New Delhi - For the first time ever India has overtaken Japan to become the world’s third-largest automotive market in 2023, Nikkei Asia reported recently.
India's sales of new vehicles totalled at least 4.25 million units, based on preliminary results, topping the 4.2 million sold in Japan.
New vehicles delivered in India totalled 4.13 million between January and November 2022, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Adding December's sales volume reported on Sunday by Maruti Suzuki, India's largest carmaker, brings the total to roughly 4.25 million units.
The top-selling vehicle models for 2022 have yet to be announced, however in November 2022 the Maruti Suzuki Baleno was the country’s top-selling model, followed by the Tata Nexon, with Maruti Suzuki’s Alto, Swift and Wagon R rounding out the top five. The Also and Wagon R have also had turns at the top in prior months.
In 2021, China continued to lead the global automotive market, with 26.27 million vehicles sold, and this status quo is likely to continued in 2022. The US remained second at 15.4 million vehicles, followed by Japan at 4.44 million units.
Nikkei Asia said India's vehicle market had fluctuated in recent years. Roughly 4.4 million vehicles were sold in 2018, but volume dipped below 4 million units in 2019, due primarily to the credit crunch that hit the non-bank sector that year.
When the Covid pandemic triggered a countrywide lockdown in 2020, vehicle sales plummeted further below the 3 million-unit mark. Sales recovered in 2021 to approach 4 million units, but the shortage of automotive chips weighed on growth.
Petrol-powered vehicles, including hybrids, accounted for most of the new vehicles sold in India last year, Nikkei Asia said, adding that electric vehicles hardly have a presence. Cars for the Indian market are seen having fewer semiconductors than those sold in advanced economies.
According to Nikkei Asia, the easing of the automotive chip crunch in 2022 provided a springboard for a recovery. Along with Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and other Indian carmakers saw sales grow during last year.
India is home to 1.4 billion people, and its population is expected to outstrip China sometime this year and continue growing until the early 2060s. Incomes are rising as well.
Only 8.5 percent of Indian households owned a passenger vehicle in 2021, according to British research firm Euromonitor, meaning there is plenty of room for sales growth. The government has started offering subsidies for EVs amid a trade deficit resulting from petroleum imports.
In Japan, 4 201 321 vehicles were sold last year, down 5.6 percent from 2021, according to data from the Japan Automobile Dealers Association and the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association.
Nikkei Asia said the omicron epidemic and the lockdowns in China greatly undercut production, leaving carmakers unable to meet demand.
Japan's vehicle sales peaked in 1990 at 7.77 million units, meaning sales have tumbled by nearly half from the all-time high, according to Nikkei Asia. And the country's declining population offers little prospect for a significant recovery in sales in the foreseeable future.
According to Nikkei Asia, China surged past Japan to become the second-largest car market in 2006. In 2009, China overtook the US to become the world's largest market.
Asian News International (ANI)