[JRS200x]

India has an extremely large number of wealthy to very wealthy people. They don't have a giant middle class and there are lots of people that are poor by our standards, but you gotta remember just how many darn people are in India. This isn't the US with 300 million people. The amount of people that can afford a Jeep in India is plenty to justify making one for them.

EDIT: I should add though that the Indian middle class IS growing rapidly, very rapidly. India is actually a technology powerhouse as far as the number of good paying tech jobs that exist there.

 

[JRS200x]

Tom, you need to realize again, the Indian middle class alone is estimated to be around 300 MILLION people right now, which is the same as the entire population of the United States. This doesn't account for the wealthy at all, and it is growing quickly. There are A LOT of very poor people in India, that is true... but again, the number of people in India is staggering, its not like the US, so while 25% of the population may live off of $1 a day.. there are soo many people that it is a still a huge market, and an EMERGING market for a company. The number of people who can afford any sort of Jeep they want is enormous, bigger than that of the United States... we'll just have to see what their tastes are.

 

[JRS200x]

lol, talk about a lack of middle class. Although India's middle class has grown, and continues to grow. Both China and India are unusual animals. Both the most 2 populated countries with over 1 billion people, then the US in a distant 3rd. Both nations have no shortage of wealthy people - but there are indeed many very very impoverished areas of the nation. It's not to say they don't exist in the US of course, but not on a scale as large as those nations.

But yeah, one can't make assumptions about what can be sold in those nations unless they are very familiar with the economic make up of the countries. I have a very limited understanding, but thanks to family and friends who have traveled, and also lived there I have a very vague understanding.

Its only a lack of a middle class by percentage. The percentage that the middle class makes up is small, but that still is by most estimates around 300 million at this point and growing rapidly.