Embedded Files
Relevant Knowledge
We have covered the history of Automobiles until the end of World War II which was ended in 1945. Now let us look at further developments that took place until the end of 1960’s.
After WW2 Americans realized about the importance of the connectivity between the Cities of their big land mass. So they started laying wide road network across the vast geography of USA.
Ford 'Mustang'
•Simultaneously, the Big Three of the car industry namely General Motors, Ford & Chrysler set about to design big fast moving cars to suit American roads.
•All these brands produced costly & bigger cars with comfort and luxuries. Edsel, Buick, Pontiac, Chevrolet etc. were some of the popular big cars in the 50s and 60s.
•Although these costly models consumed large amounts of fuel, many people enjoyed traveling and they didn’t mind spending more money.
Change is Inevitable
In 1973, the year of the first “Oil Crisis”, the oil producing Arabian countries formed an alliance and the petroleum price started soaring high. Suddenly more Americans started looking for fuel efficient and affordable cars.
Toyota Corolla 1966
Range Rover Classic 1970
Honda Accord 1977
From the 2nd World War devastation Japan emerged slowly and steadily. The companies such as Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Mazda & Suzuki began developing compact and economical cars.
Japan was already well positioned to handle the oil crisis of 1973, and rolled out their smaller and economical models in the United States. Since then Toyota and Honda got their foothold strongly in USA and Europe.
mitsubishi Lancer 1998
•Today, there are some technical and design aspects that define modern cars. The modern era (since 1995) has seen platform sharing, improved standards, and computer-aided design.
Indian Car Industry
• In 1920s Royal families in India started Importing cars from USA and Europe
• In 1942 Hindustan Motors Limited was founded by Mr.H.M.Birla in Calcutta. It produced Ambassador based on Morris Oxford, of British origin
Ambassador
Ambassador was fondly called as “The King of Indian roads” which was leader of Indian cars until mid 1980s. Later it was widely used as taxies and government limousines
• Premier Automobiles was founded in 1944. They built under license from Dodge and Plymouth. In 1951,they began with Fiat 500, and Fiat 1100 in 1954. In 1973, the Premier Padmini rolled out based on the Fiat 1100.
• Ambassador and Fiat/Padmini were the two dominant models of cars on the Indian roads till 1983.
Premier Padmini
The Era of Liberalisation
Maruti 800 - 1983
In 1983, Government of India started Maruti Udyog in collaboration with Suzuki of Japan. Maruti’s first model called Maruti 800 became a big success. Within 5-6 years the company reached an annual production level of nearly 1,00,000 cars per year.
By the end of 90s international brands such as General Motors, Ford and Hyundai began producing their models for Indians in India. Now the Indian market for cars has grown substantially.
Hyundai Creta
Mahindra XUV500
•Presently Indian car brands such as Tata, Mahindra and Maruti have evolved with their own R&D capabilities. India is now exporting 12% of its production to USA and Europe.
•In 2010, India became third largest car exporter after Japan and South Korea, and sixth in the world.
•Chennai, is referred to as the "Detroit of India" with the India operations of Ford, Hyundai, Renault, Nissan and BMW having assembly plants on the outskirts.Chennai accounts for 60% of the India's automotive exports.
Maruti Suzuki is the largest manufacturer and based in Haryana. Companies like General Motors, Volkswagen, Skoda, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Mercedes Benz etc. have their production assembly plants near Pune, Maharashtra.
•New manufacturing clusters are coming up in the state of Gujarat, Karnataka and West Bengal. Annual vehicle sales are projected to increase to 5 million by 2015 and more than 9 million by 2020.
• By 2050, the country is expected to top the world in car volumes with approximately 611 million vehicles on the nation's roads.
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