Car makers are banking on recovery in the economy to post higher sales this as they focus on localisation and digitisation in the wake of the pandemic.
“We adopted an ecosystem centric, agile approach to improve our market (during the pandemic), operational and financial performance by reducing costs, generating free cash flows, ” Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors said:
“We expect both sales and production to improve in 2021 on the back of overall economic recovery.”
Toyota Kirloskar Motor, which has been witnessing a gradual improvement in sales, stressed on localization and digitisation. Naveen Soni, senior vice-president, sales and service, TKM, said: “There have been significant learnings including greater focus on localisation and digitalization. The current economic revival is likely to help sustain the sales momentum in 2021 and we hope to see a V shaped recovery of the economy thereby helping the industry to bounce back."
Toyota will focus on electrified vehicles as a mid- to long-term strategy. At the same time, it will continue to expand its subscription and leasing service .
Hyundai Motors India Ltd, which had a dream run with its SUVs in 2020, has seen new growth areas such as the used car market. “The biggest challenge is to sustain business operations and ensure financial health of organisation,” said Tarun Garg, director, sales and marketing, HMIL.
He said the company has seen the “green shoots” of recovery and is cautiously optimistic for the year.
Mahindra and Mahindra, which has faced supply chain issues leading to the shortage of stocks, is hopeful of a good economic recovery. Veejay Nakra, CEO, automotive division, said: “Due to the constantly changing environment in different parts of the world, some of the supply chain challenges continue in the automotive sector, including shortage of steel and micro-processors.”
In the luxury segment, Mercedes Benz India Ltd (MBIL) is satisfied with the sales recovery during the last quarter. MBIL CEO Martin Schwenk said: “I see 2020 as a year of unprecedented disruption in which we have displayed unparalleled resilience.”
