After Great Wall, Changan Automobile of China kicks off India recce

Two years after Great Wall Motor, one of China’s biggest SUV manufacturers, set its sights on entering India, a second car maker – Changan Automobile – is looking at a possible India foray.

News reports suggest that Changan executives were in India in November  to understand the challenges of entering the Indian market.

Changan Automobile’s product range includes compact carss, sedans, people-movers and pick-up trucks. It has six manufacturing bases in China – in Chongqing, Beijing, Jiangsu, Hebei, Zhejiang and Jiangxi  – and 15 vehicle and engine factories with an annual capacity of two million vehicles and two million engines. The company has R&D outfits in the UK and at Detroit.

While there has been no update on Great Wall Motor, it remains to be seen whether Changan takes the plunge into India’s automotive segment that has going through a challenging phase. Figures released by SIAM last week for the calendar year 2014 suggest that the passenger vehicle segment saw an increase of under one percent in the year.

Great Wall had aimed to more than double annual sales by 2015 by targeting more overseas markets when a delegation visited India in 2012.

A year earlier, Beijing-based commercial-vehicle maker Beiqi Foton Motor announced plans for a factory at Chakan near Pune to produce a full range of commercial vehicles but there has been no launch so far.

While India's car market has attracted billions of dollars in investment from overseas manufacturers, such as General Motors, Ford and Toyota, Chinese car makers have not yet made significant inroads into the country.

In 2014, Isuzu of Japan made its foray into India and has invested in a plant that will go on stream in Sri City in 2016. Malaysia’s Proton had also looked at India and had even set up a representative office but there has been little progress since, it would appear.