The share of government banks in auto finance has increased significantly in the last few months. In some cases, it has nearly doubled. The reason: these banks are offering cheaper loans than their private sector counterparts.
The government is considering the option of inviting fresh applications to bid for the fourth slot which fell vacant after one of the initial candidates who qualified, Hyundai Global Motors, exited from the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cell battery storage with a capacity of 20 GwH. Earlier, stakeholders had expected that the vacant slot would be offered to waitlisted players ranked on their technical and financial offer. A final decision will be taken soon.
With a slew of new players entering the Indian small car market, segment leaders like Maruti Suzuki India and Hyundai Motor India will face challenge to their domination.
MNC funds invest in companies where foreign promoters have more than 50 per cent shareholding.
Domestic passenger vehicle (PV) sales saw a significant growth in October due to increased availability of semiconductor chips and rising consumer confidence. The sales figures during the month - which coincided with the first post-Covid festival season - released by the top ten carmakers saw a jump of 30.7 per cent to 322,885 units in October. Auto companies count wholesales - units dispatched to dealers - as sales.
The price of petrol variant of the Verna has been raised by Rs 3,500 (for the base model), while the diesel model has become dearer by Rs 10,000.
The Verna will be placed in the upper end of the segment priced between Rs 6.21 lakh and Rs 6.36 lakh for the petrol variant and Rs 7.35 lakh for the diesel variant.
Carmakers Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Renault, Kia India and MG Motor on Wednesday announced plans to hike vehicle prices from January to partially offset the impact of rising input costs. They join the likes of market leader Maruti Suzuki India and Tata Motors, which have also made the year-end announcements to raise prices from next month. Audi India said it will increase prices of its entire model range by up to 1.7 per cent, while Mercedes-Benz India noted it will hike the prices by up to 5 per cent from January 1.
'The decrease in the popularity of white cars and the rise in preference for darker colours like black, grey, and blue over the past three years reflect changing consumer attitudes.'
'Some buyers get carried away by festival offers and purchase higher variants or larger vehicles than they truly need, which impacts running cost and long-term affordability.'
Besides their country of origin, General Motors, Ford Motor and Harley-Davidson have another trait in common: all three have failed in India, the world's fifth largest automobile market. All three of them took a tough call to de-prioritise India as a market amid disruption from heightened regulations and sharper focus on capital allocation by the parent.
Maruti takes a leap in terms of technology with features like ADAS, a 360-degree camera, ventilated seats, a powered tailgate, audio system with Dolby Atmos and much more.
For Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), which has just started executing a comeback strategy for wresting back ground it lost to rivals, this could not have come at a worse time. The maker of the Bolero Neo and the Thar models on Thursday said it would have to halt production at its automotive plant for a week due to the worsening supply situation of semiconductors.
BS-VI emission norms and the COVID-19 lockdown impacted the dispatches.
The two petrol models of the Logan are priced between Rs 428,000 and Rs 644,000, while its diesel model's price range is Rs 547,000 to Rs 651,000. The range overlaps the pricing of the premium hatchbacks as well as of mid-size cars.
Leading carmaker Hyundai Motor India Ltd on Monday announced plans to roll out a CNG version of its bread-and-butter hatchback Santro by this year-end or early 2008.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd on Friday increased prices of all its car models in range of Rs 362 to Rs 2,816 on account of the increased cess announced in this year's budget.
Maruti Suzuki India continued its grip in the passenger vehicles market in India with five of its models in the top ten best selling models in June.
Boosted by Maruti Udyog Limited and Hyundai Motor India's sales of compact models, the domestic market posted 24 per cent growth in car sales to 1,04,488 units last month compared with 84,235 units in January 2006.
Bouyed by higher sales in the festive season, domestic passenger car and motorcycle sales witnessed a healthy growth in November, going up by 21.16% and 27.08%
The phenomenal success of Xcent, Grand and Santa Fe increased volumes creating positive momentum
India's second-biggest carmaker Hyundai Motor India on Friday said it would increase prices by almost 3 per cent this month.
The latest Hyundai i20 is an exciting car, given the overall drive experience, transmission, ride quality and tech. And while it may not be as low cost as a Maruti or come with the "heavy German steel-feel" of the Volkswagen, it does carve out a niche for itself at pole position with a combination of technology, styling, drive and ride comfort, and low cost of ownership, says Pavan Lall.
Maruti sold 191 units of SX4 sedan in January 2014.
While sales of Maruti's compact segment grew, its mini segment witnessed a slump
"The retail prices have been raised in the range of Rs 7,000-12,000 across all the four variants," the company said.
Maruti Suzuki is offering cash discounts ranging from Rs 5,000 on its hatchback Celerio to Rs 35,000 on entry level Alto800.
Having signed up teen tennis sensation Sania Mirza as brand ambassador for its Getz model, Hyundai Motor India on Monday
India's electric mobility goal, which has so far been riding on two wheels, is all set to graduate to four wheels. At least, the journey has begun. Hyundai Motor India said it would invest Rs 4,000 crore till 2028 to launch half-a-dozen electric vehicles (EVs) in India. It would eventually straddle premium and mass segments. The first of these - the electrified version of an internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered model - will go on sale as early as next year.
Leading automakers Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Tata Motors reported sales growth in the domestic market in November, aided by robust offtakes amid the festival season. While Maruti Suzuki India reported marginal growth, Hyundai logged in its highest ever monthly sales in November. Others like Honda Cars India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra and MG Motor India also reported sales growth in November as compared with the same month last year.
Higher exports will also drive up volumes, as the company seeks to avail of the benefits under the government's recently announced production linked incentive scheme.
If Tesla comes in, India's position as a manufacturing hub will rise many notches, as it will become only the second country, after China, to have both Apple as well as Tesla.
Automobile retail sales in India rose 11 per cent in September as better supplies from manufacturers enabled dealers to ramp up customer deliveries amid the ongoing festive period, Federation Of Automobile Dealers Associations said on Tuesday. Last month, total retail sales stood at 14,64,001 units as compared to 13,19,647 units in September 2021. FADA noted that October is expected to witness even better overall sales due to the festive season further gathering steam.
