Economic recession has brought a nightmare to the Indian car industry. A steep decline in the U.S auto industry has devastated the Indian industry as well.
India is a growing and promising car market that is directly or indirectly associated to the global auto industry. At one end, India imports some of its car models including the high-end luxury cars like Bentley and sedans like Honda Civic as completely built units. At the other end, India exports basic car components to various countries like U.S and Europe. So, if the auto industry in U.S experiences a tough time, the Indian industry is sure to have its impact.
When the recession made its hit, General Motors and Ford were the first one to face the hit. Both these leading car manufacturers even filed for bankruptcy but General Motors somehow managed to sail through its existing operations.
In the beginning of the downturn era, U.S auto sales fell down to 32% which further brought down the car sales of GM by about 45%, Ford by 30% and Chrysler by 35%. With such a steep fall in the car sales, these car companies were forced down to cut their production, which eventually put its impact on the Indian auto components industry. This is because both GM and Ford source components from India and a cut in production forced them to cut down their orders of car components.
The month of October is known to be a festive season but yet it brought no celebration for car manufacturers. All the leading manufacturers including Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Ford, Mahindra, and Renault are struggling to clear inventories by adopting significant ways of promoting brand image and boosting car sales. Most of these manufacturers have also delayed their new car launches.
In the month of October, Maruti Suzuki recorded falling sales of 59,127 units as compared to 64,258 in the corresponding month last year. Following the decline, Tata Motors and General Motors also recorded a declined car sales. The overall car sales fell to about 9.05% over October 2007 and the production went down to 12.32%.
Later, Indian car manufacturers though that the following month will bring some excitement to the industry. Unfortunately, the sales became worst with Maruti Suzuki recording a fall of 27%, Mahindra & Mahindra with a fall of about 40%, and Tata Motors showing a 12% decline in the car sales.
Luxury car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW had rejoiced the month of October despite of falling car sales. Even these faced a turbulent time in the month of November with luxury car sales falling down to an unbelievable point.
Let’s hope that the Indian car industry will come back to its normal shape with the ushering New Year.
