Small Car be hot cake at Delhi Auto Show

A host of new small cars were Tuesday set to jostle for attention at the start of the Indian auto show, a showpiece event for compact vehicles in one of the world's fastest growing markets.

AutoExpo 2010, which runs in New Delhi until January 11, will feature global releases of cars designed for India's growing middle classes, whose appetite for vehicles is driving sales growth of more than 10 percent a year.

Recent months have seen foreign giants Ford, General Motors, Hyundai and Renault join a stampede to India, where each has promised a small, cheap model designed for what Ford boss Alan Mulally termed the "sweet spot" of the market.

Many of these will be on display during the week, including concept small cars from Japan's Honda and Toyota, General Motors' new Beat vehicle, as well as the India-made Polo by Germany's Volkswagen.

Organisers are keen to stress the range of cars and technology on display, the 40-percent increase in exhibition space compared with the last edition in 2008 and the more than 2,000 exhibitors from 30 countries.

"That's what makes us feel now that Delhi is as big and as important as any auto show in the world," Pawan Goenka, president of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), told reporters Monday.

Ahead of the event, General Motors took the wraps off its Beat model which it intends to sell in more than 150 countries worldwide including Europe, parts of Asia and North America.

Karl Slym, head of GM India, said the Beat, priced at 334,000 rupees (7,000 dollars) in its basic form, would help increase Indian sales by 30 percent this year to 100,000 units, but he admitted that the competition was getting tough.

"There is a competitive market in India," he told reporters. "There are more and more players coming in with different capabilities."

All new entrants are looking to unseat Indo-Japanese alliance Maruti Suzuki, which accounts for 55 percent of all car sales in India and has been a top selling brand for two decades.

This year's show is the 10th, but it first caught the world's attention in 2008 when Indian manufacturer Tata Motors unveiled its Nano, the world's cheapest car that has since hit the roads.

The 115,000-rupee (2,500-dollar) Nano kickstarted the race to produce cheap, small vehicles, which account for 80 percent of all car sales in India.

French automaker Renault and Japanese partner Nissan aim to challenge this price level with an ultra-low cost car in 2012.

Renault has projected India's car sales will more than triple within a decade to six million sales annually from 1.8 million.

Incomes are rising steadily, meaning Indians are following the familiar pattern of upgrading their personal transport from push bikes, to motorbikes, then to cars.

Ten global launches of vehicles from heavy trucks to two-wheelers are planned at the Delhi event, which will see an expected 1.8 million visitors pass through its doors.link