A look at the brands who are doing phenomenally well in exports vis-a-vis their sales in the Indian Domestic market.
The report has been categorized separately for cars and 2-wheelers to get a better picture. Also note there would be other brands whose volumes would be higher than the ones mentioned in the report, but will not find a mention here as their domestic sales numbers would be higher. The first Quarter data (Q1 – April 2015 to June 2015) has been evaluated.
CARS:
– Hyundai i10 still finds buyers ‘outside’ the subcontinent. Even the previous gen i20 (before the elite) and Accent has considerable export volumes – though the brands are not even selling in India currently!
– Nissan India’s plant capacity utilization is still dependent on export numbers – Micra & Sunny are exported near to 10 times what they sell in India! India made Nissan’s seem to be pretty famous outside the country 🙂
– Even Ford has been extremely focused on gaining export volumes. The same was evident from the launch of Ecosport – where exports was given higher significance rather than to support the local demand. The resultant is still seen – Ecosport exports remain higher than the local offtake numbers. Also the demand for its younger sibling Figo has fizzled out domestically, it still exports over TWICE the domestic volumes!
– VW exports significant units of Vento as well (~5 times the volumes that it sells in India)
– Ashok Leyland decided to stop Stile’s journey in India – though the export volumes are not significant; it indeed is exponentially higher than the Indian sales.
2-Wheelers:
– The trend here is quite surprising – 10 brands which have stopped (or phased out) in India are extremely successful in terms of exports. Brands such as Boxer, Victor, Star City are doing exceptionally well export volumes!
– Royal Enfield Continental GT finds a special mention here – it is the only Royal Enfield brand which has seen YoY de-growth in India; but the exports have been better! The cafe racer concept being widely accepted in other countries support the aforementioned numbers. Also note that Mr. Siddhartha Lal (MD & CEO, Royal Enfield) has recently announced to move to UK to achieve the company’s global ambitions and gain volumes outside the sub-continent.
The Auto OEMs have surely utilized India’s production prowess and have leveraged on the export potential in European & African markets particularly. We expect the trend to witness a rapid boost with the ‘Make in India’ initiative.