#India

GM’s plan to develop an electric version of its (previous-generation) Chevrolet Spark city car for developing markets had been dependent on a joint development deal with REVA, the Indian firm responsible for such vehicles as the REVAi (known to Brits and Top Gear fans as the G-Whiz). But with the AP [via BusinessWeek] reporting that Mahindra & Mahindra has bought a 55 percent stake in REVA, GM’s deal to use REVA’s technology in its Daewoo-developed hatchback appears to be off. GM had already scaled back its cooperation with REVA, delaying the planned release of the Spark EV and focusing on fleet testing the car. But, says GM India President Karl Slym

Now we’ve stopped the test fleet as well. We were doing it purely as something to learn. Now there’s no real benefit to that. We may as well stay with the GM solutions.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how the world largest “ democracy” is being built up to a global small car hub. It seems the car world has even bigger plans for the Asian tiger cub. Business Week reports that Renault is planning to double the number of parts it gets from India. Sudhir Rao, COO of Renault’s India unit says that Renault will buy about €250m ($317m) worth of parts from the Indian subsidiary. Renault isn’t the only company that is looking to India for cost savings. Naturally, where Renault goes, Nissan follows. But Fiat and Ford are also interesting in using Indian parts.

The emerging car market in India isn’t emerging fast enough to keep some car companies alive. Three years after Renault started to build its low-cost Logan in India, Renault is pulling out. The ho-hum sales come as no surprise to the attentive TTAC reader. As previously noted, India sells in a year what China consumes in a month in terms of cars.

Eleven Nanos were puttering down India’s National Highway 8 on their way to the dealer (don’t they have car haulers there?) when one of them burst into flames, reports India’s Deccan Chronicle. These cases of spontaneous Nano combustion seem to pile up.

Japan’s Mag-X [via Autoten] brings us this rendering of a Toyota low-cost car, said to be planned for a 2012 launch in India’s hot-hot entry-level car market. Expected to weigh about 1,322 lbs, Toyota’s Tata Nano-fighter is said to have an 800cc two-cylinder engine mounted out back (alá Nano).

Pictures are supposed to be worth a thousand words, but this one is good for at least two whole life lessons. First: you get what you pay for. If you buy the world’s cheapest car, as insurance agent Satish Sawant did, it might just burst into flames on the drive home from the dealership. Second: Google Adsense has no sense of irony.

“If we lose that case, we will lose heavily” said Toyota in Delhi’s High Court. The judges had no sympathy for Toyota’s pleadings. Their decision might impact seriously on Toyota’s plans to market the Prius in 40 countries worldwide. As if Toyota doesn’t have enough problems with recalls and class action suits, now this:

Carlos Ghosn was in India on Tuesday, juggling a lot of eggs and covering a lot of bases. The official reason for his visit was the opening of the new Renault-Nissan plant in Chennai, but Ghosn’s arrival set off a flurry of R-N related news in the Indian press.

Last week was an eventful one for Tata Motors. First, Daimler announced that it had completed selling off its 5.34% stake in the Indian automaker, for USD $422 million. Investors including Citibank and Tata Sons, the largest current Tata Motors stockholder, acquired the shares. Daimler explained the move by saying that it is now well enough established in India in terms of passenger and commercial vehicles, to no longer need an equity share in a local company. Daimler already builds CVs in Pune and its new CV plant in Chennai will go online in 2012. Daimler and Tata have a relationship that dates to 1954, when Tata started assembling Mercedes-Benz trucks. The two companies started local assembly of M-B cars in 1994 under the Telco joint venture.

Sales recently began in India for Ford’s “all new” Figo. The launch of the Figo, a five-door sedan/hatchback, was a supposed to be a big deal. It is Ford’s first car designed specifically for the Indian market, and it was introduced by Mullaly himself in India last September. It’s built in Ford’s refurbished Chennai plant, where production started up in early February after a $500 million investment. In addition to producing cars for the local market, where sales are booming and compact cars, the so-called Sub B segment, make up 70% of the sales volume, Ford intends for the Chennai plant to be a supply hub for their Asia, Pacific and Africa operations.

For the first time, monthly car sales in India exceeded 150,000 units according to February numbers released by SIAM, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers [via The Economic Times of India]. Those figures represent a 33% improvement over Feb. 2009. Analysts attribute the sales bump to people pulling the trigger in advance of expected higher taxes in the national budget. Indian automakers anticipate that the increased demand will slow as prices rise due to higher interest rates and new emissions standards.

India is going to be an economic powerhouse, just like China. With 1.1 billion people, that’s a lot of potential customers for your goods. Suzuki knew this, which is why they pushed hard in India. Suzuki is the undisputed market leader in India. Whenever there are developments in that market, we should probably listen. Listen up:

Uh-oh. Daimler must be needing money really bad. Reuters has on their wire that Daimler is trying to sell their complete 5.34 percent share in Tata Motors for cheap. They are offering the package at a discount of 4 to 7 percent below the stock’s Monday close, and hope to raise $429 million.