Mahindra

Xylo MPV from Mahindra is known for its 4 wheel drive and the car is now fo(u)rced with 4 wheels on all sides. The car underwent a recent test drive of R&D and joined the Mahindra Great Escape troupe in Rajasthan. The new Xylo will be under the 4wd system with the advanced Borg&Warmer support, resembling Honda CR-V. thus there will be concentration on road grip and force to reckon the tough and rough roads. All these features are to be displayed only when the car comes out of the production facility.

Though it is certain to be the first of its kind as the 4wheel MPV in India, the market of this concept is still under the clouds. The car is slated for export to South Africa and other major countries. In addition there will be three SUVs from M7M, along with Scorpio. Of these, one will be a sub 4-m car with a sub 1500cc diesel engine which will fetch reduction in the excise duty. The lone counterpart is Premier Rio in this segment but M&M is confident of meeting the challenge.

The Xylo MPV of M&M from its Chakan facility will come off in 2011 @Rs 16-18 lakhs. The features of this SUV will be a powerful diesel engine, automatic gearbox, automatic climate control, cruise and ESP. the car will be alike Chevrolet Captiva and the Toyota Fortuner and the major force for the export market.

The domestic market will be aplenty for M&M with this MPV and the expansion will be in the US and other countries. The company is mooting the large scale market in pick up trucks for this year end. The new Scorpio is to be on the design of body-on-ladder with a new petrol engine fit under the bonnet and the world SUV.

Maruti to double capacity of K-series plant

Maruti Suzuki has plans to double the capacity of K-Series engines in Gurgaon plant by 2012. The venture will have an investment of Rs1250crore by which the production will reach 5 lakh units. The K-series engine is currently fit in Maruti’s Swift, A-Star, Ritz, Estilo and SX4. Soon other ranges and models barring M800, will be fit with this engine.

Maruti’s business has 60%petrol engine cars. Maruti’s net investment with this will be Rs12000 crore in the last three years. The projects initiated under the investment are a new car plant, diesel and petrol engine plants in Mansar. Also there will be a new model development and a R&D center in Rohtak. As such, the diesel engine capacity of Maruti is 2 lakhs per year.

According to the Chairman&CEO of Suzuki Motor(which has 54% share from Maruti) there will be an investment of Rs2500 crore for R&D and K-series engines production expansion. Rs1250crore will be allocated for the engine plant. Recently the company had a twin smile- the millionth car and the laying of the foundation for the second car plant.

The company is fully aware of the competition persisting in the country despite enjoying 50% share of the entire market. The domestic market sale of Maruti in India is around 1.7 million units. The net installed capacity from Gurgaon and Manesar is one million units and this will be increased by 0.25 million in 2012 at an investment of Rs1700 crore.

Hyundai

Hyundai, India’s largest exporter among passenger cars and is the second largest car maker next to Maruti, is on the verge of going into export market in a high spirit. It is migrating the partial production of i20 to Turkey soon. This follows the near exhaust of its 6 lakh units from the Chennai plant. But the real factor is the labor problem persisting in the company since two years. The shifting of production unit to Turkey will further the delay in delivery of its products by 2-3 weeks.

The company is contemplating to shift the production units to Australia and New Zealand, which may end up with a drain the domestic production. The practice in the car manufacture is 50:50 domestic and export, but Hyundai is focusing on the domestic feed. A new car, below the Santro range on 800cc, is expected to hit the roads by 2012.

Tata Motors investigating Nano fire incident

The fire hit Nano to undergo investigation. The boastful low priced car in the world, Nano, had an unpleasant run some 10 months back. There was a fire broke to the car involving a family of a software engineer, his wife and a 5-year old son. The nightmare experience forced his wife to withdraw from choosing any sort of car. But Nano is to be produced from the new plant next month despite hue and cry over the safety aspects.

Tata’s initiative was to drag the millions of two wheeler riders to access the cool and safe car at an affordable price. Tata sells Jaguar and Land Rover in India and is on the offshore verge of Nano in 2011- Europe and in the US later. The company spokesperson claimed that the incident was a freak and off-stray one and has nothing to do with the manufacturing fault. However the company does not leave any tables unturned and is investigating the cause of the fire. But two more such incidents have been reported by the customers last year and Tata acknowledged the incident related to the electrical flaw and specifically the switch problem.

Now Tata has rectified that flaw and is on the verge of focusing more on safety aspects, he said. Nano can be deemed as one of the most safest cars on Indian roads, he added. Yet the industry analysts feel the other way- the third largest car maker in India has to analyze the problem at length before deriving any fruitful result. Here it is to be remembered that Toyota, Honda and other global car makers had to recall their cars for the faulty conditions. Tata has to go a long way to attain the safety standards, said an analyst of HIS Global Insight.

As on date there are 30000 Nano on the roads, but the problem rate is higher compared to the percentage basis. Tata’s initiative was good and the car is a fine product, but Tata shall assure quality and safety aspects. In a bid to formulate these flaws, the company has pressed the service of former head of GM in Europe, Carl-Peter Forster. He is the pick of the person for the right job and there will be more changes from Tata. But the time frame is yet to be known.

Fiat

The JV between Fiat Automobiles and Tata Motors is on the verge of launching a new small car at Rs3-3.5 lakhs. The car would roll down in the next year end or early 2012, said the CEO of Fiat. The car would be crafted on the pros and cons gained from the company’s premium cars- Palio and Grande Punto. The experiment with Linea did not work out well and the focus will now be on full-fledged small car to make it the benchmark for the company.

The features will be derived from the four door 500, a CBU being sold at Rs15 lakh. Since its launch 64 units have been sold in the country. Having analysed the Indian economy well the company now likens to enter the small car segment. As such there will be a refined Linea under the same platform. It will undergo a change in petrol by getting 1.4 turbo charged gasoline engine and the Grande Punto will get the 90hp version. There will be a variant under gasoline-CNG in Punto which will automatically shift the choice of fuel.

Mercedes A-Class small car in India

The world renowned luxury car maker Mercedes announced that the Indian roads will soon see packed with its entry level car A-Class. The cost would be competitive, said the company, but it may come around Rs 16-20 lakhs. The talk about this car is in the air for more than 10 years but the launch is delayed for one or other reason. The company is understood to have taken note of the price for this so called entry level luxury car. But the company official is optimistic on the ground that the Indian car market is a growing one and there will be a definite ground for the company’s car.

The company has been receiving good returns of late, with the sale of its car in the country till December saw a growth of 80%. This excludes its growth of 157% net growth through GL. This GL is a cross over SUV and is akin to Audi Q7 and BMW’s X5. The bus market for Mercedes is promising but the Europe is still under recovery phase in terms of passenger cars and commercial vehicles (from the previous fall of 90%). The company compensated the dealers by buying back the volume on liquidity and with financial support. The situation in the circle of Daimler too is similar due to the construction problems.

Getz gets bid adieu

Hyundai Motor India has confirmed the phasing out of its hatchback Getz in a couple of months. The global market has found out the replacement from i20 hatch back. India seems to be the last land to roll down this Getz. The company has sensed the climax of the model life and the sale too has been very low, following the launch of i20. Moreover, customers having a look at this Getz at the showroom finally cast in favor of i20. This new i20 has drawn the customers with its style and a whole lot of features.

The second largest car maker in India, is in the frontline after Maruti Suzuki, has clamped the car market with its Santro, i10, i20, and Getz. The company is on the verge of expanding the small car segment without expanding the entire portfolio. Thus, there will be an SUV by this year end in the range of i35(also called new2010 Tucson or even larger Santa Fe). Hyundai had a debacle with its earlier SUVs like Terracan and Tucson, of which Terracan has become the vogue.

Tucson disappointed Hyundai with the low volume of sales during April-February 2009-10 with the sale of just 14 units @70% fall in sales. The Indian car market is highly sensitive to the SUVs. The factors that go against this SUV are that the sales volume and the pricing does not match together. Hyundai derives this model as CBUs, that little number of SUVs cannot be manufactured in India. But CBUs are not feasible due to the pricing.

The global market for Hyundai has Azera, Genesis(sold in North America, Europe and South Korea. Hyundai believes that the Indian car market is highly structured with 80%small cars and 20%is constituted by the rest. The company likes to make it self present in all segments as a full time manufacturer. The year 2008 was a good one for Hyundai despite other auto makers faced the failure due to recession. Hyundai has been the lone mainstream car manufacturer in the US for effecting good sale.

The growth has gone to 4.2% from 3 % of 2008. Worldwide, 2009 was a year to boast off Hyundai –Kia combine, to became the fourth largest carmaker.

GM in the upbeat mood in its Talegaon plant

General Motors is on the increased phase of its production at Talegaon facility by making the second shift effective. This will double the production of 200 cars a day to 400 cars of Chevrolet Spark and Beat. The company’s VP for Corporate Affairs indicated that the volume will be 8000 units from this month; the existing capacity at the Talegaon unit is 140000 units on three shifts at an investment of Rs1400crore.

The next phase of investment will see the volume to increase 3 lakh units including passenger cars under the SIAC-GM JV. However, the LCVs under the JV will set off from the Halol plant. The engine plant at Talegaon at Rs900 crore has commenced and will have an annual capacity of 160000 engines, to be commissioned by this year end. Under the CNG versions are Aveo, Chevrolet Cruze automatic in addition to the electric Spark to be ready for launch this year end.

End of road: Renault shifting to Chennai

Renault, a partner of the JV between Mahindra under MRPL, is shifting to Chennai. By this, Renault is eyeing on a larger base in association with Nissan Motor India, which bases in Chennai. The company feels that there will be more synergies by this move. However, the studio in Mumbai will continue to operate and the R&D will be in Chennai. Renault-Nissan JV is slating the manufacturing facility in Chennai with a capacity of 4 lakh units. The move will strain the end of the honeymoon with M&M, resulting with the cease of Logan making. Currently, MRPL is looking after the make and sale of Logan.

But the CEO of Renault gave some hope of revival of Logan with certain modifications as resolved by M&M, especially the length of the car. The reduction in the length will procure a reduction of excise duty it is claimed. Now Renault is going ahead with the production of Logan irrespective of the fate of the JV with M&M. the cost factor between Logan and other cars is a mute point- Swift Dzire, Indigo and Ikon sedans. Logan had to face the handicaps of left hand wiper and the price.

However, Renault is on the revamping phase by setting a sale target of 15000 units of Logan in 2010-11 against 5981 units during the period of April-February , which includes export(1000 units) also. Renault was asserting the mood of Logan on the issue of slow marketing and the hitch on the design of the car.

Your Captiva, Cruze are fine, says GM

GM has no regrets over the recall of its 58000 vehicles in South Korea. Further it will not have any impact on the sale in India. GM had recalled 45957 units of Winstorm SUV and 12064 units of Lacetti Premiere compact sedans. The recall was due to the faults in steering wheels and fuel hoses. This Winstorm is Chevrolet Captiva and Lacetti is Chevrolet Cruze in India and other markets. The recall is applied on only the left hand drive cars and hence it is not applicable for the cars in India, said GM’s VP for India.

Captiva is a CBU from Korea but the story of recall in 2006 and 2007 hit the sale of Captiva, and the same occurred for Cruze in 2009-10. Cruze is now designed domestically in Talegaon plant. GM justifies its recalls on the footsteps of Toyota, Honda, VW, Suzuki, Nissan, Hyundai, Citreon and Peugeot. These companies are not bothered much over the meager recalls in India.