soft suicide

Have a look at the article in Times of India,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/20_new_car_models_to_roll_out_in_2008/articleshow/2458531.cms

Wow, 20 new car models models in 2008. A rough assumption: 20 could be the number of new vehicles introduced by all vehicle companies in India combined from 1950 to 1975.

All said and done, I am not sure if our companies are ready for so many models. A thing to note here is that we are talking of 20 models and that may mean about 300 variants (colour, air conditioning, etc).

Most Indian plants, including lines of Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata Motors have been set up to mass produce a few models / variants. Most of them are setting up new plants and I think these new facilities will be tuned for mass customisation. So, till this time the new facilities come online, producing multiple variants from the old facilities is going to be taxing.

It is impossible for automobile companies to not introduce new models and yet get the necessary sales. It is also similarly very expensive for Indian auto companies to produce multiple variants from existing facilities. So the companies are introducing new models and hoping that the new facilities come up soon.

It is a catch 22 situation. Though it seems that the new facilities will come up in a year and two and that this is going to be a short term challenge, I think otherwise. The volumes in India are much lower than volumes in other countries. The specific challenge here is providing all the models / variants at much lower volume.

The good part is that I am in academics with zero investment in automobile equity. I can wait and watch, and maybe a year later write a few more lines. Right now, all I can say that it is going to be an interesting and thrilling journey.