Thursday, November 20th, 2008
After Toyota, Mahindra and Tata Motors , now Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. has decided to cut down its production in India. India’s largest car manufacturer launched its most awaited model, Maruti A-Star in India on Wednesday. However, it expects a decrease in the demand of its cars in the next few months.
“We made some re-adjustments in production. There is a demand slowdown,” said Mayank Pareek, the company’s executive officer in charge of marketing. However, he declined to elaborate on the ‘adjustments’. The company produced 757,092 cars, vans and utility vehicles in the year ended March 31.
The auto industry has been facing difficult times in India since past few months. Rising job insecurities, high interest rates and escalating raw material prices have led to a historic slump in the demand. In India, nearly 85 percent cars are bought on credit where auto loans play a major role.
[Via: cartradeindia]
Posted in Maruti | No Comments »
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Ford Fusion shall be phased out soon from the Indian car market. The model has shown a decline in sales since past several months. The company plans to phase out the model owing to its poor sales performance. The model was launched in early 2004 but has received a very poor response from the Indian auto market.
“Every car launched is phased out over a certain period. Fusion is not doing well in a slowed down market. Hence, we will take a call at the right time,” said Michael Boneham, President, Ford India. He also added that the car will be phased out gradually and certainly not with immediate effect. “The model is selling, but the response is not as expected… But we do not have a fixed schedule by when that would happen,” he said.
He said that Ford plans to launch its small car by 2010 and will stick to its $500 million investments in India. “We would also roll out the proposed small car with both petrol and diesel variants in 2010,” he added. The company will double its assembly line capacity from 1 lakh unit to 2 lakh units and will also set up an engine manufacturing facility for 2.5 lakh units in Chennai.
[Via: cartradeindia]
Posted in Ford | No Comments »
Friday, November 14th, 2008
Apollo Tyres, one of the major automobile tyre makers in India, plan to tap the European market as they plan to start their operation in Europe. They will open up their first sales, marketing and technical office in Germany in January 2009. They will also be giving final touches to their 7-million Greenfield project in East Europe.
“We would be opening our first branch office here in Germany by January to cater to our European operations. We are also seeking greenfield projects in either Hungary or Slovakia, where operations to produce seven million tyres annually would start within two years,” Apollo Tyres European Operations Head (Marketing) Hemant Kaul said.
Till date the company had marked its presence in Europe by selling around 7000 tyres in North Ireland with a local partnership with Phillip White Tyres. The new office in Germany will be company’s second overseas after the first one existing in South Africa.
[Via: cartardeindia]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Stadco Automotive India is a subsidiary of the UK based component manufacturer and it has opened its product development technical centre in India. The new technical centre will assist the manufacturers to design their automobile products according to global or market specific requirements.
“We have bagged three projects from Indian passenger car and commercial vehicle manufacturers whose names I am not at liberty to disclose,” said Peter Speckman, Stadco Emerging Market Director. “Going forward, we may also undertake design and development work for our overseas customers,” he added. The centre will have 15 engineers and plans to increase its unit to 100 by next year and half.
“We have been operating within the Indian automotive market for some time now and have a good working relationship with a number of Indian customers. We see the opening of a technical centre as a natural progression and part of Stadco’s plans to further develop activities in India,” said Paul Jaggers, Product Development Director.
[Via: cartradeindia]
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
2009 Seat Leon Linea R Pictures…
Posted in Seat | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Delphi will be investing about Rs 250-300 crore towards setting up a manufacturing facility in Chennai, and construction of this new unit has already begun. The foundation stone was laid recently in a ceremony where senior officials from the Tamil Nadu government were present, along with Jeff Owens, President, Delphi Asia Pacific, and Ashok B Ramaswamy, President and Managing Director, Delphi India.
Delphi’s new plant will be built in three phases, and will be operational by end-2009. The plant will help Delphi expand its product portfolio, and increase its footprint in the Indian market. ‘The Indian small car segment volume is expected to triple in the next five years and continue strong growth after that. India is a key market for Delphi and with new technologies becoming a reality every day, Delphi believes that providing a range of safety and electronics products will be the way forward in the Indian automobile industry,’ said Owens.
‘Delphi believes in being close to its customers. Chennai is a hub for both the auto and the electronics industries and several major automotive OEMs are based here. Delphi is already bringing the entire value stream to its customers in India, with local capabilities in product development including project management, hardware and software design, validation, manufacturing and supply chain management. Our new plant in Chennai extends the electronics and safety manufacturing footprint to India and increases the Delphi local product portfolio to meet market needs,’ said Ramaswamy.
[Via: indiaautomotive]
Posted in Chevrolet | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
Growth of China’s auto exports is likely to slow down to 20 percent this year, down from around 80 percent last year, according to an estimate from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Chinese auto exports’ growth rate was about 35 percent in the January-September period this year, when Chinese carmakers exported a total of 557,736 vehicles. Since then, growth has slowed to around 20 percent. With the current liquidity crunch, Chinese consumers are curbing expenditure on buying new vehicles, and the country’s carmakers are getting hit hard because of that.
To offset the slump in domestic demand, some Chinese car/SUV/truck manufacturers are now looking at exploring new markets in Africa, Eastern Europe and various parts of Asia.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, October 31st, 2008
From its current market share of less around 4%, General Motors India (GMI) wants to go up to a market share of 10% by 2010. ‘Despite the sluggish growth of the Indian automotive industry at 6-6.5% due to the economic downturn, we are looking at growth of 20% this calendar year, with sales of about 80,000 units,’ says P Balendran, Director and Vice-president (Corporate Affairs), GMI.
‘By the end of this year, GMI will have around 195 sales points and service outlets each, up from the present 145 sales points and 148 service outlets,’ said Balendran. Also, as we first reported back in June this year, GMI is working on the development of CNG- and LPG-powered variants of some of its cars.
‘We are looking at CNG and LPG vehicles for India and are closely working with our regional partners in Thailand [for CNG] and Korea [for LPG] in this connection,’ says Ravi Desai, Director - Vehicles Integration, GMI. Desai added that GMI is also working on its biodiesel programme and has bought 80 hectares of land in Gujarat for Jatropha cultivation.
[Via: indiaautomotive]
Posted in Chevrolet | No Comments »
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
New Volkswagen Bora Photos….
Posted in VolksWagen | No Comments »
