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Fiat to offer old wine in new bottle

Yes, the flagship model from the Italian car maker, Fiat 500 [images], otherwise called CInquencento will be on roads soon on the lines of Volkswagen’s Beetle. (VW is quite enthusiastic over the thumping sale of Beetle [images]). The earlier launch of this Fiat 500, in 2008, marked the introduction of a high-end hatchbacks on the price range of premium sedans from popular brands. However, Fiat could not reach the proper market and as on date there are just 68 units on roads whereas VW could muster a sale volume of 300 units within eight months of its launch. Of this, 100 units were sold during two months period of may-June 2010.

Fiat 500 will be equipped with a 1.3 lit CRDi multi-jet engine which is found in Maruti Swift [images], Punto [images] and Tata Indica Vista [images]). In addition there will be customized features to tap the potential Indian market, said sources from Fiat. The company’s CEO for India said that they believe in the success mode of retro cars and this could apply for Cinquecento. This made the deliberate delay in the launch of its luxury cars like Bravo. Fiat launched its Cinquecento in Europe some three years ago after a gap of 50 years, from the first launch in Turin.

Car companies plan more models with CNG and LPG variants

In a bid to save the market position and to secure unaltered position the car manufacturers are focusing on providing fuel efficient cars with CNG and LPG versions. The companies busy in this plan are Maruti which has drafted proposal for a CNG to launch dual-fuel cars in its existing 5 models like Alto and WagonR. Hyundai, General Motors and Toyota are the other major players involved in supplementing the products with dual-fuel. The car makers anticipate a higher growth in dual-fuel products for the reason of less operating cost- the comparative cost of fuel per kilometere is Rs3.44 on petrol, Rs2.35 on diesel and Rs1.31 for petrol-CNG. The companies get the sale boost of 15-20% per year by way of these dual-fuel vehicles. The official from GM said that the scope is wide for this dual fuel and he is fully aware of this with GM’s Spark mini(petrol), Optra and
Aveo on CNG. Under the prevailing conditions the manufacturers may need to offer alternate fuel option to the customers. There will be an LPG version of Beat before this year end.

India miles ahead than China in commercial vehicles

The global recession on economy could not hit much on the sailing of the overall business of China and India till last year. Between these two countries China mustered a sensational growth to overtake the other super power US in the auto industry. In the event, another superpower Germany had to heed to the succumbing consequences as China secured the position as the second largest exporter in the world. This made Japan to lag vehemently. However, much to the dismay of China, now has started wresting the deeds in the whole commercial segment. The period upto May 2010 saw India blossoming in this commercial vehicles sector with a growth of 77% than 2009, which is more ahead than China’s 60%.

The President of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) was full of hope on the increasing demand in the Indian market for commercial vehicles especially with the launch of new commercial trucks. Of late, M&M seems to highlight the truck market which is normally dominated by Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors and Tata Motors. The promising trend in the Indian market has drawn global companies like MAN, Hino Motors, Kamaz Vectra, Volvo, and Daimler. These companies rule the rooster with new models and compact designs in commercial vehicles. In a country’s economic growth, commercial vehicles
play a pivotal role and the rate of sale constitutes the net growth horizon. For the quarter ending March 2010, India’s GDP growth stood at 8%, which is expected to raise to 9.5% as predicted by International Monetary Fund. The industry analysts
attribute this growth to the logistics involved in migrating all sort of goods across the country. This results with the growth in the freight segment fetching Rs3 lakh crore business with the annual growth of 20%.

Though China remains the largest truck manufacturer in the world- in both medium and heavy – India is on the verge of posing a grave threat. China enlivens with three out of five largest truck makers in the world, with sale reaching 30.41 lakh units during Jan-May 2010. But India could see the sale of 1.23 lakhs; the net sale of trucks in China during the last year was 8.67 lakhs. India’s sale figure is 5.31 lakhs and is troubling the mood of China further. The Indian truck segment is giving much hope to 25-49 tonne trucks as evidenced from the statement of the director of Ashok Leyland. New arrivals loaded with latest technology are the solid factors behind this feat. The world famous Daimler has proposed to build a facility to make all localized truck in India. Above all the buyers have the cutting edge advantage of easy finance and money flow. China is, however, just observing all these factors till it made another giant move.

The registry for licenses to go national

Hereinafter, the crime rate behind fake license and stolen vehicles register would be easily detected thanks to the ensuing transport project, initiated by the national government. The registry will be linked to the national level regional transport offices all over the country. The move will prevent possessing more than one valid driving licenses and stolen vehicles registered on fake registration numbers. The project will come to the full shape within another six months, say a government source. 100% computerization has been completed and links for 23 states have been covered. 919 out of 990 RTOs have come under this registry, say the sources. As of now the facility is available within a state but other state RTOs cannot access, but now it is no more. All the practical problems related to the accession will be rectified with this registry.

The RTOs can easily access the information available and have an the spot confirmation over the details sought for. The action against the defaulters can be initiated at once so that they will come under the scrutiny of road acts. Further,
employers of drivers can have very good knowledge about the aspirants. The system will be zero error on the basis of officials handling the matter. All the information will be compiled under State Consolidation Registry (SCR). Each state can have its select information package and all such data will be combined with the national registry, covering auto industry, dealers, police dept and RTOs. Moreover, the departments of Highways, railways and border-based checkposts will have a
complete study about the data.

Only small cars, say the tripartite Nissan-Renault and Bajaj

The ongoing project between Bajaj and Renault-Nissan is designed to fulfill the corporate’s individual needs. Bajaj will roll down the small car as its own product and would not mind about the product ranges coming out from Renault-Nissan platform. This will facilitate the buyers who can get more access to choices at the small car rate – Rs2.5 lakhs. Bajaj may place its product at the midrange of Tata Ace and Mahindra Maximo. The scheme of this small car was devised on 50:25:25 among Bajaj, Renault and Nissan. However some modifications were to be effected to bring the project into reality. Hence the car coming out of this project will be dominated by the brand reputation of Renault-Nissan and Bajaj will just have to wait till it gets its turn to go on its own.

The role of Bajaj is clear that it will have a job assigned on plant – modeling, offering marketing strategies. At the same time it will also look for the prospects of its own design so that both the alignment will seek prominent presence in the export markets. Renault-Nissan has come out with this small car project on the success run of the world’s cheapest car Nano. The distinctive feature of the new car, according to Bajaj, would be the mileage- 30km/lt. This was assured at the display session at the Delhi Auto Expo this year beginning. Renault-Nissan is keen on making the presence and to penetrate the global markets; while Nissan prefers to have the market deal in its strong bases, Renault looks for the prospective lands
of the world.

Except the cost factor, Rs2.5lakhs, every other thing is to open share that the product may offer. Nissan sees this venture as an exclusive attempt from the Renault camp as there has been another JV for Nissan with Ashok Leyland. The members of these marketing team gather sensible feelings from the owners of Alto and the feedback may have a big say in designing the small car. With this small car project, Renault’s presence is in two ultra low cost cars and this project among Nissan-Renault and Bajaj came to exist after a two year tussle over several factors.

Tata racing towards Million unit to join the elite group

After the successful run of Maruti Suzuki, reaching the million-unit this year, it is now Tata Motors’ turn to do so. This amidst the dismal show during the past two or three years. The company’s feat is viewed as a global spread of the automobile flavor. The major contributor in this eventual map is the triggering sale of Nano [images], the sale of which is expected to rise to 25000 monthly units. The time slated for this is the dawn of 2011 backed up by the setting of Sanand plant with the capacity of 2.5 lakh units. The current production capacity of Nano is 7000-8000 units a month.

Nano is surpassing the sale stint of Hyundai, which is currently the second largest seller in the country added by the unexpected revival of JLR witnessing a growth of 47% in last month. This makes the net sale of JLR to 57153 units in the fiscal. Tata has been expediting the delivery of Nano- 7700 units in June 2010 alone; however the initial registrations are being cleared from June 2009 itself. Tata Motors is in the Indian car market with its reputed global brands as Jaguar and Land Rover, world class trucks. The sale volume of Tata in 2009 was 2.65 lakh passenger vehicles and this made the net to 4.5 lakh units. Tata had a good stint in the overseas market and when the figures of trucks and buses are compiled, Tata’s overall sale figure goes to nearly 8.5 lakh units.

The industry analysts view the situation as conducive for Mahindra to join this elite group after Tata. M&M is in the vehicle segment with its trucks, MUVs, SUVs and gradual entry into the LCVs. M&M’s target is to reach this million mark, comprising tractors and passenger cars, within four years. In 2009 M&M secured a sale of 1.7 lakh tractors and 3 lakh passenger cars. Taken in a stronger vein, the mark of a million in vehicle market is not an easy task amidst the ever increasing competition and customer awareness. However, both Tata and M&M are pinning on the prediction that the passenger vehicle segment is
soaring to reach the quadruple mark in the coming decade. The study carried out by Ernst& Young for Automotive Components Manufacturers Association revealed that by 2020 the number of passenger cars will be 8-10 million from the current 2 million. This would take India to the third spot after the US and China.

There was an increase of automobile sale growth in India during the last fiscal was 1.9 million- despite the threatening global recession. The analysts forecast that FY 2010-11 will see enormous growth than the one in previous year, a growth of 13% (2.2 million units). The Indian companies reap the benefit by way of reasonable investment and genuine returns. Technology is suitably exploited to romp home the benefit, says SIAM. Manish Mathur, principal at MNC consultancy AT Kearney said that the companies reaching the million mark would display India’s supremacy in employing technology for design, components and planned supply.

Maruti Swift [images], after crossing the million mark last year, is setting up facilities at an investment of Rs1700 crore to increase the sale to 1.4 million units. The major difference between Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki lies on the nature of products – Tata deals this mark with its trucks, cars, buses and SUVs but Maruti’s exclusive includes only cars. Maruti’s Alto is sold at 25000 units a month, surpassing Tata Indica’s [images] 11000 units and Hyundai i10’s [images] 13000 units. Hence Tata heavily relies on its Nano to supercede Alto [images]. Further, the proposed launch of new models under Ace trucks may increase Tata’s sale figure in coming months. The current platform of Ace contains the 1-tonne Super Ace, Tata Ace EX and Tata Ace. The refined versions of Tata Ace are on the cards now and will be on roads soon.

Scoops: Mahindra’s futuristic plans uncovered!

What has Mahindra got for us in the upcoming months? Catch the slideshow @ http://www.vicky.in/slideshow/mahindras-upcoming-vehicles-for-2010-and-2011/

The dazzling move by a State Minister.

Now is the time that even the lower class people like to go on a car, even they do not own one. To make this happen and to ease the jampacked traffic menace, the Minister in the Karnataka Government has come out with a novel proposal. He suggested to press 100 nos, of Nano cars in the service to the public in the city of Bangaluru. The income is to be divided between the driver and the government on 40:60. The government will purchase the car and will rent it to the drivers, he said. He said that the plan is to replace autorickshaws since there have been more complaints against the auto drivers. The cost of an utorickshaw is almost on par with that of a Nano [images].

Fiat Grande Punto 90HP : Test Drive and Review

How does the new diesel hot hatch Fiat Punto 90 HP behave on road? Catch our Test Drive and Review of the newly launched Punto 90 HP @ http://www.vicky.in/slideshow/fiat-grande-punto-90-hp-driven/

What are the top 5 accessories for your car?

Catch the guide on top 5 accessories for your car @ http://www.vicky.in/slideshow/top-5-car-accessories/