Automotive Updates - 9th and 10th December 2015

• Ford India will soon start shipping cars to Europe from its Sanand plant from early next year. The Sanand plant, Ford's second manufacturing facility, was commissioned in March this year.Manager of Ford India's Sanand plant Kel Kearns said, "The company is currently exporting to Mexico, middle-east and South Africa from Sanand plant, and will soon begin shipping cars to Europe from Gujarat plant".Kearns was speaking at the opening of Canada based Magna International's auto components plant here in Sanand on Wednesday.(ETauto)

• The waiting period for those who have purchased Renault Kwid has now been extended to 10 months! The French automaker’s budget hatchback was launched amid much fanfare in September and garnered over 50,000-60,000 bookings in a very short period. However, they have not been able to meet this demand due to production issues and have only managed to deliver around 10,000 cars in the last two months.(cartrade)

• Country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India will hike prices of its vehicles across models by up to Rs 20,000 from January to offset impact of rising costs and weakening of rupee against dollar, joining rivals in making such a move."The price increase has been necessitated on account of increase in costs due to weakening of rupee against dollar, rise in administrative and other costs," a Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) spokesperson said.(businesstoday)

• Honda Cars India Ltd on Thursday said it will recall 64,428 City sedans and 25,782 Mobilio multi-purpose vehicles running on diesel engines to replace the fuel return pipe.The Indian arm of the Japanese car maker will recall City sedans manufactured between December 2013 and July 2015 and Mobilios made between June 2014 and July 2015.(livemint)

• OK Play India, pioneers in the field of Roto-Moulded plastics, has entered into the automobile industry with the next generation, environment-friendly, zero pollution green e-rickshaws, the company announced in a statement.Rajan Handa, Managing Director, OK Play India said, "The next generation OK Play E-Rickshaws will be India's first 100% indigenously designed and developed, zero emission Green E-Rickshaws to be manufactured in India".(ETauto)

• The Honda Hornet 160 R street fighter which was unveiled at the Honda RevFest event earlier this year has been launched at INR 79,900 (ex-showroom, New Delhi). The new product is essentially a Unicorn 160 with a different top-hat and modified ergonomics.(rushlane)

• Four two-wheeler manufacturers including TVS Motor, India Yamaha Motor, Bajaj Auto and Eicher Motors are to hold free vehicle service camps for the next 10 days to repair vehicles damaged by floods and heavy rain in Chennai. This decision has come after chief minister Jayalalithaa requested the companies to help two-wheeler owners by providing repair service.   In an official statement, the CM said, “I have requested TVS Motor Company, India Yamaha Motor, Bajaj Auto and Eicher Motors to provide free service and based upon that, the companies have decided to conduct camps.” Details regarding the service camps would be made public on government’s website. - See more at: http://www.autocarpro.in/news-national/tvs-india-yamaha-bajaj-auto-royal-enfield-set-free-service-camps-chennai-days-9847#sthash.BZPPfq4P.dpuf

• Tata Motors is in the process of revamping its passenger car lineup. With the new design strategies moulding the current crop of Tata cars, it looks like the Manza and Vista have been laid to rest.According to report by Business Standard, Girish Wagh, senior vice-president of programme planning and management for passenger cars at Tata Motors has stated that the Vista and Manza have been phased out of production. Tata revamped its product range with products like the Zest and Bolt by offering a different range of powertrain options and new features.(teambhp)