Monthly Archives: October 2010

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sports launched in India at Rs 16 cr

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2010_bugatti_veyron_16_4_grand_sport The world’s fastest and costliest legal production sports car has just made it to the Indian shores today. Yes folks, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport is here and how. The super luxury sports car can be all yours if Rs 16 crore, the starting sticker price of the car, is small change for you.

With the launch of Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, the Indian automobile scene has just become the “It” market for those super luxury carmakers around the world jostling for their share in the Indian car market.

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport, a product of the larger Volkswagen Group company becomes the most expensive car to be sold in India. “Bugatti has been doing well in America, Europe and the Middle East. Now we see India as an emerging market for us, hence we have decided to bring the car to India,” said Guy Caquelin, Bugatti Automobiles Sales Market Manager (Middle East, Europe and India) in Delhi today during the launch. He said Bugatti is aiming between 60 and 80 units of the car to be sold across the globe this year and there have been queries from 3 to 4 Indians globally.

This beauty and beast, all rolled into one, will be distibuted by the company’s Indian dealer Exclusive Motors. With a price tag of Rs 16 crore onwards, the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport has dwarfed other so called expensive luxury cars like that of Rolls Royce Phantom and Maybach, which are priced around Rs 5 crore. “The price of the car will be subject to foreign exchange fluctuation and the levels of customisation that a buyer demands,” Exclusive Motors Managing Director Satya Bagla said.

He, however, said that with the Indian luxury car market growing at about 25 per cent there is an opportunity for such expensive cars. “The Bugatti Veyron is four times more expensive than what’s being sold in the India. So we are currently testing the customer response,” Bagla said, when asked if there has been any order for the car.

You might have the money the buy the Bugatti, but do you have the time to wait for one till it is delivered? This is of great concern as the delivery would take about 6-8 months from the date of order.

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The company claims that the Bugatti Veyron is also the fastest car on production that is allowed to drive on normal roads in the world with a top speed of 407 km/hour with an acceleration of 0-100km/hour in 2.7 seconds.

The car, which uses components made of special materials like titanium, carbon fibre and magnesium is powered by an 8 litre engine with 16 cylinders and is assembled by hand at the company’s hand headquarters Molsheim in France.

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Skoda India rolls out 25,000th Fabia

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Skoda-Fabia-25000-India-Chakan-Pune ŠkodaAuto India, a fully owned subsidiary of ŠkodaAuto a.s., Czech Republic and one of the most promising automobile companies in India, on Wednesday rolled out the 25000th Fabia ever built in India from Volkswagen Group’s facility located at Chakan, Pune. The event was even more significant with the presence of Prof. Dr. h.c. Winfried Vahland, Chairman of Board of Directors of ŠkodaAuto a.s. and the new Volkswagen Group Chief Representative India & President and Managing Director Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd, Dr. Frank Loeschmann.

In his first visit to India as the new Chairman of Board, Dr. Vahland’s reaffirmed India’s status as one of the most important markets in Škoda Auto’s global growth story. The visit also re-iterates the company’s commitment to dig deep into this market and realize its full potential.

Speaking on India’s potential Prof. Dr. Vahland, Chairman of Board of Directors of Škoda Auto a.s. said “India has contributed significantly to Škoda’s growth as a global brand. Our products have captured the imagination of Indian consumers for years now. We stand by our commitment to our Indian consumers and promise to continuously offer products which will suit their growing lifestyle. Indian market has been earmarked as an integral part of our global growth strategy. We plan to achieve this aggressively by extending product portfolio to get to new segments resulting in profitable growth.”

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Frank Löschmann, Volkswagen Group India, said, It gives me great pleasure to welcome Prof. Dr. Winfried Vahland to the Volkswagen India Chakan plant, which is one of the most modern plants of the Volkswagen Group worldwide. Today, we are proud to roll out the 25,000th Skoda Fabia from our state-of-the-art factory. This marks another milestone in the history of Volkswagen Group India since the start of production in the plant with the Skoda Fabia from May, 2009. I am most delighted to be here today and wish to be a part of many more such historic occasions.”

Prof. Dr. h.c. Winfried Vahland’s visit follows the successful launch of the new Škoda Fabia. The new Fabia with its complete new package offering has garnered tremendous consumer response making a significant impact in its segment.

ŠkodaAuto India has recorded a significant growth of 36.6% in sales for the year 2010 till date over the year 2009. Škoda is in its 10th year of operations in India, since November 2001 and has sold over 94500 units. Škoda currently has 3 models on sale in India – Škoda Superb, Škoda Laura and Škoda Fabia, the 4th model the Yeti will soon be added in its portfolio.

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Nissan and IIT Madras Sign MoU for Automotive Research

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nissan After the launch of the Nissan Micra, the Japanese company is doing everything in its capacity to increase brand recognition in the country. The latest initiative comes in the form of an agreement between the aforementioned company and IIT Madras.

Nissan and IIT Madras (IIT-M) have signed two MoUs for a comprehensive research cooperation agreement to support potential engineers who will contribute future technology for mobility and create an environment for nurturing the growth of automobile technology in India. This comes in line with the Expression of Interest signed between Nissan and IIT Madras in January 2010 to begin potential collaborations between Nissan and IIT Madras in January 2010. The two parties will discuss cooperation opportunities in the field of research and development, including but not limited to research collaborations, lectures and scholarships.

“The Nissan Science Foundation (NSF), with a view to groom talented students and contribute towards development of automobile technology in India, signed an MoU today — ”Nissan Foundation Scholar” Programme to support students of IIT-M,” the company said in a statement. The moU is valid till 2015 and aims to provide chosen students with financial assistance, a short training at Nissan headquarters in Japan and an internship at RNTBCI. This is the first time that NSF is providing this kind of student support outside Japan.

“This initiative will aim to support research & development project at IIT-M in the area of engineering, science, management, humanities and social sciences, which will contribute to automobile sector in the future,” it said.

The second MoU agreed upon by Nissan’s R&D Centre in India (RNTBCI) is christened as ‘Nissan Support Program’ and will be valid up to March 2013. This endeavour aims to support Research & Development Project at IIT-M in the area of Engineering, Science, Management, Humanities and Social Sciences, which will contribute to Automobile Sector in the future.

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The Nissan Support Program will solicit proposals from the faculty of IIT Madras every year for research work in the identified areas. After a joint review by Nissan officials and IIT Madras, at least 4-5 projects will be chosen for funding every year.

To celebrate the initiative, a ‘Nissan Day’ event at IIT Madras was organized for the students, faculty and management. There was a Technology Exhibition highlighting the various engineering and technological innovations being carried out at Nissan. The Nissan Micra was on display to showcase some of the performance features and design attributes of the car.

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Maruti Suzuki Ritz – The Fastest ‘A-2 Premium’ Car to Reach 1-lakh Sales Mark

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Maruti-Suzuki-Ritz Most of the Maruti Suzukismall cars become a hit even before they are launched in the market. Almost all the small cars from the MSI camp have set records, and now we have another car that has taken the company’s reputation a notch higher.

After achieving the fastest ever 50,000 sales record, Maruti Suzuki Ritz has become the fastest A-2 premium car to reach 1-lakh sales mark. The Maruti Suzuki Ritz was launched in May 2009, and received phenomenal response from the crowd in the nation.

At the time of its launch, Ritz created quite a stir in the very competitive ‘A-2 premium’ segment and was immediately hot-listed by the media and industry.

The chic looking small car has won numerous awards and accolades for its path-breaking looks and styling, superior safety features and its ability to balance a dynamic driving experience with a comfortable ride, bold styling and excellent road handling. When it comes to fuel efficiency, Ritz, with a fuel efficiency of 17.7 kmpl in petrol and 21.1 kmpl in diesel, is a clear winner in its segment.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales), said, “We are overwhelmed by the terrific response given by our customers to the Maruti Suzuki Ritz. The Ritz was targeted at our discerning customers who, while valuing the traditional Maruti Suzuki attributes of fuel efficiency, reliability and performance, also desired contemporary looks and attitude in the vehicle. The fastest 1 lakh sales mark is customers’ endorsement to all these attributes Ritz stands for.”

The Ritz has been developed on the very successful Swift platform and positioned at the premium-end of the compact car market. Specially designed for the perfection seeking Indian customers, the Ritz boasts of features like superior transmission, improved suspension and better ground clearance. The Ritz also happens to be India’s first BS IV complaint car to be launched in the passenger car segment.

The Ritz is available in two engine variants: 1.2-litre, four-cylinder K-Series petrol engine with maximum power of 83.8 bhp and the highly successful 1.3-litre, DDiS diesel unit that delivers a maximum power of 73.9 bhp. The Ritz comes with Drive-by-wire technology in both petrol and diesel variants. The car also features 32-bit Engine Management System.

Below are some of the accolades and awards won by the Maruti Suzuki Ritz.

Car of the year – BS Motoring

Premium Hatchback of the year 2010 – Autocar

Compact Car of the year – Autobuild

Urban Car of the year 2010 – Top Gear

Most Appealing Premium Compant car – JD Power

Best Premium Compact Car in initial Quality – JD Power

Best City Car 2010 by otomotif, Indonesia

Best new breakthrough small engine (K12M) by car and tuning guide, Indonesia

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Maruti Starts Work on its Fully Indigenous Car

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Maruti logo If there is one unconditional love in the world, it is the love of Indian consumers for Maruti cars. As much we love Maruti cars, we could hardly call them our own. So long, Maruti has been using Suzuki Motors’s technology and paying huge royalties to the Japanese company. But soon Marutiwould come up with its ‘made in India’ car. Source have revealed that the country’s largest passenger car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki has already started work on developing its first fully ‘made in India’ car.

This would help the company save a substantial amount of money. And once Maruti Suzuki‘s R&D centre at Rohtak in Haryana is fully developed by 2015, it could start demanding a royalty from its Japanese parent company thereby reversing the current trend. RC Bhargava, chairman Maruti Suzuki said, “There is logic in Suzuki Motor paying a royalty to Maruti…the issue is bound to be addressed at an appropriate time”.

As part of Maruti Suzuki’s strategy to develop and design future models in India, a joint top level team for global product strategy comprising R&D experts from both India and Japan has been formed and headed by Maruti Suzuki’s managing executive officers (engineering) IV Rao and K Asai. According to company sources, the idea of forming a R&D team of experts was taken during Suzuki Motor Corp chairman Osamu Suzuki’s visit to India about two months back.

“The work to develop a fully indigenous car model from the Maruti Suzuki stable is underway. However, the company is yet to fix a specific timeline for it,” a company source said. When contacted IV Rao confirmed the development and said he was heading a team of specialised R&D experts. He said, “So far we (Maruti Suzuki) have been manufacturing cars in India but we are also looking to get into product development which will also be done here”. Rao, however, declined to divulge the exact time period for the launch of the car.

Maruti Suzuki India has also recruited top engineers from US auto companies in Detroit. The new team of engineers have diverse skill sets and will work under Rao and Asai to deliver the new car. The cars rolled out would first be tested in the European markets before they get launched in the Indian market.

Maruti’s first quarter net profit had fallen down by 20% on account of higher royalty pay out to Suzuki. It paid a royalty of Rs 188.70 crore or 5.9% of its total revenues during the quarter. This also included some arrears, which was mainly due to the royalty being revised because the government removed the cap of 5% on sales in domestic market and 8% on overseas sales. This forced the Japanese parent to revise royalty rates.

The R&D centre, the first outside Japan, is coming up at Rohtak at an investment of Rs 1,500 crore. The R&D centre is spread over 700 acre of land and the first phase of the project is estimated to be completed by 2012. The company had stated in August 2009 that Maruti Suzuki is going to design and roll out a car that would be totally developed in India.

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Vehicle Parking Can Take a Year From Drivers’ Lives

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Searching for place to park your car acan eat up a year of driver's life While doing the mundane tasks of our daily lives, we hardly pay any attention as to how much time we spend on them. How’s driving and parking for example! Almost all of complain about the lack of proper parking space and etiquettes, but we would have hardly given a thought to the time spent on the very challenge of parking in a tight spot.

According to a UK survey, drivers spend nearly a year of their lives searching for a parking space. The poll, which included 900 participants, revealed that the average motorist loses the equivalent of more than six days a year circling streets and car parks looking for a spot. Based on the driving life of a driver, lasting around 50 years, the lost time in parking add up to 7,600 hours, or more than 45 weeks, the poll by parking company NCP found.

And Londoners are most stressed people when it comes to parking. Apparently they spend an average of 182 hours a year, or more than 54 weeks in a motoring lifetime, in the search for a parking space. This translates into a national average of 152 hours a year.

The next longest lost time on parking is endured by motorists in Birmingham, followed by and Newcastle. The survey also revealed that almost 42 per cent of people, and 51 per cent of women, they will not attempt to park in a space if another car is waiting behind them. Another quirky revelation made by the survey states that 23 per cent of drivers often get a passenger to do the parking for them.

Almost 44 per cent of people, and 48 per cent of women, have lost their cars being unable to remember the spot where they parked their vehicle. And guess what, Birmingham motorists beat the rest to be on the top of the list of most forgetful.

50 per cent of respondents said that they have gone to the wrong floor or section of the car park to look for their vehicle, while 39 per cent of those have even attempted to get into someone else’s car, mistaking it for their own.

NCP car parks chief operating officer Jo Cooper said: “Parking should be simple but in reality it is a stressful experience for most of us. There’s often a lot of pressure on us from other passengers, people waiting behind you, and then there’s the added time pressure too. It is bad enough we’re spending so much time sitting in traffic jams, commuting on busy motorways or taking the children to school. Parking should be the easiest part.“

The parking situation is no different in the Indian context, if at all we can assume that the parking situation is worse in India. Wonder what we would find out if they did a survey like this in India.

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Alonso’s Win, Webber’s Loss

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Fernando Alonso-Korean GPFerrari’s Fernando Alonso could not have expected a better race in a rain-affected Korean Grand Prix on Sunday.  The Spanish driver scored one of the biggest wins of his career now and now enjoys an 11 points lead over Red Bull’s Mark Webber in the 2010 Formula One Championship, and there are only two more races to go.

The Korean GP could not have been worse than this for the Red Bull Racing team. Mark Webber crashed out early while running second, and Sebastien Vettel’s engine blew up as he was leading on the 46th lap.

The Korean GP turned out to be a major surprise even for the organsers, what had actually begun as an impending disaster, turned out to be well executed victory. The rain Gods were at their best and even before the race could be started, it started to pour so much that the race was red-flagged after just two laps had been run. After a lengthy delay, the conditions improved relatively, and the race began.

Vettel quickly took the lead from Webber with Alonso third and Mercedes GP’s Nico Rosberg fighting it out with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton for fourth. But it all got over for Webber as he spun and hit the wall in Turn 13 on the 19th lap, collecting Rosberg in the process. Out came the safety car again until Lap 24, whereupon Vettel resumed control ahead of Alonso and Hamilton.

After their pit stops between Laps 31 and 32, Hamilton quickly moved ahead of Alonso as the he had a minor delay due to arriving slightly sideways and making it difficult for mechanics to access the right front wheel, and after Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi had taken out Virgin’s Timo Glock on the 31st under braking for Turn Three, they were racing under the safety car again.

And as racing re-started on the 35th lap, Hamilton ran wide in Turn One. On Lap 46, the Ferrari driver was trying his best to snatch the lead from Vettel. And on the exit to the corner, Vettel’s engine blew. Lewis Hamilton made a quick run for the second place, while Felipe Massa made it a great day for Ferrari and also increased the team’s hope in the constructors’ championship, by grabbing the third place. Michael Schumacher, whose return had been such a joke so far, turned on a different leaf and took fourth place in the second Mercedes. While Robert Kubica, from team Renault, grabbed the fifth position, Tonio Liuzzi added some point to the Force India team with his sixth position finish.

Rubens Barrichello took the seventh position, ahead of the BMW Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Nick Heidfeld, and Hulkenberg recovered quickly to get the final point from Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari on the last lap. The world championship is going to become all the more dramatic with the remaining two races. Red Bull still leads the pack with 426 points, but McLaren and Ferrari are back in their elements and quite close with 399 and 374 respectively.

Race Standings: Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)- 2 hours, 48 minutes, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)- +2:48:35.809, Felipe Massa (Ferrari)- +2:48:51.678, Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)- + 2:49:00.498, Robert Kubica (Renault)- + 1:49:08.544, Vitantonio Liuzzi (Force India)-+2:49:14.381, Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth)-+ 2:49:30.067, Kamui Kobayashi (BMW Sauber)-+ 2:49:38.699, Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)-+ 2:49:40.917, Nico Hulkenberg (Williams-Cosworth)-+2:49:41.661

Driver Standings: Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) – 231, Mark Webber (Red Bull) – 220, Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)-210, Sebastian Vettel (Redbull) – 206, Jenson Button (McLaren)-189, Felipe Massa (Ferrari) – 143, Robert Kubica (Renault)-124, Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)- 122, Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)-66, Rubens Barrichello (Williams-Cosworth)-47, Adrian Sutil (Force India)- 47

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JLR Launches Armoured Vehicles Range at Rs 4.75 Crore

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Land-Rover-DiscoveryTata owned British luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover have launched armoured SUV models in India. JLR has launched armoured variants of Range Rover and Discovery models, priced at Rs. 4.74 crore and Rs. 3.75 crore respectively. Later the company also plans to bring the armoured version of Jaguar Sentinel XJ in the Indian market. The stunning Jaguar Sentinel XJ was a showstopper at the 2010 Moscow Auto Show and will be soon launched in India with an expected price of Rs. 5 crore.

“The armoured vehicles market is a very niche segment and we don’t want to leave it out. We are launching these vehicles in India so that we have the complete range of offerings here,” said Rohit Suri, head of Tata Motors’ Premier Car Division. The global market of armoured vehicles is pretty sizeable with annual sales of 15,000 units, but the Indian market for armoured vehicles is in its infancy. “We have just started exploring the market, we know there is some potential but it will be too premature to put a number on how many armoured vehicles we intend to sell in India,” Suri said.

JLR luxury brand is currently expanding its presence in India and will open up at least 8-9 dealers in the country including cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi and Kolkata. The British brand will take help of parent company Tata Motors for assistance in areas like logistics and service support.

“With expansion of our network and products, we will gain further volumes here,” he said. The company is in the process of ramping up dealerships in India, apart from looking at local assembly of some of the Land Rover models.

“We would be expanding to newer cities and this should give us a wider spread. We are currently present at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Ludhiana and plan to end this fiscal with about eight to nine dealerships.”

The company is also planning to start the local assembly of Land Rover which will lower the price of the product and give it a very competitive edge. The local assembly is likely to start next year. According to reliable sources, Tata Motors will assemble the Freelander 2 in India, which is currently the lowest-priced Land Rover model here and has an ex-showroom price tag of Rs 33.5 lakh in Delhi. Local assembly will see the cumulative duties on the model going down by around 50%, bringing down its cost by a few lakh of rupees.

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Tata Motors Becomes a Victim of Dealership Poaching

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We have all heard about all kind of poaching and dealership poaching may sound like a new concept to a lot of people. But for the less informed people, we would explain what exactly it is, and what its implications are.

Tata Motors, India’s second-largest automobile company, faces the prospect of a churn in its dealership network. The rival car making companies have started it playing dirty by offering better margins to lure away two of Tata’s top dealers. Multinational companies like Volkswagen, BMW, Nissan and Audi, which are ramping up their presence in the Indian market, are poaching dealers from Tata Motors, Hyundai and Maruti-Suzuki to access central locations in major cities.

These bigger companies are offering 6-8 % of the price of a car as compared to the meager 3-4% offered by the Indian majors. So can we blame the dealers for moving to the greener pastures offered by bigger MNCs? We don’t think so. As the auto dealership business involves heavy overhead costs, not many new entrepreneurs are venturing into the business. And the business dynamics is undergoing a change with companies forcing dealers to dole out freebies leading to major decline in margins.

Pune-based BU Bhandari Auto, which has been dealing with Tata Motors from more than a decade or so, will now distribute products of German carmaker Volkswagen. As we are all aware Volkswagen is eyeing a larger market share in the booming Indian automobile market. Sailesh Bhandari, promoter of Bhandari Auto, is already in Germany to understand the operations of his new partner.

A-One, a Delhi based Tata Motors dealer, will now distribute and service cars from Honda, BMW and Rolls Royce. These two dealers contribute 5-6 % of Tata Motors’ passenger car sales. The Indian car maker sold 1.3 lakh units for the period from April to September. The Tata Motors spokesman confirmed the news but also added that in the past three years, only seven dealers have left the company. “This has nothing to do with their business or relationship with Tata Motors,” he added.

But in the last six months, Tata Motors has added ten new dealers, taking its total dealership network to 247 as its passenger car sales has been growing at the rate of 44% till September this year, the spokesman said. The company’s new CEO Carl Peter Forster is trying his best to revamp the entire passenger car segment by adding more dealerships to push volumes in a growing market.

Some of the existing ones are expanding network. “Margins are improving and in the product schemes offered by the manufacturer, the contribution of the dealers has significantly reduced,” said Vinod Sharma, MD, Fortune Motors, a major distributor of Tata Motors vehicles in Maharashtra.

Dwindling sales from Fiat was another issue, said one of the dealers. “There has been stagnant margins with our A-One business which caters to Tata Motors, while they are much higher on our other dealerships. The overall effect is also coming from the Fiat cars whose sales have not grown as expected,” A-One promoter Yadur Kapur said. Sales of Fiat cars went down by 8% to 11,863 cars during the last six months. “When we take up dealerships, we never leave it. However, this is a commercial decision,” said a senior official at BU Bhandari.

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Hyundai Opens 300th Dealership in India

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hyundai_motor logo Yet another milestone has been crossed by India’s second largest car maker. Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) which is also the country’s largest exporter has just begun operations at its 300th dealership in Karur, Tamil Nadu. Congratulations Hyundai!

So, we have a clear indication that Hyundai is trying its best to strengthen its foothold in the country. The expansion also strengthens HMIL’s commitment to its customers in India by bringing closer its top-notch products. 12 years ago, back in 1998, the company had 59 state-of-the-art world class dealerships, and by end of this year, the company wanted to increase the dealership count to 320. 300 dealerships in its fold already; that’s quite an achievement!

That’s not all though! If you thought Hyundai just has 300 dealerships and a couple of manufacturing plants in India, hold on! The car maker has an additional network of 112 sales outlets together with 130 Hyundai Advantage dealers. Hyundai Advantage happens to be the company’s used car business. So, all in all, with its 542 touch points in 290 cities across the country, we could say that Hyundai Motor India Limited has unparalleled access to its customers. However, the auto major doesn’t want to stop there. The company has plans of increasing its existing sales network strength to 610 by end of this year.

Speaking on the expansion drive, H. W. Park, MD and CEO, HMIL, said, “With a growing customer base and increase in our product portfolio we need to access more and more customers and to achieve this we set up an aggressive program to increase our sales and service network. We will continue with this expansion plan to reach out to new markets catering to the ever increasing demand for our products.”

Hyundai has always kept excellent customer service as priority. In 2001, its service workshop network in India was limited to 235. Today, it has displayed remarkable growth with the number increasing to 608. Currently, Hyundai has set for itself a target of 625 by this year end. If achieved, that would further help the company deliver easy and hassle-free after-sales service for its customers.

Hyundai’s dealership network has played quite a crucial role in sketching the company’s success story in the country. The network has helped Hyundai cross a lot many milestones including becoming the country’s second largest car manufacturer. It was hailed as India’s second largest car maker within just 6 months of starting production in 1998. It rolled out 150,000 cars in just about 25 months. That’s proof that HMIL has at all times exceeded expectations.

Hyundai was able to roll out 10 lakh cars by 2006 and the 30-lakh production mark has easily been crossed this year, in the record time of less than 12 years. This achievement, in fact, makes HMIL one of just two car makers in India to achieve this feat. The newly launched Hyundai Next Gen i10 and Santa Fe will hopefully boost overall sales further.

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