Left-hand drive markets now go for Made in India vehicles, Auto News, ET Auto

MUMBAI: Auto and industrial automobile makers in the state are expanding their capability to make left-hand drive motor vehicles to use unutilised capability at their crops to meet up with raising world-wide demand for this kind of motor vehicles.

Exports to left-hand drive (LHD) markets get started to characterize a big opportunity for vehicle firms this kind of as Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Ashok Leyland as they are expanding to newer LHD markets in South and Central The usa, Africa and West Asia, business insiders said.

“These markets have to have economical motor vehicles and for firms, it is an opportunity to improve their Indian operations,” said a senior official of a Delhi-centered vehicle company who asked for not to be discovered.

Honda has started out exporting its fifth-generation City sedan to twelve LHD nations around the world largely in West Asia in 2021. “This marks the starting of output of left-hand drive Honda City in India for exports and reaffirms our dedication to the ‘Make in India’ initiative,” said Rajesh Goel, senior vice president and director, marketing and income, Honda Cars India.
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Companies like Honda, Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors target a a few-fold improve in LHD export volumes from India, company insiders said.

Though India is a ideal-hand drive sector, LHD motor vehicles account for almost 87{ed0b873b90f1b87a4f3b347f1646a477c6eee9bccb9dcbe5ac9cb67a3d16495a} of the total passenger auto sector in the entire world, with China staying the major sector adopted by the United states.

Globally, leading carmakers this kind of as VW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and luxury makers offer amongst 75{ed0b873b90f1b87a4f3b347f1646a477c6eee9bccb9dcbe5ac9cb67a3d16495a} to ninety five{ed0b873b90f1b87a4f3b347f1646a477c6eee9bccb9dcbe5ac9cb67a3d16495a} of their output to LHD markets.

Manufacturers in India are now tracking demand from LHD markets to finetune their output designs, industry experts said.

“OEMs (authentic machines producers) are sitting down on big unutilised capability and we are starting to see demand for world-wide info for LHD markets for their long run automobile programmes,” said Ravi Bhatia, president of Jato Dynamics, a world-wide supplier of info and intelligence on the automotive business.

Manufacturers have to have to accommodate automobile adaptability for equally driving requirements at the design stage and make their output traces flexible for equally RHD and LHD motor vehicles, he said.

To make their exports worthwhile, firms have to have to study segments, basic safety and emissions restrictions and shopper price value anticipations in each of the markets very carefully, Bhatia said.

Best 10 markets by quantity for LHD vehicles

Best Top quality Designed in India

Car majors now recognise that motor vehicles built in India are very aggressive on expense as effectively as quality, which is driving their export method, industry experts said.

“In the past a few years, while we have viewed the domestic sector slowdown, our output capability at the producing plant in Chennai ongoing to improve because of to export requires,” a Nissan Motor India spokesperson said. The company manufactures LHD variations of its motor vehicles at its alliance plant and Nissan Sunny contributes to more than 60{ed0b873b90f1b87a4f3b347f1646a477c6eee9bccb9dcbe5ac9cb67a3d16495a} of exports, the man or woman said.

Veejay Nakra, main executive, automotive division, at M&M, said LHD markets are projecting solid progress in the submit-pandemic time period and the extensive expression.

The company exports LHD variations of its passenger motor vehicles and decide-up types which includes KUV100, XUV300, XUV500, Scorpio SUV and decide-up, and Bolero decide-up “to South and Central The usa, North and West Africa, Center East and the Asia Pacific nations around the world this kind of as the Philippines”, Nakra said.

Tata Motors exports industrial motor vehicles with 750 kg payload, compact industrial motor vehicles, and large industrial motor vehicles with up to 60-tonne gross automobile fat to LHD markets in the Center East, the African continent, Southeast Asia and South The usa, and carries on to expand to newer markets.

“We have also been introducing a new selection of merchandise at standard intervals, which has fuelled the progress in these markets,” said Rudrarup Maitra, vice-president, industrial automobile worldwide business enterprise, at Tata Motors.

Ashok Leyland COO Nitin Seth said the company is expanding its LHD selection by 8-9 merchandise of LCVs and buses in a phased way to expand its world-wide footprint and “look at worldwide markets more aggressively”.

Skoda Volkswagen India has been producing and exporting LHD variants of VW Polo and VW Vento to more than 60 markets globally whilst Hyundai exports LHD variations of Atos (Santro), Grand i10 five doorway (Nios), Grand i10 4 doorway (Aura), New i20, Accent (Verna), and New Creta to about eighty nations around the world across Africa, Center East, Latin The usa, and Asia.

Best 10 tends to make by volumes for 46 nations around the world