Lenovo-Owned Motorola Aims To Double Smartphone Exports From India

Motorola, the smartphone brand owned by China’s Lenovo, is looking to double its exports from India next year by ramping up shipments to North America.

“North America is our primary export market from India. Currently, we have been exporting 20-25% of our capacity to North America, and every year, we are seeing step-ups in terms of growth. We are planning to double our exports next year (in 2024),” Prashant Mani, executive director for Asia Pacific at Motorola, told ET.

It is pertinent to note that Motorola was among the early beneficiaries of the Centre’s production-linked incentive (PLI) for mobile phone manufacturing.

The PLI for large scale electronics manufacturing was introduced in 2020. It provides manufacturers with incentives to encourage domestic production. 

Motorola is expected to have exported over 1 Mn smartphones from India, all manufactured by contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies, in 2022. By October, the company had already shipped 800,000 units.

Mani said, “If we are seeing a 50-60% growth in domestic sellouts, exports will grow faster than domestic sellouts.”

He added that exports and localisation are the two main objectives set by the Indian government for mobile phone companies. 

The report said that Motorola has most likely achieved a 50-60% domestic value addition, excluding semiconductor parts, higher than rivals like Samsung and Apple.

The development comes as a big boost to the Indian government which has been trying to make the country a global hub for electronics production, including smartphones. The Centre has also been pushing for Chinese smartphone companies, which enjoy a large share in the domestic market, to set up manufacturing plants in India and export devices from the country.

This push by the government and the ongoing tensions between Beijing and Washington have resulted in iPhone manufacturer Apple shifting some of its production to India. The company is now looking at producing iPhones worth INR 1 Lakh Cr in India by the end of March 2024.

Amid all this, Apple also became the largest smartphone exporter from India, with South Korea’s Samsung at the second place.

Meanwhile, another Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi, which is currently manufacturing wireless audio products in India, is also said to be looking to start smartphone production in the country. Tech giant Google has also announced its plans to begin production of Pixel smartphones in India.