OREANDA-NEWS The Indian car industry may occupy a niche of budget cars in Russia. This is how Kommersant experts assessed the prospect of cars from an Asian country.

As previously stated by Indian Ambassador to Russia Vinay Kumar, the republic is going to increase the supply of cars to Russia along with shipments of medicines and electronics. Currently, both joint ventures with foreigners and purely Indian automakers are operating in the country, which now account for about a quarter of all domestic sales.

"The Indian automotive industry has made a serious qualitative leap over the past ten years, moving from licensed assemblies to its own developments with international certification," explained Alexander Stepanov, owner of Autosan, a car import company in Russia.

Experts believe that Indian companies can supply compact crossovers, hatchbacks, and frame SUVs to Russia, which can displace Chinese manufacturers who have occupied most (almost 60 percent) of the Russian market. The quality of Indian cars is no worse — they get high scores in independent crash tests, are equipped with modern options and power plants, including their own production.