07 August 2011;hindustantimes.com:Mumbai: In April 2010 when the split between Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Renault became complete with the former buying the latter's 49% stake in Mahindra Renault Private Ltd, the joint-venture product Logan hit the bottom of monthly car sales chart, clocking just 303 units. By the time M&M changed Logan's name to Verito in April 2011, the sales were averaging around 1,000 units, which grew month-by-month to 1,630 units in July. With sales of Verito, the born-again Logan, more than doubling, M&M is now gearing up for bigger game in the passenger car space. The company will launch Verito Refresh with added features in the upcoming festival season, and a smaller and cheaper version is likely to hit the market by the year-end or early next year. M&M is sourcing engine and gearbox from Renault while its own R&D is working on design and styling changes. The company is working to launch sub-four metre Verito, which will qualify for a lesser excise duty. The 22% excise duty will come down to 10% once M&M reduces its length to below 4 metre. The sub-four metre Verito could be cheaper by at least Rs 50,000-Rs 80,000 of its existing version which is priced at Rs 4.7 lakh (petrol) and Rs 5.7-7.0 lakh (diesel). Diesel variants account for 95% of Verito sales.
06 August 2011;business-standard.com:T E Narasimhan:Chennai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence have issued a showcause notice to Korean car marker Hyundai Motor's Indian subsidiary. The Directorate has issued the notice for suspected tax evasion by the country's second largest car manufacturer to the tune of Rs 260 crore duty. Company officials have confirmed receipt of the notice, but denied the charges. A senior official from the Directorate said, “We have found they (HMIL) evaded Rs 266 crore duty on import of automobile components over the last five years from July 2005 to July 2010”. He added they (HMIL) have to reply to the Commissioner of Seaports Chennai. R Sethuraman, senior vice president, finance and corporate affairs, HMIL said, “These are baseless allegations and on the transaction value and the relevant duty has been paid to the appropriate authorities with full documentation. We will respond to the notice legally.” The country's second-largest car-maker has a production facility at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, has a capacity of over 600,000 units annually, making it the second-largest car manufacturer. With 40 per cent of its production dispatched to 120 countries, Hyundai is the largest car exporter. The company has invested Rs 4,000 crore (inclusive of research centre, engine transmission plant and miscellaneous investments) in the country.
Compensation of Rs 15K cr may fail to save IOC, BP, HP from Sinking
06 August 2011;economictimes.indiatimes.com:Rajeev Jayaswal:NEW DELHI: State-run Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum may sink into red in the first quarter of this year, despite Rs 15,000-crore compensation from the government to sell diesel, kerosene and cooking gas below market rates, three officials with direct knowledge of the matter said. "The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) will be forced to absorb an under-recovery (revenue loss) of more than Rs 14,000 crore in the first quarter despite government's assistance. Their net profit would be negative this quarter," one of the officials said on condition of anonymity. The IOC is scheduled to declare its unaudited financial result for Q1 on August 10. BPCL and HPCL will announce their quarterly results on June 12. The finance ministry has agreed to provide a cash compensation of about Rs 8,200 crore to the IOC, Rs 3,500 crore to BPCL and Rs 3,270 crore to HPCL for the first quarter, which can't save companies from sinking into red, two board members in two different oil companies said requesting anonymity. Out of Rs 43,526 crore combined revenue losses in the quarter, the oil marketing firms have received Rs 14,508 crore as onethird help from the upstream companies - ONGC, OIL and Gail. After factoring in the government's cash compensation of Rs 15,000 crore, companies are left with an unmet gap of Rs 14,017 crore, one of them said. IOC, India's biggest fuel retailer with about 52% market share, alone will absorb a revenue loss of Rs 7,800 crore in the quarter after factoring in upstream discounts of Rs 7,800 crore and a cash compensation of Rs 8,200 crore from the government. The government, which forces the state refiners to sell politically sensitive fuel below market rates, normally pays one-third compensation and puts a burden of one third losses on upstream companies. But, in 2008-09, when international crude oil soared to a record $147 a barrel, the government had exempted oil marketing firms from bearing any loss to save them from sinking into red. Similarly in 2009-10 and 2010-11, the government paid compensation more than its un-written one-third share. An EGoM is expected to meet on Monday to review the global crude oil prices, its impact in India and measures to protect revenues of state-run refiners, an oil ministry official said. India, which imports over 80% of its crude oil requirement, is worried as prices of crude soared from $68.06 a barrel in May 25, last year to $122 in just one year. Benchmark Brent is currently trading at $110 a barrel. Concerned over ballooning fuel subsidy bill, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday that luxury vehicle owners must pay market rates for diesel. Diesel constitutes about 60% of total fuel subsidy burden. The ministry has estimated fuel subsidy bill for current financial year at Rs 122,000 crore. But, oil companies say that implementation of duel pricing in diesel was not practical. "The country can't sustain huge subsidy burden in perpetuity. Highly subsidised diesel meant for agricultural usage, is also consumed by luxury cars in large quantities.
Tata Motors to challenge BMW with a hybrid supercar and an entry-level sedan
06 August 2011;economictimes.indiatimes.com:LONDON/MUMBAI: Jaguar, the 76-year-old British luxury-car brand owned by Tata Motors, aims to challenge BMW with a hybrid supercar and an entry-level sedan to compete with the 3-Series. The new models are part of Tata's plans to invest $2.5 billion annually in product development at Jaguar and sister brand Land Rover over the next five years. The spending will include 40 new vehicles or upgrades, including the Range Rover Evoque, which will be presented in Liverpool today. Mumbai-based Tata Motors is turning to the British luxury brands, which it purchased in 2008 from Ford, for growth and to drive international ambitions as the cut-rate Nano model sputters. While Land Rover is targeting record sales on the compact Evoque, Jaguar aims to reverse declining demand by rounding out its product offering. "The company now revolves around the JLR unit and not the other way around," said Ashvin Chotai, the managing director for Intelligence Automotive Asia. "The next challenge for both the brands is to keep the product pipeline going and exploring new product segments." Sales of the Nano, the world's cheapest car, plunged 48% over the past two months, with demand burdened by higher borrowing costs for buyers in India, its dominant market. The Jaguar Land Rover unit, based in Gaydon, England, generated 57% of Tata Motors' revenue for the year ended March 31, up from 53%a year earlier. The division's pretax profit surged 20-fold to 1.12 billion pounds for the fiscal year. NOT ONE-WAY The Jaguar Land Rover division "contributes definitely more than half the profit so it is clearly very significant for the performance of the group," Chief Executive Officer Carl- Peter Forster, a former BMW and General Motors Co. executive, said yesterday at briefing with reporters in Liverpool. The flow of technology between the British luxury brands and Tata Motors "shouldn't be just one way," said Forster, who was hired in February 2010 to realize the automaker's foreign ambitions. "The task is also to make sure that Tata adds to the value of JLR." While Land Rover is benefiting from robust demand for upscale sport-utility vehicles, Jaguar is slumping on a thin lineup and a tarnished image after decades of mediocre cars. BACK TO BEAUTY The carmaker, whose 1961 E-type was described as the "the most beautiful car ever built" by Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari, finally overhauled the XJ in 2009, after making only modest changes in the four decades since its introduction in 1968. "It would be fair to say that the company floundered in the past for a bit too long," Callum said. To reestablish a reputation as an innovator, Jaguar is developing a production version of the C-X75 hybrid supercar concept. The model, which starts at 700,000 pounds and begins production in 2013, can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in less than 3 seconds and drive more than 50 kilometers on electric power. BMW's i8 hybrid supercar, also due in 2013, can travel up to 35 kilometers without using the combustion engine. SALES SLUMP Jaguar's sales fell 27%to 11,343 cars for the quarter ended June 30, as the sparse lineup and limited presence in China cut it out of the demand that's driving record sales for BMW, Audi and Mercedes. Unlike Jaguar, all three companies have factories in China, the world's biggest auto market. 3-SERIES CHALLENGER The Jaguar C-X75, which will be limited to 250 vehicles, could help the introduction of a sedan priced below the $52,500 XF, which is critical to boosting volumes. The brand's line-up currently consists of the XF and XJ sedans and the XK sports- car. A new entry-level sedan would give Jaguar a rival to the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, the best- selling models from the top-three luxury brands.
05 August 2011;business-standard.com:Chennai: Auto major Tata Motors is aiming to sell more units of its latest crossover Aria 4x2 variant in the coming months owing to increase in demand, a senior company official said today. "We are expecting to sell more number of units in the coming months... It is for those who look for city driving in complete luxury...," Tata Motors Commercial Passenger car business Vice-President R Ramakrishnan told reporters after unveiling the new variant in Tamil Nadu market. The company in October 2010 unveiled the Aria 4x4 built on a completely new platform which it has invested Rs 1,000 crore. Since its launch the company has sold 2,000 units. Ramakrishnan said Aria 4x2 was available in three features Prestige, Pleasure and Pure. "The Pure model in 4x2 version is new entry in this variant. The top version in Aria 4x4 is Prestige. Compared to both these cars, 16 features will be more in Prestige than the Pure variant," he said. Tata Motors Regional Manager (Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala) K Vijay Menon said the base model with BS III version was available at Rs 11.57 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai) while the top model (BS IV version) was priced at Rs 14.47 lakh (ex-showroom Chennai).
05 August 2011;deccanherald.com:Tokyo:Honda said in a press release on its US site that the vehicles in the voluntary recall will include Accord, CR-V and Element models. No injuries or deaths have been reported, the statement said. Honda China said in a statement on its website it had notified the nation’s quality watchdog that from Monday, it would recall 760,515 cars to update the software that controls their automatic transmission. The auto giant said the vehicles in the recall would include Accord, Odyssey and Spirior models, manufactured between July 2004 and November 2009. A bearing in the automatic transmission system was not built with sufficient strength and as a result it may emit an abnormal noise or cause the engine to stall under certain gear shift operations, Honda said. Similar Honda models are sold in Canada, Europe and other markets. Altogether, 2.49 million Honda models installed with the faulty transmission are involved, Kyodo quoted Honda officials as saying. They said the affected Honda models are not sold in Japan.
Petrolstop is a division of Car Fuel Info Solutions, LLC Petrolstop.com is a registered trademark owned by Car Fuel info Solutions, LLC Website Design by Onazari Technical Solutions
