Corporate India is starting to step up its capital expenditure plans amid government incentives and signs of rising demand, company executives and analysts have indicated. This coincides with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently citing a double-digit growth in private capital expenditure. Healthy balance sheets of banks and corporates, along with increasing capacity utilisation and improving business sentiment, are contributing to a favourable environment for sustained growth in private sector investments, the RBI said in its policy last week.
India's largest car maker Maruti Udyog Ltd has reported a net profit of Rs 124 crore (Rs 1.24 billion) in the second quarter of this fiscal on the back of 18 per cent sales growth.
Ban on large diesel vehicles a transient phase, says Jaitley
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) is planning to invest around Rs 18,000 crore on a new manufacturing facility in Haryana, as per a top company official. The new plant would replace the company's Gurugram-based facility and is expected to have an installed production capacity of 7.5-10 lakh units per annum. While confirming the Rs 18,000 crore investment plan, MSI chairman RC Bhargava told PTI that the company had always planned to shift the Gurugram facility to a nearby location.
Maruti Suzuki India has hiked prices of its vehicles across all models, except the entry level sedan DZire, by up to 3.4 per cent.
Maruti will launch its first electric vehicle (EV) in the next financial year (FY24), and will roll out six EVs in the country by FY30, the automaker's parent firm Suzuki said on Thursday.
Hyundai has started to build one of two new factories planned for China.
Auto component makers in India are bracing for a tough time. High absenteeism among workers owing to Covid-19, shortages of critical parts, and temporary closures of plants by automobile manufacturers have thrown a spanner in the works for the Rs 3.2-trillion sector, which derives 60 per cent of its revenues from automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), with the balance split equally between replacement demand and exports. Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India on Saturday said it was extending the maintenance shutdown, which was from May 1 to 9, till May 16, "keeping in view the current pandemic situation". Some activities will continue in the plants.
The automaker was found to have engaged in anti-competitive practices.
Automobile companies are worried about challenges from electric mobility, automation and connected vehicles.
The Baleno is among the top selling cars with unserviced bookings of 55,000 units.
Workers had stopped production lines to protest a delay in salary hikes after 10 months of negotiations.
Of the 15 car manufacturing companies in India, eight have a market share of below 2 per cent, raising questions about their long-term future in a competitive market that has already seen Ford Motors and General Motors slam the door on India.
In its first official engagement with the Indian government, Elon Musk-led Tesla and other global automotive (auto) manufacturers sought clarification on the new electric vehicle (EV) policy, specifically regarding investment guidelines and the timeline for the domestic value addition (DVA) requirement. Officials who attended the meeting told Business Standard that the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) tried to understand whether the complete investment would be made within three or five years and the duration they would have to achieve the 50 per cent DVA. "The consultation meeting was convened to address queries from auto OEMs.
HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank remained among the top mutual fund (MF) buys for the second consecutive month in September. MFs deployed a net of Rs 15,000 crore into these stocks during the two-month period (August-September), revealed Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research reports.
The company took five years to sell the 250,000 units of the Nano.
Maruti announced 10,000 pre-bookings for Ciaz of which 60 per cent was for diesel models.
Hybrids have helped Maruti acquire leadership in SUVs, a segment that was never its forte. Toyota has also risen with the hybrid tide to clock its highest-ever annual sales in 2023.
Maruti Suzuki is keen that the Gujrat government revises payment condition in the agreement it signed with the former for setting up a plant in Hansalpur.
The Gixxer SF costs Rs 95,000 (on road, Pune), which is Rs 9,000 more than the naked version. Is that difference worth it? A review by Narendra Sharma
In the two wheeler segment, TVS Motor Company reported a 24 per cent increase in total sales at 304,795 units in April.
As Kolkata marches towards modernity, it is hard to imagine its streets without these cabs, notes Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd).
Lenders have become worried as some dealers were not using the money provided to them for car financing.
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.
The Suzuki Burgman Street steps up the style quotient with its maxi-scooter looks, but is the same as the Access 125 in many ways. So, is it worth paying Rs 9,000 extra?
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) and Hyundai posted single-digit growth in domestic sales in June, even as the overall passenger vehicle segment crossed the 20 lakh units sales mark for the first time-ever in the first half this year. Toyota Kirloskar Motor reported a double-digit growth in dispatches to dealers, while Kia saw a dip in wholesales last month. MG Motor India also reported a double-digit increase in retail sales in June 2023 compared to the same month last year.
In the two-wheeler segment, Bajaj Auto reported 31 per cent jump in total sales at 357,883 units in February against 273,513 units in the same month last year.
The company is banking on investments lined up for product development and other innovations.
The curious case is of Honda, which has moved up the pecking order while actually losing market share!
'From data on enquiries, we can build what we call a data lake or a data warehouse where data is classified into various cohorts and then we use AI and ML tools to predict demand down the line.'
Will Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara see a second innings in India?
Auto stocks are weighing on the indices.
First images of the model that can replace Swift.
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.
It is keen on electric cars as battery costs go down
Driven by strong demand, the overall passenger vehicle dispatches crossed 3.35 lakh units in February as automakers, including Maruti Suzuki India, Hyundai, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, reported robust sales during the month. The dispatches of more than 3.35 lakh units last month marked an 11 per cent over February 2022. It was also the highest ever overall wholesales in the month of February. The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday said its domestic wholesales rose 11 per cent to 155,114 units in February as compared with 140,035 units in the same month last year.
Among Sensex shares, Bajaj Finserve, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, and Nestle were the lead gainers. On the other hand, L&T Wipro, IndusInd Bank and TCS and Tata Motors were the lead losers.
Which entrepreneur would willingly part with her or his hard-earned money for grasping, self-serving politicians? asks Debashis Basu.
Hero MotoCorp, India's largest two-wheeler maker, has seen a decline in its market share in rural areas since 2018, losing ground to major competitors such as TVS Motor Company, Bajaj Auto, and Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), according to data from JATO Dynamics reviewed by Business Standard. Hero's share of rural two-wheeler sales in India has dropped from 40.4 per cent in 2018 to 33.3 per cent in 2023. In contrast, Bajaj's share increased from 12.7 per cent in 2018 to 13.9 per cent, HMSI's from 21.8 per cent to 22.2 per cent, and TVS' from 15.5 per cent to 17.8 per cent. Suzuki Motorcycle India has also seen its share rise from 1.7 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
The i10 managed to impress the Business Standard Motoring jury across various counts, including build quality, ride, handling, driveability, comfort and safety features. A compelling price tag and above average fuel efficiency further clinched the deal for Hyundai's made-in-India car for the world.
