'India's passenger vehicle market likely to double by FY31': Hisashi Takeuchi

Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director Hisashi Takeuchi estimates the country's passenger vehicle (PV) market to touch 6-7 million units annually by FY31, and grow to double in size from its present levels. In FY23, the PV segment registered sales of over 4 million units to become the third-largest market in the world. 

"Going ahead, the annual PV market is expected to touch 6-7 million units, thereby doubling from the present levels. Moreover, we are also optimistic about the growth potential of export markets," Takeuchi said while speaking at the 63rd annual convention of the Automotive Components Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), held in New Delhi on September 13. 

To be able to meet the growing market demand, he further added that the industry would need to review and realign its operations to a much higher scale of operations. "We will need to realign to a much higher scale of operations, which will be spread across multiple locations. At the same time, we need to make our operations sustainable and more environmentally friendly," he added.

In line with the country's sustainability goals and net-zero vision by 2070, Takeuchi said that the automotive industry must strive towards making concerted efforts to work on all sustainable technologies, including ethanol, flex-fuel, bio-CNG, hybrid and electric vehicles.

"Since the Indian market is so diverse and wide, it is our responsibility to work on all these powertrain technologies. We also look forward to our component suppliers supporting these technologies, which also hold a huge opportunity for the component manufacturers to diversify and grow their business," Takeuchi concluded.