Automobile Industry in India has come of age and it has taken almost six decades to evolve into an indigenous industry. The automobile industry in our country is one of the world’s seventh largest manufacturers of cars and commercial vehicles.
The Wheels of Motion
The Automobile Industry in India has come of age and it has
taken almost six decades to evolve into an indigenous industry. The
automobile industry in our country is one of the world’s seventh largest
manufacturers of cars and commercial vehicles. It was in the late
eighteenth century that the first car rolled its wheels in the country
and cars were mostly imported from abroad till the early 1940’s. The
early forties witnessed the embryonic birth of the automobile industry,
when the innovative Mahindra brothers rolled out the first utility
vehicle by assembling the CJ3A Willys jeep under license from Willys,
USA. Mahindra & Mahindra later on diversified into manufacturing of
light commercial vehicles and agricultural vehicles. The Willys Jeep
became the flagship of the Mahindra & Mahindra.
The Expansive Growth
There was a sluggish growth of the automobile industry between
the ’50s & 70s due to the nationalization of the industry as well as
the non-issuance of licenses for the manufacture of auto component
manufacturers. However, the pace of the growth picked up towards the
late ’70s that was endeavored by the manufacture of tractors, commercial
vehicles and two wheelers. The advent of the affordable personal car
was ushered in India with the Japanese motor company, Suzuki
establishing their manufacturing plant in India at Gurgaon in Haryana.
The rolling of the Suzuki cars on Indian roads gave rise to the
ancillary industry where Auto Parts Manufacturers
who produced auto parts and supplied them to the original manufacturers
as OEM equipment at far cheaper rates as compared to imported auto
parts.
Export Market
With rise in production of automobiles Automobile Exporters India
made a niche in the international market by exporting their products to
other countries across the world earning valuable foreign exchange for
the country. As one thing leads to another, with the boom in exports of
automobiles, there grew a plethora of auto component exporters as well
as auto parts exporters. This resulted in a phenomenal growth of the
ancillary industry along with rich earnings of foreign exchange.
The Present Scenario
The automobile industry over the last few decades has grown by
leaps and bounds and will lead to collaborations with foreign car
manufacturers setting up manufacturing facilities in the country. While
there are already a large number of such collaborations, the fascination
for imported cars amongst the Indian populace has not diminished,
rather it will continue to grow further.
