* General Motors on Novemeber 1st ruled out competition from the proposed Rs 1-lakh car from the Tata Motors stable, saying it will focus on other variants of the segment.”The mini-car segment is not a segment. This includes several segments and several customers. There is no need to battle with the Rs 1-lakh car,” GM’s President and Managing Director, Karl Slym, told.
* Following Tata and Renault, Hyundai India is studying the feasibility of building a cheap small car to take on competition. Hyundai is looking at building a car priced at between 100,000 and 200,000 rupees ($2,500-$5,000), said Ashok Jha, president of Hyundai India. Hyundai is believed to be working on a new set of powertrain and chassis frames for these small cars. Hyundai india’s managing director & CEO H S Lheem also confirmed this, he said “We are working on a new class of low-cost cars which are being developed by our engineers in Korea. These are a totally different vehicles, which will meet all global safety standards and emission norms. These will not be like the typical Rs-1 lakh car, which other companies are trying to manufacture, but a totally different league of reliable cars targeted for different global markets.” Mr Lheem refused to share more details of the low-cost car project, but said that India and China are the key markets where these cars will definitely make a debut. However, he did not offer any time frame. “We are working on low-cost cars for the Indian market, besides Africa, China and South East Asia. There is no time frame as all the R&D work is currently being carried out in Korea,” Mr Lheem said.
* Hero Group which has been mulling for its four wheeler foray may tie-up with International auto major Daimler. Hero- Daimler alliance may end up like the Nissan -Ashok Leyland to manufacture commercial vehicles. It is necessary to recall that the Munjals of Hero group were in talks with Japanese auto maker Isuzu for a truck and bus venture and Daimler also negotiated with the Eicher for the same.