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Renault Logan Play hits the road

The new Logan wears the sporty and adventurous look coming in both the variants (petrol /1.4GLX and diesel / 1.5 DLX). The Logan is from the Indian car giant Mahindra Renault to boost the festive mood for the consumers. The buyers can avail the financial back up with the interest rate @ 0.99% or 6.99% available on loan or I- pod. Not that much, the buyers are at the lot of fortune of taking home an LCD TV and a free Logan play, to be drawn out of a lot. The Logan play can be availed from select 35 Mahindra Renault dealerships during the first phase which is to be expanded to some 146 dealerships. The Logan can be chosen from Black & White with the Logan Play displayed with graphics on the body along with red /silver alloy wheels. The sports vehicle portrays the choices of parking sensors and outer door handles, chrome muffler cutter and chrome front grille. The exteriors are complemented with a plush interior seats and floor mats in the matching Black /Red trim, a chrome finishing for the gear knob; further features that speak volume of this Logan are music system, centre fascia and end rack in carbon fire matt. The salient features that file the track record of this Logan are – USB enabled Music system, Centre console, Upholstery, driver information system, parking sensor, alloy wheels, body graphics, muffler cutter and Lip spoiler

The exteriors are complemented with a plush interior seats and floor mats in the matching Black /Red trim, a chrome finishing for the gear knob; further features that speak volume of this Logan are music system, centre fascia and end rack in carbon fire matt. The salient features that file the track record of this Logan are – USB enabled Music system, Centre console, Upholstery, driver information system, parking sensor, alloy wheels, body graphics, muffler cutter and Lip spoiler

Indian co to be in top 6 carmakers of the world by 2020: Study

Going with the trends, it is predicted by a global consultancy firm Deloitte that at least one Indian car company would find place among the top 6 carmakers by 2020. The study titled, “A New Era: Accelerating toward 2020- An Automotive Industry Transformed” the car industry would find solace in the low cost production lands with India and China to be the major hubs. OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) numbering about 6 would have a bigger hand in the market to control 90% of the structure in the marked period out of which at least one company would belong to India and one or two from China, the study observed. The name of the company is left to the lurch as the time is still immature to reveal it since many mergers or acquisitions might happen. The top notch car makers Tata Motors and Mahindra&Mahindra have already displayed their muscles in the global arena. The cost and the labor in the form of manpower, would decide the fate, said the firm’s official. The study noted that the low cost cars would dominate the field with the more middle class consumers shifting their fascination to the luxury sector. In this respect India would stand apart in the global context with growing market trend, demographic and customer profiles. The consciousness of the Indian customers is on the alternative fuels and green technologies as the means has not yet started to ripen. However, India would hold the status of a major hub for the small and handy cars as a result of growing domestic demand, low labor and excellent supplier network. Deloitte discloses that Indian market would insist on price, fuel economy and durability of vehicles. As Nano has set a trend for low cost cars, more such cars would follow suit while at the same time, luxury segment would knock the door of India targeting the middle class consumers. This would materialize if the ownership of cars reached 20-25 per 1000 people (the current rate is 10-15 people per 1000). By the same period, 2020, green technology would attain the top slot with 20% of the cars having the green revolution within the firm said.

The top notch car makers Tata Motors and Mahindra&Mahindra have already displayed their muscles in the global arena. The cost and the labor in the form of manpower, would decide the fate, said the firm’s official. The study noted that the low cost cars would dominate the field with the more middle class consumers shifting their fascination to the luxury sector. In this respect India would stand apart in the global context with growing market trend, demographic and customer profiles.

The consciousness of the Indian customers is on the alternative fuels and green technologies as the means has not yet started to ripen. However, India would hold the status of a major hub for the small and handy cars as a result of growing domestic demand, low labor and excellent supplier network. Deloitte discloses that Indian market would insist on price, fuel economy and durability of vehicles. As Nano has set a trend for low cost cars, more such cars would follow suit while at the same time, luxury segment would knock the door of India targeting the middle class consumers. This would materialize if the ownership of cars reached 20-25 per 1000 people (the current rate is 10-15 people per 1000). By the same period, 2020, green technology would attain the top slot with 20% of the cars having the green revolution within the firm said.

Auto players line up new models for festive season

Auto Dhamaka awaits for this festival season. The most celebrated car and bike manufacturers in the country like Maruti Suzuki and Hero Honda are in full spirits in view of the festival offing- Pooja to Deepavali. The industry is anticipating a sales of 15-30 percent with nearly 30 new models in the queue. The companies are aiming to fill in their cash lot with nature too favoring them with monsoon. Remember, there won’t be any offers or incentives or schemes to promote this sales.

Hero Honda, the topper among the bikes, targets to sell 6 lakh bikes for this festival, by tuning its dealers, which will be double its regular monthly sales. The other bike maker Yamaha is aiming to achieve great story by launching new models including the fastest bike in the world. However, Suzuki is targeting its sales with gift offers in the range of Rs3000 – Rs65000. Maruti Suzuki is expecting a sale hike of 20-30 percent in the car sector as the double digit sales growth.

The companies are in the dirge of capitalizing on the outcome of the monsoon setting. General Motors is offering some golden incentives – gold coins for Chevrolet Carnival and the new car Cruze is ready for the show followed by another small car by the end of the year. The company is looking at the increase of 15-20 percent sales in this festival season. There will be additional ranges from Skoda like Laura and Superb. Hyundai is no exception in this show as its i20 premium range, CNG i10 and Santro are to boost its sales while Honda Siel is targeting with its new Civic.

Volkswagen Polo to drive in with petrol and diesel options

A pack of information about Volkswagen’s new launches in India reveals that the premium cars will have novel features to share about. The India-spec Polo is to be offered in both versions – petrol and diesel- and will have manual transmission as well as automatic transmission. This premium hatch has undergone testing modes with the pre launch production has commenced to be followed by the commercial production in the early 2010.further, the German automotive conglomerate is to have a notch car on the lines of this Polo, exclusively targeted for the Indian market in a wider, longer design.

In addition, the car will exhibit more legroom than the original Polo only to be labelled in a different name. It is assured that the car will exert better quality and smooth drive for the likes of the Indian customers. The car will yield a wholly different focus in terms of marketing and target. The company, VW, is on the search for a powertrains to suit the new Indian-spec Polo with new engine features and daring quality to match the competitors in this hatch segment.

VW has earmarked about 50% of localized components for this Polo to reduce the production cost @Rs4.25 lakh. The production factory in Chakan, with a capacity of 1.1 lakh cars a year is to be fully geared to meet the production demands. VW has thus mapped its growth route for the next 6 years so that the market share would also be increased to 8 – 10 percent. The company has a knack of concentrating on all forms of cars- small to premium.

TVS may not rush to sell the Flame

The obstacles are cleared for the run but the Chennai based motorbike manufacturer, TVS is not in a hurry to deliver the Flame at once. The supreme court’s favored judgment is just a relief to go ahead with its production of its Flame with twin spark plug technology on the other hand. The company has to exploit soft pedaling till November 30, when the final judgment would be made regarding the infringement case filed by Bajaj Auto.

Even if the company sells Flame, the proceeds would be governed by the receiver appointed by the apex court. In case the judgment goes against TVS, then the company would have to pay damages to Bajaj who claims the patent for the twin spark plug technology. This has made TVS to keep pending the sale in vague till the judgment day. TVS has a mandatory right to sell, as a result of “vindication of in its stance” by the Madras High court’s directive. But Bajaj has a different version about the ongoing tussle- the apex court has taken into account the prima facie of infringement raised by Bajaj. Hence the directive to the Madras High court.

The legal battle between these giants in the motorbike is about the so called plagiarism of patented twin spark plug technology by TVS. Bajaj claims that it has already started the exploitation of twin spark plug technology with the two plug points in its bikes since 2005. The legal battle is on since 2007. The technology is noted for its fuel efficiency and TVS rebuts that the technology is not a new one and is already in use in bike industry since long time.

Apex court allows TVS to sell

In its legal tussle with Bajaj, at last, TVS has won in terms of twin-spark plug technology for its bikes. The dispute is over the patent right of this technology claimed by Bajaj Auto. Dismissing the petition filed by Bajaj against TVS on infringement case, the apex court has allowed TVS to sell the Flame pending the outcome of the judgment from the Madras High Court. To its part, TVS shall maintain the sales figures accurately till the case is finished.

The earlier judgement of the Madras high court was appealed by Bajaj for which the single judge read out an interim judgement suspending the sales by TVS. The Supreme Court has taken the case only to divert the case to the Madras High Court to be argued before the Pooja Holidays. The apex court has instructed the state court to dispose the case before November 30 by making daily hearings. Further, an appraiser shall be appointed by the Madras High Court to assess the sales of TVS Flame in the country who will forward it to the Madras High Court. By this, Bajaj might get a substantial amount as the damages from the TVS, if the infringement is found legally. TVS has got valid points in its favour- it manufactures Flame using a three-valve engine based on CCVT-i technology which differs from that of Bajaj’s.

The Madras High Court has to make a final decision on this case irrespective of the directions from the apex court. The supreme court had, earlier, restrained TVS from moving its final products for marketing until further orders. The order prevented both the companies from going to the media or any publicity mode in this regard. The legal expert team included Abhishek Singhvi, KK Venugopal, Shanti Bhusan, Somayajulu and Raman counselling for TVS and RF Nariman, Mahesh Agarwal, AA Mohan and Shiraj Dhru representing Bajaj.

India to become an auto hub with 7 testing centres

The Indian government’s gesture to promote the auto industry has begun with sanctioning 7 testing centres by which India will become the global hub. The testing will be done prior to the launch and the centres will facilitate cars coming from the markets of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, which will make the foreign direct investment feasible.

Currently, such tests are done in Europe and the US, and the Indian government is magnanimous by allocating some Rs1800 crore for these centres located in Manesar, Pune, Ahmed Nagar, Rai Barelli and three more centres. The proposal will come into effect from September 2011. In another gesture, the Indian government has made proposal to waive off Special Excise Dury of Rs15000 and Rs20,000 for the capacity range of 1500cc and 2000 cc respectively. The relaxation is already in effect for cars with fuel guzzler for the purpose of resisting carbon emission. The Ministry of heavy industries is making repeated pleas to the Finance Ministry in this regard, so that it might materialize at least in the next fiscal budget.

Yamaha to double exports from India

The Japanese motorbike giant, Yamaha, is on the verge of firmly footing its stand in the Indian market by doubling its sales –to 1.4 lakhs in 2010 -, increasing its domestic market by launching new models. With its latest launch of iconic bike VMAX (Rs20 lakhs) the company is mooting the idea to top the list among the high end bike makers. The target for this year is 70 lakh bikes export which is to be doubled in 2010, the company hopes. This is an increase in the target from 40000 units done in 2008 from India, the market which happens to be the ideal hub for the company’s export activities for 150 cc bikes.

The models currently dealt with by the company are Fazer, FZ-6, FZ 16 and YZF-R15. Yamaha is no exception to the global recession with its export sliding down from its previous year’s (2007) 50000 units. The company seemed to have recovered from the recession and is daring to meet the challenge in the coming years, with a minimum of two models per year to take the net increase to 10% in 2012. However, the net sales of motorbikes in India are 58,35,145 units of which Yamaha shared 3.5% in 2008. With a target of domestic sales of 2.2 lakhs- 2.5 lakhs this year, the company is pinning on the hope of raising it to 3 lakh by 2010. For this the company is to invest Rs800 crore with a plant in Faridabad with a capacity of 9 lakh units. Already Rs480 crores have been invested and in the next three years Rs200 crore would be allocated for developing new ranges.

The high end bike sector has the giants like Suzuki and Honda who normally sell bikes @Rs10 lakhs. In addition, Harley Davidson is too eyeing on the Indian market. Yamaha’s sales story in India is – 1670 cc MTO1 and 998 cc bike YZF-R1 @RS12 lakh+. The next venture will be selling 25 units of 1670cc new VMAX in another year of which 8 bookings are already on records. There are limited editions of FZ bikes in three variants @Rs66,500 to Rs73500. The sole objective of the company is to secure 10% of the Indian bike market by 2012 in addition to 30% of the deluxe market and premium sector. The company has sensed the premium area in the Indian market.

Hyundai to manufacture low cost car in India

On the footsteps of Tata’s Nano, other reputed car manufacturers have opened the forum for mini cars among them Hyundai is also is on the foray. The company, based in South Korea, is chalking out the plans for small cars at 800cc meeting the market demands of India and similar markets. Currently rated as the world’s fourth largest car maker, Hyundai is in association with its Indian counterpart Hyundai Motor India Ltd for manufacturing this car in India at its Chennai factory, according to the company’s CEO for India. The cost of the car would be around Rs2,42 lakhs – Rs3 lakh which will be on the roads possibly by another two years.

This might be preceded by a yet another small car @RS1.77 lakhs exclusively for the Indian and the Chinese markets, according to the company’s unreliable sources. In this regard, Tata’s Nano is daring more rivals and Maruti Suzuki is also in the muscle show with its entry level car segment in addition to the hot cakes – Alto and Maruti 800 @Rs2 lakh +. In India, Hyundai has the second largest share in the industry and the new mini car is targeted for the emerging markets be it India or any other market in addition, the company is planning to release a sports utility vehicle Santa Fe shortly.

GM Daewoo launches Matiz Creative

The South Korean car sensation Daewoo has fascinated the car owners with its new mini car which will be on sale in Europe from the beginning of 2010. The company will assemble the cars in India, Columbia, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The car is the offshoot of the company’s 27 month research and development scheme @the investment of $239 million. The design is from the apex body, General Motors and is believed to become the industry benchmark in the mini car segment by portraying its look, performance and safety.

The Matiz Creative displays the talent of GMDAT’s (GM Daewoo Auto and Technology) effort to show case the credentials of GM Daewoo. Incidentally, GMDAT is the South Korea’s third largest car maker from 2002 as GM gave a relief hand to Daewoo at the time of bankruptcy. On Sep 2 Matiz Creative was launched in Seoul as a testifying effort and gradually will be on display in some 150 countries in world from 2010. Designed to carry 5 persons with a drive power of 1000cc (DOHC engine) and is noted for its Korea’s Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle rating. The fuel rate is 6km/lit @100km. Though designed as mini car, it still exhibits all the luxuries found in the normal car at the mini car price suiting the urban life style.