Launching the “world’s cheapest car,” the Nano, into one of the world’s fastest growing auto markets, India, looked like a surefire concept back in 2009.  Today, it looks stupid. Like many surefire concepts, the Nano turned out to be a dud. Says India’ Economic Times:

“After several years of disappointing sales, it has now become clear that the snubnosed hatchback’s unique selling point — its price — was actually a commercial sticking point. 
Rather than embracing the Nano, the status-conscious consumer base that was its prime target has largely shunned the “cheap” tag of the $2,800 vehicle and opted for slightly pricier rivals, or second-hand vehicles costing the same.” 

The Nano plant, with an annual capacity of 250,000 units, is running  at less than 50 percent capacity. It produces only 10,000 a month, says R Ramakrishnan, business head of Tata Motors passenger cars. Oddly enough, Tata sells about twice as many pricey Jaguars and Range Rovers through its acquired JLR division.

Tata boss Ratan Tata conceded this month that mistakes had been made, and that selling the car as a “poor man’s” vehicle was wrong .

Maruti Suzuki’s big news at the Delhi Auto Show was the debut of its production compact MPV, the Ertiga. But it wasn’t all staid family-carriers at the Suzuki stand, as the Japanese-Indian automaker also debuted its XA Alpha concept, described in this dramatically-narrated (to put it mildly) video as “The Small God For The Big Future.” Remember the Suzuki Samurai (our global readers will certainly remember the Jimny)? It’s getting ready for its 21st Century makeover…

Suzuki says that the styling of this subcompact SUV, aimed at Ford’s new Ecosport and GM’s forthcoming Mokka, was inspired by traditional Indian wrestlers. Which may well be the case, but there’s no deny that there’s at least a little Range Rover Evoque in the look.

But what’s more enticing than the styling itself, is the question of whether or not a vehicle like this could bolster Suzuki’s muddled US product line. Suzuki has already established itself as the go-to option for low-cost AWD vehicles in the US with its SX4… but one can’t help wondering how many sales that model leaves on the table due to its small-hatchback design. With a more rugged, more-SUV-looking model on similar underpinnings, Suzuki might just be able to build a rugged-entry-AWD image in this market as Subaru moves inexorably upmarket towards an “Audi Junior” positioning.

In any case, the B-SUV market is starting to get some real attention globally, as the global giants update their aged entrants in the segment for ever-more-demanding developing markets. And as a fan of this genre, with its small, funky, affordable and surprisingly utilitarian mini-utes, I certainly hope someone decides to test the US waters with something like this.

While our friends at Motorbeam.com where snapping pictures, Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki explained that the MPV will strengthen Suzuki’s position in an increasingly crowded market:

“As India gears to be amongst the largest global automobile markets by 2020, with the foray into UV segment, Maruti Suzuki will strengthen its leadership position in the industry. With Ertiga the Maruti Suzuki will step into the Utility Vehicle segments and effectively create a new Compact MPV segment in India.”

That’s what you want when you are a car-maker: A class-defining car. Not just a class-leading car.

In the Indian automobile industry, the MPV is the fastest growing sub-segment amongst UVs showing a growth of around 15 per cent in the last four years.

The 7 passenger (2x3x2) Ertiga can be had with gasoline and diesel engines. An “all new powerful and light weight K-14 VVT petrol engine” delivers 70kw@6000rpm (95 hp).

A 1.3 liter DDiS Super Turbo diesel engine is said to deliver a peak power of 66kw@4000rpm (88 hp) and a top end torque of 200Nm@1750rpm.

At the New Delhi auto expo, GM India yesterday “unveiled the first two products from its joint venture with SAIC,” while our friends of Motorbeam.com were in attendance to snap pictures. As announced two years ago, the first products are of the “small trucks and passenger cars” variant, but not much else survived the test of time.

The passenger car is not the Nano-killing $3,500 sub-Spark model that was dreamt up by the Indian press last year, and the truck is no cheap Wuling.

The car is a “Chevrolet Sail premium hatchback,” and the truck is a big 8-seater MPV, spacious enough for big Indians with big families.

Not much else is available officially on the two cars. The Sail will have “GM India’s latest Smartech engines,” in both gasoline and diesel engines (but wait until you read which one.) Speaking of fuel, it is housed in a fuel tank in the middle of the car, surrounded by “steel beam-rolling ribs” and the members of the family.

The MPV is just a concept. It has input from Lotus, which worked with GM India “for more than a year and a half to tune the chassis.”

The choice of diesel engines is interesting: According to Motorbeam, the diesel engine both for the Sail and the MPV concept will get a 1.3 liter FIAT diesel engine. This is not in the official press release.

After making rather disparaging remarks about the management culture at Jaguar Land Rover, Tata CEO Ratan Tata is attempting to do some major damage control after he criticized the Brits in a May, 2011 interview with The Times.

Although the article is hidden behind a pay wall, Tata is widely quoted as saying that “…nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody.” At the Delhi Auto Show, Tata essentially backtracked on his comments, saying his fairly explicit comments were misunderstood.

Tata is quoted as saying that what he really meant was that there was a culture gap. ”What I meant was the cultures are very different and British managers move in a different way to Indians,” said Tata. ”In India we tend to move from one crisis to another and so managers have to respond by working long hours and at weekends. In the UK there is not the need to operate in the same way. There was no intention to criticize the standard of engineering or management.”

It’s worth noting that Tata’s criticism did not extend to the rank and file workers at Jaguar Land Rover, whom he lauded for being willing to put in the long hours in a tight situation. The constant quality issues of Tata’s Nano were also addressed by the the company namesake, and plans are apparently still in motion to bring the car to Europe. Any exported Nano’s will have to be brought up to a certain standard of quality on par with JLR’s current offerings – as it stands now, the Indian market Nano, with its fire hazards and quality defects, mimics the reliability of another great Jaguar product, albeit with less panache and glamour.

While Detroit is getting ready for NAIAS, the archetypical Detroit company is showing its newest truck in India. At the New Delhi Auto Expo, Ford today unveiled the second generation of its EcoSport “compact SUV.” Our friends at India’s Motorbeam.com were there to snap some pictures for you. According to Ford’s press release, the SUV “will eventually be sold in nearly 100 markets worldwide.” So why haven’t you heard of a Ford EcoSport before?

The first generation EcoSport was made in Brazil only. Basically, it was a German Ford Fiesta / Fusion in truck’s clothing. Come to think of it, you HAD heard of the EcoSport before, in Marcelo’s (Not so) Brief History Of The Brazilian Car.

The second generation EcoSport won’t cause major outpourings of testosterone either. The trucklet is powered (well …) by a 1 liter three cylinder EcoBoost enginelet, of which Ford is proud that is “delivers power and performance that will rival a traditional 1.6-litre petrol engine.” Ford threatens that the “all-new engine will be made available in Ford models in China, Europe, North America and other regions.”

In addition to Brazil, the EcoSport will be produced in India in Ford’s Chennai plant, which is being updated to the tune of $142 million. Production in other markets may “be announced at a later time.”

With a belated start in the region, Ford is now betting big on Asia. Ford wants to achieve a 50 percent increase in worldwide sales by mid-decade to 8 million vehicles a year, Asia Pacific and Africa are expected to deliver 60 percent to$ 70 percent of that target, Ford says.

According to the New York Times, Rajaj is “aiming for drivers of rickshaws, which operate as short-distance taxis in India, by pitching them impressive new features like seat belts, doors and a hard top.”

The car rickshaw is called RE60 and putters on a one-cylinder, 200cc engine, which gives it a top speed of 70 kilometers per hour, or 43 miles per hour. Bajaj said the RE60 would deliver 35 kilometers per liter, or 82 miles per gallon. The price is still a secret.

The car rickshaw also is not the future Renault/Nissan ultra-low cost car, as erroneously reported. That car just went into development and should be ready within five years.

Bajaj managing director Mr Rajiv told India’s Statesman that representatives of Renault-Nissan alliance “have not seen the product yet and will be seeing it at the Auto-Expo. Once they see it, we will decide the way forward.” The Auto Expo is opening in New Delhi tomorrow. It doesen’t sound like Renault/Nissan will go for the motorized rickshaw. Reuters says that Renault “will announce plans for low-cost cars in India this year with Japanese affiliate Nissan, after weighing the alliance’s technologies against those of potential partners.”

In the meantime, the New York Times did its own market research amongst New Delhi rickshaw drivers:

“In New Delhi, several rickshaw drivers expressed ambivalence about the RE60 on Tuesday afternoon, saying they did not see much benefit in upgrading to four wheels. Suran Singh, who has been driving a rickshaw for 26 of his 40 years, said doors and a hard top would help keep out the cold during the winter but would make him too hot in the scorching Delhi summers.”

Yesterday, the alleged enthusiast blog did play its usual “if we would tell you, they would shoot us” about a possible suitor from India:

“We are not allowed to reveal the identity of the company yet, but we are allowed to reveal some facts about it. They are of course based in India but acts on a world-wide basis with much more than 100’000 employees worldwide. They are a multi-billion dollar company, that work on multiple fields such as energy, logistics, real estate and of course within the aerospace and automotive industry.”

Bloomberg does not bother playing twenty questions and reports:

 “Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India’s biggest sport-utility vehicle manufacturer, is interested in buying at least parts of bankrupt Swedish carmaker Saab Automobile, two people familiar with the situation said.”

 Not more is known about the matter. According to Swedish media, Mahindra hasn’t even had an audience with the administrators yet.

Another day, another disappointment for American fans of the Indian automaker Mahindra’s rugged, diesel-powered trucks. Earlier rumors that Mahindra might build its trucks with Navistar in Alabama turn out to be false, as a press release published at MahindraPlanet notes

MUMBAI, India, December 17, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — “There have been reports in certain quarters of media and online space stating that Navistar USA will produce Mahindra’s T20 and T40 pick ups in Alabama, USA in 2012, which are completely baseless & incorrect. If & when there are any material developments, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited will communicate them directly and transparently.”

If you haven’t given up on the Mahindra dream, now might be a good time to consider it…

Car sales in India got it under the chin in October. In October 2011, sales of passenger cars were down 23.77 percent, utility vehicles were up a hair at 0.41 percent, sales of vans decelerated by 17.57 percent.

Pretty much the only thing that is up is overall automobile exports, which registered a growth of 14.55 percent, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says.

Designed to be the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano is supposed to compete with scooters and three-wheelers rather than full-priced, global-brand vehicles. But the Nano has already seen several price increases since the target MSRP of $2,500 was announced, and the price in India for a base-level Nano is now about $2,870. And when you talk about such low prices, even small increases can wreak havoc on expected volumes, and as a result the Nano is turning into something of a flop (helped along by its pyromania problem).

Apparently Year-To-Date sales of the Nano were just 29,377 units through September, down from last year’s 37,402 result over the same period. In order to make up for weak sales in India, Tata has begun planned exports to neighboring countries, but that effort is running into problems as well. Abdul Matlub Ahmad, director of Nitol Motors, the Nano’s Bangladeshi distributor tells the AFP

A lot of people came to us for booking at the fair. At least 23 people confirmed their interest. But we’ve deferred launch of Nano at the last moment as we’re seeking a re-look at the price, which some say is too high.

The price? $7,900 after a 132% tax on imported cars. No wonder Bangladesh’s auto market is dependent on some 30k annual imports of reconditioned cars. Meanwhile, the Nano’s promise of becoming “India’s Model T” seems to be fading fast. But at least Tata has done something Ford was never able to do: make money on Jaguar and Land Rover…

As I noted earlier this week, GM’s decision to bring a pure-electric version of the Chevy Spark to the US opens up an interesting challenge to its “range anxiety”-centric marketing approach. But WardsAuto reports that there’s another challenging question coming out of the decision: where will the baby EV be built? And as I’ve found, GM’s reticence on the topic of the Spark EV program only deepens the mystery for Wards, which writes

Some media are reporting the EV will come from South Korea, where gasoline- and diesel-powered Sparks currently are produced. If so, that’s news to the folks at GM Korea.

GM Korea does not have a prototype of the Spark EV, and “no location of production has been decided yet,” a spokesman tells WardsAuto. He also says there is no EV activity at the GM minicar production complex, located in Changwon, the sole source for the Spark.

Nor is there a Spark EV prototype at the main engineering and vehicle-production complex in Bupyeong, where GM Korea is headquartered.

The Spark is built in Korea, India and Uzbekistan, and EV development of the previous-generation Spark took place in India, initially under REVA and later in-house at GM. An EV version of the Chevy New Sail has also been developed in China, while an EV Cruze is being tested in Korea. But GM won’t say which of its global divisions is developing the new Spark EV, let alone where it will eventually be made. One thing seems certain though: unlike the Volt, this forthcoming EV won’t enjoy the benefits of a “Made in USA” sticker (even though the Volt’s battery cells, transmission and range-extending engine are currently built in Korea, Japan and Austria respectively). In fact, the Spark EV could just be the first Indian- or Chinese-built car to go on sale in the US.

GM confirms

Chevrolet today announced it will produce an all-electric version of the Chevrolet Spark mini-car – the Spark EV. It will be sold in limited quantities in select U.S. and global markets starting in 2013, including California.

A123 Systems will supply the advanced nanophosphate lithium-ion battery packs that will power the Spark EV. Details on specific markets, range, quantities and pricing will be announced later.

Well, I was wrong about the battery supplier. Otherwise, we should have seen this coming. The only question now is this: how does GM overcome its own “range anxiety” fearmongering? And by doing so, will it hurt the Volt’s marketing?

GM seems hell bent on convincing the automotive media that it’s better to stay behind their keyboards than show up to events like the Chevrolet Centennial event I was lured into. While my fellow oblivious “automotive journalists” and I were shuttled around GM’s facilities for some luxurious but entirely un-newsworthy “access,” the folks that aren’t here have scooped us suckers on the only remotely relevant news to come out of this event. The Detroit News‘s Christina Rogers reports that a news conference scheduled for about 12 hours from now will give GM occasion to announce that it will bring a

a small, battery-powered vehicle designed for urban market

to the US market. And, in the time-honored blogging tradition of speculating about speculation, GreenCarReport‘s John Voelcker has connected the dots that seem to confirm that this forthcoming EV will be based on the Spark City Car. All while us event attendees were still at the bar, drinking on GM’s dime. Oy…

First off, the Detroit News report seems reliable, as a couple of Volt-program employees that I spoke to this evening were suddenly very amenable to the idea that GM might bring a “small, niche” pure EV to market (without actually confirming anything, of course). And, naturally, none of them thought for a second that such a hypothetical pure EV might in any way take away from the Volt’s “range anxiety”-centric marketing approach. Despite the fact that their boss has publicly ridiculed the entire concept of a pure EV (when a competitor was launching one). Which, given the way these things work, seems to be about as close to confirmation as a lowly blogger like myself is ever likely to receive that a GM pure EV is in the offing.

And if GM is bringing a “small” pure EV to market, there’s only one possibility: a developed-in-India Spark conversion, which GM took over from its former partner REVA in May of last year (and recently showed off in India). GM only has one other A-segment city car in development, the “Opel Junior,” which is still in the mule prototype phase, and won’t be released until 2013. The Spark, on the other hand, has been around for several years now, and GM’s in-house development of the EV version dates back a good year-and-a-half.

But why would GM risk the validity of its “range-anxiety”-focused Volt marketing approach over what is likely to be an even smaller-volume vehicle in the US market? In a word: California. As Voelcker puts it

volume will be low, perhaps 2,000 cars a year. This may be just enough for GM to comply with California’s unique Zero-Emissions Vehicle mandate.

That number may, in fact, be roughly similar to the planned volumes for the 2012 Toyota RAV4 EV, another battery electric conversion of a gasoline car to be sold in California by another large global automaker.

So, we’re looking at a super-low volume, CARB-pacifying, Spark-based EV… likely with batteries from GM’s partner LG. And, if an Indian-developed, Indian- or Korean-produced EV with Korean batteries isn’t what you had in mind, consider that the only possible alternative is a larger all-Chinese Chevrolet “New Sail” EV, which were supposed to start testing at the end of last year. And in terms of post-bailout green-car optics, “Made In India” or “Made In Korea” beats “Made In China” hollow. In other words, my money’s on an EV Spark… but I’m willing to make some reasonable odds if you have a more plausible scenario.

[Disclosure: GM has been stuffing me with food rather than information for the last several days, hence the speculation. Also, gambling is wrong.]

While the discussion about the value of the yen continues (also at TTAC), the exodus from Japan is picking up steam. Toyota is joining other carmakers that quietly turn India into a car export nation to be reckoned with. Toyota’s Chief Engineer Yoshinori Noritake  (above) soon will be able to smile: Toyota’s subsidiary in India will export Toyota’s and Noritake’s “BRIC car”, the Etios, to South Africa in March 2012.

According to a statement,  “the models for export will be based on the Etios platform currently sold in India, but will be developed and produced to fit the lifestyles, consumer preferences, climate, road conditions and usage considerations in South Africa.” Both the original Etios and the Etios Liva hatchback will go to South Africa.

Toyota will nearly double its current Indian capacity of 160,000 vehicles to 310,000 vehicles in 2013, and is committed “to developing India into a global production and supply base for vehicles and transmissions.”

Exports from India are up strongly. While total production in India rose 16 percent from April to August 2011, automobile exports were up 31 percent in the same period.

India will likely report a good September for most of its carmakers. The final numbers are not expected until a week from now, but here are the results of some of the most important ones. Keep in mind that these “sales” numbers are the total of what has been sold in India and what has been shipped abroad. The Indian domestic market is still a bit sluggish, but exports are picking up nicely.

Tata: 78,786 units, up 22%
Toyota: 12,807 units, up 105%
Ford:  10,270 units, up 9.45%
GM: 10,112 units, up 17.35 percent
Hyundai: 57,808 units, up 12.4 percent
Maruti-Suzuki: 85,565 units, down 21%

India’s biggest carmaker Suzuki had trouble making cars due to a strike at its Manesar plant.

GM’s success goes mostly on account of the Chevrolet Beat (a.k.a. Spark) Diesel, which accounted for half of GM’s September volume.

Tata sold 2,936 Nanos, down 47 percent over September last year. Ever heard of their Indica? That one sold 10,282 units, up 64 percent.

The explosive growth of Toyota mostly goes on account of the Etios and Etios Liva. Toyota has a clear winner in this car, which is already half of Toyota’s sales in India.

(Tip o’ the turban to Cammy, who still has her eyes on India.)

The NYT’s opinion page has a provocative piece by Siddhartha Deb today. It explores the role that automobiles play in the class dynamics of a modernizing India. Deb writes

Until the mid-1990s, cars had been mainly available in two models in India: the unglamorous, onion-shaped, sturdy Ambassador and the more aerodynamic Maruti 800. Both were produced by state-run companies (though the latter had a partnership with the Japanese company Suzuki). But when India began to open its markets, a wide range of cars became available, just as rising middle-class incomes and cheap consumer credit made buying such cars feasible.

In many ways, the marriage between the Indian middle class and the automobile culture has been disastrous. Roads remain awful, drivers continue to be erratic, and traffic in cities like Delhi and Bangalore is worse than ever. And yet the car has become deeply enmeshed with upward mobility, while also complicating that mobility. In the India of the Ambassador and the Maruti, the distinction was largely between those who owned cars and those who did not. In the India of Ford, Fiat, Hyundai and Mahindra — where there is even a very cheap indigenous model called the Tata Nano — distinctions are parsed in terms of the model one owns.

Drom the Bollywood producer’s suit-matched Bentley Continental to a struggling middle class couple’s divorce over the wife’s aspirations to a red Mitsubishi Pajero, Deb documents the cars, and other forms of transportation, which help define the emerging class order in India. It’s a brief but intriguing glimpse into the social impact of cars in a rapidly-growing economy, and it illustrates how cars both affect and reflect the fabric of social order. Give the whole thing a read if you’ve got a spare minute.

The board of GM has a week-long meeting in Shanghai. Someone  just happened to be in the same place at the same time, and quite possibly unearthed the secret all of India is dying to hear: Under what brand will the Wuling cars be introduced once they hit India? Apparently, not Wuling.

Before we go there, let’s go back a bit: In December 2009, things were dire at GM. GM sold a crucial one percent share of their Chinese joint venture to its Chinese partner SAIC, a transaction that has been analyzed in-depth by Ed Niedermeyer. Something else happened in the darkest times of GM: GM handed its Chinese partner SAIC the keys to the Indian market, from which SAIC had been effectively locked out. GM and SAIC formed a 50:50 Hong Kong based investment company that owns the Indian operations. GM contributed their Indian presence, SAIC contributed $350m in cash that was in sort supply at the times. For that pittance, GM sold off half of their future in the world’s next big auto market. Desperate times, measures, and all that.

Ever since, the question was: What cars will be brought to India? It quickly became clear that it won’t be automobiles that are the pride of American engineering. What will be brought to India are Wulings.

Wuling is the Chinese answer to Suzuki: Small and cheap boxes on wheels with pint-sized engines. They are made by the GM-SAIC-Wuling three-way joint venture, in which GM holds a minority interest. GM’s share was increased, but SAIC has the majority at that JV also. Recently, things weren’t as good as before at Wuling. The breadvan segment took a beating. India is getting even more important.

The trouble is, India is peering anxiously across the Himalaya, and on the subcontinent, Chinese goods have to contend with their own perception gap. All of India, well, all of India’s auto sites are on the lookout for Chinese vans and MPVs. Hooded and camouflaged testers are spotted with regularity on India’s rutted roads. A launch is expected for this year of early 2012. The big question that gives the Indians sleepless nights and reams of forum-fodder: Under which brand? Wuling? Baojun? Or Chevy?

Our Shanghai source possibly can shed some light on it.

In Shanghai, he happened to come across some party tents. He was told the tents are there to protect GM board members from the hot Shanghai sun. He is not a car guy, he’s in the catering business. Through that, he knows his delivery vans. What he spotted there were cars destined for the Indian market, which he characterized as “basically Wuling vans wearing Chevy badges, in various different styles including pick up bodies and regular bodies.”

If what was shown to the board will arrive in India, and unless people change their minds, those Wulings will be reborn in India as Chevys. Anything else would have been ill-advised. Wulings have already been entering South America with a bowtie. Here, they help to balance America’s significant trade deficit with Colombia, just as a for instance. Or look what’s happening in Egypt. An underreported revolution is that Wulings are taking over Egypt disguised as Chevys.

After only 18 months on the job (and he did a good job) Carl-Peter Forster resigned his job as group CEO and managing director of  Tata Motors. In a press release, Tata cites “unavoidable personal circumstances”. The industry is scratching their combined heads: What are those reasons? Are they real, or the usual BS?

Tata should be pleased with Forster’s performance. During his watch, Tata’s profit shot up. In the fiscal year that ended 2011, Tata’s profits increased 300 percent, reports Automobilwoche [sub]. Jaguar and Land Rover are making money again. The Nano is still a basket case, but it was inherited by Forster. A Foster-child as opposed to a Forster-child.

Forster’s own statement does not bring more clarity:

“I deeply regret that my personal circumstances make it difficult for me to continue to perform the challenging duties of managing the thriving global activities of the Tata Motors Group with its main activities in India and the UK and increasingly in additional overseas markets.”

Son of a German diplomat, Forster was born in London, and raised in Athens and Bonn. After a successful career at BMW, Forster was appointed Chairman and Managing Director of Opel in April 2001. In June 2004, he became President of GM Europe. Forster did not agree with GM’s decision to not sell Opel to Magna and resigned 3 days after the announcement. 3 months later, he emerged as the CEO of Tata.

Forster will stay on as a non-executive director and board member of  Tata.

If you know how to successfully run a large car company, send your resume to Tata. Not only are they looking for a replacement of Forster, the hunt is still on for s successor of Chairman Ratan Tata who will soon turn 75.

Someone call Homeland Security: Large segments of Americans (if we still can call them that) are willing  to spend hard-earned dollars on (are you ready for that?) CHINESE cars. Market research company GfK Automotive’s did its annual Barometer of Automotive Awareness and Imagery, and found that a whopping 38 percent of the respondents would consider buying a Chinese car. Indian cars? A little less, but 30 percent ain’t nothing. That’s amongst all respondents. Once you get to Gen Y consumers, you’ll see wholesale desertion to the enemy.

Says the study:

“The openness to purchasing a Chinese and Indian vehicle is highest among Gen Y consumers, with 52 percent saying they are open to a vehicle from a Chinese automaker and 41 percent saying they are open to a vehicle from an Indian automaker.”

Imagine that. The cars aren’t even on U.S. shores, and especially basement dwellers are ready to buy them – even worse, with dad’s money.

India’s Economic Times (tip’o’the keyboard to Chinacartimes) of course gets it all wrong and writes that “the majority of American consumers are not open to buying a car from a Chinese or Indian manufacturer.” If 38 percent of all respondents and more than half of the Harry Potter Generation already are ready to abandon our hard fought freedom to buy American, Japanese, German and the occasional Korean cars, and cross lines to products of the vehicular dens of iniquity, then things are going down the drain, fast.

Said Don DeVeaux, managing director, GfK Automotive:

“When a relatively unknown auto brand enters the market, potential buyers are going to have some initial scepticism without a frame of reference into the company’s history and differentiators from other brands. Quality and repair support are critical factors that potential buyers evaluate before purchasing a new vehicle, and without an established history in the United States, Chinese and Indian manufacturers need to overcome the lack of knowledge of their brands among potential new buyers.”

But once they have their nose under the tent … Where is Glenn Beck when we need him?

With a massively growing population, and no Chinese-style national one-child policy in place, sterilization campaigns in India’s provinces and municipalities are far from uncommon. But now, in the Rajasthani district of Jhunjhunu, officials in charge of sterilization campigns have found a new incentive to encourage Indians to undergo the procedure: the subcontinents growing obsession with automobiles. Britain’s The Independent was the first Western news outlet to report on the scheme, which offers those undergoing sterilization

a coupon for a forthcoming raffle, with prizes including a Tata Nano car, motorbikes and electric food blenders.

The prizes for the Jhunjhunu raffle were donated by a local university, and because compensation for sterilization is technically illegal in India, a Tata Motors spokesman tells the New York Times that

The Rajasthan initiative you are referring to — we are not sure whether it is a government or a private initiative – has got nothing to do with Tata Motors or its dealers. We have not been aware whether this is being shown as endorsed by the company.

Tata says it will “look into” the scheme, but with sales of “India’s Model T” flagging, even this questionable promotion might well be welcome. After all, many Rajasthanis seem to grasp the practical benefits of sterilization, but have a hard time finding the motivation to leave farms in order to receive the surgery. One woman, interviewed by The Independent, seemed to sum up the mood:

Ms Kumar explained how she had opted for the operation for purely practical reasons. But she admitted she was excited by the prospect of the raffle. She said: “If I am to win anything, I hope it is the car.”

In modern India, where booming sales of ultra-cheap cars conceal the reality that millions remain without mobility, it seems that the offer of even the cheapest car on the market is motivation enough to forgo having children.

Tata’s Nano was launched with much fanfare in 2009, as the world’s cheapest car and a symbol of India’s automotive and economic aspirations. But first Tata had problems with its factory, which was to be built on land [allegedly] stolen from local farmers. Then, early last year, the cars started catching fire and refused to stop. Then finance was the issue, and when Tata revamped its finance, advertising and retail presence, it looked like things were beginning to improve. It turns out the bump was short-lived. After hitting 5k monthly sales last December, volume has fallen again dropping to 3,260 units in July (1/8th the volume of its main rival the Maruti Suzuki Alto) according to indiancarsbikes.in, which reckons

Startlingly, the most fuel efficient petrol car in the country, which is the most inexpensive too isn’t finding takers in a market troubled by high petrol prices and rising loan interest rates, that is clearly favoring cheaper and more fuel efficient cars… the market isn’t biting and the Nano sales have begun the downward spiral, this time continually.

So, what’s Tata going to fix to get its attempt at “India’s Model T” back off the ground. How about “everything”?

The crew at indiancarsbikes think they know what the Nano’s problem is:

a diesel engined Nano is the need of the day if Tata intends to reverse the Nano’s fortunes

A diesel engine is supposed to arrive by the end of this year, and could get up to 95 MPG (non-EPA)… although likely only with a CVT transmission that is also supposed to debut late this year. And sometime in 2012 a hybrid drivetrain could appear, although again, the Nano is already the most efficient car on the Indian market… it’s unlikely that more efficiency is the missing ingredient. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d say more standard equipment might be the key to improving sales.

But instead of upgrading the Nano’s equipment, a styling change could be coming, courtesy of Tata design boss (and designer of the new-look Jags) Ian Callum. Tata’s boss of Indian operations PM Telang was cagey about Tata receiving styling assistance from the Jaguar team, but  he admits

They (JLR) are part of the Tata family, so some idea exchange will always happen

So, what’s Telang’s solution? Not much.

Nano has a different clientele, people who perhaps never thought they could own a car. That’s why the decision making process is a little more complex as that’s a big step for them. It’s a very unconventional vehicle, so it’s taking some time in the market

Ultimately, it seems that, before radically altering the Nano, Tata will see if other markets take to it with more enthusiasm. Exports have begun to neighboring Sri Lanka and Nepal, and talks are under way with the Indonesian government about production for the South East Asian markets. And Telang says talks are underway with other Asian countries as well as Latin American countries about exports and eventually CKD assembly, telling the WSJ [sub]

Looking at the potential, we can think of importing the car first and later assembling it in those countries. At present we are considering many countries for assembling the Nano, but there is no timeline

Whereas the Model T caught the public’s attention nearly instantly, the Nano faces a lot more competition and very different world. Tata certainly thought that selling a cheap car in fast-growing  developing would be like printing money, but the reality turns out to be much more difficult.

Mahindra & Mahindra’s abortive plans to bring its rugged diesel-powered pickups to the US have garnered quite a cult following here at TTAC.  We follow the impending coming of M&M religiously. And now we demand license fees for the continuously coming cult car.

M&M has taken the cult concept to heart.

“We want to be India’s first global cult brand,” Anand Mahindra told Automotive News [sub]. They want to do that with the help of Korea’s Ssangyong which M&M bought on the cheap after it had been abandoned by China’s SAIC.  This had caused a minor civil war around the Korean plant. Says AN:

“The company switched owners four times, faced bankruptcy and suffered one of the most violent strikes in modern Korean history in 2009. Workers in that clash took control of a plant for almost three months, using iron pipes and Molotov cocktails to battle air and land police commandos armed with tear gas and water cannons.”

How the cult will come together is anybody’s guess. The article is long on to which schools  Anand Mahindra went, and that he is an avid Twitterer, but it lacks specifics of the coming cult.

Take it from someone who’s been there, Mahindra: The only cult that counts in the business is the cult of the golden calf  by the name of sales & profits.

Toyota is working on a small car based on its emerging market platform that underpins the Indian Etios, and will release it in China by 2013 – if  The Nikkei [sub] is correctly informed. There is nobody working at Toyota on Thursdays and Fridays as a power saving measure, so there is nobody to ask. We expect no more than the usual “we cannot comment on future models” when people will be back to work on Saturday. With that in mind, let’s go down rumor lane.

Using the Etios platform for China would not come as a surprise. It is Toyota’s low cost car that had been developed with all emerging markets in mind. Toyota had launched it in India, because “if we are successful here, we will be successful in other emerging markets,” said Toyota’s Chief Engineer Yoshinori Noritake. The platform is built so that it can be adapted to the needs of the respective target market. It is a real car, not a sardine can on wheels.

A Brazilian derivative is in the works, a Russian derivative may be in the works. It would be a sin not to make a Chinese derivative. When we tested the Indian spec Etios on the Fuji Speedway a few weeks ago, Toyota folk mentioned that the Chinese market demands a lot of car for little money, so they obviously had done some homework, and may have already played around with more wheelbase on the CAD computer.

Having been overtaken by Nissan in Chinese volume, Toyota needs a low cost winner in China.

The Nikkei says that production of the car is planned at “two local factories” in China. Two factories maybe, but unlikely with two joint ventures as the Nikkei surmises. Toyota has a joint venture with FAW near the eastern port city of Tianjin. Toyota also has a joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. in China’s south. It would be against all Chinese customs if two joint venture partners would get the same car. Toyota is busy expanding capacities at both, so let’s see who will get it.

China Daily reports today that Toyota is working on raising engine output capacity in China “by 30 percent to 1.3 million units a year in 2013.” This added capacity will be spread over both joint venture partners. According to China Daily, the “1300cc and 1500cc” engines will “power a low-cost, compact car planned for the world’s biggest market.”  The Indian Etios comes with a 1,500 cc engine, and the Etios Liva hatchback comes with a 1,200 cc engine.

Ford is betting real money on India.  Not wanting to be as late to the party as Ford has been in China, Ford “plans to invest $1 billion to build a factory in western India to gain a greater share of one of the fastest-growing car markets,” reports Reuters from Bangalore.

Ford wants to build on its success of its India-built Figo model. The factory in Gujarat is expected to be running by 2014, at an annual capacity of 240,000 units. An official announcement is expected today.