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A Chinese automaker has clinched a deal with a UK tour operator to provide the latter with red double-decker buses, a national symbol of Britain, to serve the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, which will be held in London. The Anhui Ankai Automobile Co Ltd signed a contract with Britain's Big Bus Tours sightseeing company on Sept 29 to export 34 open-top double-decker buses, which will be used for sightseeing tours during the games, sources with the bus company said Saturday. The deal marks the first time for China-made double-decker buses to enter the UK market, where there are a stricter certifications for automobiles. Ankai's vice president Wang Xianfeng said his company has already assembled a sample bus, which has obtained approval from both Big Bus Tours and British automobile certification authorities, including the Vehicle Certification Agency and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency. "The cooperation (between Ankai and Big Bus Tours) is an indication that ...

Bhopal’s business community is happy and excited due to an estimated Rs 100-crore shopping by Bhopalites during Navratri and Dussehra. According to an estimate, the automobile sector recorded the highest sales of over Rs 40 crore during these 10 days while the real estate segment stood second, with estimated sales of over Rs 30 crore, writes Zafar Alam Khan Riding on unexpected sales during the Navratri and Dussehra, marketing traders are enthusiastically looking at the coming festival season with great hopes. As contrary to the belief of slowdown and rising dearness the markets in the Madhya Pradesh capital witnessed overwhelming response of consumers during the Navratri and Dussehra shopping; especially the automobile and real estate sectors witnessed unexpected sales. Business community of Bhopal is happy and excited due to the estimated Rs 100 crore shopping by the Bhopalites during the Navratri and Dussehra. According to an estimate the automobile sector recorded the highest...

  With an aim to first satisfy the domestic demand for its newly- launched sports utility vehicle XUV500 model, automobile major Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) proposes postponing its export plans, said a company official Saturday. "The demand for the model is good even at this price point (Rs.10.8 lakh to Rs.11.95 lakh ex-showroom New Delhi). We have got bookings for 5,000 units within a week of its launch in five cities. The waiting period for the model is around 17 weeks now. Our capacity is to roll out 2,000 units per month. So we may have to postpone our export plans for the model further," Pawan Goenka, president, automotive and farm equipment sectors, told reporters here on the sidelines of the 16th Asia Pacific Automotive Engineering Conference. "We are looking at markets like Australia, Chile and neighbouring countries. Our plan is to ship the model out of India. Earlier we had planned to cater to these markets six months after the domestic launch. ...

Fiat India Automobiles Ltd, struggling with falling sales, will be looking to a recent restructuring by parent Fiat SpA of Italy to make its cars more popular with buyers in one of the key emerging markets. As part of the new strategy, aimed at enhancing regional focus, a new headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region has been set up in Shanghai that covers India, China, South Korea, Japan, South-East Asia and Australia. New direction: Fiat India president and CEO Rajeev Kapoor. Photo by Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint. Fiat India has been grappling with sagging sales in the intensely competitive Indian car market, as rivals havebeen launching products to win customers in a slowing economy. In the eight months to August, sales fell 22% to 7,874 cars from a year earlier. Total sales during that period fell 1.26% to 743,358 units, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. The India unit is a 50:50 joint venture with Tata Motors Ltd and makes and sells the Pali...

The Chinese auto maker known as JAC, and its Brazilian partner said Friday that they decided to go ahead with plans to build a factory in the Latin American country on hopes that the government will modify a production tax. SHC, the company that imports JAC automobiles into Brazil, said it would invest 80% of the 900 million Brazilian reals ($509 million) needed to build the factory, with JAC providing the rest. The factory will be built in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, with output set to begin in 2014. Brazil's market—the world's fourth-largest by sales—has attracted heavy investment. Sales are expected to grow 5% this year, slowing from last year's 12% expansion as the government raised interest rates earlier this year to rein in an overheated economy. The JAC factory, with initial capacity of 100,000 vehicles, will be in the city of Camacari, an industrial area where Ford Motor Co. has a plant. JAC will assemble and paint the cars locally, with...

Hyundai Eon is set to hit Maruti Suzuki hardest in India with its 800 cc engine and Rs 2.5 lakh price tag Hyundai must be giving some sleepless nights to one particular carmaker in India. It is going to introduce a small car with around 2.5 lakh price tag and everyone here understands as to which carmaker will be hit hardest. am sure this is going to be one of the most watched entries by Hyundai in the Indian car bazaar. It has already swept the market with its cars for almost every segment. With the Eon, it is going to attack Maruti Suzuki in its comfort zone. The car will be directly competing with Maruti’s Alto and is priced lower than Chevrolet Spark, another small car. But given the massive volume that Maruti commands in the market in the entry level car, Eon is certain to be competing directly with the market leader. Already South Korean carmaker has impressed the market with Santro, a car that competes with Maruti WagonR, i10, i20 besides other high end cars. The best th...

Striking workers at the Manesar plant refused to hold negotiations with the Maruti Suzuki management on Tuesday, prompting a state government mediator to blame them for the breakdown of peace talks.  Haryana labour minister SCL Sharma, who was mediating on behalf of the state government, said, "The workers are not agreeing to come back to work unless all their 62 colleagues, who were suspended, were taken back. All this is difficult as criminal cases have been lodged against many of them."  The state government also released three leaders of the Maruti Suzuki Employees Union in an effort to end the 23-day-old industrial stir that has dented Haryana's image as a peaceful investment destination. The MSI management and workers have been locked in a stand-off since August 29, when the management prevented workers from entering the factory premises unless they signed a good conduct bond.  On Tuesday, the workers at the Manesar plant submitted a petition to Gurgaon de...

Amid the stand-off between protesting workers and the management at Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s (MSIL’s) Manesar facility in Haryana, industry leaders from the area on Tuesday met to discuss ways to prevent labour trouble from spreading in the automobile hub. MSIL Chairman R C Bhargava was believed to be at the meeting which was attended by Bony Polymers Managing Director Raj Bhatia, JBM Chairman S K Arya, N K Minda, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Senior Vice President (HR) Harbhajan Singh and Rico Auto Head (HR) Surinder Singh, among others.“The industry is a little worried about the situation. People involved with the auto industry are concerned as the labour unrest may affect their units as well,” a PTI report said quoting sources. Production at Munjal Showa’s Manesar plant was affected last week when workers went on a strike demanding regularisation of casual employees. It was called off with the management agreeing to regularise trainee workers who have completed five...

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)’s BMW brand in August expandened its sales lead over Daimler AG (DAI)’s Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Motor Corp. (7203)’s Lexus, delivering the most luxury models in the U.S. for a fifth straight month. BMW’s U.S. sales, helped by deliveries of the new 5-Series sedan and X3 sport-utility vehicle, rose 6.5 percent last month compared with a year earlier to 20,815, the Munich-based automaker said yesterday in a statement. The results bring BMW a step closer to being 2011’s top-selling U.S. luxury brand and ending Lexus’s 11-year streak. Mercedes sales fell 1.9 percent to 18,477 in August while Lexus fell 7 percent to 18,103 as the Japanese make continued to suffer from inventory disruptions following the March earthquake and tsunami. “This has been a very strange August for our industry with both difficult news and unfortunate events -- consumer confidence down and an earthquake, hurricane and floods in the Northeast” Jim O’Donnell, head of BMW of Nort...

Mercedes-Benz introduces new version of flagship sedan C-Class in India Mercedes-Benz, a Germany-based car manufacturer, has unveiled an advanced version of its flagship sedan C-Class in India. It is priced in the range of Rs 29.75 lakh and Rs 32.30 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). Moreover, the firm is planning to unveil 3-4 new products consisting of upgrades and also new variants of the current models, in the upcoming two months in India. Mr Debashis Mitra, Mercedes-Benz India Director (Sales & Marketing), said, “The C-Class is our flagship and we are the market leader in this segment. The new C-Class will further strengthen our position in the market.” Furthermore, the firm is eyeing to sell 250-300 units of the new C-Class as compared to nearly 200 units of the outgoing version. The C-Class is considered as the cheapest model from the firm's stable and the old model has been priced at Rs 29.75 lakh-Rs 32.80 lakh.

German luxury car maker BMW on Thursday said it has increased annual output from its Chennai plant to 11,000 units with the start of second shift from June. The company, which is present in India through a wholly owned subsidiary, today launched its sports utility vehicle X3 priced between Rs 41.2 lakh and Rs 47.9 lakh (ex-showroom, across India). "We have expanded our production facility by starting the second shift of production. The production has been expanded to 11,000 units annually from 10,000 units," BMW India President Andreas Schaaf told reporters here. Earlier in March, the company had ramped up production capacity from 8,000 to 10,000 units per year in single shift operations. "If needed we can add another assembly line, if needed we can increase the output of the second shift and if needed we can add another production site. Everything is possible on our strategy for the next 10 years," Schaaf said. He said the company was targeting to sell one...

BMW Raises India Factory Output India -- BMW AG's India unit Thursday said it has raised capacity at its factory for the fourth time in a year to meet rising demand for its luxury sedans and sport-utility vehicles in Asia's third-largest automobile market. The latest expansion will take annual capacity at the plant, located in Chennai in Tamil Nadu state, to 11,000 cars and SUVs from 10,000 previously. In December, BMW raised the plant's capacity by 48% to 8,000 units a year and then in March by 25% to 10,000 units. This was after the company raised production to 5,400 from 3,000 in September 2010. The auto maker is lifting capacity so it can assemble its new X3 SUV, which was until recently imported from its German factories. The expansion comes on the back of record growth in car and SUV sales in India. BMW expects total local sales of premium cars and SUVs to soar to 23,000-24,000 vehicles in 2011, up from 15,000 last year. Demand for luxury cars and SUVs is b...

BMW India said that the luxury car maker will be aggressive about Indian market and will bring out coupe version of 6 series. The company has also planned to launch BMW 3 series convertible by the end of this year in India. BMW has been doing pretty well in India and owns mor than 40% market share in premium car segment. The company president Andreas Schaaf is confident that they will be able to sell over 10k cars this year. The company has already sold 5364 cars till July. With the new model launch and better marketing efforts, the company can reach around 50% market share in India. BMW X3 launch was delayed in India due to technical reasons. The car has been recenly launched with starting range of Rs 42 lakh. To compete with market leader BMW, Audi has reduced the price of 2.0 litre TDI engine Q5 price to 35 lakh. Audi has been trying hard to increase its market share in India. As other markets in Eurozone and US still face lower sales, the premium car segment has been growing ...

BMW   India   2012  -  BMW   India   enhances   capacity to 11,000 units per annum BMW India, the largest luxury car maker in the Indian market, said on Thursday that it has enhanced the total output at its Chennai plant to 11,000 units. The capacity of the Chennai plant has been increased with the help of second shift that commenced in June 2011. The company had increased its capacity to 10,000 units per annum in March this year in a single shift. Speaking to reporters in Pune, BMW India President Andreas Schaaf said, "We have expanded our production facility by starting the second shift of production. The production has been expanded to 11,000 units annually from 10,000 units." He added that if needed the company can add another assembly line, or it can increase the output of the second shift and even add another production site. He specified that "everything is possible on BMW India’s strategy for the next 10 years". In ne...

Force Motors SUV 2011 - Force Motors launches SUV Force One Force Motors SUV 2011 Commercial vehicle maker Force Motors on Friday launched a SUV 'Force One' and plans to launch two more variants in 2012, its managing director said. The diesel variant SUV would be sold from September 1, the company said. "The market potential for SUVs is 70,000 vehicles and we aim to sell about 4,000 vehicles in the first year (of launch)," Prasan Firodia told reporters. Force Motors, known for its light commercial vehicle brands--Tempo, Matador and Traveller--has already invested about Rs 150 crore over the last 12-18 months in its plant to manufacture SUVs in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. The plant has an installed capacity of 12,000 SUVs, which can be ramped up further. Force One will cost about 1.07 million rupees, the company said. At 1:18 p.m., shares of Force Motors were trading at 645 rupee, down 0.78 percent in a weak Mumbai market.

Force Motors 2012 - Force Motors introduces sports utility vehicle Force Motors 2012 - Force Motors introduces sports utility vehicle Force Motors announced its entry into the personal vehicles space by launching its new sports utility vehicle (SUV), Force One in Mumbai on Friday. The vehicle is priced at Rs. 10.65 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The SUV was unveiled by Abhay Firodia, Chairman and Prasan Firodia, Managing Director, Force Motors, and Force One brand ambassador Bollywood star, Amitabh Bachchan. Addressing the media, Prasan Firodia said, “The designers and engineers working on the Force One had a tough brief to develop an SUV for the discerning Indian buyer. Technologically advanced, great road presence, excellent ride and handling, immense space creating comfort at a competitive price are some of the features we have focussed on. This is an SUV tailor-made for the Indian customers.'' Over more than 50 years, Force Motors has been making high reliability eng...

Maruti Suzuki India Maruti in talks with Fiat Maruti Suzuki India is in talks with the local unit of Italy’s Fiat for diesel engines. “There has been an unprecedented rise in demand for diesel vehicles, mainly because of the pricing of the fuel. Since Fiat has spare capacity, we are evaluating buying engines from them,” R.C. Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki India, said. Port plan New Delhi, Aug. 19: The ministry of shipping is planning special purpose vehicles to execute seven ports. The SPVs may be allowed to raise money from the market. The government plans to set up the ports by 2017 at an investment of Rs 35,000 crore. Engineering New Delhi, Aug. 19: Engineering exports grew 187 per cent to $8.2 billion in July on the back of rising demand from new markets such as Latin America and Africa. Swiss tax pact New Delhi, Aug. 19: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has said the pact signed with Switzerland to share banking information on demand is likely to come into force b...

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd  2011 - Maruti expects slowdown in sales this year Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is expecting a slower growth in sales in the current financial year in the backdrop of the slowdown in the market. The growth in sales might drop to 8-9 per cent from 30 per cent in the last fiscal, which was one of the highest growth rates achieved by the company. In April – June period, the company registered a marginal drop in sales. This was 22.4 per cent up in the same period of last financial year. In the quarter, the company sold 281,526 units, including exports of 30,843 cars, as against 283,324 units in April-June period of 2010-11. In June, sales dropped to 80,298 from 88,091 in the same month of last year. Addressing a press conference in connection with the Kerala launch of the new Swift, Maruti Suzuki general manager and commercial business head (south) Manohar Bhat said the company had increased the production capacity of Swift to 17,000 -18,000 pieces monthly as it ...

 Country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki has forecasted the export figures of the company to dip by 10,000 units in the current financial year. As per a statement given by a senior executive of the company, the ongoing financial crisis in the European market is to be blamed for the slowdown in exports. While speaking to reporters in Hyderabad, Executive Managing Officer (Engineering) at Maruti Suzuki, I V Rao, said that the exports of the company may reach 1.3 lakh units in the current fiscal as compared to 1.4 lakh units dispatched to the overseas markets in last fiscal. According to Mr. Rao, "Majorly, the exports are of A-star car to Europe. Because of the slowdown, the exports to Europe have come down. We have developed new markets like Latin American countries where exports began. Last year exports were at 1.4 lakh units and this year we may be touching 1.3 lakh units." Besides the financial crisis, one more reason behind the dip in exports to the European markets...

NEW Maruti Swift Price Rs 4.22-6.38 lakh NEW Maruti Swift Price Rs 4.22-6.38 lakh Country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Limited has launched its much awaited and much talked about new generation version of Swift in the Indian market on Wednesday. The all new Swift has been shelved in the price range of Rs 4.22-6.38 lakh. With the launch of new generation model, the Swift series will now be able to compete more promptly with new age rivals like Ford Figo and Volkswagen Polo. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of new Swift, Maruti Suzuki India managing director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said, "The new Swift will create new benchmarks with its improved fuel efficiency, stylish and sportier looks and high performance."  The all new Swift is about 30 kg lighter than its predecessor, making it more fuel efficient and better in performance. The petrol version of the car is claimed to deliver a fuel economy of 18.6 kmpl, about 4 percen...

NEW Maruti Swift | New Maruti Swift launched in the range of Rs 4.22-6.38 lakh NEW Maruti Swift Country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Limited has launched its much awaited and much talked about new generation version of Swift in the Indian market on Wednesday. The all new Swift has been shelved in the price range of Rs 4.22-6.38 lakh. With the launch of new generation model, the Swift series will now be able to compete more promptly with new age rivals like Ford Figo and Volkswagen Polo. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of new Swift, Maruti Suzuki India managing director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said, "The new Swift will create new benchmarks with its improved fuel efficiency, stylish and sportier looks and high performance."  The all new Swift is about 30 kg lighter than its predecessor, making it more fuel efficient and better in performance. The petrol version of the car is claimed to deliver a fuel economy of 18.6 kmpl, about 4 per...

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Honda planning 2012 - Honda planning to revise full year profit forecasts Honda planning 2012 Honda planning 2012 Honda planning 2012 The Japanese automobile companies are in a flux this year with all the production disruption due to earthquake and also the volatile currency. Now it has been reported that Honda, Japan's third-largest carmaker, has reportedly stated that it may revise its full-year profit forecast when it announces first-half earnings in October, depending on how long the current market turmoil lasts. The reports quoted Honda Chief Financial Officer Fumihiko Ike as saying that the prolonged drop in U.S. equities will lead to a decline in consumption and delayed car purchases. He also mentioned that the company is also concerned the yen may strengthen to the low 70s against the dollar, further hurting earnings from exports. According to the reports, U.S. stocks Monday sank the most since December 2008 and European stocks Tuesday retreated fo...

TATA MOTORS - Tata Aria 4x2 to Be a Complete Luxury Drive - tata aria 4x2 price Tata Aria 4x2 to Be a Complete Luxury Drive Tata Aria 4x2 to Be a Complete Luxury Drive Tata Aria 4x2 to Be a Complete Luxury Drive Tata Motors, one of the India's largest automobile manufacturers, launched Aria 4x2 in the local market. Aria 4x2 is a perfect combination of sedan's finesse and SUV`s strength. The Tata Aria 4x2 range would be made available in 85 cities through 150 showrooms, and its base model is smartly priced at Rs 11.71 lakh. The Aria has three models named as Aria Prestige, Aria Pleasure and Aria Pure. The Prestige model is the top most variant and would be available with 16 added features. The Tata Aria 4x2, which was launched in 2010, is quite different from the cross over models as the company has been constantly working with its research and development team to improve its flagship model. The new crossover has some really exciting features like ...

 Tata Motors planning to expand presence by adding 400 more dealers by the end of year India’s largest automobile company Tata Motors is looking to aggressively expand its presence all over the country and increase its numbers by a significant amount by next year. It has been reported that the company is now looking to increase its dealership count from the existing 250 to 650 by the end of this year. The reports quoted," Tata Motors Vice President Commercial R Ramakrishnan as saying "The company started this year with dealership network of 250. By the end of this year, we would be adding 400 dealerships, taking the total count to 650 dealer outlets. We are going to add 300 dealerships exclusively for Nano, predominantly in tier-III markets which are towns with population below two lakhs, by the end of this year.’’ He continued saying "For Nano, we expect a lot of interest in tier-III and IV cities as well as in rural markets. So considering various aspects we have to...

Tata Motors Tata Motors to Provide 3.4 Million Truck Drivers  Say it a sale boosting tactic or a genuine step taken towards improving the condition of truck accident rates, Tata Motors is joining hands with quasi-government institutions, NGOs truck distributors and training institutes to train drivers. According to the data, India is second in the list of world in terms of truck accidents. This is not the only reason to have skilled truck drivers, as from 2014, around 2 million drivers, a year would be needed. Tata Motors have revealed that in next 10 years, they would be ready with 3.4 million drivers, which would restart the sales growth for truck makers, like itself. GS Uppal, industrial relation CSR Administrative Head, Tata Motors said, “To maintain the growth momentum of the industry we decided to take up this skilling initiative under CSR (corporate social responsibility). It will not only help the society but also the business in general”. Giving details about ...

Tata Motors Global Increases its Stake in Rising Beverages Company  Tata Motors Global Increases Tata Motors registered its net profit by Rs 1,999 crore in the first quarter, which is an increased amount when compared to the corresponding quarter last fiscal gain of Rs 1,988 crore. The net sale of the India’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer is 23.4% amounting to Rs 33,392 crore from Rs 27,055 crore year against last year. Even, Tata Global Beverages Ltd, the world’s second-largest tea company, has increased its share in the Rising Beverages Company LLC, a US-based performance beverage and bottled water manufacturer. The total amount of investment in the US Company is of $21 million. Percy Siganporia, Managing Director for Tata Global Beverages Ltd. said, “During the first quarter of the current financial year, our international subsidiary has increased investments in Rising Beverages. Our holding in the company currently stands at 43.1%, calculated on a fully di...

Tata Motors net profit rises only marginally Tata Motors net profit rises only marginally Tata Motors net profit rises only marginally Tata Motors, India’s biggest automobile manufacturer in terms of revenues, on Thursday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,999.62 crore for the quarter ended June 30, a 0.5 per cent increase over the corresponding quarter a year ago. The company’s financial performance missed analysts’ estimates, as slower-than-expected volume growth and steeper expenses dented margins. It had reported Rs 1,988.73 crore as net profit in the same quarter last year.The vehicle maker clarified that expensive lending rates, higher fuel costs and inflation had impacted margins during the reporting quarter restricting it to passing on the costs to its customers. “The company took an overall price increase of 2.5 per cent during the first quarter. However this did not fully offset the rise in prices. In addition, since last year, we have been talking a...