We are soon starting wall papers on cars.

Very soon.

Toyota’s plans for India .

As arguments prevail on whether Toyota is No.1 or 2, the manufacturer is now here to give some non-controversial news.

On Monday, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe called on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and informed them of the company’s agenda. Toyota has been working on a small car and the development stage according to them is now in the advanced stage and they are apparently finalising key vendors for the project.

Watanabe along with Indian joint venture partner Vikram Kirloskar, remained tight lipped when asked about the future plans of the company.

However, Nath confirmed that Toyota would finalize small car plans in the next 3-4 months before going in for expansion of production. Nath quoted saying "He (Watanabe) met me and informed me that Toyota would be doubling its investments in India and would also make small cars in the market that would be exported to other countries as well"

"They have said they would be expanding at their current manufacturing location, near Bangalore, and would not go for any new location,", added Nath.

Toyota enjoys a meager 3.6% share of the Indian passenger vehicle market. But one thing that cannot be taken away from them is the success they have with all their models so far. Toyota entered the market with the Qualis MUV almost a decade ago and subsequently brought in other models like Corolla, Innova, Camry etc. With increase in production, Toyota hopes to churn out 600,000 units by 2015 compared to the current statistic of about 55,000 units. 15% share is what they have in mind as far as India is concerned and lets see how they accomplish it. And whats GM upto?!

Source:-Topspeed.com

India All Set to Become Global Player in Auto Component Industry .

The Indian auto component industry has the potential to earn 50% of its total revenue from exports only by 2015 as the industry has been drawing the attention of global auto players.

According to Vishnu Mathur, Executive Director, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), the export of auto components in India would grow phenomenally in coming years. It is likely to grow more than eight times by 2015 from the current level of 20% ($2.9 Billion) and the total turnover would reach somewhere around $15 Billion, as reported by Financial Express.

According to ACMA, the growth in domestic auto component market is not as good as in exporting the products. The industry has the potential to earn 50% of its total earnings from exports by 2015 while domestic market is expected to touch $40 Billion.

The research report "Indian Automobile Sector-A booming Market" RANCOS said that the export by the Indian auto component industry was US$ 1800 Million during 2005-06 with a growth of 28.57% as compared to 2004-05. In fact, 75% of the total auto component export was generated by car companies in 2005-06. Indian auto component market has the potential to provide Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) a good market and can reduce their manufacturing cost significantly.

The industry experts believe that stringent laws in Europe and the US regarding safety and emission norms are pressurizing global car manufacturers to cut down costs. Consequently, all the big global auto players are looking towards India. India has emerged as a hub of component manufacturing where right mix of quality standards and technology are easily available.

Other reasons for high growth in the export of auto components include payback differentials, decline in the profit margins of companies, and slowdown in the domestic vehicle market due to rising interest rates for auto loans. Moreover, the declining value of dollar against rupee by almost 13% is also responsible for the boom in the industry. But at the same time, it is causing heavy loses to auto component exporters.

Foreign companies are willingly investing in the industry as they feel it is a better place to invest than anywhere else in the world. This is possible due to high quality of infrastructure, easy tax system and favorable government policies.

Furthermore, political stability, and high industrial and economic growth have captured the attention of global players and investors. Low cost and increasing focus on specialization in the segment is forcing overseas companies to come in India.

Source:-RANCOS

The environmental impact of India’s Nano car

The environmental impact of India’s Nano car

It may be the world’s cheapest car, but is this the direction that India’s promising engineering industry should be taking?

Tata Motors this week launched the Tata Nano, a compact, shoe-boxy sort of car, with four tiny wheels and one wing mirror.

Environmentalists are already crying murder, saying that this will just encourage more pollution and congestion in a nation that is already suffering severely from both. So I thought I would have a quick look at how things stack up.

The Tata Nano will meet European emissions standards on exhaust. If you want to see details, check out the Euro IV line in this table. Bear in mind that exhaust emissions standards regulate the particles that make up smog, not emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (which the EU does not currently regulate, although it’s trying).

The numbers come out in favour of the Tata Nano. Euro IV standards are more stringent than those in place for the motorcycles and scooters, which make up a big chunk of India’s motorised traffic.

For instance, according to the Indian Federation of Automobile Dealers Association and the Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the 2005 standards for two-wheelers limited carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and NOx emissions to 1.5 g/km travelled – compare that to just 0.5 g/km (carbon monoxide) and 0.3 g/km (hydrocarbon and NOx) under Euro IV.

But look at fuel efficiency and the balance is flipped. Tata’s Nano travels 21 km for every litre of fuel it is fed, compared to up to 80 km/l you could achieve with a two-wheeler. That means not only a larger bill for the owner, but also more CO₂ chucked into the atmosphere.

So, the Nano will bring less ground-level pollution but more greenhouse gases. Ideally, you would want to see less of both (which is for instance what the Vikram electric 3-wheeler, pictured left, offered).

Still, maybe this is the first of a new wave of ingenious new car models to be produced in India. Given the nation’s considerable engineering workforce, and the growing demand for green transportation, it could be lucrative for Indian companies to start shifting their attentions to supplying the world with new environmentally friendly forms of transportation.

Tata is a massive company, but so far its only environmental line of business is a joint venture in solar energy with BP. Time for a change?

Catherine Brahic, online environment reproter.

Tata's Nano shows way past West's blind spot

Global newspaper headlines on the Tata Nano have it all figured out. "It costs just $2 500 [R17 636]. It's cute as a bug. And it could mean global disaster," The Washington Post recently opined.

This underscores how India leverages its white-collar strengths in the knowledge economy to exert a powerful force on global blue-collar manufacturing.

In doing so, it engages in a direction diametrically opposite from China.

After India succeeded in its quest to "Wal-Mart" the global knowledge economy - through a combination of value and volume, skills and scale — the Indian economy's effect on global manufacturing could prove to be massive.

And yet, like the Nano itself, none of this should be seen as a bolt from the blue.

The strengths of the Tata Group as global technology titans have been in evidence for some time.

What this illustrates are two principles of the 21st century New Economy. Few will be able to compete in the same space as India - least of all those from the high-cost zones of the Western world.

In the information technology (IT) world, such trends have now taken on almost the character of a parody: every rumour of an Indian bid sends the share price of CapGemini, Europe's largest IT services company, soaring.

And it was Tata Steel that demonstrated exactly this New India principle when it swallowed Corus, a European steel maker several times its size.

Tata is not alone. Other Indian conglomerates are following suit.

And yet, all that Western media manage to see is that "the planet is doomed" once millions of Indians and Chinese get their own cars.

Still, India is encouraged to emulate our "good new" habits rather than our "bad old" ones. Talk about skating on very thin moral ice.

Such ingrained Marie Antoinettesque assumptions - having one's cake and eating it too - are, of course, emblematic of the entire debate in the Western media about shifting global economic powers.
It ignores the fact that India has its very own "good new habits".

It already boasts one of the planet's largest public transport systems.

Also overlooked are India's huge efforts to encourage alternatives to fossil fuels.

Despite all its detractors, India is looking quite good, especially when compared with growth-at-any-cost China - or, frankly, the West's thoughtless legacy and continuity of overconsumption.

As far as the Nano is concerned, its effect on the world car market is going to be dwarfed by the convulsions the little car will herald in the world engineering industry.

And such tremors won't end with the car industry. There are other cases worth noting, such as the Indian space programme.

India also boasts the largest national constellation of communication, remote-sensing and special-purpose satellites, including those for distance education, and the soon-to-be-launched world's first e-Health satellite.

Once again, this monumental technological shift is occurring in the West's blind spot - not because India is hiding it, but because the Western powers that be have chosen not to look closely.

They evidently prefer an India wrapped in Gandhi's loin cloth. But the times, they are a-changing - and rapidly so.
Source:-Business Report