Market share of leading AC manufacturers in India FY 2021, by company

India hosts a wide range of climates, but the majority of the country could be regarded as tropical. With the impact of global climate change, extreme heat waves became more and more frequent in the subcontinent. Temperatures passed the 50-degree Celsius mark in the northern regions of India in 2019, with seemingly no respite. The market size of air conditioners in India reached 1.8 billion U.S. dollars in financial year 2020. And with fairly low penetration rate, the air conditioner market was expected to grow with an increasing rate in the future.

India’s energy consumption

India was the world’s third largest energy consumer as of 2020, contributed by rising incomes and improving standards of living. India’s electricity demand was expected to increase more rapidly than its overall energy demand, despite a decrease in financial year 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Even with higher standards and newer technologies, by 2040, the demand for electricity generated by cooling was still projected to increase six-fold.

Voltas - top player in the market

The leading manufacturer of air conditioners in India was Voltas, owned by Tata Group and now a joint venture with Turkey’s household appliances manufacturer Arcelik since 2017. In the early 1990s, when the government lessened restrictions on Foreign Direct Investment, Voltas faced fierce competition from international brands like Carrier, LG, and Samsung. Since October 2020, the Indian government banned imports of ready-to-install air conditioners, providing a boost to OEMs and other leading manufacturers.