‘India already 7th largest automaker?

New Delhi : India has already become the 7th largest vehicle producing country in the world surpassing the target set for 2016, a top government official said on Monday.

?We have already achieved this milestone a good 6 years ahead of the set target,? Secretary for Ministry of Heavy Industry, B S Meena said at a round table here on automotive cooperation between India and the European Union.

Meena added that for the period up to August 2010, the performance of the sector has been extremely good with the cumulative production of vehicles growing at 32.4 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

The passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and two-wheeler segments have all recorded impressive growth rates of 32 per cent, 49 per cent and 31 per cent respectively during this period, he elaborated.

The Secretary also said that it is estimated that the size of the Indian passenger vehicles segment in 2020 will be close to 9 million units and two-wheelers around 30 million units.

Light vehicle production in India is expected to have the highest growth rate. The realisation of these volumes would position India as one of the top 5 vehicle producing countries in the world by 2020 with the domestic consumption growing by 4-folds to Rs 5.6 lakh crore.

He noted that the automotive sector was amongst the first few manufacturing sectors to recover and emerge from the down turn in the wake of the global economic slowdown.

?While globally the automotive sector is still to recover fully from the down turn, we in India have been recording impressive growth figures; in fact India was the second fastest growing auto market in 2009-10?, the Secretary said.

However the Secretary cautioned that the most important challenge for the industry was to ensure that this growth is accompanied by strategies aimed at mitigating the adverse impact of vehicles on the environment.

?This can only be achieved through greater emphasis of adopting latest production technologies and also the technologies used in the vehicles especially more advanced internal combustion engines, greater emphasis of hybrid technology and a shift towards electric mobility?, he added.

?In view of the huge potential of the Indian automobile industry and the challenges that needs to be met in order for the industry to achieve these targets, I see tremendous possibilities for the European Union and its member states to partner and cooperate with India and its automotive industry?, the secretary said.