May 27th, 2010

Two women who competed in the Maruti Suzuki sponsored Raid de Himalaya

We’ve always known that women buy cars and influence buying decisions, it’s the car companies that, while now exploring new markets because of a bad economy, are new to the party. In particular, car companies are looking at emerging markets. China has been a huge hit with car companies and now India seems to be the newest hot market. Within both China, and now India, car companies are focusing a significant amount of attention on women, who are buying cars more than they used to as they increasingly enter the workforce.

According to the Economic Times, a business newspaper in India, Honda recently flew female employees from India to their headquarters in Tokyo because they wanted to study them getting in and out of their cars dressed in saris. They wanted to ensure their cars fit to the tastes and lifestyle of Indian women.

Last year, women comprised 16% of Accord buyers, 12% of Jazz buyers, 15% of General Motors buyers and 15% of Maruti Suzuki buyers. According to a study in December of 2008 women influence more than a third of all car purchases in India.

Maruti Suzuki even has a section of their site dedicated to women and driving. They write, “In the early 1990s, it was quite a discovery to see women drive a car in India. It was completely a man’s domain, and women mostly used public transport or were led by chauffeur - driven cars. One of the limiting factors were the kind of cars that were available in the Indian market at that time; cars were often bulky and difficult to drive.” Maruti set out to change that and they started driving schools in India and the majority of their students are women. They even have female driving instructors. Maruti says that over 41,000 women have been trained at their schools.

Kudos to Maruti Suzuki for supporting the women of India!