The rise of Indian car design

After existing at the margins for decades, Indian car design is finally coming of age. Both the main players, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors were shortlisted a combination of six times at the 2025 CDN People Awards alongside some of the biggest players in the industry.

Competition between the two brands, household names in India, is fierce but the two carmakers are finally in a position to mix it with the top talent on the world stage. 

Though brand heritage might not be first and foremost in many people’s minds, Tata, founded in 1945, has a genuine icon in its portfolio. The Sierra was originally launched in 1991 and has been skilfully reinvented for 2025 as a muscular cross-generational SUV that followed true to the 2023 concept. 

Design is seen as pivotal by the Tata leadership as evidenced by luxury sub-brand, Avinya, a project originating from the design studio in Warwick, which won over head office back in Pune. The Avinya X, with its long wheelbase, clean lighting signature and earthy CMF tones is clearly the product of a sophisticated studio that’s serious about design.

Mahindra, long synonymous with utilitarian SUVs, is also setting a new standard for Indian car design. The muscular BE 6e marked another step forward for Mahindra design, staying true to its concept car origins with minimal changes – which is no easy feat. The company also showed commitment to design through by opening a new creative studio in Mumbai in 2025. 

But it wasn’t always like this. For decades, car design in India existed on the margins. Vehicles were assembled locally but conceived elsewhere, their form dictated by overseas studios. Design for the Indian consumer – when it existed at all – was secondary to function. 

Signs of change emerged in the 1990s as manufacturing matured and some India-developed projects began to surface, albeit often styled by foreign designers or international design houses.

Automotive journalist Gautam Sen notes that this period coincided with a fundamental shift in supply and demand. As choice increased and global brands entered the market, Indian buyers began refining their tastes. Exposure to European, Japanese and Korean manufacturers pushed Indian preferences closer to global – particularly European – sensibilities. 

Some argue that the real transformation came in the early 2000s: access to mobile phones opened eyes to broader choice and global design. As a result, Indian consumers grew more discerning and design moved from the periphery to the centre of product development.

At the same time, Indian OEMs began investing seriously in in-house design capability. The likes of Tata Motors and Mahindra expanded design teams, brought in digital and physical tools as well as developing design languages to live by.

To understand how this shift unfolded and what’s next, Car Design News spoke to Martin Uhlarik, head of design at Tata Motors and Cosimo Amadei, design director at Mahindra Advance Design Europe and Gautam Sen, an Indian automotive journalist, writer and design consultant. 

Centralising design 

Although cars had long been manufactured in India, it wasn’t until the 21st century that they began to be designed by Indian automotive companies themselves. Rising consumer expectations placed pressure on major brands to respond. That required a cultural shift inside OEMs, with design prioritised much earlier in the development process. 

“21 years ago, when I was working at Changan, we were already using all the tools – Alias modelling, full size hard model makers,” Mahindra’s Cosimo Amadei tells CDN. “Then when I joined Tata Motors that mentality wasn’t there. I think Pratap Bose really brought the mentality of a global design studio to India. I think this revolution completely changed how India is designing cars these days. He’s turned Tata into an India-centric design studio. It gives you an idea of how quickly things can change.”

Focusing on his current role at Mahindra, Amadei explains that there’s an active effort for everyone to work together and an eradication of big disparities across job levels. He continues: “We have people joining [Mahindra] from legendary brands and you’d be surprised how many designers join and don’t want to leave. It’s not like that everywhere.” 

Martin Uhlarik echoes this sentiment: “I’ve never felt the classic pressure cooker atmosphere that I did with other companies at Tata. I think to create design success you create an environment that germinates creativity and has patience. Design is ring-fenced as a department; it’s protected and given time to develop. We have a pretty significant advanced design budget for experimentation, which is different from a mature OEM where designers are in pure delivery mode and running for the finish line. The Sierra was born out of a creative idea and if we didn’t have that time, space and money it might have never happened.” 

Building success 

With more spending power fuelled by a growing middle class and rising incomes, Indian consumers are prepared to spend – and design acts as a key pillar for purchasing decisions.

Uhlarik argues that design has always played a role in consumer vehicle choice in India, pointing out that design is a big part of Tata’s legacy – with Ratan Tata, an architect by training, developing the first generation of Tata cars. “He has an eye for aesthetics and understood the value of design – even if it wasn’t done internally – he understood that design has a role to play. Now, if you did a survey in India on why a person bought a Tata car – the first reason is design.” 

So, what defines Indian automotive design? Amadei and Uhlarik both point to emotional design as a key pillar for Indian consumers. “India is a very colourful, vibrant place. It’s full of energy and it’s a very emotional country and this is reflected in our design. We want to attract an emotional buyer, and I think the only way we can really leverage Indian design is through emotions,” Amadei expanded.

Yet the notion of a distinctly ‘Indian’ design identity is more complex. While India is often described as vibrant and emotional, Sen cautions against assuming buyers want overt cultural references. Today’s buyers, he suggests, want products that feel modern and global rather than nationally stylised. He states: “Even if it’s an Indian car that they’re buying, they want it to be European-looking. So, I think having a distinctive national identity has changed. Look at Chinese cars – they look as European or as American as they others.” 

On the other hand, Amadei believes that Mahindra’s design success is due to differentiating themselves from European OEMs, not competing: “If Indian designers are trying to fight this battle, it’s impossible to win it. If someone wants a European car, they will buy one. Instead, we leverage a synergy with Mahindra racing to design a product that’s dynamic – like the B6.” 

Within the design community, Indian designs are spreading rapidly – with both Uhlarik and Amadei proudly pointing to the fact that Mahindra and Tata designs are pinned up as inspiration in some of the biggest design studios across the globe.

He also credits the studio’s balance between digital and physical: “It’s what makes us special. We can use these tools quickly in parallel. You scan it, give it back to data, align with engineering, mill it back and then modify it by hand. That’s where we are really strong in Mahindra.”

Regulation has also shaped Indian design. Sen highlights the long-standing tax distinction between vehicles above and below four metres in length. The result has been a proliferation of cars engineered to sit just under that threshold – in some cases forcing global platforms to be reworked specifically for India. But increasingly those India-optimised proportions are influencing products elsewhere, particularly as Europe considers similar size-based incentives for affordable EVs. In that sense, Indian constraints may be becoming global templates. 

Is India the new China? 

If China’s trajectory offers any kind of roadmap, it is that perception can change – and quickly. A decade ago, Chinese cars were routinely dismissed in Western markets but today they account for 9.7% of the two million new car registrations in the UK in 2025. 

Having witnessed China’s rise first-hand, Amadei sees the potential for India to do the same. When he joined Changan in 2006, its Italian studio comprised just six designers; by 2013, that number had grown to 200. Amadei reflects: “So even though I think Western perception [of Indian cars] is still quite low, the question is how quickly could that change? Is it going to be like China?” 

For Uhlarik, the answer lies partly in economics. The growth of Tata Motors mirrors that of India itself, and the country’s projected expansion over the next 10 to 15 years will further elevate design’s strategic role. International recognition, from the Red Dot awards to the CDN awards, has already signalled credibility within the global design community for Tata. 

The real question is no longer whether India can design cars for its own market, but whether the rest of the world is ready for cars designed in India. Let’s see.