Each year a new model

Hyundai, the South African car maker, is all set to expedite its growth in the highly potential Indian car market. The latest move is to launch a minimum of one model every year, to retain and regain its supremacy in the already promising Indian market. This will be in addition to the company’s penetration into the rural sector and proposed all localization, said its MD at Seoul. Apart from this, there will be an expansion of dealer network to reach the mass as the company has geared itself to produce 600000 cars a year through its Chennai units.

Being the largest exporter of cars for the sixth consecutive year, the export market too is secure with a minimum of 200000 units a year. Hyundai happens to be the second largest passenger car maker in India, coming next to Maruti-Suzuki. The company’s performance in last fiscal was a sale volume of 600588 cars making it a growth of 20.8% to the previous year’s sale. The cars made from the Indian facilities are being exported to 110 countries comprising Europe, Africa, Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Australia.

The range of cars in the Indian scene from Hyundai includes Santro Xing [images], i10 [images], i20 [images], Accent, Verna [images] and Sonata Transform [images]. Of these, i10 would get the diesel variant as engines would be derived from South Korea. In addition, there will be an SUV Santa Fe [images], a new Sonata sedan along with the refined i10 and i20. Hyundai sees the promise of growth in areas beyond 40 major cities in India. The company is focusing on the increasing domestic market though the slid in export is negligible, said the official. So far, the Chennai facility has exported 50000 units of i20 to the European Union. Hereinafter, the European market for i20 will be taken care of by the Turkey facility in a bid to save duty by being a member of the European Union.

An Expansion of plant by Hindustan Motors

The car alone does not need expansion but its manufacturing facility too. This is what proposed by the Indian pioneer car maker Hindustan Motors.

Hindustan Motors is in the Indian auto industry with its range of vehicles- passenger, premium sedan Lancer-Cedia, Outlander, Pajero, and Montero with the technical tie-up with Mitsubishi, Japan.

The company intends to expand its Tiruvallur facility near Chennai to enhance the production doubly. Another facility is in Uttapara in West Bengal.

The year targeted for this expansion is 2012 and the current 12000 units capacity will see the increase to 24000 units at a minimum investment. The production for the current year is 5000 units, said the company’s VP. The Thiruvallur facility was initiated as a manufacturing unit for earth moving equipment some thirty years ago. It started making of cars from 1998.

This plant is in charge of making Cedia [images], Outlander [images], Pajero and Montero [images] as the Uttapara facility looks after making Ambassador and MUVs, Trekker, Porter and Pushpak. The sale volume of HM last year was 2200 units in domestic market. The company is on the verge of launching Evolution EVOX series in August, he added. This vehicle will be known for its steep performance having 4 seats, 300bhp to deliver a peak horse power.(Mitsubishi to Launch EVO X)

VW has released a Sedan sketch exclusively for Indians

VW has released a Sedan sketch exclusively for Indians. We could infer from the sketch that the front face is the familiar VW Polo/Golf and the rear looks something similar to Fiesta.

Its too early comment on what other features will come along with this Polo based sedan. We guess, this sedan will be plonked by the same engine on which Polo is running, and of course, this car having a boot will claim for more power and torque.

VW Polo based sedan will be produced from the Chakan plant of the company. With the addition of this sedan with the already strong line up of Jetta, Passat, Touareg, New Beetle and the new Polo, wait and keep our fingers crossed, till VW officially release the specifications.

India, probable hub for Nissan

Nissan has sensed the muscle power of Indian technology in delivering the small cars and there is no second thought about converting the country to be the hub for compact cars. The company identifies a swift in the volume among countries of West and BRIC, and from the perception it is found by them that more potential is in the offing in India, China, Brazil and Russia. Nissan, though strong in Japan and Europe, sees a need for adapting to the demanding situation in BRIC region. Nissan has invested Rs2000 crore for the proposed plant near Chennai in a bid to create the compact Micra [images], an all-domestic car.

Slated for launch in July, the car is deemed to be the crowd puller for Nissan in India, Europe and other export markets. Further , there would be an entry-level car in association with Hinduja Group(maker of Ashok Leyland) , at a cost of Rs2.5 lakhs. This small car would find way to the export markets in another 3-4 years. India fills in the slot, similar to Thailand, for enhanced hub elements. The company is very much on the spirits that the investment cost is low, labor cost too is less and above all the components and parts are cheaper than Europe. Above all the car is quite coincidental for this domestic market.

Expansion spree in India by Mercedes

Mercedes Benz has at last found its way to penetrate the potential Indian market. It has come out with a petrol variant of C-Class sedan in the country and announced the plans for expanding the dealer network. The MD of the company in India disclosed that there is an investment for expansion for far reach, with addition of two dealers from Surat and Goa while two are in the offing(preferably Bhubaneswar and Indore). The luxury car segment is undergoing a growth in recent times and there has been a demand for the vehicles.

The growth of luxury car during January-April 2010 is an increased 60% of which Mercedes has its own share of 70%. He indicated that the growth reflects the free trade in India devoid of recession. He realizes the difference of sale in 2009 and 2010. The C-Class [images] sedan costs Rs28.44 lakhs and is fit with the latest CGI technology using a direct injection engine with spray-guided combustion process. This latest technology enables high excess air and better fuel efficiency. The old C-Class(running on Kompressor technology) will be replaced by the new 1796cc, C200CGI.

South Africa to have assembly plant of Tata Motors

Very soon there will be an African Safari from Tata Motors as it is thinking of setting up an auto assembly plant in South Africa. This is partially acknowledged by the officials of Tata Motors. The sale hunt for Tata in South Africa, since 2005, was more than 39000 passenger cars and 50000 commercial vehicles. The specific sale in April 2010 by Tata was 489 comprising 20 commercial and 6 passenger models. In addition there is a technical centre at Johannesburg, for developing skill among the dealers.

The company official claimed that South Africa has been an integral element for Tata Motors’ business with tremendous business opportunities forecast in next 5 years. To upgrade its presence in the country, Tata Motors has introduced new models- Xenon Pick-up, LPT 1518, Tata-Daewoo trucks, Indica Vista. Sooner Tata Nano will find its way to South Africa. The outbreak of recession has stalled many companies from installing facilities in other places. But some companies see the reduction of labor, save in tax and increase in employment when new facilities are installed.

Tata has seen the export growth in April 2010 to 149%(sale of 3137 units) against 1261 vehicles in the same period last year. The company has recently hinted at the launch of an assembly plant for two models in Nigeria in another two or three years. The sale in this region has crossed 1000 units.

Two wheelers and three wheelers too to face BS III?

Vehicles belonging to two wheeler and three wheeler categories, sold after April 1 may face fuel emission norms, it is learnt. It is to be remembered that the government has imposed the emission norm BS IV for cars in select 13 cities, effective April 1 this year. The same applies to the two wheelers and three wheelers for effecting BS III coming under National Central Region and other 13 cities in the country.

The cities targeted on this norm are Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Secundrabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur and Lucknow. The dealers and stockists of the two wheelers and three wheelers having BS II variant will face tough time clearing them off in these cities.

The BS IV norm specified for the cars in 13 cities has now been extended to Lucknow and Sholapur, effective May 20. The auto people are groining over the revised draft of the norm, claiming that there is no such mentioning in the Auto Fuel Policy 2003. This will sure to affect some big companies making BSII variant of two wheelers and three wheelers. But the government has clearly hinted the implementation of this norm to the rest of the country by 1 October 2010.

Auto Expo 2010 is no inferior to the global one

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers has valid points to claim the supremacy of the Auto Expo 2010, its President said. There will be 10 global launches besides 50 new launches from Honda, Toyota wherein greener cars will showcase their might. The event is expected to be deemed the third biggest after Frankfurt and Shanghai on the basis of footprints of the visitors. The number of participants in the expo would be 2015 of which 800 are global to stretch their products in the landscape of 1.25 lakh sq.m. and to crown it all nearly 20 lakh visitors may throng the venue, it is expected.

Toyota does it again

Toyota’s global presence is furthered with its small car range of Daihatsu, making good news from Indonesia and Malaysia. Thus, the company is on the verge of penetrating the Indian market specifically in 600-cc segment. Daihatsu, the group company of Toyota, is popular in Japan with its mini-cars under 600-cc and one such vehicle is Mira Cocoa, a car meant for women. The normal range of passenger cars from Daihatsu are Materia, Copern, Sirion and Curore (Charade) having the engine capacities of 1.5 lits. Daihatsu has been trying its best to enter the Indian market that even its dialogue with Manu Chabbria could not yield any fruits.

Meanwhile, Toyota is in the Indian market under a JV with Kirloskar on 89:11% basis. The company plans to launch a small car by the end of 2010 and it has business tie with Peugeot and Citroen for making three compact cars on same platform. The compact car from Toyota in Europe is Aygo (I go) and Peugeot cars are Peugeot 107 and the Citroen’s is Citroen C1. The agreement among these companies, made in 2001, was to share in the production cost while the vehicle will be made in Toyota’s plant in Czech Republic. There is no final word about the platform of this small car in India (resembling the one of Aygo).

But one thing is sure that the small car will bring in volume to the company to increase its share in Indian market. The existing share is 3% which is projected to be increased to 10% in another 4 years thereby making the growth rate to double digits in 2015. The sale of Toyota in the Indian market during 2009 was 46892 units which is targeted to 52000 units this year. In addition there may be export volume this year. Daihatsu’s business across the world last year was 1336000 cars brining in an increase of growth by 2% than the previous year.

The company’s plants are located in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Pakistan, Venezuela and Colombia. In the European market, Daihatsu has a good say in Germany and the Netherlands. Toyota has its SUVs in India in Landcruiser [images](premium), Prado (mid-range) and Fortuner [images](lower range). Further, there will be an entry-level SUV costing less than Rs15lakhs as Fortuner is Rs18.45lakhs which is expected to romp in 2500 units this year.

The world goes Green, courtesy Toyota

Toyota, Japan has contributed its might to the world with the launch of its hybrid version Prius. The car is introduced to the markets of Japan, the US and the Europe and will be ready for commercial sale in 2011. The car, first of its kind from Toyota, will be fit with a powerful battery lithium-ion. This battery is somewhat different from the conventional ones used in the existing model of Prius. The new plug-in Prius is much more than the current one in that customers can feel the eco-friendly approach and more mileage from the battery. The average run distance is 23.4 km per charge equaling 135 miles a gallon.

However, there is no provision of miles-per-gallon figure in the US road conditions. The vehicle will run even if the power goes off with the plug-in starting itself to be a regular hybrid. In Japan, Toyota’s Prius has secured a huge volume of sale on the mark of high incentives from the government. The split up introduction of this hybrid Prius will be – 230 for Japan, 150 for the US and 200 for Europe- during the Q2 of 2010. In addition, 100 units are earmarked for Strasbourg, France.