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market today are- Mini, Compact, Midrange, Executive, Premium and Luxury. In the medium term, growth in the Indian passenger car industry is expected to be led largely by the Compact and Mid-range Segments.

The critical success factor has changed from price to price value.

In terms of engine capacity, the Indian passenger car market is moving towards cars of highest capacity.

With the launch of new models from FY2000 onwards, the market for MUVs has been redefined in India, especially at the upper end. Currently, the higher-end MUVs, commonly known as Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), occupy a niche in the urban market. With the success of SUVs, the line of distinction between passenger cars and MUVs in the Indian market is getting increasingly blurred.

Domestic car manufacturers are now venturing into areas such as car financing, leasing, and fleet management, and used-car reconditioning /sales, to complement their mainstay-business of selling new cars.

During April - August 2006, the passenger car sales in India at 332159 units, marked a growth of 5.3%over the previous year. The growth in the domestic sales of passenger cars was led by strong growth in volumes reported by compact and mid - size segments. While the share of mini and executive segments declined in the period under study, the share of other segments increased. For instance, the share of compact segment in the domestic car sales increased from 59.7% in April - August 2005 to 64.9% in April - August 2006, mid - size segment from 20.5% to 22%, and the share of Premium segment was stagnant at 0.7% in the same period.

New variants launches, easy availability of finance at relatively lower interest rate and price discounts offered by the players have played an important role in driving the sales growth in the domestic passenger car industry.

KEY DEMAND DRIVERS

Traditionally, disposable income was perceived as the key factor driving passenger car demand. But over time, other factors that are known to have an impact on demand have emerged. These include the need for greater mobility, non- availability of public transport services, availability of cheap finance, development of the used-car market, introduction of new technologically superior models, increasing levels of urbanization and changing consumer profiles.

The credit for growing the Indian Compact Segment, and in fact, the Indian Passenger car industry goes partly to the Korean manufacturers (HMIL and the erstwhile Daewoo) and the Indian player Tata Motors.

The HMIL Santro was launched in September1998 and created a sensation on account of its aggressive pricing at Rs.2, 99,000. The Santro became successful as HMIL had got the price -value equation just right. While Daewoo's Matiz picked up only seven months after its launch, the Santro was selling more than 3000units a month only 2 months after its launch. HMIL had infact, planned its entry into the Indian market with the 1495cc Accent but later opted in favour of the smaller car. At the time the Santro was launched, both the options available in the segment- Fi本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。