With automotive sales entering into a sluggish period, leading commercial vehicle makers are enticing buyers by doling out discounts and lucrative finance options. Tata Motors, for instance, recently run a scheme wherein commercial vehicle buyers would get three months' waiver on equated monthly installments on the vehicle loan. The response, according to the company, was very positive.
A proposal by the joint venture between Tata Motors and Fiat to set up a facility to manufacture the world's most famous small diesel engine -- the 1.3 multijet -- had been rejected by Japan's largest maker of minicars, Suzuki Motor Corporation.
The next time you buy a householder's insurance policy, you could be paying premiums that are 35 to 50 per cent lower. This is the result of the de-tariffing or lifting of price controls on insurance policies from January this year.
India's four-wheeler sector may post a flat profit growth in the first quarter due to a rise in input costs. The cost of automobile steel, which constitutes about 40 per cent of the total raw materials, rose by more than 25 per cent during the three-month period. Prices of raw materials like aluminium, copper, rubber and fuel also appreciated significantly.
Iconic Italian brand Alfa Romeo is all set to burn rubber on Indian roads next year as Fiat, the parent company, prepares to launch the brand in the local market, according to top Fiat India executives.
According to sources privy to the information, default rates have touched 5-6 per cent in the past six months as against the usual 1-2 per cent. Banks and other lending organisations agree that there has been a rise in delinquency rates, but the increase has only become significant during the past one month following the fuel hike. Fuel costs account for about 60 per cent of the total operating expenses of truckers.
The story about India enticing world auto majors will add another feather in European giant Volkswagen's (VW) cap as it prepares for its first fully-original Indian Volkswagen car, made with the help of expertise provided by Indian engineers and designers.
LIC, ICICI Prudential invest Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) and Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) respectively in the first quarter of FY09.
A slowdown in the automobile industry is set to reverse by the year-end. The slowdown, which is cyclical in nature and occurs after every seven years, should come to an end in the next three months, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the country's apex automobile body.
Banks make criteria tougher for funding the car. Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata's dream to help the common man own a four-wheeler may meet its bete noire in bankers as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and rival lenders realign rules to finance the Nano, touted to be the world's cheapest car.
The demand from second-time car buyers outstrips the demand from those seeking to upgrade themselves from two-wheelers. Tata Motors' city dealers say about 60 per cent of all Nano buyers are those who already own a car and the rest 40 per cent are those who either own a two-wheeler or have never owned a vehicle earlier.
The Chennai-based company is developing bikes in the range of 200cc and above to compete with Bajaj Auto's Pulsar range, which begins with the 150cc variant and ends with the 220cc model at the top of the ranks, sources, who declined to be identified, said.
Mahindra & Mahindra is developing a small engine for a smaller version of its UVs and replicate the Tatas dream of a small car, a company official said.
General Insurance Corporation, the country's only reinsurer, will be launching Retakaful -- reinsurance based on Shariah principles -- in this financial year. Retakaful will provide reinsurance support and will be based on the Islamic principles called Shariah. Reinsurance refers to insuring insurance companies. Similarly, a Retakaful company provides reinsurance support to Takaful insurance companies (insurance companies following the Islamic concept of insurance).
An increasing number of companies are outsourcing superannuation, gratuity and leave encashment programmes of their employees to insurance companies.The trend that emerged two years ago has got a shot in the arm with SAIL, Nicholas Piramal, Vishakhapatnam Port asking insurers to manage their employees' retirement programmes.
Mahindra & Mahindra, the world's fourth largest tractor maker, has deferred its plan to build a Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) tractor facility in Chennai on apprehensions that tractor sales may slow, a top company executive has said.
Speaking to Business Standard a day after the company announced indifferent results for 2007-08, Kant said this year is going to be the toughest for the auto industry in a long time because of soaring input costs and crude oil prices. But the credit squeeze could have a far-reaching impact on the industry's fortunes.
Life insurers have decided to pass on service tax to customers. The chief financial officers of life insurance companies met last Wednesday and have decided to pass on the service tax burden to customers, confirmed officials of various life insurance companies.
The amount is almost double the Rs 220 crore (Rs 2.2 billion) that a consortium of Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank earned for its life insurance tie-up with the UK-based wealth and investment company, Legal & General Group (see table). The entry premium is a result of regulations that require foreign insurers to tie up with Indian partners. SBI will hold 74 per cent in the non-life insurance company and IAG the remaining 26 per cent.
Despite a general slowdown, Audi India has posted a dizzying growth figure of 123 per cent, selling 321 units in January-April 2008. All set to launch the new A4 sedan in July, Benoit Tiers, managing director, Audi India, tells Business Standard about the company's objectives.
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