Indian automotive updates - 4th June 2014

• India’s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has made the BMW 7 Series 760 Li Security Edition his official car, with no further update available on the offer made to him for a fully armored Scorpio. Modi had used a civilian version of the Scorpio during his campaigns leading up to the elections.

• Japanese car maker Nissan today reported over two-fold increase in sales at 5,021 units in India for the month of May. The company had sold 2,080 vehicles in May 2013, Nissan Group of India said in a statement. 

• India’s largest exporter Hyundai maintained the top spot in exports with the i10 hatchback in the last financial year 2014. The South Korean car maker exported 1,09,074 units of the i10 from the country, down by 29 percent from 1,53,168 units in FY2013.

• Force Motors’ Gurkha off-roader is to go on sale from September 2014. However, the company has already shipped around 300 units to Africa in April 2014

• Maruti Suzuki looks to increase number of dealerships in India to cater to its combative growth strategy. Within next thee years, the small car samrat aims to sell 2 million cars here, and a massive expansion plan that highlights it’s increasing market footprint is key to achieving it.

• Euro NCAP has revealed the findings of safety tests of four heavy quadricycles – Club Car Villager 2+2 LSV, Renault Twizy 80, Tazzari Zero and Ligier IXO J Line 4 Places. All vehicles have performed very poorly in front and side impact tests and some have shown serious risks of life threatening injuries.

• Times are good for Ford India, as last month saw the American manufacturer register a 51 per cent jump in domestic sales as compared to May 2013. Ford sold 6,053 vehicles in May 2014 as compared to 4,002 units it sold in the same period, last year. 

• Suzuki Motorcycle India (SMIL), one of the top four scooter manufacturing OEMs in the domestic market, plans to double its exports for the ongoing fiscal year. The company, which began actively focusing on exports last year, recorded cumulative shipments of 10,032 units in 2013-14. Now in a bid to step up its scale, SMIL plans to export 20,000 units to its existing export markets in 2014-15.

• Visteon Corporation is to showcase its latest in-vehicle connectivity solutions and discuss the auto-mobility revolution at Telematics Detroit 2014 in Novi, Michigan from June 4-5. Telematics Detroit is considered to be the world's largest forum dedicated to the future of connected auto mobility.

Image from bbc.com