Indian carmakers see surge in demand from women as economy limping back to normalcy

Indian carmakers like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra, Toyota Kirloskar and MG Motors have seen a surge in demand from women as the economy limps back to normalcy. Automakers have reported 3-5 percent driven by increased need for personal mobility and an additional car in the family.While the overall women ownership of cars is in the range of 15-18% in India, this is set to increase as women increasingly get behind the wheel for events such as off-roading and adventure trails. Companies have catered to this by having feature rich and connected vehicles to attract women buyers.More women drivers are emerging from driving schools too. Across 482 driving schools of Maruti Suzuki, and a total of 1.88 lakh learning to drive in 2019-20, 41% were women. In this fiscal, with its driving schools just open, post Covid, out of a total of 31195 learning to drive, 36 per cent were women.Experts said the top 20 Indian cities are seeing an increased penetration of women ownership in vehicles. “The actual usage of vehicles by women is going up in urban areas as they get less dependent, increasing ownership”, said Shashank Srivastava, ED, Maruti Suzuki. “In 2015, 12% of women bought automatic transmission cars. This has gone up to 36% now with our Celerio, Ignis and S Cross seeing higher traction amongst women buyers.”The need for additional car in the family now has also seen an increase amongst women owners, adds Srivastava."Women want to use safer transport in this new era. They increasingly prefer connected and feature-rich vehicles. We have seen that in the case of the MG Hector, a connected SUV, women increasingly adore certain sought-after features such as voice-commands for opening the panoramic sunroof and selection of latest sound tracks”, said Rajeev Chaba, president & managing director, MG Motor India. Women are also key decision makers within the family and ultimately influence purchase decisions as well, Chaba said.For MG Motor, nearly 15% of its buyers are women and the company finds the proportion of women buyers in premium and luxury segments higher.“There has been an increase of 1-3% post Covid, in women owners for all Toyota products with more women owners in the B segment hatch and sedan segment as compared to the UV and premium vehicle segment. This trend is primarily due to increasing women mobility requirements in urban areas,” said Naveen Soni, senior VP, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.In Toyota’s portfolio, Yaris is the most preferred vehicle among women owners who account for almost 18% of the total ownership.“With higher share of women car buyers, their age profile is getting younger, making it imperative to consider women as an integral part of our customer base”, says Vivek Srivatsa, head, marketing, PVBU, Tata Motors. As per the New Car Buyers Survey (NCBS) data, 2019 saw a visible increase in women’s preferences when it came to parameters of car buying. “Women have either preferred us more or at par with the male preferences whether it was regarding price point, driving characteristics, comfort or, design,” adds Srivatsa.Industry analysts said that easy ingress and egress in a vehicle is helpful when women are dressed in Indian attires. “At Mahindra, our SUVs blend the legendary toughness with a certain finesse and comfort that appeal to women drivers in addition to an option of automatic and AMT transmission. For our compact SUV vehicles such as the XUV300, women owner’s penetration is close to 20%. Overall at Mahindra, 15% of our personal vehicle portfolio comes from women buyers", said Veejay Nakra, CEO- automotive, Mahindra & Mahindra.“Mahindra’s customer engagement programmes conducted under the Mahindra Adventure banner are very popular amongst women. Almost 50% of the participants in the Mahindra Adventure run expeditions are women," adds Nakra.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3jPDBmY