Car Manufacturer Profiles

Aston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars. It’s headquartered in Gaydon, Warwickshire and also has operations in the Middle East, North Africa and India. The company’s Chief Executive Officer is Ulrich Bez. Its worldwide revenues totaled approximately US$925 million in 2007. Aston Martin from 1994 to 2007 was a part of the Ford Motor Company and on March 12, 2007 was purchased by a joint venture, headed by David Richards and co-owned by Investment Dar and businessman John Sinders. Ford retained 12.1% stake in the company.

Audi is a subsidiary of Volkswagen. As a manufacturer of high-quality luxury cars, Audi is one of the world’s leading premium brands. It is represented in 110 countries worldwide and has been selling cars in India since 2004. These were imported into the country by dealers without being homologated. In March 2007, Audi established a formal presence in India with Audi India being a division of Volkswagen Group Sales India Pvt. Ltd.

Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of high end luxury cars. It was founded in 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley and was sold to Rolls Royce in 1931, after demand for the company’s expensive products collapsed during the great depression.

The BMW Group is a manufacturer of luxury automobiles and motorcycles. It has 24 production facilities spread over thirteen countries and the company’s products are sold in more than 140 countries. BMW Group owns three brands namely BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce.

Bugatti Automobiles is a French manufacturer of cars. It was started by Ettore Bugatti. The company was responsible for producing very high end luxury cars, however, by the World War II, the car company failed. The company failed financially and released its last model in the 1950s. The company was eventually purchased for its airline parts business in the 1960s. Today it is owned by the Volkswagen group, who has restored Bugatti as a builder of limited and exclusive sports cars.

Fiat (or Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) was founded in 1899 by a group of investors including Giovanni Agnelli and is based in Turin in the Piedmont region. As of 2009, it is Italy’s largest and the world’s ninth largest car maker.

Force Motors (known as Bajaj Tempo Ltd. until 2005) was founded in 1957 when Mr. N. K. Firodia signed a deal on collaborating  with Vidal & Sohn Tempo Werke GmbH for phased manufacturing of the Tempo 3-Wheeler. The initial manufacturing started in a small plant at Goregaon, Bombay.

Ford Motor Company is based in Dearborn, Michigan, USA and is the world’s fifth largest producer of cars and trucks. Ford Motor Company employs 1, 98,000 people globally. The current Chief Executive Officer of the company is Alan Mulally. Ford’s annual profits as of 2009 stood at $2.717 billion.

General Motors was founded in 1908 in Flint, Michigan by William C. Durant. The company has its global headquarters in Detroit and employs approximately 209,000 people all over the world. It does business in 120 countries and, together with its strategic partners, produces cars and trucks in 31 countries. GM’s highest sales are reported from China, followed by the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and Russia. The company includes a total of 13 brands - Baojun, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, FAW, GMC, Daewoo, Holden, Isuzu, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall, and Wuling – under its umbrella.

Hindustan Motors Limited (HML), India’s flagship Company of the C.K. Birla Group was established just before Indian independence, in 1942 by Mr. B.M. Birla of the industrious Birla family. Operations started in a small plant in Port Okha near Gujarat, the manufacturing facilities later moved to Uttarpara, West Bengal in 1948, where it began the production of - the Ambassador. The company was the largest car manufacturer in India before Maruti Udyog.

The automobile giant Honda has its headoffice in Minami-Aoyama in Japan. Headed by President Takanobu Ito, it’s 86 billion yen company. Its consolidated sales for 2010 totaled 8,579,174 million yen and unconsolidated sales stood at 2,717,736 million yen. The total number of consolidated employees stand at 1,76,815 and unconsolidated at 26,121 as of 2010. Honda produces motorcycles, automobiles and power products.

Hyundai is a car company that was founded in 1967 by Chung Ju-Yung in South Korea and partnered with Ford Motor Company to produce the Cortina in 1968. Hyundai is present in 196 countries and has dealership of 6,000 all over the world. It has 45 affiliated domestic companies and 254 overseas companies in 200 countries.  Hyundai is the leading exporter of cars from India exporting 55,552 units. Domestic sales grew 23.1 percent in 2010 but exports, fell by 8.5 percent. The company sold 4.6 million vehicles in 2009 all over the world.

ICML is the manufacturer of passenger vehicles, Multi Utility Vehicles (MUVs), and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) in the country. It was established in 2003 by L. D. Mittal with its headquarters in Delhi. Its parent company Sonalika Group is one of the speedily growing tractor companies that has registered a growth of over 1.80 Lakh in 10 years.

Jaguar Land Rover is a subsidiary of the Indian company Tata Motors Ltd. Tata acquired Jaguar Land Rover for $2.3 billion. It is built around two British car brands that design, engineer and manufacture in the UK: Jaguar and Land Rover.  In 1922, Jaguar Cars Limited was founded and is a manufacturer of luxury saloons and sports cars. Land Rover manufacturers 4X4s since 1948.

Lamborghini Automobile is one of the leading and finest car manufacturers across the globe. Lamborghini was started by Ferrucio Lamborghini in Italy, in the year 1993. The logo of the company was designed describing the birth sign of Ferrucio Lamborghini, which was Taurus, and hence, he also named all his cars in the memory of late fighter bulls.

Land Rover is headquartered in Gaydon, United Kingdom. It is a British manufacturer of four-wheel drive vehicles. The cars in its group are the Defender, Discovery, Freelander, Range Rover, and Range Rover Sport. It is owned by Tata Motors and is a subsidiary. It is the second oldest four-wheel drive brand in the world after the Jeep.

In 1945, Mahindra assembled the Willys Jeep in India and is now a US $7.1 billion Indian multinational. The total workforce caps at 1,11,900 people in over 100 countries and the company is a leader in utility vehicles, tractors and information technology, with a significant and growing presence in financial services, tourism, infrastructure development, trade and logistics. Mahindra’s headquarters are in Mumbai India.

Mahindra Renault is a joint venture between Mahindra and Mahindra and Renault of France. It was formed in 2007. They set up a manufacturing plant in Nashik, Maharasthra. They together announced restructuring plans by which Mahindra would be Renault’s share and Renault would provide Mahindra support.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL, formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited) is a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan. MSIL has been producing cars in India since 1983. Maruti’s revenues totaled approximately 73.3 billion rupees in 2009-2010. It’s operating profit as of 2009-2010 is 75 billion rupees while its net profit comes to 6.8 billion rupees. The company has two manufacturing facilities located at Gurgaon and Manesar, south of New Delhi, India, which have an annual combined capability to produce over a 12 lakh (12, 00,000) passenger car units. The company is planning to invest 17 billion rupees in the Manesar plant.

Maserati is an Italian luxury manufacturer established on December 1, 1914 in Bologna. It is located in Modena and its emblem is the trident. It is owned by Fiat since 1993. Maserati was associated with Ferrari and became part of Alfa Romeo. Alfieri, Bindo, Carlo, Ettore and Ernesto were the five brothers who were involved with the automobiles from the beginning of the 20th century. They built the 2 litre Grand Prix cars for Diatto. In 1926, Diatto sus ended the production of race cars. The Maerati driven by Alfieri won the Targo Florio. Maserati began making race cars with 4,6,8 and 16 cylinders. Mario devised the company’s trident emblem based on the Fontant del Nettuno Bologna. Alfieri Maserati died in 1932, the brothers though, kept the firm going.

The name Maybach stands for one of the finest and most exclusive automobiles in the world. Maybach is both- exterior and interior design of its high-end luxury cars.

Since September 1902, DMG has the patent-protected, brand name "Mercedes.”. Gottlieb Daimler's sons, Paul and Adolf, recalled that their father had previously used a three-pointed star as a symbol.

Mitsubishi is a Japanese conglomerate which consists of a number of businesses under the Mitsubishi brand.

Nissan is a Japanese maker of cars. It was a member of the Nissan Group but now it has formed in independent entity. The global headquarters of the company are located at Nishi-ku, Yokohama. Renault and Nissan formed a partnership in which Nissan holds 15% of Renault shares and Renault owns 43% of Nissan.

Porsche is a German automaker. In 1948 Professor Ferdinand Porsche built the Type 356 "No. By establishing an independent engineering office in Stuttgart in 1931, Ferdinand Porsche laid the foundations for the House of Porsche, and he made automotive history by pioneering developments for his client companies. Some of its models are: 356, 911, 914, 924, 944, 928, the Boxster and the Cayenne, the former sports-car specialist has developed into one of the world's most successful automobile manufacturers.

Premier is one of the leaders in automobiles in India. Premier is popular in both segments: Engineering and Automotive. There are two divisions within engineering - CNC Machine Production and Engineering while within automotive – there is Light Utility Vehicles and Sports Utility Vehicles. While Premier was originally in Mumbai, it relocated to the Chinchwad plant at Pune. It’s spread over 27 acres and is the research and development hub for all of Premier’s activities.

Renault, the French automaker, founded in 1898 has its headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt. The company has formed an alliance with Nissan. Renault and Nissan are leading electric car development among major car companies, investing 4 billion euros ($5.16 billion) in eight electric vehicles over the next 3 - 4 years. Renault owns the Roman automaker Automobile Dacia, the Korean automaker Renault Samsung Motors, RCI Banque and Motrio. Renault sold Renault Agriculture to CLAAS in 2008. Spanning over 118 countries, Renault sold 3.19 million cars in 2010. Renault also set up a network of 18,000 sites all over the world. Renault sells most of its car in Europe. In fact, it sells 63 per cent of its cars to Western Europe as of 2010.

Rolls Royce is a British manufacturer of cars and was founded by Charles Stewart Rolls and Henry Royce on 15 March 1906. Rolls Royce was hurt by the development of the RB211 engine. The car division separated from the parent company as Rolls-Royce Motors. Rolls Royce is a leader of power systems and services for use on land at sea and in the air and had established its position in civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy and nuclear.

San Motors started in 1996. The company’s vision was to produce exclusive, affordable, stunning cars that showcased Indian engineering and creative excellence.

In 1895 Laurin and Klement founded Skoda, a Czech automaker, whose headquarters are located at Mlada Boleslav, in the Central Bohemiam Region of the Czech Republic. It is a private company and a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, a German automobile manufacturing group. The Company was founded because Laurin and KIement had a mutual love for bicycles and they wanted to form their own company that would manufacture and repair cycles. But, Skoda produced its first cars in 1905.

Tata Motors is India’s largest automobile company which is the leader in the commercial vehicles segment. It is the world’s fourth largest truck manufacturer. The company had consolidated revenues of 27 billion dollars in 2010-11. The company was also the first Indian engineering company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (September 2004). Tata Motors has operations in UK, South Korea, Thailand and Spain. There is Jaguar Land Rover that it acquired in 2008. It also acquired Daewoo, South Korea’s second largest truck maker.

Toyota Motor Corporation is an automaker in the Aichi region of Japan. It employs 317,734 people worldwide. The company was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda.

The Volkswagen group consists of seven brands: Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Volkswagen Commerical Vehicles, Bentley, Bugaatti, Lamborghinin and Scania.