MUMBAI: Car and commercial vehicle makers in the country are expanding their capacity to make left-hand drive vehicles to use unutilised capacity at their plants to meet increasing global demand for such vehicles.
Exports to left-hand drive (LHD) markets begin to represent a large opportunity for auto companies such as Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Ashok Leyland as they are expanding to newer LHD markets in South and Central America, Africa and West Asia, industry insiders said.
“These markets need affordable vehicles and for companies, it’s an opportunity to strengthen their Indian operations,” said a senior official of a Delhi-based auto company who requested not to be identified.
Honda has started exporting its fifth-generation City sedan to 12 LHD countries mainly in West Asia in 2021. “This marks the beginning of production of left-hand drive Honda City in India for exports and reaffirms our commitment to the ‘Make in India’ initiative,” said Rajesh Goel, senior vice president and director, marketing and sales, Honda Cars India.
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Companies like Honda, Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors target a three-fold increase in LHD export volumes from India, company insiders said.
While India is a right-hand drive market, LHD vehicles account for nearly 87% of the total passenger car market in the world, with China being the largest market followed by the USA.
Globally, top carmakers such as VW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai and luxury makers sell between 75% to 95% of their production to LHD markets.
Manufacturers in India are now tracking demand from LHD markets to finetune their production plans, experts said.
“OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are sitting on large unutilised capacity and we are beginning to see demand for global data for LHD markets for their future vehicle programmes,” said Ravi Bhatia, president of Jato Dynamics, a global provider of data and intelligence on the automotive industry.
Manufacturers need to accommodate vehicle adaptability for both driving requirements at the design stage and make their production lines flexible for both RHD and LHD vehicles, he said.
To make their exports profitable, companies need to study segments, safety and emissions regulations and consumer price value expectations in each of the markets carefully, Bhatia said.
Top 10 markets by volume for LHD cars
| Countries | No. of LHD cars |
| China | 20791273 |
| USA | 3726693 |
| Germany | 2917678 |
| Russian Federation | 2795011 |
| France | 1647852 |
| Brazil | 1615935 |
| Korea | 1592936 |
| Italy | 1385384 |
| Spain | 892388 |
| Turkey | 611248 |
Top Quality Made in India
Auto majors now recognise that vehicles made in India are quite competitive on cost as well as quality, which is driving their export strategy, experts said.
“In the past three years, whilst we’ve seen the domestic market slowdown, our production capacity at the manufacturing plant in Chennai continued to increase due to export demands,” a Nissan Motor India spokesperson said. The company manufactures LHD versions of its vehicles at its alliance plant and Nissan Sunny contributes to more than 60% of exports, the person said.
Veejay Nakra, chief executive, automotive division, at M&M, said LHD markets are projecting strong growth in the post-pandemic period and the long term.
The company exports LHD versions of its passenger vehicles and pick-up models including KUV100, XUV300, XUV500, Scorpio SUV and pick-up, and Bolero pick-up “to South and Central America, North and West Africa, Middle East and the Asia Pacific countries such as the Philippines”, Nakra said.
Tata Motors exports commercial vehicles with 750 kg payload, small commercial vehicles, and heavy commercial vehicles with up to 60-tonne gross vehicle weight to LHD markets in the Middle East, the African continent, Southeast Asia and South America, and continues to expand to newer markets.
“We have also been introducing a new range of products at regular intervals, which has fuelled the growth in these markets,” said Rudrarup Maitra, vice-president, commercial vehicle international business, at Tata Motors.
Ashok Leyland COO Nitin Seth said the company is expanding its LHD range by 8-9 products of LCVs and buses in a phased manner to expand its global footprint and “look at international markets more aggressively”.
Skoda Volkswagen India has been manufacturing and exporting LHD variants of VW Polo and VW Vento to more than 60 markets globally while Hyundai exports LHD versions of Atos (Santro), Grand i10 5 door (Nios), Grand i10 4 door (Aura), New i20, Accent (Verna), and New Creta to about 80 countries across Africa, Middle East, Latin America, and Asia.
Top 10 makes by volumes for 46 countries
| Companies | LHD(%) |
| VW | 96 |
| Toyota | 74 |
| Honda | 83 |
| Nissan | 87 |
| Hyundai | 83 |
| Mercedes | 92 |
| BMW | 92 |
| Kia | 88 |
| Geely | 100 |
| Audi | 93 |
