GM India lays roadmap for LCV launch

GM India, through its JV with SAIC in China has finalized the time frame to roll out the 1 tonne capacity LCVs on Indian road by end of 2011. Presently GM has presence on car market in India. Last couple of years has been tough on GM but end of 2009 and 2010 has been cheerful with the launch of its new Beat.

The JV has been news for quite some time now by inducting senior executives of SAIC on to GM Indian board. After it’s successful stint in China, GM seems to be trying to exploit its relationship with SAIC to expand its offerings beyond car market in India.

GM India now makes its own plan for Electric cars

On the brink of Mahindra buying the stake in REVA electric vehicle company, GM India announced its own plan to work on Electric cars from US. Last year GM India had come to an agreement to work with REVA for technology alliance for its Spark version.

The new move came as a set back for GM India as Mahindra a leading auto maker in India.

Mahindra enters in to Electric space with a stake in REVA

Indian leading utility vehicle maker Mahindra is in news again, this time by acquiring 55.2% stake. The new entity would be called Mahindra Reva Electric vehicle Company.

Mahindra, clearly the a great success story in Indian automotive scenario in recent times had been putting all the right foundations towards reaching the global markets. Mahindra is the leading utility and tractor market in India has a partnership with Navistar for M&HCV sector, has recently put maxximo, a sub ton category utility vehicle. Mahindra’s attempt to enter in to passenger car segment was not so successful with its divorce with Renault with a failed model Logan. The pickup version of Scorpio is all set to be launched in US market by the end of 2010.

Having stake in Reva, puts Mahindra in to the league of Indian auto markers

attempt to enter the attractive global electric vehicle market. TATA motors the Indian auto giant has made its preparation by acquiring the Norwegian electric car marker. It is planning to launch the EV Indica in UK and Scandinavia by the end of this year and the EV Nano in US by next year.

Mahindra’s proposition is to use the REVA technology, especially it’s drive-train technology. The Maxximo might soon be coming in EV version as REVA it self not a very successful in selling its cars in spite of its presence since 1994 as Electric ca company. REVA also has been in news since last year after it came with an agreement with GM India to help GM with EV technology for GM India’s plan for spark electric version. By then it was quite evident that REVA started looking for different options to position it self in the market, either as a technology company or ready to be acquired. The present stake sale has put the agreement with GM India in to side ways. However Mr Anand Mahindra has expressed that Mahndra is ready honor the agreement to offer the technology.

Sale of REVA also marks the end of an era for REVA that started its initiative in EV domain in 1994 and was one of the early movers in this area to bring in cars on road. Presently REVA mentions it has presence in 24 countries and around 3000 cars on Road.

It clearly mentions that REVA was never a successful car company (in growth) however the persistence to continue in the field over this period in it self is an achievement and its Name being taken amongst very few EV companies in the world can’t be denied.

Mahindra Pickup to be launched in USA by Dec 2010

The much awaited launch of Pickup model in US finally seems to be happening. According to company announcement the Pickup truck that is built on its most popular Scorpio model would be launched by end of this year. When the Mahindra Pickup runs on US roads, that would make the model to be the first Indian vehicle on US roads.

The launch has marred with delays due to the compliance issues for US safety and emission standards. According to the company news, the vehicle would be made available as TR20 (2 door) and TR40 (4 door) version with Mahindra it self as the name of the vehicle. The vehicles would be exclusively distributed by Global Vehicle USA (http://www.gv-usa.com/)

Picture Courtesy- Mahindra

Volkswagen ramping up to beat the competition

VW India is planning to enter in to A3 segment with its new model Vento by 3rd quarter of this year. This segment is dominated by Honda City and has very less competition. The new car is going to be built on the same platform as that of its small car Polo. The significant strategy is to bring a Diesel version in this segment that is lacking.

VW also is planning to ramp up the production of Polo to meet the over bookings. Presently Polo has about 3 months waiting time. VW has state of the art plant at Chakan close to Pune with an annual capacity of 110000 cars. The skoda “Fabia’ is also rolled of the same plant.

Bulk selling; the new trend - 115 Mercedes cars sold in one day

The bulk booking seems to be a buzz now in India that started in residential properties where like minded people joined together and negotiated with builders. Now an Whooping 115 Mercedes cars were booked in one go by what is known as Aurngabad group through a dealer in Pune. However the negotiations are believed to be done with the OEM directly due to the size of the deal.

In the month of April Mercedes sold 321 units across Inda, not sure this includes the sale of this bulk order.

Aurangabad is historically an industrial city with companies like Videocon having base there. The group is said to have consisted of industrialist, lawyers, Doctors, developers.

Momentum continues - April 2010 Automative sales figures

The April month carried a good momentum in sales form YoY basis however, the sales numbers are lower from Month on Month. Rising raw material cost and gas prices are being passed to the customer, however it appears to be the market has some more room to take this cost.

The highlight of the sales is for Ford and GM with their new aggressively priced models Figo, Beat. Both Companies are now ramping up production to meet the demand by adding second shifts. The higher sales in these models have also eaten away the share of Hundai Motors from i10, i20 space.

Honda has recorded a decline in sales consecutively since March 2010.

	Apr-10	Apr-09
Hundai Motors
growth	28.10%
sales	52020	44370
domestic	28501	22247
export	22123	23519
Maruti suzuki
growth	29.70%
sales	93058	71748
domestic	80034	64857
export	13024	6891
GM
growth	200%
sales	10601	4823
TATA motors
growth	52%
sales	57202	37518
cars	72.27%
sales	23102	13410
exports	3137	1261
lcv	17806	14245
M&HCV	13157	4869
cvs	30963	22847
M&M
growth	13.21%
sales	26043	23004
three wheeler
	5876	2972
utility vehicles	-2.43%
	17998	18447
logan	303	550
cv growth	32.72%
cv sales	860	648
exports	856	387
Honda
growth	-19.54%
sales	5928	7368
Toyota
growth	77%
cars, SUV	6001	3386
Ford
growth	270.00%
sales	7509	2034
Mercedes
growth	200%
sales	321	178