NATIONAL ACTIVITY

FINDINGS

• Apart from indigenously manufactured cars, foreign makes are very popular. Latest models of American, European, South Korean and Japanese seen zipping the roads - Daimler-Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Volkswagen, Toyota, BMW, KIA, Daewoo, Honda, etc.
• Not yet mandatory for vehicles to be Euro-II compliant.
• A large number of Moscovites use second-hand cars. Apart from those sold within the city, many are also bought from countries like Germany at very low prices and driven down into Moscow.
• Fashionable trend for affluent car owners is to modify vehicles according to individual tastes. This is known as "Tuning" and involves modification of the body, in same cases, even of engines. There are specific Russian magazines covering this trend.
• Russian companies also engaged in re-manufacturing entire component systems of vehicles, especially trucks and buses re-manufacture is of rear and front axle assemblies, transmission systems and engines. A sizeable amount of components are sourced from the US for this purpose.
• ACMA made contact with AKPP at AUTOTECH, a big re-manufacturer of systems who was exhibiting. In interactions with the company, surprise was evident at finding India could be an equally good source for their needs.
• Interactions with a number of Russian automotive companies, high-lighted that most Russians were not aware of the existence or strengths of the Indian auto component industry and imported parts from the US, Europe, etc.. They have, now, shown interest in buying parts from India. There are, however, only a few importers who have had experience in doing business with India.
• A sizeable amount of marketing and business promotion for the Russian automotive industry is done by automotive magazines and newspapers located in various parts of the Russian Federation. It is evident that these publications can be a very good medium for penetrating the Russian automotive market by enabling contacts with importers and manufacturers as well.
• Few Russians have speaking knowledge of English and this poses a major problem for those ovserseas business men who have no understanding of the Russian language