All vehicle segments in India continued to grow in February 2010 on the back of new launches and the expected price-hike in the coming months. Almost all passenger car companies announced an increase in their vehicle prices after the excise-duty was hiked last week. There will be a further increase in prices in April, following the implementation Read More...

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• Filed Under: Chevrolet, Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki, Tata

A number of auto companies in the country have hiked car prices following the announcement of Budget 2010-11 last week, which increased the excise duty on all non-oil products from 8 percent to 10 percent. The excise duty on bigger cars, which stood at 20 percent earlier, has also gone up to 22 percent. The companies that have announced definitive Read More...

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• Filed Under: Chevrolet, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Tata

Tata Motors appointed former General Motors head, Mr Carl-Peters Forster, as its Chief Executive Officer this week. Fifty-five-year old Forster has worked in the auto industry for 24 years, and was with German luxury car-maker, BMW, for 13 years before he joined GM in 2001. He headed GM’s European operations. As Tata Motors’ CEO, Forster’s Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Tata Motors sold a total of 85,714 units worldwide in January 2010, almost double its sales in the same month last year. The figure includes Jaguar and Land Rover sales, which stood at 16,269 units in the month. Meanwhile, the company developed a range of commercial vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells recently. The vehicles were developed Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Tata Motors this week announced the launch of a range of vehicles for civic bodies. The vehicles include hook-loaders, garbage compactors, garbage tippers, knuckle boom cranes, tankers and air conditioned ambulances. So far, the company was supplying only vehicle chassis to civic bodies which would then develop the complete vehicle as per their Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Mahindra & Mahindra launched its new light-truck, the Maxximo, in Mumbai this week. The Maxximo is priced at Rs 2.79 lakh (ex-showroom, Navi Mumbai), and complies with the Bharat Stage III emission norms. It will compete directly with the current leader in the light-truck segment, Tata Motors’ Ace, which is priced at Rs 2.78 lakh and complies with Read More...

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• Filed Under: Mahindra, Tata

Auto company Tata Motors may reschedule the second round of the Tata Nano’s bookings to an earlier date. According to media reports, the company is likely to re-open bookings for the car in the next three to six months. As announced by the Tatas at the time of the Nano’s launch, its Rs 1 lakh price tag will apply only to the first batch of its Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Mr. David Smith, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tata Motors-owned Jaguar and Land Rover, stepped down this week, possibly because of disagreements with the parent company over strategy. While a number of media reports link Smith’s exit to the failed negotiations regarding workers’ salaries recently, a JLR spokesperson denied any connection Read More...

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• Filed Under: Jaguar, Land Rover, Tata

Maruti Suzuki last week increased the prices of all its models except the Eeco, the petrol Swift and the Gypsy. The hike ranges from 0.12 per cent in the Ritz VDi to to 1.9 per cent in the DZire LXi. The Maruti Estilo, launched in August 2009, is costlier by Rs 1,243 to Rs 2,486. The company said that while it had absorbed increased input costs in Read More...

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• Filed Under: Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Tata

Tata Motors will soon be launching its crossover vehicle, the Tata Aria, in India. The Aria was unveiled at the 2010 India Auto Expo held recently, and generated much excitement among visitors. It will be among Tata Motors’ more expensive models, and will compete with Toyota’s Innova. Powered by a 140bhp 2.2 litre DiCOR engine, the Aria will come Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Dilip Chhabaria’s company, DC Design, announced this week that it will unveil a redesigned, hi-tech version of the Tata Nano, priced at Rs 1 crore, within a month-and-a-half. The car has not been displayed at the 2010 India Auto Expo as it hasn’t yet been fully developed. Mr Chhabaria said that though the company would have liked to keep the car’s Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Auto company Tata Motors is displaying as many as 37 vehicles at this year’s Auto Expo, including Jaguar and Land Rover models. Significant among these are the Tata Aria, the Tata Venture, the Tata Magic Iris and the new Jaguar XJ. The commercial vehicles on display include the Prima range of world standard trucks, CNG-fuelled pick-up vehicles, a Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Passenger vehicle sales in India continued to grow at double-digit rates in December 2009 on the back of government stimulus, easy car loans and a spate of attractive offers by car companies. Maruti Suzuki’s passenger car sales were up from 52,029 units in December 2008 to 71,000 units in December 2009 – an increase of 36.5 per cent. Tata Motors Read More...

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• Filed Under: Fiat, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, Tata

A number of customers who had booked the Tata Nano when the car was launched in March 2009 are canceling their bookings because of the late delivery of the car. According to media reports, 15 per cent of the 2.07 lakh customers of the Nano have already cancelled their bookings. Most of these are people who expect to get their cars after March Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

The Tata Nano won the Indian Car of the Year 2010 (ICOTY 2010) award at a ceremony held in New Delhi this week. The award was instituted five years back by top auto magazines in the country, along with JK Tyre. Apart from the Nano, the other cars that made it to the top ten list this year were Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Jazz, Fiat Linea, Fiat Grande Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

The world’s cheapest car, Tata Nano, will soon be displayed at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York. A yellow coloured model of the Nano will be showcased at the museum from February 18, 2009 to April 25, 2010, along with diagrams and a short film explaining its concept. The Curatorial Director of Cooper-Hewitt, Cara McCarty, said Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Indian car service provider Carnation Auto tied up with the Fiat Group’s Magneti Marelli last week, to service premium cars. Carnation Auto Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Jagdish Khattar, told mediapersons that the company had so far dealt with only entry-level cars, and that with this new venture, it would also start servicing premium cars Read More...

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• Filed Under: Fiat, Tata

Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra are reportedly in talks with Italian car company Fiat to take over its manufacturing facility in Termini Imerese, Italy. The Imerese plant manufactures a three-door hatchback, the Lancia Ypsilon, and has a daily production capacity of 400 units. Fiat’s Chief Executive, Mr Sergio Marchionne, had said last week Read More...

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• Filed Under: Fiat, Mahindra, Tata

The Transport Minister of Delhi, Mr Arvinder Singh Lovely, said this week that the government had stopped the payment of Rs 4 crore out of the Rs 10 crore that it was to pay to Tata Motors for the maintenance of its low floor buses. The government took the step to penalize Tata Motors for not ensuring proper maintenance of its low-floor buses, six Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Tata Motors this week launched an upgraded version of its utility vehicle, the Tata Sumo Grande. The Grande MK II is available in three variants, priced between Rs 6.43 lakh and Rs 7.50 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) and is compliant with the Bharat Stage III emission norms. It is approximately Rs 25,000 cheaper than its older version. However, the Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Tata Motors-owned British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover are expected to reach operating profit levels within an year. The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr C Ramakrishnan, said that a whole new set of initiatives was being launched to bring down its break-even point to 60-65 per cent. JLR’s long term strategy includes measures to bring down Read More...

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• Filed Under: Jaguar, Land Rover, Tata

The Tata Nano has won itself yet another admirer in the World Bank group president, Robert Zoellick. Zoellick encountered the mini car during his recent 4-day trip to India, and said that he was amazed at its frugal manufacturing. “It’s a very well-engineered product and that’s a sign of something”, he said. With its low-end variant priced at Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata

Passenger car sales in India rose significantly in November 2009, on the back of a low-base effect and festival discounts. Car sales had plummeted by 19.3 per cent in November 2008, compared to sales in the same month in 2007. Maruti Suzuki posted a 61.6 per cent growth in domestic sales, up from 47,103 units in November 2008, to 76,106 units Read More...

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• Filed Under: Chevrolet, Fiat, Honda, Hyundai, Maruti Suzuki, Skoda, Tata

Tata Motors Chairman Mr Ratan Tata said in an interview to a South Korean newspaper this week that the company was planning to produce a hybrid version of the Tata Nano. Mr Tata said that he expected low-priced cars to remain more popular than high-end vehicles in India, and that the trend would be followed worldwide. He did not give details of Read More...

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• Filed Under: Jaguar, Tata

The Tata Group has refused a 10-million-pound loan from the Government of UK, according to media reports that came out this week. The loan was offered to the company to develop an electric version of one of its car models. The Sunday Times reported that Tata Motors, which also owns UK-based luxury auto brands Jaguar and Land Rover, rejected the Read More...

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• Filed Under: Tata