The term “Automobile” is applied to any self-propelled vehicle powered by an Internal combustion engine & designed to transport passengers and goods over roads and highways.

Development :

• At present, India has above 40 million passenger vehicles. 
• More than 3.7 million Automotive vehicles are produced annually, making the country the second fastest growing automobile market in the world after China. 
• According to the society of Indian automobile manufacturers, annual vehicles sales are projected to increase to 4 million by 2015.

Location Factors: 

The main factors favour the growth of automobiles industry are:

• Large supply of Iron & Steel, wood, glass, aluminium and fuels. 
• Highly skilled labour. 
• High degree of scientific and engineering skill. 
• Large amount of capital. 
• A large home market.

Distribution :

• Mumbai, Chennai, Jamshedpur, Jabalpur and Kolkata are the chief centres of automobile Industry.
• These centres produce almost all sorts of vehicles including trucks, buses, passengers, three wheelers and two wheelers. 
• Motor cycles are also manufactured at Faridabad and Mysore. 
• Scooters are also manufactured at Lucknow, Satara, Pune, Kanpur & Odhav (Ahmedabad district).

Production :

• In 2012-13, Automobile industry of India produced 20.6 million vehicles. 
• India is the largest producer of two wheelers.