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22 June, 2011 French carmaker Renault on Tuesday said it will launch a new hatchback in India during the Auto Expo in January 2012 that will compete with Maruti Suzuki’s Swift. The car is specifically designed for the Indian market by its design centre in Mumbai.
The French car major said that the next launch will be the Koleos SUV. It will be unveiled in the next few days. The French car maker announced this at an event where it disclosed its product plans and handed over the keys to the first 14 customers.
“In January 2012 we will launch a hatchback in B to B+ segment and it is specifically designed for the Indian customers by our Mumbai centre,” Renault Executive Vice President (Product Planning and Program) Philippe Klein told reporters.
The company will launch the car in segment where Maruti Suzuki India’s premium hatchback Swift is positioned. Klein said the company will launch its sports utility vehicle new Koleos by the end of 2011. Renault said that India will be among the first countries to see the Koleos going on sale. “After the hatchback, our fourth car for the Indian market will be a SUV and its the Duster. We will launch it in the second half of 2012,” Klein said.
The company has already launched its luxury sedan Fluence in India this year. The company had earlier announced to launch five vehicles in India by the end of 2012. All the cars will be assembled at Renault’s Indian facility in Chennai, Klein said.
With a committed investment of Rs 4500 crore by 2015 the alliance plant in Chennai is now fully operational with one assembly line and the second line will be installed by mid-2011 taking the capacity to 4,00,000 cars per year.
According to the company officials, the plant is of flexible type, producing vehicles from both Nissan and Renault on a single line. Renault also plans to set-up a powertrain assembly line in the near future.
Renault and Japanese car maker Nissan joined hands in 2008 to set up a manufacturing facility at Oragadam. While the first hatchback “Micra” was rolled out from Nissan’s stable last year, the flagship luxury sedan “Fluence” from Renault was launched as a Completely Knocked Down (CKD) unit this year.

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By the look of things, February 2011 is shaping out to be quite of month for car lovers.

On one side you have Volvo bringing in the S60 and then you have Maruti Suzuki getting Kizashi in to the Indian market. And now, news just in that Maruti Suzuki is also planning the launch of the much awaited SX4 diesel in February.

The SX4 sales figures have taken quite a beating in last half of the 2010. The car that used to sell 1000+ units each month with a lot of difficulty managed 761 last December. And its rivals (with diesel option) like the Vento and the Fiesta managed easily managed to break the 1000 unit barrier.

Even the unusual looking Hyundai Verna astonishingly shipped 1,213 units. Clearly, Maruti has realized that measures need to taken and they need to be taken fast!

The SX4 diesel is expected to have 1.3-litre DDiS engine with a variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) powered to produce 90 bhp. As you may have known by now that this is the same engine that powers the Fiat Linea and does its job well.

The facelifted SX4 was shown in China last month but we’re not sure if that model will reach India.

Most diesels cost around 1 lakh more than their petrol counterparts. So we presume the new SX4 will be sold at a tag of around 8.5 lakh. Will this help the C segment kingpin gain back its territory? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, here is a humble request from IAB:

At least give the option of having those old alloys. The new ones make the car look very characterless

Tagged as: Maruti Suzuki SX4, maruti sx4, Maruti SX4 diesel, SX4 diesel

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22 December, 2010 Maruti Suzuki India has said that it will not be dispatching any vehicle to dealers during its week-long annual plant maintenance shutdown as it has no stock due to high demand. MSI will be closing its plants at Gurgaon and Manesar for a week from December 27 to January 3. Usually the company keeps enough stocks to supply to its dealers during the maintenance shutdown.
“We will have our annual maintenance shutdown from next week. So during this period, one week's production will not be available for dispatches,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief General Manager (Marketing) Shashank Srivastava said.
According to reliable sources, MSI will incur a loss of 25,000 units during the week-long shutdown period as it does not have any inventory to dispatch to the dealers.
“Usually MSI has 5-7 days of stock. However, this time, it does not have any inventory due to very high demand throughout the year. In December, MSI is unlikely to sell one lakh units in the domestic market” a source said.
MSI’s domestic sales crossed one lakh units twice in October and November at 1,07,555 units and 1,02,503 units respectively.
Including exports, MSI sold a total of 1,12,554 vehicles in November, the sixth time in this fiscal that the company’s monthly sales figure crossed one lakh mark.
The company had reported its highest ever total monthly sales at 1,18,908 units in October, registering a robust 39.21 per cent jump over the year-ago period.

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