10 Most Popular Automobile Companies in India

In 1478, when Leonardo da Vinci first designed the “Self-Propelled Car”, no one could ever imagine of such a machine. And today, none of us can imagine our world without that machine, i.e. the automobile. The history of automobile itself speaks about the evolution that it brought into the world along itself. The automobile, as we know it was not discovered in a single day or by any sole inventor. The histories of the automobile replicate an evolution that took place around the globe. Read on to know the ten popular automobile companies in India listed by bestindiansites.com

1. Tata Motors

Tata Motors is an Indian multinational automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Tata Group is the mother company of Tata motors which concentrates in manufacturing cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses as well as military vehicles out of which the popular brands are Nano, Indigo, Starbus, and Sumo etc. Over the years, Tata motors have acquired many of the automotive firms like Jaguar Land Rover and Daewoo. In 2012, Tata Motors announced it will invest around $6 billion on developing Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicles in collaboration with DRDO.

2. Maruti Suzuki India

Maruti Suzuki India, popularly recognized as Maruti, is an auxiliary company of Japanese auto company Suzuki Motor Corporation. A complete range of car movels are manufactured by Maruti starting from initial level Maruti 800, Maruti Esteem and Alto, to hatchback Ritz, A-Star, Maruti Omni, Multi Purpose vehicle Ertiga and Sports Utility vehicle Grand Vitara and many more. By 2012 market share reports, Maruti holds 37 percent of the Indian passenger car market. The Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory has ranked Maruti Suzuki in the seventh position in 2011 and the sixth position in 2012 among the most searched brands in India.

3. Mahindra & Mahindra

Headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra Mahindra & Mahindra is among the top automobile manufacturers in India. According to ‘Republic of India’, production wise, M&M is one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in India. It is a subsidiary of Indian conglomerate Mahindra Group.  Mahindra & Mahindra was ranked 68th in 2011 and 66th in 2012 among Most Trusted Brands among 17000 brands as per the Brand Trust Report. Blue bytes News rated Mahindra &Mahindra as India's second Most Reputed Car Company conducted for the Auto (Cars) Sector launched in April 2012.

4. Ashok Leyland

Ashok Leyland is a leading manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India. Headquartered in Chennai, the company was found in 1948. The company had a great progress rate since then and is the second largest commercial vehicle company in India in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle and also owns almost 28 percent of market share. In the year 2012 Ashok Leyland manufactured 100 Falcon buses and delivered to Ghana for 42 crore.

5. Force Motors

Partially owned by Baja Auto as Bajaj Tempo, Force Motors is the manufacturer of three-wheelers, multi-utility and cross country vehicles, light commercial vehicles, tractors, buses and heavy commercial vehicles too. In August 2011 the company also entered into manufacturing Personal Vehicle segment and the first SUV launched was named Force-One. Indian film industry legend Amitabh Bacchan is the brand ambassador of Force-One.

6. Hyundai Motor India Limited

Wholly owned by Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai Motor India is the second largest automobile manufacturer in India. After Maruti Suzuki it is the largest auto exporter in India. It deals in producing small cars on a large scale, making India the global manufacturing base for small cars. The popular Hyundai models in India are Santro Xing, i10 and the i20, Getz Prime, Accent, second generation Verna, Tucson, and the Sonata Transform.

7. Chevrolet India

After Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata and Mahindra Chevrolet India is the fifth largest auto manufacturer in India. It is a joint venture of General Motors based at U.S.  The popular models of Chevrolet in India are Chevrolet Spark, Chevrolet Tavera, Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet Captiva etc. Chevrolet India currently has 205 dealerships and more than 200 service centres in 178 cities across India.

8. Ford India

Headquartered in Chengalpattu, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Ford India is the sixth largest auto manufacturer in India. It is a fully owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. Since 1995 to 2012 Ford Motor Company invested around $2 billion in the automobile sector. Few popular Ford India models are Ford Figo, Ford Classic, Ford Fiesta, Ford Endeavour. The least priced model of Ford is Ford Figo is priced at 3, 84,999 and the highest priced model of Ford is Ford Endeavour priced at 21, 19,745.

9. Honda Cars India

Honda Cars India is a subsidiary of the Honda Motor Company of Japan which concentrates in the production, marketing and export of passenger cars in India. The production operations in India are mainly carried in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh and at Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. In the year 2010 the total investment in its production facilities was over $16.2 billion. Few of the highest priced models of Honda are Honda CR-V, Honda Accord, and Honda Civic etc.

10. Toyota Kirloskar Motors

Toyota Kirloskar Motors is a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and the Kirloskar Group and is the manufacturer and merchandiser of Toyota cars in India. In 2011, it publicized that it was escalating production to 210,000 vehicles per yearly due to increase in demand for its models particularly the Etios and Fortuner. Toyota is all equipped for giving its production a big boost up. Toyota Kirloskar Motor plans to trek the production capacity of its Etios series models by 75 percent by 2013. Toyota owns few of the finest luxury car models like Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, and Toyota Prius etc.