India drops to 14th slot in car output

July 4, 2007

Despite the number of new cars being launched, India is way behind other countries in terms of car output. India has dropped three places to the 14th position in the world rankings for growth in passenger car production for year 2006. Reports citing the International Organisation of Automobile Manufacturers (OICA) said that India posted a growth of 16.5 per cent in 2006 compared with 7 per cent in 2005. However, it was pushed down the ranking list largely because countries such as Finland and Nigeria whose annual production is in mere four figures, posted growth of over 50 per cent.

The OICA said that, in absolute terms, India had production figures of 14.73 lakh cars and had moved up one place to the seventh position in 2006 replacing the UK, which produced a total of 14.42 lakh cars. India’s output stood at as many as 14.73 lakh cars, at a rate of 16.5 per cent. Meanwhile, Japan ranked first with a production of as many as 97.56 lakh cars followed by Germany with about 54 lakh and China with 52.33 lakh cars.

With just 7 per cent growth during 2005, India had managed to hold on to the 11th position, which it had recorded during 2004.

Taking the world scene into consideration, the total number of passenger cars produced in the world saw a rise of 6.3 per cent to nearly 5 crore in 2006. While Japan produced nearly one-fifth of the total number of passenger cars manufactured in the world last year posting a growth of 8.2 per cent, China pushed up its growth rate to 33.1 per cent compared with about 30 per cent growth achieved in 2005, it added.