Motoring Trends November/December 2024

The festive months of September and October 2024 brought cheer to the Indian auto industry. It was during the Diwali festival that the retail sales of automobiles – two-wheelers and passenger vehicles particularly – moved up by a good percentage, relieving the dealers of about five days of inventory. What is essential amid this development is to address the root cause of the slowdown in automotive sales that led dealers to face the challenge of high inventory levels in the first place. There is a significant shift in the automotive trends as well. Two-wheeler buyers are increasingly opting from premium products. The passenger vehicle buyers are also purchasing premium vehicles – SUVs – rather than those below the price of INR 1,000,000. With the Diwali festival over, the time may be right to look at what the performance of the auto industry will be in India in the remaining days of the current fiscal and what it will be in the mid-term. There is also a need to look at how the Indian auto industry is taking to regulatory, fuel technology and other changes that are flowing thick and fast. This issue looks at a change that is perhaps the most important – automotive design. It does from the perspective of passenger vehicles. There are other articles, interviews and features of much interest as well. With the Conference Vehicles Conference (2024) of PIN 365 roughly two weeks away, the Motoring Trends November-December 2024 issue also puts the spotlight on the industry people, government agency officials, transporters and their association leaders; the observations and thoughts that they will share for the betterment of the transport ecosystem from various angles.