Droom Pre-Owned Automotive Awards 2019 is a roaringsuccess; marks the second edition of India’s most comprehensive award and conference for the automobile industry

Droom, India’s largest and pioneering online automobile transactional marketplace, recently organized the second edition of Droom Pre-Owned Automotive Awards and Conference. The event, which was held at ITC Maurya on 20th December 2019, registered a notable footfall of over 500+ delegates coming together. Moreover, the event saw close to 50 OEM participants contending for over 50 award categories, making it India’s most comprehensive award and conference for the automobile industry and the first in its league in the industry.

Commencing with a welcome address by Droom’s Founder and CEO Sandeep Aggarwal, the event was a star-studded affair, with many renowned industry personas in attendance. This time, discerning knowledge-sharing sessions were held on the broader themes of tech innovations, ecosystem services, mega trends, and macro-economic factors creating shifts in the automobile industry. The panelists and speakers included names like Roopam Asthana—CEO and Director, Liberty General Insurance, Jeetender Sharma—Founder and MD, Okinawa Scooters, Sohinder Gill, Director-General of SMEV India, Hideaki Ishii—Managing Director, Pioneer India, Ramashankar Pandey—MD, Hella India Lighting, and industry expert Ranojoy Mukerji, among others.

The speakers spoke at length about how infrastructural shortcomings need to be addressed for true proliferation of EVs in India, the need to lay more emphasis on customers, and how expanding to different avenues (more exports, for instance) and catering to the customer sentiment can help in industry revival. On the insurance front, it was observed that the rising aspirational population and increasing affluence will drive sales and how there is a need for a new insurance product that will bring forth a shift from asset-underwriting to owner/driver-underwriting. Whereas on the financing front, experts shared insights into why the credit penetration in pre-owned vehicle segment is low and how the emergence of alternate (non-financial) data, supplemented by rapid digitization and formalization of the segment can help bring about greater penetration.

Finally, on the future outlook, it was projected that safety, security, and convenience will be the primary drivers and resultantly, connectivity, leasing and subscriptions, autonomy, shared rides, and EVs will shape the industry’s future in India. With such industry insights, personal experiences, key trends and predictions, in-depth understandings, and one-on-one interactions, this conference definitely was a highly enriching experience for all the attendees!

Speaking on this occasion, industry expert Ranojoy Mukerji remarked, “I admire Droom for incepting and bringing an event like this to reality. It is indeed an honor to be a part of this ceremony that bridges the gap between the various stakeholders in the ecosystem and provides them with a common platform to share their opinions and hold insightful conversations on. In fact, I believe that such platforms can help pave way for better and more comprehensive policymaking, as it allows room for the various perspectives to be shared and received, resulting in a much broader outlook for everyone involved. Droom Pre-Owned Automotive Awards 2019 proved to be a wonderful celebration of the industry, and I am certainly looking forward to attending this event the next time.”

While Droom Pre-owned Automotive Awards stands as India’s only Auto Awards that acknowledges and accolades used vehicles, it also had amazing titles for new vehicles this year! With four major categories – Pre-owned Vehicles, New Vehicles, Best of Droom, and Special Awards – further divided into sub-categories making it a total of whopping 50 different awards, the event registered an overwhelming response, receiving over 200+ nominations from 50+ OEMs. Among pre-owned vehicles, Bajaj CT100 stood apart as the  Commuter Bike of the year, while Jeep Compass won the  SUV of the year. Among new vehicles, Okinawa Praise Pro put on a dazzling display, winning the Electric 2 Wheeler of the year, whereas Kia Seltos won the Connected Car of the year.

Overall, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd bagged the most prizes across categories and was named the ‘OEM of the Year’ for two-wheelers while Hyundai Motor India Limited won the coveted title as the ‘OEM of the Year’ for four-wheelers. The jury for this ceremony included esteemed veterans and renowned industry names including Arvind Vijaymohan, Garima Avtar, Siddharth Sharma, Ashish Jha, and Debabrata Sarkar. Taking the fervor several notches up, famous Indian-Punjabi singers Jassie Gill and Babbal Rai delivered breathtaking and adrenaline-boosting live performances. Dangal-famed actor Aparshakti Khurana and actress Gauhar Khan also ensured that the audiences remained captivated throughout by being the entertaining hosts of this fun-filled evening!

Commenting on the awards’ success, Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Droom remarked, “It is really heartening to see the zeal and enthusiasm we have received for the second edition of our Pre-Owned Automotive Awards and Conference. At Droom, we have always been at the helm of initiatives that bring together all the stakeholders in the automotive ecosystem and build solid community for the automobile industry. The overwhelming response that we have witnessed goes on to reiterate how significant such efforts are within the automobile industry. I would like to express immense gratitude to every organization and individual who graced this wonderful soiree with their active participation and presence. Their attendance means the world to us and inspires Droom to be back with an even grander gala the next year!”

Droom Pre-Owned Automotive Awards 2019 was held with an aim to celebrate the automotive industry, and it succeeded in bringing together all the stakeholders of the ecosystem for a fun-filled day of knowledge-sharing, award distribution, networking opportunities, scintillating performances, a surprise launch, and so much more!