Maruti Motors, the leading car manufacturers in India, is planning to start car designing from a scratch by the turn of the decade.
In order to turn its plan to a fruitful end, the company is in process to hire more numbers of skilled and talented engineers and designers. The hired professionals would be accelerated to the cause of innovative car designs, electrical features and mechanical car works. The company desires to bring a revolution in the entire Indian operation and plans to make India a global design hub for small cars.
Till now, Maruti has been importing innovative technology from its parent company, the Suzuki Motors. But the company now plans to develop its own design centre. Thereby, it is working hard to turn its ambition into a reality and build new cars from a scratch in India by 2010-2011.
Volkswagen Evaluates the Possibility of Expansion in India
At one end of the spectrum, when Fiat announced to open a R&D centre and Maruti is planning to start a design centre, at the other end the Volkswagen is also working on to open a research centre in India.
The plan of setting up a research centre in India is a step to expand its market share in the mushrooming Indian car industry. The proposed centre is expected to be in line with the accident research centre of the company set up in China almost three years back. In the established research centre, skilled professionals research the causes, aftermaths and other essentials of the car accident and then use the findings in incorporating safety features in the cars. The similar approach is set for the Indian research centre.
The Volkswagen believes that different countries have different cultures, road and weather conditions. These differences invite a need for completely different set of safety measures and features in the cars available in different countries. India also has its own ifs and buts when it comes to car safety and accidents.
The company plans to research all the accident sites in the country and then incorporate safety features in accordance to the India specific conditions.
Currently, India has limited infrastructure to incorporate a range of safety features. The company is looking forward to fit in some features while the rest like lane departure indications and night view are not supported by the Indian infrastructure. Volkswagen promises to gradually bring out these features as well.
There is nothing new to say that Maruti Suzuki is one of the leading
car manufacturersin India that produces a line of high-end car models. The best part about Maruti is the thought that pulls the company to produce a range of models catering to different sections of the Indian society.
Apart from creating top-end models, Maruti now makes a move towards making Indian roads safer than ever. The company in association with the Delhi Government opens driving schools to train car drivers. The move is not only restricted to drivers safety but also ensures safety for the passers by and other people sharing a common road.
Maruti comes up with around 42 new Institute of Driving Training and Research (ITDRs) in Delhi and NCR. The company also plans to extend the association and sign a memorandum with other state governments to open more and more number of ITDRs across the country.
Maruti driving schools are not for profit margins and gains but truly for safety. The company desires to produce an accident free road for its consumers and prepare skilled drivers so that Maruti carsdo not create any havoc on Indian roads.
Influenced by Tata, Maruti and Fiat, Ford also plans to roll out some interesting and exciting small cars to India.
Ford Motor has shifted all its focus towards the production of small cars with desires to target all the sections of car buyers. The company has plans to roll out a portfolio of small cars in various countries round the world including India. Ford also desires to realign its facilities and factories to manufacture more fuel-efficient engines.
The company is also in a mood to make its Mercury brand an essential part of the small car production strategy. This clearly states that Ford plans to imitate some of the attractive features of Mercury and place them in its line of proposed small cars.
So many small cars are entering the market. Will this hamper the market for huge sedans and luxury cars?
The current car industry in India is revolving around cheap and fuel efficient cars. The main reason is increasing road traffic. With an increase in the number of cars on Indian roads, drivers of luxury cars are spending longer hours on road to reach their destination compared to small cars. Also, larger cars require comfortable parking space but with increasing number of cars, the parking space is decreasing.
Driven by these factors and by the production of Nano, Maruti also plans to come out with its small and cheap car, Cervo. When Tata is almost ready to roll out the world’s cheapest car in India, Maruti Udyog Limited announces the launch of Cervo priced within the 1 Lakh price bracket. Maruti also plans to roll out a revamped Maruti 800 with a more contemporary look. Both these Maruti cars are proposed to roll out as tough competition against Ratan Tata’s dream car.
Cervo is a mini car recently launched in Japan with an engine of 660cc offering 54 bhp. The car is compliant to Japan’s 4-star emission standards. The same car is proposed to launch in India by the end of this year with certain radical changes to comply with Indian conditions. In comparison to the Cevro, the Nano is expected to offer 30 bhp with a 700 cc petrol engine. In terms of fuel efficiency, Suzuki cars have always been the most fuel efficient cars in their respective segments.
While car companies rejoiced in the months of March and April when car sales were high, the succeeding month of May left them in tears. After April, car sales started dipping. While the car industry posted a growth of 22 percent in the month of April, the record for May was a mere 13-15 percent.
Maruti continues to lead as always followed immediately by enthusiastic Hyundai. But General Motors which has being doing well over the last couple of years has witnessed a sudden slowdown.
With input costs for car manufacturers being ever on the rise and as the world crude oil will continue to price $120 plus per barrel, the Indian car industry needs to come up with a new strategy to arrest falling car sales.
Maruti seems to be going from strength to strength. The company has continued to maintain its lead in the Indian market despite of tough competition from competitors like Hyundai, Chevrolet and Honda. The company has innovated itself over number of years and has rightly identified the pulse of Indian consumer demands. It is gearing up its production capacity to meet the long list of demand.
With its plans to touch the 10 lakh cars per year in production, it will further grow in Indian Automobile Industry. The company has an impressive line of cars and still stands apart with the latest launch of Swift DZire.
Maruti Suzuki is taking the initiative to open its first superstore where all variants of its car models will be displayed in every available colour. The store will have a recreation corner for your kids and a lounge for you to relax and take your own time to choose the car you want to own. The new experience will make car buying fun and easy.
Now-a-days, car manufacturers are not only giving thrust to push up sale of their small cars or luxury cars, but also taking much care of their customers even after sale. Realising the fact that maintaining a good rapport with customers is as important as striking a deal with them to push their sales, some car companies have started after sale servicing to keep their customers happy and to help them to get solved any problems in their new cars after buying from them without shelling out an additional amount from their wallets.
Maruti, Tata Motors and other companies started free car servicing after sale, now Hyundai has taken up this task and wanted to build a good rapport with its customers by launching after sale servicing campaign. It has launched a unique campaign of free car care clinic. The nationwide two-week long campaign will be held from April 2 to April 14. The company plans to reach 1.5 lakh consumers. Such customer-service oriented campaigns would definitely be praised by the customers.
Is India still stuck in old world? The cars sold in India still carry the age old designs. Interestingly, they are still selling in large numbers despite being put in history books in mature western countries. Look at the line up of cars, sold as premium cars in India like Hyundai Accent, Octavia, Ford Ikon and Mitsubishi Lancer. Moreover, Indians are forced to pay fancy sums for these outdated cars.
The only new models which can be called contemporary are Hyundai i10, Volkswagen Passat, Maruti A-Star and Honda CR-V. Car manufacturers are taking marketing old cars as new in this country. Will the car buyer be forced to be stuck in time wrap?
It has been a bad beginning for the Auto Industry in stock market this fiscal. First it was hike in interest rates, followed by stringent measures adopted by financial institutions and now increases in prices of raw materials. The downward performance this fiscal follows the impressive performance in 2006 - 2007. The higher interest rates, hard financial options have resulted in negative sales figures of automobile companies resulting in poor performance of the auto stocks.
But, financial observers see downward trend in car sales figures only as a time phrase which could recover by the second quarter. The Indian auto Industry has been in the global news this week with the Tata Motors clinching the Jaguar and Land Rover deal from Ford Motor. But the stock markets have not been favorable for the Tata Motors yet. Soon after the announcement of the deal on Thursday Tata Motors shares plunged by 6.39 per cent at Rs 636 dragging the BSE Auto Index down 1.79 per cent. Tata Motors share had been on the downtrend ever since Ford announced that Tata Motors was the preferred bidder for its luxury brands in January.
Tata Motors on Friday opened at Rs 654 and closed at 645.85 a loss of Rs 9.50. Similarly, Maruti Suzuki which is heavily affected by increase in raw materials opened at 834.75 and closed at 829.25 a loss of Rs 9.05.
All those small car owners who thought that they could now get a DZire sedan by paying just Rs 75,000 more than Swift hatch back’s cost, take note of this. Maruti Suzuki has decided to increase the introductory price for DZire. Rise in input costs of aluminum and copper are forcing Maruti to increase the price of Dzire. The prices are likely to be revised in the next few weeks.
So all those who want the new DZire will have to rush to Maruti outlets soon and book your cars, otherwise you will end up paying more than you thought. What with the cost of interest, rising cost of accessory and rising fuel costs. Anything more will certainly burn your pockets.
There was a time when introduction of a new model took years in India. Going down the memory lane, we could find that Ambassador actually rolled out only one model till late 90’s and Fiat had only two models for India for over twenty years. When Maruti came in the early 80’s it revolutionized car industry, but new models were not forthcoming. But now the time seems to be changing so fast that if you blink you could miss a model.
Going a step ahead and breaking all records, one of the most successful sedan manufacturers, Mitsubishi has now decided to launch one new model in India every six months. They are even planning to introduce the sophisticated SUV Outlander in few months, which will be manufactured in India. It seems launching of new small cars, luxury cars, SUVs and sedans within span of short period may soon become a trend among car soon become car manufacturers.
Swift sedan Dzire is making a sudden appearance on Wednesday and not on Saturday as aired before. It it will be launched on Wednesday. It could give Maruti Suzuki two days of publicity and long queues of buyers booking it over the weekend.
Whatever, it is a clever strategy by MSIL to make quick sales and ensure long demand over several months. Its only sedan in market now SX4 which is already on top of the charts and Dzire seem to repeat history. Many believe that though the car similar to Swift in appearance has several firsts in its features.
All those who thought that tinkering with cars was a mechanics jobs, wake up. The car sector has undergone tremendous change in the last few years. Mechanics alone will not be able to do all the jobs. Believe it not!
The car industry requires as much as 10,000 automobile engineers in the next decade. They are required by the best names in the industry like BMW, Mercedes, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Ford Motors and others. They are even hiring freshers for their most enterprising jobs. All those who want to associate themselves with the greatest upcoming cars can look into these careers.
