The company decides to launch premium, entry-level bikes after competition hits high gear.
If you were planning to spend Christmas or New Year's Eve at exotic locations in Goa or Kerala but haven't done the required bookings for it yet, chances are that you can't go.
Manufacturers report unexpected post-festival surge in demand.
Small cars account for 80 per cent of the domestic market
Senior officials of Nissan Motor stated that the company had largely frozen the design and concept of the sedan, which will be positioned as a premium product that would perhaps take on the likes of Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla Altis.
Pressure is mounting on Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India, India's fourth biggest two-wheeler maker by volume, to resume normal supplies of scooters and motorcycles to its dealers, who are forced to ask customers to wait for up to four-five months for delivery.
Although most companies had geared for increased production at their plants, most say the surge in demand was unexpected, partly driven by yesteryear purchases which had been postponed earlier due to lack of funds.
The base variant of Rio will be priced at Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000), making it 30 per cent cheaper than its nearest competitor and the launch will take place this month after Diwali.
Affluent Indian automobile buyers may get another brand to choose from. Nissan, Japan's third largest carmaker, is looking at the possibility of launching Infiniti, a luxury brand owned by it, in India. Known for its luxurious features and power-packed driving characteristics, Infiniti is a premium brand which competes with benchmark ones globally such as Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Audi and Accura.
Renault and Nissan's decision to launch their own compact cars is independent of a tie-up with Pune-based motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto to develop a low-cost car that is expected to debut in 2011. A formal joint venture agreement is yet to be signed among the partners, though work on the small car is progressing at a slower pace.
John Brumby, Prime Minister of the state of Victoria in Australia, decided to cancel his scheduled trip to Mumbai after a detailed advisory issued first by the US and then by Israel, which said terrorists are planning attacks in India.
Second hand demand entirely for the top-end LX variant
One reason for the upward revision in the forecast comes from the surprise growth of 9.45 per cent notched by the industry since the beginning of this year.
Global motorcycle majors find a surging response.
"These are engineers with tremendous capabilities in automobile research and engineering. They have specialisation in car design, styling and modeling, engine development and manufacturing, crash testing and hybrid technology," said I V Rao, managing executive officer (engineering) of Maruti Suzuki.
Under the scheme, the government provided incentives of $1,000-5,600 directly to those buyers who were willing to trade their old, gas-guzzling vehicles for new, fuel-efficient vehicles. Indian auto bigwigs, including Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, among others, through the association of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), had approached the government to implement a similar programme. However, they are yet to succeed.
Prices of key inputs up 44% to 74%; analysts expect earnings squeeze after a quarter or two.
India's biggest two-wheeler manufacturer, Hero Honda, is already predicting a certain impact by November-December.
Companies that made expensive overseas acquisitions lead the way in driving cost efficiencies.
With both leisure and business travellers dropping Pune from their itineraries, 30 to 50 per cent of all grades of rooms in the city are vacant. This steep fall comes as double whammy for these hotels, since they were forced to pare tariffs 35 to 40 per cent owing to falling occupancies as a result of the economic slowdown.
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