SUV is the new market propeller for auto sales in India

India is always a country which has its own pecularities. While the rest of the world is going slow on gas guzzlers and the big cars including SUVs, the market for them back home is getting attrcative with every passing day.

Inorder to cash on the building demand for SUVs in India, many global and domestic auto giants have been busy rolling out newer models or variants of their existing SUVs to pamper the senses of drivers who want to have a 4x4 driving experience.

In the brginning we had SUVs from companies like Mahindra who rolled out Scorpio, Toyota had Qualis which was phased out and Tata Motors which had Safari and Sumo. But now, there are at least 15-20 models (including imported ones) sold by a huge chunk of multinational companies in the country. Furthermore, people are snapping up these vehicles pushing the companies to either stop the bookings or launch new models.

The new innings this year was kicked off by General Motors India which launched the AT version of its Captiva SUV, followed by BMW with its X6, while others have also followed suit. While companies like Toyota are not taking additional orders for its recently-launched Fortuner SUV, Ford motor Company is offering an attractive price tag for its refreshed 2009 Endeavour SUV.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. (TKM) has recently announced that it had received a record 5,000 bookings of the ‘Fortuner’ in just over a month. TKM is trying to ramp up monthly production figures from 500 to 600 units to meet high customer demand and is also planning to sell 2500 units of the ‘Fortuner’ during 2009 versus the earlier announced target of 2000 units.As of now, TKM dealers have been advised to take customer orders without advance payments, while committing to a tentative date of delivery. The vehicle is powered by a 3 litre Advanced Common-Rail Diesel engine and also features fulltime four-wheel drive.

Within a fortnight of Toyota driving in its Fortuner diesel SUV in India, segment leader Ford rolled out a new version of its Endeavour, pricing the automatic variant of the model competitively at Rs. 17.9 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). It is believed that by keeping the pricing of the automatic version of the Endeavour well below the Rs. 18.45 lakh pricing of the manual version offered by the Japanese auto titan , Ford is aiming to lure away all the Toyota customers (who are not able to buy Fortuner SUV immediately) into its own showrooms.

According to an auto industry analyst, sales have gone niche and buyers are putting their weight behind the premium SUV category which range from Rs. 13 lakh and above. SUV manufacturers have thrown in newer models; each better than the last one, got the right buyers interested, and managed to return with envious sales figures. Industry observers sees the overall market size of this category at a little over 10,000 units annually, which though small holds the potential of growing fast in the long-term with the road network getting better and more and more people driving across cities.

The resurgence of SUVs is yet another reason for the automobile companies in India to cheer about..and joining the bandwagon is now Nissan India with its X-Trail. There is promise of more action in coming days.