Inside India: Indians view their automotive future

When automotive executives and experts from India look at their industry's recent past, they see major improvements in manufacturing capabilities, a growing market with great potential, and a very positive industry/government vision for the industry's future. But they also see a number of challenges, including the need for a better transportation infrastructure, improved product quality, more skilled workers, changes in labor and tax regulations, and the need to increase the scale of their companies in order to meet the demands of the global automotive industry. Despite these obstacles, India's executives and experts are optimistic about their ability to overcome these challenges and make India an important destination for automotive production and sales.

What do Indian industry executives and experts consider as the real issues and challenges for the Indian automotive industry?

To answer that question, the Automotive Analysis Division at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI-AAD), along with the IBM Institute for Business Value, interviewed 29 Indian automotive executives and experts from government, industry, and academia. Our questions covered a wide range of issues, including India's future market and industry structure, relationships between domestic auto companies and their foreign joint venture (JV) partners, as well as the challenges in the areas of infrastructure, air quality, and oil security.

From our interviews, we developed a picture of how the Indians view their own automotive future. India is an emerging automotive economy, facing all the challenges of a country working hard to grow its automotive industry. Its market is small but growing; its roadway system is incomplete; and its domestic automobile manufacturers and suppliers still need to mature to world-class status.

To read the full report, download the PDF file at the top of this page.