“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” — Bill Gates
As the year draws to a close, we hear of an uptick in demand for passenger vehicles, which is like the first drop of rain in torrid summer. The Indian automotive sector, which had been grappling with challenges like the NBFC crisis and migration to BSVI specifications over the last two years, found its engine stall altogether in 2020. In April automotive sales hit nil, a situation the industry had never faced before.
The issue you hold in your hands looks in depth at the once burgeoning automotive industry in India, which quickly rose to be the fifth largest hub in the world. Many Indian brands like Mahindra, Tata, Bajaj, grew wings, to turn into global players. Up ahead was the Automotive Mission Plan (AMP) 2026, indulgently supported by the Indian government with measures like 100 per cent FDI to encourage global automotive manufacturers to set up shop in India and a production-linked incentive (PLI) outlay of Rs 57,000 crore over the next five years.
The AMP 2026 aims to not only catapult the Indian industry to the ranks of the top three in the world in terms of production and exports of vehicles and components, but also spawn an ecosystem of component suppliers, to create employment on a massive scale. Then a global pandemic turned the world topsy-turvy. For the automotive industry, though, it did create a new demand for private vehicles as social distancing norms came into play. The stronger than anticipated recovery in sales after lifting of the lockdown, however, may just be some pent-up demand recovering ground. Industry experts continue to be pessimistic about reaching pre-Covid levels in sales in FY21. Many expect consumer demand for automobiles to stagnate in Q4-FY21.
We bring the spotlight on commercial vehicle manufacturers, the challenges they face and their growth prospects. We look in-depth into the future of shared mobility and bring in industry voices through special columns and interviews. Read the views of industry leaders like Satyakam Arya (MD and CEO, Daimler India), Girish Wagh (President, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors), Sunjay Kapur (Chairman, Sona Comstar) and Raman Mittal (Executive Director, Sonalika Group) among others. We also review the best of the new launches in automobiles.
We do hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we did, putting it together.
Happy Reading!