Autonewsfile
- 1. Volvo Buses India targets $1 billion revenue in 5 years<br />Volvo Bus Corp's Indian unit is targeting revenue of $1 billion in the next five years in the country, driven by its luxury bus segment and exports, a senior company executive said on Monday. <br />The Swedish bus maker expects 2010 revenue of Rs 500 crore (about $110 million), Akash Passey, managing director, Volvo Buses India, said earlier in the day.<br />Toyota likely to launch 'diesel' variant of Etios by Dec 2011<br />World's largest car maker Toyota is likely to launch the \" diesel\" variant of much-anticipated entry level sedan Etios in India by December 2011, a company official said here on Monday. <br />\" Right now we are studying on that... Hopefully, by next December (it will be launched),\" Toyota Kirloskar Motor Director (Marketing) and Executive Managing Coordinator Koji Nagata told reporters here. <br />The company, which is present in India through a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, also planned to increase localisation level of Etios to 90 per cent by 2012.<br />Mercedes-Benz November sales at 518 units<br />Luxury car-maker Mercedes-Benz India on Thursday said it has clocked an 89 per cent jump in sales at 518 units in November against 275 in the same month last year. <br />Mercedes-Benz clocked its best-ever November in its history with a total sale of 518 units. Our strategy for the Indian market has been focused on offering a comprehensive product portfolio and delivering the highest value to the customer, Mercedes-Benz India's Managing Director and CEO, Wilfried Aulbur said. <br />\" There is a considerable demand from our customers which we are trying hard to meet despite a constraint in kits availability,\" he said.<br />BMW India to increase dealership network in 2011<br />German luxury car maker BMW India on Thursday said that it plans to increase its dealership network in 2011. <br />Under Phase I expansion plans, the automobile manufacturer has set up 12 outlets in the country. In the second phase, the company has planned to increase the present 18 outlets to 22 outlets, BMW India said in a statement here. <br />As part of expanding its network, the company today inaugurated their new outlet \" OSL Prestige\" in Bhubaneswar. <br />\" ...we aim to maintain our leading position in the Indian market by now embarking on the second wave of our India strategy. We are proud to announce the opening of OSL Prestige in Bhubaneswar. OSL Prestige is also our dealer partner for West Bengal and this new facility strengthens Phase II of our expansion in India,\" BMW India President Andreas Schaaf said. <br />While the showroom is located at Shahid Nagar, the service facility is present in Cuttack. The fully equipped workshop would service up to 10 cars per day. <br />BMW India in 2007 opened its production plant near Chennai. The facility produces BMW 3 series and 5 series. On a single shift basis it has the capacity to produce 5,400 units.<br />Auto companies post double-digit growth in sales in November<br />Continuing with strong sales momentum, leading auto makers — except Tata Motors — on Wednesday reported double digit growth in November, although they did not break the record levels of the previous month. <br />While Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Hero Honda and Mahindra & Mahindra registered double digit increase in sales, Tata Motors recorded only one per cent jump over the same month last year. <br />The country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki crossed the one lakh units sales mark for the second consecutive month by selling 1,02,503 vehicles in the domestic market in November, up 34.2 per cent from the year ago period. In the same month last year, it had sold 76,359 units. <br />Although on a small base, Ford saw about three-fold increase in sales at 7,504 units on the back of good response to its latest small car Figo. <br />\" The sales numbers released by auto companies today are in line with our expectations, although they were below record levels seen in October,\" Angel Broking Auto Analyst Vaishali Jajoo told PTI. <br />Jajoo said the only exception was Tata Motors, which witnessed 85 per cent dip in sales of its people's car Nano to 509 units. \" There were some supply chain issues in case of Nano which could be one of the reasons for dip in the sales of the car,\" she added. <br />Tata Motors' total passenger and commercial vehicle sales in the domestic market stood at 50,419 units in November, which was a jump of one per cent from the sale of 50,114 units in the same month last year. <br />The country's second largest carmaker Hyundai Motor India reported a 12 per cent jump in domestic sales for the month at 31,540 units as compared to 28,162 units in November 2009. <br />\" Spurred by the festive season demand in November, HMIL continued to maintain steady growth in the domestic market although we were constrained because of the maintenance shutdown of both our plants,\" HMIL Director (Marketing and Sales) Arvind Saxena said in a statement. <br />Sales of General Motors (GM) climbed 17.67 per cent to 8,376 units in November this year compared to 7,118 units in the same month last year. <br />Mahindra & Mahindra reported 18 per cent jump in total sales in November at 26,666 units. <br />On the two-wheeler front, market leader Hero Honda's sales jumped 10.48 per cent to 4,21,366 units during the month as compared to 3,81,378 units in November 2009. <br />\" The four-lakh plus sales consistently recorded over the past seven months has imparted an excellent momentum to our sales for the rest of the year,\" Hero Honda Motors Senior Vice-President (Marketing and Sales) Anil Dua said. <br />Driven by strong demand across segments, Chennai-based TVS Motor Company reported sales of 1,57,041 units in November, 29 per cent higher than the same month last year. <br />India Yamaha Motor posted 23.2 per cent increase in sales for the month at 30,310 units and<br />Suzuki Motorcycle India saw 77 per cent growth at 25,439 units compared to 14,393 units in November last year. <br />Similarly, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) posted 14 per cent jump in sales at 1,29,627 units, compared to 1,13,489 in November last year. <br />In case of Mahindra & Mahindra, the company's two-wheeler sales jumped by 125 per cent at 15,854 units in November, as against 7,020 units in the same period previous year. <br />In the commercial vehicles segment, Volvo Group-Eicher Motors joint venture--VE Commercial Vehicles recorded a 18 per cent jump in monthly sales to 2,703 units in November. <br />Mahindra & Mahindra's Farm Equipment Sector division reported a 43 per cent increase in tractor sales in November to 17,993 units.<br />TVS Motor Nov sales up 29% on year<br />TVS Motor Co Ltd on Wednesday said total sales for November rose 29 per cent to 157,041 units. <br />Total two-wheeler sales for the month stood at 153,882 units from 120,844 units a year ago. <br />TVS Motor Co is India's No. 3 two-wheeler maker.<br />Hyundai India sells two millionth car in domestic market<br />india's second largest car maker Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) Tuesday sold its two millionth car in the domestic market . <br />HMIL, a wholly owned subsidiary of South Korean Hyundai Motors, started production in 1998 at its Irrungattukottai factory near here rolling out the popular Santro. <br />\" Today is a red-letter day for all of us at Hyundai family. Needless to say we will continue to build brand Hyundai in the market here and bring in the best of products and technology,\" said H.W. Park, HMIL managing director and CEO.<br />Hyundai fastest to reach 20 lakh domestic production & sales milestone<br />Hyundai Motor today reached a historic milestone with the sale of its vehicles reaching 20 lakh (2 million) mark in the domestic market. <br />On the occasion, H. W. Park, Managing Director & CEO, HMIL, said, “Today is a red-letter day for all of us at Hyundai family. We are extremely delighted to share this achievement with all our stakeholders and we believe this was possible because of our total commitment to the Indian market and the faith our customers have put in our products. Needless to say we will continue to build “Brand Hyundai” in the market here and bring in the best of products and technology.” <br />The first Santro rolled out in September, 1998. Right from the beginning HMIL has always been the trend-setter. From the record of setting up the plant in just 17 months to becoming the 2nd largest car manufacturer in just 6 months to rolling out 150,000 cars in about 25 months, Hyundai has fulfilled everybody's expectations. <br />Hyundai Motor achieved this remarkable distinction of reaching the 20 lakh car production for domestic market in a record time of about 12 years. In December, 2009, HMIL had touched the milestone of fastest production and sales of 25 lakh units (cumulative). With these achievements, HMIL becomes only the second manufacturer in India to have achieved these distinctions.<br />Fiat says it may not meet sales target set for 2010<br />Having sold only 24,000 units till October in a highly competitive environment, Fiat India has that the company may not meet the sales target of 46,000 units set for 2010. <br />\" Yes, we are facing stiff competition. There is a possibility of us falling short of our sales target of 46,000 units set for this year,\" Fiat India's president and CEO Rajeev Kapoor told said in Mumbai. <br />The company had targeted doubling its sales in 2010 to 46,000 units from 23,000 units sold in 2009. <br />It is now looking at new strategies to boost the sales of its two premium cars -- Punto and Linea. \" We have adopted some new strategies to boost our sales and are hopeful of success in the coming days,\" Kapoor said<br />Hindustan Motors to double Ambassador sales by next yr<br />Buoyed by a boom in the domestic auto sector, auto major Hindustan Motors, today said that it aims to double the sales of its iconic Ambassador car to 24,000 units per annum through launch of new variants. <br />\" We aim to double the sales of our Ambassador model to 24,000 from the present 12,000 per annum in the next 15-18 months,\" Hindustan Motors' Managing Director Manoj Jha told reporters here. <br />The company plans to launch six new variants in both passenger and commercial vehicle segments in the next 12-15 months, starting the first quarter of 2011. <br />\" We will launch six new variants in the next 12-15 months and this will help increase our sales,\" Jha said, adding among the six, four variants would be of the Ambassador.<br />GM India to invest $300 mn in two years<br />Passenger car-maker GM India has drawn up plans to invest $300 mn in the next two years, said a company official. <br />\" We are investing $300 mn in the next two years for launching six new products,\" vice-president (Marketing), GM India, P Balendran said. <br />Balendran said the industry arithmetic was that a new car platform typically required an investment of $50 million. <br />The new products, he said, would comprise a compact car, a sedan, multi-utility vehicles, van and pick-ups. He said that the company had tied up with a consortium of banks for funding the required investment.<br />Tata Motors to start selling Nano in 6 more states<br />India's Tata Motors said on Friday it will start selling its small car Tata Nano in six more states across the country from Nov. 22. <br />The vehicle maker said it will now open sales in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.<br />Nissan opens first field quality & training centre in India<br />Nissan Motor India today inaugurated its first field quality centre and training facility in the country at its manufacturing plant at Oragadam, near here. <br />Following the establishment of the field quality centre (FQC), the company -- which is a subsidiary of Japan's Nissan Motor Company -- hopes to achieve a better understanding of customer needs so it can build vehicles that garner a higher level of customer satisfaction. At present, Nissan sells models such as the X-Trail, Teana and Micra in India. <br />This is the seventh such facility set up by the Japanese auto major globally, which will help achieve its \" Fix it right the first time\" mantra. <br />Nissan Motor India Managing Director and Chief Executive Kiminobu Tokuyama said, \" At Nissan, quality is a key attribute in establishing brand value. The training centre will provide product, process and soft skill training for dealership staff, which will help us better focus on ensuring a quality ownership experience for our customers.\" <br />M&M lines up 7 new vehicles over 18 months<br />Looking to cash in on the boom in auto sales, domestic utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra has lined up as many as seven new products in the passenger vehicle segment that will hit the roads over the next 15-18 months. <br />The list includes an all-new premium SUV from its own stable and two from the recently-acquired Korean company Ssangyong , apart from new versions of Logan, the mid-sized passenger car. The thrust in the SUV space comes at a time when environment minister Jairam Ramesh has termed their usage as “criminal” and even recommended that they be sent off the roads. <br />The company, which has lined up investments in excess of Rs 7,000 crore over 2011-13, will focus on the multi- and sports-utility space, that is its strength and core business area<br />Hyundai implements new corporate identity standards<br />Hyundai Motor has come up with an uniform brand identity and competitiveness across showrooms and workshops for its customers. The implementation of the new Corporate Identity standards will happen across Hyundai Motor Company globally. <br />In India, HMIL plans to implement the Corporate Identity at all its 320 Hyundai outlets with the initial phase ending in December 2010 covering 204 outlets and this will include dealerships, sales, service & Advantage (used car business) outlets. The remaining outlets will get the new Corporate Identity by end of 2011. The new corporate identity will be reflected through the main fascia, pylon, entrance gate and projecting sign at all main customer touch points.<br />