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Homegrown auto major Tata Motors plans to launch new variants of its small car Nano during the 2011-12 financial year. Although the company has not specified anything about the forthcoming variant, it is widely speculated that a diesel version of the car is in the offing. In a presentation, the company said it will introduce a host of products in 2011-12 fiscal. "Future products in pipeline for FY'12 -- Nano variants, Vista refresh, Manza limited edition, New Safari, Aria 2WD," the presentation mentioned referring to product line up for its passenger vehicles for the ongoing fiscal. Currently, Nano is available in three different petrol variants and are priced between Rs 1.41 lakh and Rs 1.97 lakh. When contacted, a company spokesperson said the firm does not have any detail at this moment. [Source:PTI]

Automakers plan to step up discounts from June to reverse a slowdown in sales triggered by rising fuel prices and interest rates.  Retail sales of cars in May fell around 10% from the previous month, despite better discounts, narrowing down options for wooing customers.  "Going forward, better packaged discounts is the best strategy to increase footfalls," said Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager (marketing), Maruti Suzuki.  Return of discounts signals the re-emergence of a strategy that paid rich dividends in the period that preceded the auto boom in 2009 and 2010.  "Discounts serve best when times are hard. After two months of slower sales, we have been informed that discounts would go up in June with specific target to increase sales and reduce the inventories on certain models," said a Maruti dealer in Delhi.  Car companies are lining up cash benefits of up to Rs 60,000.  Maruti, Hyundai , Fiat , Ford , Tata and General Motors are among those tha...

Tata Group-owned luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) today opened its first assembly plant in India here. The plant will initially assemble JLR's sport-utility vehicle Freelander 2 from completely knocked down (CKD) kits shipped from the Halewood manufacturing unit in Liverpool, UK. The Freelander 2, which is offered in two versions - TD4 SE Automatic and SD4 HSE Automatic - is likely to be priced around Rs 4-5 lakh lower than the imported ones. Freelander 2 in CKD model will cost Rs 33.39 lakh (ex-showroom Mumbai). "Assembling vehicles in India has duty benefits which will be passed on to our customers," Tata Motors Group Chief Executive and Managing Director Carl-Peter Forster told reporters here. "Setting up an assembly plant shows Jaguar Land Rover is increasingly becoming a part of India. We have a big commitment to the Indian market," he said. [Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com]

The Tata Nano looks set to to retain its crown of being India's cheapest car. A potential rival to the car, from the alliance of Bajaj-Renault-Nissan, appears to have run into rough weather with rising differences between the Indian partner and the western car companies led by Carlos Ghosn .  Renault recently sounded non-committal on its engagement and said it may back out of the project if the car -- conceptualised, designed and manufactured by Bajaj Auto -- does not match its standards. "If it matches our DNA, we will go for it. If it does not, we will find other solutions," Renault India MD Marc Nassif said.  Nassif said Renault is not obliged to buy the car that Bajaj develops. "As such, there is no joint venture. If the quality of development matches with the promise, we will go for it." Asked what would be the company's strategy if it decided against buying the car from Bajaj, he said, "We will do something different. We will have more opportunit...

After petrol, price of diesel, LPG and kerosene are likely to be hiked next month when a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee meets to decide on passing rise in crude rates to consumers. "The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has been scheduled to meet on June 9," a top oil ministry official said here today. "Price of diesel, LPG and kerosene will have to go up (to cover for rise in input crude oil cost). What EGoM has to decide is by how much," the official said. State-owned oil firms had earlier this month hiked petrol price by a steep Rs 5 per litre and oil ministry may push for a Rs 4 per litre increase in diesel and at least Rs 20-25 per 14.2-kg cylinder hike in domestic cooking gas (LPG) rates. [Source: PTI ]

Japanese auto giant Honda on Thursday said it will set up a third two-wheeler manufacturing facility in India at Narsapuram, in Karnataka, with an installed annual capacity of 12 lakh units by 2013. The company, which recently exited from India's largest two-wheeler maker, Hero Honda, will also double the output of the upcoming second plant at Tapukara in Rajasthan to 12 lakh units by the end of this fiscal. In order to realise Honda's vision to provide good products with speed and affordability, the third plant will be built in the Bangalore area in the southern part of India. The third plant is scheduled to become operational in the first half of 2013, with annual production capacity of 12 lakh units. The company's wholly-owned subsidiary - Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) - is currently investing about Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) for setting up its second facility at Tapukara in Rajasthan and it will be inaugurated on June 1 with an initial installed...

Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari on Thursday officially entered the Indian market with popular models such as the California, 458 Italia, 599GTB Fiorano and the latest FF at prices starting from Rs 2.2 crore onward.  "Till yesterday, Ferrari was present in 57 countries. Now we are in the 58th country, which is India. We should have been in India much before and we expect to be able to sell more than 100 cars in the next 2-3 years," Ferrari SpA Chief Executive Officer Amedeo Felisa told reporters here.  The company has appointed the Shreyans Group as its official importer in India. Bookings for the cars start today with the opening of the first dealership in the national capital. The second showroom is scheduled to open in Mumbai in the second half of 2011.   The Ferrari range which will be sold in India includes the Ferrari California priced at Rs 2.2 crore, 458 Italia at Rs 2.56 crore and 599GTB Fiorano tagged at Rs 3.37 crore. All prices are ex-showroom Delhi....

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), a part of the US $11.1 bn Mahindra Group, today announced the launch of the  Scorpio Ex ,  a new, entry-level offering from the Mighty Muscular Scorpio stable. Powered by a 75bhp m2DiCR engine, the Scorpio Ex offers  great drivability and refined performance   along with an impressive 14kmpl mileage (as per ARAI).  This new offering is attractively priced at Rs.7.21 lakhs (ex-showroom Pune, for BSIV). The new 2.5 litre m2DiCR engine with 75bhp power and 220NM torque, is a product of efficient engineering.  It is equipped with the fuel-saving Micro Hybrid technology, which allows it to intelligently switch the engine into the standby mode, when not required – ensuring lower fuel consumption while being more environment-friendly too. Compliant with stringent BSIV emission norms, the Scorpio Ex emits lower emissions leading to a reduced carbon footprint. Additional features include crash protection crump...

 Mahindra Navistar Automotive Limited , a joint venture between  Mahindra & Mahindra  and Navistar of the US, has plans to export right-hand drive (RHD) commercial vehicles manufactured in India to overseas markets like South Africa and SAARC countries.  "We are looking at the RHD markets of South Africa and SAARC countries for exports. But we want to consolidate our presence in the domestic market first," Mahindra Navistar Managing Director Nalin Mehta told reporters here today.  Mehta said the company is trying to establish its presence across various geographies in the country in the first year of the Mahindra Navistar launch.  In the next three to four years, the company aims to sell 50,000 heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs) and 20,000 light commercial vehicles (LCVs), he said.  While the HCV segment was growing in the country at a rate of 40 per cent, the LCV segment was growing at 15 per cent. [Source:economictimes.indiatimes.com]

Tatas-owned Jaguar Land Rover will this week unveil record annual profits exceeding 1 billion pounds, completing the luxury car maker's remarkable recovery from the depths of recession, media reported JLR is forecast to declare 1.1 billion pounds profit for the year to March 31, compared with a gain of 32 million pounds last year and a 281 million pounds loss in the first 10 months after Tata took over, the 'Sunday Telegraph' reported. The record profit comes just two years after the car maker sought Government support and warned of a "national emergency" in the industry as sales tumbled. According to the report, the turnaround has been driven by rapidly growing sales in emerging markets such as India and China where the cars are status symbols for the growing middle classes - and investment from Tata in new models such as the Range Rover Evoque. A JLR source said the results will be "extremely good" and that the British car maker, which employs 17,...

Two Pune-based businessmen, dealing in electrical goods, have designed a solar-powered bike that can run upto to a distance of 250 kilometres on a sunny day. According to the the uncle-nephew duo Ayubkhan Pathan and Imrankhan Pathan, the bike can also be used to run electrical appliances like fan, computer or television when stationed at home and especially during load-shedding. Ayubkhan, who runs a company in Budhwar Peth in Pune for the last 20 years in the field of solar powered products and electrical goods, was working on this design for the last three years. The bike has a DC supply, DC battery charger and DC motor fitted to the wheel. Sun rays are used to charge the DC supply and then the battery through the solar PV panel. The provision for storage back up is for eight hours. "The bike can run to cover a distance of 50-60 km and there is a charger controller CRD fitted between the solar panel and the battery once fully charged the supply gets cut off. On a bright ...

A Volkswagen Passat luxury car embellished with the signatures of all T20 cricket teams has been sold for over Rs 30 lakh on eBay India, making it the largest auction so far on the online market place. The proceeds from the charity auction of the Signature T20 Volkswagen Passat will go to WWF India, which is into wildlife and nature conservation in the country. The Passat was bought for Rs 30.13 lakh by cricket enthusiast Saidas Malladi from Bangalore, eBay said in a statement today. The ten-day auction ended on May 10. Apart from the car, the bidder would also get a bat autographed by all the captains of T20 teams. "The Volkswagen Passat auction has surpassed the previous milestones of the Rakesh Jhunjhunwala charity auction, Coaching Camp with Sachin Tendulkar & Lunch with Amitabh Bachchan, with highest bid records at Rs 14.   [Source: PTI ]

French carmaker Renault today launched its luxury sedan 'Fluence' in India with both petrol and diesel options, priced between Rs 12.99 lakh and Rs 14.40 lakh (ex showroom Delhi).  "The Renault Fluence was designed for the Asian market and hence we are confident that it will not only shake up the segment, but also give the Indian customer their first taste of what Renault is capable of bringing to the Indian market," Renault India Managing Director Marc Nassif told reporters here.  This is the first Renault branded car to be assembled in India at its Chennai facility, he added.  Petrol variant of the Fluence will come with a 2 litre engine while the diesel option will be powered by a 1.5 litre engine.  Renault along with its global alliance Nissan has committed an investment of Rs 4,500 crore by 2015 at Chennai facility, which will have a total production capacity of 4 lakh units per annum.  The French company is currently considering setting up an engine plant...

Within a month of its entry into India, UK-based super premium luxury sports car maker, Aston Martin, is aiming to sell close to 100 units by next year end, after having delivered 20 units so far.  The niche luxury sports car brand today displayed Rapide , the bestseller so far in India, along with two other models-DBS and Vantage , so as to create awareness about various models.  "In first year of launch, we expect to sell 30 units and by the end of next year we aim to sell close to 100 cars in India," Performance Cars (division of Infinity Cars) Director Lalit Choudhary, official importers of Aston Martin cars in India, told newsmen here.  The company forayed into the Indian market with the opening of their showroom in Mumbai on April 15 last month. The cars are priced from between Rs 1.35 crore ex-showroom to a whopping Rs 20 crore.  "As people move up from the premium luxury range to super luxury car segment, the sales of cars priced above Rs 1.5 crore shall pic...

Formula 1 chiefs are considering a move to make the Indian Grand Prix the season finale on December 4, so as to accommodate the Bahrain GP back on the calendar. As discussions continue between Bernie Ecclestone, the FIA and Bahrain officials about the race returning to the schedule, high level sources have revealed that Indian officials have been asked to look at a race date change to help accommodate the Sakhir event. Should the plan be favored, and considering that Bahrain will be given the green light to return to the schedule, the Middle Eastern race would take India’s current October 30 slot. There would then be a two-week gap before the Abu Dhabi GP on November 13, after which the young driver test would take place from November 15-17. Brazil would then keep its current November 27 date, with India being moved to December 4. With the FIA due to decide on June 3 whether or not Bahrain can return, sources suggest that chiefs want the end of season schedule reshuffle sorted before ...

Europe's largest automobile company Volkswagen's commercial vehicle arm Scania on Wednesday announced its foray into the Indian market with the establishment of a regional product centre in Bangalore that will assemble heavy haulage trucks and premium intercity buses starting June 2012. Currently,  Scania does sell some of its mining vehicles to Larsen & Toubro, which is also its distributor for these vehicles in India since 2007-08. The firm, however, now wants to function as a full fledged commercial vehicle player with a target of selling 2,000 trucks, 1,000 buses and 1,500 engines per annum by the next 5 years. In the last 3 years, Scania has sold 600 mining trucks through L&T. "We have not firmed up our investment plans and mode of operations in India yet but we do see this market along with China, as our two biggest markets in Asia over the long term," said Henrik Fagrenius, managing director, Scania Commercial Vehicles India Ltd. "We are looking...

Skoda Auto, a global company for the first time plans to launch a mini-sports utility vehicle (SUV) priced below  Rs.  10 lakh and will directly challenge the big international companies such as Mitsubishi, Toyota, General Motors, Hyundai and Skoda, who sell SUV’s in India at the prices above  Rs.  15 lakh, according to reports. The Skoda product will directly challenge Indian companies, which offer cheaper options. Mahindra & Mahindra’s Scorpio is priced between  Rs.  7.43 lakh and  Rs.  12.39 lakh, while Tata Motors’ Safari Dicor costs between  Rs.  8 lakh and  Rs.  13 lakh, stated reports. Skoda’s new SUV could also pose a challenge in the luxury mid-sized sedan market, which includes Honda City, Volkswagen Vento and Hyundai Verna, added reports. [Source:indiainfoline.com]

Tata Motors today formally announced the launch of  Tata Delight , a customer loyalty programme for owners of its commercial vehicles. Tata Motors is the first company in the commercial vehicles industry to launch this unique engagement initiative. At the launch of Tata Delight, Mr. Ravi Pisharody, President - Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors  said, "We thank our esteemed customers for their long-standing support to the Tata brand. To create an even deeper customer connect, and take our relationship with customers to the next level, we have launched the Tata Delight programme. We believe this initiative will further strengthen our bond with customers." Tata Delight is a loyalty programme for all Tata Motors commercial vehicle customers, both existing and new. It offers customers a host of distinctive facilities across all Tata Motors dealerships, sales outlets, and Tata Motors Authorised Service Stations. Customers can earn bonus points on purchase of a ne...

American automobile giant Ford Motor Company will invest $72 million in its engine plant near here to take the annual production capacity to 330,000 units from the current 250,000 units, a company official said Tuesday.  The expansion programme will be completed in mid-2012 and the total investment of parent Ford Motor Company in India will be more than $1 billion, said Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India. "This investment reinforces the importance of our Chennai plant and Ford's continued expansion in India. The new investment also further supports our plan to introduce eight new global Ford vehicles in India by 2015," he added.  "When the expansion is finished, a third production shift will be added at the engine assembly plant, creating more than 300 new direct jobs," Boneham said.  The new investment is part of Ford India's transformation into a major global export and manufacturing hub for engines. The Indian plant is the fir...

German auto component maker Bosch today said it will invest 22.8 million Euro (about Rs 150 crore) over the next 10 years to set up a research centre at Bangalore in association with the Indian Institute of Science. The amount is under a programme to celebrate the firm's 125th anniversary and is a part of a total global investment of 50 million euro in the field of higher education in Germany, China, India and the US over the next 10 years. "Some 22.8 million Euro, and therefore the lion's share of the total budget, is going to India. The 10-year development project aims to set up the independent 'Robert Bosch Center for Research in Cyber Physical Systems' at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore," Robert Bosch said in a statement. [Source: PTI ]

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India today said its compact car WagonR has crossed the milestone of 10 lakh units sales mark since its launch in 1999.  WagonR is the fourth model from the company's portfolio that has crossed the 10 lakh units sales mark. Earlier its best selling model Alto, once bread-and-butter car M800 and multi-purpose van Omni achieved this feat.  "It is a very proud moment for us and it gives more happiness because this milestone has been achieved in the domestic market," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief General Manager (Marketing) Shashank Srivastava told PTI.  WagonR is the second highest selling car in the country after Alto, he added.  "With the launch of the new WagonR, sales have grown for the model. At present we are selling about 15,000 units per month," Srivastava said.  MSI's best selling model Alto currently accounts for over 30,000 units sales every month.  The car, which had undergone many upgradati...

Hyundai Motor India (HMIL), the second-largest carmaker in the country, is betting heavily on its yet-to-be-launched small car to penetrate into the rural market, a top executive of the company said.  According to Y K Koo, Senior Director (Sales and Marketing) HMIL, the small car will be launched in the first half of next year and the company has no immediate plans to export the car.  "We are planning to launch it in the first half of next year. The car will be manufactured in Indian plant. HMI is very strong in compact car segment. With this launch, we hope to dominate the rural market also. That is our strategy. If we have a small car it is easy to penetrate into the rural market," Yoo said on the sidelines of launch of Fluidic Verna in Andhra Pradesh market.  To a query on market share, he admitted that the brand is slightly losing sheen to the competitors. He, however, was quick to add that the situation arose as there was no new vehicle launches in 2010.  "We ...

Carmakers in the country are expecting sales to slow down further following the biggest ever hike of Rs 5 a litre in petrol prices last week, at a time when the market is already reeling under pressure from high interest rates on auto loans. Industry players also feel that till diesel prices are de-regulated and a significant difference of prices between the two fuels exists, demand for diesel-driven cars will rise. "We have already seen reduction in passenger car growth last month due to higher interest rates and hike in commodity prices. With petrol prices going up, demand will further be impacted, mainly on short-term," Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Director General Vishnu Mathur told PTI. Car sales in India posted the slowest growth rate in 22 months in April this year at 13. [Source: PTI ]

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. (TKM) on Monday announced that it will resume normal operations earlier than expected. In the wake of disruption in supplies the company had earlier suspended production on Mondays and Fridays between April 25 and June 4. TKM's parts sourcing are getting back on track, production will return back to normal levels starting 20th May. Plans are afoot to recover loss of production and reduce the waiting period. The plant will function on all weekdays and some of the non - working Saturdays. Speaking on the occasion, Hiroshi Nakagawa, Managing Director said, "We are happy to announce that we will be able to resume normal production much earlier than expected. Our focus is to reduce the backlog and jointly work with our vendors to minimize delivery delays." Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director, Marketing, added, "We would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding during these troubled times. Our dealers will...

French car major Renault, which will launch its first luxury sedan named Fluence in India soon, would launch three more models this year. Sudhir Rao, deputy country managing director, Renault India, said the company wants to be in the list of top three brands by 2015 in terms of “brand image, not in terms of value and volume.” To achieve the target, the French car-maker is planning to introduce five models over the next 18 months. Renault along with its global partner Nissan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a greenfield facility in 2008 at Oragadam, near Chennai. Of the planned investment of Rs 4,500 crore till 2015, the alliance has so far invested Rs 2,500 crore. The plant is now fully operational with one assembly line and the second line will be installed soon, taking the total capacity of 400,000 cars per year. Renault is planning to assemble Fluence in completely knocked down (CKD) format. On component sourcing from India, R...

In response to challenge from new diesel models in India's premium mid-size sedan car segment, Honda is developing a diesel engine for Honda City. Globally, Honda has only one diesel engine, developed for Europe. This 2.2-litre engine cannot be used as Honda City needs an engine of 1.4-1.6 litres. Also, it runs on fuel with low sulphur content. Honda Siel Cars India, the Indian arm of Honda Motor Company, also plans to develop a car smaller than Brio, its passenger car. With a price of less than Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000), it will mark Honda's entry into the mass market. n the premium mid-size sedan segment, 65 per cent cars sold by City's competitors run on diesel. The growing difference between petrol and diesel prices has seen newcomer Volkswagen Vento (which has both petrol and diesel versions) race ahead of City in the last two months. Volkswagen sold 3,973 units of Vento in March, as compared to City's 2,773 units. Jnaneswar Sen, senior vice-president (sales & ma...

Singing a different tune than its foreign partners, Bajaj Auto today said it will launch a four-wheeler commercial vehicle in mid-2012 from the ultra-low cost car (ULC) platform, which was originally planned to roll out a car with Franco-Japanese alliance Renault-Nissan.  "By the middle of next year, we will bring a four-wheeler from the ULC platform. For us, this will be a commercial vehicle and it will be a goods carrier," Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj told PTI.  In the smaller goods carrier space, other homegrown auto majors like Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra are doing very well and the company is looking at that space, he added.  "We are a two-wheeler and three-wheeler maker and we are moving up toward the four-wheeler segment. With the help of our expertise and frugal engineering and Renault-Nissan's technological expertise, we will launch the vehicle," he said.  Bajaj also said the foreign partner will "market it (the product fr...

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.  (M&M Ltd.), a part of the US $11.1 billion Mahindra Group, today announced that its flagship Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) brands, the Bolero and Scorpio, touched new milestones during FY 2010-11. The Bolero is yet again the highest selling SUV in India for the 5th consecutive year with sales of 83,121 units during FY 2010-11 as against 70,554 units during  FY 2009-10, registering a growth of 18%. This is also its highest ever annual sales since inception. The Scorpio has achieved sales of 43,438 units during FY 2010-11 which are its highest since launch. This is in comparison to 36,463 units during FY 2009-10, a growth of 19%. Further the exports volumes of the Scorpio witnessed a growth of 62%, having stood at 17,138 units in FY 2010 – 11 as compared to 10,567 units in FY 2009-10.   Speaking on this achievement, Vivek Nayer, Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Automotive Division, M&M Ltd., said, “It is a very proud moment for u...

Car-maker General Motors India today said it may consider producing an electric mini-car at its Talegaon facility in Maharashtra after it showcases the model next month in the country. The company will also introduce a diesel variant of its small car Beat with a 1.0-litre engine in June. The prices of the variant are expected to be 10-15 per cent higher than the existing petrol version. "We will be showcasing a electric mini-car in June. This car has been developed in the US and is meant for a global audience," General Motors India President and MD Karl Slym told PTI. GM India played a big role in developing the technology for the car at its R&D centre at Bangalore, he added. The company is likely to unveil the car on June 5, which coincides with World Environment Day. [Source:PTI]