Toyota, the Japanese car giant, is slated to have devised 13 models for the Indian market. To meet the future perfection plans Toyota has a lot in store for enabling economy, eco-friendly and fuel efficient modes of vehicles. Further, the vehicles will display the fusion of innovation and technological advancement, said its DGM. The upcoming small car would be designed in the second plant devised in its Bangalore unit. The projection for this small car during the first year of its inception would be 70000 units. This will be added with the hybrid version Prius for the potent Indian market.
Toyota
With the installation of the second plant in India, Toyota Kirloskar Motors would be able to deliver its small car to the Indian roads by this December. The company seeks this as a status stake for its presence of over 11 years in the Indian market. The company is hopeful to wretch a major chunk in this sector along with the concept version of hatchback and sedan. There will be a project of the hybrid version, Prius, to be ready for launch in the Indian market. The company is not bothered about the sales number of this Prius but to avail the government incentive offered to the hybrid cars.
The expected sale of Toyota for the calendar year 2009 was 53000 units, against 51800 units in the previous year. The JV of this Toyota Kirloskar Motors Ltd is privileged with 89% for Toyota and 11% for Kirloskar. Toyota has so far seen the sale volume of 4 lakh units in Indian market since its entry. The sale was also good with the hike by 50% to the previous year’s chiefly merited by Corolla Altis and Innova [images]. Fortuner [images], launched in August too contributed much. By 2011, the dealer numbers would be increased to 150(from the current 93) to deal with Corolla Altis [images], Innova and Fortuner(made in Indian facilities) and Camry [images], Prado and Land Cruiser [images](imported as CBUs).
Toyota has large means to mean
Toyota’s presence in the Indian car market seems to blossom further with new platform for its small car is to materialize. The platform may share designing a sedan and other compact cars it is learnt. There will be a small car by this year end from the new facility which is in the offing near its unit in Bangalore, said its DGM for Sales and Marketing. The strategy of sharing the platform for making varied versions brings down the production cost considerably. This will make the company to tag the vehicle with attractively lower price than the existing models- Corolla Altis now costs Rs9.65 lakhs.
The move is to make 70% of the domestic components for the small car to be increased at a later stage. This amidst the plan for an engine plant, which may come off anytime. This will be done once the second plant is effected he added. The new plant will have the installed capacity of 1 lakh units at an investment of Rs3000 crore. After the initiative, the production mark has been cut short to 70000 units to face the extraordinary slump in the industry. The MD of Toyota Kirloskar is quite amazed over the sustained market potential in india despite global recession.
Fortune favoured the Fortuner
The business minds in Toyota Kirloskar would not have needed anything more than this- the thumping response to the recently launched Fortuner. The company received bookings for 5000 units but could satisfy 50% of them due to less production, said the company’s DGM for sales and marketing. He added that the company is exploring the possibilities for expansion of the facility to meet the demand. In the meantime, withstanding the response to its Fortuner [images], Toyota-Kirloskar is planning the small car project by this year end. The car will be designed in the ensuing second plant with a capacity of 70000 to be increased further. Fortuner’s global reach is 250000 units and lot has been expected from this third SUV from Toyota.
Bookings of Fortuner come to a grinding halt
The production hassle of Fortuner [images] – 400 units a month- has been overcome to some extent (increasing to 1000 units). But the sources in Toyota Kirloskar confirmed the suspension of bookings to be effected at any time. The demand for the vehicle was tremendous- 5000 in a span of 8 days from its launch- making the waiting period to six months. The company cannot meet the demand by deriving the cars transnational courtesy tax constraint- 106% for imported vehicles.
Since the launch in August 2009, the car has reached more than 6500 owners inducing Toyota to scale 10% market share by next five years (from the current 3%). The sale in 2009 was 55000 and the projection for this fiscal is 70000 units, to be backed by the voluminous sale of Etios. To ensure speedy supply the second plant at Badadi will come off for delivering the Etios in December. This Etios [images] will be exclusive domestic oriented and preferred for export market too. For this, the dealer network numbering about 99 would be increased to 150 before December 2010.
Tata to get technical expertise for its Nano
The British flame is once again sought for improving Nano, said Tata sources. Soon a team of technicians will bring in the technical expertise derived with the assistance from engineers of Jaguar Land Rover. The move comes in the wake of consecutive two fire incidents involving Nano [images]. The step will be followed by the subsequent assistance for the Nano Europa, slated for launch in 2011.
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Maruti to double capacity to 2 m units in 5 yrs
In a bid to retain its top slot in the Indian car market, Maruti Suzuki Ltd is devising a ploy to meet the demand for its vehicles. Amidst cut-throat competition, the company intends to increase its production in another five years. The annual sale volume in the Indian car market, 1.5 million is targeted by giant companies like GM, VW, Hyundai and Ford. Of these, 1.2 million units comprise the small car segment, in which Maruti dominates the most. Following the suit areToyota, Honda and Nissan to tap the potential of small car market.
The Chairman of Maruti told that the company is moving on the lines of the domestic growth and the next five years will see the double growth of the company. The task is to keep pace with the local economy and there will be a double fold growth in another 5 to 6 years. Maruti has a better say in the segment, with its sale in last year was thumping- more than one million cars- an odd feat by any company in India. Last month the company sold about 68668 units beating the arch rival Hyundai’s 28501 units. The year 2009 saw many launches of car in India and in the last Q of 2009-10, GM launched its Beat while Ford presented its Figo and finally VW staked its claim with its Polo.
Bajaj to increase its Pulsar and Discover production
The two wheeler market will be hot soon with Bajaj to ramp up its production to meet the demand for its bikes, said its CEO. In tune with this move, the plant’s capacity will be increased from the current 2.75 lakhs to 3 lakh units a month he added. There are three plants with Bajaj as of now- Waluj near Aurangabad, Pantnagar in Uttarkhand and Chakan near Pune. The increase in production will vary from plant to plant, he said. The target for this year from Bajaj is 4 lakh bikes of which 3.6 million will be comprised by Discover and Pulsar range. The recently launched Discovery-150 is expected to romp in 30-35 thousand units and there will be two more variants in popular brands.
Discover-150 comes from Waluj and Pantnagar facilities. The company sees an increase in its market share of 17% with the launch of the Discover -150 (which may procure 5-6% increase. The bike, meeting the BS-III emission norms, is to cost Rs46000 and will be launched on phases in the country. Bajaj foresees an increase in its export market too from the current 60000 to 80000 this year. However, the company has no solution for the reduction of the waiting period of 3-4 weeks for the Pulsar brand. There is a strategy to reduce this wait period by increasing the production soon. There is no final word about the proposed sports bike Bajaj-KTM, though the alliance between them is making a good deal with Pulsar. The bikes under these deal are expected to hit the roads by 2011.
Honda losing out on ageing models, pricingHonda losing out on ageing models, pricing
Honda is on the waning phase of its aged brands only to leave some share in the market down. The company doesnot view the promising growht of the industry and it has been on stable level to lose its share in the market. Honda is handicapped by the ageing models in its product portfolio and the reversal of fortune happened with the slack of yen in the world economy. The sale during the first four months of 2010 came down by 2.7% (21746 units) whereas the net sale of utility and multi-utility cars in India increased by 30.8% during the same period. Honda’s popular brands – Jazz, Civic, Accord and CR-V were the worst affected. The flagship range, City survived the crisis.
In April 2010, Honda could sell just 188 units of Civic making a fall by 69% against the sale in 2009. Another factor that derailed the run of Honda is the strong variable for yen against rupee. This affected the parts like airbag to go for the competitive pricing. Majoirty of the Honda ranges in India are sold with domestic components- 28% to 77%- while CR-V (SUV) is a compeltely imported unit. During March 2009, Honda had to increase its price for its range from Rs30000 – Rs3.5 lakhs, in which the utmost hike went for CR-V. during the last six month period ending April, the yen had an appreciation value of 7.04% against the rupee. But the industry observers and analysts feel that Honda has got some more factor to worry about – lack of new models.
The competitors are giving a new face to the market with more models. Civic, bringing some genuine volume to Honda, faces stiff competition from GM (Chevrolet Cruze), VW (Jetta); while Honda’s Jazz is dipping to an all time low volume, is pitted against Hyundai’s i20. CR-V does not convey proper compatibility for the localization. Honda has now realized the need of the hour and is to focus on launching new models. To arrive at more such models, the top most priority is to have more dealers- from the existing 117 to 150 by the second half of 2011.