Rising disposable income giving a thrust to connected cars in India
Connected cars are becoming the mainstream choice for many new car buyers in India fuelled by rising disposable incomes and an influx of new models.
Such cars, which have embedded chips allowing internet access, enabling drivers to transmit, store and receive information collected via sensors – currently make up as much as 30% of all new vehicles sold, up from 6% in FY21.
New-age buyers are increasingly taking to cars which offer continuous connectivity and a safer driving experience. Given the robust demand, carmakers have started offering such features in all premium SUVs sold in the local market.
In the midsize SUV market, currently two-thirds of sales are from models like Hyundai Creta, Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder, Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara and Kia Seltos, all of whom offer hi-tech features such as anti-collision, assistance to maintain lanes while driving and geofencing that creates a virtual boundary of a car using GPS technology and alerts the owner if the vehicle enters or exits the set perimeter.
Car variants that are connected feature-rich contribute as much as 45% of sales of a particular model, according to industry estimates.
“There has been a sharp increase in demand for connected cars over the last 3 to 4 years. This phenomenon has been enabled by the availability of technology for connectivity, edge computing and cloud architecture, making possible high latency,” said Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) at the country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki said. He
