There’s no denying that car manufacturers have a lot of decisions to make before launching a product in India. Some decisions work perfectly and some decisions in hindsight seem like they could’ve worked. As the title suggests, I’m talking about the missed opportunities. The opportunities could’ve worked in the Indian market if executed properly and at the right time. Here’s my list -
Maruti Suzuki – Giving up on diesel was clearly a big missed opportunity for Maruti. Especially when there’s still demand for diesel in cars like the Ertiga and XL6, even on cars like the Vitara Brezza or the Grand Vitara, a diesel engine option would’ve done very well. Unfortunately, Maruti shelved the plans to make their excellent 1.5-litre diesel engine BS6 compliant due to a design flaw (
related thread).
Another missed opportunity for Maruti has been the focus primarily on the budget segment and not developing premium cars. As of now, Maruti doesn’t really have a premium product in their portfolio and is quite slow in introducing premium features in their cars as well. Get this, none of the Maruti cars have ADAS features. Here’s
GTO’s article on how Maruti is out of tune with emerging market preferences.
Tata & Mahindra – Both Indian manufacturers have completely abandoned the MPV market which IMO is a missed opportunity. This way, they’ve just handed over the market to the likes of Toyota Innova / Hycross, Maruti Ertiga / XL6 and Kia Carens / Hyundai Alcazar. MPVs are a big market today and have all the qualities of SUVs with additional practicality as well.
Honda – In a recent thread I mentioned that Honda India currently has one of the
weakest lineups. Today’s Honda is a shadow of its former self. So, if I had to list out the missed opportunities, the list would be pretty long. But Honda completely getting rid of the Civic, CR-V and Accord IMO wasn’t a great idea. The cars still have a following and with the right powertrains and the right price, they would still find buyers.
Even when you think about the Elevate, it has a single powertrain in times where the competition has 3. With the diesel engine gone, Honda could’ve gotten the hybrid powertrain to India to attract some additional customers. As of now, although the Elevate is the only one bringing in good numbers for Honda, it’s still nowhere close to the competition.
Jeep – We have witnessed a change in the dynamics of the Indian car market in recent times. The demand has caught up with the supply and when this happened, Mahindra immediately cut down the prices of the XUV700. Surprisingly, Jeep did no such thing and tried to get away with high prices for the Compass and the Meridian. Both these cars should’ve gotten price correction a long time back. Definitely would’ve helped sell some more cars.
Volkswagen, Skoda and Audi – Just like Maruti, the VW group’s abandoning of diesel is a big missed opportunity. The VW 2.0 TDI was an extremely popular engine in the Indian market and they should’ve made efforts to keep it going, especially when the engine is still on sale in the European market and is Euro 6 compliant.
Citroen – They had a very capable car with the C5 Aircross, but it was expensive at the time of launch. Citroen could’ve priced-it-to-sell-it and we would’ve seen a few more of the C5 Aircrosses on the road. With the C3, again they had a good car but without any features at launch, they failed to make a good first impression. Sure there might have been challenges with cost and profits, but first impressions last. The C3 was launched in July 2022 and almost a year after that a well-kitted Shine variant was launched (May 2023). And now, in 2024, we finally get an automatic variant as well. Imagine what would’ve been if Citroen had launched this version 2 years ago.
Kia – When the Seltos was launched in 2019, it was a proper all-round product. It was loaded with features, looked great inside out and had multiple powertrains. They even had a manual transmission with the turbo-petrol engine which the Creta didn’t at the time. This made the Kia Seltos Turbo-petrol MT the go-to option for enthusiasts. When the facelift was launched last year, they brought in the new turbo-petrol engine but swapped out the 6-speed MT with an iMT (clutch-less manual). Not sure what the market research showed, but I don’t think enthusiasts were lining up to buy a clutch-less manual performance car. Now, if you have to buy a turbo-petrol manual transmission you have to opt for the Hyundai Creta N-Line. IMO, this was a missed opportunity from Kia.
Nissan – Given the current situation of the company in India, there are tons of missed opportunities. I'm referring to the most recent one which is the launch of the X-Trail. If the idea was to launch a CBU car in India for brand presence, then there were much better cars in Nissan’s portfolio to showcase that. Launching a mid-size SUV with a 1.5-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine and expecting people to pay ~ Rs. 60 lakh on road isn’t wise. If the idea was to launch a halo product, then there are cars like the Patrol or the Z cars as well.
Do share your thoughts on car manufacturers and missed opportunities in the Indian car scene.