Ford India Executive Director (Marketing & Sales) Nigel E. Wark -
Yes, we have started our second production shift at our Chennai plant to meet the increasing demand for Figo. Figo is getting a good response from the market and the company has received 24,000 purchase orders in the first four months of launch. This small car is helping to drive our sales growth.
Ford will hire 600-700 additional employees at its plant to get through this demanding situation. The company is also preparing its line to manufacture cars that will be shipped to South Africa. Ford India is also keen on increasing dealers and and expanding its network to about 185 dealers by the end of 2010 and 200 dealers by the end of this fiscal year.
Entry posted on July 5, 2010 by
Naveen;
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Honda Siel India is having a hard time in India with plummeting sales and steadily declining market shares. Honda has been very casual with its Indian operations and did not chart out any aggressive strategies to localise its products in India so that it can price its products competitively.
Honda India’s only saving grace is the Honda City which is selling well, despite its hefty sticker price. The brand’s appeal didn’t work for the Honda Jazz in India. The Honda Jazz came with a very high sticker price which was too high for the Indian consumer to digest for a car without a boot.
Honda India is looking to correct its wrongs with the small car it is developing for India. Honda’s upcoming small car NSC would have a large percent of locally sourced parts and Honda is looking to start production of the new small car at 80% localisation.
Jnaneswar Sen, VP (Marketing), Honda Siel India -
We are looking at big volumes for our small car so it makes more sense to localise rather than importing.
Honda India must be observing how manufacturers like Ford,Volkswagen and Nissan are using India as a production base for global small cars like the Figo, Polo and the new Micra respectively. This not only helps in these companies competitively pricing their products in India but also cost effective manufacturing solutions for export markets.
Spied parked inside a building right here in India is the soon-to-be launched Volvo XC60 compact crossover SUV in RHD form, spied for the first time in India. The vehicle is to be launched in India by the end of this year and will go to head-to-head with rivals such as the BMW X3 and Audi Q5.
The car in the images is the D5 diesel variant, which has a 2.4-litre, twin-turbocharged diesel engine pumping out 205 PS of max power and 420 Nm of max torque. The car is also available with a 3.2-litre Naturally Aspirated petrol motor as well as a 3.0-litre turbocharged, six-cylinder petrol engine (T6). The car in the images also has a temporary Haryana registration plate.
The Volvo XC60 is based on the Volvo Y20 platform and is made at the Volvo plant in Ghent, Belgium. The car will be imported into India as a Completely Built Unit (CBU) and will be priced around the 40-lakh mark. The car could also be offered in a front-wheel drive version.
Thanks to our anonymous reader for sending us the first pictures of the Volvo XC60. You know who you are, and you must know we’re grateful to you!
There were a lot of talks during 2009 about Suzuki bringing the SX4 crossover to the Indian market. It even showcased the SX4 crossover as part of its exhibits at Auto Expo 2010. Suzuki might think of bringing the crossover to India in the form of the next generation SX4 in case it feels the current model is too expensive and not practical for the Indian buyer.
The Suzuki SX4 Car TV Commercial above was shot in Johannesburg, South Africa by ad film director Paul Thompson. It tries to explain the traits of the SX4 crossover by using Suzuki’s in-house creations.
The Mercedes Benz SLS AMG, which is a modern day successor to the iconic 300SL Gullwing, is what auto enthusiasts call the pinnacle of German motoring. The Merc SLS AMG was unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show and shown to the Indian audience at the 2010 Auto Expo New Delhi.
Now Mercedes Benz India would be launching the SLS AMG by September this year. The Mercedes Benz SLS AMG could retail at around 2 crore Indian Rupees after import duties and excises.
Piyush Arora, Director (Technical) & Board Member, Mercedes-Benz India -
The SLS will be available in India in the third quarter, though a date for the official launch has not yet been determined.
The Mercedes Benz SLS AMG luxury GT is constantly being promoted by Mercedes in India, thanks to the tunnel stunt shown to be pulled off by Michael Schumacher, which is being aired on Indian televisions almost all the time.
The SLS promotion by MB India is also an attempt to lure young buyers away from BMW who prefer Bimmers for their sporty appeal. With Merc’s prime rival BMW doing without a top end Luxury Grand Tourer India, the SLS could be its ticket to glory in the premium sports car segment.
The Mercedes Benz SLS gets a 6.2 liter V8 producing 563 hp and 650 Nm of torque. Power is transferred to the massive 20″ rear wheels via a AMG Speedshift DCT 7-speed dual-clutch transmission and a carbon fiber driveshaft. All this can propel the 1620 kilo luxury GT to 100 kmph in 3.8 seconds and to reach a top speed of 317 kmph.
The bookings for the cars will probably start at the end of this year. We are getting as much as 20 enquiries a day for Nano. We already have a list of 4,000 persons who are most likely to buy the car. Our 100 engineers are soon leaving for India to get trained about the technicalities of Nano. Trainers from Tata Motors are also coming here to impact necessary training to our mechanics.
An official at Sipradi Trading – the authorized distributor for Tata vehicles in Nepal, while speaking to a Nepalese daily on the Nano’s plan for their country.
1. Seat belts are considered as one of the most important inventions in the field of automotive safety, it has saved over a million lives world wide.
2. The three-point seat belt was first introduced by Volvo in 1959 and seat belt pretensioners were first introduced by Mercedes Benz in 1981.
3. Seat belts have pretensioners that restrain the occupant from being thrown forward in case of an impact. A seat belt takes 20 milliseconds to restrain the occupant from the time of impact, while the airbags inflate in 40 milliseconds. The seat belt is designed to restrain the occupant completely before the airbags inflate.
4. A seat belt absorbs the kinetic energy of the occupants body in case of an impact. Pretensioners in seat belts have a pyrotechnical propellant charge that is electrically fired to push a small piston which restraints the inertia-reel of the seat belt.
5. Inflatable seat belts in which a small airbag pops out of the seat belt, would be used by Ford Motor Company in its Explorer SUV and a would eventually be made standard across all its range.
Seat belts, even though they might seem uneasy to use in the beginning would eventually grow on you and would make you feel safe during everyday drives.
Seat belts are truly life saving devices and we at Indian Autos Blog strongly urge you to belt up and drive!
We are delighted to introduce the Mercedesmagazine here in India. In the magazine, the readers will discover a vibrant cultural tapestry from all over the globe in its pages, covering celebrities, fashion, high-end living, exotic travel destinations, fine dining, art and the latest happenings from Mercedes-Benz and 20 per cent of the magazine will be dedicated to local content.
Dr. Wilfried Aulbur Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said in a press release issued today during the launch of the Mercededmagazine in Mumbai.
