With the Indian car market facing a repressive time, the domestic auto makers have found a new market in Africa, which is booming with increasing demand for new vehicles. The leading Indian automotive giants like Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra Limited have formed ventures with the local manufacturers of Africa in order to expand their sales across various parts of the continent. According to a report by South Africa's Standard Bank “India's ascent has been most pronounced, growth in Indian vehicle exports to Africa has been weighty: since 2003 total Indian vehicle exports to Africa have swelled by over 1,000 per cent by far the fastest rate for this product group amongst Africa's traditional and BRICS trading partners.”
The report named as "The Africa Macro: India leads in unlocking new vehicle demand in Africa” states that the vehicle exports to African market has increased at a steady rate as compared to the rest of the world with India as being the front runner in terms of exporting vehicles. According to Industry experts, the main reason for this growth has been fall in the domestic demand in India, which has contributed to auto makers searching for new alternative markets in order to boost their sales. The main contributor that is driving the growth of Indian exports in Africa has been the demand for passenger cars, which has sharply increased to a staggering figure of 2400 per cent since 2003.
Recently, Tata Motors became one of the Africa's fastest growing vehicle manufacturers. The company had made an investment worth 700 million dollar in its South Africa based establishment since its inception in 1994. The leading automobile manufacturer of India exports its vehicles to various markets in Southern African Development Community. Earlier, it also announced further expansion plans of setting up an assembly plant at Kenya.
The other Indian stalwart, Mahindra & Mahindra also has a base in South Africa from where its regionally exports to countries like Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, Zambia and Botswana. The main catalyst for driving the company's growth has been the pick-up truck, which are considerably sold in Africa. In March 2013, Mahindra & Mahindra announced that it aims to set up an assembly plant in South Africa.
Apart from passenger and commercial vehicles, two wheelers exports have too risen up with the presence of Indian companies like Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor Company trying to stem its roots in the African car market. As according to the Hero MotoCorp's Managing Director Pawan Munjal, "Between January and March 2014, we will launch some more additional markets, some in Africa, some in the Caribbean and Central American countries."
It must be noted that Nigeria had imported the largest number of motorcycles by any African country, which accounted for 48 per cent out of the total motorcycle exports to the continent. Since 2008, Indian motorcycle exports have increased by 175 per cent to Africa with Bajaj Boxer becoming the third largest selling bike in the continent.
