Automotive Updates - 29th July 2014

• Chinese commercial vehicle major BeiBen Trucks, a unit of NORINCO Group, was born to assemble Mercedes-Benz trucks for the Chinese market. The grown-up truck maker is now looking to enter the Indian truck market, according to a report in Economic Times.(indianautoblogs.com)

• US Secretary of State, John Kerry has regaled both Tata Group and American motor company, Ford for job opportunities created both in the US and in India. Tata Group has created a vast number of job opportunities in the United States due to expansion of design and sales operations in the country.rushlane.com)

• Finally some good news for the masses and petrol heads alike. There will be a drop in the price of petrol and it could be to the tune of Re 1 per litre. A drop of Re 1 is considerable by what has been the trend of late and since April we haven’t seen such a significant drop. (carwale.com)

•  Suzuki is recalling nearly 26,000 midsize cars in the US because the daytime running light modules can overheat and could cause a fire.The recall covers the Verona from the 2004-2006 model years. It's an expansion of an earlier recall of the Forenza and Reno.(Etauto.com)

• A report on Autocar India says that Volvo India has introduced its all-new Drive-E engine in the S60 sedan and XC60 SUV. The D4 variants of these cars, which until now came with a five-cylinder 2.0-liter diesel engine, are offered with a newly developed four-cylinder 2.0-liter engine that launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year. .(indianautoblogs.com)

• Mahindra has silently launched a new variant of the e2o equipped with power steering. In fact, the e2o now comes in three variants – T01, T2 and T20. The T2 and T20 come with an electric power steering unit according to the company’s website. .(indianautoblogs.com)

• Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover will hold the global premiere of the new Jaguar XE luxury sedan in London on September 8 with which it is looking to bring new levels of aluminium-intensive lightweight construction expertise to the segment.(Businesstoday.com)

• Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland aims to reduce its debt by another Rs 700 crore to bring it down to around Rs 3,800 crore from Rs 4,500 crore. "We aim to reduce debt to Rs 3,800 crore from Rs 4,500 crore from now that will bring debt equity ratio to 1:1 by this fiscal," Managing Director VK Dasari said here today. (economicstimes.com)

• Japanese automaker Honda said Tuesday its latest quarterly net profit jumped 19.6 percent to $1.4 billion thanks to a weak yen and growth in global auto sales, as it boosted its full-year profit forecast.Honda said it earned 146.5 billion yen ($1.4 billion), up from 122.5 billion yen a year earlier, as sales rose 5.4 percent to 2.99 trillion yen. (Etauto.com)

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