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Maruti’s green ambition are well known! The market leader has already announced it will make great stride in vehicles powered by alternate fuel. Following its strategy, Maruti plans to launch factory fitted CNG variants of its family hatchbacks – Estilo and Wagon-R. The CNG variant of Alto is already available in the market and Maruti tasted success with Wagon-R LPG too. Though CNG is not widely available across India, demand for CNG vehicles is huges especially in markets like Delhi and NCR. Swift or Ritz prospects! don’t expect the CNG variants. CNG is strictly meant for family hatchbacks like Wagon-R and Estilo. Maruti believes that Ritz and Swift are meant for sporty and modern youth,
Piaggio has firmed up plans to re-launch Vespa scooters in India. With the approval of Directors, Paiggio will set up a new plant in India and roll out products for the Indian market. The euro 30 million plant will produce 1,50,000 units annually. The production will mainly cater to the domestic market. Piaggio has not commented anything on exporting scooters from India. Honda and Mahindra2wheelers are the dominant players in the Indian scooter market. It will be interesting to see how these manufacturers respond to Vespa re-launch.
Honda today launched spruced up civic. The new civic comes with steering mounted cruise control system that helps to cruise at the desired speed to ensure comfort and convenience for the customer with one-touch operation and ORVM turn indicators that makes it more stylish and enhances the looks of the car. Honda Civic VMT & VAT comes with back up sensors that enables the driver a smooth and hassle free reversing. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Tatsuya Natsume, Director Marketing, Honda Siel Cars India Ltd. said, “Honda Civic has received high appreciation since its introduction in India because of its unparalleled driving pleasure, contemporary styling, and advanced features. We are now delighted to introduce value added features that will make it even more desirable.” The Honda Civic comes with a 2+2 year warranty and 24-hr roadside assistance as standard value for all new Civic buyers.
Price of the Honda Civic (Ex showroom -Delhi)
Honda Civic 1.8 SMT: Rs.12.2 Lac
Honda Civic 1.8 VMT: Rs.13.07 Lac
Honda Civic 1.8 VAT: Rs.13.81 Lac
The US car maker General Motors is in the upbeat mood to promote its latest sensation Beat in the Indian market. The company has devised plans to go in for diesel version of Beat and it may hit the roads by Q1 of 2011, said the company’s VP for sales and marketing in India. The engines will get shape from the company’s Talegaon facility where 1.2 lit gasoline engine too will come off. This gasoline engine may come to the market by this year end, he added. The Talegaon plant has the capacity of 160000 engines and in another two months the unified plants of Talegaon and Halol would have tight shifts. There will be an increase in the production of Beat(from the current 3300 units to 4000 units) and Cruze sedan (from the current 600 units to 900 units), he specified. Further there will be an increase in the dealer network by 80 which will make the net to 300 spread across 209 cities in the country. GM’s popular range comes from Chevrolet model which has- Spark [images], Beat [images], Tavera [images], U-VA [images], Optra [images], Aveo [images], Cruze [images] and Captiva [images]. Since its inception in 2003 Chevrolet has reached the monthly volume of 10000 units.
The car maestro from Japan, Toyota said it is carving its small car Etios [images] to be ready for launch in the early period of 2011. This will materialize once the second plant gets full swing action during this year end, said MD for Toyota Kirloskar Motor JV. The second plant is set up by Kirloskar at Bidadi in Bangalore at an investment of Rs1400 crore which will have the capacity of 100000 annual units. Toyota has made it clear that the engine for this Etios will be imported from Japan keeping the low volume in track here, he announced at the Global Investors’ meet in Bangalore.
Etios [images] in India will have both the hatchback (1.2 lit petrol engine)and sedan version of 1.5 lit petrol engine. Kirloskar is in a JV with Toyota and is dealing Innova [images] muv and Corolla [images] luxury sedan which is designed at its first plant which has the annual production capacity of 100000 units since 2008. However the Camry [images] in mid-segment and Prado [images] suv are directly imported from Japan as CKD units. These are assembled at the Bidadi plant for meeting the local needs. The second plant will have the manpower of 2000 personnel much in anticipation about the future volume- 70000 units of Etios during the initial year of production. In addition there will be an R&D centre in India for effecting the development and design of the ranges of cars for local and export markets.
Toyota is almost certain to pinch its presence in the Indian car market that it has plans to install an R&D centre and an engine unit here, according to the boss of the JV. The MD of Toyota Kirloskar Motor informed that Toyota is on the R&D study in Japan and Thailand along with other major nations and India will follow suit soon. At the recently held Global Investors’ Meet at Bangalore he said that given a chance, the company would erect an engine plant in the country if the sale volume reached 20000 units per year.
Toyota’s second plant, at an investment of Rs3000 crore is in the offing in which there are 2000 employees pressed into job. The JV’s target for the present calendar year is 70000 units an increase of 15000 from its 2009 volume. He indicated that the fresh version of Etios for India is on the developing stage and it may roll down in this December or in the early 2011. After establishing this car in the domestic market, Toyota, he hinted, would go in for the potential export markets. Toyota anticipates to produce 70000 units of Etios during the beginning year of its launch.
Volkswagen has set a strategy for its play in India after planting its seeds of success. It entered the Indian market with its Jetta [images], and Passat [images] sedans and Touareg [images] SUV and the latest Beetle [images]. Now the company is eyeing on securing a market share of 8-10% in another five years as it has already featured in hatchback segment with its Polo [images]. Another sedan in this Polo platform is in the offing, christened as Vento and is expected to roll down in October this year. VW has already commenced the commercial production of Vento in its Chakan plant and the car will come under premium mid-sized sedan-C segment. This segment is currently dominated by Maruti with its SX4 [images] and Dzire [images] having 36% as Honda City [images] has got 16% market share. The company’s member of the board declared that the company’s motive is to seize a substantial amount of share in this segment. It all depends on the price of the car, feel the industry analysts since VW has not disclosed the price of Vento. Venot will come in both petrol and diesel versions with 4 cylinder 1.6 lit engine delivering 100bhp.
However, the same industry analysts anticipate VW to price it in the range of Rs9 or Rs10 lakhs. To start with , the car will have 65% localization of components which is expected to rise to 80% in another one or two years, he added. The net sale volume of VW in India last year was 3000 units and the target for this year is not specified, but is seen to be a substantial one. VW is fishing in first in the domestic market where lot of prospects are in store. However, an analyst from Fortune Equity Brokers India opined that VW has better to target 3-4 % market share for this Vento during this year. With the launch slated for October there might be possibilities to sell around 7000 units before the end of this fiscal. To make the reach more viable the company is sketching the expansion of distribution network.
The alliance between Nissan and Ashok Leyland is getting greased to better gear with the ensuing LCV in 2011 along with the van NV 200. The Vice-Chairman of Hinduja group claimed that the alliance will involve in framing the prospects of NV200 to be made available in passenger and goods carrier segments. The VP of Nissan Motor who also heads the Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles disclosed that the JV is good enough to carry out the commercial vehicles and it is time to concentrate on goods carrier while Nissan will look after passenger carrier. The launch is expected to severe the competition in Omni [images]/Winger sector with M&M too enacting its place in the mini-truck category. The JV’s initial move will be to deliver 150000 units per year until the second plant gets shape. The project will see its final shape once the land acquisition becomes well.
There are three products expected from this JV on this platform to boost the market share of 12-30%. Of these three products, Ashok Leyland will take care of two in its Hosur plant and Nissan will see the other one at its Chennai plant. Much deviating from the earlier commitment that the products will come off from the co-existing efforts of JV, now Ashok Leyland will involve in value segment while Nissan is to play on high end market share. The JV is making all out effort for exports and the launch in Middle East is sought in full swing. Nissan will employ Hover for distributing starting from South India, dealing with contemporary F24 units. This unit has trucks and buses under 5-7.5 tonne category which will have the power of 3-lit 4 cylinder common rail diesel engine meeting BSIII/IV norms.