Ahead of the festive season, several passenger and commercial vehicle manufacturers have agreed to offer discounts of 1.5-3 per cent on new vehicle purchase against scrapped old vehicles after a meeting with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, an official statement said on Tuesday. The statement further said Mercedes Benz India has offered a flat discount of Rs 25,000, which will be over and above all existing discounts. Union Road Transport and Highways (RT&H) Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday chaired a meeting with the SIAM delegation at Bharat Mandapam, where he addressed pressing issues in the automobile industry.
The entry-level car, under the popular Datsun brand, is aimed at tapping the first-time car buyers.
"Nissan will compete in the entry-car market with a dedicated new A platform that will be used for at least three models, including the next generation of Micra, and will be built in five Leading Competitive Countries (LCCs)," the company said. The company said production sites for the new family of compact cars would include the new plant in Chennai being constructed by the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
He is first Indian to reach the chequered flag triumphant in any international Formula race in the last three years.
As part of its plans to have a 10 per cent share in the domestic automobile market, Japanese auto giant Nissan said it would introduce an automatic transmission variant of its flagship hatchback 'Micra' and mid-sedan 'Sunny' soon in India.
It will launch nine models in the next two years.
The alliance has already pushed back the launch deadline twice over the last three years.
But will it change the carmaker's fortune?
'We are very quickly going to announce the timeline of our launches, which should start giving us the turnaround'
Dramatic decline in customer demand which is affecting all car makers has forced the Sunderland Plant to implement measures to adjust volume in line with the market.
'Wherever the government has provided incentives for the purchase of two-wheelers, three-wheelers, cars, buses, and trucks, it gets a push for most of these alternate fuels. '
Though the two cars were competitive, the lack of a badge led to their dwindling sales.
Adding to its list of Ford, Maruti, Hyundai, Toyota, Tata Steel now boasts of Nissan and Volkswagen as buyers of Tata Steel.
The Renault Nissan Alliance has said that its Oragadam greenfield facility near Chennai - its first in the world - will be a template for its upcoming Morocco facility, with a few changes only in the back-end engineering. The company is training 30 senior employees drawn from various verticals at its Oragadam plant.
Both cars finally got their fuel economy ratings from the Environment Protection Agency.
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.
Renault and Nissan's decision to launch their own compact cars is independent of a tie-up with Pune-based motorcycle maker Bajaj Auto to develop a low-cost car that is expected to debut in 2011. A formal joint venture agreement is yet to be signed among the partners, though work on the small car is progressing at a slower pace.
The Nissan Sunny diesel silently crept in the Indian market and the car maker has brought two variants -- XL and XV.
Japanese carmaker Nissan on Tuesday said it is in talks with Hinduja flagship company Ashok Leyland for developing a small car for the global market that could be priced around $4500-5000.
Months after Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) exited a joint venture with Renault and Nissan Motor, the French and Japanese auto firms have got their car project back on the road, signing an MoU today with the Tamil Nadu government for a greenfield facility near Chennai.
The hatch competes with cars such as Maruti Alto and Hyundai i10.
Future and concept cars at the New York International Auto Show.
The first Evalia in India will sport a 1.5L K9K dCi diesel engine.
Charting out ambitious plans for India, Japanese automaker Nissan on Tuesday said it plans to have as many as nine models by 2012 out of which five will be locally made as it aims to garner around five per cent of the market.
Nissan, Japan's third largest car maker in which Renault holds 44 per cent stake, will churn out three models based on a single platform from its manufacturing base in Chennai by 2010. The car will be sold in five countries categorised by the company as the leading competitive countries. The car, based on the A platform, will be produced in these countries that include India and Tailand.
The joint venture of Ashok Leyland and Nissan for manufacturing light commercial vehicles would become operational during the current financial year, executive vice-chairman of Hinduja Group India Subir Raha said.
The company's wholly-owned subsidiary -- Nissan Motor India Private Ltd -- had launched the Micra in July and priced the car between Rs 398,000 and Rs 529,000 (ex-showroom, Delhi).
As the company gears up for selling its made-in-India car Micra by July this year, the auto major has started an initiative to tap B-school students from Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai for brand promotion activities.
Car sales are experiencing a challenging phase with around Rs 60,000 crore worth of inventory lying unsold with dealers.
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.
Rajiv Bajaj talks about his de-risking strategy, as well as his company's much-speculated relationship with Renault-Nissan
Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co on Friday said it would launch sports utility vehicle X-Trail by the middle of this year, marking the company's re-entry into India.
The two partners have said they'd produce 150,000 vehicles as part of the phase-I plan from their existing facilities in the state, till the new factory goes on stream.
Nissan is launching its third model in India, the Murano soft-roader.
The first automobiles from the facility would roll out in the second half of 2009, Kashub Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra group, said after signing a MoU with the Tamil Nadu government for the project.
A quarter of the car sales in China are of electric vehicles; domestic brands command 81% of EV sales in the country.
The company wants to corner 10 per cent market share with both the brands, Nissan and Datsun, contributing half of sales by then.
