Women in the driver's seat: Is India's auto sector ready for change?

The car shopping experience remains a man's world: By men and for men

Mira Sharma’s eyes lit up as she booked her first car test drive — a milestone for the 28-year-old marketing executive. But her excitement soon collided with an uncomfortable question: “Good morning, Ma’am. Will we be joined by anybody else?” asked the sales representative, bypassing her to address her husband who had accompanied her. Despite being a confident driver and a meticulous researcher before buying a car, Mira faced condescension at every turn — from misquoted specifications to service centre staff dismissing her concerns. “It’s like the industry still sees cars as a ‘man’s toy’,” she says.

 

Her struggle is not unimportant; there is a slow but steady shift in the composition of car buyers. Women now account for 46 per cent of used car buyers in India (up from 16 per cent in 2023), according to Spinny’s March 2025 report. In metros like Delhi-NCR (48 per cent) and Mumbai (46 per cent), they are nearly half the market. Luxury brands are also seeing this: 15 per cent of Mercedes-Benz’s 2023 sales went to women buyers — a segment growing faster than the overall luxury cars market. Industry veterans claim the percentage of women buyers for new cars is still relatively small, and they are already sensitising their workforce and training them to address the market.

 

Women are not only buying and driving more, they are also articulating their preferences clearly. According to a recent survey by Autocar, in contrast with men who in general gravitate towards lower-priced variants, women tilt in favour of mid and top variants, willing to pay more for enhanced features. They also attach more importance to the brand and the product experience. They seek advanced security features, roadside assistance, and a hassle-free service experience, including pick-up and drop with live app-based updates on the progress of their work.

 

Yet, their experience remains stuck in neutral. According to a Tata Motors spokesperson, women account for approximately 15 per cent of all automobile buyers — a number that has seen an exponential rise. Tata Motors started an all-women dealership in 2022, as a step towards becoming more women-centric both from the employees’ as well as the customers’ perspective. However, this may not be the best approach for the segment of independent women we are discussing. 

 

Mira’s frustrations echo industry-wide gaps such as sales teams defaulting to male companions during discussions; service centres questioning women’s technical knowledge; and advertising still disproportionately targeting men.

 

Sellers are slowly shifting gears. Spinny’s “Lady Luck” campaign offered women exclusive discounts up to Rs 25,000, boosting Q4 FY24 sales by 31 per cent. Maruti and Hyundai now integrate “women-first” features and include emergency SOS buttons, adjustable driver seats for smaller statures, and built-in cameras for security. Customer experience is beyond advertising, design, and features. It requires a change of gears at each stage of the customer’s journey. In Mira’s case, for example, the design elements of the vehicle are not contributing to the negative experience. Her reasons for being so upset are driven by the finer nuances of the people touch-points.

 

A car buyer’s journey has multiple touch-points. For an urban customer, especially in metros and Tier-I cities, most of these 20–30 touch-points through search, pre-purchase, and post-purchase have become digital. Searching on Google, watching vlogs on YouTube, designing and choosing colours through original equipment manufacturer (OEM) apps, checking social media recommendations, and evaluating using comparison tools is not just common but preferred modes for these interactions. However, the test drive, car delivery, and post-purchase service encounters will continue to remain physical. These touch-points that involve human interaction will be the most critical moments of truth for the brand, especially in these tech-heavy times.

 

While OEMs, brands, and dealerships are spending a lot of time and energy on the much-needed digital transformation of their businesses, there is a far greater need to pay more attention to the sales and service people on the frontline. A need to focus on changing the attitude, the mindset, and the way the salespeople approach this segment of women. It is time to switch to a people transformation agenda that will lead the game at the point of sale. Much more emphasis is needed on training the sales force on the finer details of handling this buyers’ segment of independent and tech-savvy women.

 

The dissonance is stark: while women drive nearly half of the used car sales, they face an experience designed for male buyers — and this is not just in India. In more developed markets too, while women buy 52 per cent of all new cars and influence more than 85 per cent of all car purchases, car dealers do a terrible job of communicating with women. A report from the United States a few years back said that almost 74 per cent of women feel misunderstood by car marketers.

 

With the women segment contributing to 15 per cent of new car sales and almost 50 per cent of the pre-owned, the industry’s survival may hinge on the readiness of the people to not just change gears, but change their mindsets too. 

 

 

Akanksha Batra, assistant professor, marketing, and Sapna Popli, professor, marketing, IMT Ghaziabad   Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper