India Three-wheeler market scenario – Current & outlook,

CompetitiveBenchmarking

-Anuvesh Choudhari

 India has emerged as the largest three-wheeler industry with a large domestic market and export base on the back of strong demand from local as 

well as international markets. “With industry volumes of 9,20,000 units in FY 2015, India is 

positioned as the largest manufacturer as well as market for three wheelers, globally,” an ICRA 

research report 

Over the past decade during FY 2006-15, the Indian 3W industry grew a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.9 per cent in unit sales driven by steadily rising exports as well as domestic demand. Within the overall industry, the domestic 3W market stood at 5,32,000 units in FY 2015, registering a CAGR of 4.4 per cent over the past ten years, the report said.

In contrast to domestic demand, exports of 3W from India have grown at much higher pace (i.e. 20.4 per cent) during the same period. As a result of this trend, the share of exports in 3W industry volumes rose from 18 per cent in FY 2006 to almost 43 per cent to 10 million units in FY 2016.

Passenger Segment:

Market Share

Load Segment:

Market Share

While India remains the world’s top producer, consumer and exporter of three-wheelers; challenges faced by it were many! The advent of safer, faster and price-effective 4-wheeled counterparts (say Tata Ace) did raise some serious questions on the sustainability of the industry in the recent years. Also government’s concern over safety and fuel usage has been worrying the manufacturers. However, 3 wheelers remained to be an affordable means of short-to-medium public transportation and last mile connectivity for goods transportation. The significance was well identified by Taxi Aggregators (Ola, etc) and have added autos as well under their offering.