Trends in the Indian automotive market

In 2018, the Indian automotive market and the local automotive industry achieved one of the best results in history. A total of 29 million vehicles were produced, an increase of 14 percent over the previous year. The front runners were two-wheelers with around 23 million units produced, followed by 4 million passenger cars, 1 million tricycles and 900,000 commercial vehicles. In the two-wheeled segment, the share of scooters in particular grew to over 7 million, testifying to their growing popularity. SUVs were able to exceed the limit of 1 million produced vehicles, so that every third passenger vehicle was an off-road vehicle.

The sales figures showed that India is currently one of the largest sales markets. The 2017 to 2018 fiscal year was one of the best years for automobile manufacturers in terms of sales figures. Growth was in the double-digit range and the Indian market surpassed Germany and is now in fourth place worldwide, just behind China, the USA and Japan. Annual car sales now stand at 3.28 million units, an increase of 9.23 percent. Two-wheelers have set a new record of 20 million units sold, with growth of 15 percent. Electric vehicles continue to have a difficult environment in India. Although there has been a doubling of the number of electric vehicles sold, from 25,000 in 2017 to around 56,000 in 2018, the share of total cars sold is less than 1 percent.
Exports by the Indian automotive industry also increased last year, rising by 16 percent. A total of 40 million units were registered for export. Exports of two-wheeled vehicles, of which 2.8 million were exported abroad, are leading the way. Both product groups, motorcycles and scooters, were able to set new records. At 380,000 units, tricycles jumped to over 40 percent more exported units than last year. The automotive sector in India can also be an opportunity for growth and globalisation for your company. The export of products to India often requires an obligatory India certification according to the Automotive Industry Standard (AIS). We will be happy to advise you comprehensively on AIS/TAC certification for India.
Here you can find more information about the AIS/TAC certification, BIS certification, WPC certification and TEC certification.
Please do not hesitate to contact us for further details and consultation. You can contact us via e-mail, or call us (UK: +44 2071931135, Rest of Europe: +49 69 2713769261, US: +1 773 654-2673).
You can also download our brochures about the compulsory certifications here.