India's car festival

Suddenly, the Indian market is awash with new cars. For a country that once had to choose between just two dowdy brands, Ambassador and Premier, 50 new models in a year is something.

Well, more than something. It’s spectacular. Not just because all this action is happening in India, but also because it’s happening at a time when America and other big car markets have entered their worst year in living memory.

Many things are going in favour of carmakers in India. General Motors, once held up as a great model, is today looking like a shameful profligate in the US. But it is flourishing in India, and hopes to do better this year. By 2010, it wants one in every ten cars sold in India to be a GM car.

That may be ambitious, considering the aggressive competition from Suzuki and Hyundai and scores of other manufacturers, but overall, GM feels this country "holds the key" to its recovery. Many big car manufacturers the world over are eying India with similar optimism.

The collapse of American car manufacturing is widely attributed to its refusal to accept frugal cars. But here in India, the GM’s Spark is available in a petrol-LPG variant, putting it firmly on the wish list of the budget-conscious middle class. The kanjoos Indian is finally getting his own back at the arrogant, splurging American.

Two cars rolled out to high expectations last month: the Honda Jazz and the Fiat Grande Punto. They have got the B segment, one step up from entry-level cars such as the Alto, all excited. That’s a hot segment because of the numbers they can sell, and everyone wants to be there. Volkswagen is coming out with the Polo later this year, and it will compete with Suzuki’s Swift and Ritz, Skoda’s Fabia, and Hyundai’s i20.

The recession is forcing many self-indulgent economies into considering smaller cars. The Grande Punto, for instance, would never have impressed the Americans, who are used to huge SUVs, but it’s available in that country today. The Americans were driving SUVs such as the Hummer, with a grand mileage of 1 km a litre, when the rest of the world was switching to cars that could do 10 to 15 times better.

Thanks to the recession and a sudden awakening of environmental conscience, the car snobs are now encouraging people to exchange their fuel guzzlers for leaner, meaner cars. India’s largest car exporters, Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki, are cashing in on European subsidies (of between Rs 50,000 and Rs 3.5 lakh) for people buying fuel-efficient cars. Life’s good for Maruti Suzuki, whose exports rose 176 per cent in June over the same month last year.

Everyone knows our roads can’t take the traffic, and we need better public transport, but our love affair with cars seems to have just been ignited.