Driveblog

The head of Ford Motor Co operations in Asia said on Thursday that the company will meet its ambitious goals for growth in China and India by greatly expanding its product offerings.  Over the next several years, Ford executive Joe Hinrichs said, the automaker will have more cars that are smaller than its subcompact Fiesta in China and India, which will mean less profit per vehicle.  However, Hinrichs said Ford will make money by selling a high volume of these smaller cars.  "For Ford, if you want to grow the business and be competitive in China, we have to have a product portfolio that plays where the volume is," Hinrichs said.  Ford will have 15 product offerings in China by 2015, up from six today. Hinrichs said Ford needs to, and will, increase its offerings in the small-car segment of the auto market in China, which accounts for 70 percent of sales.  Ford now has only one car, the Fiesta, that fits into this major portion of the Chinese market. Hinrichs de...

 Maruti Suzuki India today said normal production will resume at its Manesar plant from tomorrow, following the end of 13-day long strike by workers. "Normal production will start from Saturday as the strike has ended last night," a company official told PTI. As part of the agreement signed between the management and the representatives of the striking workers, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) will reinstate all the sacked 11 employees and take a lenient approach on enforcing no-work-no-pay rule of eight day's salary cut for every single day of the stir. The agreement, which was brokered by the Haryana government, however, did not make a mention on the main demand of formation of a union, thereby leading to the workers and the management making counter claims. [Source:PTI]

Production of Ford’snew Fiesta kicked off last week at Ford India’s passenger car manufacturing facility in Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai. The 172,175 square metre Maraimalai Nagar plant is the sixth Ford facility in the world to produce Fiesta. The other facilities are located in Nanjing, China; Cologne, Germany; Valencia, Spain; Cuautitlán, Mexico; and Rayong, Thailand. The All-New Fiesta, which will be available in showrooms later this year, is the first of eight new vehicles that Ford is planning to introduce into India by the middle of this decade. The company recently made an additional USD 72 million investment to expand its powertrain facility at the Maraimalai Nagar plant to further support its sales and export growth plans in India. When the expansion programme is completed in mid-2012, powertrain production capacity will increase from 250,000 to 330,000 units per year. The Maraimalai Nagar engine plant will produce the 1.5L Ti-VCT petrol and Duratorq TDCi diesel engines fo...

Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) has launched an updated version of its Corolla Altis saloon. The refreshed model now comes with new set of headlamps, refreshed grille and bumper, updated rear lamps. The interiors now feature darker mock wood trim. The petrol engine has been tweaked and will now deliver 138bhp, 7bhp more than the earlier model.The updated Altis now is equipped with new gearbox options; the 5-speed manual is now replaced by a new 6-speed unit while the top-end automatic version gets a new 7-speed CVT unit. Diesel models will feature the same 6-speed manual gearbox. The prices of the petrol version have gone up by Rs 15,000-24,000 while the diesel prices have been hiked by Rs 15,000-30,000 depending on model. The Altis petrol is now priced from Rs 10.53 lakh to Rs 14.77 lakh while the diesel variant starts at Rs 11.46 lakh to Rs 14.55 lakh; all prices ex-showroom Delhi. [Source:autocarindia]

Within a year of its launch in India, Japanese auto maker Nissan has clocked production of one lakh Micra from their manufacturing facility near here.  The first hatchback Micra was launched in India last July and about 15,000 units have been sold, while nearly 70,000 units were shipped to overseas markets, a company statement issued here said.  "I am very proud of the effort that our Chennai staff, supported by our suppliers, have made to produce 100,000 Micras in such a short period of time.  Today's announcement not only reflects Micra's popularity -- both domestically and within export markets -- but also Nissan's long term commitment to India," Nissan Motor India Managing Director and CEO (Chennai plant) Kou Kimura said.  Besides Chennai, Micra was also produced at their plants in Thailand, Mexico and China, it said.  The company also said it would introduce an all-new global sedan later this year, while next year it would launch a commercial vehicle throu...

Franco-Japanese car major Renault Nissan India will soon start its third shift at their Oragadam plant here to jack up its capacity, a top official said here on Wednesday.  "The plant is running in two shifts. We will start the third shift soon. I will say it should happen in the coming weeks. With the third shift, the plant's capacity will be two lakh units...," Renault India Managing Director Marc Nassif told reporters.   According to the company officials, the plant is of flexible type, producing vehicles from both Nissan and Renault on a single line. Nassif said the facility would have an initial capacity of two lakh units and can reach four lakh units in future.   Top officials of Renault were here to open its 13th showroom in the country and to formally launch their luxury sedan "Fluence" in Tamil Nadu market. The company would soon open their 14th outlet in Pune.   With the introduction of its flagship "Fluence", the company plans to bring in f...

Eicher Trucks and buses (ETB) a business area of VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd. (VECV) has completed 25 years of operations in India in the month of June 2011. The first Eicher truck was rolled out from its state of the art manufacturing plant in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh in 1986 and over the past 25 years, the products have got endorsement from happy customers of over 300,000 vehicles. The company today has transformed into a complete CV manufacturer with a wide product range from 5t to 40t GVW trucks and 21 to 69 seater buses.  The company's products strongly emphasize its customer orientation. Eicher trucks were one of the first in India to offer the tilt cabin, apart from ready to use built-up vehicle in accordance with customers' needs. Another example is the Eicher school bus which has been designed in conjunction with the IRTE (Institute of Road Traffic Association), school and parent bodies and the IIT. The result has been a bus that is equipped with safety mechanisms to...