The Automotive industry is one of the biggest industries in terms of size and revenue. But have you ever wondered what the Industry is from an Indian Context?
I have and tell me tell you, it’s not similar to the global automotive industry, it doesn’t even come close. The Mindset of Indian buyers, the things they look for in a car, the way they perceive whether the car is overpriced or properly priced is something that not everybody knows and understands unless someone has been deeply studying the sales report and analyzing the behavior of the consumer.
I did and I have come up with a few observations of mine, one of those observations is obsessing over a single brand, for example, let’s take Maruti Suzuki.
We all have heard and see how blindly our parents trust Maruti, maybe it would have annoyed you a bit that why do they don’t consider other manufacturers present in the market, why only Maruti Suzuki?
Well, the reason is that Maruti is one of those few companies that have been making cars in India for a very long time, and over the time cars like the Maruti 800, Maruti Omni has made Indians fall in love with the brand so much that now everyone from the star Maruti era thinks that Maruti still makes such great cars which is obviously not the case.
Maruti continues to have that image and top the sales charts year after year with their most affordable models like the alto and the swift staying at the top, their premium cars with the sell-through nexa, have also started to get some traction because of the other cars that Maruti makes, so it would be good for me to assume that Maruti has found the perfect spot in the heart of Indians and they continue to sell their cars just by triggering the emotions of the buyers.
Also, Indians are just too much obsessed with features, if we are given a choice between a car that is not so safe but has a sunroof and a car that is safe af, has a 5-star NCAP rating but has no sunroof, Indians have the tendency to go towards the former one, not the latter one which is sad.
And if go to these people and ask them the reason for their choice, they will say it has more features, and if you say that the car is unsafe, what about that, they will say that I am a good driver, so the possibilities of an accident are very well, but the point is, that you may be a good driver, but the same thing can’t be said about each and every driver or rider on the road.
The reason why Maruti continues to sell such cars without any problem is that customers aren’t complaining, customers don’t go to Maruti and they say that please make your car safer, they just buy without any hesitation.
And why would Maruti have any problem if their cars are selling? Maruti is ultimately able to make billions of dollars and that’s what matters to them or to any other company for that matter.
As I have said before as well, Companies are here to make money, they aren’t here for charity. So as long as they are making money without any problem everything is fine.
A few of the best companies in India in terms of safety might be Tata and Mahindra, the way they prioritize safety in their cars just makes you respect them more as a company, for example, the Tata Nexon and the Mahindra XUV 300 both are 2 of the safest cars you can buy in India, both have a 5-star safety rating and you literally feel like you are sitting in a tank.
Now let me give you a relatable example when you sit in a flight, the flight attendant gives you instructions regarding the doors and the safety measures. In the safety instructions, one of the instructions is regarding the life jacket that is present under the seat.
Now there is less than 0.001 percent chance that the plane might fall into the sea, but you still feel great that the airline cares enough for your safety to provide you with life jackets, which is probably never going to be used by the passengers if everything goes fine.
And now regarding the future: -
Less than 5 percent of the cars in 2050 will be run by Gasoline and the rest 95 percent will be divided into electric, hydrogen, and cars with alternative fuel.
Self-driving will become a standard feature for that time and there might be some cities as well that might become car-free as some countries are deciding for such plans, rest the car culture would probably be non-existent because anything besides coloring your car will be illegal and since there would be no gasoline cars, there would be no exhaust tuning, but tuning might exist for electric cars.
So that will be all for this time, everyone, I trust you liked this one, if you did then do share it with your friends and consider subscribing to Motordrift for more such content in the future.
Till then
Ciao
