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This week's edition brings you crucial insights on India's automotive sector, the momentum in office markets incl. green developments, and more must-know news.

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India’s automotive market is the 3rd largest globally and strongly consolidated. The top 6 OEM’s command a market share of 92%, and none of them are European. As India’s passenger car market expects a growth of around 50% by 2030 compared to 2023 (7.5 million units vs. 5.1 million units), OEMs start (re-)positioning themselves.

Japanese brands, local manufacturers (and their joint ventures with Japanese and South Korean OEMs), and South Korean players dominate India's automotive landscape. Hyundai even reported the largest IPO in India in 2024.

Several announcements of strategic investments confirm the growing significance of India’s automotive market, particularly while European brands struggle with fierce competition in China, the largest automotive market globally:

What explains the Korean and Japanese success? Arun Malhotra, former managing director of Nissan India, highlighted in Forbes India that these manufacturers excel at three critical elements that European and US competitors keep lacking: local management autonomy, market-specific product development, and relentless focus on cost efficiency.

These factors aren’t only an advantage in the Indian market, but enable companies like Hyundai to scale up manufacturing capacity for the entire region from their Indian operations, significantly improving unit economics. This is particularly valuable due to the high import tariffs for cars into India (>100%):

European brands entered India at the same time (mid 1990s), or in case of Fiat even earlier (mid 1960s), as their Korean and Japanese competitors, yet they are at risk of being left behind. India's ambitious EV transition, targeting 30% of new sales by 2030, might present a crucial opportunity for European manufacturers to recalibrate their approach and regain competitiveness in this vital market.

Sources: Forbes, FactoData, Reuters, Autocar India, IndianWeb2, The Economic Times, Deutsche Welle, Forbes India

India’s growing economic importance is reflected in its thriving real estate market. While institutional investments remain robust (as detailed in issue 3), office leasing figures for Q1 2025 demonstrate resilient demand with gross leasing volume increasing 5% year-over-year and vacancy rates declining for the 7th consecutive quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Although new supply has fallen short of projections due to project delays and pending regulatory approvals, pre-commitments by occupiers have more than doubled compared to the previous quarter - a clear indicator of sustained demand. Major developers are strategically responding to this trend by prioritizing quality and sustainable developments to secure premium tenants:

Driven by occupier demand and institutional investors such as Blackstone, Brookfield Properties or CapitaLand, the majority of India’s office stock is now green certified following a growth of 35% year-over-year in 2024.

Sources: Cushman & Wakefield, The Economic Times

The Indo-German Young Leaders Forum is seeking applications for the Indo-German Healthcare Congress 2025.

Application deadline is May 12th and find more details here.

Your random facts and stories about India and the Indo-European friendship.

This week: History of the EU-India Strategic Partnership

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