Indian Automobile Industry Analysis

The automobile industry in India is the world’s fourth largest. India was the world's fourth largest manufacturer of cars and seventh largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in 2019. Indian automotive industry (including component manufacturing) is expected to reach Rs 16.16-18.18 trillion (US$ 251.4-282.8 billion) by 2026. Indian automobile industry received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth US$ 23.89 billion between April 2000 and December 2019. Five per cent of total FDI inflow in India went to automobiles sector.

Domestic automobile production increased at 2.36 per cent CAGR between FY16-FY20 with 26.36 million vehicles being manufactured in the country in FY20. Overall, domestic automobiles sales increased at 1.29 per cent CAGR between FY16-FY20 with 21.55 million vehicles being sold in FY20.

Two wheelers and passenger vehicles dominate the domestic Indian auto market. Passenger car sales are dominated by small and mid-sized cars. Two wheelers and passenger cars accounted for 80.8 per cent and 12.9 per cent market share, respectively, accounting for a combined sale of over 20.1 million vehicles in FY20.

Overall, automobile export reached 4.77 million vehicles in FY20, growing at a CAGR of 6.94 per cent during FY16-FY20. Two wheelers made up 73.9 per cent of the vehicles exported, followed by passenger vehicles at 14.2 per cent, three wheelers at 10.5 per cent and commercial vehicles at 1.3 per cent.

The Government aims to develop India as a global manufacturing and research and development (R&D) hub. It has set up National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) centres as well as National Automotive Board to act as facilitator between the Government and the industry. Under (NATRiP), five testing and research centres have been established in the country since 2015. NATRiP’s proposal for “Grant-In-Aid for test facility infrastructure for Electric Vehicle (EV) performance Certification from NATRIP Implementation Society” under FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles in India) scheme was approved by Project Implementation and Sanctioning Committee (PISC) on January 03, 2019.

The Indian Government has also set up an ambitious target of having only EVs being sold in the country. The Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India, has shortlisted 11 cities in the country for introduction of EVs in their public transport system under the FAME scheme. The first phase of the scheme was extended to March 2019 while in February 2019, the Government approved FAME-II scheme with a fund requirement of Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.39 billion) for FY20-22. Under Union Budget 2019-20, Government announced to provide additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh (US$ 2146) on the interest paid on the loans taken to purchase EVs.

EV sales, excluding e-rickshaws, in India witnessed a growth of 20 per cent and reached 1.56 lakh units in FY20 driven by two wheelers.

The Government of India expects automobile sector to attract US$ 8-10 billion in local and foreign investment by 2023.