Want To Start Your Own Little Car Factory?
By Bertel SchmittNovember 2, 2009
I’m thinking about opening a car factory. A really small one. Tata would sell me their Nano in kit form. I’d have it assembled (using cheap Chinese labor, of course) and sell it as the Bertel car. Entirely possible. Tata may allow small car assemblers to put together its Nano and sell it under their own brand, India’s Business Standard reports via Reuters.
Posted in India | News Blog | 23 comments 
GM and SAIC Discussing India Cooperation
By Edward NiedermeyerOctober 16, 2009
Some of the speculation surrounding GM Daewoo’s woes centers around the possibility of GM’s Chinese partners buying The General’s Korean division. Whether those rumors hold up remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that GM’s largest Chinese partner, SAIC, is looking into taking a larger ownership in GM’s Asian operations. Automotive News [sub] reports that GM is in talks with SAIC on cooperation in the Indian market. One possible outcome could be SAIC taking a stake in GM India. “GM’s discussions with SAIC include business opportunities in India, but no final decision has been made on how they will cooperate,” say GM spokesfolks. But we can guess that it will involve SAIC taking a bigger ownership stake. The Shanghai-based firm has seen sales rise 47 percent, and net profit rise 70 percent in 2009 to-date. GM, in partnership with SAIC, has become one of the top automakers in China. Could that success be replicated in India, or is SAIC simply outgrowing its partner?
Posted in China | India | News Blog | 4 comments
Mumbai to Delhi in a TATA Nano (Money Shot at 4:30)
By Robert FaragoOctober 15, 2009
Posted in India | News Blog | 21 comments
GM/Ford Falling Getting Their Butt Kicked in India
By Robert FaragoOctober 7, 2009
Brook from team-bhp.com sent us this heads-up re: the “other” burgeoning automobile market: India. “Here’s a list of the Top 20 selling cars in India. Ford doesn’t have one car in the top twenty. Chevy has one, thanks to a rebadged Daewoo called the Spark. Suzuki (Maruti) and Hyundai are the clear leaders. Tata could have done better if only the unfortunately named Indica Vista wasn’t so conservative. Most people confuse it with the older first generation Indica. Tata Nano volumes will pick up, but Jag and Landie’s owners barely make any money selling the car itself. Honda’s hawking overpriced (and poorly equipped) cars with terrible after sales service as ‘bonus,’ and Hyundai are stealing their lunch.” So now you know.
Posted in India | News Blog | Sales | 18 comments
VW and Suzuki?
By Bertel SchmittJune 25, 2009
While Porsche has problems consummating the Volkswagen takeover, Volkswagen covets a smaller, but possibly juicy target: Suzuki. The German Manager Magazine has it on good authority that VW wants to get cozy with the Japanese maker of small cars. Buying, say, 10 percent of Suzuki would not be out of the question. Ulrich Hackenberg, head of VW’s R&D, had been in Hamamatsu, Japan. He came back impressed. “We are still in the sniff phase,” said a VW exec to Manager Magazine, no serious negotiations are being held—yet. Ferdinand Piech had praised Suzuki in May. Not that VW needs help building small cars. But they could need help where Suzuki is the market leader: In India, next to China the most promising growth market on the planet. Suzuki had a partnership with GM, but last year, all GM shares in Suzuki were turned into cash, so the coast is clear.
Posted in Germany | India | News Blog | 18 comments
New Jag Roadster to Arrive with Snarl, Whine
By Edward NiedermeyerJune 16, 2009
Motor Trend has “learned” that a version of the oft-rumored Jag “XE” roadster might have more than just a supercharger whine. They say the 2011 (likely XF-based) “new age E-Type” (lots of luck) will include an extended-range electric version. But don’t worry heritage fans . . . there will still be a proper engine. With three cylinders. Motor Trend kids you not. At least until they mention that “whether the extended-range XE will make it beyond the concept stage is uncertain.” But only after hinting that the forthcoming XJ is also due for the EREV treatment, circa “late” 2011. Time, tide and CAFE standards wait for no automaker? MT figures an EREV Jag will compete with the Tesla Roadster. Which, considering the differences between the XF and the Elise as starting points, probably only means the EREV Jag soft-top will cost around $100K. Perhaps sir would rather look at a V8 model?
Posted in Future Vehicles | India | News Blog | 10 comments
Nano Inbound
By Edward NiedermeyerJune 8, 2009
Automotive News [sub] reports that Tata plans on bringing a version of its Nano subcompact to the US market “in about two years.” About? “Maybe two years and six months,” equivocated Tata chairman Ratan Tata at the Cornell Global Forum on Sustainable Enterprise. But the Indian firm faces at least one major challenge: where to sell the thing. Jaguar/Land Rover North America spokesfolks say that “Tata will not use Jaguar Land Rover’s distribution network and vice versa.” For obvious reasons. The Nano boasts none of the small-but-premium appeal of BMW’s MINI or Chrysler’s forthcoming Fiat 500. So where will it sell? Roger Penske’s Saturn World Market? Global Vehicles U.S.A.’s 330-strong Mahindra distribution network? Wal-Mart?
Posted in Branding | Future Vehicles | India | News Blog | 35 comments
Nobody Wants the World’s Cheapest Car
By Edward NiedermeyerMay 26, 2009
Who’d have thunk it? The New York Times reports that despite being designed to become the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano isn’t attracting as many budget buyers as you might expect. Only 20 percent of Nano orders (India market only) are currently for the base model, a $2,600 vehicle. Half of all orders are for the top-of-the-line model, which boasts such ameneties as cup holders and air conditioning but costs some 40 percent more than a base model. When the Nano was announced, its lowest possible cost was widely touted to claims that it would become “India’s Model T.” And though the low-cost-at-all-costs approach hasn’t been wildly popular, orders for the well-optioned model will help Tata stay out of a profit-draining battle on price alone. But that isn’t stopping competitors from planning ever-cheaper models. Renault/Nissan is planning a $2,500 model developed in conjunction with Bajaj Auto. Toyota is also rumored to be pursuing a low-cost car for the Indian market.
Posted in India | News Blog | 25 comments
Hyundai Abandons India For Europe
By Bertel SchmittMay 8, 2009
In the WTF dept., “Hyundai Motor India is planning to shift production of one of its premium models to Europe after a strike over unionization at its south India plant that led to the mass arrest of 750 protesters,” reports Financial Times.
The move reflects growing skepticism of international automakers about the political climate in what used to be one of the world’s most promising growth markets.
Posted in India | News Blog | 29 comments
Tata Nano PR Campaign Takes More Prisoners
By Robert FaragoMarch 25, 2009
There’s only one thing worse than realizing you’re a cynical bastard: realizing you’re a cynical bastard and the world really IS that corrupt. Oh well. The truth hurts, both giving and receiving. In this case, I had high hopes for the Tata Nano. As the son of a Romanian immigrant for whom car ownership was proof positive that America is the world’s greatest country, I believe that the motorization of the world’s largest democracy would unleash that nation’s creativity, productivity and prosperity. But when Tata “launched” the Nano two days ago, without a factory to produce it, I smelled a rat[tan]. The next day, there it was: Tata’s in not-so “secret negotiations” for a billion dollar UK bailout for their ill-advised—not to say hubristic—purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover. So, there’s your timing then. Oh, and the announcement on Autobloggreen this morning that the NSFA (Not Safe For America) Tata will export the micro-car to America (with a few mods, ’natch) in 2011 or 2012 (or 2020) is not to be taken seriously. The argument that Tata’s pie-in-the-sky promise to do the same for Europe actually weakens the case, not strengthens it. Or maybe that’s just me being cynical again. One can only hope.
Posted in Future Vehicles | High Finance | India | Media | News Blog | 16 comments
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