Automotive updates - 10th June 2014

• Weak monsoon rains could have a negative impact on India's automobile sector, which is seeing early signs of improvement with the sale of passenger cars and utility vehicles rising in May, an industry body said. "A bad monsoon would certainly mean some negative impact," Vishnu Mathur, director general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Tuesday. 

• German commercial vehicle maker Daimler's Indian subsidiary has forayed into Bangladesh market by launching FUSO Trucks manufactured at its plant here, making it the sixth overseas destination. 

• The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) has conferred on Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus, Tata Sons, with the Lifetime Contribution award.  Mr Tata was recently presented with the award by a FADA team led by Mohan Himatsingka, president, at the Tata Group’s Mumbai office.

• According to a report on Autocar India, Nissan will soon offer the AMT (automated manual transmission) technology on its cars like the Micra and Sunny. The Japanese carmaker currently offers a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) unit on these cars which is expensive compared to the AMT offered by Maruti on the Celerio. The CVT variants of the Micra and Sunny have not met with the expected response.

• Toyota-owned luxury brand Lexus is being considered for the Indian markets.

• Back in April 2014, President of the motorcycle business at Bajaj Auto K Srinivas moved on to a non-automotive company. His appointment with, Rajesh Wadhawan Group (parent group of DHFL) is now announced.

• Luxury on wheels now costs less, thanks to recent moves by car makers to assemble cars locally and also source more engines and other parts from within India. Prices of luxury car models have dropped by Rs 10-30 lakh in the past couple of months.

• Chennai-based Comstar Automotive Technologies, the Tier 1 supplier of starter motors and alternators for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, is actively considering setting up an assembly unit in Thailand to cater to demand in the ASEAN region. The company currently supplies to Ford, Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Mazda, Tata Motors and the Ashok Leyland-Nissan joint venture in the US, Europe and India.

• Escorts has launched its Farmtrac Heritage range at South Africa’s biggest agriculture show, NAMPO 2014. The Heritage range was first displayed at the 2013 ‘Agritechnica’ at Hanover. According to the company, the range between 50 HP- 75 HP is set to bring about generational change in the South Africa’s tractor markets where it has been targeted at farmers who own  small land holdings. 

image from 

in.reuters.com