Different players in Automobile industry
Jagdish Khattar. Y.S. Kim. Ratan Tata. S.G. Awasthi. The four men are peers. Each has unequivocally established himself as one of the winners in the first round of the car wars. Between them, they control almost 80% of the Rs 30,500-crore Indian automobile market.
The battle royale in the Indian car market has entered the next phase. As the dust and excitement of the dozens of new models introduced in the past one year settles down, the winners have pulled way ahead of the also-rans.
One old assumption has been vindicated -- that over 80% of the Indian car market is still confined to the small, sub-Rs 4 lakh models. And those mid-size and bigger models can only provide the icing on the cake, not the cake itself to any manufacturer.
Maruti found out that price is no longer the most important factor in winning car battles. Daewoo's Awasthi admits candidly that he learnt precisely the opposite lesson -- that price does matter.
Kim of Hyundai found out the hard way that you could get your pricing and value equation just right and still land up with egg on your face if you tried to cut corners in the technology game.
Ratan Tata learnt that providing an internationally designed car with a great value proposition didn't get you far if you couldn't provide global quality standards.
Both the Indica and the Matiz had to upgrade their engines in less than one year after launch, the Honda City had to bring in both a new body and a more powerful engine, and Hyundai had to start offering a new variant with the power steering option barely a year after it hit the market.
From now on, the battle is expected to get more vicious. In 1999-2000, the car market bounced back from the recession by showing a 55.83% growth! But now, no one expects the market to grow by more than 10-15% per annum.
The really big volume gains will come from wresting market share away from rivals rather than because the market itself is growing exponentially.
Jagdish Khattar. Y.S. Kim. Ratan Tata. S.G. Awasthi. The four men are peers. Each has unequivocally established himself as one of the winners in the first round of the car wars. Between them, they control almost 80% of the Rs 30,500-crore Indian automobile market.
The battle royale in the Indian car market has entered the next phase. As the dust and excitement of the dozens of new models introduced in the past one year settles down, the winners have pulled way ahead of the also-rans.
One old assumption has been vindicated -- that over 80% of the Indian car market is still confined to the small, sub-Rs 4 lakh models. And those mid-size and bigger models can only provide the icing on the cake, not the cake itself to any manufacturer.
Maruti found out that price is no longer the most important factor in winning car battles. Daewoo's Awasthi admits candidly that he learnt precisely the opposite lesson -- that price does matter.
Kim of Hyundai found out the hard way that you could get your pricing and value equation just right and still land up with egg on your face if you tried to cut corners in the technology game.
Ratan Tata learnt that providing an internationally designed car with a great value proposition didn't get you far if you couldn't provide global quality standards.
Both the Indica and the Matiz had to upgrade their engines in less than one year after launch, the Honda City had to bring in both a new body and a more powerful engine, and Hyundai had to start offering a new variant with the power steering option barely a year after it hit the market.
From now on, the battle is expected to get more vicious. In 1999-2000, the car market bounced back from the recession by showing a 55.83% growth! But now, no one expects the market to grow by more than 10-15% per annum.
The really big volume gains will come from wresting market share away from rivals rather than because the market itself is growing exponentially.