China may lag behind India in car export

The envious position of India in car export will be a threat to its neighbor China, observe the analysts in the industry. The executive VP of Renault (Asia and Africa) an ex-head of Dongfeng Motor of China, admits that the Chinese manufacturing feeds the demand of its domestic market with huge output of cars. He boasts that the Chinese market has the unrivalled potential, even better than the West, and the country first caters to the domestic market rather than the export. To adduce this, Nissan plant runs 300 days in a year with two-hour overtime but still not in a position to meet the local demand. He feels that Korea happens to be good position as the biggest locale and is more potential than China.

For Renault, China is a kind dearth and in 2008 it could muster a sale of 800 cars and in2009 the number increased to 6000. This growth is promising for Renault and another big market for the company is Iran. However, Renault’s current apple of the eye is the Indian market where the modalities to meet the local demands are expedited, he said. Once the Indian market is established, the focus will be on the export, he assured. The recent Auto Expo at Delhi proved to be a good platform for Renault to showcase its Twizy Z E(electric version) and two-seater concept car. The car will be put for testing the needs before it goes for commercial production.

Renault has enfolded some 30 + cities for running the electric version of its cars and it will take some time to bring it into India, he said. The government’s cooperation and support is very essential for launching electric vehicles, he pointed out. Renault has in store four versions of electric cars and as such there is no proposal to bring in any of these into India, he asserted. Renault’s Fluence is one of the two models to be delivered from its Chennai plant. The electric version of this Fluence is coming from Turkey.

Refreshed Volvo S80 drives Green with Twin-Turbo Diesel Engine

The Automobile world colossal Volvo made a fast start to the New Year with refreshed Volvo S80 which sounds as a first class exclusiveness with High-performance, twin-turbo Diesel with 205 Hp and 420 Nm torque.

The new Volvo S80 provides top- class fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, coupled with the autograph of Volvo’s safety features. As a special introductory price Volvo S80 is available at Rs. 38.79 lakhs (Ex-showroom Mumbai) & Rs. 37 lakhs (Ex-showroom Delhi).

Maruti to replace the engines for Alto and WagonR

Maruti’s premium selling cars Alto and WagonR will soon get their engines replaced(from the current 800cc hatchback and 1.1lit respectively). This might reduce the price of these cars and become affordable thereby increasing the sale. This methodology has been envisaged after the successful run of KB series engine in Estilo , Ritz and A-Star. Alto and WagonR will get the codenamed engines YP3 which will replace the current F8D engine.

The components are getting ready and the cars will get them by this year end, in two variants with two cylinders(for Alto) and three cylinders(for WagonR). Maruti sensed the beeline entry of global car makers like VW, Nissan, Honda and Toyota in the small car segments, making an all effort to penetrate the Indian market. in addition, Hyundai, Ford and GM are already in the fore to force their cars in the Indian market and according to the MD for Suzuki Maruti, 2010-11 will be a toughest phase for the auto industry.

Maruti is to face Honda’s NSC(small car), Ford’s Figo, Fiat’s CNG variant Punto, Hyundai’s Santro(cheaper variant). Chevrolet UV-A, Skoda Fabia, GM Beat and Spark 800cc electric car are all in a bid to throw the gun at Maruti in the small car segment. Only Darwin can provide the solution with his formula ‘survival of the fittest’.

Skoda showcases boutiques

Close on the heels of BMW(which opened studio), Skoda Auto India of Volkswagen has plans to come out with boutique showrooms. The move is to promote the brand awareness, where one car will be at display and the remaining space will be filled with Skoda T-shirts, kit-cars, fashion and car accessories. By the end of this year there may be 15 such boutique showrooms in addition to virtual product tours and test drives.

The boutique shops will be different from the regular dealer showrooms where the cars alone will be displayed. These boutique shops will be the first such ones for Skoda and are to be implemented in other major countries. The feedback will be assessed from the point of view of the customers’ satisfaction for these shops and not for the cars. Further, negotiations are on with some fashion designers to showcase their feats in these shops for retails too.

The shops are meant to project the contemporary fashion and style concepts and enhances the product image among the customers, said the board member of Skoda Auto India. The erection and maintenance of these shops rests with the Skoda dealers at their cost. The personnel looking after these shops will be under the supervision of Skoda. In the 8 years of marketing presence in India, Skoda could muster a sale volume of 80000 units of its models.This meager amount is due to its non presence in the fast moving compact cars available at Rs3-4 lakhs.

The imminent future will see the roll down of Yeti (SUV), in a bid to fight against Toyota Fortuner, Chevrolet Captiva, Honda CR-V and Ford Endeavour (all in the price range of Rs16-20 lakhs). Moreover, the hatchback with new engine and style, Fabia is in the offing and all these new launches are intended to boost the company’s share in the market. the sale till December 31, 2009 the net sale of Skoda cars is 11,992 units making a growth of 6%(out of the overall industry growth of 24%).

Royal Enfield to hike the prices of its bikes

The ensuing emission norms under Bharat Stage III for two wheelers forced the bike maker Royal Enfield to increase the prices for its ranges. Thus, the bikes will be designed with new engines and high efficiency, said the MD of Eicher Motors. The irony is the current price of Royal Enfield bikes-in various brands like Classic, Classic 500cc, Thunderbird, Machismo and Electra– is Rs1 lakh and the range of increase is not yet revealed. Of these, Classic 500 cc has the handicap of less production and the pending numbers-3000 to 4000 in the domestic market and 2000 for export market- may be cleared in another five months, said MD. So far 1000 units of Classic 500cc have been delivered since November 2009.

It

Toyota had a tough time recalling its many cars for the sake of faults in production. Now is the time for Honda to recall its Fit /Jazz on the reason in fault with windows. This follows a crucial incident of a child death due to fault in window switch and Honda had to withdraw some 646000 of its Fit , Jazz and City. This volume consists of 140000 from Europe, and remaining models from North America, South America, Europe, South Africa and Asia. Japan does not include in this list where Fit is the best selling model.

The snag lies in the form of defect in master switch giving way to water to enter the power window causing fire and two such cases in the US and one in South Africa were reported. The recall list includes 2002-08 models of Jazz in South Africa and 172000 units in Britain. Honda is to rectify the power window switch in the driver cabin which may be the leading snag for fire. In Jazz, water sneaks into master switch , leading to over heat and fire. The recall is to commence from February and in the meantime, Honda is notifying to its customers about the process of recall. Honda plans to provide a waterproof skit to prevent such a damage.

M&M is on the verge of 7 new variants in the next fiscal

Mahindra and Mahindra has set a target of 6-7 new variants of its vehicle portfolio during the next fiscal. This includes the launch of pick-ups in the US from this April, and other utility vehicles, commercial vehicles and three wheelers, said its President (Automotive). The process is for the homologation of its pick-ups in the US in another two months.

The move is to penetrate all segments of the automotives; whereas it had planned to roll out an SUV Maximo, Geo during the early 2011. Now it has launched heavy truck and all these may drive home the new variants for the company. The company saw a good stint of sale in 2009 – total of 2.25 lakh units till December and the growth is ensured in this Q4, despite facing the production loss of 5% during October-December 2009.

The target for the next fiscal is attaining the industry average as the supply constraints have been removed to some extent and the production will be smoothened from April.