Automotive updates - 11th June 2014

• Alto is no more India's largest selling car, and it has been relegated to the third spot, with none other than the DZire, which comes at double the price, taking the number one slot, indicating a growing preference for more expensive cars.With all the top spots taken by Maruti Suzuki, the Swift hatchback grabbed the second position. Alto has been pushed to the third place for the first time in over two-decade of its existence in India, with sales of 17,311 units last month.

• Challenged by attrition at the top deck and a declining share in the market place, Tata Motors, India's largest automobile company in revenues, saw two more senior executives exiting from key positions.Venkatram Mammillapalle, senior VP purchasing and supply chain and Rajesh Bagga, senior VP legal at Tata Motors, have put in their papers.

• Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd. (RBEI) has become the first ASPICE maturtity level 3 certified major engineering solutions organization for its automotive business. 

• TATA  Kite is being planned for a late 2015 launch and would be rolled out from its Sanand plant in Gujarat. According to sources in the auto industry, Kite being developed under its MY15 programme would help Tata Motors position as a high volume product in the compact car segment, which forms more than 30 per cent of the total passenger cars sales in India. 

•  Toyota on Wednesday said it was recalling 2.27 million vehicles globally over an airbag system defect that could cause a fire, the latest in a series of callbacks by the world's biggest automaker.The company, which has now recalled about nine million vehicles in the past two months, said the announcement covered about 20 models, including its Corolla sedan and Yaris subcompact.

• Following two consecutive months of drop, domestic car sales in India grew by 3.08 per cent in May 2014. According to figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), domestic car sales in July stood at 1,48,577 units as against 1,44,132 units in the same month last year. The total sales figure translates to a growth of 3.08 per cent.

• The Datsun brand was launched yesterday in South Africa, becoming the fourth market where it is being rolled out, alongside India, Indonesia and Russia. Datsun had an iconic status in South Africa up to the 1980s, where it was the No. 1 selling brand in 1976-1978. Over 20 million Datsuns were sold globally over the course of 20th century.

• Renault India have reintroduced the Renault Scala Travelogue edition at a starting price of INR 8.48 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi, RXL petrol variant). The Scala Travelogue Edition was launched in April 2013, and was limited to the top-end RXZ diesel variant.

• Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) along with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, Japan (MFTBC) has launched its made-in- Oragadam trucks in Bangladesh. With this, Bangladesh becomes the sixth market – after Kenya, Sri Lanka, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe  – since the start of export for Fuso trucks in May last year.

• Land Rover has extended its support to the Born Free Foundation’s work in India by delivering a brand-new Land Rover Freelander to the Satpuda Foundation, one of Born Free’s partner organisations in Central India, to carry out critical conservation work in the country’s central tiger reserves.

• Farm equipment maker International Tractors Ltd (ITL), a part of the Sonalika group, today joined hands with Punjab National Bank for financing of tractors and agricultural implements.

Image from Rediff.com