Car industry in India – fastest growing sector in the world

The Car industry in India has seen a tremendous growth and seems to be the fastest growing sector in the world. This sector has responded with an exponential progress in the number of new models launched in the last few months. The craze for cars amongst people is growing day-by-day. Hence, all the car manufacturers are giving tough competition to each other by opting innovative and unique ideas to capture the market.

India is presently ranked 17th amongst auto car manufacturing countries in the world. Keeping in pace with the ever growing demand for cars, the production of cars has also been high, off late; thanks to a huge export potential and favorable Government policy. Multinational companies have been eyeing at India to set up their manufacturing facilities. According to auto experts and analysts, India is poised to become third largest auto car manufacturing hub in the world by 2020./p>

One of the factors that have characterized the impressive growth of Indian automobile market has been the dramatic and positive changes that have earmarked the Indian car landscape. From old Ambys to a range, color and design of Marutis, Opels, Tatas, Hyundais and Toyotas, the Indian car market is surely something to watch on.

The Indian car market basically thrives on volume, the fact that the market leader Maruti Udyog basically is a small car manufacturer is a testament to this fact. But, slowly the Indian car market is growing with cars such as the honda city, Toyota corolla; international products finding favor with the Indian consumer. Also, products such as the ford fiesta and the new Chevrolet Aveo that have been specifically developed for the Indian market show how important India is today on the world market.

Every car in India is today either custom made for the Indian market or is a niche car, which buyers from all over the world crave. Technologies such as CRDi, ABS, ESP, climate control, adaptive dampers, ride control and so on are making their presence felt in the market today. The average car buyer is now pampered with the latest launches from all over the world and is able to lay his hands on the state of the art cars at rather affordable prices.

In the multi utility vehicle segment, General Motor's Tavera is directly competing with Toyota Innova and Mahindra Scorpio. Tavera has been doing consistently well and has been delivering best in class mileage to its customers.

GM India is now foraying into the premium A-segment cars in India with the Chevrolet Captiva which is all set to hit the road later this year.

SUV is the new market propeller for auto sales in India

India is always a country which has its own pecularities. While the rest of the world is going slow on gas guzzlers and the big cars including SUVs, the market for them back home is getting attrcative with every passing day.

Inorder to cash on the building demand for SUVs in India, many global and domestic auto giants have been busy rolling out newer models or variants of their existing SUVs to pamper the senses of drivers who want to have a 4x4 driving experience.

In the brginning we had SUVs from companies like Mahindra who rolled out Scorpio, Toyota had Qualis which was phased out and Tata Motors which had Safari and Sumo. But now, there are at least 15-20 models (including imported ones) sold by a huge chunk of multinational companies in the country. Furthermore, people are snapping up these vehicles pushing the companies to either stop the bookings or launch new models.

The new innings this year was kicked off by General Motors India which launched the AT version of its Captiva SUV, followed by BMW with its X6, while others have also followed suit. While companies like Toyota are not taking additional orders for its recently-launched Fortuner SUV, Ford motor Company is offering an attractive price tag for its refreshed 2009 Endeavour SUV.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. (TKM) has recently announced that it had received a record 5,000 bookings of the ‘Fortuner’ in just over a month. TKM is trying to ramp up monthly production figures from 500 to 600 units to meet high customer demand and is also planning to sell 2500 units of the ‘Fortuner’ during 2009 versus the earlier announced target of 2000 units.As of now, TKM dealers have been advised to take customer orders without advance payments, while committing to a tentative date of delivery. The vehicle is powered by a 3 litre Advanced Common-Rail Diesel engine and also features fulltime four-wheel drive.

Within a fortnight of Toyota driving in its Fortuner diesel SUV in India, segment leader Ford rolled out a new version of its Endeavour, pricing the automatic variant of the model competitively at Rs. 17.9 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). It is believed that by keeping the pricing of the automatic version of the Endeavour well below the Rs. 18.45 lakh pricing of the manual version offered by the Japanese auto titan , Ford is aiming to lure away all the Toyota customers (who are not able to buy Fortuner SUV immediately) into its own showrooms.

According to an auto industry analyst, sales have gone niche and buyers are putting their weight behind the premium SUV category which range from Rs. 13 lakh and above. SUV manufacturers have thrown in newer models; each better than the last one, got the right buyers interested, and managed to return with envious sales figures. Industry observers sees the overall market size of this category at a little over 10,000 units annually, which though small holds the potential of growing fast in the long-term with the road network getting better and more and more people driving across cities.

The resurgence of SUVs is yet another reason for the automobile companies in India to cheer about..and joining the bandwagon is now Nissan India with its X-Trail. There is promise of more action in coming days.

General Motors launches new Chevrolet Captiva

Auto major General Motors India (GM) on Friday launched the automatic version of its Chevrolet Captiva sports utility vehicle (SUV), priced at Rs.2.03 million (ex-showroom Delhi).

The SUV that was first launched in 2008 comes with a common rail diesel powertrain.

"The new Chevrolet Captiva Automatic+ brings superlative comfort and ease of driving combined with unbeatable value, safety, security and luxury to our customers,” GM president and managing director Karl Slym said.

The car features an automatic all-wheel drive (AWD) that GM claims is able to adjust between four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive automatically according to the terrain.

GM to introduce new, fuel-efficienct and bi-fuel cars in India

With the success of its two hatchbacks in the Indian market, General Motors India is set to come out with a third one by the end of the year.

Following the Chevrolet and Spark, the "new Chevrolet Mini will not be a competition to Tata Motors' Nano. We are not in the numbers game. It will be positioned above the Chevrolet U-VA. Pricing will be around that range," said Karl Slym, president and managing director of General Motors India.

Speaking at the launch event of the company's sports utility vehicle (SUV) the Chevrolet Captiva's automatic variant, being at Rs20.3 lakh.

Reports quoted company executives as saying that the Chevrolet Mini would be positioned against Hyundai's recently launched i20.

Initially GM had planned to import the car as a completely knocked down kit into India, though now reports said it would manufacture the vehicle at its Talegaon plant in Maharashtra. The car is expected to hit the market in both petrol and diesel options, and is presently reported to be undergoing the fine tuning process of mapping the product to suit Indian road conditions.

In the premium segment, the Chevrolet Cruz would make its début sometime around the middle of 2009, providing some competition to the likes of Honda's Accord and Toyota's Camry. GM said that a one-week planned shut down at its Halol plant in December 2008 was to allow it to outfit the assembly lines to manufacture the Chevrolet Cruz.

Starting this year, General Motors India will also start offering bi-fuel cars that run on CNG or LPG as well as petrol. In the US, the Captiva has a hydrogen fuel variant. Slym attributed the lack of infrastructure as the reason the company has not introduced thye hydrogen-fuel car here in India.

GM would launch an LPG-powered car sometime during the first half of the year, Slym said, while adding that it would be followed by other LPG vehicles.

GM India already has the its current sedan, the Chevrolet Optra, available in the CNG variant, and the company would look at a similar course of action for its entry level sedan, the Chevrolet Aveo.

Slym said that GM's strategy has been to first come out with "high fuel efficiency in all our vehicles". "Then we will be introducing vehicles powered by (alternative) fuels like CNG and LPG, besides having different power-trains and different displacements," reports quoted him as saying.

GM is reported to have sold around 65,000 units last year in the domestic market, growing by 10 per cent despite the two per cent drop in growth witnessed by the passenger vehicle industry in 2008.

Reports said that GM's domestic market share notched up a few points from 2.9 per cent in 2007 to 3.4 per cent in 2008. the company is planning to make India its hub for power trains for Asia Pacific, after the completion of the $200 million power train facility at Talegaon in 2010.

Automatic cars find many new women buyers The auto industry has some new positioning working out to its advantage. Automatic transmission cars are se

The auto industry has some new positioning working out to its advantage. Automatic transmission cars are seeing brisk sales, thanks to the growing number of female customers who have developed a penchant for such cars. It is widely believed that automatic transmission variants of a number of models are finding a lot of woman takers as it enhances the comfort to drive such cars.

A number of companies that have lined up new automatic transmission-enabled models like Hyundai's i20, GM's Captiva (AT version), Fiat's Linea et al. Moreover, the recently launched models like Honda City, Mitsubishi Outlander, Mahindra Scorpio etc are already equipped with the aforesaid feature. Unlike before, carmakers are offering new-age five to six speed automatic transmission systems which are offering better fuel-efficiency along with improved pick up and performance.

One of the top-selling cars of such variants is the premium hatchback car-i10, which is selling over 1,600 automatic transmission variants per month, which is more than the company's initial estimates.

It was reported earlier that Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), on 22nd September'08, has launched the Scorpio Automatic in Pune and Bangalore, which incorporates a fully automatic 6-speed gearbox and the powerful 2.2 litre mHawk engine. Scorpio is the first Indian brand and the first SUV in its class to offer a 6-speed fully automatic transmission.

According to a senior representative of Hyundai Motor India Limited, the sale of automatic variants of i10 have exceeded the company's expectations. He added that there has been an overwhelming response from woman drivers and the growing congestion in the urban centres is pushing up demand. He also indicated that the company will also roll out the automatic transmission variant in its Verna sedan too and would also bring a variant for the physically challenged.

Commenting on the new trend, one of the top honchos of Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) has stated that the company sells the automatic transmission variants for most of its models like Civic, Accord, City, CRV. He added that female buyers are inclined towards high-end features and automatic transmission is one of them.

According to a senior official of GM India, the Captiva model has been selling like hot cakes. Buoyed by the burgeoning demand, the company has decided to launch the automatic variant soon (with a four-wheel drive), that will cost around Rs. 20 lakh.

GM invests $200 million in powertrain plant in Maharashtra, seeks to increase market share

General Motors (GM) Corp, which aims to increase its market share to 10 percent by 2010 in India, has announced that it will ramp up its manufacturing facilities by investing more than $200 million in a powertrain plant in Talegaon, Maharashtra.

The facility, expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2010, will have an annual production capacity of 160,000 units that can be expanded to 300,000 units, GM said in a statement.

GM's auto plant in Talegaon is set to be operational this week and around 140,000 vehicles are expected to roll out every year, taking GM's all-India annual capacity to 225,000 vehicles.

The company has a plant in Gujarat from where it makes the Chevrolet-badged Tavera, Optra, Aveo and Spark and a technical center, including a design studio, in Bangalore. It imports the popular sport utility vehicle (SUV) Captiva.

Karl Slym, president and managing director of GM India, said the company is working on the design of its new small car, which it plans to launch in 2009.

The company has plans to roll out the small car from its new plant at Talegaon, Slym said, adding that the small car will be sold in India and exported to other emerging markets.

"The Talegaon engine facility is an important component of GM's global strategy to establish a strong presence in this market. This is just one of a number of investments, totaling more than $1 billion that GM has made over the course of the last few years in emerging markets around the world such as China, Korea, Russia and India," Slym said.

"We cannot remain a global industry leader without a strong presence in the high-growth market of India. The new facility will enable us to continue expanding our product line-up in India," Slym said, adding that the launch of the small car will enable the company "to capture more opportunities in one of the fastest-growing vehicle markets in the world."

The small car will not compete with Tata Motors' Nano, which is being touted as the world's cheapest car with a price tag of $2500.

According to market data, India sold about 1.4 million four-wheelers last year compared to 5 million in China and over 10 million in the US. Annual passenger vehicle sales are forecast to rise to 2 million units by 2010 and Indian car sales are expected to more than quadruple to $145 billion by 2016, with small cars accounting for more than two-thirds of sales.

However, GM is not alone in this emerging small car market. Other automakers have also expressed interest in developing and marketing the small car in India.

With India's middle class population growing in number, several automakers including market leader Maruti Suzuki, South Korean Hyundai Motor Co. and India's Tata Motors have begun focusing on the low-cost small car segment.

In January, Tata Motors launched Nano, which is expected to give stiff competition to Maruti Suzuki's existing line-up of small cars like Maruti 800, Alto, Wagon R and Zen Estilo. Hyundai Motor India Ltd. also came out with its compact car called i10, and plans to launch an upgrade, the i20, later this year.

In May, the Renault-Nissan alliance also announced that it has partnered with Bajaj Motors for launching a low cost car that will rival Nano by 2010-11.

Also entering the small car market is Japan's Toyota and its rival Honda, which have set up their second manufacturing plants in Karnataka and Rajasthan respectively to launch their small cars by 2010 and 2009. US-based Ford Motor Co. and Germany's Volkswagen AG also have shown interest in making small cars in India.