The American iconic bike stalwart Harley-Davidson has started its business in India with its headquarter being opened in Gurgaon. The company feels this as the key milestone in its business in India. The bookings for its ranges are already on and the next major step is to open showrooms and dealerships-in New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chandigarh-for deliveries. With delivery slated for the next month, the company sees a new era of motorcycling in India, said its MD for India. The event of inaugurating the headquarter was bliss with the presence of the US Ambassador for India Timothy J Roemer. Harley-Davidson has started booking from April for its 12 motorcycles ranges of 2010 line up. The cost comes in the range of Rs6.95 lakh – Rs34.95 lakh.
Renault is on the look out for lighting partner in electric car project
Renault, the French car maker, is on the look out for ideal allies to take on the torch of electric car project in India. Renault is now a single company, having come off from a tie-up with M& M for Logan and is in the process of entering the electric car project. By this move, Renault has to give up its 49% stake for M&M and M&M will continue to run with Logan in the Indian market.
The most probable candidate for this proposal may be Reva from Bangalore. Renault is likely to offer the care of infrastructure like charging stations and battery leasing services to the partners. In spite of the full fledged move in the electric car market, Renault is in need of certain governmental flexibilities and concessions. Renault is a prominent name in the electric car sector with its kangoo intra-city goods mover, Zoe mid-sized sedan and Twizy two-seater concept car. In addition Renault is making efforts to get a lending hand from the technical institutes for this electric car project.
Fluence will be on sale in India from next year, as a tie-up product with Nissan (which has 44% stake). The car is to be manufactured from the newly constructed facility near Chennai having a capacity of 4 lakh units per year. The unit is ideally set for making Nissan’s Micra and Renault’s Koleos. By now the JV is on the look out for penetrating dealer network in the country. Joining Renault in this electric vehicle market will be Nissan whose electric car might hit the Indian roads by 2012. Similar to Renault, everything on this electric car depends much on the incentives offered by the government, said MD &CEO of Nissan Motor India. Renault’s Fluence electric version is on the launching pad in Israel and Denmark under a partnership with Betterplace.
Renault’s strategy for global deal is to identify strong local partner for infrastructure facilities. The JV between Renault and Nissan is vigorously crafting the electric vehicle concept aided by a strong technical team. The cars are powered by the batteries derived from AESC, which is a Nissan-NEC joint venture. The Indian pioneer in electric vehicles, Reva and other companies are lobbying the Indian government for necessary tax reduction and incentives. The companies feel that without the necessary government support and help, it would be too difficult to devise a good electric vehicle project. Reva stands as the pioneer in electric vehicles in India despite a sale of over 3500 units in the last 8 years. The electric vehicles are handicapped by less interior space, power and restrained drive for long distances, due to single charge. However, Reva is lighting its show with its tie up with Dilip Chhabria the auto designer for making scintillating looks. Also there is a tie-up with General Motors India for making the powerful play for Spark and Beat.
India to outsmart in the global business for Renault
After a hectic parley with M&M in the case of Logan, Renault is now a refined company. There will be no more constraint on single range concept and the outcome of the global recession in 2009 has made Renault to adopt a bigger role for India in the global trade. Once this point was mooted by the company the prospective deeds followed on- lifting the freeze on investments in Chennai facility. After that the company identified the real potential in Indian market. This was hinted by the CEO of the company as there has been huge potential in regions other than BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). He mentioned the regions of Africa and Indonesia as future prospective zones in resemblance to India.
To run a deep and sound show in the global picture, Renault has now given its priority to engineering excellence and efficient suppliers to play a crucial role in global trade. In abeyance with the excellence of Nissan, Renault likes to keep the check on costs and have a niche for more business prosperities. Above all the localized opinion and decision would play a core role. This was the unpleasant break posted on Logan in France. For Renault, present need is to promote effective dealerships across the country and is happy with the responses from the expert dealers.
Renault has learnt a lot from its Logan launch in India and from that, there will be launches of new Fluence and Koleos(for 2011) compact car in the B segment. Renault would follow this with another car in B segment as a low cost car for Rs3.5 lakhs. It is quite amusing that Renault is one of the partners in the JV (involving Bajaj and Nissan as other partners) for a small car project for Rs1.5lakh in 2012.
VW to fuel the production of Polo
Notwithstanding the backlog bookings amounting to 5700 units, Volkswagen is polishing its mind to increase the production. The company is too pleased to get this feedback within just two months of its launch. Polo is offered as the premium hatchback for Rs4.34 lakh- Rs6.70 lakh and is already with some 1599 owners in India. Initially there was booking for 7300 units and the waiting period is 4 months. While maintaining priority for quality, the company is not in a hasty move to produce inferior quality product.
Hence there is a proposal to ramp up the production instead of rapidity in action. The car has some 50% of the domestic components and the facility at Chakan has the capacity of 900 monthly units. VW is facing acute shortage of products to meet the bookings because of low production. There is no point of delay, nearly 4 months as wait period, due to technical reasons. It is from this facility that VW produces its other premium car Fabia and Skoda Auto. This facility has the potential of 1.1 lakh annual units made at an investment of 580 million Euro. Polo is in rivalry against Maruti Suzuki Swift and Ritz, Hyundai i10, i20 and Honda Jazz.
Bajaj in high spirits for its low cost car
The tripartite joint venture among Renault-Nissan-Bajaj is getting hot exercise, according to the information available. The JV has come out with a high efficient and fuel economic engine for the small car, which is likely to hit the market in 2012. The car would cost around Rs2 lakhs and would vie with Tata’s Nano which is currently sold at Rs1.23 lakhs. The small car from this JV is ignited to offer 30 km mileage and would be tuned to emit less carbon at < 100gm of CO2 after a run for a kilometer. Nano has the emission level of 101gm to make it a least polluting car in the country and gives 20km mileage. The Chairman of Bajaj, Rajiv Bajaj made it clear that their car is not the cheapest in price but would offer the very best features for Rs2 lakhs. He reiterated that the target customers would be those who intend to switch to four wheeler from two wheelers. Once the car comes with low emission and low cost, then the city consumers may throng to own this car, he perceived. The company is on the lines of leveraging the cost involved in its two wheeler manufacturing. Bajaj has a slid over Nano, whose price is likely to increase for the next batch of bookings. If the car from this JV hit the roads by 2012, the giants would involve in fierce battle to secure the market share of this entry level car. The average running cost for the customer who go for this small car would be Rs5000 per month. He elicits that a two wheeler owner may spend a minimum of Rs2500-Rs3000 per month for running and maintaining the bike. For the same act with regard to the low end Maruti Alto, the cost involved is around Rs8000- Rs10000. The customers are not for spending such a huge amount but would definitely prefer an economical model involving the maintaining cost of Rs5000. The delay in the launch of this car was due to the designing of the fuel efficient engine. The two wheeler owners prefer to upgrade to a low cost car amidst the increase in the sale of two wheelers- 9.3million two wheelers in 2009-10 (according to SIAM). After the imminent success of Nano, the car makers are vying to enter into this segment, which again provides thumping opportunities. This was corroborated by the Vice-President of General Motors. He opined that this small car segment proves to be more penetrating and the desired customers are two wheeler owners. This made GM and Hyundai to focus more on the small car projects. Hyundai is exploring a small car for $3500 with fine fuel efficiency. If Bajaj is successful with its launch of small car, there will be tough competition from Hyundai (800cc) @Rs2.5-Rs2.8 lakh and re-engineered model from Maruti. Of these, Hyundai will fit the car with the engine resembling the one from the proposed Bajaj small car. In all these small car would be eager to offer a minimum of 20km mileage.
A smiling news from Bajaj
After a throttling hiccups with regard to small car project, Bajaj is now eyeing on securing 30km mileage for its car. The Chairman Rajiv Bajaj is firm on delivering the cheapest, bestselling and record-creating mileage car. He affirmed that the car under the tripartite JV among Bajaj- Nissan- Renault, will be available for $2500. It all depends on the price value of the dollar currency when the car actually come to the show in 2012. Bajaj’s four wheeler platform will have an LCV and a small car. Bajaj is making news that it is not for money nor profit but for ownership and mileage. The motif is best reflected in its motorcycle business and based on it Rajiv Bajaj intends his car to be a stand out product.
The target will be those who own three wheelers to convert to car. The car will have an excellent green norms providing less emission of carbon. Compared to Nano’s 110gm/km Bajaj likes to have less emission probably to double digits. Apart from this, Bajaj will expand in three wheelers on RE brand in which it has 47% marketshare. For this purpose the company has invested Rs15 crore to improve two new variants. There won’t be any tussle over the probable launches of three wheelers or four wheelers in another two years.
Volkswagen to play the role of run rather a owner
Volkswagen is on the anvil to generate the spirit in Formula 1 as an engine provider. It is not interested to own the team as the event makes the flying start in 2013. In this regard VW is seeking the consent of FIA for availing the privilege of engine provider. VW’s desire of owning the Red Bull was thwarted by Stuck on an insistence that VW could play the role as an engine supplier. However, VW liked to own a team on the lines of Mercedes making the show by owning Brawn. VW is keen on improving its image and drive down cost by improving its stability much before the event comes to the fore.
Formula has been facing a hard struggle in recent years and the teams have to drive in for an amicable solution to reach the destination. The car makers have to generate stability to enter into the Formula 1 for a. the event requires 1.5 lit turbocharged 4-cylinder engines coupled with KERS and this will be in effective from 2013. However the event makers do like to have the efficiency of the existing 2.4 lit V8 engine.
Nano to tag the revised price tag courtesy BS IV norms
The banner of Nano as the world’s cheapest car will be little shakier now that the price may increase in a short while later. Tata has been forging ahead its tempo with this Nano for the greener aspects meeting the emission norms under BS IV. The company is however committed to the initial price of Rs 1lakh to the first lot of 1lakh customers. As on April 30, Tata has sold out 33875 units of Nano. The prospective rise of the car will be by Rs1979 – Rs2133 on the variants. This will make the onroad price to rise by Rs5000-Rs7000. Tata has asked the dealer to counsel the customers about the emission norms which made the company to hike the price.
However, Nano will be available in both the cities coming under BS IV norms – 13 cities under the norm and the rest of the country. The price change for the Nano BS IV variant will be intimated to the customers who have booked. If the customer is not willing to pay the difference amount he / she can cancel the booking, the company said.
As per the list of bookings 75% of the customers hail from non-metro cities, which do not come under the emission norm. The company is yet to dispatch the Nano of BS IV norm by the middle of this month. Tata is fully aware that the rise is no way beneficial to the company but has been forced to effect the rise to meet the norm. Tata does not want Nano to be exempted from the price rise.
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Suzuki to launch upgraded Zeus 125cc
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When it comes to vicky.in spy team, they never get satisfied with one. Here’s another one. Back-to-back, they love it. Following the scoop on the Discover 150cc scoop, they shared us exclusive information on Suzuki’s new bike. Suzuki which has tasted fair success with Access in the scooter segment and GS150R in the performance segment wished to capture market share in 125cc segment. Suzuki currently sells heat 125cc and Zeus 125cc in the executive segment, but both failed. In a move to capture customers attention, Suzuki will launch a refreshed Zeus 125cc next month (June 2010). However, don’t expect the new Zeus to come with new engine. The changes are not mechanical. Suzuki will re-skin the Zeus body panels to make it attractive. Expect a smaller price hike for the new Zeus.