Japan makes it to top five markets for India-made cars

Economic Times

6 days ago

Vehicle shipments to country at $616 million in first nine months of FY25 against FY24's $221 million
NEW DELHI: Japan emerged one of the top five export destinations for Made-in-India cars for the first time in the last fiscal year, underscoring steadily growing global acceptance of cars built in the country, including developed markets.
Key Indian exporters include the local units of Suzuki Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co, seeking to increasingly leverage the country as a production hub. Vehicle shipments to Japan rose to $616.45 million in the first nine months of FY25, from $220.62 million in FY24, showed commerce ministry data, collated by SIAM.
Globally Competitive Models
The Indian government is yet to release detailed data for vehicle exports and imports for the March quarter. However, industry insiders expect the trend to accelerate given that Maruti Suzuki began exporting the Jimny SUV to Japan this January.
'Over decades, we have built a base in quality, cost, efficiency and technology in car manufacturing. This has given us volumes and economies of scale,' said Rahul Bharti, senior executive officer at Maruti Suzuki India, adding that going ahead, the company would also export a 'large number' of e Vitara electric SUVs, manufactured in India, to the developed markets of Europe and Japan. Japan is itself a major carmaker and top exporter, shipping out 5.12 million vehicles in 2024.
While Honda Cars India exported 45,167 units of SUV Elevate — mostly to Japan — more than double of the 22,321 units it sold in the local market, Maruti Suzuki has on sale SUVs Fronx and Jimny in the country. Notably, parent Suzuki had to initially pause fresh bookings for the Jimny five-door due to higher-than-expected demand post launch. The car secured around 50,000 orders within four days of launch in Japan.'Indian OEMs have been not only expanding into key markets such as Africa and Latin America but are also beginning to enter developed markets (like Japan) with globally competitive models,' said Shailesh Chandra, president, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.Kunal Behl, vice president, Honda Cars India said the company aims to establish India as a 'key export hub in its business globally'. While the proportion of exports is likely to remain at about 30%, absolute volumes will rise over the next few years as the company's total volumes grow on the back of new model introductions in India. In the two-wheeler segment, Yamaha is planning to shortly commence exports of premium motorcycles to Japan. Itaru Otani, chairman, Yamaha Motor India Group, said, 'The sourcing cost, the labour cost, is quite low in India compared to other countries.''We are exporting nearly a third of our output to 58 countries already. We started exports to Europe from India at the end of last year. The next step is to ship to other advanced markets like Japan and the US,' said Otani.Overall, India's car exports grew by 15% to 770,364 vehicles last fiscal, widely outperforming a 2% rise in domestic sales at 4.3 million vehicles. While more than 27% of vehicles exported are compact passenger cars — measuring up to 4 metres in length and up to 1.4-litres — the share of compact SUVs — also up to 4 metres in length — are on the rise.
COMPACT SUVS FARE WELL Chandra said exports of compact SUVs are performing well, currently comprising more than a quarter of total exports. 'There is also a steady demand of mid-sized passenger cars having engines up to 1.6-litre, constituting about 20% of the share of PV exports,' he said, adding exports of utility vehicles — of 4-4.4 metre length — have also risen significantly with a more than 18% share of overall exports,'As an industry, we would closely monitor global geopolitics and would leverage any opportunities that exist in enhancing exports,' Chandra said.On their part, passenger vehicle makers have set an ambitious aim of doubling car exports to 30% over the next five years.