his target 5 market share by 2017 the global pecking order holds no clues to how the carmakers stack up in india honda is the only one that is in the top 5 list globally as well as back home toyota 116 global share vw 111 gm 82 and ford 76 are in the bottom half in india the luxury car market in india too saw some big swings mercedes which lost its leader crown in 2009 regained it last year overtaking audi it sold 13502 vehicles on the back of 10 new launches growing at 32 in jandecember period bmw remains indias third largest luxury carmaker there is lot of pentup demand once the economy picks up i expect a significant bumpup in sales says an upbeat roland s folger managing director mercedes benz india small car flavour for all seasons a few things havent changed though india still remains a small car country with over 70 of unit sales coming from subfour meter cars sedans uvs and hatchbacks the subfour meter sedan segment opened up nine years ago with the government offering a lower 12 excise duty as against 30 on bigger cars and many sedans from maruti dzire to honda amaze were launched vw will be the latest to join with the ameo of the 110 models on the indian roads today 47 are in the subfour meter category in 201516 alone the segment saw five big launches including the maruti suzuki baleno renault kwid new honda jazz ford aspire and mahindra kuv100 often a presence and subsequent success in this segment have shaped fortunes for the players with rising competition homegrown firms like tata motors and mm are feeling the pinch tata motors it appears is readying for a massive onslaught to stay in the game after two years it recently appointed a chief executive and managing director guenter butschek a former chief operating officer of airbus who honed his skills at daimler ag for 25 years will head all tata motors operations except subsidiary jaguar land rover tata motors will have the largest oem stall says a tata motors spokesperson a company that grappled with a poor product pipeline has lined up a slew of models for the show the hatchback zica sporty compact sedan kite 5 hexa and nexon will be among some 20 models on display it is a long haul for them but their trajectory is in the right direction zica holds out a big hope says sorabjee for mm which still boasts of the widest uv portfolio that starts at 45 lakh and goes up to rs 20 lakh aggressive competition has now begun to hurt surely it has thrown us challenges we have to develop our own products while for the global mncs they just need to dip into their portfolio to get a product here admits pravin shah president automotive mm the recently launched kuv100 rs 442 lakh exshowroom pune has been positioned right in the