India's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd on Monday announced a fresh investment of US $1.8 billion to achieve its target of producing one million cars by 2010-11. The bulk of Maruti's fresh investment will be in a research and development facility, for which the company has applied to the Haryana government for 500 acres of land near Manesar.
Terming Satyam's shocking disclosure of about the Rs 8,000-crore (Rs 80 billion) financial fraud as a 'one off case', corporate leaders today expressed confidence and said it will not damage the image of India Inc.
Maruti Suzuki is offering cash discounts ranging from Rs 5,000 on its hatchback Celerio to Rs 35,000 on entry level Alto800.
The A-Star will be available at an introductory price ranging from Rs 3,47,000 to Rs 4,12,000. A-Star is Maruti's fifth global model which would be manufactured only in India. The company plans to sell 50,000 units in the domestic market, while targets to export 1 lakh units.
Maruti Suzuki is planning a further investment of Rs 9000 crore in India for world class R&D centres, design facility, regional distribution centres and logistics support. The fresh investment will be made over a longer period, about eight years, as compared with three years for some earlier investments. Regional warehouses will cut short the delivery time of vehicles. The centralised and timely despatch of vehicles from its facilities in the north will mean faster shipment.
Market leader Maruti Suzuki on Tuesday unveiled a new sedan, Swift DZiRE, to be launched on March 29 priced below the company's existing car SX4. The new car will be available in both petrol and diesel variants. The petrol variant may be priced between Rs 4.75 to Rs 5 lakh, while the diesel variant would be available for above Rs 5.5 lakh. Maruti is also expanding the capacity of its plant in Manesar to 3 lakh units per annum by 2010, up from the existing about 1.4lakh units.
The first leg of the 35-day festive period, which ended with Dussehra, failed to bring any cheer for auto companies. While makers of passenger vehicles struggled to meet demand due to the persistent shortage of semiconductors, a recovery in demand remained elusive for two-wheeler manufacturers despite offers and schemes. The overall season, which ends two days after Diwali, is unlikely to bring any turnaround in either the supply or the demand scenario, said dealers and officials at auto companies.
Sales of the company's oldest and once bread-and-butter model M800 declined by 5.53 per cent at 3,124 units from same period last year, while A2 segment (comprising Alto, Wagon R, Estilo, Swift, A-Star and Ritz) witnessed a growth of 18.43 per cent at 51,437 units compared to same period last year.
India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki on Thursday said it has no plans to cut the price of Maruti 800 to compete with Tata Motors' Nano.
As if unsatisfied by the success story of Maruti, the new chief of the Indian arm of Japanese auto giant Suzuki Motor Co's on Friday claimed it will overtake the parent company in the next two years.
The company has tied up with scrap dealers across India to dispose of old cars exchanged for new cars and is welcoming customers to come with old cars of any make for exchange. The company has started giving offers to customers worth up to Rs 40,000 while purchasing a new car through exchange, while inviting bids from scrap dealers at the same time for the old cars.
The New Year will begin on a costly note for car buyers with major players, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors and General Motors, planning to increase prices of the vehicles by as much as Rs 12,000.
The fact that Ratan Tata is lurking around the corner with his Rs 1 lakh car will not make Nakanishi's job any easier, or less public.
Khattar's place will be taken by Shinzo Nakanishi, who is currently the chairman of MSIL. R C Bhargava, who is a director, has been named the new chairman.
Jagdish Khattar loves to be contrarian. When pondering options, his beady eyes acquire a glint as he wonders aloud how to go against prevailing wisdom. This often shows up in the way he runs Maruti Suzuki India -- that is what Maruti Udyog now calls itself -- the country's largest car maker.
Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest carmaker, may after all do what everyone expects it to: take on Ratan Tata's Nano with its own low-price car. For long, there has been a will-they-won't-they kind of speculation about how Maruti will protect its entry-level consumer base from the Nano, whose lowest variant is likely to cost Rs 1 lakh in some places and about Rs 1.26 lakh in some others. The higher variants may cost Rs 1.5 lakh or more.
Recently, South Korean Foreign Minister, Chung Eui-yong, dialled his Indian counterpart, S Jaishankar, in New Delhi. His government, he said, "regretted the offence caused to the people of India". A day earlier, India had summoned the South Korean ambassador to express its "strong displeasure" over "an unacceptable social media post".
Swift is the highest selling car from the Maruti stable sicne its launch in 2005.
Reeling under increasing input costs, especially steel, country's biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices of its products across various models between Rs 1,000 and Rs 18,000. The company has hiked the price of its latest model Swift Dzire by Rs 18,000. It had launched the sedan with an introductory price ranging Rs 4.49 lakh and Rs 6 lakh across different variants.
The Japanese giant is already investing Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 crore in its research and development (R&D) centre in India. Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) will roll out a car completely made in India in the next three to four years, which will encompass all the major requirements, including design and engineering architecture, engine development, and the manufacturing process.
Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it is likely to raise in the next few weeks, the price of its entry level sedan Swift DZire to offset high input costs.Based on the Swift platform, Maruti has priced this entry level Sedan in Mumbai from Rs 4.70 lakh for petrol and at Rs 5.60 lakh for diesel (ex-showroom).
Maruti has rolled out the millionth unit of Alto, since its launch in Sept 2000.
In the domestic market, sales grew by nine per cent at 64,857 units as against 59,539 units in April last year, while exports grew by 146 per cent at 6,891 units as against 2,797 units last year, the company said in a statement. This is the fourth consecutive month of sales crossing 70,000-units mark, it added.
The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India, on friday reported 18.33 per cent decline in its net profit after tax for the quarter ended March 31, 2009, at Rs 243.13 crore (Rs 2.43 billion) as against Rs 297.68 crore (Rs 2.98 billion) in the same period previous year.
Maruti Suzuki India growing by a paltry two per cent in January, recorded the lowest growth in this financial year, which could be due to the launch of Tata's Nano.
MD Shinzo Nakanishi also rules out entering ultra low-cost car segment.
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country's biggest carmaker, is set to play a larger role in the operations of parent Suzuki Motor and will contribute a third of the Japanese company's global sales by 2009-10, the Indian firm's managing director Shinzo Nakanishi said on Thursday.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The long awaited product is likely to be launched early next year.
The company's best selling hatch Alto would come at a discount of Rs 24,500, while Wagon-R petrol and LPG would come cheaper by Rs 45,000 and Rs 24,500 respectively. A discount of Rs 48,000 is being offered on Zen Estilo. The discount being offered across various models also includes finance payouts and exchange bonus apart from the customer offer.
Leading manufacturers, including Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and General Motors, are planning to raise prices of each of their models starting from the last week of this month or early next month.
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) on Saturday reported a 24 per cent jump in its car sales in the domestic market during November at 65,216 units against 52,574 units in the corresponding month last year.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) plans to drive in CNG trims across its product range as it remains bullish over long-term prospects of the segment amid increase in fuel prices and drop in diesel car sales, according to a senior company official. The company, which sold around 1.62 lakh CNG cars last fiscal year, is also counting on the rapid expansion of CNG dispensing outlets across the country to bring in more CNG products. Bullish on the expansion of the sales network, the automaker expects its CNG car sales to almost double this fiscal year over 2020-21.
The company was offering a discount of Rs 11,000 on Alto, which will now come down to Rs 10,000, while discount on Maruti 800 would drop to Rs 8,000 from Rs 12,000 earlier. The reduction in discount is in line with the company's expectation of a good demand of Alto, Omni and Maruti 800, sources said.
General Motors India reported on Monday a 64 per cent increase in its domestic vehicle sales during September at 5,751 units against 3,506 units in the same month last year. Mahindra and Mahindra reported on Monday a 24.9 per cent increase.
The country's biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki India on Monday reported 27.4 per cent decline in car sales during November at 47,103 units compared to 64,885 units in the same month last year.
The proxy advisory firm's latest comments come within days of Maruti saying that it expects to save about Rs 10,500 crore (Rs 105 billion) in the first 15 years by not investing in the Gujarat facility.
The amount would depend on the time period that would elapse from the start to when capacity reaches 1.5 million cars
Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India's July sales remained almost flat at 58,543 units as against 57,909 units in the same month last year.
If the court order is implemented, it will lead to an increase in the insurance outgo for car owners by a minimum Rs 50,000 for car and a minimum of Rs 7,000 for two-wheeler owners.
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