The Changing Motoring Scenario in India

Year 2011. Could be just another year in history of India or it could be the most important. A lot of scams were unearthed. A whole nation rose to support a cause which was started by one single person and shook the government. Government(s) started new initiatives to bring huge investments into their states (Vibrant Gujrat). A natural disaster, on verge of becoming a nuclear calamity in Japan. Revolutions in middle east. The list goes on. While many issues affect millions and billions in the world, a few things happened in India which would affect few who have millions and billions. India saw launch of super exclusive cars and bikes in this very year. Gone are the days when we had just two cars – Premier Padmini and Ambassador to choose from. Today there are hundreds of car models out there, suiting every budget. Not only we have several sub 10 lakh rupee cars, we have several crore plus cars and several Rs 10 lakh + bikes. While the nation’s billion strong workforce moves on 100 cc commuters, a few, who have billions can now choose between a Ducati Diavel and VYRUS it they want a really fast motorcycle. TATA got international recognition to India’s car industry by launching most affordable car they also bought British luxury marquee JLR. Traffic Jams are becoming a common place in most Indian metros thanks to about 23% growth in car sales. While most of the people would be stuck in the jam in their alto’s and i10’s, there would be few who would be sitting behind the wheels of super luxury or super cars. Let us take a look at super exclusive cars which were launched recently in India:

-          Buggati Veyrone – Ex-showroom price about Rs 16 crores

-          Koenigsegg Agera – Ex –showroom price Rs 12 crores

-          Aston Martin one-77 – Ex-showroom price Rs 20 crores (besides other Aston Martin cars)

These are ‘super exclusive’ cars which hold show-off value even for ultra rich. Then there are the ‘usual’ cars for the rich – Maserati  (their entire range), Ferrari (to be launched soon), Audi R8 spyder, Lamborghini and Porsche line up. I am not even talking about luxury sedans from Bentley, Rolls Royce, BMW, Audi, Mercedes. The list if long.

Let us take a look at the bikes now. Indians buy about 1 million (10 lakh) bikes every month. Yes every month! But we also get several bikes which cost in excess of 10 lakh rupees. Ducati has recently launched their latest Diavel besides having their whole range of motorcycles in the country, Yamaha has the R1 (my favorite), the FZ1 (relatively cheap at Rs 8.5 Lakhs), Vmax and MT01. Suzuki has their Hayabusa, the GSX 1000R. I think they might be the only company in India who sell more super bikes than their ‘normal’ sedate bikes. J Kawasaki has launched the mini-superbike Ninja 250 an planning to bring more. Honda has let almost every auto journalist ride their super bikes across the country. It only shows their seriousness in that niche market. They have their VFR in India. Harley Davidson must be having the biggest line-up of bikes in India after Bajaj (someone do the math and let me know if I am wrong – I will correct it).

Now let’s come to the point. (Being a consultant, I tend to throw out a lot of data before talking anything sense). Why are they being launched in India when the numbers sold would only be a very very small fraction of total market? Also, number of luxury cars sold in India is a fraction of manufacturer’s global sales. BMW sells more 3 series in Germany than Maruti sells Swifts in India. The answer to the first question is  -  even than small fraction is a huge number. Answer to the second question is dwindling domestic markets for manufactures and growing market in India. They are not looking at sales in next 1-2 years, they are looking at having a mega share in Indian market 10-15 years down the line. They do not want to be late entrants. Audi’s and BMW’s would’ve established their names pretty well in India by next decade when Indians might be buying more more of their cars than Germans.

I have another concern though. While we get really expensive cars in India, we do not get affordable ‘fun’ cars. I would love to have a 1.6 litre, 120 bhp rear-wheel driven hatchback. I would love to have something like KLR 650 from Kawasaki for off-road touring. But I know such bikes/cars would not be launched in India. Why? We Indians go for ‘looks’, ‘brand image’, ‘show-off’ value. I have seen several of my non auto-freak friends pose in front of cars and bikes because they looked good. I have heard so many tell me – “You should’ve bought the i20, it looks so much better and then its Hyndai – better resale” blah this blah that. “Driving pleasure”, the most important thing for me takes a back seat for majority of car buyers. They talk about ‘re-sale’ before they talk about ride quality. Yeah, I want to discuss about divorce even before I am married.

Plus we tend to over analyze. I have seen several rants by so called ‘biking enthusiasts’ about the pricing of Ninja 250 and several rants about ‘not enough bike for that money’ for CBR 250. See, if you cannot afford it, stop cribbing, go out there and make more money. How does it make you any different than the mass of people buying bikes for practicality rather than love of them. Love is blind. It does not look for explanation. Yes, we need to have lower duties for bikes or policies in place to bring in manufacturers to make India a base for manufacturing their bikes and exporting them. But then as long as that does not happen, stop complaining.

Also, the fuel is pretty expensive considering PPP. So, while a 1.6 ltr hatchback might cost less than Rs 7 lakh, the mileage it would offer, a person might find difficult to afford the petrol everyday to go to office. Also, even several enthusiasts might not be able to afford one car for fun and one for commuting.

In the end, I am pretty happy with the things where they are headed in India. We are getting more conscious of our rights, are working hard to sustain a high GDP growth, Indian farmers are making record food productions so that the other workforce is well fed. While we commute to work to sustain India’s growth, we can atleast be stuck in a Jam in a really nice car/bike or just see it next to us and be motivated to work hard enough to be able to afford it.

15,000 ft and below

15,000 ft and below

(For links to pics and video please scroll down but do read the blog for the whle experience)

What gift did you give to your mom on her last birthday? I gave her shivers for hers. 30th September 1955 was the year when the most beautiful woman on earth was born, 52 years her crazy son jumped off an airplane. I called her a day earlier and told her I had bought a bike. She was silent and then very upset that I had done something very stupid. I told her I was kidding and then told her that I was going TANDEM SKYDIVING. All she said was be careful and have fun. She is the best mother ever. She encourages me to live my dreams or just that she knows she cannot help it. We drove up to Lebanon. Not the one in middle-east but the one in Maine. Five Indians, driving in a German car in US to a city named after middle east country to do a sport invented in Europe. Sounds crazy? It is. It was me, Raghuraj, Abhishek, Veer and Amol. We left early morning to get there on time but had to wait for a long time to get on the plane. If you are going skydiving and your reservation says 08:00 AM, it probably means you will take off not before 01:00 PM. We saw the plane taking off, going around circles to gain altitude and then leaving behind small black dots all over the sky. Abhishek was really worried that the plane was not reliable and it was leaving debris behind. Soon these dots were getting bigger and finally he realized that they were not plane’s debris but skydivers. We could make out who were experienced divers and who were tandem jumpers. The cameramen came the fastest and landed with high speeds followed by solo experienced jumpers. Then came the tandem jumpers with two people tied to one parachute. I do not know what is more dangerous, trusting tow person’s life on one parachute with one of them expert or one person per parachute who might know little about skydiving. I prefer the later but chose the former for some other factors. Our names were finally called out. The first batch was Veer, Amol and Raj. They got dressed, prayed and got on the Cessna Airplane .Soon they were floating down like birds. I shot a few videos of them landing. Next it was our turn. My instructor was Paul and Peter would be my cameraman. I got dressed in a nice red jumpsuit. Got a video shot and got onto the airplane. Now if you see this airplane, it is nothing like the ones you have flown in. First, there are no air hostesses, no drinks are served on board and the good part is no annoying pilot announcements. There is a irony though. Whenever you fly in passenger jet, there are like a 1000 instructions for safety and all you do is stick to your seats. Here, when we were actually going to jump off the plane, no announcements. They could’ve said “You guys are gonna jump of an airplane, please tie the person behind you to yourself.” We got up to 15,000 ft. The last time I was at this altitude, I was riding my bike. It was in Spiti Valley. So different. Last time I riding on a straight road at 60 mph and this time falling vertically down at 120 mph. Jumped off the airplane. A lot of people might think I was scared looking at video but I was far from it. I was just trying to listen to the instructor. Anyways, it was much less scary than you think it is. We did a Barrel, which is basically flipping on the back. The ground was still far far away but I was approaching it fast. Then Peter (my cameraman) was shooting me flying below me. I was surprised how much control he had. It was pure ecstacy. The speed, the wind, the sound of wind, the beautiful green valley below and the sheer rush of adrenaline were at levels I had never experienced before. Jumping off 15,000 ft is less scary than being hung at a height of 200 ft which I have been in a few rides. After a great free fall, the parachute came out. I was suddenly being sucked up into the sky and once the parachute was open and I saw the ground, I was consumed by the earth. I floated over the green meadows and flew through the clouds, the whole experience was heavenly. Paul let me control the parachute for a while and I will say, I go the hang of it. I did pull it too hard once and took a sharp left turn but then got a hang of it. We landed pretty fast compared to other jumpers. The first thought I had after landing was ‘when should I do it again’. Got my DVD and my camera roll of the fall and hit the road. Thanks to Veer who let me drive his BMW 5 series, the end of the day was awesome too. It was a wonderful car to drive. SO ladies and gentlemen, if you want thrill in your lives, go skydiving, otherwise just visit my webpage to hear my experiences.

The pics of the adventure:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=59643&l=0cebb&id=748825715

My Video of the Jump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuti82LjF5Q