Auto majors eye 1 million car exports by 2010

Passenger car exports from the country may reach the 1 million mark by 2010, according to top players in the auto industry. The country exported around 1,92,000 cars in 2006-07.

With interest rates on car loans adversely impacting domestic sales, many companies are aggressively pushing up their export targets, especially with India becoming a small car hub.

On the sidelines of a recent car launch, Jagdish Khattar, managing director and CEO of Maruti Udyog, said, "Maruti plans to export over 2,00,000 cars by 2010. I think that the Indian automobile industry is well poised to reach the 1 million mark in terms of exports by the period. The demands might chiefly come from Europe . But, there are infrastructural constraints to the objective, which might be tough to overcome."

His view is supported by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the auto industry association, which thinks the milestone is achievable.

"With so many capacities from major players in the pipeline, we are sure this industry will exceed the earlier trend of 40 per cent CAGR and take us to the 1 million mark. Targets mentioned in our automotive mission plan are achievable," said Dilip Chenoy, director general of SIAM.

Maruti, which is the undisputed leader in the domestic market with over 51 per cent of the market share, exported only 38,000 passenger cars in 2006-07, around 6.4 per cent of its total sales.

It had around 20 per cent of the export market share. Maruti has already made inroads into Indonesia and the Philippines, which are traditional Honda and Toyota strongholds.

It has bagged an export order of 11,000 units of the Zen Estilo to Indonesia and 1,500 units of the Alto to the Philippines. The company aims to export 55,000 cars this year, up 45 per cent from the last year's numbers.

Hyundai Motor India (HMI), the largest exporter of passenger cars from the country, had about 60 per cent of the export market share in 2006-07, with its flagship, Santro, accounting for over 91 per cent of the exports.

On his outlook for exports, H S Lheem, MD and CEO, HMI, said, "We are looking at further addition to our export volumes and in the next 2-3 years, we should be exporting around 3,00,000 cars. HMI currently exports to 67 countries, including Latin America, Europe, Africa and West Asia."

Hyundai was set to export 50,000 CKD (completely knocked down) units to Russia, the CIS and Taiwan as these markets gave it a price advantage, the company said.

Around 71 per cent of the exports are small car sales. The Santro alone accounts for 55 per cent of the entire car exports from the country.