Competition Landscape in India’s Automotive and Auto Parts Sector

The automotive sector is one of India’s largest and fastest growing manufacturing sectors. It is ranked the 11th largest passenger car producer in the world. In the category of motorcycles and scooters, India is ranked 1st and 2nd respectively. With India increasingly liberalizing its market place, many new joint ventures evolved, resulting in close to 2 dozen global auto manufacturers setting up shop in India.

The auto component segment is equally robust, supplying the entire range of parts required by the domestic automobile industry and currently employs about 250,000 people. Although small by global standards, this segment is growing rapidly as a result of its low costs and rising quality. Over 300 small and medium companies directly service the OEMs assembling vehicles in India. Downstream, close to 5,000 other micro firms are working for these Tier 1 suppliers, as well as for the replacement market

Competition in India

As a result, competition in India’s automobile and parts sector had been heating up in the recent years. Many global players in the automobile and parts industry have already set up presence in India. Most of them are through tie-ups with dominant local players, while some are done entirely on their own.

In the absence of strong competition in the past, the local car manufacturer Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL) has virtually dominated the Indian automotive market in the passenger segments since the 1980s. As the automotive manufacturing sector rapidly evolved through the dynamics of open market and deregulation, many new joint ventures (both technical and financial) were formed between local players with leading global manufacturers. In 1982, MUL, then a wholly government-owned company, signed up a collaboration agreement with Suzuki of Japan to establish the volume production of contemporary models. Subsequently, the licensing regime was scrapped in 1993 paving way for 17 new ventures, of which 16 are now manufacturing cars

Since then, there has also been an emergence of new competition for higher value segments of the passenger car market. Hence, local players like MUL also began to face competition from new foreign car makers. Ford entered the mid-range market with the Ikon model in April 1998, a move which was followed by Honda, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, and Daewoo. Other players, Hyundai and Daewoo, have since improved their share of the passenger car market with new models

Market Share in the Automobile Sector

For the 4-wheelers segment, MUL/Suzuki dominates the automotive landscape holding a 33% share of the passenger car market in 2004/05. In the second place is Tata Motors, a local company, commanding 26% share, while Hyundai Motor ranked third with 15% share and the rest split amongst close to 2 dozen other manufacturers.

For the 2-wheelers segment, it remains quite a local dominant game but global players also have obvious presence in the market. Major players in this segment include Bajaj Auto, TVS Suzuki, LML Limited, Hero-Honda Motors, Yamaha Motor India, Kinetic Engineering, Maharashtra Scooters Majestic Auto, Kinetic-Honda Motors, Royal Enfield (India), Scooters (India), Greaves Ltd. Foreign manufacturers also have presence in India through their 100% owned subsidiaries, e.g. Honda Motorcycle, Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. M/s Honda Motor Co., Japan, Yamaha Motor, Japan. The largest player is Hero Honda Motors, accounting for 40% of market share, followed by Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor, which account for 27% and 18% respectively.

Market Share in the Auto parts sector

The auto parts sector in India is highly fragmented and yet to overcome quality related problems. Despite this, India has also managed to attract leading players in the auto parts manufacturing to locate in India. These players include Delphi Systems, Bosch, Visteon, Denso, Johnsons Controls, and TRW Automotive to name a few. As a result of such successful localization of these components, vehicles manufacturers started outsourcing more and more components rather than manufacture in-house. For example, GM expects to source more auto parts a year from India by 2008, increasing to US$1 B from US$120 B in 2007. Hence, local firms are encouraged to develop components and set up facilities. Whenever required, OEMs and these global tier 1 part makers supported through equity participation or technical collaboration etc

Competition in the International Market

Besides the competition observed amongst global players in the domestic India market. India as an automotive manufacturing country is also pitting against other competitors in the international market. In terms of exports of automobile, India is ranked 29th, while China, the other huge automotive factory ranked 17th. For exports of auto parts, India was 26th, while China came in 11th. The top country for exports of automobile and auto parts was Germany.