Automakers finish 2008 on a bleak note. Expect 2009 to be worse.
George W. Bush on Friday handed the fate of US carmakers to president-elect Barack Obama as he announced plans to lend General Motors and Chrysler $17.4bn to survive the next three months.
Despite carmaker drama in the U.S., and a failed deal with Chrysler, China's auto champ may be poised to go international.
Automobile manufacturer General Motors on Wednesday cut the price of its vehicles by up to Rs 30,500, following the government reducing excise duty.
General Motors also plans to increase sourcing from India over the next 4-5 years to $1 billion annually.
US carmaker General Motors on Tuesday said it has won J D Power Asia Pacific 2008 award for its two cars Chevrolet Spark and Aveo U-VA produced by its Indian subsidiary.
The move comes close on the heels of growth in developed auto markets such as the US and Europe dipping in the red. Analysts say that global auto companies are now focusing on developing new models for emerging markets like India, their with main focus on containing costs. The cost of development in India is considered to be the lowest in the world.
Novelis world leader in flat rolled aluminium products, customers include Coke, GM.
The Supreme Court on Monday directed Uber to apply for a licence within three weeks to operate in Maharashtra, stressing that cab aggregators cannot function without one. A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud said that an earlier interim order by the Supreme Court that had allowed Uber to operate in the state would not provide legal cover, since an aggregator cannot operate without a licence. It ordered Uber to apply for a licence by March 6, said a report by Bar and Bench.
EDS, a leading global technology services company, has won the majority share of the five-year multibillion dollar General Motor systems integration awards that were announced on Friday, a release said.
Carmakers seem to be driving in the right lane with their new models, with three of the new launches - Maruti Swift diesel and Mahindra Renault Logan as well as GM's Chevrolet Aveo U-VA - finishing on the top of their segments in a customer satisfaction survey.
General Motors subsidiary Chevrolet will introduce a diesel engine option in Optra by April-May this year. Currently, the car is only available with petrol engine.
The research firm ranked small car Chevrolet Spark as the leader in terms of quality in the compact car segment with a score of 127, mid-size sedan Chevrolet Aveo topped the midsize segment with a score of 109 while Chevrolet Optra (97) was ranked highest in the premium midsize segment, GM India said in a statement.
GM India presently sources engines for its products from its other global plants. Apart from multi-utility vehicle Tavera, which is 97 per cent localised, the company's other products run on sourced engines. The company is in talks with more than one state governments to set up the proposed plant, but has not zeroed down on one particular location as yet.
After successfully marketing the state to American auto giant General Motors and German automaker Volkswagen, the Maharashtra industry department now wants Japanese auto major Honda to come to the state.
Amongst cars sold in the mid-size category (domestic sales) between April 2007 and March 2008, diesel variants outsold petrol car models roughly in the ratio of 7:3. That means over 70 per cent of the over 1,79,493 mid-size cars sold in the domestic markets were diesel models. Diesel mid-size cars on an average are priced 15.5 per cent more than the petrol variant. Overall, the mid-size category, petrol and diesel models included, grew by 14.6 per cent.
Positioned in the same category as Octavia, the Optra diesel version is competitively priced in the range of Rs 8.73 lakh and Rs 9.99 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), while the latter is being sold in the range of Rs 11.35 lakh to Rs 14 lakh.
UltraTech Cement was the biggest gainer in the Sensex chart, climbing 3.13 per cent, followed by Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Maruti, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance and Mahindra & Mahindra. In contrast, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, ICICI Bank and Nestle were among the laggards.
Business is growing fast and continues to draw investment, but making big bucks in a country smitten with small cars won't be easy.
Today, GMI has a brand new car factory, an existing one that runs on three shifts to produce 65,000 cars, two new small cars, a successful utility vehicle. . . looks like GMI is getting serious about India.
The zippy power delivery, the smooth gearshifts, the spot-on gear ratios and the narrow dimensions of the car mean that they make short work of your daily commute in thick traffic.
General Motors India on Thursday launched a special 'Platinum' edition of its luxury sedan Chevrolet Optra priced at Rs 824,000 (ex-showroom Delhi).
General Motors India on Wednesday launched its premier sports utility vehicle, Chevrolet Captiva, priced at Rs 17.74 lakh (Rs 1.774 million) -- ex-showroom Delhi.
The feat was achieved under 'Project Himank' of the organisation.
Manufacturing sector activities in India moderated for the second straight month in July as rates of expansion in output and new orders eased slightly, a monthly survey said on Tuesday. The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) eased to 57.7 in July from 57.8 in June. Despite the fall, the Indian manufacturing sector maintained strong growth momentum at the start of the third quarter amid ongoing buoyant demand, the survey said.
If you buy a Chevrolet from the General Motors (GM) stable in 2012, the chances are that it will have a good amount of design input from Bangalore. The world's largest automobile manufacturer on Thursday opened its India Design Lab in the city, which will comprise 100 professionals involved in styling cars.
The move marks the entry of GWM, one of the largest manufacturers of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-ups, into the Indian market and a complete exit for GM from the country, two years after it stopped selling cars here.
After years of giving free passes to counterparts from Korea, Japan, US in the Indian auto market, Chinese automakers had planned a major push to grab the fifth largest car market in the world. But the shutdown of factories and logistics hubs in the country following the outbreak of coronavirus is slowly constricting the business of Chinese auto majors which have recently entered India.
The limited edition Aveo comes at a premium of Rs 54,000 over the existing base price of Rs 5.95 lakh. The new variant would be powered by a 1.4 litre petrol engine and has been introduced to commemorate GM Corp's centenary celebrations, GM India said in a statement.
The automobile sector is considered a good indicator of economic health. It has a very long value chain, from primary materials, like metals, glass and plastic, to value-added high-end electronic components, specialised alloys, and software.
Upon completion, the factory will create almost 10,000 jobs and will initially have an annual capacity of 2 million units.
US-based global tech giants, including IBM, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, have partnered with the White House to "unleash the power of American supercomputing resources" for combating the novel coronavirus, President Donald Trump has said. From volunteering to manufacturing masks and ventilators to ramping up production of essential medical supplies and general items, the country's private sector have joined America's war against coronavirus in a big way, Trump said on Sunday, while launching a new public-private consortium organised by the White House, the department of energy and tech company IBM.
A task synonym of moving mountains is done every winter by Border Road Organisation(BRO) of IndiaIn below freezing temperatures, in the most difficult terrain, Border Road Organisation personnel clear snow many, many times every winter to keep the world's highest motorable roads open during the heavy snow season.
The sales comprise 1,504 units of hatchback Chevrolet Spark, 1,550 units of multi-utility vehicle Tavera, 1,227 units of Aveo/Aveo U-VA and 498 units of sedan Optra, it said.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) will issue equity shares on a preferential basis to parent Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) to acquire 100 per cent stake in the latter's Gujarat plant. This deal is expected to increase the share base of MSIL by about 4 per cent. And consequently, it will raise SMC's shareholding in Maruti by around 1.8 percentage point. "Whether it is in terms of PAT (profit after tax) or earnings per share (EPS) or dividend per share (DPS) of MSIL, the share-swap option will give shareholders a better deal than any other option such as cash payment," MSIL chairman RC Bhargava told reporters during a press conference.
