Still buzzed from excitement over the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) and the L.A. Auto Show,
we scoured our e-mails and the Internet for more information and discovered that the 8th Auto Expo started on the 12th.
We
won’t be going, though. The 8th Auto Expo is held in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, in India. Considered one of the
biggest—if not the biggest–auto show in Asia, participants included foreign manufactures such as Ford,
Volkswagen, and Suzuki; and domestic manufacturers Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), Maruti, and Tata Motors.
The expo, organized by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers Auto Component Manufacturers’ Association and
the Confederation of Indian Industry, drew more than a thousand participants from automakers to suppliers to parts
makers, with China alone setting up sixty booths. Organizers expect financial transactions to reach over a $100
million.
“The response is enormous and we expect that business deals, valued around $55 million in the
2004 edition, will cross $100 million (this year),” stated a senior Confederation official.