Volvo To Make India's Facilty for Asian Exports
Swedish vehicle giant Volvo plans to turn a new Indian manufacturing facility into a low-cost export hub to tap rising Asian demand for public bus transport, the company said on Wednesday.
The bus unit of Volvo plans to build 450 buses this year at the facility that will open on Thursday in this southern Indian city and increase production to 1,000 units by 2010, said Chief Executive Hakaan Karlsson.
The company is mainly targeting the expanding Indian market where accelerating economic growth and rising middle-class incomes have stoked demand for luxury transport, but also plans to export part of the production to other Asian countries.
"Asian cities with growing populations and traffic density increasingly need cost-effective and modern public transport," Karlsson said.
"With Asia's commercial vehicle market growing exponentially, we see the joint venture playing a role in fuelling the company's future growth across the region," he said.
Volvo Bus, a division of Swedish vehicle maker AB Volvo, is joining manufacturers such as South Korea's Hyundai Motor and Japan's Suzuki in turning India into a low-cost export hub, using cheaper labour and local components.
The company is also seeking to tap demand for more comfortable city and inter-city travel in a country where the roads are becoming choked with cars, 1.4 million of which were sold last year.
Volvo Bus, which sold 200 coaches in India last year, set up the Bangalore manufacturing plant in a joint venture with local partner Jaico Automobiles.
The Swedish company has a 70 percent stake in the venture, which already has orders from local customers for half the targeted production this year, said Akash Passey, managing director of the joint venture.
The factory will roll out a new version of the Volvo 9400 inter-city bus in the first quarter of this financial year.
Volvo has sold 1,600 city and inter-city buses since 2001 to state tourism agencies and public and private transporters in India.
The Volvo group also manufactures trucks and construction equipment as well as aerospace components.
Nano India: India can be Small Car Hub
The Auto Policy 2002 and the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016 state the government’s intention and outline the action required to make India an automotive hub. A key element of this vision is the small car. While various policy measures are under discussion within the government, the automobile industry has proactively contributed to the realisation of this vision.
Industry has committed and is currently in the process of investing over Rs 70,000 crore in India. Of this nearly 65% of the investments in the passenger vehicles sector is stated to be directed towards producing small cars.
There are four essential prerequisites for being called a small car hub. First the total production of small cars in India should rank amongst the top two in the world. Second, small cars should have a high share of the domestic market.
Third, exports of small cars should account for a significant share of the global market. Fourth, India should be home to the development and use of new technologies and manufacturing processes that would sustain this leadership over time.
There can be no question about meeting the first requirement. Although, the numbers of cars produced in India are small compared to the US, Japan, China and other European countries, India is the third largest producer of small cars after Japan and Brazil. Small cars also account for over 71% of the domestic market.
India would continue to be a predominantly small car market. Given the current projections for the Nano, India could easily become the second largest market for small cars in the world and in time perhaps become the preferred location, thus fulfilling the second condition. Last year 192,745 passenger cars were exported from India.
Importantly, the percentage of small cars exported was higher than the percentage share in production. However, India does not account for a significant share of small car exports, thus currently not meeting the third requirement. This could change.
There have been many developments in the small car space in India. The global premiere of the Hyundai i.10 was in India. It is proposed to make India the primary manufacturing centre for the i.10. Prototypes of other models, both for the Indian and global markets, were showcased at Auto Expo.
Maruti-Suzuki plans to make India the hub for the manufacture and export of the A Star, while Nissan has announced its intention of making India an export base. Bajaj showcased a small car prototype. Fiat, Ford, GM, Honda, Skoda, and Volkswagen also made announcements on small car projects.
While there are no stated plans to export the Nano, this may change if this car gains recognition in overseas markets. These developments would enable small cars, produced in India, to command a respectable share in the global market in time. Targeted policy interventions and support could enhance and accelerate this.
A number of patentable technologies and processes have been used in the development of the Nano. The Nano is also an environmentally-friendly and safe car. Other cars have also drawn upon Indian talent and skills. This nurturing and use of engineering capability in India is the key fourth prerequisite to sustaining the relative competitive position of India as an automotive hub.
Clearly the Nano has revitalised the potential to make India a small car hub. Governments of China and Thailand are taking aggressive steps to support and build their industry. Industry must continue to innovate; there is a need for coordinated action among all stakeholders in India to ensure ‘Made in India’ is a reality in the world.
DILIP CHHABRIA DESIGN (DC) Costs Rs 4 crores
Dilip Chhabria Launched his Designer series car at the 9th auto Expo in New Delhi.
The car is loaded with the latest gadgets that boast with latest technology.Dilip chhabria is a very famous car designer in india,and his team of experts design latest concept cars.
India Car Market May Expand 65% Thanks to Tata Nano
Tata Nano’s launch could expand the Indian car market by 65%, according to rating agency CRISIL. The low price makes the car affordable for families with incomes of Rs 1 lakh per annum, the agency said.
The increase in the market is expected to push up car sales by 20% over the previous year. “The unveiling of Tata Nano, the cheapest car in the world, triggers an important event in the car market. Based on the statement by company officials, CRISIL Research estimates the consumer price of the car at around Rs 1.3 lakh. This brings down the cost of ownership of an entry level car in India by 30%,” the company said in a report.
CRISIL said the launch will prompt other players to enter the mini car category over the next few years. These launches will entice a section of two-wheeler owners (currently nearly 50 million) to upgrade to cars.
CRISIL has prepared these estimates by projecting the income demographic transition pattern in India and the cost of ownership of existing and new entry-level cars. Given the shape of the income distribution pyramid in India, the new price point translates into a 65% increase in the number of families that can afford a car.
At the significantly redefined threshold for car ownership in India, annual car sales have the potential to increase by 20% over the sales expected in 2007-08.
Tata Nano Designer : Girish Wagh
A mechanical engineer from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology, which was followed by a post-graduate programme in manufacturing from Mumbai B-school SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, the 37-year-old Wagh has had a pretty dramatic career at Tata Motors. But nothing comes near the Nano experience. Heading a 500-strong team, Wagh’s biggest challenge was to define the product’s specifications as they went along. “Unlike the Ace where we knew what the necessary specs were, in this project all we had was a cost target,” he says. “That and the fact that it had to be a real car which met all the regulatory requirements.”
When he first joined Tata Motors 16 years ago, Girish Wagh had no idea he would one day head the company’s now-legendary Rs 1-lakh car project. Although he was part of the Indica vendor development team in 1997, Wagh was actually reluctant to get into full-scale product design with the Ace. He remembers how Tata Motors MD Ravi Kant hand-picked him for the job and convinced him that it was as important as the work he was doing with the company’s excellence group. That was December 2000. The Ace rolled out in May 2005 and almost singlehandedly helped beat a recession in the commercial vehicle space. Impressed by his ability to deliver under tight deadlines, chairman Ratan Tata and Ravi Kant decided to move Wagh to the small car project in August that year. Almost painfully media shy, the Nano’s strobe-steroidal launch this week was one of Wagh’s few public appearances. The small car team had already put in about 18 months’ work by the time Wagh came on board. The R&D team was in place and work was on to get a fix on the styling, packaging, engine and transmission. Because there were no guidelines, the team used the M-800 for comparison. “The idea was that we had to achieve at least this much and more,” says Wagh. “As we went ahead, we redefined performance specs. As recently as nine months ago, we tweaked the engine to increase the power.” The team also decided to launch the car with a manual transmission instead of the earlier-announced continuously variable transmission (CVT). The CVT will come but the first variants will have a four-speed manual. Widely known as one of Tata Motors’ new bunch of engineering whiz kids, Wagh enjoys a formidable reputation in the company. A stickler for perfection and a hard taskmaster, Wagh is the first to admit that the Nano experiment had its own share of hiccups. Part of the problem was the constantly evolving design. His solution was to “leverage the collective knowledge” in the company. In a somewhat hidebound company like Tata Motors that’s never be easy. But then folks inside knew that this was no hypothetical project, the chairman had made it amply clear that he wanted it done. Ravi Kant also made sure the team was insulated from all these pressures. So by the time the project hit top-gear, “the R&D team, vendor development team and manufacturing team were all working together,” says Wagh.
source: EconomicTimes
Making of Tata Nano -The People's Car ,How did Ratan Tata Do it ?
There was the $400 airplane seat that plummeted to $40. Then there was the $2,000 laptop reborn for $200. And now the $25,000 car has a $2,500 cousin.
Every now and again in business history, a disruption comes along that breaks the conventional wisdom about cost, tweaking and paring features once thought untouchable.
Likewise, the $2,500 car introduced on Thursday by the Indian company Tata, swims against the current, with a rear-mounted engine, a trunk that fits little more than a briefcase, and plastics and adhesives replacing metal and bolts in certain nooks.
But the still-untold story of how the Tata car was built is less about big-bang innovations than about a long string of $20 trims: a steering-wheel shaft rendered hollow here, a small headlight leveler removed there, the use of an analog speedometer less accurate than its digital equivalent.
The car is thus a triumph, not of one great invention but of a new engineering philosophy rising out of the developing world, with potential to change how cars everywhere are made, industry experts say. Just as Japan popularized kanban (just in time) and kaizen (continuous improvement), so Tata may export to the world what can perhaps be called "Gandhi engineering" - a mantra that combines irreverence toward established ways with a scarcity mentality that spurns superfluities.
"It's basically throwing out everything the auto industry had thought about cost structures in the past and taking out a clean sheet of paper and asking, 'What's possible?' " said Daryl Rolley, the head of North American and Asian operations for Ariba, which provides parts for Tata and other auto makers like BMW and Toyota. "In the next 5 to 10 years, the whole auto industry is going to be flipped upside-down."Low-cost cars are already having global impact. Tata's move, announced in 2004, has already inspired two rivals to plan their own ultracheap cars: the French-Japanese alliance Renault-Nissan and the Indian-Japanese joint venture Maruti Suzuki. Meanwhile, struggling Western automakers are increasingly borrowing from the cost-obsessed ethos of the developing world.
Yet it is unclear whether the Tata car itself, so small and wispy and lacking the most cutting-edge emissions and safety technologies, will ever drive a Western road - or whether it can sell briskly enough at home to reap a profit.
The "People's Car," so called in homage to Volkswagen's Beetle and Ford's Model T, is a carefully guarded secret. The company refuses to provide details of how it was built, and it has signed legal agreements with suppliers not to divulge details. But as the debut date approaches, a handful of suppliers broke their silence to offer an early, impressionistic picture of how the automobile, a machine invented by a 19th-century German, is being propelled by 21st-century Indians across a new frontier - to cost as little as the optional DVD player on the Lexus LX470 sport utility vehicle.
The handful of people who have seen the car describe a tiny, charming, four-door, five-seat hatchback shaped like a jellybean, tiny in the front and broad in the back, the better to reduce wind resistance and permit a cheaper engine.
"It's a nice car - cute," said A.K. Chaturvedi, senior vice president for business development at Lumax Industries, a supplier in Delhi that developed the headlights and interior lamps for the car.
Driving the cost-cutting were Tata's engineers, who in an earlier project questioned whether their trucks really needed all four brake pads or could make do with three. As they built the People's Car, for about half the price of the next-cheapest Indian alternative, their guiding philosophy appears to have been one question: Do we really need that?
The model appearing Thursday has no radio, no power steering, no power windows, no air conditioning, and one windshield wiper instead of two, according to suppliers and Tata's own statements.
Bucking prevailing habits, the car lacks a tachometer and uses an analog rather than digital speedometer, according to Ashok Taneja, who until recently was president of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India, representing many of Tata's suppliers as they signed deals with the company.
"So what if I'm going at 65 or 75?" Taneja said, referring to the use of a less precise speedometer.
The frugal method also pervades the car's internal machinery, invisible to consumers but perhaps with even greater implications for the vehicle's safety and longevity.
To save just $10, Tata engineers redesigned the suspension to eliminate actuators in the headlights, the levelers that adjust the angle of the beam depending on how the car is loaded, according to Chaturvedi of Lumax. In lieu of the solid steel beam that typically connects steering wheels to axles, one supplier, Sona Koyo Steering Systems, used a hollow tube, said Kiran Deshmukh, the Delhi company's chief operating officer.
The car's cheapness could come at the cost of longevity.
For example, Tata chose wheel bearings that are strong enough to drive the car up to 70 kilometers, or 45 miles, an hour, but will suffer wear and tear above that speed, reducing the car's life span but never threatening consumer safety, according to Taneja.
"When I need silver," he said, "why am I investing in gold?"
Tata's focus on reducing the weight curbed material costs and also permitted a cheaper engine. People familiar with the car describe a $700 rear-mounted engine built by the German company Bosch, measuring 600 to 660 cubic centimeters, with a horsepower in the range of 30 to 35 - no more powerful than some commercial lawn mowers.
The Tata car, according to industry experts, runs on the somewhat forgotten technology of continuous variable transmission, a lighter alternative to the manual or automatic kinds. Conceived by Leonardo da Vinci in the late 15th century, it is an elegant, stepless transmission reliant on pulleys.
While it was never popular in the United States because of often sluggish acceleration, continuous transmission was once widespread in Europe and has resurfaced in the United States in offerings like the Nissan Murano SUV and the Toyota Prius.
Even as Tata reverted to old technologies, it embraced cutting-edge sourcing practices, said Rolley at Ariba, which has assisted both Tata and its foreign rivals with buying parts.
Traditionally, carmakers cultivated long-term relationships with suppliers, but companies have gradually embraced electronic sourcing, using Internet auctions that force multiple suppliers to compete for business. Yet even the most efficient carmakers buy no more than 10 percent to 15 percent of parts electronically, Rolley said, while Tata sources 30 percent to 40 percent of its parts that way.
Critics of the Tata car have asked how a car that prunes thousands of dollars from regular prices can comply with safety and environmental norms. The answer may be that it comes at a fortuitous moment in India's developmental arc, when India is affluent enough to support vigorous demand for cars but not yet so affluent as to have enacted the regulations common to wealthy countries. Tata executives say the car will comply with all Indian norms.
But those norms are changing, and so might the car's price. India's major cities plan to adopt the Euro IV emissions standard in April 2010, requiring a costly reduction in sulfur emissions to a 35th of those allowed in the current Euro III standard, according to Anumita Roychowdhury of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi. New safety rules mandating airbags, antilock brakes and full-body crash tests are also forthcoming, she said.
Roychowdhury gives the car "not much" chance of retaining its populist price tag. That happens to many ultra-cheap offerings: even the "$100 laptop" ended up selling for $200 over the recent holiday season.
And the car may be less than environmentally friendly even in complying with Indian standards. Unlike U.S. cars, Indian ones are not tested after use on real roads, which often batter the systems that curb emissions. Michael Walsh, a pollution consultant and former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulator, said that a car so cheap was likely to lack the complex technology to maintain its initial level of emissions and that without such technology cars could pollute four to five times their initial amount before long.
"It strikes me as impossible that such a vehicle will be a very clean vehicle over the life of the vehicle," Walsh said.
In a recent interview, Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group, also suggested that the car's lightness, while favorable for the environment, had frustrated efforts to make it safe. "We will have far lower emissions than today's low-end cars," he said. But, he added, "The emissions standards were much easier to meet than the crash test."
That is understandable. In most U.S. cars, safety features alone cost more than $2,500, said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Virginia. But, he added, "If what we're talking about in India is people having the option of getting off the streets, from motorcycles and bicycles where they are at risk from bigger vehicles, this may actually be an improvement of the safety environment."
Even if the Tata car never plies Western roads, the philosophy behind it will influence global car makers, Rolley of Ariba said. Manufacturers are searching for ways to make small cars for the middle class in India and China; to produce small cars for their own home markets, roiled by rising gasoline prices; and to improve the profitability of existing larger cars. With old tactics failing, Tata's car will be mined for applicable lessons, Rolley said.
Automakers will create more cars from scratch with low cost built in from the start, Rolley said, and embrace the sensibility in which every design choice is made with cost foremost in mind.
After Renault-Nissan began making cheap cars in Romania, it cross-pollinated low-cost engineering techniques to its plants producing more expensive models - for example, making doors flatter so they could be stacked in greater volume in shipping containers, according to a Nissan spokeswoman.
Consumers in wealthy nations can perhaps expect more thin doors, hollow steering shafts, actuator-free headlights and tiny trunks.
"This will be no different," Rolley said, "from when U.S. companies spent a whole decade in the '80s thinking about what Japanese management techniques they had to adopt.
Source : iht.com/biz
Tata Nano World's Cheapest car from India.
India Auto Expo 2008
Source :Rediff.com
Its mono-volume design, with wheels at the corners and the powertrain at the rear, enables it to uniquely combine both space and manoeuvrability, which will set a new benchmark among small cars.
When launched, the car will be available in three versions. All versions will offer a wide range of body colours, and other accessories so that the car can be customised to an individual's preferences.
Nano has a rear-wheel drive, all-aluminium, two-cylinder, 624 cc, 33 bhp, multi-point fuel injection petrol engine. This is the first time that a two-cylinder gasoline engine is being used in a car with single balancer shaft.
The lean design strategy has helped minimise weight, which helps maximise performance per unit of energy consumed and delivers high fuel efficiency. Performance is controlled by a specially designed electronic engine management system.
Nano's safety performance exceeds current regulatory requirements. With an all sheet-metal body, it has a strong passenger compartment, with safety features such as crumple zones, intrusion-resistant doors, seat belts, strong seats and anchorages, and the rear tailgate glass bonded to the body. Tubeless tyres further enhance safety.
India Auto Expo All set for Tata's Small Car
The biennial event - India's answer to some of the top global auto shows like Tokyo Motor Show and Frankfurt Show - would be inaugurated on Thursday. From Friday, visitors would be permitted between 3 pm and 7 pm, while it will be business hours from 10am to 3pm.
All those waiting to have a look at the Tata Motors' Rs 1 lakh car or other new models that are set to hit the Indian roads should brace up for the ninth edition of the Auto Expo that opens on Friday.
Visitors can purchase tickets at Metro stations and at ITPO windows for Rs 100 each and business tickets can be bought for Rs 500. "There will be park-and-ride facility also available from specially earmarked sites around India Gate and also from Indira Gandhi Stadium. These would be free-of-cost and easily to go the venue through designated vehicles," Gurpal Singh of CII said.
As many as 1.5 million visitors are expected to visit the fair this time, he said, adding that 2,000 companies were participating at the show that ends on January 17. Singh said there would be no business hours on the weekends, though ticket prices on Saturday and Sunday would be Rs 150.
Many new cars would also be unveiled and these include from the stable of Suzuki, Honda and Fiat. While Suzuki would showcase its ‘A-Star' concept and ‘Splash' compact, Fiat will be displaying the ‘Grande Punto' compact that will also hit the Indian roads next year.
Czech carmaker Skoda will display the ‘Fabia' while Japanese car major Honda will also display its new compact ‘Jazz' that will be rolled out in India from its upcoming plant in Rajasthan. Other carmakers like GM, Mahindra and Mahindra, Volkswagon and Hyundai will also be displaying their cars.
Source :Times of India
Bajaj Lanches its own of Version of Small Car ahead of TATA
The country's second largest bike maker Bajaj Auto Ltd on Tuesday cocked a snook at those who sniggered at its efforts to get into the passenger car market.
The company silently unveiled its 'Lite' concept car in New Delhi, two days before the much hyped launch of Tata Motors' Rs 1 lakh car.
Bajaj Auto, the country's second biggest two-wheeler maker, said it plans to bring out its small car in collaboration with Renault and Nissan within four years but it will not be for Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000).
"I know Carlos Ghosn (President and CEO of Renault and Nissan) has set a target of 2010 for Bajaj-Renault car. While it is hard to put any time-frame, we can say in two-four years we can expect to have the product ready," Bajaj Auto managing director Rajiv Bajaj told reporters in New Delhi.
Bajaj declined to give a specific price of the small car. Ghosn has earlier stated that Renault was looking for a $3,000 car in India, a move triggered by Tata Motors' Rs 1 lakh car that will be unveiled later this week.
Tata motors Rs 1 Lakh Car launch Tomorrow
Tata Motors, the country's largest automobile manufacturer, will unveil its much-touted 'people's car', better known as the Rs one-lakh car, tommorow
The company said in a statement that while it would unveil the car on January 10 during the expo, the commercial launch would take place later in the year.
The launch would mark the realisation of a dream for Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata, who is looking forward to silence critics of the project, just as he did with the company's first passenger car Indica.
Tata had in the past said that the 'people's car' would be a gearless one with a rear engine and meet all safety as well as emission norms.
While the initial plan is to come out with a 660cc petrol engine, the company is also planning to come up with the diesel variant. However, Tata Motors is facing a pricing issue with input costs going up manifold since the inception of the project. Tata had earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show hinted that ultimately customers might have to pay a tad more than Rs one lakh for the car.
Besides, the company had to face political opposition for setting up its manufacturing plant at Singur in West Bengal, which ultimately began earlier this year.
source: Economictimes
Auto Expo Opens On Friday 10 jan for Public
All those waiting to have a look at the Tata Motors' Rs 1 lakh car or other new models that are set to hit the Indian roads should brace up for the ninth edition of the Auto Expo that opens on Friday.
The biennial event - India's answer to some of the top global auto shows like Tokyo Motor Show and Frankfurt Show - would be inaugurated on Thursday. From Friday, visitors would be permitted between 3 pm and 7 pm, while it will be business hours from 10am to 3pm.
Visitors can purchase tickets at Metro stations and at ITPO windows for Rs 100 each and business tickets can be bought for Rs 500. "There will be park-and-ride facility also available from specially earmarked sites around India Gate and also from Indira Gandhi Stadium. These would be free-of-cost and easily to go the venue through designated vehicles," Gurpal Singh of CII said.
As many as 1.5 million visitors are expected to visit the fair this time, he said, adding that 2,000 companies were participating at the show that ends on January 17. Singh said there would be no business hours on the weekends, though ticket prices on Saturday and Sunday would be Rs 150.
Many new cars would also be unveiled and these include from the stable of Suzuki, Honda and Fiat. While Suzuki would showcase its ‘A-Star' concept and ‘Splash' compact, Fiat will be displaying the ‘Grande Punto' compact that will also hit the Indian roads next year.
Czech carmaker Skoda will display the ‘Fabia' while Japanese car major Honda will also display its new compact ‘Jazz' that will be rolled out in India from its upcoming plant in Rajasthan. Other carmakers like GM, Mahindra and Mahindra, Volkswagon and Hyundai will also be displaying their cars.
