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Major passenger vehicle markets in the world recorded a decline in 2019. The sales probably is going tumble even farther in 2020!
The biggest automobile markets in the world (likes of China & US) have been stagnant since past few years. The OEMs had thus shifted focus on developing markets like India & Russia to gain volumes and growth. However; things did not work as planned and India registered one of the highest YoY falls across the globe. India has undoubtedly been a victim of poor policy management and high taxation structure. The issues like BS6 transition, varying taxation and the economic slowdown took a toll on the automobile sales in India. The passenger vehicle sales was expected to surpass 35 Lakh units in 2019; but ended up at <30 Lakh sales figure.
Let us see on how the global markets performed in terms of passenger vehicle sales for 2019 –
China clearly was worlds biggest passenger vehicle market and sold over 2.1 crore units in 2019! However; it registered a degrowth of -9.5% in 2019 v/s 2018.
Passenger vehicle sales in US & Japan was almost stagnant. The scenario has been similar in the past few years.
India recorded a double digit decline in 2019 when compared to 2018. In terms of sheer volumes; Chinese market was over 7 times bigger than Indian market! It is anticipated that by 2030 India shall match Chinese passenger vehicle market.
Brazil recorded the highest YoY growth and is inching towards India’s numbers.
Global Best Selling Cars for 2019 –
We have presented the Top 10 selling cars in the world in the aforementioned list. We have also added columns to highlight if the marque is selling in Indian market – And if yes; what numbers and percentage contribution to global volumes.
Toyota Corolla retained the tag of World’s Best Selling Car and sold over 12.3 Lakh units in 2019. In India; it could sell only 1,422 units and contributed to mere 0.12% of global sales! Unfortunately; it exits the Indian market in 2020 owing to low volumes and decreased viability (link).
Honda had launched the latest iterations of its global bestsellers in the Indian market in mid 2018 (CR-V) and early 2019 (Civic). However; both the models couldn’t do much to enhance Honda’s numbers in the India market and the global contribution was meager too (Civic – 0.60% & CR-V – 0.13%).
The numbers are a clear indication that Indian market is very unique. What works across different parts of the world; may not work in the subcontinent. The message is very clear to the OEMs – the recipe for success is completely different in India and they need to research well and launch required models.