Hyundai to launch 800 cc car both for India and export markets

Hyundai Motor India Limited (HTML) is planning to launch its 800 cc small car by 2011-12. The wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai Motors Company is taking this step foreseeing the demand for small cars which is likely to touch 2 million units in India by the time this car gets to launch here. The Hyundai 800 cc cars will be both for Indian market and exports markets.


But the company made a clear remark that it had no intentions to give a competition to Nano as it does not have the capacity to manufacture Rs. 1 lakh car.


Hyundai is planning to undertake the production of this new 800 cc variant on the tunes of Maruti 800 and is supposed to hit the market with an affordable range. Hyundai is the largest seller of the small car


segment. Its current best seller is i10 but Hyundai plans to offer a car at a price tag lower than i10 this time.


“We hope to bring our smaller car than Santro, which will be an 800 cc vehicle, by 2011,” said H S Lheem, Managing Director Hyundai Motors India. He, however, did not divulge details like price range of the car. The car is aimed to hit not only the Indian domestic market but the company also plans to cater to the export market as well. The design of the car will be prepared in Korea.


The research and development work has already started at R&D centers at Hyderabad and Namyam (Korea). The company however has not revealed much about the product specification but there are anticipations that this car would be a petrol variant with 800 cc engine. These units have the capacity to manufacture 20,000 units per month and 600,000 units per year. HMIL has also promised a preview of its i20 car in the hatch back segment with a code name PB at the Paris Auto Tariff Show on October 2.


Hyundai is probably impressed by what Maruti 800 did to the Indian small car segment. Maruti Udyog happens to be the only company that boasts of having a monopoly in the small car segment in India. Hyundai’s new 800 cc car is bound to face tough competition from Maruti’s Alto, Maruti 800 and Spark. The company aims to take forward this sensation by launching yet another affordable small car, looking at the growing market of small cars in India.

Ford Figo Unveiled

The much-awaited small car from the US auto major Ford has been unveiled in New Delhi. The car has been christened Figo.

Ford Figo is a four-door hatchback that will be available in both diesel as well as petrol engines.



Figo has the main elements of Ford’s kinetic design language such as modern headlamps, grille shapes and sculpted bonnet of its distinctive face to the subtle integrated spoiler and chamfered window shape at the rear, which the company has used in world renowned vehicles such as Ford Mondeo, Ford Focus, and the Ford Fiesta. It also has very contemporary features, with a completely new look that is very different from the usual Ford models.

Figo is a synonym of car that has essence, superiority and intelligent designing, which is truly Italian inspired very similar to the name of the car which in Italian means cool. It also has a solid posture and a very spacious and elegant. The Figo is designed to suit the best the urban driving conditions.



The Figo also has a molded body side with chiseled front fenders, a “comet tail” undercut in the doors and additional light-catching sculpting in the lower body side.

The Figo has a bold graphic with large side window shape and spaciousness awaiting occupants’ front and rear and the side window graphic has a blacked-out B-pillar.

The engine specification or transmission details are not available.

The production of the car will begin in the early months of 2010. The company has also not yet unveiled any details about the pricing of the car, but it is expected to be priced at something higher than Rs. 3 lakh.

Nissan Micra to be Made in India

Nissan Motors India is readying to launch a new hatchback in India by early 2010. The small car will be manufactured at their new plant in Chennai. This new plant is expected to be operational from next year.

Nissan India has set up a new manufacturing unit in Oragadam near Chennai in association with the French auto maker Renault. The new facility will not merely cater to the domestic needs but also the overseas demands of models from both the companies.


The unit will have an initial manufacturing capacity of 200,000 cars per year. The factory will then scale-up production to 300,000 cars in about four year's time. It has been revealed that it has become difficult for Nissan and the French car maker, Renault, to make profitable cars in Europe for sale.

The upcoming small car is known as the March in Japan, but the Indian version will be christened as the Nissan Micra. The Micra will be available in both petrol and diesel versions. The Nissan Micra will stand against the Tata Nano.

Initially, it will be the Micra which would be followed by a derivative of the small car and then a sedan which is expected to be launched in 2011. In addition to the Nissan Micra, the company also aims to launch four to five models in next five years in the Indian market.

Currently Nissan Motors sells the completely built units (CBU) of Nissan Teana and Nissan X-Trail in India.

New Honda Compact Car to be Priced Below Rs. 5 Lakh in India

Small cars or compact cars go pretty well with the populace here in India and Honda gauging this aspect, decided to introduce the Jazz here. However, many prospective buyers of the car have been put off by the high price of the car, which has not even launched as yet.

But if you remember, the Japanese car maker was working on two, not one, small cars for the country. Now Indian newspaper, The Times of India, is reporting that Honda Siel Cars India (or HSCI) is planning to get their other small car with a price tag that would be below the Rs. 5 lakh mark. In fact, officials from the company have pointed out that a new team focused on research and development would be in place from next month.

Elaborating more on the team, an official from Honda India explained, “The R&D team will be headed by a senior Honda official from Japan. The expected size of the team is around 25 members and it will also have people from Honda’s India operations from departments like manufacturing and purchase.”

The new compact car by Honda India is expected to be priced somewhere around Rs. 4.5 lakh. Though there is no word on the release date, it is expected to be out within the coming three years. The R&D team will not only work on the indigenization of the car but also on the localization of the production of key components, which will keep the costs low.

New Honda Compact Car to be Priced Below Rs. 5 Lakh in India

Small cars or compact cars go pretty well with the populace here in India and Honda gauging this aspect, decided to introduce the Jazz here. However, many prospective buyers of the car have been put off by the high price of the car, which has not even launched as yet. But if you remember, the Japanese car maker was working on two, not one, small cars for the country.

Now Indian newspaper, The Times of India, is reporting that Honda Siel Cars India (or HSCI) is planning to get their other small car with a price tag that would be below the Rs. 5 lakh mark. In fact, officials from the company have pointed out that a new team focused on research and development would be in place from next month.

Elaborating more on the team, an official from Honda India explained, “The R&D team will be headed by a senior Honda official from Japan. The expected size of the team is around 25 members and it will also have people from Honda’s India operations from departments like manufacturing and purchase.” The new compact car by Honda India is expected to be priced somewhere around Rs. 4.5 lakh.

Though there is no word on the release date, it is expected to be out within the coming three years. The R&D team will not only work on the indigenization of the car but also on the localization of the production of key components, which will keep the costs low.

The Love Bug Bites

Will the Volkswagen Beetle frighten customers with its Rs 22 lakh price tag?

IN 1931, when Adolf Hitler asked Ferdinand Porsche to develop a volks-wagen (people’s car), he had in mind a small car that could transport a family, at a price then commanded by a motorcycle. Sound familiar? The only resemblance between Ratan Tata’s dream car, the Nano, and the iconic Beetle that Porsche produced, is that they are both small cars.



Come October, Indians will have a chance to experience the Beetle, but as a completely built unit (CBU) imported from Volkswagen’s factory in Mexico. The car is to be introduced only in the TDI 1.9-litre diesel variant and will come equipped with a host of added features like cruise control, acoustic rear parking sensors and rain sensors. Volkswagen will also make state-of-the-art safety additions like airbags, traction control and an antiskid system. Unlike its European counterpart, the Beetle variant for Indian roads will come with a front engine, and be capable of achieving speeds of 180 km per hour. Although no one is commenting on the colours, historically the Beetle has been available in bright shades of red, yellow, blue and sparkling white.

However, as an imported CBU, the price is hardly likely to be that of a people’s car — don’t expect it to provide the Nano with any serious competition. The new Beetle is priced at just over Rs 9 lakh in the US; but with custom duties, freight and other charges, the price tag could virtually double in India. The other Volkswagen CBU in the market, the Touareg which was launched last year, is more than double its Rs 20 lakh US market tag. “We haven’t had any official announcements yet, but it should be tagged in the higher price bracket of luxury or lifestyle cars. There are a lot of different buyers in the market and I am sure many would think it worth investing in such a globally acclaimed car,” commented SK Gautam, Vice President, Operations, DD Auto World, a Volkswagen dealer in Delhi.



Volkwagen’s first car in India was the Passat, launched in 2006 and priced at just over Rs 20 lakh. The Jetta came in the next year, the price of which ranges between Rs 12 and Rs 16 lakh. Although sales of Volkwagen cars have not been revving up globally, in India the company reported a 69 percent increase in sales in 2008, reportedly from growth in sales of its two subsidiary companies Skoda and Audi.

Volkswagen doesn’t seem to be concerned by the downturn in the automobile industry. Ludwig Geerken, the project director for Volkswagen India, has already announced that Volkswagen’s investment decisions for India will not be altered.

This includes an investment of over Rs 3,000 crore for a new plant in Pune and an automobile research centre to improve quality of upcoming products. Volkswagen is also set to introduce the Polo hatchback in India by next year. “I don’t foresee any problems in making new investments and launching a new car at the end of this year,” says a confident Gautam.

But with car sales down by 7.5 percent in January this year, and the only excitement likely to be the upcoming Nano launch, the Beetle is unlikely to take a major bite out of the Indian market.

Tata's Nano project finds a home

India's giant Tata Group has found a new home to build the world's cheapest car, cosseted by assurances that the project's past traumas with land disputes and political infighting are over.

By choosing to take its "Nano" car factory to the business-friendly state of Gujarat, after abandoning the original site in West Bengal, Tata has sent a message that a stable investment climate is a pre-requisite for participation in India's economic growth.

In an interview published Wednesday in the Economic Times, group chairman Ratan Tata attacked what he saw as the political manipulation behind protests by local farmers that forced the pull-out from West Bengal.

"Political opposition should be subordinated to the better welfare of the country," Tata said, suggesting that those who backed the protestors did not necessarily have their best interests at heart.

"Who is the loser? Are the people really going to prosper, many of whom live below subsistence levels?" he said. "What about the people who had aspirations for jobs? These are the questions that come to my mind."

The decision to move the plant -- which was 90 percent complete -- followed a month of violent demonstrations by activists and evicted farmers who complained they had been forced to give up their land for a pittance to make room for the Nano factory.

Some farmers said their signatures handing over their land were forged by workers from West Bengal's governing communist party.

The issue provided a rallying point for social activists and opposition parties hoping to break the Marxists' 31-year rule in the state.

The Nano has attracted worldwide attention due to its planned price tag of just 100,000 rupees (2,100 dollars) and, as soon as it became clear that Tata was considering relocating, a number of states rushed to compete for the project.

The agreement with Gujarat was formalised on Tuesday, and Ratan Tata said the choice was largely rooted in the state's ability to provide the necessary land immediately.

"Gujarat was able to define the land, secure possession of the land, the main thing, at an unbelievably fast rate," he said.

"In fact, if we could move the plant in a day, we could have actually started operating here, given the fact that everything was ready," he added.

Gujarat is one of India's most industrialised states and has a relatively sound infrastructure that has already attracted a number of multinationals.

The Nano plant will make 250,000 Nanos a year, rising to 500,000, the company says. However, it is not clear when production will begin.

The group had hoped to launch the car by December at the latest, but Tata officials admitted Tuesday that a more realistic timeframe lay between January and March next year.

The first batch of Nanos will be rolled out from existing Tata Motors plants elsewhere in India in what Ratan Tata described as a "makeshift kind of operation".

He also insisted that the 350 million dollars Tata had already pumped into the West Bengal plant was in no sense a write-off loss.

"All the equipment will be moved, so there is no loss there. We can also retrieve and utilise a fair amount of the fixed assets," he said.

The tussle over the Nano site was one of many recent land disputes in India.

The struggles have pitted the interests of farmers, who say they will starve without their land, against those of business and India's government, which say the country needs to industrialise rapidly.

Honda unveils plans for small car

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) has announced its plans to come up with a second small car in the country after the launch of Jazz in the middle of next year. The announcement comes despite a slowdown in the passenger car industry in India.

The second small car from Honda, to be rolled out from the company's second plant in Rajashthan, is expected to go on stream in the fourth quarter of 2009.

However, according to Bloomberg, Japan's second- largest automaker will delay opening its second car factory in India owing to a slowdown in the market growth.

The news agency, quoting Tokyo-based Honda spokesman Sakae Uruma, says that the company aims to open the Rajasthan plant by October 2010 as against the scheduled opening of 2009.

"We will be launching two small cars in India within the next three to four years," Jnaneswar Sen, vice-president-marketing, HSCI. The first of those--the premium hatchback Jazz--will be rolled out by June-July next year. It will be followed by a smaller car that will be driven by a 1.2 litre petrol engine and is currently under development, said Sen. He added that it will initially be produced at the company's plant in Greater Noida.

The Greater Noida plant is part of Honda's Rs 1,000 crore initial investment in India for setting up a new facility to manufacture small cars focusing on the domestic market. Spread over 600 acres, the facility will have an initial capacity of 60,000 units and could be expanded up to 2.4 lakh units over a period of time.

Honda Siel Cars, on Friday, inaugurated the first phase of its second plant at Tapukara, which comprises a press facility and an advanced power train unit. The facility, which is spread over 150 acres and will eventually employ 500 people, will supply body panels and engine components to HSCI's Greater Noida plant.

The company will also set up an R&D centre in India to focus on market and environmental research and development of local components and material more suited to Indian conditions.

GM’s future now depends on small cars

GENERAL Motors Corp. is known for making top- notch trucks and sport utility vehicles. The company’s survival now hinges on the difficult task of convincing buyers that its upgraded cars are just as good as its trucks and worth some extra cash. That’s essentially the business plan for the reconstituted GM, the one that is trying to make it in a US market where people no longer want $ 42,000 Chevrolet Tahoes that get only 14 miles per gallon ( 5.95 kilometers per litre) in the city. Instead, the revenue to sustain the nearly century- old industrial giant will have to come from cars, which have typically made only hundreds of dollars in profits.

Better cars, and lots of them. The change has come quickly. Faced with high gas prices and a weak economy, GM's sales fell 16 per cent for the first half of the year, with trucks off 21 percent and cars down nearly 9 per cent. GM has lost billions of dollars during the last three years. The company on Tuesday announced a combination of cuts, borrowing and asset sales that would raise $ 15 billion to weather the recent slump in US auto sales and the rapid shift from trucks to cars. Henderson, who concedes that GM has some repair work to do on its car brand image, says the change will have to come one or two models at a time.

It will follow the path of the new Chevrolet Malibu, which saw sales jump 46 percent in the first half of the year and average sale prices rise $ 4,000 over previous Malibu models due to improved quality. “ One product launch does not a success make,” Henderson said. “ It’s how do you build on that? But I think it gave us some confidence that if we get the car right and we get the promotion right, we can make progress and we can actually bring people back to the car.” GM has big plans for cars and car- based crossover vehicles. Nearly every brand, including Cadillac, will be getting a small car soon. Eighteen of the 19 vehicles GM is launching between now and 2010 are cars or crossovers.

One model, the sleek new Chevrolet Cruze due out in 2010, is the replacement for the clunky Chevrolet Cobalt small car. GM plans to power the Cruze with a 1.4- liter turbocharged four- cylinder engine, allowing it to get around 45 miles per gallon ( 19.13 kilometers per liter). Clark said in a statement, “ GM will likely face a sizable cash burn until it gets this part of the equation right.” GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said car prices also will rise because of demand, while truck and SUV prices will likely fall.

Volkswagen rolls out new sedan, Jetta

GERMAN auto major Volkswagen on Wednesday launched Jetta, a lower D segment sedan, in India. Jetta is available in one petrol and two diesel variants and has been priced in the range of Rs 12.97 lakh to Rs 16.67 lakh ( ex- showroom Delhi).



Jetta, launched 29 years ago in Europe, has established a name for itself in the US as the most popular car from a European manufacturer, claimed Volkswagen Group India’s president and managing director Joerg Mueller, adding that it has sold 80 lakh Jetta variants till date, globally.



Speaking on the occasion, Mueller said Volkswagen’s proposed India- specific small car, to be launched in 2010, would not take on Tata’s Nano as it will have some premium attached to it. “ Our small car will be an absolutely new and designed especially for India. This will be in the premium category and thus has nothing to do with Nano,” he said.