Renault to Launch 5 Cars in India

French car maker Renault's Indian unit will launch five cars between mid-2011 and mid-2013, including small cars in 2012, its India head said on Thursday, to cater to brisk demand in one of the fastest growing automobile markets in the world.

Its small cars will be built on its alliance partner Nissan's platform, Country General Manager Marc Nassif said on the sidelines of an automobiles conference.

The cars produced at its manufacturing unit in Chennai, built jointly with its alliance partner Nissan, will be Renault-branded, Nassif said, adding that they would be competitively priced.

In 2011, the firm intends to introduce its premium vehicle Fluence and the cross-over Koleos.

Separately, Renault-Nissan is working with Indian two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto

Renault, which this year sold off its stake in a joint venture with utility vehicles and tractor maker Mahindra & Mahindra which made the Logan sedan, is all set to storm the compact car market in India on its own.

Nissan, which is 44 percent owned by Renault, has started selling its compact Micra cars since June.

The compact car segment in India, with cars measuring between 3.4 to 4 metres in length, is a rapidly expanding segment constituting more than 70 percent of the total car market.

Though top carmaker Maruti Suzuki still holds sway, global majors such as Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Volkswagen and Ford are eyeing this lucrative sector.

General Motors' Chevrolet Beat and Ford's Figo compact cars have already seen runaway sales so far this year.

Renault's global sourcing from India is expected to rise 40 percent to 50 percent in the current financial year, Nassif said.
to make a low-cost car, which would be designed by Bajaj and launched by end-2012.

GM launches new mini car Beat

GM launches new mini car Beat, expects 40% sales surge this year

With the launch of its global mini car, the ‘Chevrolet Beat’, General Motors India sees its total sales crossing 100,000 in 2010 from 70,000 units in 2009.

The 1.2 litre petrol car will be available in three variants — PS, LS and LT. The price will range from Rs 3.25 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the PS variant, Rs 3.54 lakh for the LS and Rs 3.94 lakh for the high-end LT variant.

“With its best-in-segment design, performance and safety, the Beat is destined to become an industry benchmark and a winner among consumers in India,” GM India President and Managing Director Karl Slym told reporters at the launch of the car in Delhi.

On how the price was kept so low, Ankush Arora, vice-president (sales, marketing and after sales), said: “This has been achieved by 60 per cent localisation of parts.”

“We will start exporting the car only by December-end and will export 20 per cent of the units produced,” Slym said. The company is looking at Europe and the Asia-Pacific. Slym added that the company would launch the Beat’s diesel version later this year.

Beat is the second car from GM’s 300 series platform, following last year’s the launch of its utility vehicle, Chevrolet Cruze. The company took 27 months to develop it. The car will be launched across 150 countries in the coming months. As of now, Beat has been launched in Korea, Europe and West Asia. It sells 5,000 units a month in Korea.

The US auto major is also working on designing a small car at its Bangalore centre. “We are developing vehicles for India at the Bangalore centre and the focus is more on small cars, as India is a small car market,” said General Motors’ Vice-President (Global Design) Edward T Welburn. The Bangalore design centre, with around 60 engineers, is one of the 10 such centres of General Motors worldwide.