and spending on new vehicles the twowheeler owner is staying away from a new vehicle purchase or might go for a used one at the bestwe need to decide what is more sustainable and inclusive as a growth strategy selling 35 million units of inr 350000 each to generate a revenue of inr122500 crores or selling just 306250 units of inr 400 million each to generate the same revenuesow today reap tomorrowthe industry is operating at 60 capacity for twowheelers and 40 for fourwheelers what was once touted as a strength for an everexpending market will soon become a millstone as the unused capacity of manufacturing ice vehicles will soon be rendered obsolete not only will the industry have to invest in new assembly lines for electric and hydrogen vehicles it will also have to writeoff huge investments and layoff a substantial part of its workforcesource siamif the pipeline of bookings is full why does the industry talk lowering of gst rates on the automobile if the lack of chips is the only obstacle holding sales back why are twowheeler sales still depressed as they use far less chips than their bigger brethrensensitivity and sentimentthese are two things the industry wants to stay away from as a collective individual automakers do sensitivity and sentiment analyses as integral to business operations for furthering their own brands the moment it comes to working together to undertake the same exercises for the industry as a whole they suffer selective amnesia and then they feel it below their dignity to work hand in hand with the bicycle and tractor industries to identify correlations and causeeffectsthe industry should have presented a thorough sensitivity analysis to the policy makers on the positive impact of gst rationalisation on demand revival and the entire ecosystem getting into a higher gear when you directly and indirectly engage 30 million indians any positive vibe will have massive ripple effects all through the economythe industry should have conducted regular sentiment analyses over the past 24 months and used the same to craft better demandside stimuli industry bodies like ficci and cii have been doing so periodically i have not seen any from siam as yet unless they keep these reports as secret i had a recent brush with a very senior policy maker who heads a think tank where he questioned the very need to do any form of consumer research his logic was that the consumer does not know anything so why botherautonomous mode nowthe situation today is due to what was planned 24 months ago the situation in 2024 will be an outcome of what is being planned today by the industry if it decides to depend on the directions of the policy maker it will remain a slave operating on whims and fancies of people with inflated egos and insulated lives if it has to live its own life commensurate to the stature it deserves then it has to set its own agenda right nowi have stated