5 car brands that left India!
India has always been a lucrative market for car manufacturers. Companies from all over the world have tried bringing their products here. Extensive market studies and analyses has to be done before entering a segment. As of today, India is the fourth largest automobile market and has more than 30+ brands that sell their vehicles here. In contradiction to this, there have also been brands that failed to maintain their presence due to one or the other reason. In today’s article, we are going to discuss 5 car brands that left India.
Ford
The competitive Indian market has become perilous for some brands. Ford is one classic example of it. Ford decided to exit the India in September 2021. The lack of hot selling cars and void in the SUV sub-segments made this brand exit the country. Though Endeavour tasted success, Ford had to have some other product to stay in profit. Their other cars named the FreeStyle, Figo Aspire, etc were not in demand due to extensive competition. Ultimately, the losses reached 2 billion dollars and Ford had to bid goodbye.
5 car brands that left India – Fiat
Fiat, one of the most famous brands in our Indian car history left for the second time. Fiat India closed its operations in 2019 due to insufficient sales and high operation costs. The Italian automaker left the country as it felt no need to develop its very popular 1.3-litre Multijet diesel engines as per the BS6 norms. It became much more expensive for the brand to upgrade the mill as it was not showing any special response in the market. Due to this very reason, Maruti had to stop offering the diesel variants as it was borrowing these units from Fiat. Moreover, Fiat sold slightly more than 100 units of its Punto & Linea in the last months, which further justifies why they said goodbye to the market.
Chevrolet
Once the fifth largest automobile manufacturing company, General Motors were making vehicles in Pune and Gujarat. Their cars like Tavera, Cruze, Optra, Enjoy, etc. were huge successes that established multiple car segments in the country. General Motors began its journey in India 20 years back with brands like Opel and Chevrolet. However, Opel had to exit early. On the other hand, Chevrolet did become a hit with meaningful products. However, as time went by, competition grew, and eventually led to this brand leaving the country due to low sales. The exit of this American brand was however unprecedented.
5 car brands that left India – Mitsubishi
Once known for cars like the Pajero and Lancer, this Japanese manufacturer saw huge leaps of success. In the year 1998, it launched its first car, the Lancer which created a buzz in the market. Hindustan Motors was responsible for producing cars for Mitsubishi. This created a lot of dependencies for the Japanese on HM. Later in time, Hindustan Motors also shut down its operations, which started opened multiple hurdles for Mitsubishi. It also accumulates as a reason why Mitsubishi couldn’t possess a strong aftersales service and spare parts network. All these factors made Mitsubishi pull the plug on its India operations.
Fun fact – Mitsubishi still has their official website working and according to the website, the Mitsubishi Outlander and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport Select Plus are still available, with booking for the Outlander open.
Datsun
The affordable small car brand failed to shine its glory in the Indian market. Its parent organization Nissan had to discontinue it due to low demand. It failed to captivate buyers due to many different reasons, with the major ones being build quality & lack of features. Datsun sat in the market with entry-level cars like Redi-GO, GO, and GO+. Nevertheless, it couldn’t maintain its hold.
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