TATA introducing Divo - Intercity luxury buses for India

TATA motors, the largest CV maker of India has decided to add competition to Volvo and Mercedes in luxury intercity bus segment. TATA that owns Hispano Carrocera, the Spanish bus body building and bus maker is launching its luxury intercity model Divo by 1^st quarter of 2011.

TATA took 100% control of Hispano in 2009 by acquiring balance 79% of remaining  stake making it 100% subsidiary called TATA hispano. TATA already has popular Globus model running on Indian roads with body built by hispano in Goa, India.

The Intercity luxury bus market is growing significantly with private and government owned corporations investing heavily in acquiring the fleets. Presently Volvo, the Swedish automotive major controls over 50% share in the segment followed by Mercedes. TATA, planning to price the Divo at around 10% less than the global brands and giving same luxury thinks it would position well in this segment.  

Picture - TATA hispano

Mercedes finally decides to enter in city bus segment

Mercedes Benz, the number one CV maker in the world has finally decided to enter in to City bus segment. Volvo bus is the market leader with its bus being used in the Rapid transit systems at Bangalore and Delhi successfully since it first started its bus running on Bangalore roads in 2006. Presently the low floor, City buses from Volvo run in 10 cities but 80% of the total vehicles being in Delhi and Bangalore.

Mercedes that has the 2 and 3 axle tourist buses in India for some reason decided so late to look in to this segment especially the Indian Metro cities are getting make over for their infrastructure and has strong blessing from Government with funds for urban development. The market is expected to grow at around 15-20% and events like the commonwealth Games would trigger the spike in demands.

Never the less this would trigger some competition to Volvo that has around 30% premium in pricing than its Indian competitors, TATA and Ashok Leyland due to its better quality, life and maintenance terms is expected to get to compete with Mercedes on the same lines.

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

Daimler parts away with TATA by offloading its stake

Not many people knew that TATA the biggest automaker in India especially in CV segment and Daimler AG the parent of Mercedes Benz had a relationship that started over 50 years back in 1954. TATA had an agreement with Daimler to assemble LCV range of Mercedes benz that lasted for 15 years. TATA build the cars for Mercedes till 2001 when Daimler started looking seriously in to Asia and India market.

Daimler sold all of its 5.3 % stake in TATA motors that is bought by TATA sons the holding company owned by promoters and CITI BANK Mauritius.

Daimler (link)has plans to launch its own CV on Indian roads by 2012. the initial talks with Hero group fell apart after the latter decided to focus on its niche 2 wheeler segment and Daimler decided to land in the market alone. TATA motors in the market leader in CV. TATA that bought Jaguar and Landrover brands compete with Mercedes segments.

Indian auto industry scoring like Sachin Tendulkar

Majority of Indian auto OEMs have scored highest ever sales in a month for the month of February 2010.

Maruti the market leader in sales has recorded highest ever sales of 96659 units, Hundai Motors 54617 units spearhead the sales numbers. Tata motors has seen record 98% growth in its media and heavy commercial segment, 67% in Commercial vehicle segment. The commercial vehicle segment has seen a painful last year is seeing a breather with new vehicles being rolling over again on roads. Toyota motors has seen a records 101% growth in sales that include the Innova, corolla and Fortuner models.

Govt’s stimulus, dealer discounts and initial grape wines of price hikes after budget have contributed to the rush, however the budget and increase in price of commodities, increase in excise on key raw materials and fuel price hike would probably put a break on this run in the next quarter as a whole.

	Feb-10	Feb-09
Hundai Motors
growth	42.80%
sales	54617	38235
domestic	31001	21215
export	23616	17020
Maruti suzuki
growth	22.50%
sales	96650	79190
domestic	84765	70625
export	11885	8565
TATA motors
growth	56%
sales	66190	42493
cars	43.70%
sales	29241	20348
exports	3237	1318
lcv	21764	11100
M&HCV	17441	349
cvs	39205	23454
M&M
growth	35.65%
sales	26580	19594
three wheeler
	6907	3415
utility vehicles	24.18%
	18280	14720
logan	537	1008
cv growth	89.80%
cv sales	856	451
exports	1314	300
Toyota
growth	101%
cars, SUV	5993	2976

GM
growth	126%
sales	11111	4921
Ashok Leyland
growth	142%
sales	7869	3245
domestic	7902	2669
export	777	576
Honda
growth	12.50%
sales	6275	5579
Mercedes
growth	78%
sales	439	246
Audi
sales	252	113