Vicky.in Blog – Page 193 – No.1 Car and Bike News Blog In India

Grand Prix F1 Indian edition on October 30 next year

For the lovers of cars and races, the premium race, Formula 1 series of Grand Prix is a dream come true. The event, covering 5.14 km will be the topnotch race and be the fastest in the world by invoking elevations and thrilling overtakes. The Indian lovers are fortunate to have such event and the real event will be held on 30 October 2011, said its chairman. The event will include the schedule of Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai and the Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Park Circuit. This will make the contestants to be busy for almost 20 weeks of racing and they have to race against the time. To meet the challenge, the circuit is undergoing massive construction spree to be ready by May 2011 for the proposed inspection by the F1A officials. The Indian Grand Prix will be finalized by then when the homologation by this team was over. However, the event will be the third last race for the season and it will be time to wait and see how it would go off.

Mahindra on Teaser campaign for its two wheeler launch

Soon, television screens will be filled with a thundering promo ads from Mahindra for its two wheeler launch. In order to create sensation and awareness about the product, Mahindra has devised this campaign, shot on Vallelunga Moto GP on the soil of Rome, Italy. The motif is to project the Italian looks for the vehicle and already the vehicle is undergoing quality test at the Italy centre before being imported to India. The message from the ad will have “Tested in Italy, Coming to India”. The ad will have the punch music from Mahindra’s usual tune for every ad.

The whole gang of engineers from the company and the local spectators thrilled to see the glide of this bike for the shot from cameras.

The advertisement does not portray any technical specifications about the bike but makes to believe that Mahindra will not disappoint with its bike. More sure the bike carries the Italian image with it. Mahindra believes that the ad will make the buyers postpone the decision to go for one till tried this bike. Mahindra is always has its 2 wheelers fill with design elements from Bologna oriented engines Engineering, which it acquired two years ago. Engines Engineering does design work for Ducati, MV Augusta and Benelli. Mahindra is slating this ad in prime channels including movies, music, sport, news, regional channels and YouTube. The ad has been scripted by Andrea Ranalli known for European Moto GP circuits, with the creative assistance by Robby Mathew of Interface Communication.

Suzuki to join hands with VW giving place to Maruti

The proposed tie up between Suzuki and Volkswagen for global products is expected to yield gain for the Indian supremo Maruti Suzuki. The chairman of Suzuki said that the company is seeking more potential from the collaboration with the German car maker as the deal has envisaged 19.9% stake from Suzuki. The products are earmarked for the global market in the event of the tie materializing, he said. This version comes in the wake of an earlier statement issued by the board member of VW disclosing the proposed bid by a European firm for JV. The venture will make Maruti to get more exposure for new launches
and VW will get a model below its Polo. The proposed JV will be a beginning stage in the upcoming progress for both companies and will end up with cost reduction. Suzuki will have more models under this venture though no final version about retail sale is revealed. In the AGM meeting of Maruti Suzuki, the chairman made announcements regarding further investments and expansion plans. There will be a new facility at Manesar at an investment of Rs1900 crore to produce 2.5 lakh annual units. This will be under Rs6125 crore investment for the period of three years, and R%D upgrading at Rohtak for making increased engine capacity. Currently there are two plants for Maruti namely Gurgaon and Manesar combined to yield 1.2 million units which is targeted for increase to 1.75 million by 2013.

Cars will soon be a domestic commodity, says Crisil

The increased financial stability and purchase power among the higher income group may invoke car industry. According to a statistics revealed by Crisil, nearly 117 million households, with an addition of 60-70million households, will soon get opportunity to own a car in another four or five years. This will make the increase in the auto industry to 17-19% procuring Rs4.20,000 crore by that time, adds Crisil’s Research Director. Still, the proportionate equity will be 17 per 1000 car owners compared against 604 in Europe and 440 in the US during 2009 he further said. The research says that during the interim period of two years, by 2012, there will be an investment of Rs35000 – 40000 crore in the industry manufacturers and Rs20000 – 25000 crores by the component suppliers. The investment by the makers will be for launching new models and expansion drives to face the competition among themselves. The suppliers will invest to make up the demand spree for the makers.

With the competition expected to increase and the price factor to play a crucial role in deciding the market share, the makers will have to shell out huge investment to retain their position. Due to this anticipated competition the makers will face dip in their profit and can survive on launching new models and neo technology. The fall in profit is also due to the hike in the raw materials cost and the price factor posed by the component suppliers. In addition there will be a royalty aspect for the global makers when more launches are made on global platforms. Above all technological edge will have the deciding factor among the
competitors and for this the makers have to invest a lot. The Crisil report says that the auto industry will face a fall of profit to the tune of 150-330 basis points during this fiscal and the component suppliers will face the dip by 100-200 points basis. However, there will be an increase in the raw material index by 15-16% during the same period.

Know all about petrol cards and auto cards here!

Catch the different petrol cards and auto cards available in our market @ http://www.vicky.in/slideshow/petrol-cards-and-auto-cards/

Maruti to source commodities to its apex plant

After a hectic start in the two wheeler segment in India, Suzuki Japan is now refreshing its sourcing from its ally Maruti. This comes to the effect of reducing the material cost and Suzuki’s bid to expand its operation and presence in India. Suzuki is not as strong as Maruti is in the four wheeler segment – nearly 50%. The VP for sales and marketing for Suzuki said that Maruti will supply the necessary parts to contain the price of two wheelers. The deal will be in proportion to the sourcing from regular suppliers to compensate the price.

Suzuki is badly in need of a push in the highly potential market where it has just 1.8% share and it has 30% share in scooter segment. Soon there will be a 125cc motorcycle from Suzuki, Slingshot and subsequent expansion in 100 cc segment. Suzuki’s need now is to tap the two wheeler market by doubling its production and brand range in another two years. Suzuki is to invest Rs500 crore to increase the production to 540000 per year in addition to launching three new models of which one will be a scooter. The existing range of vehicles from Suzuki are GS150R, Hayabusa 1300 , Intruder and Bandit 1250S.

Tata

Tata Motors is on the verge of introducing a low priced version of Jaguar Land Rover in another three years. The move will be further enhanced with sourcing parts from the similar cheaper countries like China, India and Poland. This is akin to Ford’s gesture in deriving parts from these countries for about 20% while Tata Motors would derive 35% in the event of the process materializing. Tata will involve in outsourcing the design and development operations related to JLR.

JLR has been with Tata Motors since 2008 after a deal for $2.3 billion. Tata’s focus on the JLR product is due to the increased demand in China, where the target is 25000 units for 2010-11. Last year the company could muster a sale of 17000 units with the launch of Jaguar XJ the company is pinning on increasing the sale to 20000 units during this FY. Consequently there will be Jaguar LRX in 2011 and the compact Jaguar in 2013, the sources close to the company revealed. Based on the outcome of product favor and geographical matrix, Tata Motors foresees a net profit of 14-15% from JLR during this year. The similar profit from domestic operations might be around 10-15% and the company has chalked out its plans for unleashing its stake sale to generate funds. There might be issue of equities from the company any time. In its earlier such move Tata made a proposal for raising $700 million by way of selling voting right shares. In another tactical move Tata is quite contented to retain its net debt-to-equity ratio to 1:1 against 1:96 effective on 30 June 2010, making the net debt of Rs19,983 crore.

Maruti

At last the expected has come off from Maruti Suzuki. The company’s proposal to erect a new plant at Manesar is in the offing and the investment may be around 35 billion yen. The plant will be located at the distance of 35km from New Delhi.

The move comes in the wake of increase in the demand and the company is not sure about the future demand, said Suzuki’s Chairman. He elaborated that the new plant will increase the production by yielding 1.75 million units per year. Maruti is feeding the car market with its most brands and many of them have a waiting period of three months. This is from the unprecedented demand in the car industry where 500000 units have been sold out in just four months of this FY. The peak of it was in July when the industry saw the demand pouring from the rural segment taking the increase by 38% ( 158764 units) against 115084 units in corresponding month of the last year.

Nano deluxe from Tata in another two years

Tata Motors initiated the world’s cheapest car Nano which made a scintillating atmosphere in the car industry. Now it’s going to be a deluxe mode of Nano from Tata, scheduled for 2012. By retaining the normal engine for this deluxe mode Nano, Tata is making the design and comfort into deluxe aspects. There will be a 3-cylinder sporty MPFI engine covered with aluminium, having a 5-speed automatic transmission. Tata plans to introduce the petrol engine to have excellent fuel efficiency and less emission of carbon dioxide (less than 100g/km) The performance and the portrayal will be of sportive combined with air bags,ABS and power steering. In a way, this deluxe Nano would serve the European market under the name Nano Europa, once displayed at the Geneva Motor Show.

Tata Motors intends to launch the same version in India too with all luxuries he added. Further, this Nano Europa will be fitted with a bigger wheelbase than the current Nano and refined interiors.

Tata is designing the Nano Europa to meet the standards required off Europe, to be advanced and enhanced with the available features of current Nano, said its MD for India operations.