Maruti Suzuki wins maximum awards at JD Power Asia Pacific

JD Power Asia Pacific Award Ceremony was recently organised at the Shangri-La's Eros Hotel, New Delhi amid great buzz. Scheduled on March 11, the event was attended by the Vice President and General Manager of J.D. Power and Associates, Geoff Broderick and Vice President and General Manager of J. D. Power Asia Pacific, Gerrit Kuyntjes. The Executive Director of J.D. Power Asia Pacific, Mohit Arora also marked his attendance at the grand event.

At the ceremony, the experts of JD Power said that although the sales in Indian auto market are witnessing a fall at present, its market size will come as much as triple, amounting to 9.3 million units by the end of this decade. The automotive research firm said that the Indian auto sector will be driven by the increased demand as disposable incomer of the individuals will rise, which will facilitate the sector to expand at a compounded growth rate of 16 per cent per annum.

Speaking on the development process in the Indian market, Broderick was quoted as saying, “We may not see the spurt that we saw in China. India will have a consistent and gradual growth and our estimation is that by 2020 the automobile market in India will triple from the present size to about 9.3 million units.” While affirming the factors, which will boost the growth, he added, “As India’s economy grows, the number of people with more disposable income is bound to increase. Moreover, there will be a sizeable amount of young population, who are going to be potential customers for cars. Since the 2008-09 downturn, there has been a shift globally and also in India as they have learnt their lessons. Companies will no longer be going only after market share; the priority will be sustainable profitable growth.”

Experts are also of a view that the infrastructure improvement in the country will also play a significant role in the growth of the Indian auto sector. The sales forecast of JD power Asia Pacific came at a time when the growth rate in auto sector marked a 12-year low in February 2013, with a decline of almost 26 per cent, amounting to 158513 units. The reason cited for this was increased fuel prices, high interest rates and low buyer sentiments. Speaking on the same lines, Broderick further said, “Yes, there are short-term challenges in India like the high interest rates, inflationary pressures but in the long-term it has the advantages of having stable government and legal systems.”

Continuing this statement, Mohit Arora said, “The policies need to be consistent and there should not be any turbulence. For instance, due to ambiguity of diesel pricing many OEMs are unable to fix their plans. Some of them have even decided not to take a decision.” When asked if India would emerge as a well developed car market, he added, “Not exactly. The Indian pyramid will not change and the small car will continue to dominate although the percentage can slightly decrease to about less than 70 per cent to 60 per cent from the current 70 per cent of the total car market.”

The distribution of awards is as follows:

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