VW Jetta 03

 

Being a left-hand-drive market hasn’t seemed to deter the Indian car manufacturing industry from exporting their automobiles to Mexico, thereby steadily pushing it to the top of the export destination charts. It is expected that Mexico shall bump traditional favourite – South Africa to the second spot on the grid.

The 50% hike in car exports to Mexico this year means that over 20% of the export production in the Indian car manufacturing industry shall now be sold exclusively in the land of Tequila. Leading from the front is the Volkswagen group followed by General Motors; with Hyundai, Ford and Maruti Suzuki rounding of the list of key Indian automobile brands to make it to Mexican shores.

The Mexican car market is on the rise and it is only expected to register healthy growth figures in the coming years. Indian car manufacturers, keen to secure their slice of this profitable pie, have been at the top of their game. Leveraging the lower production costs in the Indian domestic market, the Big 5, have been allocating larger sales volumes for this key market. So while shipping costs may prove to be prohibitive for other export markets, India has been offsetting this through growing economies of scale, even while manufacturers remain profitable.

This movement is not without its own risk factors. While the car manufacturers have to ensure that the models being exported to the Mexican market are in-fact received well by the customers there, there is also the global financial movements that are proving to be a problem. The Mexican currency has been losing ground against the dollar, thereby putting pressure on import margins and in turn, the final sticker prices.

It shall be interesting to see our home-grown manufacturers factor these various elements into the equation even as they chalk out the most profitable route into this key export market.

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