Automotive Updates - 6th August 2014

• French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen on Wednesday denied media report of partnership talks with M&M to share technology and production facilities.The media report on Tuesday reported, citing unnamed sources, that Mahindra was in talks with Peugeot on a strategic alliance that would involve technology sourcing, mutual sharing of production capacity in France and India, as well as "significant investments".(ETauto)

• Royal Enfield, the world’s oldest motorcycle brand in continuous production and the world’s fastest growing motorcycle manufacturer, has named industry-veteran Rod Copes as President, North America. Rod will be responsible for driving Royal Enfield’s businesses in the United States and Canada. By naming Copes to a top-level executive position, Royal Enfield has firmly stated its intentions to rapidly expand the brand in the United States of America, its top export market.(motoroid.com)

• With the government all set to increase the speed limits on our road, it is important that our vehicles get equally safer to counter any unfortunate high speed crashes. The government has announced that it will make safety features like ABS and airbags mandatory on all cars by 2017. The government will also make crash tests mandatory for new vehicles and this would mean a lot of old cars being scrapped from the Indian market on account of non-compliance with the new safety norms.(motorbeam.com)

• speaking about the new Punto Evo, it comes with a heavy localization content of 95%. This has made it possible for Fiat to launch the car at an aggressive starting price of Rs 4.55 lakhs (ex-Delhi) for the base petrol variant. Same goes with their next car in-line for India launch. Avventura too is expected to have a 95% localization level.(rushlane.com)

• Volvo Buses has supplied the first lot of its Volvo 8400 city buses (UBS II) to the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT), the company said in a statement today. While 18 units were delivered to the APSRTC, 30 units were delivered to NMMT as part of the fleet augmentation process. These deliveries follow that of orders from Pondicherry and Solapur in June, the first time that Volvo Buses will ply in these locations. (Autocarpro.in)

• Auto parts maker Visteon Corp reported a 11 percent rise in quarterly revenue as higher vehicle production boosted sales of its climate control products.Total sales rose to $1.78 billion in the second quarter ended June 30, from $1.61 billion a year earlier. (ETauto)

• Apollo Tyres, whose deal for the acquisition of Cooper Tire & Rubber, fell through last December, has decided to establish a new greenfield plant in Eastern Europe, expand capacity at the Chennai plant, and re-jig the product mix of its facility in Kalamassery, Kerala. The company, as reported earlier this year, will spend Euro 500 million (Rs 4,086 crore) for its East European facility that will be funded by accruals and debt of the company’s European subsidiary. (autocarpro.in)

• New crossover from Maruti Suzuki S Cross will supposedly be powered by diesel engines only, with option of 1.3 litre and 1.6 litre units. Reason for not offering petrol engine as option is given as relatively low sales compared to variants with diesel hearts in compact SUV segment.(rushlane.com)

• Due to change in emission norms such as Tier 4 final emission limits and Euro 6 the demand for exhaust-gas treatment systems for trucks, diggers, and other mobile machinery has increased rapidly. To meet the robust demand, Bosch emission systems (BESG) is now bringing new production facilities online in Neunkirchen, in Germany's Saarland. At 3,500 square meters, the existing production halls reached the limit of their capacity some time ago. (ETauto)

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