Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday hiked tax on petrol and diesel, raised import duty on gold, levied additional surcharge on super rich and brought a tax on high value cash withdrawals as she sought to spur growth with reduction in corporate tax and sops to housing sector, startups and electric vehicles.
While home-grown firms like Tata and Mahindra have been actively participating in the government's e-mobility mission, by launching electrified versions of their existing models, the global firms believe electric is not the best solution for a country where the primary source of power generation is coal, and where infrastructure is a big impediment.
The country's leading automobile show, the Auto Expo, which was scheduled to take place in February next year at Greater Noida, has been postponed due to the COVID-19 situation and apprehensions of a possible third wave, industry body SIAM said on Monday. The last edition of the biennial automobile show took place in February 2020. "The magnitude of the risk of spread of infection is extremely high in a business-to-consumer (B2C) show like the Auto Expo which is visited by large crowds and maintaining social distancing would be difficult.
Hemlatha Annamalai and P Bala's Ampere Vehicles makes e-vehicles in Coimbatore.
While commercial vehicles are expected to benefit from strong replacement demand, the two-wheeler and tractor segments are expected to gain from a recovery in the rural economy.
Increasing the duties on auto parts and putting an additional cess on petrol and diesel could drive up costs of vehicles, specially where volumes are low and localisation is not viable.
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.
'He was a practical person who ensured that he thought about the common man, animals, the fact that they have a life and they have to be respected.'
The change in stance follows a strong opposition by automakers of the proposed government plan to ban two-wheelers (below 150cc) and three-wheelers by 2023 and 2025, respectively
The automobile sector has started seeing volume growth, the crucial economy segment included. Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) could be a big beneficiary as the country's largest passenger vehicle (PV) maker has seen several favourable developments including volume recovery. Demand for its new sports utility vehicles (SUVs) appears to be good, and the company has 4 lakh outstanding orders by April 2023, (up from 3.6 lakhs in January 2023). Siam (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) estimates that passenger vehicle demand would grow by 5-7 per cent in the 2023-24 financial year (FY24) and MSIL is likely to beat the market growth.
Tata Motors' passenger vehicle sales stood at 229,325 units in the last financial year, registering a market share of just 8.9 per cent.
India will soon become a green hydrogen exporting country, the road transport and highways minister told reporters before leaving for Parliament in the car, which is the first of its kind in India.
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday unveiled the prototype of the world's first Bharat Stage (BS)-VI-compliant electrified flex-fuel car, developed by Toyota Kirloskar Motor. The car, which runs on 100 per cent ethanol (E100), is based on the Toyota Innova HyCross. It can cover 40 per cent of its distance on ethanol and the remaining 60 per cent on electric, with the petrol engine shut off.
Vehicle sales across categories registered a decline of 8.62 per cent to 20,86,358 units from 22,83,262 units in May 2018.
TVS Motor Company, the only company in India to manufacture mopeds, said domestic sales dropped by 25.58% in April-Oct and exports fell by nearly 40%.
Auto Expo's Twitter handle (@AEMotorShow), with a follower base of 16,000, is abuzz with activity. The Facebook page of Auto Expo has about 158,000 followers.
What explains India's love affair with SUVs? They are not exactly "value for money" -- the watchword for brands across segments -- nor always practical. Is it for the badge value? Or the butch imagery associated with SUVs? Maybe both, says Alokananda Chakraborty.
Nirmala Sitharaman's messaging was clear when she presented a well-balanced Budget with an eye on state elections in nine states followed by a general election next year, observes Ramesh Menon.
'Some of the launches may get deferred due to the semiconductor shortage, which is unlikely to get resolved before the second half of 2022.'
Chinese automakers Great Wall Motors, FAW Haima Automobile, and Changan Automobile, after dithering about entering India for some years, have been encouraged by the robust sales performance of the late entrants Kia Motors and MG Motors even in a slowing market.
The move to implement a proposal of star ratings on passenger vehicles, similar to those seen on electrical appliances, is likely to be delayed by several months. Stakeholders from the automobile sector and the government are divided over key facets.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. This was Sitharaman's fourth Budget. While the taxpayers were left in the lurch, once again, was she able to cheer Corporate India?
Hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party government, top industry captains pledged mega investments at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit
Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycles, Scooters India, TVS, Honda India, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Ford, Nissan, Ashok Leyland are all giving the Auto Expo a miss this time.
Toyota's India unit will also source two cars manufactured by Maruti Suzuki, the Baleno and Brezza, including their hybrid variants, and in return Toyota will offer its Corolla sedan to Maruti.
However, notable absentees from the expo will be Honda, Toyota, Ford, BMW, Audi, Lexus, Volvo and Jaguar Land Rover along with two-wheeler majors Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Co.
The challenges of transition to stricter emission norm BS-VI from BS-IV and compliance to new safety norms thereby making vehicles costlier are lurking around the sector.
It is immediately not clear how GST will impact the mass car market. Experts, however, say the level of tax on smaller cars will have to be at a differential to the sedans.
Morgan Stanley Sales & Trading, US, believes the stock is better value for money than others and has a upside as high as 73 per cent. A slowdown in the economy has hit demand and led to a fall in overall consumption in an auto market which till recently was one of the fastest growing in the world.
It should stop what it is deliberately doing to the NGO sector and let it operate as freely as the rest of the private sector, asserts Aakar Patel.
Chinese players form a major part, around 20 per cent of the auto expo this year, despite a slowdown in the Indian automobile sector in the last one year. Over two dozen top officials from various companies were planning to participate in the event, besides a group of journalists.
Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari puts them out of the ambit of Motor Vehicles Act; experts say some regulation, licensing and driver training will be necessary
'If credit is not available, people will postpone buying. That's what has happened.'
Regulating the internet only as a medium is somewhat similar to regulating electricity only as a driver of the TV industry
The Powerwall 'will be great for India where there is a scarcity of electricity. The sun is there pretty much all day and there is no real good way to store its energy,' Tesla CIO Jay Vijayan tells Ritu Jha/Rediff.com.
On Reva, Mahindra says electric cars are an innovation that can disrupt the automobile sector.
'Hathras, Muradabad, Trichur, Salem, Madurai, Aligarh and Kanpur are cities where we are expecting and in some cases have seen new buyers come from.'
Here's the full text of President Ram Nath Kovind's customary address to the joining sitting of Parliament on the first day of the budget session.
Cruising comfortably in the 70s, Royal Enfield sputtered to a stop in the 90s, before its comeback in the first decade of the 21st century.
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