The protagonist of India’s automobile exports saga is a troika -of three-wheelers, LCV passenger carriers and motorcycles.
NEW DELHI: The protagonist of India’s automobile exports saga is a troika - of three-wheelers, LCV passenger carriers and motorcycles. Together, they accounted for more than two-thirds of exports last fiscal.
Clearly, talk of India becoming a small-car export hub is very premature. While LCV passenger-carrier exports more than doubled to 116%, three-wheeler exports rose 87% and motorcycles 41%. Passenger car exports, on the other hand, grew just 13%. Excise incentives for small cars and plans by Japanese majors such as Nissan and Suzuki to roll out export-led cars haven’t made a difference yet. So India’s small-car export hub dream remains just that - a dream, for now.
Hyundai Motor India kept its reputation of being India’s biggest passenger car exporter, despatching 1,15,526 vehicles, or 13% more than what it sent in 2005-06.
Local market-leader Maruti Udoyg was way, way behind, exporting just 37,760 cars (33,597 cars in 2005-06), while for Tata Motors, exports actually declined.
The other foreign marque, Ford, ramped up exports nearly 50%, while Toyota, General Motors, Fiat and DaimlerChrysler did not export a single unit; Honda Siel and Hindustan motors have negligible numbers. So, are Motown’s big three not doing enough to fuel exports? Ambrish Mishra, auto analyst at Man Financial, says that’s not the case.
While pointing to Maruti’s plans to more than triple exports in the next three years, Mishra said Maruti was not focused on exports last fiscal because of a booming domestic market and lack of manufacturing capacity.
Ditto for Tata Motors. “Both these companies are going to be export growth drivers in the years to come. Maruti has already said it would look at a close to two lakh units export target by 2010 whereas Tata Motors plans to unveil a specific utility vehicle platform targeted at export markets this fiscal,” Mishra said.
Overall export growth remains strong, nevertheless. Last fiscal, it vroomed 25.43% to 10,11,278 vehicles. Exports of LCV passenger carriers more than doubled to 5,132 units (2,367 units) during last fiscal whereas those of three-wheelers logged over 87% growth to end this period at 1,43,896 units (76,881 units).
In sheer numbers, motorcycles are exported the maximum at nearly 5.5 lakh units, which is a 41% growth over 2005-06. Here, Bajaj Auto is streets ahead of competitors, with exports zooming 55%.
But Sreesankar R, head of research at IL&FS, points out that this is because big rival Hero Honda cannot sell in any market where Honda is operating - which rules out most of the global markets.
“So a comparison with Bajaj Auto on exports cannot be made. As for TVS, it is setting up units in Columbia and Indonesia. So it, too, will not be prominent in the picture in the near future,” Sreesankar said.
In the case of three-wheelers also, Bajaj Auto holds the distinction of being the largest exporter.
It logged about 87% growth at 1,40,663 units (75,261 units) in 2006-07. Piaggio Vehicles was way behind at just 2,513 vehicles (1,366 vehicles) whereas Mahindra & Mahindra exported a mere eight units.
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