Car-makers in India, who have been witnessing one of the slowest sales growth rates in over two years, said on Tuesday the Reserve Bank of India's decision to hike key rates will deal a further blow, as financing costs will rise.
In response to challenge from new diesel models in India's premium mid-size sedan car segment, Honda is developing a diesel engine for Honda City.
Announcement comes following a production cut by Honda Motor at its plants in Japan following a shortage of components due to the impact of the Tsunami on its parts suppliers.
Masahiro Takedagawa, president and CEO of HSCI, feels his company can record double-digit growth this year, owing to an improving economy and continuous government effort to boost spending.
The new variant -- Exclusive -- of the Honda City will have many additional features vis-a-vis the regular one, such as leather seats and leather steering.
The new year has brought good news for almost all car manufacturers, with market leader Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, General Motors and even Fiat, posting their highest monthly sales since their inception.
Honda Siel Cars India is planning to source steel from India for its local operations and is in talks with Tata Steel. A Tata Steel spokesperson confirmed that the companies were in discussions. Currently, Honda sources steel plates from Thailand for its Greater Noida facility. Honda models, like the City and Civic, have 74 per cent localisation, while the newly launched hatchback, Jazz, has 77 per cent local content.
"We are designing a small car which will be launched a few years down the line," Jnaneswar Sen Vice President (marketing) Honda Siel Cars India, the Indian subsidiary of the Japanese company said. The car would be placed in the B, B+ segment, Sen said.
Honda has finally made its entrance into the country's competitive compact car segment, with the launch of the Honda Jazz. In Mumbai, Jazz standard will cost Rs 7.43 lakh (Rs 743,000), Jazz Mode Rs 773,000 (Rs 773,000) and Jazz Active Rs 778,000 (Rs 778,000).
Power window switch can catch fire.
The Jazz, coming at a price range of Rs 6,98,000 to Rs 7,33,000 (ex-showroom Delhi), had witnessed stock pile up last month with retail sales not picking up.
In addition to the New Small Concept, the company will exhibit the CR-Z Concept 2009, a concept model for a new hybrid model, which was unveiled for the first time at the Tokyo Motor Show in October this year.
A bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat while seeking reply from the companies also tagged the petitions with other similar petitions pending before it. It may be noted that more than 100 petitions have been filed from all over the country on the issue. The Uttar Pradesh government had challenged the high court judgement that held that there was no material sufficient to establish that the amount collected as tax was in proportion to the facilities provided to the traders.
After a worrying 7 per cent fall in sales in January, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Honda Siel have notched up an impressive 18.78 per cent growth in sales in February. Strong demand for the SX4 and DZire models helped Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest passenger car maker, record an impressive 19 per cent jump in sales in the domestic market, hitting a new record of 70,625 units in February.
Taking exception to an advertisement by Maruti Suzuki India in November last year in one of the newspapers published in Chandigarh, HSCI's notice said a comparison between SX4 and the new Honda City was made, which had 'given completely false figures of the new Honda City in order to show superiority of your product SX4.' The comparison relates to height and length of the new Honda City as well as the 'absence' of integrated stereo systems.
The latest variant, called the V-grade Honda City, comes with new features such as five spoke alloy wheels, new front fog lamps, chrome door handles, sporty exhaust finisher and front and rear mud guards. It will be available both in manual and automatic transmissions.
Japanese car giant Honda on Wednesday launched its much-awaited hatchback Jazz in India, priced between Rs 698,000 and Rs 733,000.
Fiat India Automobiles Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between Italy-based Fiat SpA and domestic auto major Tata Motors, plans to position the car in the premium hatchback segment along with Maruti Suzuki's Ritz, Hyundai's i20, Skoda's Fabia and to be launched Honda Siel's Jazz, the company said.
Honda Siel Cars India President and CEO Masahiro Takedagawa, in an interview with Business Standard, shares the company's India strategy, including the launch of hybrid technology (a first on Indian roads), small cars and outlook on diesel technology, an area where the company is losing ground to other auto majors. The company launched its 8th generation Accord today in Mumbai.
The company, which is now moving from being a premium brand to a mass market player through two launches in the small car segment in the next four years, hopes to cash in on Brand Honda's strong presence in the rural and semi-urban markets in India. Experts call it a gradual scaling up of the brand in the minds of the Indian consumers -- a strategy followed by the Japanese major in all parts of the globe.
Car maker Honda Siel Cars India on Thursday launched the third generation model of its Sedan, City, priced between Rs 7.7 lakh and Rs 8.9 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen stitch plans for country-specific mall car models. With India increasingly becoming the production and sales hub for all major car manufacturers, international giants like Honda, Toyota and Volkswagen are pulling out their drawing boards for an all-new India-specific car model.
Besieged by rising steel prices, the domestic passenger car manufacturers are gearing up to raise prices again. Barely a month ago, Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motors India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Honda Siel had effected price increases of Rs 6,000 to Rs 30,000 across models.
With prices of oil forecast to touch $200 per barrel this year, auto makers in the country have launched a slew of options that are not just fuel efficient but also easy to maintain. Battling the rising fuel bill is premium car maker Honda Siel, who will launch the country's first hybrid car - the Civic hybrid shortly.
Japanese automaker Honda Motors is rolling out its small car in India by the last quarter of calendar 2009.
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.
Maruti Udyog, India's biggest carmaker, has been ranked first in customer satisfaction by international market research firm JD Power.
The other features of the CR-V such as 2.4 litre i-VTEC engine, Real-Time 4 wheel-drive, 6-speed manual and 5-speed automatic transmission with Grade Logic Control and drive-by-wire Throttle System remain the same as before.
The government cleared 15 foreign direct investment proposals worth Rs 70.1 crore (Rs 701 million) including that of Honda Motor, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Fijitsu, Atlanta Electricals and Marubeni Corporation.
Carmaker Skoda India has decided to price Fabia, the hatchback it plans to launch at the Auto Expo in January, in the range of Rs 5-6 lakh.
Carmaker Honda Siel Cars India on Thursday launched an advanced version of its premium sedan Accord with a 3.5 litre i-VTEC engine, priced between Rs 24.8 lakh (Rs 2.48 million) and Rs 25.35 lakh (Rs 2.535 million), ex-showroom, Delhi.
Honda Siel Cars India will increase the prices of its cars by up to Rs 354,000, owing to fluctuations in the exchange rate of the Indian rupee and Japanese yen against the US dollar.
Honda Siel Cars India has started training its sales force to counter the challenge of SX4, the sedan launched by Maruti Udyog on May 7.
Toyota and Honda of Japan, and the US auto major Ford are ramping up their sales and distribution networks as they gear up to launch small cars.
Honda will set up its second car manufacturing plant in India near here at an estimated investment of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).
The discount offer comes on the back of Japanese giant Honda Siel Cars offering a substantial discount of Rs 800,000 on the Civic Hybrid. HSCI sold 235 Civic Hybrids, which carried a priced tag of Rs 14 lakhs (Rs 1.4 million) after the discount, in 10 days. The offer by Ford will run on the full range of variants of the car for a limited period of 10 days starting Wednesday.
Auto major Honda Siel Cars India Ltd on Wednesday said it will increase prices across all models from April 2 since the sales tax holiday it enjoys in Uttar Pradesh, is coming to an end.
Honda Siel Car will launch a new variant of the hugely successful sedan
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