Dynamics of the Indian Automobile Industry: Recent Growth and Location

In recent years, India has enjoyed economic prosperity that she had never experienced from the time on the independence. This article discusses dynamics of the automobile industry, one of the highest growth manufacturing sectors under the liberalization policy in the 1990s. After a brief historical explanation of the industry, the author describes corporate strategies of new comers, classified into three divisions; i.e. passenger car, commercial vehicle and two wheelers. Then he also analyze their distribution patterns from the view point of transport cost and Indian industrial location policy. The location of car assembly units in the 1990s tends to concentrate in greenfields on the outskirts of the existing agglomerations of the automobile industry.