What is 'it' that was earlier with Maruti only...then Santro gave 'it' hard competition..GM (Chevrolet), Fiat, Ford and lately VW, Toyota, Nissan and our homegrown Tata Motors have started manufacturing 'it'..And now even Hindustan Motors (the makers of old racehorse Ambassador ), Bajaj, Mahindra-Renault and marquee brands like Mercedes-Benz have joined the bandwagon to announce their plans for 'it'...'It' is nothing but the ubiquitous 'Small Car'.....the eternal Indian middle class dream !
What is clear is that customers are spoilt for choice, they are getting best of features in their limited budgets, a chance to show off their 'phoren' brands, raining discounts and offers and of course 'status correction' in social strata. What is however obscure is what lies ahead, say two years from now when the lucrative Indian market is flooded with small car models from almost every major auto maker.
I'm not worried about the influx of 'n' number of models...I'm more worried on account of two things - our urban infrastructure and safety.
All through these years we have not been able to formulate a reliable, best-of-class urban area development policy- particularly when it comes to housing and traffic management. Traffic management in most of the cities is best described in one word as- chaotic. There are no rules for parking, lane driving, over-speeding etc. Even at night, you see more cars parked on road-side than in the houses/residential complexes. Parking in multiplexes is a pain in the a$$. You spend more time looking for a parking space than shopping ! Getting stuck in a traffic jam for 30-40 mins is pretty normal. Govt.'s flagship Urban Renewal mission programme has made some progress (with acquisition of AC buses in some cities) but major tasks like road widening, flyovers are still a distant dream due to eternal problems of land acquisition, compensation packages, political hijacking of the issue etc. With such a background, its not hard to imagine what would launching of 'n' small, affordable cars do to the situation at time when the spending power of the middle class is increasing by leaps and bounds.'Cars, cars everywhere, not a road to drive'.
With news of recalls everywhere, be it American, German or Japanese auto makers, the quality of small cars will be an area to be closely watched for. While Nano did keep its promise of 1 lac tag, pics of Nanos going in flames have done no good to its sales, with just 589 units sold in November,2010. With so many players fighting for a pie in Indian small car market, pricing will play an important role which implies that input costs have to be kept as low as possible. Policies regarding quality checks have never been stringent in India. Combine both of them (pressure on margins and poor policies) and you get a 'perfect' car suited for Indian roads.
Last but not the least, environmentalists will also have their own arguments.
We can't stop companies from launching new models but what we can definitely do is have good governance, good policies (which is of course a distant dream)...Lets see what future holds for us !
What is clear is that customers are spoilt for choice, they are getting best of features in their limited budgets, a chance to show off their 'phoren' brands, raining discounts and offers and of course 'status correction' in social strata. What is however obscure is what lies ahead, say two years from now when the lucrative Indian market is flooded with small car models from almost every major auto maker.
I'm not worried about the influx of 'n' number of models...I'm more worried on account of two things - our urban infrastructure and safety.
All through these years we have not been able to formulate a reliable, best-of-class urban area development policy- particularly when it comes to housing and traffic management. Traffic management in most of the cities is best described in one word as- chaotic. There are no rules for parking, lane driving, over-speeding etc. Even at night, you see more cars parked on road-side than in the houses/residential complexes. Parking in multiplexes is a pain in the a$$. You spend more time looking for a parking space than shopping ! Getting stuck in a traffic jam for 30-40 mins is pretty normal. Govt.'s flagship Urban Renewal mission programme has made some progress (with acquisition of AC buses in some cities) but major tasks like road widening, flyovers are still a distant dream due to eternal problems of land acquisition, compensation packages, political hijacking of the issue etc. With such a background, its not hard to imagine what would launching of 'n' small, affordable cars do to the situation at time when the spending power of the middle class is increasing by leaps and bounds.'Cars, cars everywhere, not a road to drive'.
With news of recalls everywhere, be it American, German or Japanese auto makers, the quality of small cars will be an area to be closely watched for. While Nano did keep its promise of 1 lac tag, pics of Nanos going in flames have done no good to its sales, with just 589 units sold in November,2010. With so many players fighting for a pie in Indian small car market, pricing will play an important role which implies that input costs have to be kept as low as possible. Policies regarding quality checks have never been stringent in India. Combine both of them (pressure on margins and poor policies) and you get a 'perfect' car suited for Indian roads.
Last but not the least, environmentalists will also have their own arguments.
We can't stop companies from launching new models but what we can definitely do is have good governance, good policies (which is of course a distant dream)...Lets see what future holds for us !
All this competition is healthy for customers and India. Its the fruit of liberalization which India is reaping now. Competition is good for the market and for the consumers.
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