Blog Posts by Margaret Zewatsky

The Indian auto market has been one of my favorites to watch during the past few years even though many times India was overshadowed by China. But now that China is ending their vehicle scrappage and incentive programs as well as limiting registrations in Beijing to try and manage traffic and parking congestion, India's growth prospects for 2011 are getting more attention.

In the first 11 months of 2010, India sold over 2.1 million passenger vehicles. A quick view of India's domestic passenger vehicle market shows Hyundai having the biggest gains among sales leaders in recent years. Hyundai's focus on new product launches and expansion of their dealer network seems to be paying off.

But just because market share was down, sales were up by over 25% from 2009 to 2010 for Maruti Suzuki, the Indian market share king. This is the case for many OEMs that are seeing sales growth despite market share declines due to the greater than 20% growth experienced last year in the domestic passenger vehicle market.

With India's young population, educated workforce, export potential and significant investments from domestic and global auto OEMs, I am really excited to see what India can do in 2011 and beyond.

Posted by Margaret Zewatsky, Product Strategist, Polk (02.14.2011)