Automotive Updates - 2nd July 2014

• Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the Tata Group, is to receive Frost & Sullivan’s 2014 Growth, Innovation and Leadership award. The award will be presented at the business consulting firm’s global flagship event, the Global Community of Growth, Innovation and Leadership (GIL), conducted across 14 countries worldwide, to be held on September 23, at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. Mr Tata will join an elite roster of visionaries, innovators and leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Richard Branson, Mitchell Baker, Jack Andraka, Marc Benioff, Steve Woods, and Judy Estrin, among others, who have been recipients of this award.

• Dr Baba N Kalyani, chairman and managing director, Bharat Forge Ltd, has received the 2014 Majha Sanman award. He was given the award recently by the chief minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chauhan and Union surface transport minister Nitin Gadkari.

• Apollo Tyres board today said its board has approved a proposal to invest USD 340 million (around Rs 2,025 crore) to upgrade its manufacturing facilities at Chennai and Kalamassery (Kerala).Besides, the company's board which met today, also gave its nod to seek shareholders' approval to raise USD 200 million (around Rs 1,191 crore) via issue of securities to pursue organic growth opportunities and for other corporate purposes, Apollo Tyres Ltd said in a statement.

• Caterpillar India’s financial products division and Tata Capital Financial Services Ltd (TCFSL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Capital Limited, the financial services arm of the Tata Group, have come together to offer customers finance options for purchasing Cat equipment at all its dealership stores.

• Aequs, among India's fastest growing precision manufacturing companies, laid the foundation for a automotive components plant at its 250-acre Aequs SEZ in Belgaum, Karnataka.The new facility will add machining capacity of over 100,000 hours annually and will support the company's rapid expansion plans in the US and Europe markets this year. The new plant is expected to be operational from March 2015. Aequs will manufacture engine and transmission parts, sub-assemblies and assemblies in the new plant.

• GM India will launch the Manchester United special edition Chevrolet Beat and Chevrolet Sail U-VA on July 7, Indian Autos Blog is told by its sources. 

• Dongfeng Peugeot Citroën Automobile (DPCA) has signed an agreement today with the city of Chengdu for the construction of its fourth production facility in China. Work will get underway in the second half of the year, with the first car scheduled to roll off the new assembly lines in late 2016.

• Shriram Transport Finance Co Ltd, flagship company of the Shriram group today said it was aiming at 8-10 per cent growth in asset base in the current fiscal."We hope heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) market growth will come in the second half of this year. We are looking at a growth of 8-10 per cent in the asset size in 2014-15 from a flat market last year," Shriram Transport vice-president S K Mundra said here today at a roadshow for NCD launch.

• In an interview with The Hindu, Dr. Pawan Goenka, president and executive director, Automotive and Farm Equipment Sector (AFS), M&M, admitted that the company predicted the compact SUV boom in India to happen a year later than it actually did. However, he added that Mahindra’s UV lineup will be strengthened next year by the addition of 2 new products in the compact SUV segment. 

•  Renault India has made the first move among OEMs by increasing prices on its locally produced range – the Scala sedan, Pulse hatchback and Duster SUV – by 1 percent from July 1, 2014. The carmaker has cited rising input costs as the main reason. 

•  image from internet