History of Automobile Industry
The automobile as we know it was not invented in a single day by a single inventor. The history of the automobile reflects an evolution that took place worldwide.
It is estimated that over 100,000 patents created the modern automobile. However, we can point to the many firsts that occurred along the way. Starting with the first theoretical plans for a motor vehicle that had been drawn up by both Leonardo da Vinci and Isaac Newton.
In 1769, the very first self-propelled road vehicle was a military tractor invented by French engineer and mechanic, Nicolas Joseph Cugnot (1725 - 1804).
Cugnot used a steam engine to power his vehicle, built under his instructions at the Paris Arsenal by mechanic Brezin.
It was used by the French Army to haul artillery at a whopping speed of 2 1/2 mph on only three wheels. The vehicle had to stop every ten to fifteen minutes to build up steam power.
The steam engine and boiler were separate from the rest of the vehicle and placed in the front (see engraving above). The following year (1770), Cugnot built a steam-powered tricycle that carried four passengers.
In 1771, Cugnot drove one of his road vehicles into a stone wall, making Cugnot the first person to get into a motor vehicle accident. This was the beginning of bad luck for the inventor. After one of Cugnot's patrons died and the other was exiled, the money for Cugnot's road vehicle experiments ended.
Steam engines powered cars by burning fuel that heated water in a boiler, creating steam that expanded and pushed pistons that turned the crankshaft, which then turned the wheels.
During the early history of self-propelled vehicles - both road and railroad vehicles were being developed with steam engines. (Cugnot also designed two steam locomotives with engines that never worked well.)
Steam engines added so much weight to a vehicle that they proved a poor design for road vehicles; however, steam engines were very successfully used in locomotives.
Historians, who accept that early steam-powered road vehicles were automobiles, feel that Nicolas Cugnot was the inventor of the first automobile.
The automotive industry has certain trends it has to follow, just like fashion designers and musical composers.
In times of recession and decreasing sales there is less room to take chances and manufacturers are prone to follow the common pattern as a safer bet rather than releasing a controversial product or idea that might or might not be successful.
However throughout the automotive industry's history, great innovators have "boldly gone where no man has gone before" to set new trends which have dynamically altered the industry as a whole.
1880's & early 1900's
• About hundred years ago
-The first motor car was imported
-Import duty on vehicles was introduced.
-Indian Great Royal Road (Predecessor of the Grand Trunk Road) was conceived.
• First car brought in India by a princely ruler in 1898.
• Simpson & Co established in 1840.
-They were the first to build a steam car and a steam bus, to attempt motor car manufacture, to build and operate petrol driven passenger service and to import American Chassis in India.
• Railways first came to India in 1850's
• In 1865 Col. Rookes Crompton introduced public transport wagons strapped to and pulled by imported steam road rollers called streamers. The maximum speed of these buses was 33 kms/hr.
• From 1888 Motors Spirit attracted a substantial import duty.
• In 1919 at the end of the war, a large number of military vehicles came on the roads.
• In 1928 assembly of CKD Trucks and Cars was started by the wholly owned Indian subsidiary of American General Motors in Bombay and in 1930-31 by Canadian Ford Motors in Madras, Bombay and
Calcutta In 1935 the proposals of Sir M Visvesvaraya to set up an Automobile Industry were disallowed.
• 1942 Hindustan Motors Ltd incorporated and their first vehicle was made in 1950.
• In 1944 Premier Automobiles Ltd incorporated and in 1947 their first vehicle was produced.
• In 1947 the Government of Bombay accepted a scheme of Bajaj Auto to replace the cycle rickshaw by the auto and assembly started in a couple of years under a license from Piaggio.
Manufacturing Programme for the auto and scooter was submitted in 1953 to the Tariff Commission and approved by the Government in 1959.
• In 1953 the Government decreed that only firms having a manufacturing programme should be allowed to operate and mere assemblers of imported CKD units be asked to terminate operations in three years.
• Only seven firms namely Hindustan Motors Limited, Automobile Products of India Limited, Ashok Leyland Limited, Standard Motors Products of India Limited., Premier Automobiles Limited, Mahindra & Mahindra and TELCO received approval. M&M was manufacturing jeeps. Few more companies came up later.
• Government continued with its protectionism policies towards the industry.
• In 1956, Bajaj Tempo Ltd entered the Indian market with a programme of manufacturing Commercial Vehicles, and Simpson for making engines.
1960's
• In sixties 2 and 3 Wheeler segment established a foothold in the industry.
• Escorts and Ideal Jawa entered the field in the beginning of sixties.
• Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers formally established in 1960.
• Standard Motors Products of India Ltd. moved over to the manufacture of Light Commercial Vehicles in 1965.
1970's
• Major factors affecting the industry's structure were the implementation of MRTP Act, FERA and Oil Shocks of 1973 and 1979.
• During this decade there was not much change in the four wheeler industry except the entry of Sipani Automobiles in the small car market.
• Oil Shock of 1973 quickened the process of dieselization of the Commercial Vehicle segment.
• Three other companies, namely, Kirloskar Ghatge Patil Auto Ltd, Indian Automotive Ltd and Sen & Pandit Engg products Ltd entered the market during 1971-75. They ultimately withdrew in early eighties.
• During the seventies the economy was in bad shape. This and many specific problems affected the Automobile Industry adversely.
1980's - The period of liberalized policy and intense competition
• First phase of liberalisation announced.
• Unfair practices of monopoly, oligopoly etc slowly disappeared.
• Liberalisation of the protectionism policies of the Government.
• Lots of new Foreign Collaborations came up in the eighties. Many companies went in for Japanese collaborations.
• Hindustan Motors Ltd. in collaboration with Isuzu of Japan introduced the Isuzu truck in early eighties.
• ALL entered into collaboration with Leyland Vehicles Ltd. for development of integral buses and with Hino Motors of Japan for the manufacture of W Series of Engines.
• TELCO after the expiry of its contract with Daimler Benz, indigenously improved the same Benz model and introduced it in the market.
• Government approved four new firms in the LCV market, namely, DCM, Eicher, Swaraj and Allwyn. They had collaborations with Japanese companies namely, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda and Nissan respectively.
• In 1983 Maruti Udyog Ltd was started in collaboration with Suzuki, a Japanese firm.
• Other three Car manufacturers namely, Hindustan Motors Ltd., Premier Automobiles Ltd., Standard Motor Production of India Ltd. also introduced new models in the market.
• At the time there were five Passenger Car manufacturers in India - Maruti Udyog Ltd., Hindustan Motors Ltd., Premier Automobiles Ltd., Standard Motor Production of India Ltd. and Sipani Automobiles.
• Ashok Leyland Ltd. and TELCO were strong players in the Commercial Vehicles sector.
• In 1983-84 Bajaj Tempo Ltd. entered into a collaboration with Daimler-Benz of Germany for manufacture of LCVs.
• Important policy changes like relaxation in MRTP and FERA, delicensing of some ancillary products, broad banding of the products, modifications in licensing policy, concessions to private sector (both Indian and Foreign) and foreign collaboration policy etc. resulted in higher growth / better performance of the industry than in the earlier decades.
1990's
• Mass Emission Norms were introduced for in 1991 for Petrol Vehicles and in 1992 for Diesel Vehicles.
• In 1991 new Industrial Policy was announced. It was the death of the License Raj and the Automobile
Industry was allowed to expand.
• Further tightening of Emission norms was done in 1996.
• In 1997 National Highway Policy has been announced which will have a positive impact on the Automobile Industry.
• The Indian Automobile market in general and Passenger Cars in particular have witnessed liberalisation. Many multinationals like Daewoo, Peugeot, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, Volvo and Fiat entered the market.
• Various companies are coming up with state-of-art models of vehicles.
• TELCO has diversified in Passenger Car segment with Indica.
Despite the adverse trend in the growth of the industry, it is resolutely trying to meet the challenges. Various issues of critical importance to the industry are being dealt with forcefully.
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