Saturday, 05 Oct, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
Though India has regained the fourth position in becoming the world’s fourth largest automobile market surpassing Germany, It has emerged as the third largest car selling nation in the world.
India has emerged as the fourth largest automobile market surpassing Germany. Overall, the country stands third in the global car selling market in the world. According to the most recent figures from the Organization Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA), the international trade organization comprising of 39 national automobile industry trade associations, India sold 36,31,095 passenger cars in 2021, compared to 30,96,165 in Germany.
Before regaining the fourth position, India was previously on the fourth spot in 2019 which it had lost to Germany in 2020 as then Germany became the fourth largest automobile market in the world and India had slipped to the fifth position. But in 2021, as India regained the fourth spot, there was a difference of 26% between India and Germany in terms of vehicle sales and apart from this India has become the third largest car market in the world.
It is important to mark that India was the only one of the top five global markets to have double-digit growth (28 percent). Despite the fact that China is the largest market, vehicle sales have remained virtually unchanged. Similarly, the US claimed a 4% growth, but it was less than in 2019. In both 2020 and 2019, the Japanese market dropped to third place. The Indian market has a vast opportunity for the increase in vehicle sales as the number of vehicles per 1000 people is just 33 in India which is one of the lowest among the developing nations.
Despite being in the top ten, countries such as France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Spain have seen a downturn in overall car sales. Some industry analysts believe that the drop in sales is due to these countries' tight emission standards. Others feel that the governments of these countries are prioritizing either public transportation or electric mobility, or both.
Organization Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles (OICA), also known as the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers was founded in Paris in 1919. The organization's membership includes 39 trade associations from throughout the world, including all major automobile production countries, effectively covering the whole global motor vehicle sector. The organization conducts activities in the fields of technical affairs, communication, and industry statistics. The organization's general objectives are to protect the interests of vehicle manufacturers, assemblers, and importers who are members of their national federation.
The chart given below shows the top 5 car selling nations in 2021.
Source: Organization Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles
China remains the top car market in the world as it sold 2,14,07,962 cars in 2021. Japan ranked second as it sold 66,19,242 cars in the previous year. It must be noted that China is a very huge market and it is clearly evident from the figures in the chart as China witnessed a four time sale of cars as compared to Japan which is the second largest car market in the world. China witnessed a sale of approximately 1.5 crore more cars than Japan in 2021. The third spot was secured by India as it saw a sale of 36,31,095 cars in 2021. There is not much difference between South Korea and Germany which are on the 4th and 5th position respectively. South Korea sold 31,62,727 cars in 2021 as compared to Germany’s sale of 30,96,165 cars. According to experts, the Indian automobile market has got a lot of potential and opportunities and can surpass Japan by 2025 to become the second largest car market in the world.
