Hyundai Venue Is The Indian Car Of The Year 2020

The compact SUV wins by a narrow margin, taking on a bunch of tough competitors for the award

- S Muralidhar

The country’s passenger car industry has had one of the worst-performing years ever since the automobile sector was opened up in the early 1990s. After more than two decades of double-digit growth, the entire industry, across categories, has witnessed a massive shrinking of volumes. A near one-third fall in sales recorded by the market leader Maruti Suzuki has shaken the industry’s performance report and has left many wondering if there is ever going to be a quick turnaround in fortunes for the passenger car segment.

The tightening of credit, the lack of confidence in salary growth in the near term, the general slowdown in new infrastructure development in our cities and the overall economic slowdown has adversely impacted the demand for new cars.

There is considerable uncertainty surrounding the transition to BS-VI emission norms which is due to take effect from April next year, and also, in my view, there is the rising possibility of much lesser interest in personal mobility amongst the millennials. I believe that the passenger car has to ready itself for slower growth in new car sales, unless there is a significant increase in infrastructure development in our cities, including the setting up of new smart cities and satellite towns like Gurgaon, which has only risen over the past two decades to where it is today.

New cars and brands