers has been that maximum activity is in the 4-6 lakh segment and not the bottom of the market , which players like even Nano are finding it difficult to crack. So every serious player in the car market has a very strong offering in that bracket. The bottom line is that the choice for the consumer is increasing..........
Hi
ReplyDeleteNice post there & I agree with fact that most activity is in the bracket of 4-6 lakhs, the reason for it is also very simple.
We have 4 car segments- economy, performance, luxury & multi-terrain. The car manufacturers are, more or less, integrating all these four segments into one. For example if you take the example of Maruti Suzuki Swift, its price is around 4-5 lakhs, now, it is providing all the 4 segments into one-it is economical-price based, size based, fuel efficiency based etc- it is performance driven, internal space signifies its luxurious comfort & it can be taken for long drives too, even on mountain region. So, we see that cars in the particular bracket of 4-6 lakhs are providing much more to the growing middle class customer now.
Tata Nano on the other hand is, even though,economical, but I see little scope for it, because of the low performance, make etc.(what else can one expect in Rs 1 lakh),growing earning capacity & the fact that Indians view cars as the status symbol & a car is more of an emotional buy than a functional one in India.
Looking forward to more of your posts.
thanks rashi for your inputs
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