Indian Car Market roared past pre-pandemic 2019 levels in 2024, still above the 4 million treshold that was first crossed in 2023. With 4,27 million units sold, it marked the fifth consecutive year of growth, firmly led by Maruti.
Market Trend and Outlook
India’s economy is on a strong growth trajectory, with GDP projected to expand by 6.8% in FY 2024-25, continuing at similar rates through FY 2025-27. This growth will be largely driven by significant investment in infrastructure, coupled with rising rural incomes and accelerating private investment. Inflation is expected to ease in the coming years, creating room for potential monetary policy easing.
In 2024 and 2025, steady growth around 7% is anticipated, supported by strong private consumption, projected to grow at 6%. However, external demand may weaken, and inflation is expected to stabilize around the Reserve Bank’s 4% target by 2026.
Despite this positive outlook, India faces several structural challenges, including labor market shifts, a need for upskilling to address skills gaps, and low female workforce participation. Tackling these issues, along with managing increasing financial risks and ensuring inclusive growth, will be essential to sustain India’s growth trajectory and achieve advanced economy status by 2047.
India’s EV market is still in its early stages, but is expected to experience significant growth in the coming years. With transportation contributing substantially to air pollution, manufacturers are urged to scale production to meet surging domestic and export demand. Still, despite gains, EVs accounted for less than 1% of India’s auto market in 2024, underscoring the need for accelerated expansion.
Looking at India’s EV rankings by brand, MG remained on top with a 46.1% year-over-year volume increase, while Mahindra, in second place, saw flat growth. Brands like Citroën and Hyundai reported declines.
Aligned with a positive economic outlook, the Indian auto market grew by 3.8% in 2024, achieving 4.27 million annual sales. After steady performance for most of the year, the market surged with double-digit growth in the final months.
Looking at cumulative data up to December 2024, brand-wise Maruti still led the rankings with 1,74 million sales (+2.7%), followed by Hyundai with 600,105 (+0.6%), Tata with 538,881 (-2.2%), Mahindra with 528,460 (+22.2%) and Toyota -up 1 spot- with 297,257 (+35.8%).
Kia ranked in 6th, falling 1 spot with 245,000 sales (-3.9%), followed by Honda at 69,872 sales (-17%), MG with 61,214 sales (+7.6%), followed by Volkswagen -up 2 spots- with 42,053 new registrations (-3%) and Renault -up 1 spot- in 10th with 41,279 units sold (-13.6%).
Looking at the top selling models, reported in the dedicate article, the Tata Punch became the best seller jumping 7 spots and rising 34.5%. The Maruti Wagon R followed in 2nd, despite a 5.2 decrease in volume.
Medium-Term Market Trend
The Indian autos market alternated positive years with negative ones, from 2010 to 2013, reaching a minimum in 2011 at 2.5 million and a peak in 2012 at 2.8 million sales. 5 years of consecutive growth followed, with a maximum reached in 2018 at 3.4 million registrations.
In 2019 started a negative trend that would continue through the covid pandemic moving sales from nearly 3 million to 2.5 million at the end of 2020.
The fall in sales in the Indian market was not due to a structural problem in the economy, in fact sales started to recover extremely quickly after the pandemic. In 2021 they rose above the 3 million mark (+26.6%) and in 2022 they grew another 23.1% to 3.82 million, setting a new all-time high. In 2023 the market closed with a fully positive year, reporting 4.21 million sales (+8.3%).
This confirms a common trend in asian countries that, unlike European ones, are recovering well from the pandemic and are responding outstandingly to the change in market sentiment cause by a shift to Evs and a disruption in the supply chains caused by lack of raw materials for microchip production.
Tables with sales figures
In the tables below we report sales for top 10 Brands, top 10 Manufacturer Groups and top 10 Models.
