[Koo-Sang Column] Indian car industry becomes larger and larger

I visited India for two weeks in order to give special lecture for Ajeenkya university students about automobile design. This is my second time of visiting India after the first visit in 2011. Ajeenkya University located in Pune, Maharashutra state, has been merged and become as a collegiate university. Before, it was D.Y. Patil Design College(DYPDC) that specialized in teaching design studies.

Pune city is about 150km far from Mumbai, the state capital. Although it does not seem that far, it takes a great deal of time. I arrived at Mumbai airport at 1 a.m., but I arrived at the hotel in Pune at about 6 a.m. because of heavy traffic jam on the highway.

What I felt is that there is not really clear ‘dividing line’ which defines daytime and night traffic situations or rush hour. In other words, it is hard to ‘guess’ when we are stuck in a traffic jam. After my last visit of India in 2011, I have been curious how India has been changed during 5 years. Actually, what Koreans know about India is few. What we know are Indian use English influenced by British colony, huge gap between the rich and poor because of caste, and India is the cradle of Buddhism.

Surprisingly, however, Indian automobile industry has been grown rapidly, and now it has come into 6th in the global car industry ranking. Also, India have successfully launched its space launcher made with its own technology. India has a tactical nuclear weapon as well, which indicates India is a power which takes its own line without caring American’s NPT or any other military influences.

Pune I visited is considered as a core of car industry, as there are Tata Motors, Mercedes-Benz India, and various Japanese joint companies. Of course, there is bigger industrial cities such as Chennai, but Pune gets geographical advantage as India is one of the world biggest countries.

One of the frequent questions people asked to me is that ‘Have you ever been to Taj Mahal?’, and it takes almost a week to visit Taj Mahal from Pune by train. Yes. India is a large country, and the geographical concept that Korean and Indian have understood are different.

Most of India’s carmakers are Japanese joint companies. Japanese brands such as Suzuki, Honda, Toyota have collaborated with Indian brands and entered to the Indian market. Of course, there are huge indigenous companies such as Mahindra that took over Ssangyong and Tata that took over Daewoo Commercial Vehicle.

One of the surprising things is that those Indian brands have quite strong capital power. It can be proved through the fact that Mahindra has taken over Pininfarina, the Italian car design company.

Pininfarina is Italian car design company which designed almost all Ferrari models. Besides it, Tata also has Jaguar and Land Rover.

Global companies such as Segway or Pirelli have been taken over by Chinese brands, and China has become more powerful, it is expected that how powerful India will become.

Most people from Chinese or Indian automobile industry have asked me that how Korean automobile industry could grow rapidly in a short time.

Of course, the question is not simply on asking statistical data such as output. There is no doubt that those are wondering how quality and design of Korean-made cars have been able to be improved.

The gap between India’s high-tech industry such as satellite or nuclear and practical(?) technology such as automobile is huge. This is caused by unbalancing between the market, where demands various kinds of vehicles that fits to the market’s huge size, and the nation’s low ability of purchasing.

Because of the fact above, Indian car makers can survive based on selling and developing cars that satisfy with the ‘basic standard’required by the market. This characteristic also can be seen in Chinese market.

With the reason, Indian carmakers do not seem earnest to pursue objective design that can be accepted by global market. Meanwhile, recently, there has been increasing demand towards luxury vehicles in Indian market.

Those demands are usually towards Jaguar, Land Rover or German brands. This also can reflect the extreme social structure in India.

As the final outcome, when Indian brands will be interested in the growth based on global standard is the point.

And maybe, Korean automakers will need to cooperate with Indian brands in order to improve their own ability.