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23 November, 2011 Hit by the depreciating rupee, auto companies, including General Motors India and Toyota Kirloskar Motor, are mulling hike in prices to offset the rising cost of component imports.
“We import lots of parts and the rupee depreciation is impacting us. We were planning to review prices in January but due to the currency fluctuation we may have to do it soon,” General Motors India Vice-President P Balendran told media. He said commodity prices have also been increasing, adding to the burden on auto firms. “We are currently evaluating the quantum of impact on the prices of our products,” he said.
Expressing similar views, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh said the present currency fluctuation is affecting the company severely. “It is a double whammy for us. On one hand, yen is appreciating, while on the other hand rupee is depreciating. Our margins are getting impacted,” he added.
Asked if the company will increase the prices, Singh said: “As of now we are absorbing, but if there is too much pressure, then we will share the burden with customers. Currently, we are revisiting the prices of all our models. Any new price increase, if we take, will be applicable from January 1.”
The rupee plunged to an all-time low this morning to Rs 52.75 against the US dollar on the Interbank Foreign Exchange on sustained demand for the American currency. It is putting severe pressure on companies which import substantial amount of components from overseas.
“The rupee depreciation is adversely impacting us as we are a net importer. This is the worst movement of rupee against US dollar. It has lost 15 per cent in the last two months,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief Financial Officer Ajay Seth said.
MSI has both direct and indirect exposure to foreign currencies while importing components, and it imports about Rs 8,000 crore worth of parts annually, he added. “At the same time, we also export cars and that is benefiting at present. However, considering both, we are impacted as a net importer. The situation is affecting our margins,” Seth said. He, however, said the company does not have any plans at present to increase the prices of its products.
The hit due to the weakening of rupee comes at a time when auto makers have been enduring one of the toughest periods with car sales in the country on a continuous decline.
In October, car sales in India registered their steepest monthly decline in nearly 11 years, tanking 23.77 per cent on account of a huge drop in output by the country’s largest car-maker MSI due to labour trouble, coupled with high interest rates and rising fuel prices.
Another auto maker Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) said it is not impacted so far as it is protected under long term contracts with its foreign vendors.

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03 November, 2011 Diversified business house InterGlobe Enterprises on Wednesday said it has launched British sportscar maker Ariel Motor’s Atom range of cars in India, priced up to Rs 85 lakh.
InterGlobe Established Pvt Ltd, the luxury lifestyle solution provider and subsidiary of InterGlobe Enterprises, will be responsible for Ariel Motor’s products in India. Branded as The Estd, the InterGlobe Established will “exclusively represent the Ariel Motor Company in India and SAARC”, the company said in a statement.
The Estd will sell various models of Atom with price of car having standard specifications starting from about Rs 55 lakh and for all upgrades such as superchargers going up to Rs 85 lakh. It will also bring the different variants of Ariel Atom 3 in India.
“India is fascinated by fast cars, and the Atom gives us a unique opportunity to provide a distinguished product in this category...The demand for these cars is expected to grow at 20 per cent over the next 5 years, presenting an exciting market opportunity,” The Estd President and CEO Nigel Harwood said.
The company sees “huge potential” for this product in India, especially on the back of a successful F1 season.
“We have seen the emergence of sports car culture amongst the young HNIs (high net worth individuals), who seek thrill and adventure. The addition of Atom will help us strengthen our portfolio and cater to new emerging consumer segments,” he said.
England-based Ariel Motor Company’s V8 Atom series beat the Bugatti Veyron earlier this year by 1.7 seconds on the TopGear test track, making it the fastest road-legal car to go around the track, the company claimed.
Earlier this year, The Estd had introduced Swedish super luxury sports car Koenigsegg, carrying a price tag of about Rs 12.5 crore. It had also launched an entire range of other luxury products in India such as motorcycles, yachts, boats, premium helicopters and private jets.

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29 September, 2011 Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), India’s leading manufacturer of utility vehicles today launched its new global sport utility vehicle XUV 500 at a starting price of Rs 10.80 lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi). The company will begin bookings from Saturday. This is the first major utility vehicle launch from Mahindra after its Xylo launch.
Mahindra will position the XUV 500 between the Scorpio and the premium SUV range which comprises of the Toyota Fortuner, Chevrolet Captiva, Mitubishi Outlander, Honda CR-V and the likes. The XUV 500 will be available in both 4x2 and 4x4 variants.
In the domestic market, it will be first available in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. It will be pitched against the likes of General Motors' Captiva and the Toyota Fortuner, which are priced at around Rs 19-20 lakh.
Stating that the new vehicle is a reflection of the firm's ever-growing global aspirations, M&M Vice-Chairman Anand Mahindra said: “XUV500 is much more than a car. It will be another cult vehicle, as Scorpio was.”
Goenka said the XUV500, on which M&M spent Rs 650 crore to develop, is the first product from its Chennai research and development centre. It will be produced at the Chakan plant.
The auto giant will manufacture the new SUV at its Chakan plant near Pune. Designed entirely at Mahindra’s R&D centre in Chennai, the XUV promises a lot of firsts for Mahindra. The XUV 500 is the country’s first indigenously developed monocoque SUV and also the first to offer a transverse engine layout. Since the XUV 500 is a global vehicle, it was conceived and designed with global standards of quality, technology, testing norms, regulations and emissions right from the very beginning.
The XUV500 is powered by a 2.2-litre M-Hawk engine which is now in an east-west layout as against a north-south placement in other Mahindra vehicles. This engine develops 140bhp but more importantly has 330Nm of torque. Mated to this engine is another first for an all Indian vehicle - a six-speed manual gearbox, developed in-house by Mahindra itself as is the front wheel drive transfer case. Base models will be front wheel drive while another version will have an all wheel drive layout with a torque on demand mechanism also delivering drive to the rear wheels.
The grille of the XUV 500 is different while the front end treatment with projector headlamps, LED day-time running lights, large front bumper with streaked air dam and recessed fog lamps make for a menacing look. Latest safety features also has been added in the vehicle in abundance. The prices of the Mahindra XUV 500 are as follows Rs 10.80 lakhs for W8 four wheel drive, Rs 11.95 lakhs for W8 two wheel drive variant and Rs 12.88 lakhs for W8 four wheel drive variant (All ex-showroom Delhi).

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23 September, 2011

“We regularly review the situation, see the situation and we will take a decision on a price hike at our meeting next month,” Karl Slym, president and managing director, General Motors India, said in response to queries about an imminent price hike.
He added, “Commodity prices are crazy but as the market slows down, these could stabilise although this has not happened. Crude and steel prices are still high and prices of precious materials, used in catalytic converters, are very volatile.”
On a more positive note, he was confident that the OEM will beat industry growth for a second consecutive year. “Last year, when industry grew at 30 percent, we grew at 60 percent. This year, too, we will be double the rate of growth of the automobile industry. During July and August, the passenger car market has shrunk but we grew at 14 percent in July and 10 percent in August because last year we did not have a diesel in the mini segment,” he said, adding that under the circumstances, they are unlikely to offer discounts during the festive season.
Mr Slym, who was in Pune to inaugurate the city’s fifth dealership and the 252nd across the country, said they will add more dealerships across the country.
Referring to the five new products that GMI will launch in the next 15 months, he said two of the five will be made at Talegaon, its passenger car plant, and three at Halol in Gujarat, its commercial vehicle plant. Of the five, two will be of SAIC design and the remainder three from GM. The Talegaon plant capacity will increase to 1.72 lakh capacity from 1.4 lakh currently by December, to handle the new products. “These vehicles will have local content of 80-90 percent from the start,” he added.

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11 May, 2011 Luxury car maker BMW India on Tuesday said it has started assembling engines of 3 and 5 Series sedans and sports utility vehicle X1 at its Chennai plant from April to avoid the higher 30 per cent customs duty, following the new norms on completely knocked down units in the Budget.
“At this point of time, our completely knocked down (CKD) operations are fully fulfilling the new regulations. We are paying 10 per cent duty... There will be no price hike,” BMW India President Andreas Schaaf told reporters.
For pre-assembled engines, transmissions and gearboxes, customs duty was fixed at 30 per cent in the 2011-12 Budget as against 10 per cent earlier. However, other parts continue to attract a customs duty of 10 per cent.
“In our engines, about 50 per cent of the assembly is done in India. So it is considered as locally produced,” he said, adding, the company will gradually shift to complete manufacturing of vehicles once it reaches a sizeable volume.
The company currently assembles 3 and 5 Series cars and the SUV X1. The ex-showroom prices of 3 and 5 Series cars in Delhi starts at Rs 24.4 lakh and Rs 37.6 lakh, respectively, while the X1’s price begins at Rs 22.4 lakh.
While unveiling a concept hybrid sports car by BMW, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Praful Patel said his ministry has asked the Finance Ministry to give two years’ time to the auto industry to comply with the new CKD norms.
When asked about seeking the two-year timeline despite being able to meet the new guidelines, Schaaf said: “We are of the belief that any regulation should not be changed overnight but should be implemented planfully over a period of time. So we are a part of the (SIAM )’s request to extend the timeline”.
He also expressed disappointment on the government not consulting the industry before hiking the customs duty.

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As we reported earlier, Tata Motors has increased the prices of some vehicles on 1st January 2011 due to increasing cost.

The price increase varies from passenger vehicles and the commercial vehicles. The former gets an increase in the range of Rs 3000 – Rs 15000 and in UV between Rs 8000 and Rs 14500 respectively.

Price of the commercial vehicle have been increased in the range of Rs 1500 – Rs. 3000.

Tata Passenger & Commerical Vehicles Price Goes HigherTata Commercial Vehicles Price Hike DelayedTata Motors Slashes Price On Passenger and Commercial VehiclesMahindra Vehicles To Cost Higher From October 1stTata Motors Tied-Up With Vijaya Bank For Financing VehiclesTags: tata motors price hike, tata motors price increase

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Volkswagen have announced an  increase in the price of its Polo with effect from January 1, 2011. The hatchback will see a dearer price hike at 2.9 %, read a recent press release. Lucky customers who book the Polo before December 31, 2010 can avail the present cost.

Neeraj Garg, Member of Board & Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Volkswagen Group Sales India, said “We have been faced with a constant rise in input cost over the past several months and have tried our best to absorb it. However, in order to continue to maintain our quality standards that our customers expect from us we have had to increase the price by a small percentage.”

Volkswagen Polo’s India launch in March 2010 has proved more than successful, already topping sales with over 17,000 units as of November 2010. Volkswagen’s Chakan plant, manufactured the first locally-made Volkswagen Polo model in India.

Volkswagen also offers the Jetta and Passat, assembled in Aurangabad, for Indian residents. Also popular among masses is the iconic New Beetle, powerful SUV Touareg, luxurious Phaeton, New Polo, and Vento.

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of Nissan Micra hatchback in the Indian market, on Friday. The new Nissan Micra Diesel has been offered in two variants at Rs 5.59 lakh and Rs 6.05 lakh (Ex-showroom), respectively.

The new diesel variant of the company carries a 1.5L eight-valve four-cylinder engine that is capable of delivering a peak power of 47kw at 4,000rpm. Both variant of Micra come mated with a five-speed manual transmission and are claimed to be offering a class-leading fuel economy of up to 23.08 km/l.

Before this, in July this year, the company had launched the petrol version of Micra in the Indian market that has been registering impressive sales in the country since than. So far, the company has managed to sell more than 6,000 units of Micra Petrol in India.

As per a statement given by Nissan India’s MD and CEO Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama, the success of the Micra Petrol version in the Indian market has given the company confidence to introduce the diesel variant of the car within six months of its launch in response to popular demand. He was briefing to the reporters at the launching ceremony of Micra Diesel in Mumbai.

The new diesel version has been placed in B

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07 December, 2010 Maruti Suzuki India today said it will increase its car prices soon, to balance the rising input costs and impact of strengthening yen. The company said that it was working on the time and quantity of price hike of its vehicles.
“In the past few months the input costs have increased significantly. We have been absorbing so far through internal efficiency measure but now we have to pass it on to the consumers,” Maruti Suzuki India Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said.
When asked by how much and when the prices would be increased, he said: “We are currently working out on it but it is certain that we have to raise prices.” He also mentioned that the company had to make a decision as input costs have reported a steep increase in the recent past.
“The price of natural rubber, which used to be Rs 100 per kg has gone up to Rs 200 per kg. Copper price has increased by 12-15 per cent and steel has also seen a similar increase,” Pareek said.
Moreover, as the Japanese currency continues to gain against the dollar, the equation between the two is getting adverse. There seem to be no softening of these factors, he added.

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Car companies to hike prices from 1 – Jan – 2011 due to rising input cost. So if you are looking to purchase a car in December we would advice you to go ahead as in January 2011 you might have to shell out 2-3% more. Normally purchases are postpone till the new year by customers to get better resale value.

General Motors and Hyundai Motors have already announced hikes. Other car makers such as Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Toyota Kirloskar Motors, Ford India will announce price hikes shortly. The price hike campaign will see as high as Rs. 25000/-. Hyundai Motor India has increased prices to the wave length Rs. 4,000-25 ,000/- on its different models from January – 1 – 2011.

“We are forced to go for the increase in the range of 1.5-2 % as major inputs like steel, rubber and other metals have shown an upsurge in the past few months,” Hyundai Motor India spokesman said.

General Motors India on the other hand will increase prices by 3%. One of the main reasons for this hike is steep rise in commodity costs. Lets take the example of natural rubber its prices have doubled in recent months, copper prices have soared by nearly 15% in the past few months.

Mayank Pareek, executive officer (marketing & sales), Maruti Suzuki India

“We have been absorbing rising input costs by enhancing our operational efficiencies. But now we have to pass them on to consumers.”

Moving on to Tata Motors the company is said to have a price hike of 2-3 % for its passenger vehicles. However, Tata motors will not increase the price of its newly launched Tata Aria and Nano, two people familiar with the matter said.

“There is indeed an upward pressure on input costs. However, as on date, we cannot provide you with specific guidance on a price increase ,” said Tata Motors spokesperson.

Finally the Japanese giants such as Toyota and Honda are also having a price revision fight to steep input costs and foreign exchange fluctuation.

So if you have made up your mind and you have the money head out this December and gift yourself or beloved ones a new car ! The newyear will make you spend a little more than you expect ! Every penny counts – Stay Tuned.

Maruti Gearing Up To Hike PricesHyundai India Hike Prices Up To 2%Toyota Price Hike; Across Models In IndiaHyundai Claims Another Price Hike From September 1stMaruti Suzuki hike prices of its models in IndiaTags: General Motors India Price Hike 2011, Honda Siel Price Hike 2011, Hyundai Motors India Price Hike 2011, Mahindra Price Hike 2011, Maruti Suzuki Price Hike 2011, Tata Motors Price Hike 2011, Toyota Kirloskar Price Hike 2011

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December 1, 2010 5:30 pm 0 comments

Toyota Etios Sedan & Etios Liva Hatchback Launch Images :

Toyota_Etios_Sedan_Launch_Bangalore_India

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