India became the seventh largest manufacturer of vehicles for commercial use in the year of 2018. Before that, the auto industry of India became the 4th largest with the total number of sales of 4.02 million units of four wheelers and growing at a rate of 9.5 per cent year on year. Owing to the growth in the number of middle class families and also the youth of the country, sales in the two wheeler segment has shown good results in that segment. Many businesses in the automotive sector have decided to venture into the rural parts of the country which has also been one of the primary reasons of growth for this industry.
As far as the future is concerned, India has also become a big auto exporter and can show a lot of
growth in that. In fact, the amount of exported automobile units grew by 14.5 per cent during the financial year of 2019. Projected growth for this segment has been confirmed as 3.05 per cent during the tenure of 2016-2026. In addition, several initiatives by the Government of India and the major automobile players in the Indian market are expected to make India a leader in the two-wheeler and four wheeler market in the world by 2020.
In financial year 2019, year-on-year growth in domestic sales among all the categories was recorded in commercial vehicles at 17.55 per cent followed by 10.27 per cent year-on-year growth in the sales of three-wheelers.
Premium motorbike sales in India crossed one million units in the financial year of 2018. During January-September 2018, BMW registered a growth of 11 per cent year-on-year in its sales in India at 7,915 units. Mercedes Benz ranked first in sales satisfaction in the luxury vehicles segment according to J D Power 2018 India sales satisfaction index (luxury). Sales of electric two-wheelers are estimated to have crossed 55,000 vehicles in 2017-18.
In order to keep up with the growing demand, several auto makers have started investing heavily in various segments of the industry during the last few months. The industry has attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth US$ 21.38 billion during the period April 2000 to March 2019, according to data released by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
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