Hyundai

In a bid to penetrate the European market and to avail tax benefits, Hyundai Motors is migrating its production of i20 [images] to Turkey. The number slated for this year is 40000 units from the regular capacity of 1 lakh. The net volume of Hyundai in India from its both units stand to 6 lakh units and possibilities are bright to extend this volume by another 50000 units. In 2009 Hyundai produced 56000 units and sees the growth by 15% this year making the total volume to 644000 units this year including export demand. Company’s MD&CEO said the increase in volume is expected from the proposed launch of Santa FE and the refined Verna. Hyundai has a good run with its i10 and i20 models. The company’s target for new Verna is
2000 monthly units, he said.

Car servicing from Carnation to go on premium segment

The ex-chief of Maruti Suzuki Jagdish Khattar’s car servicing enterprise is to take care of premium cars too. For this purpose, the company has got a nod from the Fiat Group’s Magneti Marelli to set up one such facility in Gurgaon. Magneti Marelli, a company identified for its 4.5 billion euro projects, is on the process of entering into spare parts segment in India. Jagdish revealed that the move materialized after a two year wait with Magneti offering its assistance. Carnation is spread in nation with 20 service stations situated in 13 major cities and the one initiated for the premium cars will be at Gurgaon as Auto Premio Solutions, for cars priced more than Rs10 lakhs. He said, in addition to the own service outlets, Carnation will involve in securing 4-5 nearby service stations for every major city.The prime job of Carnation in this regard to desist the local service stations from using spurious parts which will harm the vehicles.

He disclosed that there are 25000 units of premium and luxury cars accounted per year and one fourth of this lies on the regions of NCR. This excludes the older cars which have crossed the warranty coverage which could consume more volume than the new ones he added. For this fiscal, Carnation is aiming for Rs100 crore net revenue with a scope of 8-9% growth during the coming years.

Magneti’s move for selling spare parts under co brand will include imported parts and domestic ones. To begin with, the company will deal with own parts and from third party makers. Depending upon the demand domestic parts will be sourced, he said further. Magneti’s spare part range has some 30000 items spread for 30 product. The pricing of components will be interesting- to cost less by 10-15% than the genuine parts suppliers and for unbranded items there will be 30-40% rise. Till the year end, there will be no sourcing he said. The spare parts market in India has the potential for Rs20000 crore from which the car segment constitutes 35%.

Hyundai moves for 16 per cent growth

Hyundai, India’s second largest car maker after Maruti, is aiming to scalp the growth rate of 16% during this period ending December 2010. The company’s 2009 show was the growth with 20.8% due to the economic fall in the previous year (2008) as the sale was 6 lakh units, said the company’s director for sales and marketing. Hyundai has the corporate policy of introducing one refined model and a new model every year. In this regard, the company delivered the Verna Transform [images], the model which has so far seen some 82000 owners. The new version is designed with changes in interior and exteriors for sporty look while the power train is the same. Hyundai sells Verna @2000 monthly units and at an investment of Rs60crore, the company’s unit near Chennai is facilitated to refine the car. Already there was a refined version of the another successful brand Santa made last year. The company’s official said the next transformation of Santa, will be Santa YF which is under process but Sonata Fe will precede this in 2010. There was no official comment about the proposed entry of Hyundai’s sister concern Kia Motors into India.

Toyota to run with second gear for its production move

The growing demand and the irritating waiting period for its cars do not provoke any hurry on Toyota. Earlier the company had planned to run the third shift for clearing the pending orders. Moreover, the new plant will be free from producing any current models and the existing plants have the limited strength to meet the demand. Toyota Kirloskar’s new plant is slated for the production of Etios [images] with 2 lakh annual units, while the one in production has the capacity of 75000 units.

Toyota’s Fortuner [images] takes a minimum of 7 months waiting period and the Innova [images] muv too joined the waiting group with one month. Toyota Kirloskar has got too many plans to run the show and the one plan is to halt the third shift. The reasons cited for this move are the handicaps in supply from the vendors, facilities regarding infrastructure and logistics, said the company’s DyMD. The infrastructure needs to be exclusive for the night shift, food and transportation are other factors to be taken into account. The major drawback is the little utility of the shift if the pending orders were cleared and also the decrease in demand. Toyota has the ‘just in policy’ meeting the time frame of supply which will be difficult for suppliers and vendors, he stressed. At the same time, he added, the company is not on the verge of losing customers to the competing players. The customers who are accustomed to and keen on Toyota products will certainly wait even for a longer period, he asserted. Those who divert to other products may constitute a little segment, he said and the company has the confidence on its customers’ choice. He cleared the issue related to the brake system in Fortuner that the dissatisfied customers were given the choice of replacing the brake with a new kit. This did not mean the total recall of Fortuner for the brake snag, he cleared.

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Petrol, Diesel,LPG and Kerosene price goes up

Bad news for common man!

Government of India has announced a sharp increase in prices of petrol,diesel,lpg and kersone. No one is barred from common man to auto manufacturers, all set to suffer. With the hike, petrol price is up by Rs 3.73/litre, Diesel goes up by Rs 2, LPG by Rs 35 and kerosene by Rs 3/litre. The increase in price comes into effect immediately (from 24th June 2010).

Also the government has decided to free the prices of petrol and diesel from its control (which means it market driven from now onwards). This move is good for the Oil companies on the long run. As the inflation is already hovering around 10%, it is surely a bad news for consumers. The demand for automobile may also take a hit following the hike.

Hyundai likely to draw curtains to counter Maruti

Maruti’s Alto will run safe till the Auto Expo 2012, by the time which Hyundai would roll down its small car to counter Alto [images]. The R&D of the company’s apex body in Korea is drafting the necessary proposal in this regard, said an official from the company. Hyundai feels that the next Auto Expos would be the right avenue to show the small car meant for the exclusive Indian market, he added. The proposed car will come under the category below its own Santro [images] but run on par Alto. Maruti has been reaping a lot from its Alto, the highest selling car in India – 20000 monthly units- at Rs2.28 – Rs2.8 lakhs. Earlier, Hyundai focused its attention to counter Tata Nano and Maruti 800 and announced the proposal of small car at Rs1.60 lakhs. But the increase in the materials and input does not help Hyundai in this connection. The move from Tata to increase the price of Nano for the upcoming lot, after the delivery of bookings, is also to be taken into account. Despite low average contribution by the technical segment, the cost for market research, customer feedback and component development do not facilitate the reduced prices. Though the company’s earlier time span for the launch of compact car was 2011-12, there is no official word from the company yet except the ongoing process.

Clouds hang over the localization of Rover

Jaguar Land Rover, which is currently in the hands of Tata Motors in India, may see the assembling in the country itself, according to unreliable sources. The move is slated for the end of this year and the domestic assembled Freelander cars will see the rolling down during the Q2 of 2011, it is learnt. As the trial production is set for this December, the company’s Pimpri unit in Pune will take care of this assembling job. The same unit was earlier utilized by Mercedes Benz India which has shifted its plant to Chakan near Pune. Tata’s investment for this assembling unit would be around Rs150 crore and the outcome will decide the methodology for other models too. At the same time it is not decided to utilize this plant for making vehicles meant for export. However, the move fell to the criticism of the auto industry which said that the installing assembling plant in India could not be better proposal when China remains the largest market with higher sale than India. Tata has not created any significant sale figure with this JLR as there were just 242 units could be sold in 2009-10. Priced at Rs34.69 lakhs, Freelander counters the likes of Audi Q5 and BMW X3. Tata sees the other side of the assignment as it could benefit largely on financial terms by saving a lot from 110% tax levied for imported CBUs. The CKU face only 40% levy. However, there is no dimension on the pricing due to its saving in the tax. Tata has a motif behind this proposal as it likes to have domestic sourcing to mean the quality.

Maruti to build stockyards for faster delivery

The car buyers who prefer Maruti hereinafter need not lament over delay in delivery. The company has initiated a move to curtail the wait period considerably by erecting stockyards across the country with an investment of Rs200 crore. As land for the one already has been bought by Maruti, the company’s first stockyard will come off in Bangalore in another six months. Maruti had to take this move as a result of long waiting period for some of its premium brands like Swift, Swift D’zire and Eeco which have more than 3-4months for delivery. The time gap is shrewdly exploited by the global players like Ford and Chevrolet with their small cars. Maruti’s plan is to start at least one such stockyard in each zone in the country so that customers can have the early delivery, said a company official. The main problem in satisfying the customers is the mis-match of the color choice preferred by the customer and the one available in the showroom, he added. When the stockyard commences to dump in huge numbers, the customers will get the choice fulfilled easily and Maruti will benefit out of repeated transportation. The proposed stockyard will be in the area spread to 25 acres which will also benefit the dealers from investing additional money for that land area. It is really a good Breakthrough by Maruti.