India: Car exports winning in South Africa, Indonesia

India's manufacturing sector has limped along for most of the post-liberalization boom — at least compared with China's. But in automobile and auto parts manufacturing, India may be ready to come into its own as an export economy.

As a case in point, three cars made exclusively in India are gaining ground rapidly in export markets, according to the Hindustan Times.

Toyota's Etios, which debuted in South Africa in May, has quickly become the country's fourth best selling car in just a month of sales, while the Ford Figo was South Africa's sixth largest selling car in 2011, and Maruti's Ertiga has quickly become one of Indonesia's top five fastest selling cars, the paper said.

On the strength of its performance so far, Toyota plans to export the Etios to Brazil beginning in September.

“The car has received a good response in the South African market and we hope to sell 20,000 units of the vehicle in this financial year,” the paper quoted Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director (marketing and sales), Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd., as saying “Etios is currently made only in India and exported from here as a completely built unit. We do intend to export kits from here for Brazil, where it would be assembled from September."

In comparison, Ford sold 15,000 Figos in South Africa in 2011.

Other success stories include the Hyundai i10 and the Nissan Micra, the paper said. Around 600,000 i10s have been exported to some 120 countries around the world in the last five years, while around 150,000 Micras have been shipped overseas in the last two years, the paper said.