Automotive Updates - 9th October 2014

• Nissan on Thursday appointed Arun Malhotra as the new Managing Director for Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. Malhotra will report to Guillaume Sicard, President -Nissan India Operations. Prior to joining Nissan, Malhotra was the chief of International Sales and Marketing for the automotive and farm sector of Mahindra & Mahindra.(ETauto.com)

• Indian car major, Maruti Suzuki is likely to face legal action for receiving pre-launch bookings of its latest sedan, the Ciaz, without revealing the details of the vehicle. Although pre-launch booking is not an old practice, the move comes after former Railways Minister and MP Dinesh Trivedi filed a complaint. Trivedi claims that he has received many complaints from the public about the company taking pre-launch booking. Consumer affairs ministry has communicated with the car maker and asked why it shouldn’t initiate action under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.(motoroids.com)

• Nissan India has silently launched the Terrano Anniversary Edition on its website. As the name suggests, the edition celebrates the first anniversary of the car, and is limited to 450 units. Interestingly, one can book the Anniversary Edition only through Nissan India’s website. Even if you do approach a dealer, the car will be ordered via the website only, says Nissan.(indianautoblogs.com)

• Farm equipment majorEscorts Ltd today announced implementation of a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) as part of its organisational restructuring under which 350 employees have exited the company."With an operational focus on improving business performance, Escorts Ltd has successfully implemented group-wide future-oriented VRS, aimed particularly at restructuring Escorts Auto Products," the company said in a statement.(ETauto.com)

• Manfred Kantner has been appointed Head Sales India, and Far East at Volkswagen passenger cars wef October 1, 2014. Prior to this he was Managing Director of SEAT Deutschland GmbH. 48 year old Kantner succeeds Dr. Wolf-Stefan Specht (45). The latter has taken over as Volkswagen Passenger Cars Head of Sales Europe since  September 1. Both managers report to Christian Klingler, Board Member for Sales and Marketing for the Volkswagen Group and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand.(rushlane.com)

• One of the leading brands of superbikes DSK Hyosung today opened its first exclusive showroom in Chandigarh showcasing bikes costing from 2.75 lakhs to Rs 5.79 lakhs.Shirish Kulkarni, Chairman, DSK Hyosung announced during the launch that this would be our first showroom in Chandigarh and 40th overall in the country. Talking about Punjab and Chandigarh markets, he said that Company already has a showroom at Ludhiana in Punjab. (financialexpress.com)

• Swedish commercial vehicle major Scania is bagging new orders for its vehicles at a regular pace in India. One of its major customers, BGR Mining & Infra has announced that it will add 500 Scania trucks in its off-road truck fleet to serve in its multiple coal mining sites. The Hyderabad-based BGR Mining, one of the major coal mining contract operators, has started buying Scania trucks since March this year. Within a span of six months, BGR bought 149 off-road trucks from Scania. (Autocarpro.in)

• The UAE-basedGulf Petrochem Group has made two acquisitions in India in this fiscal year and is scouting for more to expand its presence here. Gulf Petrochem Group announced on Wednesday that it will make an open offer to acquire up to 26% of Sah Petroleums, which is listed on the Indian bourses, after buying 72.23% stake in the company from its promoters.(ETauto.com)

• Volkswagen (VW) confirmed the news of a new compact sedan which the group is developing specifically for India. VW confirmed that the car will be a sub-4 metre compact sedan based on the PQ25 platform of the Polo and will have the same 2456mm wheelbase. The idea behind this move is that VW will benefit from the excise duty exemptions and that in-turn will make this compact sedan more affordable and also profit VW. The car will be slotted between the Polo and the Volkswagen’s best-selling sedan in India, the Vento. (motoroids.com)

• Piaggio Vehicles Pvt. Ltd has launched its new customer care program, Vespa Care to achieve exceptional customer care so privileged Vespa customers can avail of 24×7, 365 days Road Side Assistance across 51 Indian cities.(rushlane.com)