Passenger car exports from India declined by 1.66 percent as Hyundai records a 18.02 percent drop in car exports from 2,33,260 units in 2013-14 to 1,91,221 units in 2014-15.
Majority of car manufacturers in India export their vehicles to different countries all over the world. India’s strong engineering base and expertise in the manufacturing of low-cost, fuel-efficient cars has resulted in the expansion of manufacturing facilities of several automobile companies like Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen and Maruti Suzuki. Over the years, India has emerged as a leading centre for manufacturing small cars, which has also helped the country in this domain.
Talking about a few statistics, the passenger car exports from India declined by 1.66 percent to 5,42,082 units in 2014-15. This drop in export number is mainly due to the problems and challenges encountered in traditional overseas markets like Europe, Sri Lanka and Algeria. Hyundai, which is the largest exporter from India, ships more than 2,50,000 cars annually from the country. A decline of over 18 percent in overseas shipment by the Korean manufacturer can be attributed to the percentage fall in the overall market in the last fiscal year.
According to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), car exports stood at 5,51,218 units in 2013-14 with Hyundai experiencing a drop in car exports from 2,33,260 units in 2013-14 to 1,91,221 units in 2014-15. Maruti Suzuki’s exports on the other hand rose by 9.77 percent to 1,09,593 cars in the last fiscal as compared to 99,832 units in 2013-14. Europe, which is the biggest market for compact cars exported from India and is recuperating from a slowdown. Regulatory issues in countries such as Algeria and Sri Lanka has also affected shipments from our country. Indian car exporters for Sri Lanka are currently facing high taxation issues, while Algeria has made about many changes in their technical regulations in a very short period of time, thereby impacting the exports to these markets.
Nissan’s exports from the country also experienced a rise of 3.57 percent from 1,16,113 units to 1,20,266 units in 2014-15. Toyota on the other hand encountered a decline in exports of passenger cars by 35.42 percent to 17,607 units, with Volkswagen posting a near two-fold increase in shipments to 64,994 cars. As lowering fuel prices and decreasing interest rates leads to a reduction in the overall cost of ownership, domestic car sales in India finally rose by 4.99 percent in 2014-15 after witnessing a downfall for two consecutive fiscal years. According to SIAM, domestic car sales for 2015 stood at 18,76,017 units as compared to 17,86,826 units in the previous fiscal year.
