Auto Monitor - 16-31 March 2012 by Infomedia18

I N D I A ’ S N O . 1 M A G A Z I N E F O R A U T O M O T I V E N E W S , V I E W S & A N A LY S I S

Auto Monitor V Vol. 12 No. 05

16 - 31 March 2012

w w w.amonl ine.in

56 Pages

INTERVIEW BAJAJ AUTO TO REFRESH PRODUCT B LINE-UP L

AUTONOMICS ADDITIONAL TAXES ON DIESEL CARS & UVS MAY HELP

K Srinivas, President- Motorcycle Business, Bajaj Auto

Mitsubishi to enter small car segment Nabeel A Khan New Delhi

itsubishi Motors is exploring options to enter the small car segment in India. The new venture may not be with its existing Indian partner Hindustan Motors, but open to go either solo or with another partner. The Executive Officer and Corporate GM of Asia and ASEAN, Mitsubishi Motors, Masahiko Ueki said, “The small car business in India is very unavoidable.” For India Mitsubishi considers Eco-car, ASX and Active Sports crossover besides, its new global hatchback (1.2 litre petrol) slated to be launched in Thailand soon.

Continental acquires Rico stake in Indian JV

ontinental has acquired Rico Auto’s 50 percent stake in its Indian JV Continental Rico Hydraulic Brakes India Ltd. The JV manufactures components including calipers for front and rear axles, drum brakes, master cylinders, brake boosters and load sensing proportioning valves for hydraulic brake systems. In India, the company acquired Modi Tyres last year and is investing around Euro 50 million to ramp up the tyre business. It is also expanding the India Technical Centre as well as its facilities in Pune and Manesar.

DATA MONITOR Domestic Sales Sector

Jan-11

Jan-12

231,584

252,113

8.86%

61,537

69,859

13.52%

47,280

45,632

-3.49%

980,243

1,113,831

13.63%

TOTAL

1,320,644

1,481,435

Change

12.18%

Exports Jan-11

Jan-12

Change

32,948

47,652

44.63%

6,878

10,325

50.12%

23,742

27,270

14.86%

128,560

150,943

17.41%

TOTAL

192,128

236,190

22.93%

* Source: SIAM/ ** all sub segments considered

Pg 8

Pg 14

Rane Madras bags Volvo order

NEWS IN BRIEF

Sector

` 50

T Murrali Chennai

hennai headquartered Rane (Madras) Ltd (RML), part Rane group, has bagged an order from Volvo to supply hydraulic cylinders. This is the fi rst overseas business for the company after it diversified in to manufacturing hydraulic cylinders. The initial volume will be around 6,000 units per year and the company will cater to Volvo’s plants in China and Thailand besides, India. RML makes manual and hydraulic steering systems and supplies to almost all the vehicle manufacturers in the country. Speaking to Auto Monitor, President, Rane (Madras), S Parthasarathy said, “Volvo has chosen RML for the quality systems and engineering capability to understand the requirements and designing products to meet specific requirements in terms of cost, delivery and speed of development.” The hydraulic cylinder for Volvo will be manufactured at its plant in Mysore. The mother plant is in Velacherry, Chennai and other plants are located in Puducherry, Varanavasi (near Chennai) and Uttarakhand. The company is setting up a new

S Parthasarathy, President, Rane (Madras) Ltd

factory within the premises of its Mysore plant for its hydraulic business. The new plant will initially have about 30,000 sq ft of space with high levels of automation, cleanliness, interlinking poke yokes and several unique manufacturing technologies, which will make it cost competitive. The company has earmarked an investment of `18 crore to be spent in the next two years. The installed capacity will be 125,000 units per year. RML is looking at expanding its product portfolio by taking up products in the adjacent space. According to Parthasarathy, the new factory will manufacture hydrostatic units and cylinders.

“We have mapped the entire requirement of the Indian industry and our product range will cover everything,” he said. Already about 80 percent of the market requirements is in the development stage. The rest will be developed in the next six months catering to automotive, off-highway and nonautomotive segments. “Currently we are working with almost all the OEMs and the development of products are in different stages,” he said. At present, it supplies to Indo Farm, International Tractors and HMT. It is focussing on the domestic market for hydrostatic gears since it is expected to grow by eight folds in the next three years. However, it

will look beyond boundaries for hydraulic cylinders. “We have identified certain specific areas to pursue exports,” he said. The company is also looking at developing electric power steering for non-passenger car applications, where engine power is not available to drive the hydraulics. It sees significant growth in the next five years, primarily due hydraulics business. His first priority is to make RML as a `1,000 crore company by 2013-14. In 2010-11 it registered `575 crore and it hopes to close the current fiscal with about `675 crore. The exports and aftermarket account for about 15 percent each. When asked how the company plans to accomplish the objective Parthasarathy said, “There are enough programmes we are winning with various customers in both, India and abroad. Besides, hydraulic business will be a huge value addition to us. Also we have some specific strategies to grow in ball-joints.” The company has set-up a plant in Sanand, Gujarat to support Tata Motors. It will start its shipments soon for Nano. ”We are well positioned to support other customers also, who are setting up facilities there,” he said.

UNIDO to shift gears towards aerospace Bhargav TS Chennai

fter joining hands with the auto component manufacturers in India successfully, UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) is planning to assist India’s smallscale aerospace component manufacturers soon. The programme will kick-start gradually by providing technical assistance to small component manufacturers in the aerospace sector, to meet international standards. As the global aerospace equipment manufacturers seek to expand their supplier base in India, UNIDO has taken the new initiative to reinforce the SMEs in the sector. In a recent interaction with UNIDO’s Investment Promotion expert of the Investment Promotion Unit, Asia and Latin

America, Alejandro Vera Casso said, “The global OEMs will be looking to have more sourcing to be done in India. So you have to start building up the capabilities of the domestic manufacturers, else India will not be able to fulfi l their demand.” The aerospace project is the fi rst of its kind for UNIDO, which will be funded by the UK government. Casso said, “Depending upon what the strategy says, the funding will be then decided. We are confident to do this primarily because we learnt many things about the Indian auto component industry.” In this project, UNIDO will focus on two aspects; fi rst to perform a diagnostics of the suppliers in the aerospace industry, where the diagnostics will be the benchmark tool that will be used across the European aerospace SMEs. The second aspect is

Alejandro Vera Casso

about using the information that is emerging out of the diagnostics and evolving a strategy for the Government of India. According to Casso, UNIDO will initially set-up a small team to work with the European players to produce the diagnostics phase, which will be done in three to four months. During this period,

it will bring in trainers from UK to train the aerospace industry experts in India on the benchmarking tool. Later, the experts will be sent to several SMEs to enhance their respective product life-cycles. The recent growth in Indian commercial aviation as well as defence orders have had foreign companies competing to supply to the Indian market. In India, commercial aircraft market is expected to reach $24 billion in a few years. The aerospace components cluster will also work with lightweight composite materials that the equipment manufacturers in aerospace, as well as in automobile industry are focussing on. UNIDO’s initiative in the cluster will be in and around Bangalore, which will aim to help suppliers to set higher standards.

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EDITORIAL Pump up the volume!

he Finance Minister would have presented the Union Budget 2012-13 by the time the issue is in your hand. This is the one occasion that every industry, every sector and practically everyone, looks forward to with optimism, pessimism or a mix of both. Hope something will emerge out of the Budget for the automotive industry, including extension of the excise deduction on R&D that expires by the end of this month, by another 10 years and setting-up a technology development fund for the auto component industry. While the excise deduction on R&D will pump the required strength to the companies with respect to localisation of programmes as well as generating intellectual property rights, the latter will support the component manufacturers who are unable to spend the required funds in R&D due to low profitability. About a week before the budget, the Reserve Bank of India has reduced the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 75 basis points. The central bank has slashed CRR from 5.5 percent to 4.75 percent on account of which, about `48,000 crore has been infused into the system. The Prime Minister’s economic advisory panel chief, C Rangarajan opined that the policy rate cuts will depend on the inflation movement. The bankers also feel that the central bank’s initiative will ease the liquidity deficit in the banking system, which can make it slightly easier for people to procure funds. However, it will take time to see the actual benefits. This is because there is a shortage of funds in the market, and the situation can get aggravated due to tax payments by companies and individuals / salaried class.

There has been increasing sales in February this year against the same month last year, with passenger cars witnessing a growth of 13 percent, two-wheelers marking 12 percent and CVs registering 19 percent. Though there is a rush in bookings especially on diesel passenger vehicles, due to the apprehensions about increasing duties and taxes in the Budget for these classes of vehicles, the demand is not as desired on account of tightness in the money ﬂow. The reduced demand is also because of supply constraints of diesel cars, which in some models, has reached a waiting period of 11 months. Despite the unsteady sales performance, the growth story of OEMs in India is not a concern due to the fact the motorisation levels are still very low in the country. From April, Auto Monitor is becoming weekly from the current periodicity of fortnightly. I request you to keep sending us your views, suggestions and criticism, which will enable us to serve you better. Wishing you much pleasure reading. Do send us your feedback.

T. Murrali t.murrali@infomedia18.in

FORTNIGHT’S QUOTES Ratan Tata, Tata Group Chairman at the unveiling of Tata Megapixel in The Hindu Businessline

“Realistically such products take at least three years to develop. There are lots of electric technologies to be developed, besides many other things”

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Wolfgang Bernhard, Purchasing and Production Chief, Daimler Mercedes-Benz car division on flexibility of production in Automotive News Europe

“Our Mercedes-Benz 2020 strategy includes a continuous ramp-up of capacity. We think carefully about every step. Each new plant has to last for at least 25 years.”

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Printed by Mohan Gajria and published & edited by Lakshmi Narasimhan on behalf of Infomedia 18 Limited Editor: T. Murrali Printed at Infomedia 18 Ltd, Plot no.3, Sector 7, off Sion-Panvel Road, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400 706, and published at Infomedia 18 Ltd, ‘A’ Wing, Ruby House, J. K. Sawant Marg, Dadar (W), Mumbai - 400 028. AUTO MONITOR is registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India under No. 67827/98. Views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of Infomedia 18 Limited. Infomedia 18 Limited reserves the right to use the information published herein in any manner whatsoever. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the information published in this edition, neither Infomedia 18 Ltd nor any of its employees accept any responsibility for any errors or omission. Further, Infomedia 18 Ltd does not take any responsibility for loss or damage incurred or suffered by any subscriber of this magazine as a result of his/her accepting any invitation/offer published in this edition. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS CORPORATE Visteon acquisition enables Varroc to complete lighting spectrum

Varroc has become one among the top three auto component manufacturers in the county with the acquisition of global lighting business of Visteon

Honda launches tri-colour option in CBR

Honda Motorcycle has extended its options for this sports bike by launching tri-colour version of the sports bike with option—Pearl Heron Blue

Germany to strengthen partnerships with Indian firms

GLOBAL WATCH 17

Germany Trade & Invest is looking at mutual business activities with India for bilateral investments in various fields including automotive

Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz to set-up new plant

New Volvo V40, with pedestrian airbag technology was showcased at Geneva Motor Show 2012, and will start in May 2012 from company’s plant in Ghent, Belgium

Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz is looking to evolve as a manufacturer of robotic oriented products from offering mechanical product design and prototype building

Testing and evaluation: Key for OEMs

Volvo V40 production to start in May’12

UAW sues American Axle over pact

UAW has sued American Axle claiming the auto supplier isn’t following its contractual obligation to provide pension, insurance and other benefits to laid-off workers

Automotive Testing Expo 2012 in Chennai saw more than 150 companies participate in the event to showcase their capabilities in the automotive testing industry

Ford unveils kick-activated tailgate at Geneva Motor Show

VW records highest sales spike in US since 1974

Chris Villavarayan, Managing Director, Meritor India

Villavarayan has 16 years of leadership experience in operations management, strategic planning, and project management, delivering flawless execution of cost reduction programmes, production transfers & facility rationalisation

Toyota Material Handling India recently inaugurated their headquarters spread across 20,000 sq mt in Gurgaon, near the capital

Force Motors to strengthen PV distribution

Force Motors is looking to ramp-up the production of the Force One, to cater to waiting list and notch up higher volumes in the passenger vehicles division

Geneva Motor Show 2012: (L to R) Ratan N Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons & Tata Motors; Cyrus P Mistry, Deputy Chairman, Tata Sons; Ravi Kant, Vice Chairman, Tata Motors; P M Telang, MD-India Operations, Tata Motors and Dr Timothy Leverton, Head – Advanced & Product Engineering, Tata Motors, unveiling the Tata Megapixel, four-seater global range extended electric vehicle (REEV) concept, for the performance-seeking and environment-conscious motorist anywhere in the world.

Auto Monitor

EVENT of the fortnight

Volkswagen Group sold 652,500 vehicles in January, an increase of 1.3 percent, registering positive growth since the beginning of 2012

THE OTHER SIDE

Toyota Material pulls robe off Gurgaon headquarters

Ford offers an innovative hands-free tailgate for the all-new Kuga, offering customers a first-in-class, kick-activated means of accessing the boot

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

INTERVIEW

Bajaj Auto to refresh product line-up Bajaj Auto is looking to refresh its product line-up over the coming months. It is also in the process of sprucing up its dealership for a more engaging and enhanced customer experience. President- Motorcycle Business, Bajaj Auto, K Srinivas, who was instrumental in setting-up the probiking showrooms for Bajaj Auto before changing track to auto finance with Bajaj Finance, speaks to Auto Monitor on the wide ranging issues relating to the company’s two-wheeler business and his outlook on the sector. Abhishek Parekh What are your priorities over the coming months? We are seeing a challenging environment for the two-wheeler industry and it will begin to reflect in our sales numbers. In my view, we have adequate stocks at the dealership levels, while the overall retail stock levels are at uncomfortably higher levels for other two-wheeler manufacturers. There is a concern of a slowdown. The coming months are likely to be very challenging for us and for the two-wheeler industry. What is your perspective on brands and positioning of Bajaj Auto as a two-wheeler maker? Our products (models) are positioned in the segment where mileage is not the sole desire of the buyer. There is a large segment of customers who require bikes with adequate mileage and decent pick-up (or power). All the manufacturers are looking to innovate and launch class defi ning products or newer categories of two-wheelers. Growing competition is likely to aid in this endeavour. A product like Hero MotoCorp’s Impulse or even Bajaj’s Boxer 150 can be defi ned as innovative products. We have to wait and see whether these models achieve the status of class

deﬁ ning products also. Moreover, some of the models may be ahead of their time or may not work in the market that they are intended for, but exceed our expectations in a different market. There have been several instances of products or models discontinued by Bajaj Auto. What impact does this have on your image as a manufacturer? It is always the customers who reject or stop buying products rather than any manufacturer discontinuing any model. It is essential to get the product right and then the front end or the branding right for any model to succeed. Having a good product or a good branding strategy do not mean much in themselves in isolation as any product developer or marketing head can tell you. Both go in sync with each other to create the customer connect. As far as Bajaj Auto is concerned, we have three major brands including Pulsar, Discover and Platina. There are several products within these three brand umbrellas. We do not envisage having an altogether new brand though we will have products or variants suitable for customers or catering to a gap in the market. Our management bandwidth and efforts are better spent in strengthening these

existing brands rather than creating newer ones. In any case, our aftersales servicing commitment remains in place for existing as well as discontinued products. The fact that we are selling large number of motorcycles month after month is not possible without commitment to service delivery and product quality. Does discontinuing a product affect your image in negative manner? There may be differences es in anuperception towards a manufacturer and its products in n the market and in customers’ mind. These perceptions regarding ng a product (of reliability, of performormance or of advanced, cutting edge yond technology) live on much beyond changes in reality. What synergies are you d and looking for at the front end at operational levels with KTM? TM? We are not necessarily looking at drawing up synergies with our Austrian brand, KTM. We e will invest in building up KTM’s presence in India but it will remain ain a distinct brand and have its own identity. We are already convertverting our probiking showrooms ms to KTM outlets and these outlets ts are nded also selling Kawasaki branded motorcycles. We are in the process of drawing up synergies at the production or operational level ment but it is premature to comment rall on that at this stage. In overall me analysis, Bajaj Auto is a volume m player and KTM is premium e bike maker. At Bajaj Auto, we d need to keep creating and maintaining excitement in our products and that is not necessarily true for the premium and niche two-

wheeler maker. What is your outlook on the two-wheeler segment and what are your future plans? The two-wheeler segment in India has a huge potential to grow and we are looking to have much larger share of the market. Overall, the product life cycle has reduced for two-wheelers and it is a challenge to entice and retain customers to keep prodp buying y gp ucts from us. Financing is likely to play a major role in helping us to reach the next level in terms of volume growth and wider reach. We are selling around 30,000 to 35,000 bikes in rural areas on finance. The cash collection model has worked well for us and we are looking to reach out to a larger customer base. Cash ﬂow in rural areas is not uniform throughout the year and most people residing there do not have bank accounts. Bajaj

Finserve has become the largest two-wheeler fi nancing entity in the country today and we are seeing an increasing number of fi nance companies and even banks looking to actively grow the two-wheeler portfolio. The key in two-wheeler fi nancing, is to create innovate fi nancing products and collection models to tap segment of customers who are not otherwise coming into y your fold.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

C O R P O R AT E

Mercedes city bus launched Visteon acquisition enables Varroc to complete automotive lighting spectrum at `90 lakh Our Bureau Mumbai

urangabad-based Varroc Group has become the largest Indian automotive lighting manufacturer and one among the top three auto component manufacturers in the county with the acquisition of global lighting business of Visteon Corporation for $ 92 million. Once the formalities are over, the new entity will be called as Varroc Lighting Systems. Varroc is already supplying lighting solutions to two-wheelers and LCVs in India and the current deal will enable it to complete the spectrum of automotive lighting space, as it recently bought a majority stake in Triom Spa, which is in the two-wheeler lighting. Triom supplies several components including headlights, front and rear flashers, tail lamps, reflex reflectors and other accessories such as rear view mirrors, locks to leading global motorcycle manufacturers including Yamaha, Honda, Ducati and Piaggio. It holds close to 60 per cent of the marketshare in Europe.

Global Presence CEO, Varroc Group, Tarang

The acquisition will enable company to offer LED headlamps, matrix LED lamps, adaptive high beams and advanced signal lighting Jain said that the acquisition process will be completed by the third quarter of 2012 and will benefit the company with six more manufacturing facilities and three engineering centres spread across the globe. A lready the company has 26 manufacturing (20 in India, five in Europe and one in Southeast Asia) facilities and three engineering centres. This move will also make Varroc the only lighting company in the country to offer its own technology, including LED headlamps, matrix LED lamps, adaptive high beams and advanced signal lighting to Indian and global OEMs. It will double the revenues for the group to about $1.2 billion next year from $613 million that it hopes to end this ﬁnancial year. “This is a major step in our vision of achiev-

ing $four billion revenues in 2020,” he said. Visteon Lighting reported a revenue of $531 million in 2011 excluding its business in China, which is a joint venture with TYC. As part of the deal, Varroc Group will eventually replace Visteon in the Chinese JV. Visteon operations that would transfer to Varroc include manufacturing and engineering facilities in Novy Jicin and Rychvald in Czech Republic, Monterrey in Mexico and Pune in India.

Abhishek Parekh Pune

ercedes-Benz entered the city bus segment and is looking to have a higher share of the growing bus market in India. The company is expecting the bus market (above eight tonne) to grow in high single or double digits over the next few years and touch around 80,000 units by 2020 from around 46,000 units currently.

New Customers Varroc is into three streams of business—electrical, metallic and polymer—and the share of revenue from each division is 29 percent, 38 percent and 33 percent respectively. With the acquisition, the break-up will change to 62 percent, 18 percent and 20 percent, he said. Through this, Varroc will add Ford, Peugeot, JLR, V W and Daimler as its new customers. “This transaction allows Visteon to focus on our core climate and electronics business and out joint venture relationship, which are positioned for proﬁtable growth and market leadership,” said the Chairman and Chief Executive, Visteon Corporation, Donald Stebbins.

“We are evaluating various options including having an India or emerging market bus brand and drawing synergies from established facilities and supplier base of BharatBenz in Chennai,” said Head of Daimler Buses, Hartmut Schick. He added that the company is also evaluating alternative fuel options for India depending on the

customer requirements. The base version of the Mercedes-Benz city bus is priced at `90 lakh (ex-factory Pune). The company is aims to assemble the buses at Chakan facility near Pune from CKD kits imported from the Daimler plant in Brazil. The Chakan facility also houses a bus body building facility set up by the company’s global bus body supplier, MCV Bus and Coach India Pvt Ltd. Mercedes-Benz is offering anti-corrosion warranty for upto five years on its buses. The company has assembled a sales team for direct interaction with customers and has around 11 aftersales partners across the country for services and spares. The company announced the appointment of Markus Villinger as the Head of Buses for India. The low entry design coupled with wheel chair ramp of the city bus ensures that passengers with restricted mobility can get onboard with ease. It is powered by OM 926 diesel engine with 252 HP of power and features BlueTec diesel technology. It has been certified with bus body code certification in India.

Nissan to add local content in engines Nabeel A Khan New Delhi

issan Motor India Pvt Ltd (NMIPL) is strategically increasing exports from India in order to be cost competitive, without losing its focus on the Indian market. The company has increased localisation of its products by over 90 percent and it will be adding local contents to its engine also, apart from ramping up production. It has recently started exporting its mid-size sedan—Sunny. “If we need to be competitive in a country like India, we have to

be highly localised. We have consistently said that at least during the ﬁ rst two years of operations, it is necessary to ramp up our volumes in India. We are relying on exports as a ﬁ xed cost and the depreciation will be supported by exporting, which in turn would enable us to be cost competitive,” said Senior Vice President, NMIPL, Shiro Nakamura. Among the made-in-Indiacars of the company, Micra has over 80 percent local content while Sunny has over 90 percent local content. It has vehicle assembly, engine assembly plants to make two petrol engines—1.2, 1.5 litre and a diesel engine of 1.5

litre. The company is deciding on a new round of localisation of content in the engine. NMIPL hopes to sell over 14,000 vehicles this year. It is also mulling on bringing the CNG version of the recently showcased MPV, Evalia. The diesel engine vehicle production is expected to start in August and will be formally launched in September’12. Currently, it has a vehicle assembly capacity of two lakh units and is expected to reach four lakh units. ”We are building engine capability in line with this, but need to have a ﬂexible line as we have to balance between, 1.2 and 1.5 petrol

engines and 1.5 diesel engines. Moreover, we have to match exports and domestic requirements. Today, the domestic requirement is shifting from petrol to diesel and we have to see that“. The company is exporting only the petrol variant of Micra because the emission norms in Europe and other countries are stringent, and manufacturing Euro V and VI compliant engines would mean incurring heavy costs. Till now, Nissan has exported 85,000 cars from its Oragadam

Nissan Sunny

plant. After selling over 5,000 units of cars in January, it has commenced the export of the mid-size sedan Sunny from Ennore port. This is in addition to the export of the Nissan Micra from the port located near Chennai. The company reported its highest ever monthly sales in India with February up 158 percent year-on-year. Nissan sold 5,371 units in February compared to 2,081 units a year ago, demonstrating Nissan’s growing momentum within the market and passing the 5,000 unit mark for the second consecutive month. In February, Nissan Sunny was top-seller with 3,130 units while hatchback Micra, sold 2,198 units compared to 2,030 units a year ago. Other models—the Nissan Teana, X-Trail and 370z contributed the remaining sales. The ﬁ rst shipment of 3,452 units of Sunny recently left from the Ennore port to West Asia on the vessel Cosmos Ace. With increasing export volume, NMIPL plans to export cars worth $100 million this year. Sunny will be exported to most of the locations where the Micra is already being sold. Currently, it has started exports to Middle East. In January, it exported 14,403 cars, which is signiﬁcantly high in a month so far for the company. The petrol variant of the Sunny was launched last September, while the diesel version was launched in December.

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Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

C O R P O R AT E

Honda launches tri-colour option in CBR Our Bureau New Delhi

CBR 250R, Pearl Heron Blue tri-colour

The new tri-colour comes at `1.45 lakh (Standard) and `1.70 lakh (C-ABS). The new CBR 250R will be available at all Honda exclusive authorised dealerships from March 2012

fter the launch of CBR 250R in March, 2011, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI) has extended its options for this sports bike by launching tri-colour version of the sports bike with option—Pearl Heron Blue recently. This is in addition to two existing dual-tone colour options in CBR 250R—Candy Ruby Red and Asteroid Black Metallic. The new tri-colour option comes at `1.45 lakh (Standard) and `1.70 lakh (C-ABS). The new CBR 250R will be available at all Honda authorised dealerships starting early

March, 2012. CBR 250R’s newly developed liquid-cooled 250cc, four-stroke, four-valve single-cylinder DOHC engine delivers 25 BHP power and 22.9 Nm torque. The model

incorporates combined anti-lock braking system. HMSI has experienced a sale growth of 49 percent in February at 197,000 units compared to 132,786 units in 2011. The compa-

ny claimed that the electronically controlled fuel injection technology—PGM-FI significantly enhances performance and fuel efﬁciency while O2 Sensor and catalytic converter make CBR

250R more eco-friendly and meet Euro III norms. The design of CBR250R is inspired from Honda’s global bikes VFR 1200F and CBR 1000RR Fireblade. Upping the style quotient are ﬁve spoke aluminium cast wheels, tubeless tyres, stylish rear grip and sporty split seat. CBR 250R’s compact single-cylinder engine reduces front projection, provides comfort through 130mm stroke telescopic front suspension and a ﬂexible seating position. The light, compact and highly rigid diamond frame offers easy handling and steady control as sports bike. The utility space and centre wet air cleaner with viscous element added for user convenience.

“Employees have no incentives for upgrading skills” Our Bureau New Delhi

ne of the biggest challenges that the auto industry faces with regard to skill development is that there is no distinction between skilled and unskilled labour. While there are several programmes for skill development made available for the industry by the government, there are no incentives given to employees for skill upgradation by their employers, said CEO and MD, National Skill Development Cor porat ion (NSDC), Dilip Chenoy. Addressing the ﬁ rst MSME Summit organised by Automotive Component Manufacturers’ Association (ACMA), Chenoy felt that auto companies need to collaborate with institutions

like NSDC and others in order to improve the level of productivity. He also said that the industry should take these measures within a couple of years to be able to avail facilities provided by the government. The industry employs over 13 million people directly and indirectly. While direct employment includes personnel working with automobile OEM’s and auto component manufacturers, which is about 30 percent to 40 percent, indirect employment includes people working in the enabling industries, such as vehicle ﬁ nance and insurance industry, vehicle repair, vehicle service stations, vehicle maintenance, vehicle and component dealers, drivers, cleaners. He added, “The key areas at the industry level where signiﬁcant gaps exist is the availability of

skilled manpower and the problem is not so much in terms of quantity, but more in terms of quality of manpower available. This also leads to lower productivity of the automobile sector in India.” The number of vehicles produced per person in India is 8.4 as compared to Japan’s 16 vehicles per person. In competing countries like Brazil, the ﬁgure is 10.3. Citing reasons for this, he said the prime cause of this is the low status of learning, which is only two to three percent, as against competing countries like Korea where it is 15 to 19 percent. Another reason for this is the attitude of employers in the automotive industry towards training programmes and skill development. In India, only 15 percent of employees are sent for training programmes, which

Dilip Chenoy, CEO & MD, NSDC

is lesser than Korea and other competing nations. In China it is 91 percent. Revealing the manpower distribution at OEMs and suppliers, he

said that suppliers focus on diverting the maximum manpower to the manufacturing zones rather than design, development and other research work as compared to OEMs. While OEMs involve 55 to 60 percent of the manpower in manufacturing and upto seven to eight percent in design and development, Tier I employs 70 to 75 percent in manufacturing and only ﬁve to six percent in design and development. The numbers are even more bleak for Tier II who have 80 to 85 percent of their staff in manufacturing and only one or two percent in design and development. While the maximum proportion of people employed by OEMs is from ITIs (Industrial Training Institute), followed by graduate engineers, Tier II and Tier III suppliers recruit people with minimal education.

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Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

AUTONOMICS

Additional taxes on diesel cars & UVs may help Sridhar C Head, CRISIL Research

Hetal Gandhi Team Leader, CRISIL Research

ubsidies on diesel are estimated to account for 60 percent of the total petroleum subsidy bill. In 2011-12, under-recoveries on diesel are estimated to be close to 820 billion, of which, the government is estimated to bear half

Of the total diesel under-recoveries of 820 billion as of 2011-12, trucks contribute three times more than cars & UVs. Thus imposing taxes on diesel cars will not reduce the petroleum subsidy bill much as subsidies. Ways being debated to reduce the government’s subsidy bill include: (i) a one-time tax on new diesel cars & UVs sold (ii) an annual levy on existing cars and UVs. CRISIL Research, however, believes these options would not reduce the subsidy burden much as cars and UVs form just over a tenth of the diesel consumption. Moreover, buyers in India already pay a third of the vehicle price as tax. Levying taxes on commercial-use cars, which account for close to 53 percent of vehicles ﬂeet, may also not be appropriate, as trucks will continue to enjoy subsidised diesel. Thus, the government should look at other options to reduce its subsidy bill.

Why taxes? Diesel accounts for a fifth of the subsidy bill It has long been debated if the government should subsidise diesel used by cars and utility vehicles (UVs), given that the total subsidy bill is estimated to cross 2,000 billion by the end of 2011-12, 60 percent above last year’s budget estimates and 40 percent from 2010-11 levels. As diesel subsidy is estimated to account for close to a ﬁ fth of the total subsidy bill (the government’s share in total under-recoveries is subject to change annually; we expect it to bear 50 percent of the subsidy bill in 201112), the government is looking to tax diesel cars and UVs to lessen the subsidy bill.

Source: CRISIL Research Note: Others mainly include power, shipping and miscellaneous

fore believes that imposing taxes on diesel cars will not reduce the petroleum subsidy bill signiﬁcantly.

Indirect taxation has limited benefits The government has not yet totally deregulated diesel prices, fearing such a move would stoke inflation and lower GDP growth. Inflation would be triggered from the fact that trucks in India run on diesel and de-regulation of diesel prices would directly reflect in primary and secondary movement transportation cost. There have been long debates on ways to indirectly reduce the subsidy burden, one of which is imposing additional taxes on segments like diesel cars and utility vehicles. However, taxes offer limited benefits as they cover only cars & UVs and not trucks, which consume more diesel. CRISIL Research reviews some alternatives being discussed: 1) One way would be to levy a one-time tax on all new diesel cars and utility vehicles sold (both personal and commercial). The tax would be almost equal to the subsidy borne by the government per car over the life of the vehicle. We estimate that such a tax/ subsidy could range at 90,000-Rs 140,000 depending on fuel consumption and vehicle use. Limitation: Taxing only new vehicles would exempt the existing vehicle population, minimising benefits for the government. New tax levied would be

2) An alternative is to levy an annual tax on all diesel cars under use, in a staggered manner (depending upon assumed annual diesel consumption). The levy under this method could amount to an additional two percent of the vehicle price annually for personal-use cars and five percent in case of commercial-use cars. This would be better than the first option as price impact on car buyers would not be very high in the first year of purchase. However, such a tax collection would have to rely on RTO’s across the country, being an annual tax on vehicles on road. Limitation: Given the fragmented and not so well equipped RTO infrastructure across the country, it would be difficult to collect taxes regularly and monitor non-payments. Levying taxes on commercial-use cars (which are estimated to constitute close

to 53 percent of the total cars and UVs on road) may not be appropriate, given that trucks and buses will continue to enjoy subsidised diesel and such taxes will significantly impact travel costs for sectors like IT&ITeS, BPO and tourism (employers in these sectors extensively use commercial cars and utility vehicles for transport). Already, Indian car and utility vehicle buyers pay 26-30 per cent of the retail price of the vehicle as tax, as compared to a 16-20 per cent tax in Korea and Germany and an 8-12 per cent tax in Japan (excluding scrappage and carbon tax which are annual).

Additional taxes won’t help CRISIL Research believes that levying additional taxes on only cars & UVs will limit any beneﬁts to the government, as these vehicles form just about a tenth of the diesel consumption mix. Further, given that Indian car and utility vehicle buyers are already the most taxed globally and commercial-use cars and utility vehicles account for over 50 per cent of the existing ﬂeet, additional taxes will affect consumer sentiments and slow down diesel car sales. Thus, the government should look at other options to reduce its subsidy burden rather than levy more taxes on diesel cars & UVs. (Please note that the views expressed here are those of CRISIL Research and not of CRISIL’s Ratings division. CRISIL Research operates independently of and does not have access to information obtained by CRISIL’s Ratings Division)

Government subsidy bill and the rising share of petroleum subsidy

Cars & UVs form a tenth of diesel consumption mix In 2011-12, road transport is estimated to have accounted for almost half of the total diesel consumed. Of this, however, cars & UVs just formed over a tenth, while trucks and buses have a three-fourths share. Moreover, luxury cars and SUV’s on road using diesel are estimated to be an insigniﬁcant proportion. (The share of cars and UVs has been estimated based on a population of 3.6 million diesel cars in India in 2011-12. Of these about 47 percent are estimated to be personal-use and the rest commercial-use. Also, we have assumed that personal-use cars travel 18,000 kilometres a year, while commercial-use cars drive around 45,000 km). Of the total diesel under-recoveries of 820 billion as of 201112, trucks contribute three times more than cars and UVs. CRISIL Research there-

able to collect around 58-60 billion annually which would be only 12-15 percent of total diesel subsidy borne by government. Secondly, as the life, mileage and distance travelled would be different for personal-use and commercial-use cars and utility vehicles; it would be difﬁcult to levy a common tax. One-time taxes, moreover, could work out to be as much as an additional 16-20 percent of the vehicle price over and above the already high current taxes at 25-30 percent of the vehicle price.

Source: CRISIL Research

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

C O R P O R AT E

Auto Monitor

Germany to strengthen partnerships with Indian ﬁrms T Murrali Chennai

ermany Trade & Invest GmbH (GTI), the foreign trade and inward i nvest ment agency of the Federal Republic of Germany, is looking at mutual business activities with India as the European nation thinks of India as a promising destination for bilateral investments in various ﬁelds including automotive. Domestically, the automotive industry remains Germany’s single largest auto market and it host the largest concentration of OEM plants in Europe. The country’s OEMs account for 17 percent of global passenger car production. Speaking to Auto Monitor, the Chief Executive of GTI, Michael Pfeiffer said bilateral cooperation especially in automotive has shown that both the countries together can do distinctly better. Tata Nano, for example is a great initiative of such cooperation since quite a few German engineering companies were involved in the development, he indicated. “Never would it have been possible to manufacture that car in Germany, because it is a too expensive a location for the production. If we think in terms of joining our strengths, then it will be very competitive internationally and this is something what we have to realise,” he said.

Merger Of Strengths GTI hopes that more cooperation can be sought by leveraging the inherent capabilities of both the countries. While India’s strength lies in frugal engineering, information technology and software, Germany is leading in innovation and high technologies. It may be noted that Germany’s annual commitment of Euro 21 billion in automotive R&D is reﬂected in creation of new environmentally-friendly technologies, optimising conventional drive technologies besides developing new modes of driving. Considering the modern cars that have more electronics and software, Pfeiffer views that, “it would be wise to talk to Indian IT companies to ﬁ nd out about their abilities and interest in supplying to German companies. It will be good for Indian companies also as they can be a supplier to many world leading automotive companies. I think its counts a lot.” In addition, the Indian companies based Germany can look at exporting from Germany since it is already well accepted as an export destination. The companies can export to not only the sophisticated western markets but also to the faster growing markets in the Eastern Europe. This will give a wide spread, he said.

Win-Win For All According to Pfeiffer, GTI educates the willing Indian companies on the framework of business, market access and the country as a location for exports. “We give all the advice necessary including market analysis; we try to ﬁ nd the right location for our Indian companies. We do close cooperation with the federal states and the local authorities because we are the ones who are active abroad,” he said. Barring Germany, other European countries are still facing the slowdown. Asked if this will not be a deterrent for coun-

tries to invest in Germany with an objective to export, he said Germany per se is an exportoriented location by itself and exports have been the growth engine of the country. Therefore, nobody is reluctant in supporting companies that establish there with an objective to export. He said, “Indian entrepreneurs are very international as most of them already belong to many international business communities; however, there are some difﬁculties in supplying to world markets for quality and competitive prices”. That is why GTI is interested in India, since the collaborative effort will be a win-win situation for both the companies. Also a lot of German companies are interested to cooperate with Indian companies. We can make the partners meet,” he added.

Source: FDI Markets, Sep. 2011 Note: FDI projects refer to greenﬁeld and expansion investment projects. M&A projects are not included

In 2003, about Euro one million was invested by Indian companies in Germany; five years later it swelled to Euro 135 million. After 2008, it dropped a bit but was nothing to do with bilateral business relation. Investments from Germany to India are by more than 360 companies. Few companies had set-up in Indian more than 100 years ago, but large investments came in during the last 50-60 years. Till 2009 about Euro 4.9 billion has been invested in India. GTI supports Indian companies throughout the process of establishing a well-operating business in the country. The sequence of support includes project management assistance, site selection, identification of relevant tax and legal issues, fi nancial consulting and fi nding the business partner.

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

Auto Monitor

C O R P O R AT E

Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz to set-up new plant Shambhavi Anand New Delhi

i-TechRoboticSystemz, the robotics and automation arm of the Delhi-based Hi-Tech group offering services such as mechanical product design or electrical electronic product design and prototype building, is looking to evolve as a manufacturer of robotic oriented products. It is in the process of setting up of plant to meet this objective. The products developed by the company are Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) with payload capacity of 100 kg to one tonne, Drivers’ State Monitoring (DSM) system designed for the Indian needs and driverless systems. AGV and driverless systems can be used for the purpose of automation. DSM will also be

NEI Industries mull international acquisition Our Bureau New Delhi

EI Industries mulling acquisition of a European or American ﬁ rm in its core business of manufacturing bearings. This will help the company in establishing an international presence.

Rohit Saboo, President and CEO, NEI

The company also has an investment of `500-700 crore annually for next five years in pipeline for capacity enhancement in existing three plants and setting up its fourth plant. The fourth plant will be located in either Gujarat, Rajasthan or Karnataka, for which, the due diligence is being conducted. Speaking about the growth plans, President and CEO, NEI, Rohit Saboo said, “A significant part of the growth will come from exports. At present, we export bearings worth `75 crore to 20 countries and are entering new geographies such as South America. We target to double our current annual turnover in the next four years. In 2010-11 fi scal, the company touched a turnover target of `1,051 crore. In the next four years it is targeting revenues of ` 2,000 crore.” In an earlier interview with Auto Monitor, Saboo informed “Realising the importance of R&D, we will deploy more funds for it. While this year we have allocated `25 crore for research work from next year, it will increase it to over three percent of the revenue annually”. NEI, the manufacturer of the NBC brand of bearings, unveiled a new logo, in December last year, reflecting brand transformation and dynamic business strategies. The new logo reflects the company’s transformation and strength of the robust systems developed over years and its commitment to customers.

Anuj Kapuria, Director, Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz

available as retroﬁtment in the replacement market also. “We have designed all these products for the Indian market keeping in mind the typical driver behaviour. All these products are patented,” said Director, Hi-Tech Robotic Systemz, Anuj Kapuria told Auto Monitor.

In order to manufacture these new products, the company is setting up a new facility in Gurgaon. It plans to invest around `ﬁfty lakh to a crore and commence production in the latter half of 2012. The plant will be spread across 50,000 sq ft with 29,000 sq ft of shop ﬂoor. Being constructed on green build-

To manufacture these new products, the company is setting up a new facility in Gurgaon. It plans to invest around `fifty lakh to a crore and commence production in the latter half of 2012 ing concept, the plant will have 75 percent natural lighting. Elaborating further on the products, he said that several OEMs in India have interest in these automation products. It has already started supplying the automated driverless testing system and AGVs to Volvo for setting

up their ﬁ rst Euro VI compliant engine line in Pithampur (MP). For the success of these products, the company is banking on the cost competitiveness as they have been developed in-house, keeping in mind the requirements of the India market. They are meant majorly for the automotive sector but will also be supplied to defence. Also, these products have been built for the local requirements and working conditions. Headquartered in Gurgaon, some of the customers of the company’s existing automation related service business include Hero Honda, JCB, Daimler, Mahindra and Mahindra, Avtec, Bharat Forge, Volvo, Tata Motors and TVS. It also supplies its robots to the Indian Army. The other verticals of the Group are Hi-Tech Gears and Hi-Tech e Soft.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

C O R P O R AT E

Tata unveils Megapixel at Geneva Motor Show Our Bureau Mumbai

aking its product portfolio to the next level, Tata Motors unveiled its personal transport solution—Megapixel at the recent 82nd Geneva Motor Show. The four-seater Range Extended Electric Vehicle (REEV) concept combines a lithium ion phosphate battery and an on-board petrol engine generator for recharging on the move and can potentially offer a range of up to 900 km (with a single tank of fuel), CO2 emission of 22 gm / km and fuel economy of 100 kmpl (under battery only power). The company has taken the

class-leading ‘Zero Turn’ drive system of the Tata Pixel (shown at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show) to the next level of manoeuvrability in the Tata Megapixel, according to a company release. The car’s electric drive has four independent electric motors, one at each wheel. When parking, the electric hub motors drive the wheels in opposite directions while the front wheels are turned at an acute angle, enabling a 2.8 metre turning radius. The car has simply to be parked over the induction pad for charging. The concept unveiled at the motor show conveys a futuristic city car with integrated lamp and grille graphics sweep back over the front wheel arches to render a dynamic front end. The ﬂoating

C-pillar and wrap-around belt line fi nisher integrate with the sculpted body surface, flowing freely to the rear and encapsulating the five-spoke wheel design. A double-sliding door system and the car’s B-pillarless design make entry/exit easier. The battery layout and hub motors maximise the interior package. The concept also offers a glimpse into advanced Human Machine Interface (HMI) with a host of communication and connectivity features. In addition to the Megapixel, the company also displayed the Tata Safari Storme SUV, the Tata Aria crossover, Tata Indigo Manza sedan and the Tata Indica Vista hatchback at the motor show.

Localisation takes centrestage for BharatBenz ‘BharatBenz’ truck range. “We have localised all critical and non-critical components nlike other global and systems for our truck range. commercial vehicle We are focussed on economanufacturers entermies of scale and are localising ing India, Daimler to derive maximum price and India Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd cost beneﬁt for customers,” said has already achieved 75-80 perVice President, Marketing, Sales cent localisation of components & Aftersales, Daimler India and systems for its newly unveiled Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd, VRV Sriprasad. Citing an example of the localisation strategy, Sriprasad added that the company will continue to import fasteners as these are purchased in huge quantities from select global suppliers for the entire Daimler Group entities globally even as the Indian entity has already BharatBenz’s 3128 RMC localised both its engine

Abhishek Parekh Hyderabad

(3.9 and 6.4 litre) and transmission range in Chennai. The company has established a network of around 400 suppliers including 300 Tier I suppliers across the country with around 41 percent of parts being sourced in a 50 km radius near the company facility in Chennai. Most of the electronics and electrical systems, sheet metal and both the engines have been fully localised by the company. It recently showcased its range of commercial vehicles in Hyderabad for leading vehicle dealers and truck operators in India. The company is looking to launch various chassis and fully built commercial vehicle solutions on its Fuso and Axor platforms in various conﬁgurations. The trucks would be available with 3.9-litre and 6.4-litre common rail die-

sel engines with four and six cylinder combination as per application speciﬁc torque and economy requirements. The vehicle range would be made available in 9, 12, 25, 31, 49 tonne capacities for cargo, tipping and construction applications in twelve different colours. The trucks are offered in 6x2, 6x4, 8x2 and 8x4 combinations with six speed and nine speed transmission options in addition to overdrive mode. It would offer unique capabilities including cabin rooftop cargo carriage, driver information on dashboard, optional air-conditioning across the range along with other comfort and safety related features. Moreover, the company is looking to position its products

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Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

C O R P O R AT E

Testing and evaluation: Key for OEMs Our Bureau Chennai

Photographs: Bhargav TS

esting and evaluation continues to be the key area of the automotive companies in any country, particularly in the developing nations. Vehicle manufacturers are forced to develop a product at the earliest in order to meet the ongoing demand and challenges in the industry. In order to validate the products faster, the testing equipment manufacturers are coming out with new equipment and solutions to enhance the quality of the testing. The recently concluded Automotive Testing Expo 2012 in Chennai saw more than 150 companies participate in the event to showcase their capabilities in the automotive testing industry. The event primarily concentrated on test equipment manufacturers and service providers catering to automobile industry. More than 5,000 people visited the second biennial edition

of Automotive Testing Expo 2012, which was organised by UKIP Media & Events (India). The three-day event was inaugurated on 6 March, 2012 by Managing Director, Rane TRW Systems, Harish Lakshman. Delivering his inaugural address Lakshman said, “In India, for the last ten years, quality

In India for the last ten years, quality requirements & demands on component suppliers have gone up dramatically, but there is still a gap in engineering quality to catch up with global companies requirements and demands on component suppliers have gone up dramatically but there is still

Companies showcase their products at the Expo

In the Automotive Testing Expo, visitors had an opportunity to see the latest technologies offered by the leading manufacturers across the globe

a gap in engineering quality to catch up with global companies. Customers are demanding a lot more from us now with more up-front testing.” Automotive Events Division’s Managing Director, Dominic Cundy said, “Moving from our starting point in 2010 in Hyderabad to the key automotive region such as Chennai, will make it easier to access automotive companies like Ashok Leyland, Nissan, Daimler, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hyundai, Ford India, besides other manufacturers to see the very latest test, evaluation and quality engineering technologies that are on show. The location is also serving as an excellent meeting and networking point for automotive industry visitors from across the country.”

Cundy added that India was all set to become one of the leading automotive manufacturing countries but in order to ensure competitiveness in home and global markets, India’s car and truck manufacturing ﬁ rms needed to be in a position to offer parallel reliability and quality with established automotive OEMs. The mantra for Automotive Testing Expo is exactly that, ‘Quality, reliability and durability’. In the Automotive Testing Expo, visitors had an opportunity to see the latest technologies offered by the leading manufacturers across the globe. During the three days, there were technical workshops conducted by various companies like Honeywell, MTS Systems, Bruel and Kjaer and Horiba were presenting their latest technologies

and services offered by them. The technology workshops are an integral part of Automotive Testing Expo 2012. Two sessions of workshops were conducted on all the days at the purpose-built workshop-cum-studio. The presentations gave an opportunity to learn the latest testing techniques that are enabling automotive manufacturers to compete on a global scale. Taking advantage of India’s impending status as a leading automotive hub to promote their state of the art technologies many companies launched their new products during the expo, which created them as a platform to establish their capabilities. The event covered all aspects of testing evaluation and quality engineering technologies and service equipment.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

STUDY

Indian tractor industry: Cyclical moderation in growth ahead

he Indian tractor industry has experienced strong volume growth during FY10-9m FY12 on the back of favourable cyclical and structural demand drivers. While tractor volumes remained robust through most of FY12 despite macro-economic headwinds; the domestic tractor market is showing some signs of weakness over the last couple of months. The demand-side economics in the tractor industry continue to fi nd favour from factors such as support from the Government of India (GOI) towards rural development and agri-mechanisation; scarcity of farm labour especially during the sowing season; increase in credit flow to agriculture; increase in non-agri application of tractors as in infrastructure projects; growth in niche power segments (<20HP and >50HP) and untapped territories; besides healthy export sales. However, off-late there are some concerns emerging over the earnings of farmers from the Rabi crop; growing NPAs of tractor loans with public sector banks; and demand fatigue after strong sales growth during the last 2.5 years. On a regional basis, the western and southern parts of the country have performed above par while the eastern and central parts have reported muted growth figures in 9mFY12. Further, the northern region, which is the largest tractor market of the country, grew at a healthy pace during the period, benefiting from sustained replacement demand. The demand outlook from southern India continues to be robust over the medium term and many OEMs are shifting focus from saturated markets to relatively under penetrated geographies in southern states. In fact, roughly 50 percent of the incremental capacity expansion for the industry is expected to come up in southern India. The domestic tractor industry is currently in a capacity augmentation phase and supplydemand dynamics of the industry are expected to change with the commissioning of large manufacturing capacity in FY13. Sharp increase in production capacity may have a bearing on the pricing power of tractor OEMs, ultimately putting pressure on their profitability metrices. Even during 9mFY12, Indian tractor manufactures witnessed margin contraction in light of continued hardening of rubber and steel

prices, notwithstanding price increases to offset hike in input cost as well as change in emission norms (only for greater than 50 HP category). Overall ICRA believes that over the short to medium term the tractor industry is likely to face dual challenges of moderation in growth rates on one hand and large capacity additions on the other. We expect tractor volumes (domestic + export) to slowdown in the last quarter, resulting in a volume growth in the region of 10-11 percent for full year FY12. Over the longer term, we maintain our industry growth target at eight-nine percent.

Growth Momentum In Tractor Market Continues Volume growth in the Indian tractor industry has remained strong in 9m FY12 even when the automotive industry has experienced slackening demand on account of rising inﬂation, hardening interest rates and increasing fuel prices. After a period of downturn during FY08 and FY09, the up-cycle in the tractor market has extended over the last three years (FY109mFY12). Some of the cyclical factors that have contributed to healthy demand side economics are good south-west monsoons supporting farm output, strong rural liquidity sustained by higher minimum support price (MSP) for crops and double digit food inﬂation, besides adequate credit availability driven by NBFCs and private banks. Structural drivers like scarcity of farm labour in light of alternate employment opportunities, steady replacement demand and growing non-agricultural use of tractors have also supported tractor volumes. In addition, long-term drivers of the industry such as low tractor penetration, increasing budgetary allocation towards the rural sector and government support for farm mechanisation remain favourable.

Near Term Growth Rate May See Moderation Not w ithstanding grow th moderation during Nov-11 and Dec-11, tractor sales have witnessed double-digit sales growth in most of the months during 9m FY12, with strong growth around the festive season. Oct-11 saw the industry report record monthly volumes in light of buoyant demand from both the export and domestic market. Sales volumes, however, tapered during Nov-11

Trend in Domestic Tractor Sales across Geographies 160,000

40.0%

120,000

30.0%

80,000

20.0%

40,000

10.0% 0.0%

0 Northern S

outhern 9m FY11

Source: CMIE database, ICRA estimates

Source: CMIE Database; ICRA Estimates and Dec-11 after a good festival season; considering that these months are usually weak in terms of tractor demand. Further, estimates for tractor sales for January month signal some shrinkage in tractor volumes. While rabi crop output is expected to be healthy, there are concerns that a bumper output shall put pressure on farm gate prices, ultimately resulting in lower-than-expected cash inflow for farmers. Some moderation in growth is thus likely in the coming months. Apart from issues related to earnings from rabi crop, there are also concerns on rising non-performing assets (NPA) of tractor loans with public sector undertaking (PSU) banks. Agriculture employs over 50 percent of the domestic workforce and remains a key focus area for the GoI. In order to ensure self-sufficiency in food grain production in the backdrop of a rising population, state agencies have assumed a greater role as facilitators of technology adoption. GoI has consistently increased its budget outlay for agriculture and allied activities and also increased its allocations for schemes like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) to boost farm output and improve labour productivity. In conjunction, subsidies on fertilisers, electricity and diesel have also supported rural prosperity, and favourably influenced the demand-side drivers of farm mechanisation. Over the short term, increase in spending towards agriculture could be affected by lack of fiscal flexibility available with the government. However, over the long term, the rural sector should continue to see large investments towards overall infrastructure development and improved accessibility

Chart 1: Trend in Yearly Tractor Sales Volumes (Domestic + Export) 600,000

300,000

40%

24%

450,000 29%

17%

21%

28% -2%

17%

30% 20%

16%

10%

150,000

-10% FY04 F Y05 FY06 F Y07 FY08 F Y09 FY10 F Y11 Tractor Sales

Source: CMIE database, ICRA estimates

Source: CMIE Database, ICRA Estimates

Eastern Western C entral 9m FY12 YoY growth

YoY growth

9m FY12

of various farm mechanisation tools such as tractors and power tillers. Improvement in rural liquidity on the back of increase in minimum support prices (MSP) offered by the government and high food inf lation has continued in the current fi scal, as evident from the charts below. Higher income levels coupled with appreciating land value has enabled a larger farm audience to adopt tilling and planting machinery. While these factors have spurred tractor demand in the past; industry performance in the coming months will be contingent upon the earnings from the Rabi crop. Increase in input costs and a decline in farm gate prices, given the expectations of bumper harvest along with food inflation coming off peak levels, could put pressure on the profitability of farmers and affect demand of tractors in Q4FY12. There ex ists a strong correlation between farm mechanisation and availability of agri-credit. While scheduled commercial banks are mandated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to meet a target of 18percent of their net banking credit for the agricultural sector, growth is driven by increased lending by non-banking fi nance companies, especially in the southern states. Institutional credit to the farm sector has increased at a CAGR of 19.9 percent from FY06 to 446,779 crore in FY11 and expected to cross 5,00,000 crore in FY12. Apart from increase in the magnitude of credit availability, the sector has also benefited from introduction of innovative credit delivery schemes such as the Kisan Credit Cards (KCC). However, the availability of credit has not been uniform throughout the country. Better fi nance penetration in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh has led to higher farm mechanisation in these states. However, limited activity of fi nancers in certain pockets like the eastern region has prevented these states from achieving their potential tractor penetration. Interest rate tightening done by the RBI has led to increase in vehicle fi nancing costs for customers. Unlike the Passenger Vehicle (PV) sector, wherein the decline in demand has been quite prominent, the tractor space has remained largely unaffected so far. In recent quarters, the proportion of tractors purchased using cash payments

has increased to 20-25 percent of sales as compared to 10 percent earlier. Off-late, there are some concerns over growing NPAs of tractor loans with public sector banks while the NPAs of private sector banks and NBFCs have not seen any significant increase. However, any significant increase in delinquencies over the next few months could deter lenders, and constrain the growth of the sector. India’s current tractor penetration is estimated at ~20 tractors per 1000 hectares of agricultural land. While this is close to the averages in some countries, the statistic belies the fact most of the land holdings in India are smaller than those in foreign countries. Also penetration numbers vary widely across states, with states like Punjab, Haryana or Western UP enjoying significantly higher penetration compared to the rest of the country. These penetration figures however may not be fully representative of tractors used in farming, as the practice of renting tractors is common in India. Some regions like Eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have relatively low penetration levels. Also, there exists headroom for growth of smaller HP tractors among small and marginal farmers. Further, even if tractor density was to remain constant, demand in the industry is expected to remain sound on account of shortening tractor replacement cycle. The timing, spatial distribution and magnitude of rainfall under the South-West monsoon are some variables that influence the kharif crop output, and in-turn have a bearing on the domestic tractor market. While it is intuitive to correlate a good monsoon year with strong tractor sales, with reducing dependence of on rain-fed farming, the impact of monsoons on tractor industry is reducing. Although the shift from rain-fed agriculture to irrigated farming has been gradual (~50 percent of cultivated area in India is still dependent on rains), the percentage of area under irrigation is particularly high in states such as the Punjab (98 percent under irrigation), Haryana (88.5 percent), Uttar Pradesh (74.9 percent) and Bihar (63.1 percent), which have amongst the largest population of tractors in the

Contd. on page 26

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Indian tractor industry..... Contd. from page 24 country. Also, a scanty monsoon usually leads to appreciation in the prices of food grains, thereby reducing the impact on the farmers. Further, in case of delayed monsoon, there is a shift towards other kharif crops with smaller crop cultivation cycles. The ability of a farmer to invest in farm mechanisation is also contingent on the cash flows from the winter Rabi crop. Growth in tractor volumes has not strictly followed the performance of monsoons, as represented here by all India area weighted rainfall. Notwithstanding, a weak (22 percent lower than long period average) and delayed monsoon in 2009 (FY10), tractor sales were buoyant during that period; albeit after a period of subdued industry sales in FY08FY09. Nevertheless, India has experienced healthy monsoon rainfall over the last two years (2010 & 2011), which has certainly helped rural prosperity. In 2011, the rainfall was adequate and well-spread, thereby leading to healthy agricultural produce across the country. States such as the Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have achieved high tractor penetration levels, thus leading to gradual decline in the rate of growth of tractor sales in northern part of the country. The region, however, continues to account for over 35 percent of the domestic tractor volumes—partly supported by relatively high farm prosperity and shorter replacement cycle in these regions—with second hand tractors fi nding its way to neighbouring states. During 9mFY12, volume growth in the western region was robust, with Gujarat recording the highest sales growth (62 percent YoY) amongst other states, benefiting from increased acreage of cotton and groundnut crops. Maharashtra also saw betterthan-industry growth figures on account of increased non-agri tractor usage and faster adoption of small tractors. The southern region reported 18.5 percent YoY growth during 9mFY12 on the back of low base and increased activities of fi nance agencies and tractor manufacturers. The performance of the eastern region, however, remained lacklustre, with sales in Orissa declining by 15 percent YoY in 9mFY12 in view of large-scale crop damage caused by floods. Even Bihar, which is the largest tractor market in Eastern India, reported muted growth of six percent in this period. Although western

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

STUDY

and southern states continue to display higher than industry growth rates; these regions have experienced sharp growth deceleration in Jan’12 and this trend is likely to continue over the next couple of months. Nevertheless, the southern region is expected to witness strong growth rate over the medium term with increasing focus of OEMs on untapped markets in southern India. Further, replacement sales shall continue to buttress tractor demand in the northern region, but volumes growth is expected to remain below par. Exports contribute about ~11 percent to the total tractor sales of the country. Volumes saw a decline in FY09-FY10 on account of global economic downturn; even as the government tried to encourage tractor exports by announcing a four per cent duty refund under the duty entitlement passbook scheme. Sales to overseas markets, however, staged a smart recovery in FY11 and the growth momentum continued to be healthy in FY12. While Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the United States remain major export destinations, the expanding footprint of Indian tractor manufacturers in African and new South-East Asian markets is expected to drive export growth over the medium-to-long term. Export to neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia is also supported by the Asian Free Trade Agreement, giving way to falling duty structure among member countries. Further, export volumes are expected to beneﬁt from the introduction of higher HP tractors by Indian manufacturers. TAFE, M&M, and John Deere are the major tractor exporters from India.

Sales To Witness Polarisation The Indian tractor market has traditionally been a medium HP market, with 31-40 HP tractors accounting for over 45 percent of industry volumes. The industry is, however, witnessing polarization, with higher growth in the upper and lower HP segments, and the rate of growth in medium HP segment remaining moderate. A farmer’s choice of tractor size is typically a trade-off between the utility of the tractor (which includes haulage capacity requirement) and its price. Despite higher prices, several factors have led to a structural shift in the industry towards higher powered tractors. The factors include the increasing tractor

Chart 9: Trend in Tractor Exports from India 75,000

14%

45,000 30,000

36%

25%

26%

-5%

60% 40%

-8%

20% 0%

15,000

-20%

0 FY06 F

Y07

FY08 F

Y09

FY10 F

Tractor Exports (Volume)

Y11 9m FY12 YoY growth

Source: CMIE database, ICRA estimates

Source: CMIE Database; ICRA Estimates penetration in southern India, which has traditionally been a higher HP market (due to higher power requirement in paddy fields); replacement demand for higher HP tractors from the northern region; increasing use of tractors in non-agricultural applications and growth in export of higher HP tractors. ICRA expects the change in emission norms for tractors in the >50 HP category and the passing on of cost increases by OEMs to customers (three percent-four percent increase in Oct 2011) to result in some drop in demand, or trading down by customers over the short term. Nevertheless, growth in the greater than 40 HP tractor market is expected to remain sound. Shift towards higher HP segment augurs well for the tractor industry as it results in higher EBIDTA (earnings before depreciation interest and tax) per tractor. With greater portfolio concentration towards higher HP offerings, market participants like John Deere, New Holland and Eicher are expected to benefit from this change in customer purchase pattern. Strong underlying demand in the less than 20 HP category has prompted the entry of organised players like M&M; a segment which is currently catered to largely by un-organised players. Accordingly, sale of less than 20 HP tractors saw strong 25.7 percent YoY growth in 9mFY12; albeit on a small base. With roughly 39 percent of the area under cultivation contributed by small and marginal farmers (less that two hectare land holding) the opportunity in this space are significant; more so in light of very low tractor penetration at present. Also with scarcity of farm labour and rising cost of bullock carts, the trend of ownership of small and less expensive tractors by marginal farmers is catching up. Apart from lower initial costs, these tractors deliver better fuel efficiency when compared to their higher pow-

ered cousins, making it viable for small farmers to upgrade from a bullock cart to a tractor. While currently M&M and VST tillers are the only two large players that have presence in this sub two lakh tractor market, others like ITL and Escorts are expected to enter this segment soon. However, restricted application to soft soil conditions, competition from second hand market of higher HP tractors, and limited credit worthiness of marginal farmers are some of the factors that shall also inf luence the growth in the sub 20 HP tractor market.

Competitive Pressures From Supply Side Growth The Indian tractor industry has 13 national and a few regional participants. The market share is, however, concentrated amongst the top-five manufacturers, accounting for over 90percent of total volumes. With relaxation of the FDI in agriculture to boost productivity, large international participants such as AGCO Corporation, CNH Global and John Deere entered the Indian market long time back. Most of these international manufacturers have continued to maintain their presence in India either through their wholly-owned subsidiaries or through joint ventures and technical collaborations with Indian companies. While the tractor industry has relatively low entry barriers in terms of technology, costs involved in branding, distribution network and spare parts availability act as barriers. Also, as most of the sales are based on word-of-mouth feedback, a new entrant is expected to take considerable time to establish itself and pose a serious threat to industry incumbents. The tractor industry has witnessed consolidation in 2005 and 2007 with merger of manufacturers such as Eicher Tractors and Punjab Tractors and with TAFE and M&M, respectively. While the competitive landscape for the industry is unlikely to change in the near term, the industry is expected to face the pressures from signiﬁcant increase in tractor manufacturing capacity.

Industry In Capacity Augmentation Phase

Source: CMIE database, ICRA estimates

80%

69%

60,000

Prolonged industry up-cycle and favourable demand outlook over the medium term have prompted market participants to enhance their manufacturing capacity. Almost all the major manufacturers have announced capex plans for the next one-two years and the industry’s capex budget for the FY12-FY14 period is estimated at 1,400 crore. During YTD FY12, additional manufacturing capacity of 57,000 units

has come on-stream. As per estimates, a large capacity of 2.8 lakh units is expected to get commissioned in 2012-2014. Of this, about 50percent is expected to come up in southern India. To improve its penetration in the southern states, M&M is currently setting up a greenfield manufacturing facility at Zaheerabad, Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of one lakh units. VST Tillers also has plans to open an additional plant with capacity of 0.3 lakh units at Hosur in Tamil Nadu. Tractor manufacturers are dependent on ancillaries, which are mostly SMEs, for components such as castings, steering assemblies, gearboxes and brake assemblies. The ability of tractor component suppliers to augment manufacturing capacity at a commensurate pace would be critical for the successful implementation of growth plans of Indian tractor manufacturers. I nd i a is g r adu a l l y gaining acceptance in the international tractor export market. Accordingly, apart from cash outflows related to capex, ICRA also expects the industry to increase its investments into R&D to meet global safety standards and emission norms. Not w it hsta nding st rong demand during 9mFY12, hardening of steel and rubber prices has affected the profitability of tractor manufacturers. Although market participants have increased prices and benefited from higher operating leverage from expanded sales, most have not managed to completely off-set the hike in input costs or raised prices with a lag. In ICRA’s view, the price increases by some tractor OEMs between Oct’11 and Jan’12 and commodity prices coming off peak levels should help the industry report some improvement in margins from their 2011 levels in the current quarter. However, the supply-demand dynamics in the domestic market shall undergo a shift with large manufacturing capacity coming on-stream in H2 2012, which could affect the pricing power of Industry participants, ultimately putting pressure on operating profitability. Escorts has lost market share (190 basis points) in 9mFY12 on account of its limited presence in the high growth regions of southern and western India and slower growth in matured markets of northern India. Even in the northern region, the company had to face increasing competition from other players. Although M&M improved its market share by 20 bps to 40.1 percent in 9mFY12, its YoY volume growth during Q3FY12 at 11.7percent was lower than the overall industry growth of 12.7 percent. (Courtesy: ICRA)

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16 - 31 MARCH 2012

INTERVIEW

“We have to offer ﬂexibility and cost reduction: That’s The Schuler group has defined India as one of the most relevant and strategic markets. During an interaction recently, the Member of Board, Schuler AG and Chairman of Schuler India, Markus Ernst tells T Murrali that the company is gearing up to leverage the opportunities that arise out of the increasing activities in the manufacturing industry in India. Excerpts from the interview: How does the machine tool industry per say defy the slowdown and grow? What is Schuler’s experience? There are different reasons; the ﬁ rst reason is that in previous

years of world economic crisis, the order intake was dropping down. Many of our customers did not invest in last two to three years. So it is normal that they come back and make a lot of

big investments. In our industry, one can order for a huge press line or nothing; it is not possible to say they are ordering 20 or 30 percent lower. Has technology played a role in boosting sales? Yes, new technologies and innovations play the key role. Servo technology is a big innovation for us as it helps our customers to increase the productivity by 50 percent. It initiates an investment ﬂow for us—not

It is not only in India, but other parts of the world that want the best technology at a cheaper cost. It is also necessary to find a way to make innovation affordable only investments for new equipment leading to extra capacity, but also investment to replace old technologies. What are the new market segments? About three or four years ago, we decided to address new market segments for Schuler group. In the past, we focused more on automotive—both OEMs and component industries. The minting segment was always a focus business but it was not a huge one. However, we decided, for example, to step in to a few segments like railways and aerospace. We had several products; however, we developed

and added several new products to be a full-range supplier for these customers. What are the new markets you have been concentrating on, off late? China has emerged as a huge market for us in the last two years. About 30 percent of our order intake comes from China. The Chinese government has put a lot of money into the system to bring up the economy and stay in top level. What is the uniqueness of servo technology that makes it preferable for customers? It is more flexible and offers enhanced productivity. The die life is enhanced significantly. The energy per stroke is about 20 percent lower than in the past due to increased productivity eventually saving energy. Due to lesser mechanical parts, the service costs are lower. Is the overall cost of ownership less when compared with the conventional machines? Yes; customers can also consider faster return on investments. In addition, it is also possible to integrate more processes in to the press due to flexibility and this could be another huge step for our customers to save money. How do you adapt to the specific requirements of the auto industry? The automotive industry, for instance, creates more models every year, however, the sales figures per one model is lower. Therefore they need more flexible equipment, for the dye exchange time has to be reduced significantly. For a fi xed volume or a

marginal growth in a particular segment the varieties are more and it is necessary to offer both flexibility and reduce costs— that’s our challenge every day. In addition, the auto industry follows just-in-time concept and this calls for higher reliability on our presses. Besides, the customers have to be serviced at the earliest possible time due to their specialty of operations. How do you plan to leverage opportunities arising out of the growing manufacturing industry in India? Firstly, we defi ne India as a one of the most relevant and strategic markets for Schuler group. We sold some fi rst press lines last year to few automotive companies including Mahindra and Tata Motors. High technology is important for us as it forms part the base for us to improve and increase our activities. Secondly, we are educating our service staff here in all the new technologies. We have hired new staff during the last 12 months. India expects high technology at affordable costs. How are you planning to manage the challenge? It is not only in India, but also other parts of the world that want the best technology at a cheaper cost. We have been innovative in the past and in the future, we need to be more innovative. Thus, we have to invest money in innovations, as this is the most important field for us. It is also necessary to find the way to make innovation affordable. For example, some companies made mistakes by cutting down R&D budget to save money. We have to invest money

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

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INTERVIEW

our challenge everyday” Chennai can be auto R&D hub Bhargav TS Chennai

C Servo press for automotive industry

on innovations and more in the future than in the past. Schuler traditionally spends nearly seven to ten percent on the R&D. Is the automotive industry your major customer base? It depends on the year; there are times when we had parallel orders from automotive and some large electrical industry that are completely different to one another. However, orders from minting segment are not always constant. It comes once in ﬁve years or sometime even once in eight years. So we can say that the automotive, electrical motor industry and few other segments including forging more or less offer continuous business. How do you prioritise business segments? The automotive industry is our priority because it is our core business in Schuler group and as well for the India. Forging is the next one as presses can be used in lot of appliances. Then it is electrical motors. Automotive is our biggest business because of the huge turnover. Schuler is also into used machines: what is the scenario

in India? Pre-owned machines coming into factory is not unknown; it is something speciﬁc to the choice of the customers and we have to respect it. We have a specialised company that is dealing in this and it does some business in India as well. Do you also impart training for your customers? Schuler has a legacy of 170 years in this business of press building, and training has to be an integral part of our business. We have Schuler academy in the group, which concentrates on training people. This academy has been set-up with the very sole objective of imparting training to people on new technologies and processes, new material and new equipment and this gets extended also to the outside world. Do you have a training centre in India? No, we don’t have training centre in India yet, but we do offer on-site training. We have highly skilled and trained people working for Schuler India who are capable educating customers.

hennai has the right env i ron ment to become the automotive research and development hub owing to the presence of a number of automotive research centres and academic institutions in and around the city, the Principal Scientiﬁc Adviser to the Government of India, Dr R Chidambaram has said. During his inaugural address at the fourth edition of the Conference on ‘Automotive R&D Trends 2015’, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industr y (CII) in Chennai recently, he said that Chennai has automotive industry-led research institutions like Ashok Leyland and Nissan joint venture, Mahindra Research Valley, research teams of Hyundai, Renault and academia like IIT Madras, IIT Research Park, Anna University and Madras Institute of Technology, to carry out R&D on proprietary or generic automotive technologies. He emphasised that R&D is needed in areas such as materials (to create lightweight alloys, joining of different types of materials), energy efﬁciency, emission control, driver assistance, safety and embedded systems. “These developments are possible only if the Indian automotive sector utilises the R&D capabilities of the academic institutions and national laboratories optimally. The e-infrastructure in India is also growing very rapidly, and must be effectively utilised by the automotive sector,” said Dr Chidambaram. Conference Chairman and

MOTORUM 2548

Executive Vice Chairman, Hinduja Automotive Ltd, Dr V Sumantran said, “Mobility has to be viewed as a system, which calls for control of vehicles, dynamic pricing of the use of road infrastructure, green initiatives and use of computers to monitor, control and intervene on how the vehicles are driven or used, and systems to address the topic of safety, in which India lagging behind.” Dr Chidambaram indicated that automotive industry should create a ‘disposal chain’, similar to the supply chain, so that vehicles that turn into scrap bundles can be effectively disposed. He said, “The industry should consider this as a serious issue, and work together to avoid major problems caused by the new generation vehicles.” According to him, the new generation vehicles are considered to be computers on wheels, which require special attention during disposal. The Ministry of Heavy Industry and the automobile industry has set up a demonstration centre for automobile recycling at GARC (Global Automotive Research Centre), in Oragadam near Chennai for effective recycling. Several industries have donated a large numbers of cars and two-wheelers to kick-start the centre. Chidambaram said, “Through effective recycling, one can generate two million tonne of steel, 150,000 tonne of aluminium, 75,000 tonne of rubber and plastic by 2020. With the help of the scraps, it requires only seven percent of electrical energy to produce aluminium.” Au st r a l ia n Automot ive Industry Envoy, John Conomos said, “Australia was one of the

MOTORUM 2048ST

Dr R Chidambaram, Principle Scientific Adviser to the Government of India

13 countries capable of creating a car from concept to showroom. The advanced design, engineering and production of the automotive industry in Australia is supported by strong R&D. With 160 component and service companies, the state of Victoria has a strong international presence. The state is the centre for design and engineering of global vehicles and is working on the design, development and engineering of vehicles for offshore manufacturers.” The Adviser of Investment and Technology Promotion for Asia Paciﬁc, United Nations Industrial Development Orga nisation (UNIDO), Alejandro Vera Casso said, “UNIDO intervention has helped the Indian automotive SMEs to become technologically advanced and globally competitive in their production process. The advancement has enabled them to be a part of the multinational automotive companies supply chain that have set-up manufacturing bases here.

MOTORUM 2044EZ

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16 - 31 MARCH 2012

C O R P O R AT E

Toyota Material pulls robe off Gurgaon headquarters Nabeel A Khan New Delhi

carcity and the spiraling cost of labour have created an opportunity for material handling equipment in India and Toyota Material Handling India (TMHI) is gearing up to leverage the changing scenario. TMHI recently inaugurated its headquarters spread across 20,000 sq mt in Gurgaon, near the capital. The facility is equipped with storing capacity of 50 trucks, six stalls for repair and overhaul, one pit for under chassis repair and 6,000 line items stock. The place also has a training centre where the operators will be given training. With its maiden venture, this section, being a direct subsidiary under the Toyota Industries

Corporation (TICO), is all set to supply material handling equipment through its sales and service network spread around the SouthEast Asian region. As the company takes a new leap in India, it considers aftersales services as its top priority. “The attitude at Toyota is that no one focuses on how much revenue we make, but we are concerned that each forklift that is sold is important. Performance of each product is more important than the overall revenue. This is the attitude we have for quality of customer satisfaction,” said Board Member, TMHI, Vikram Kirloskar. The company can deliver the equipment within 15 days of placing the order, but in case of customisation it could take up to six months. TMHI will also provide mobile service vans which will go to the

TMH India head office

location where the equipment is installed and do the service. The

equipment may require their ﬁ rst check-up service after running

250 hours. In the last two years, TMHI sold around 450 units, this year it hopes to sell 700-800 units and by 2015 the ﬁgure is expected to reach 8,000 units a year. The company has BT and Toyota range of products, which includes engine forklifts, reach truck and towing tractors. The BT range of products includes hand pallet trucks, powered pallet trucks and reach trucks. Sweden based BT makes material handling products and has a tie-up with TICO.

Fuel Options The forklift and other equipment will be available in multiple fuel option including diesel, gasoline, CNG and battery. The customer can get the equipment customised for their needs and two years of free maintenance. “Based on a study, we found that the biggest marketing for our products is in this DelhiNCR region, so we decided to open our head ofﬁce in Gurgaon,” Managing Director, TMHIL, Toshiro Ishihara said. Asian market including China contributes 15 percent of its global sales of material handling equipment. The global market size for material equipment last ﬁscal was 972,021 units of which, Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO) has sold 177,609 units. During the year, the company earned around 36 percent of total revenue of $six billion from this segment of business.

Global Scenario Half of the sales of material handling equipment globally come from the automotive sector. The company sold two lakh units of equipment in China last year while the total size of Indian market for material handling equipment is around 8,000 units. With the growing demand of material handling equipment in India, TICO has ventured to tap this virgin market with the latest products from the material handling segment. It has a signiﬁcant market share in automobiles in India. The company is hoping to extend the positive expereince in the automotive sector to the material handling segment as well. TMHI is targeting to open 20 branches towards the end of 2012 with a planned investment in material handling equipment sales and service. This venture is all set to extend its technical expertise in the core sector of material handling with a diverse spectrum.

30_Corp_Toyota.indd 30

3/14/2012 4:18:33 PM

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

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C O R P O R AT E

Signature BMW driving module to cut daily hazzards Our Bureau New Delhi

uxury car maker, BMW has introduced the BMW Driver Training programme in India for it customers and prospects. Initially, the BMW Driver Training programme was reported to be conducted in Delhi NCR and Chennai from February to March 2012. BMW India dealerships in Delhi, Gurgaon and Chennai are expected to identify BMW owners and prospective buyers who are interested in participating in the BMW Driver Training programme. President, BM W Group India, Dr Andreas Schaaf, said, “BMW Driver Training is a signature training programme to improve the driving skills,

Force Motors to strengthen PV distribution Abhishek Parekh Pune

orce Motors is looking to ramp-up the production of the Force One, to cater to waiting list and notch up higher volumes in the passenger vehicles division. The company commenced deliveries of Force One around early October last year and has sold around 1,000 units until February this year. The company has set up 19 dealers in various parts of the country. It is now manufacturing around 500 units every month. The company is working on a base version of the Force One with lesser number of features that can be offered at a lower base price as well as a 4X4 variant with ABS and EBD. “We are struggling to cope with customer interest. This is not only a new vehicle segment for us but also a new experience of distribution,” said Managing Director, Force Motors, Prasan Firodia. He added that the average waiting period for the model is around 45 days and company is not looking for quick ramp up of production and distribution to maintain service delivery standards. During the launch, the company had expressed a target of selling around 5,000 units in the first year. “For us the scenario is similar to a first born baby and the anxiousness that should logically follow from such an experience,” said Firodia. He said that SUV segment is around 70,000 odd units per annum and growing in double digit rate per annum and there is a scope for well defined need based sub-segmentation within this segment. “Most of the new launches that we witnessed during the Auto Expo and even last year are targeted at these varied needs. SUV segment is already seeing interests and new offerings from all manufacturers,” said Firodia. The production ramp up has not kept pace with the demand as several processes on the assembly line in addition to the learning curve associated with any newly set-up business has meant limited flexibility. The company is looking to leverage its capability in sheet metal and plastics tooling to offer services to other OEMs and component suppliers.

handling, reaction time and awareness of BMW customers. The aim was, and remains, to provide an opportunity to know the capabilities of a BMW better and experience the superior BMW technology. The BMW Driver Training programme is designed to help customers to overcome potential hazards in day-to-day driving.” Drawing on the extensive experience and indepth expertise, instructors take the customers through various driving techniques starting from basics such as the correct seating position and steering wheel posture to the appropriate steering technique, avoidance manoeuvres, emergency and target braking, dynamic lane changes and deliberately induced under-steering or over-steering on bends. According to the company, the

Drawing on the extensive experience and indepth expertise, instructors take the customers through various driving techniques starting from basics training programme focuses on the challenges posed everyday on the road. It helps the driver to retain composure and remain clear headed, as well as apply the knowledge in critical situations. “The driver training programme provides the ideal foundation for increasing the necessar y self-confidence as well as enhancing the pleasure

of everyday driving. With small groups and under the guidance of experienced instructors, the drivers get an excellent basis for developing a confident approach to driving.” The luxury car maker said in a statement. Through the BMW Driver Training programme, drivers are

able to get a better feel of how to react calmly in unexpected situations. By practising a range of safety exercises; and dynamic techniques in the BMW Driver Training programme, customers experience both Sheer Driving Pleasure and develop an expert control over the vehicle.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

INTERVIEW

“Our approach towards India is ITW Automotive Finishing (Binks, Devilbiss & Ransburg divisions) is planning to set-up a subsidiary in India to catalyse its growth plans. During an interaction with Auto Monitor, the General Manager, Sales for Europe and India market, Holger Beiersdorfer shared his plans, including sourcing components locally. He was in India recently to address a Distributors’ Meet and launch the extension of its innovative pneumatic horizontal pump Maple series equipment—Maple 7-15 and 8-25. Excerpts from the interview: How has the India market been for you so far, and how do you see it transform with the new product launches? First of all, our approach towards India has been strategic and focused since 2010. This is how we started to build-up a sales force locally in India. Earlier, we had some business in India, but it was to follow the customers only. Since 2010, we have started to

build a team here. We considerIndia to be next to China in terms of market importance. Thus, we are absolutely committed to the Indian market and our schedule is to open a subsidiary here in India by 2013. India, as perceived by many global MNCs, needs not cheaper technology, but high technology at affordable costs. What is

your view and how do you plan to address the market? In principle, as we are focused on the automotive business, so we face global demand for a sophisticated product at a very competitive price. This is not exclusive to India as automotive standards are global standards, regardless of the location. So we sell in India as we do in the rest of the world. Our products are designed to give good performance at a reasonable cost. What initiatives have you taken to competitively price the products? Our strategy is to offer new and innovative products globally. We are not competing on low cost products. This is what is requested by the automotive

industry and innovation is the USP of our company. This is how we differentiate. We sell by making sure that the maintenance and running costs are always down and at the end of the day, eco-friendly.

just completing the new ﬂ uid handling product line. For the automotive industry, we have two focus products–one is a new product line in the range of ﬂuid handling eqipment and the second is manual spray guns.

The passenger car segment in India is set to grow from three million plus today, to about nine million by 2020. How are you gearing up to address the growth? The ﬁ rst step is to open a subsidiar y here because in addition to technology, the key differentiator for us is to offer good service. Besides becoming closer to the customers, we develop common solutions and this requires local presence. From the product side, we are

Construction equipment is also set to grow by three folds in about ﬁve years. Since this sector has speciﬁc requirements, how are you planning to cater to these customers? To our understanding, the construction industry includes decorative coatings on furniture, panels, woods etc on one side and protective coating on the other side. On the decorative coating side, we are already strong and have been present in India for long time. We have

Our strategy is to offer new and innovative products globally. We are not competing on low cost products. This is what is requested by the automotive industry and innovation is the USP of our company. This is how we differentiate. We sell by making sure that the maintenance and running costs are always down and at the end of the day, eco-friendly also just developed some specific products for the wood industry, which is one of our focus markets. On the ﬂuid handling side, as well as on the application side— especially protective coating segment—a big portion of our new ﬂuid handling equipment is dedicated to protective coating segment. This is obviously our target here in India. Aftersales service is the key in the industry you are in, since line stoppage liability is huge in the automotive industry. How do you manage? We have two approaches in place across all our systems that we have installed. From Europe, we have remote-modem with which, we can login to the control units of equipment at our customers’ place, for troubleshooting and support. For example, for Hero MotoCorp, which is one of our key customers in India, we can logon to each of their installations for troubleshooting together with them. Through the years of good cooperation, there is so much expertise now with our customers that they don’t need us very often anymore. Secondly, there is a close relationship between the engineers of both teams and we are giving them the service they need. Thirdly, we support our local partner who provides spare parts and week-by-week visits on site. Opening a subsidiary in India would mean a warehouse to stock spare parts with the presence of service engineers and technicians. We control the same

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

INTERVIEW

strategic and focussed” through a number of key partners, integrators and distributors who are familiar with our technology and can cover 95 percent, if not 98 percent of the emergencies. They are local and they are adjacent to the installations and can provide 24-hours service, if not faster to our customers today. We want to support them better by having an experienced service team in place by next year. The aftermarket in India is very scattered. However, it is evolving with the technology of vehicles improving day-by-day. What are your plans for the Indian automotive aftermarket? ITW Finishing group has divided its business approach into three segments—automotive OEM and Tier I; second is the general industry, which is painting; the third is refi nishing in particular, which is a separate market segment for us and one of the most important, as this is primarily based on equipment such as spray guns. With these products, this is the number one brand in the world for the refi nishing business. So refi nishing is defi nitely a big target for us and we also have strong partners in India with whom we provide refi nishing services today. We expect big growth to come in the next five to ten years. Are you sourcing components from India for your global operations? Not yet, because we are preparing for a subsidiary at the moment. We don’t have infrastructure available now to source from India. Later, we plan to source from India as this is definitely going to be part of our global cost reduction programme. Are you looking at manufacturing products locally? We have plans already for manufacturing spray guns here in India but to be honest, we are probably two to three years away from this. This depends on how the numbers develop. There is a basic calculation that states that a local manufacturing operation makes sense only if a minimum number of spray guns are manufactured per year. We have such sites for spray guns today in Europe. We are manufacturing some in China and in Japan, not for local but regional markets. We have manufacturing sites for spray guns in Mexico and in the US. So the moment we pass the critical number, we will defi nitely start assembling and manufacturing spray guns here. Let’s say three years from now is probably a realistic point to look into this. What are the challenges you face in addressing the customers in India? ITW as a company in India has no chance to succeed without having a local market, but our regional team is ready. So from outside you just cannot manage this successfully. An important task for the people here is to bring us the feedback and specific requirements to adopt in India. We defi nitely, for cost reasons, have to work with global product platforms, but we do have to tailor to specific regional market needs and that’s what we are working on.

What are the learnings from the Indian customers? It sounds very simple, but one thing we really had to learn is about manual spray guns—biologically, Europeans and Americans have larger hands than Indians and Asian people. We didn’t know this and so we came across hand guns that were tailored for let’s say Americans and Europeans. We later learnt that our guns were too big for this market, so we have come out with a new product ‘GTi ProLite’ to suit Asian markets. And this is something we learnt the hard way as though our guns were performing well, from the ergonomics point of view, they were just not right for this market. This has been a very recent experience and we have responded very quickly to the situation.

Refinishing is definitely a big target for us and we also have strong partners in India with whom we provide refinishing services today. We expect big growth to come in the next five to ten years

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

C O R P O R AT E

Die & Mould India to see participation across sectors Our Bureau Mumbai

he eighth Die & Mould India exhibition has acquired the unique position as a major platform for machine tools industry with participation from various user industries and applications areas. The upcoming edition kicks off at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon, Mumbai on 19 April, 2012. Organised by Tools & Gauge Manufacturers Association of India (TAGMA), Die & Mould India (DMI) is one of the largest exhibitions on dies and moulds. It will showcase the latest technologies and developments related to the die and mould industry and will provide the industry with an opportunities to upgrade its know-how and keep pace with the latest devel-

opments in this segment. The automotive industry mainly consumes aluminium die casting-based components and systems due to its contribution towards weight and costs reduction. The die casting provides higher accuracy in terms of fit and shape as well as offers a smooth finish. India is one of the most competitive sources of die casting components for global automotive majors, with several of them having set up their respective sourcing offices in Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and the National Capital Region (NCR). According to TAGMA, the size of the tooling market in India is projected to be `19,100 crore by FY2012. In terms of tools, plastic moulds constitute 36 percent of the total tooling demand in India. Since 2008, Die & Mould India is being supported by

DEMAT GmbH, the organiser of EuroMold. This edition will seek to boost trade and technology partnerships mould making and tooling, design and application development. EuroMold will provide an excellent exposure to global technology for the burgeoning Indian industry. “This edition of Die & Mould India will expose Indian tool rooms and solutions providers to the latest innovations and trends, which will help manufacturers keep pace with higher growth rates in the manufacturing sector. Tool rooms today, are under tremendous pressure from shrinking budgets and production cycle times. The solution lies in concerted team effort of software technologists, tool-cutting engineers and machinery manufacturers,” said Executive Director, TAGMA, PN Surendranath.

BS Seo takes over as Hyundai India MD

Sam Burman to join Ashok Leyland

shok Leyland recently appointed Sam Burman as its Chief Technology Ofﬁcer with responsibilities for product development, advanced engineering and product planning functions. Prior to joining Ashok Leyland, Burman was with IVECO, Italy as Senior Vice President for medium and heavy trucks. Born in Sweden, Burman is a Mechanical Engineer with over three decades of experience in the global truck and bus industry in various capacities across Europe, South America, China, Australia, South Africa

y u nda i Motor India Ltd (HMIL) has appointed Bo Shine Seo as its new Managing Director in place of Han Woo Park. HMIL said in a statement that Bo Shine Seo will take his responsibilit y effective March’12, while Han Woo Park would f ly back to South Korea and will act as Chief Financial Officer of Kia Motors, an arm of Hyundai Motors. Prior to his elevat ion, Seo was Executive Director Production, a position he held

for the two years. He is an engineer by training and also was Hy undai’s Production Head at Alabama plant in the US, it said. Park, who had been in India for nine years, had become Managing Director of HMIL in November 2009.

Views of a previous edition Die & Mould India India

Participants from dies & moulds, press tools, gauges accessories for machine tools, mould base and standard parts, CAD/CAM system related to dies & moulds, die casting machine/ moulding machine, hot runner systems, rapid prototyping & modelling, die/mould polishing machines, tool steel, digitising cutting tools, heat treatment, die casting machines/moulding machines, measuring machines, texturising, machine tools for

making dies & moulds, die spotting are expected to participate for the upcoming edition. “We are participating in Die & Mould India as it will offer us the opportunity to connect with machine-tool manufacturers and metal & plastics tooling manufacturers on a single platform. At the exhibition, we will be showcasing our clamping tools and other solutions to prospective customers and users,” said MD, Jergens India Pvt Ltd, Joseph Killukan.

and the USA. His long and fruitful association with Scania saw him handling different assignments across the globe.

Hindustan Unilever, Accenture, Mumbai and Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong. After completing his business degrees, he joined KEC International (KEC) as Vice President (Corporate) in July 2007 and was in charge of Telecom Business, Business Development in North America and Integrated Planning and Monitoring of the Transmission and Distribution business. He was then elevated to the position of Executive Director–Supply Chain, which includes manufacturing, procurement, planning, logistics and quality functions. Paras Chowdhary, the incumbent Managing Director, will be retiring from the role. However, he will continue to be a Whole Time Director.

Anant Goenka to be Ceat MD

nant Goenka, 30, has recently been appointed as the new Managing Director of Ceat effective April this year. He is an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a BSc in Economics from The Wharton School. Prior to his MBA, he was associated with the company as Head of the Specialty Tyre Business. Goenka has also worked with

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

Auto Monitor

C O R P O R AT E

BharatBenz aims to redeﬁne CV segments Abhishek Parekh Hyderabad

a im ler India Commercia l vehicles Pvt Ltd (DICV) is looking to offer trucks to enable customers to upgrade from current products for better power and fuel efficiency. It is looking to offer a double digit fuel efficiency improvement at single digit higher price level compared to existing products in the domestic market. “We are looking to offer double digit efficiency at a single digit premium to customers in India and we believe that this will make our trucks as the fi rst choice of customers,” said Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, DICV, Marc Llistosella. It recently showcased its range of commercial vehicles

More dealerships by 2012 end: JLR Our Bureau New Delhi

ncreasing its reach and penetration, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) recently opened its 15th outlet in the country in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. The luxury car maker had opened its fi rst showroom in Mumbai in mid-2009 and now it has fi fteen operational outlets in thirteen cities in the country. The Tata Group owned vehicle maker has plans to have twenty four outlets by the end of this year. Head of Premier Car Division, Jaguar Land Rover India, Rohit Suri, said “Since our fi rst showroom in June 2009, we are extremely pleased with the response we have received to our products and have accelerated the pace of our dealership expansion programme across India. The expansion of our dealership network is one of the pillars in the strategy to continue growing sales in the Indian market.” The latest dealership, a flagship facility, increased the number of outlets in the Delhi region for the brand to three. The dealership spanning three floors and covering 12,000 square feet, has facilities such as two floors of car displays, an extensive customer lounge and customer parking. The new dealership will also be operated by AMP Motors who is a well-established Jaguar and Land Rover dealer in NCR region.

Change of guard at CII Our Bureau New Delhi

oint Managing Director, T V Sundram Iyengar & Sons Ltd and MD of TVS Logistics Services Limited, R Dinesh has been elected as the Chairman of CII Tamil Nadu State Council for the year 2012-13. He also held position as Chairman of Infrastructure Task Force, CII Tamil Nadu during 2011-12. Recently CII has honoured Dinesh with the ‘Emerging Entrepreneurs’ Award. MD & CEO, WS Industries (India) Ltd, Narayan Sethuramon has been elected as the Vice Chairman of CII Tamil Nadu State Council for the year 2012-13.

in Hyderabad for leading vehicle dealers and truck operators in India. The company is looking to launch various chassis and fully built commercial vehicle solutions on its Fuso and Axor platforms in various configurations. The trucks would be available with 3.9 litre and 6.4 litre common rail diesel engines with four and six cylinder combination as per application speciﬁc torque and economy requirements. The vehicle range would be made available in 9.6, 12, 25, 31, 49 tonne capacity for cargo, tipping and construction applications in

1217 Tipper

twelve different colours. It would offer unique capabilities including cabin rooftop cargo carriage, driver information on dashboard, optional air-conditioning across the range along with other comfort and safety related features. Moreover, the company is looking to position products

to match power and efﬁciency of existing product in higher tonnage to maximise beneﬁts. Its twelve tonne 1217c tipper on the Fuso platform is powered by four cylinder inline diesel engine providing 140 HP and offering around 7.2 tonne payload as against eight tonne offered by similar powered product in 16 tonne existing vehicles. The company is looking to introduce a lighter vehicle in six or seven tonne capacity and few products in over 49 tonne range and is currently evaluating market potential for such segments and value preposition that could be offered to the customers. The company already has the capacity to manufacture around 36,000 units at its Chennai facility and the facility can be expanded by adding additional lines, multiple shifts and debottlenecking to

around 70,000 units. “The potential of our truck portfolio can be realised mainly by the better habits and education of the driver. Hence we are looking to have a short or advanced driver (with a valid commercial vehicle license) training programme at most or all our dealerships,” said Vice President, Marketing, Sales & Aftersales, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd, VRV Sriprasad. He emphasised that advanced features and frugal powertrain of the trucks may not be of much help if drivers continue with their existing driving habits. The company is evaluating possibilities of establishing spares and service depots in addition to service centres in all major trucking hubs in the country over a period of time as the vehicle population grows.

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

EVENT

Auto Monitor

GENEVA MOTOR SHOW

82nd International Motor Show and Accessoires

eneva Motor Show retained its position as a pre eminent automobile exhibition with around 260 exhibitors unveiling new models. Around 70 press conferences were conducted across the two media days before the public opening. The show is open to the public from March 8-18, 2012. The exhibitors include all of the major automobile manufacturers, a large group of high level preparation specialists and all of the top automotive designers. The Opel (Vauxhall) Ampera/Chevrolet Volt was adjudged ‘Car of the Year 2012’ over the six fi nalists, Citroen DS 5, Fiat Panda, Ford Focus, Range Rover Evoque, Toyota Yaris and Volkswagen Up!. Following a series of exhaustive test drives by the jury, President of the panel of international automobile experts, Hakan Matson handed over the prestigious Car Of The Year award to the CEO of the Adam Opel AG, Karl-Friedrich Stracke, as well as Susan Docherty, President Chevrolet Europe. The seven fi nalists for the ‘Car of the Year 2012’ were selected from the 35 significant novelties of the year by a total of 59 automobile journalists from 23 European countries.

Key announcement by india Inc

Source: www.salon-auto.ch

Tata Motors launched the Tata Megapixel city car concept. Also, Apollo Tyres announed its plans to invest around Euro 400 million to set-up two facilities in East Europe and Brazil in the next four years. It also introduced a new brand— Aspire 4G—for the European market at the show.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

C O R P O R AT E

“R&D, frugal engineering can be our strength” Our Bureau New Delhi

ith India expected to become one of the top vehicle producing nations globally, the automotive component suppliers, most of whom are Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), are expected to focus more on research and development and improve their processes in order to remain competitive. This view featured prominently during the ﬁ rst MSME Summit organised by the Automotive Component Manufacturers’ Association (ACMA), which concluded recently. In order to enable the SMEs become competitive, ACMA requested the government to introduce tax beneﬁts for large companies who source 10 per-

cent of their procurement from small and medium sized organisations and also helped them in improving their processes. This will encourage the larger companies to support the smaller ones in becoming more competitive. The Summit, which was inaugurated by Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, RK Mathur, had experts to advice the SME organisations on matters related to ﬁnance and banking, information technology, skill development and strengthening supply chain. It should be noted that 56 percent of ACMA’s members fall under the category of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). Refering to the upcoming challenges of the present times, President ACMA, Arvind Kapur said that several new challenges have come up due to changing

economic scenario. “The number of vehicles produced by China is going down and so the components produced there will be in excess. These components will be diverted to other countries, India being one of them. Also the EBIDTA level of 65 percent component makers in India is less than 15 percent, which lower than even Sri Lanka.” Suggesting ways to keep up the pace of growth he added, “In order to go to the next level we need to focus more on research and development and frugal engineering.” Auto Sector Advisory Leader, Ernst & Young, Kapil Arora said that studies indicated that the proﬁtability of MSME segment is lower than the larger companies and with increasing competition amongst OEMs, cost competitiveness of suppliers would assume greater proportions.

Sandwiched between the OEMs and vendors, the suppliers will be required to improve operational agility and responsiveness, manage talent crunch, manage tax and regulatory risk, explore new revenue sources and re-configure supply chain to create cost competitiveness. They also need to explore options to collaborate with national and international players. Making the SME units aware of the various fi nance schemes of the State Bank of India, Chief General Manager, (FC), SBI, Sunil Pant said that there are several fi nance options available for SMEs; all they need to do is ensure the lender that the business model is right and the risks involved are not many and the fi nance and administration will be managed professionally. The session on fi nance and banking also intro-

Automatic Fiesta at `8.99 lakh Our Bureau New Delhi

elying heavily on price factor, Ford India recently unrobed a six-speed dual clutch automatic transmission variant its mid-size sedan-Ford Fiesta AT with basicstyle variant priced at `8.99 lakh and the high-end Titanium + trim prices at `9.70 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi). The other common fear of the automatic car buyers is the maintenance cost. Ford claims its AT box needs no maintenance and comes with a life expectancy of 240,000km or 10 years thus mak-

ing it less expensive aftersales. This is currently being offered only with the 1.5-litre Ti-Vct petrol engine that produces 109PS @ 6,045 RPM and 140 nm@ 4,500 RPM. According to the company the car claims a fuel economy of 16.97 kmpl. The car will be directly racing with the leader in the C-segment Honda City. City has managed to keep its impression unabated and alive for over a decade despite many assaults over the year and most recent of them by the launch of Hyundai Verna (ﬂuidic design), Volkswagen Vento and Skoda Rapid. In February, 6,052 units of Honda city were

sold compared 3,668 units in same month a year ago. The segment has seen the increasing presence of an automatic gearbox variant across multiple models and manufacturers. Ford’s six-speed dual clutch auto gearbox with its patented PowerShift technology has great chance to impress upon the market. The light weighing technology which has made the gearbox weigh 73 kg producing a maximum of 250 nm of torque which employs that it could be far more efﬁcient and smooth compared with many rivals. “It will take some time for

automatic transmission to be mass product and there are various reasons for it apart from cost. Many people event don’t like driving automatic. But this launch will certain enhance the aspiration for those who wants easy drive” President and Managing Director of Ford India, Michael Boneham said. The latest offering from the Ford stable is also equipped with a feature called grade assist, that selects suitable gears while ascending uphill and uses engine braking while going downhill. However, this function can be used for stopped by pressing a button.

Arvind Kapur, President, ACMA

duced other ﬁ nance options to the SMEs like PE funding, angel investors and factoring services. Chief General Manager, SIDBI, KG Alai suggested that corporatisation, long term non-debt funding adoption of best practices and following corporate governance would help SMEs take a jump to the next level.

Figo drives into 2nd year Our Bureau New Delhi

ith its latest hatchback Figo driving into the second year, Ford India starts a celebration campaign across all the platforms–social media, dealer network nationwide and other media like the print and radio. It has invited its customers and other enthusiasts to a range of family activities at its dealerships. The hatchback is owned by 1.5 lakh customers worldwide. Ford has recently started exporting Figo to 18 more overseas markets taking the number of total export markets to upto 50 from the earlier 32.

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

Volvo V40 production to start by May’12 Our Bureau New Delhi

he production of the new Volvo V40, which was recently showcased at Geneva Motor Show 2012, will start in May 2012 from company’s plant in Ghent, Belgium. Volvo Car Corporation showcased its competitive edge by revealing pedestrian airbag technology in this vehicle. The pedestrian airbag lifts the hood when inﬂating, softening up the hood and cushioning parts of the A-pillars and windscreen area. The other car from the Volvo stable, which made ﬁ rst global debut at the Genenva Motor Show was the V60 Plug-in Hybrid, which

has received an initial order of over 1,000 cars. The car maker claimed that this was the world’s fi rst pedestrian airbag technology that stood out among the new features after the launch of pedestrian detection with a full auto brake, which is also available in the V40. The company also claimed that it has further improved the safety features with low-speed collision avoidance system that has been further developed and now operates at speeds up to 50 kmh. The V40 can be equipped with lane keeping aid with haptic auto steering and a park assist pilot that makes parallel parking easy. “The all-new V40 will change the balance of power in the C-segment. Its driving dynamics, fuel efficiency and full deck of safety and support features make it outstanding in the class,” President and CEO, Stefan Jacoby said in a press statement. The V40 is in tune with the current downsizing trend with consumers favouring more compact Parallel with the world-première of the Volvo V40, the new Volvo V60 Plugin Hybrid also made its first motor show appearance in Geneva. Volvo Cars sees enormous interest and the first model year’s batch of cars is almost booked even before the Plug-in Hybrid has reached the showrooms. The fi rst 1,000 units of the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid are only available in Electric Silver livery. The car features an aero-designed 17-inch wheels, integrated exhaust tailpipes and a number of bodywork features in glossy black. After the initial batch of 1,000 cars for model year 2013, production of the V60 plug-in hybrid will increase to 5,000 cars by 2014. The Volvo V60 plug-in hybrid will be built in the Volvo Cars Torslanda plant in Sweden. “With the V60 plug-in hybrid we boost our leading position in electrification. None of our competitors can offer customers an equally ingenious car. It elevates hybrid technology to an entirely new level,” Stefan Jacoby concluded.

Auto Monitor

G L O B A L WAT C H

JLR ensures more models in future

aguar Land Rover (JLR) has registered a £one billion proﬁt in 2010-11 and a £559 million surplus in the ﬁ nal quarter of last year, has drawn up a four-point action plan to keep the ball rolling recently. CEO, JLR, Dr Ralf Speth told the Geneva show audience, including JLR owner, Ratan Tata, that the two British brands would strengthen their premium position and product ranges and increase their footprint in other markets while maintaining their ‘authentic British characters’. “We will be premium in everything we do and invest over-proportionately in research and development on new models,” he said. “We will strengthen our footprint in sales operations and discuss the possibility of more production in India, China

Dr Ralf Speth, JLR CEO and Gerry McGovern, LR Design Director with the Range Rover Evoque Convertible Concept Land Rover

and Brazil while ensuring we stay British and continue to produce in Britain. “And there could be oppor-

tunities to increase production, which would mean hundreds of new jobs.” Head of the Jaguar Brand, Adrian Hallmark, said

there would be six new models in 2012 to add to the ﬁ ve in 2011. They include the XF Sportbrake (estate) plus special edition additions to the XK sports car range, all revealed at Geneva. John Edwards, his counterpart at Land Rover, said there would be greater customisation options for the hugely successful Range Rover Evoque, possibly including a production version of the Convertible model revealed at Geneva to gauge reaction. The company recently produced its one-millionth Land Rover Discovery, which will soon embark on an 8,000-mile journey from Birmingham to Beijing to try to raise £one million for safe, clean water supplies in Uganda, the world’s 20th-poorest nation. Poor-quality water is the largest killer of children in the world.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

G L O B A L WAT C H

International auto round-up Honda announces CO2 emissions of 95 g/km for new Civic Honda Motor Europe’s P resident, Ma nabu Nishimae, announced a DTEC engine in the new Civic, that would deliver CO2 emissions of 95g/km. The new 1.6-litre i-DTEC engine is the ﬁ rst drivetrain from Honda’s new Earth Dreams Technology engine series to be introduced into Europe. It will be manufactured at Honda’s UK manufacturing facility in Swindon from the end of 2012. The application of new high-strength material in the cylinder head has enabled Honda to deliver the world’s lightest aluminium open deck 1.6-litre diesel engine. These

lightweight characteristics, along with the compact high-efﬁciency turbocharger enhance responsiveness and ensure the car will offer a class-leading balance of fuel economy and performance.

UAW sues American Axle over pact

Ford to add third shift, train more workers

The United Auto Workers (UAW) has sued American Axle & Manufacturing, claiming the auto supplier isn’t following its contractual obligation to provide pension, insurance and other benefits to laid-off workers, according to a report in the Associated Press. The union said the Detroit-based company—which closed its factories in Detroit and Cheektowaga— wasn’t adhering to its contract, which requires the company to pay early retirement pensions for employees laid off when a plant is closed. The UAW said the company in March 2011 adopted an amendment to the contract that cancelled the benefit. The company said it was required to do so because of a federal law passed in 2006 governing pensions. The union said the dispute affects 100 UAW-represented employees who are over age 50 and have 10 years of service. The suit fi led in US District Court in Detroit also says that disabled employees are entitled to shortterm and long-term disability benefits. The supplier says when it laid off all employees at the two plants, it would end the benefits. American Axle also is halting retiree health care and life insurance, the UAW said. The suit seeks the restoration of the benefits. Prior to 2008, the average American Axle worker’s total wage and benefit package was about $73.48 an hour, the UAW said. In 2008, following an 87-day labour dispute, employees at three American Axle facilities ratified a new agreement that included frozen pensions, numerous work rule changes, and wage and benefit packages that were cut to $43.21 an hour. The union said it made more concessions to get hourly wage and benefit packages cut to $36.48 by 2010. In the recent round of bargaining, total wages and benefits combined were to drop again, this time below $30 an hour. American Axle announced last year that it would close its Detroit Manufacturing complex. The UAW said it had agreed to concessions to keep the plant open. The Detroit plant employed about 300. American Axle moved the work to a Three Rivers plant, where it has 800 workers. The New York closing resulted in the loss of about 100 jobs.

Ford is offering temporary layoffs at its Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne to allow newer workers to train as it moves to round-the-clock hours for the fi rst time in more than 10 years. The move will allow new workers to train on the line for several weeks before the plant adds a third shift in May. About 200 workers are expected to accept temporary layoffs during March and April as the plant prepares to add nearly 1,200 employees. The workers on temporary layoff will be paid about 95 percent of their usual salary through company and state benefits. The temporary layoffs will last no longer than three weeks. Most of the new jobs will be filled by Ford workers from other south-eastern Michigan locations, said Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans. The Wayne plant makes the 2012 Ford Focus and Ford Focus Electric, which have posted strong sales this year and are gaining market share in the small-car category. It is preparing for the preproduction models of the two new hybrid models of its C-Max passenger car. Built in 1957 as the Michigan Truck Plant, the facility closed for two years before reopening as a small car and electric vehicle assembly plant in January 2011. The plant has not had three shifts since 2001.

Volvo showcases first pedestrian airbag Volvo unveiled the V40 fivedoor hatchback recently that features the world’s fi rst pedestrian airbag. The V40, a replacement for the C30, is Volvo’s fi rst model designed under owner Zhejiang Geely Holding Group of China, since Geely bought the automaker from Ford for $1.8 billion two years ago in the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese automaker. The car has an airbag that ejects from the hood to protect pedestrians from injury after an impact. The Swedish carmaker is counting on such innovations to polish its safety image and help it double global sales. Volvo, which will start building the V40 in May, targets annual sales of 90,000, mainly in Europe, where demand is strongest for small cars in large urban areas. The model won’t be sold in the United States. Volvo is targeting the hatchback at potential buyers of BMW’s 1 series, Audi’s A3

and Mercedes’ new A class, as the carmaker tries to push its products into the premium market. Volvo dealers are hoping for a vehicle at the other end of the spectrum for American buyers: A big luxurious sedan that can challenge BMW’s 7 series, Audi’s A8 and Mercedes S class. The Volvo line-up is also missing a subcompact car and is facing a growing need to replace aging vehicles. The XC90, its largest crossover, will be 12 years old when it’s renewed in 2014. The S80, its biggest sedan, will be nine years old when it’s revamped in 2015. The average lifespan for models in Europe is about seven years. The S40 and V50, Volvo’s smallest sedan and wagon, are both eight years old, and the company has yet to announce when they will be replaced. Volvo pulled them from the US market last year because of poor sales. Volvo intends to focus in the coming years on “core” cars, such as the midsize S60 sedan and crossover XC60, its two bestsellers. Volvo is also talking with other carmakers about sharing development costs for future compact cars, Jacoby said, declining to identify the candidates. Volvo makes the longer S80L model for China at a factory coowned by former owner Ford and Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. The Swedish carmaker aims to open its own plant in Chengdu in late 2013, and plans a second factory in Daqing.

Obama chalks $4.7 billion plan to boost advanced tech The White House is proposing to spend $one billion to help up to 15 communities speed the deployment of advanced-technology vehicles. Another $3.7 billion would go to new tax credits for electric vehicles, commercial trucks and other advanced-technology vehicles. However, in a major policy shift, President Barack Obama wants to broaden a government tax credit that was created to support electric vehicles. He now wants to include other types of advanced vehicles, including those that run on fossil fuels such as compressed natural gas. The shift comes as Americans fail to embrace electric cars as fast as many predicted. It is increasingly unlikely, if not impossible, that the US will have one million plug-in and electric vehicles on the roads by 2015. Obama had proposed that goal as a presidential candidate. GM said it would halt production of its plug-in Chevrolet Volt for ﬁve weeks because of low demand for the vehicle—a move that will require GM to temporarily lay off 1,300 workers in Detroit. More automakers are unveiling trucks that run on natural gas—to take advantage of large US reserves of natural gas. The White House said the deployment fund would allow “10 to 15 model communities to invest in the necessary infrastructure, remove the regulatory barriers, and create the local incentives to support deployment of advanced vehicles at critical mass.” Unlike the White House proposal in January 2011 to boost electric vehicles only, the White House proposal would be “fuel neutral,” “allowing communities to determine if electriﬁcation, nat-

ural gas, or other alternative fuels would be the best fit.” The plan would set aside about one-third of the communities for natural gas—though White House aides say EVs would still get the lion’s share of the funds. The White House also wants to spend $2 billion to expand the EV tax credit from $7,500 to $10,000 and to turn it into a point of sale rebate. But it would also open the tax credit to other types of advanced vehicles. It would also reform the credit for EVs—so it is no longer based on the size of the battery—meaning some plug-ins would qualify for larger credits. The administration wants to remove the cap on the number of vehicles per manufacturer eligible for the credit and, instead, ramping down and eventually eliminating the credit at the end of the decade. The $10,000 credit would apply to vehicles that were at least 25 percent efficient than government targets—meaning that even highly efficiency internal combustion engines could qualify. It also is proposing to spend $1.7 billion to create a new credit to allow commercial truck buyers to get credit for half of the additional costs of buying an advanced-technology vehicle. Under new rules, medium and heavy duty trucks must improve efficiency by about 20 percent by 2018. The government estimates it will provide $49 billion in benefits—but will add $eight billion to the cost of the vehicles. Work trucks covered by the proposal make up four percent of US vehicles while accounting for 20 percent of the oil consumed. The White House budget proposal for 2013 includes $650 million to advance vehicle and battery technologies at the Energy Department.

Chrysler recalls 266K Jeep Liberty SUVs

Chrysler is recalling about 266,000 Jeep Liberty SUVs worldwide over rust concerns. The Auburn Hills automaker said it is recalling 209,724 2004-05 Liberty models in the US states that use road salt because rear lower control arms can crack due to excessive corrosion. The recall also includes about 24,000 vehicles in Canada and 32,000 across the world. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the 2002-05 Jeep Liberty over corrosion issues and upgraded its probe to an engineering analysis, focusing its investigation on 2004-05 models in states that use road salt during the winter.

New Nissan subcompact to target Ford Fiesta Nissan will target subcompact models such as the Ford Fiesta with the production version of the Invitation concept. The production car will compete against the Ford Fiesta and similar models, said Paul Willcox, Nissan Europe’s head of sales and marketing. Nissan said the production version will have high fuel economy and CO2 emissions of less than 100 grams per kilometre because of its aerodynamic design, lightweight construction and advanced engine technology. Nissan will start production of the car at its plant in Sunderland, northeast England, in mid-2013 at an initial rate of 100,000 a year. Last year, Nissan built a record 480,485 vehicles at the plant, which produces the Qashqai and Juke crossovers and Note small minivan. Nissan sales increased by 14 percent to 458,033 units in 2011 in the EU and EFTA countries, giving the brand a 3.4 percent market share, up from 2.9 percent in 2010, according to industry association ACEA.

Toyota recalling 700,000 vehicles for faulty electric part, airbags Toyota is recalling nearly 700,000 vehicles in the US to ﬁ x potentially faulty airbags and replace a faulty electric component. The Japanese automaker said it is calling back 495,470 2005-2009 Tacoma pickup trucks because friction may result in a loss of an electrical connection in the driver’s air bag module. If connectivity is lost, the air bag warning lamp on the instrument panel will remain illuminated after starting the vehicle and the driver’s air bag may be deactivated and fail to deploy during a crash. The Japanese automaker said it is also recalling 70,500 Camry and 116,000 2009-2011 Venza

vehicles to replace a brake light switch. Toyota said the sedans may not start or may not shift out of park. Toyota said it is also recalling about 60,000 vehicles in Canada and Mexico as part of the two recall campaigns, including 16,000 trucks in Canada and 13,000 in Mexico. Toyota has taken steps to improve its recall procedures after it came under heav y criticism for its handling of the recall of more than 10 million vehicles for sudden acceleration complaints. The automaker paid $50 million in ﬁ nes to NHTSA in 2010 to settle allegations it waited too long to recall vehicles.

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

G L O B A L WAT C H

Auto Monitor

Magneti Marelli unveils electronics, communication technologies at Geneva Motor Show

agneti Marelli displayed a range of adva nced communications and electronics technologies at the recently concluded Geneva Motor Show. The company’s contribution on the Fiat 500L includes lighting systems (headlamps and DRL—Daylight Running Light), exhaust systems and suspension components, body computers and bumpers and the engine control units for the 1.3 MultiJet II e 0.9 TwinAir Turbo. The 500L will also be equipped with the Freechoice AMT (Automated Manual Transmission) by Magneti prov iding reduction in fuel consumption and lower emissions. The company’s AMT is also fitted on the Fiat Panda 0.9 twin air turbo 85 CV Dualogic. This car features components designed by Magneti Marelli for the third generation of the Italian city car: lighting components, electronic engine control units, instrument panel, suspension systems and shock absorbers, exhaust systems and plastic components (bumper and tank). In addition to the throttle bodies for the new generation of three cylinder 1 VTi and 1.2 VTi gasoline engines, the car features the new in-vehicle multimedia infotainment system supplied by the company, called ‘Touchscreen’ on the 208. This modular system offers driver and passengers various entertainment and information functions in the car. It can play music fi les from portable devices (cell phones, MP3 readers), display photos and access a new generation of ‘connected’ services called “Peugeot Connect Apps” to be made available during the course of the year. Connected to the vehicle CAN network, it can provide information on vehicle and navigation, through a 7” touch-screen with high resolution (800x480 pixel). The system allows a hands-free and audio streaming function, and can be paired up with a maximum of five mobile phones. The USB port allows the connection of devices such as USB pen drives or iPods. The other communications and electronics supplied by the company include Citroen’s Aircross version of the C4, a compact SUV fitted with Xenon or halogen headlights with AFS (Adaptive Frontlighting System) and in-vehicle multimedia entertainment system and USB and Bluetooth connectivity. For t he new Ferra ri F12berlinetta, the company has developed and provided the multifunction instrument cluster with TFT display, LED rear lights and electronic control unit with related software to control the Active Brake Cooling system. The F12berlinetta can also be fitted with the “superlift” on the front axle: a system of hydraulic drives managed by a pump operated by an electric motor and controlled by an electronic unit that lifts up the car so that it can easily go over speed bumps. In the area of concept cars, the company has closely worked with Pininfarina to develop the Cambiano, fitted with a traction system consisting of four elec-

Touchscreen Peugeot by Magneti Marelli

tric motors, one for each wheel, and of the relevant moto-reducer. The motors, made by Magneti Marelli, are assembled on the front and rear frames, and each one delivers constant power of 60 kW, with peaks of 150kW, for 600 kW of maximum total power with a torque of 640Nm. With its 77 production units, 11 R&D centres and 26 application centres in 18 countries, the group supplies all leading carmakers in Europe, North and South America and the Far East. Its business areas include: electronic systems, lighting, powertrain, suspension systems and shock absorbers, exhaust systems, aftermarket parts & services, plastic components and modules, motorsport.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

G L O B A L WAT C H

Ford unveils kick-activated tailgate at Geneva Motor Show

ord Motor Company will offer an innovative hands-free tailgate for the all-new Kuga, offering customers a ﬁ rst-in-class, kick-activated means of accessing the boot. The hands-free system enables Kuga customers to gently kick a foot beneath the rear bumper to open and close the tailgate without putting down packages or other loads. “This is a perfect example of how we’re evolving existing technology to further improve our customers’ experience with Ford vehicles,” said Security Electronics Expert, Ford, Europe, Dominik Nical. “The result is a practical and unique solution to a common problem— opening the tailgate when your arms are full. It’s a solution that will really work for customers in their everyday lives.”

Kuga customers will be able to open and close the tailgate simply by waving a foot beneath the rear bumper, an especially useful feature for those carrying groceries or other heavy loads destined for the boot. Ford perfected the system with the help of volunteer “kickers”; six months of testing produced the optimum settings

New Ford Kuga, Ford

The development team spent six months working with Ford’s Human Machine Interface laboratory, using volunteers to test prototype systems ﬁtted to a Kuga. Rigorous real-life testing

perfected the required kick and ensured there was no interference with other systems. The hands-free tailgate builds on Ford’s Intelligent Access pushbutton start. It allows customers,

who have their key on them, to unlock and start their vehicles without having to take it out of their pocket or handbag. Two sensors in the rear bumper detect a person’s shin and kicking motion. The system safeguards against accidental opening, such as when an animal runs under the car or when the vehicle hits a bump on the road. The system made its debut on Kuga’s sister model, the Ford Escape, in North America, late last year. Ford engineers re-calibrated the system for Europe to ensure it would still work if a tow bar had been ﬁtted–as this is an option frequently chosen by European Kuga customers. The automatic hands-free tailgate will be launched as an option with Keyless Entry on the all-new Kuga on sale in the UK in early 2013.

Chiswick Honda named Best Fleet Dealer at annual AM Awards

onda (UK) are celebrating after Chiswick Honda collected the much sought-after title of Best Fleet Dealer at the annual AM Awards. Chiswick Honda impressed AM judges by displaying a full and indepth understanding of ﬂeet needs. They also proved they can react dynamically to manufacturer ﬂeet requirements and follow the buying cycle from start, all the way through to delivery to the end customer.

Quality Checks The dealership, which opened as Honda’s ﬁ rst brand centre in the world in 2002, believes volume sales can result as a biproduct of its service quality. A testament to this focus on quality is that in 2011, Chiswick Honda retained almost 100 percent of its existing major accounts, while also growing the number of customers it supplied. Editor of AM, Jeremy Bennett said: “Chiswick Honda is a leading example of how corporate sales, planning and actions can drive success in the business to business sector. Its vision is to be the best sales operation in the UK in terms of quality, CSI, reputation and service excellence, and its performance truly impressed our panel of judges. We congratulate the dealership on its well-deserved win.”

Consistent Record Also congratulating Chiswick Honda on its triumph, Manager, Corporate Sales, Honda (UK), Ed Hummel commented, “We are delighted that Chiswick Honda have won this prestigious award and offer our congratulations to the entire Chiswick team. Honda consistently rank at the top of industry surveys for customer satisfaction and the Chiswick team are helping us to strengthen this reputation.” On collecting the award, Managing Director of Chiswick Honda, David Grainger concluded, “We are very proud to have run Chiswick Honda for the past ten years and our philosophy remains the same, provide a ﬁve star quality service and volume will follow”.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

G L O B A L WAT C H

VW records highest sales spike in US since 1974 Our Bureau New Delhi

he Volkswagen Group sold 652,500 vehicles in January, an increase of 1.3 percent, registering positive growth since the beginning of 2012 (January 2011: 644,200— excluding Man and Scania). “We have made an encouraging start, but 2012 will be a challenging year. As expected, the prevailing economic uncertainty is impacting the automotive industry. We will continue to keep a very close eye on the market situation, particularly in Europe,” said the Group Board Member for Sales, Christian Klingler in Wolfsburg, Germany recently. The dynamic sales situation for the Volkswagen Group in the North America region continued in January 2012, with the Group

handing over 53,500 (41,900; +27.7 percent) vehicles to customers, of which 36,700 (26,300; +39.5 percent) units were delivered in the United States, the region’s largest single market—making this the best January since 1974. The Group also grew deliver-

ies in the South America region, where customers took possession of 78,100 (74,700; + 4.6 percent) new vehicles in the ﬁ rst month of the year. Deliveries in the Asia-Paciﬁc region remained largely stable. In January, 233,500 (239,500; -2.5

We have made an encouraging start, but 2012 will be a challenging year. As expected, the prevailing economic uncertainty is impacting the automotive industry. We will continue to keep a very close eye on the market situation, particularly in Europe,” Christian Klingle, Group Board Member for Sales percent) vehicles were sold. In China, the largest single market, deliveries were not quite able to

match last year’s high level due to the Chinese New Year festival, and decreased slightly to 208,200 (217,900; -4.5 percent) units. However, as the overall Chinese passenger car market contracted by roughly 13 percent, the Volkswagen Group was able to further expand its position. In India, deliveries increased by 28.4 percent to 9,400 (7,400) vehicles. On the overall European market, which was in part characterised by major uncertainty, deliveries by the Volkswagen Group remained generally stable at 259,900 (262,500; -1.0 per cent) units. While customers in Western Europe (excluding Germany) showed slightly greater caution than a year earlier, purchasing 144,400 (156,700; -7.8 percent) vehicles, deliveries in Central and Eastern Europe grew by 33.6 percent to 41,400 (31,000) units. In its home market of Germany, the Volkswagen Group delivered 74,100 (74,800; -1.0 percent) vehicles.

Other Brand Developments At 419,200 (418,600; +0.1 percent) units, worldwide deliveries by the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in January matched the high level of the previous year. The brand developed particularly well in the United States, where 27,200 (18,400; +47.9 percent) vehicles were handed over to customers. Volkswagen Passenger Cars delivered 16,800 (10,000) vehicles in the Central and Eastern Europe region during the same period, an increase of 67.0 percent. Audi delivered 96,100 (95,400) vehicles worldwide in January, representing a slight increase of 0.8 per cent on the same month last year. The premium brand from Ingolstadt beneﬁted among other things from continued strong growth in China, where 27,200 (22,200; +22.6 percent) vehicles were delivered, and the United States, where 9,400 (7,800; +19.7 per cent) units were handed over to customers. The Czech automaker, Škoda also remained on its growth trajectory in January, delivering 75,400 (68,400; +10.2 percent) units. The company developed particularly well on the overall European market, where 47,200 (41,700; +13.1 percent) customers took possession of a new vehicle. In Central and Eastern Europe, Škoda grew deliveries by 17.2 percent to 17,900 (15,300) units. The Spanish brand Seat delivered 21,700 (25,700; -15.4 percent) vehicles worldwide in January. In the present difﬁcult climate on European markets, the company handed over 17,900 (22,400; -20.2 percent) vehicles to customers. Deliveries in Germany were encouraging, with customers taking possession of 3,600 (3,500; +4.5 per cent) models there, as were deliveries in the UK, where 2,600 (2,400; +9.8 percent) customers chose a SEAT. Vol k swagen Com mercia l Vehicles reported a 10.5 percent increase in January, delivering 39,500 (35,700) light commercial vehicles. 8,800 (7,500; +18.1 percent) units were handed over to customers in the home market of Germany. Deliveries in the remaining European countries also developed very well, with the figure for Europe as a whole totalling 23,300 (21,100; +10.6 percent) vehicles.

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

EUROPEAN SALES

New Vehicle Registration in Europe -by Manufacturer GROUP BRAND 2011 DECEMBER 20010 DECEMBER MV-Motor Vehicles (LV+CV) Aston Martin Aston Martin 122 122 BMW BMW 51411 52366 Mini 14506 15787 Other 18 20 Total 65935 68173 China Brilliance 0 Changan 0 0 Great Wall 535 159 Landwind 0 0 Lifan 2 0 Other 8 3 Total 545 162 Chrysler Chrysler 444 872 Dodge 90 553 Jeep 2216 1491 Total 2750 2916 DAF DAF 2862 Daimler Mercedes 66820 61130 Smart 5164 5524 Other 155 162 Total 72139 66816 Fiat Alfa Romeo 8104 9386 Fiat 57964 69016 Iveco 7423 6751 Lancia 6740 6485 Other 202 211 Total 80433 91849 Ford Ford 87515 86146 Mercury 0 Other 0 0 Total 87515 86146 GM Chevrolet 15562 15388 Opel 80376 94500 Other 61 125 Total 95999 110013 Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar 1612 1865 Land Rover 7576 5369 Total 9188 7234 Japan Daihatsu 1261 2285 Honda 10166 14416 Mazda 8058 11579 Mitsubishi 9089 12881 Nissan 36555 33965 Subaru 2283 4667 Suzuki 13895 14292 Other 1477 1764 Total 82784 95849 Korea Daewoo Hyundai 31984 27566 KIA 23506 19606 Other 643 Total 47815 MAN MAN 4756 4197 Other 7 31 Total 4763 4228 MG Rover Rover Porsche Porsche 3216 3210 PSA Citroen 67990 75904 Peugeot 74635 93172 Total 142625 169076 Renault Dacia 20449 22329 Renault 103198 113679 Other 15 19 Total 123662 136027 Scania Scania 2362 2173 Toyota Toyota 51770 46424 Lexus 2389 1169 Total 54159 47593 Volkswagen AG Audi 47537 47052 Seat 23065 21661 Skoda 36497 35136 Volkswagen 143269 125283 Other 116 102 Total 250484 229234 Volvo Trucks Volvo 2718 2701 Other SAAB 140 2862 Volvo 18722 23168 Other 9748 5165 Total 28610 31195 Total 1165499 1205394 PC- Passenger Cars Aston Martin Aston Martin BMW BMW Mini Other Total China Brilliance Changan Great Wall Landwind Lifan Other Total Chrysler Chrysler Dodge Jeep Total DAF DAF Daimler Mercedes Smart Other Total Fiat Alfa Romeo Fiat Iveco Lancia Other Total Ford Ford Mercury Other Total GM Chevrolet

122 51399 14499 18 65916

Source: Association Auxiliaire de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Automobile

% CHANGE

YEAR TILL DATE 2011

0.00 -1.82 -8.11 -10.00 -3.28

2325 642173 168516 463 811152

GROUP

Jaguar Land Rover

Japan 236.48

166.67 236.42 -49.08 -83.73 48.63 -5.69 -100.00 9.31 -6.52 -4.32 7.97 -13.66 -16.01 9.95 3.93 -4.27 -12.43 1.59

1.59 1.13 -14.95 -51.20 -12.74 -13.57 41.11 27.01 -44.81 -29.48 -30.41 -29.44 7.63 -51.08 -2.78 -16.27 -13.63

2 2400 11 12 37 2462 5965 3071 24536 33572 806256 78798 1793 886847 130616 875338 91396 98515 4366 1200231 1277363 2 8 1277373 176213 1081987 1025 1259225 22655 85725 108380 12085 150298 139354 138989 513956 37219 180444 16675 1189020

16.03 19.89 -100.00 -100.00 13.32 -77.42 12.65

399163 288500

0.19 -10.43 -19.90 -15.64 -8.42 -9.22 -21.05 -9.09 8.70 11.52 104.36 13.80 1.03 6.48 3.87 14.36 13.73 9.27 0.63 -95.11 -19.19 88.73 -8.29 -3.31

42084 948559 1087035 2035594 267715 1335774 74 1603563 31862 574522 27468 601990 681045 307305 498332 1890566 2103 3379351 39240 13303 255934 96052 365289 15610922

0.00 -1.25 -8.14 -10.00 -2.85

2325 641805 168479 463 810747

53487 212 53699

0 455 0 2 8 465 388 77 2101 2566

122 52048 15783 20 67851 0 0 67 0 0 3 70 787 502 1402 2691

166.67 564.29 -50.70 -84.66 49.86 -4.65

2 1266 11 12 36 1327 4982 2147 23603 30732

47082 5164

43967 5524

7.08 -6.52

593485 78797

52246 8093 43710 36 6740 202 58781 74985 0 0 74985 15544

49491 9357 54023 54 6484 210 70128 73167

5.57 -13.51 -19.09 -33.33 3.95 -3.81 -16.18 2.48

0 73167 15353

2.48 1.24

672282 130396 684133 703 98495 4366 918093 1089816 2 8 1089826 175791

579.10

Korea

MAN MG Rover Porsche PSA

Renault

Scania Toyota

Volkswagen AG

Other

Total

BRAND 2011 DECEMBER Opel 72535 Other 61 Total 88140 Jaguar 1612 Land Rover 6557 Total 8169 Daihatsu 1261 Honda 10164 Mazda 7889 Mitsubishi 7254 Nissan 32040 Subaru 2276 Suzuki 13812 Other 398 Total 75094 Daewoo Hyundai 31697 KIA 23424 Other Total MAN Rover Porsche 3214 Citroen 52803 Peugeot 60061 Total 112864 Dacia 19170 Renault 75233 Total 94403 Scania Toyota 46557 Lexus 2389 Total 48946 Audi 47435 Seat 22903 Skoda 36209 Volkswagen 124309 Other 116 Total 230972 SAAB 140 Volvo 18693 Other 2952 Total 21785 993789

LCV-Light Commercial Vehicles up to 3.5t ** BMW BMW 19 Mini Total China Great Wall 80 Chrysler Chrysler 56 Dodge 12 JEEP 115 Total 183 DAF DAF Daimler Mercedes 12895 Fiat Alfa Romeo 11 Fiat 14017 Iveco 3550 Lancia 0 Total 175578 Ford Ford 12318 Other Total GM Chevrolet 16 Opel 7745 Other 0 Total 7761 Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar Land Rover 1019 Japan Daihatsu 0 Honda 2 Mazda 169 Mitsubishi 1612 Nissan 4450 Subaru 7 Suzuki 83 Other 909 Total 7232 Korea Daewoo Hyundai 287 KIA 82 Other Total Porsche Porsche 2 PSA Citroen 15174 Peugeot 14523 Total 29697 Renault Dacia 1279 Renault 25467 Total 26746 Toyota Toyota 5197 Volkswagen AG Audi 102 Seat 162 Skoda 287 Volkswagen 18687 Total 19238 Other SAAB Volvo 29 Other 1782 Total 1811 Total 142145 LBC- Light Buses & Coaches upto 3.5 tn Daimler Mercedes Fiat Fiat Iveco Total Ford Ford GM Opel Chevrolet Total Japan Nissan Toyota

99 6 2 76 69

2010 DECEMBER 87905 112 103370 1865 4427 6292 2285 14405 11301 10093 30687 4651 14203 279 87904

% CHANGE -17.48 -45.54 -14.73 -13.57 48.11 29.83 -44.81 -29.44 -30.19 -28.13 4.41 -51.06 -2.75 42.65 -14.57

YEAR TILL DATE 2011 990137 926 1166854 22643 72858 95501 12061 150243 137156 113613 459218 37109 179512 3602 1092514

27200 19523 591 47314

16.53 19.98 -100.00 -100.00

395154 287516

3042 60621 77936 138557 20963 88983 109946

5.65 -12.90 -22.94 -18.54 -8.55 -15.45 -14.14

41907 771023 911816 1682839 252324 1045221 1297545

42738 1169 43907 46646 21470 34806 109440 102 212464 2861 23135 2802 28798 1045114

8.94 104.36 11.48 1.69 6.67 4.03 13.59 13.73 8.71 -95.11 -19.20 5.35 -24.35 -4.91

532028 27463 559491 679812 305469 494478 1683247 2103 3165109 13303 255342 26937 295582 13605344

322

-94.10

405

92 85 51 89 225

-13.04 -34.12 -76.47 29.21 -18.67

1135 982 911 933 2826

10076 29 14728 3219 1 17978 12746

27.98 -62.07 -4.83 10.28 -100.00 876.63 -3.36

135135 220 187134 50001 20 237375 185006

35 6589 13 6637

-54.29 17.54 -100.00 16.94

404 91184 90 91678

942 0 11 277 2536 3230 16 89 1358 7517

8.17 -81.82 -38.99 -36.44 37.77 -56.25 -6.74 -33.06 -3.79

12880 24 55 2198 22742 53969 110 931 11158 91187

366 83 52 501 168 15273 15186 30459 1366 22582 23948 3645 406 191 329 15521 16447 1 33 886 920 132633

-21.58 -1.20 -100.00 -100.00 -98.81 -0.65 -4.37 -2.50 -6.37 12.78 11.68 42.58 -74.88 -15.18 -12.77 20.40 16.97 -100.00 -12.12 101.13 96.85 7.17

192 25 5 30 70 5

-48.44 -76.00 -60.00 -100.00 8.57 1280.00

4002 984

177 177399 174509 351908 15391 261453 276844 42298 1233 1834 3837 204432 211336 592 13376 13968 1659144

1024 241 142 691 470

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

GROUP Korea

PSA

Renault Volkswagen AG

Other

Auto Monitor

EUROPEAN SALES BRAND 2011 DECEMBER Total Hyundai Kia Other Total Citroen 0 Peugeot 1 Total 1 Renault 36 Audi Seat Skoda Volkswagen 68 Total Dodge Other 59 Total 416

Total Light Commercial Vehicles up to 3.5t (LCV+LBC) BMW BMW 19 Mini Total China Great Wall 80 Chrysler Chrysler 56 Dodge 12 JEEP 115 Total 183 DAF DAF Daimler Mercedes 12994 Fiat Alfa Romeo 11 Fiat 14023 Iveco 3552 Lancia 0 Total 17586 Ford Ford 12394 Other Total GM Chevrolet 16 Opel 7814 Other 0 Total 7830 Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar Land Rover 1019 Japan Daihatsu 0 Honda 2 Mazda 169 Mitsubishi 1612 Nissan 4452 Subaru 7 Suzuki 83 Other 909 Total 7234 Korea Daewoo Hyundai 287 KIA 82 Other Total Porsche Porsche 2 PSA Citroen 15174 Peugeot 14524 Total 29698 Renault Dacia 1279 Renault 25503 Total 26782 Toyota Toyota 5198 Volkswagen AG Audi 102 Seat 162 Skoda 288 Volkswagen 18754 Total 19306 Other SAAB Volvo 29 Other 1838 Total 1867 Total 142561 CV-Commercial Vehicles (trucks) over 3.5t ** China Other Chrysler Dodge 1 DAF DAF Daimler Mercedes 6037 Fiat Fiat 185 Iveco 3113 Total 3298 Ford Ford 45 GM Chevrolet 2 Opel 25 Other 0 Total 27 Japan Mitsubishi 223 Nissan 63 Other 169 Total 455 Korea Daewoo MAN MAN 4395 PSA Citroen 4 Peugeot 39 Total 43 Renault Renault 2382 Other 15 Total 2397 Scania Scania 2183 Toyota Toyota 15 Volkswagen AG Volkswagen 192 Volvo Trucks Volvo 2446 Other 4385 Total 25919 BC-Buses & Coaches over 3.5t DAF DAF Daimler Mercedes Others Total Fiat Fiat Iveco Total

707 155 862 46 722 768

2010 DECEMBER

% CHANGE

YEAR TILL DATE 2011

GROUP Ford GM Japan

0 4 4 23

-75.00 -75.00 56.52

18 37 55 379

125

-45.60

1014

169 618

-65.09 -32.69

1595 5611

322

-94.10

405

92 85 51 89 225

-13.04 -34.12 -76.47 29.21 -18.67

1135 982 911 933 2826

10268 29 14753 3224 1 18008 12816

26.55 -62.07 -4.95 10.17 -100.00 -2.34 -3.29

136159 220 187375 50143 20 237758 185697

MAN

PSA

35 6594 13 6642

-54.29 18.50 -100.00 17.89

404 91654 90 92148

942 0 11 277 2536 3230 16 89 1358 7517

8.17 -81.82 -38.99 -36.44 37.83 -56.25 -6.74 -33.06 -3.76

12880 24 55 2198 22742 53981 110 932 11158 91200

366 83 52 501 168 15273 15190 30463 1366 22605 23971 3645 406 191 330 15645 16572 1 33 1055 1089 133251

-21.58 -1.20 -100.00 -100.00 -98.81 -0.65 -4.38 -2.51 -6.37 12.82 11.73 42.61 -74.88 -15.18 -12.73 19.87 16.50 -100.00 -12.12 74.22 71.44 6.99

4008 984

177 177417 174546 351963 15391 261832 277223 42306 1233 1836 3854 205427 212350 592 14944 15536 1664755

0 2846 5979 203 2821 3024 46 0 1 0 1 252 48 118 419

2600.00 -11.51 31.25 43.22 8.59

69118 3356 33028 36384 573 17 179 9 205 2634 757 1889 5280

3870 7 28 35 2068 19 2087 2016 41 172 2453 510 23499

13.57 -42.86 39.29 22.86 15.18 -21.05 14.85 8.28 -63.41 11.63 -0.29 759.80 10.30

50400 85 516 601 28224 74 28298 30178 193 1604 36757 47307 306912

16 916 162 1078 37 652 689

-22.82 -4.32 -20.04 24.32 10.74 11.47

7496 1792 9288 474 7522 7996

0.97 -8.87 10.35 9.06 -2.17 2400.00

Renault Scania Volkswagen Volvo Trucks Others Total

BRAND 2011 DECEMBER Ford 91 Chevrolet Opel Nissan Mitsubishi Toyota Others Total MAN 361 Others 7 Total 368 Citroen 9 Peugeot 11 Total 20 Renault 80 Scania 179 Volkswagen 14 Volvo 272 576 3230

2010 DECEMBER 117

Total Commercial Vehicles (Trucks) & (Buses) over 3.5t China Other Chrysler Other 1 DAF DAF Daimler Mercedes 6744 Others 155 Total 6899 Fiat Fiat 231 Iveco 3835 Total 4066 Ford Ford 136 GM Chevrolet 2 Opel 27 Others 0 Total 29 Japan Mitsubishi 223 Nissan 63 Others 170 Total 456 Korea Daewoo Hyundai Total MAN MAN 4756 Others 7 Total 4763 PSA Citroen 13 Peugeot 50 Total 63 Renault Renault 2462 Others 15 Total 2477 Scania Scania 2362 Toyota Toyota 15 Volkswagen AG Volkswagen 206 Volvo Trucks Volvo 2718 Others 4958 Total 29149 HCV-Heavy Commercial Vehicles (trucks) over 16t ** China Other DAF DAF Daimler Mercedes 3743 Fiat Iveco 1600 Ford Ford GM Chevrolet Japan Other MAN MAN 3570 Renault Renault 1776 Other 10 Total 1786 Scania Scania 2182 Volkswagen Volkswagen Volvo Trucks Volvo 2225 Others 3393 Total 18499 HBC-Heavy Buses & Coaches over 16t DAF DAF Daimler Mercedes Other Total Fiat Iveco MAN MAN Others Total Renault Renault Scania Scania Volvo Trucks Volvo Others Total

514 155 669 577 357 7 364 2 179 272 360 2423

% CHANGE -22.22

YEAR TILL DATE 2011 1277

-100.00

317 31 348 3 18 21 23 157 26 248 798 3530

13.88 -77.42 5.75 200.00 -38.89 -4.76 247.83 14.01 -46.15 9.68 -27.82 -8.50

3087 212 3299 34 157 191 497 1684 288 2483 6908 33911

-2.19 -4.32 -2.24 -3.75 10.42 9.51 -16.56

2800.00 -11.51 31.25 33.86 6.54

76613 1793 78406 3830 40550 44380 1850 18 196 9 223 2634 757 1915 5306

4187 31 4218 10 46 56 2091 19 2110 2173 41 198 2701 1308 27029

13.59 -77.42 12.92 30.00 8.70 12.50 17.74 -21.05 17.39 8.70 -63.41 4.04 0.63 279.05 7.84

53487 212 53699 119 673 792 28721 74 28795 31862 193 1892 39240 54171 340823

2455 3670 1327

1.99 20.57

44559 15574

8 2968 1689 10 1699 1999

-100.00 20.28 5.15 0.00 5.12 9.15

38494 22457 64 22521 30166

2282 195 16603

-2.50 1640.00 11.42

34754 37381 223449

6 684 162 846 476 289 31 320

-24.85 -4.32 -20.92 21.22 23.53 -77.42 13.75

157 248 433 2489

14.01 9.68 -16.86 -2.65

4416 1792 6208 5838 2925 212 3137 89 1684 2481 4494 23931

-2.23 -4.32 -2.30 20.74

48974 1793 50767 21412

0 2862 6895 162 7057 240 3473 3713 163 0 1 0 1 252 48 127 428

Total Heavy Commercial Vehicles (Trucks & Buses) over 16t China Other DAF DAF 2461 Daimler Mercedes 4257 4354 Other 155 162 Total 4412 4516 Fiat Iveco 2177 1803 GM Chevrolet Japan Others 11 Total MAN MAN 3927 3257 Others 7 31 Total 3934 3288 Renault Renault 1778 1689 Other 10 10 Total 1788 1699 Scania Scania 2361 2156 Volkswagen Volkswagen Volvo Trucks Volvo 2497 2530 Others 3753 628 Total 20922 19092

2600.00

-100.00 20.57 -77.42 19.65 5.27 0.00 5.24 9.51

41419 212 41631 22546 64 22610 31850

-1.30 497.61 9.59

37235 41875 247380

*Total volumes and market shares somewhat inaccurate due to missing data in some vehicle categories for the following countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain

Auto Monitor

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

N A M E R I C A N A S S E M B LY

AUTOFACTS Global Automotive Outlook, 2009 Q1 Release PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

North America Assby Tracking 12 -2011 (Tracking by Brand & Nameplate) December 2011

Last 3 Months

Ownership Org/ Brand & Nameplate

Volume

YOY % Chg

Assembly Share %

AutoAlliance International (USA) Ford Mustang Mazda Mazda6 BMW (Germany) BMW X3 BMW X5 BMW X6 Chrysler Group LLC (USA) Chrysler 200 Chrysler 300 Chrysler PT Cruiser Chrysler Sebring Chrysler Town & Country Dodge Avenger Dodge Caliber Dodge Caravan Dodge Challenger Dodge Charger Dodge Dakota Dodge Durango Dodge Journey Dodge Nitro Dodge Ram Pickup Dodge Viper Fiat 500 Fiat Freemont Jeep Commander Jeep Compass Jeep Grand Cherokee Jeep Liberty Jeep Patriot Jeep Wrangler Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Lancia Grand Voyager Lancia Thema Ram Cargo Van Ram Pickup Volkswagen Routan Daimler AG (Germany) Freightliner Sprinter Mercedes-Benz GL-Class Mercedes-Benz M-Class Mercedes-Benz R-Class Ford Motor Company (USA) Ford Crown Victoria Ford Econoline Ford Edge Ford Escape Ford Expedition Ford Explorer Ford Explorer Sport Trac Ford Fiesta Ford Flex Ford Focus Ford F-Series Ford Fusion Ford Ranger Ford Taurus Lincoln Mark LT Lincoln MKS Lincoln MKT Lincoln MKX Lincoln MKZ Lincoln Navigator Lincoln Town Car Mazda B-Series Mazda Tribute Mercury Grand Marquis Mercury Mariner Mercury Milan Mercury Mountaineer Fuji Heavy Industries (Japan) Subaru Legacy Subaru Tribeca Toyota Camry General Motors Company (USA) Buick Enclave Buick LaCrosse Buick Lucerne Buick Regal Buick Verano Cadillac CTS Cadillac DTS Cadillac Escalade Cadillac Escalade ESV Cadillac Escalade EXT Cadillac SRX Cadillac STS Chevrolet Avalanche Chevrolet Aveo Chevrolet C2 Chevrolet Camaro Chevrolet Captiva

10,916 5,407 5,509 20,705 9,419 7,788 3,498 167,097 9,718 4,943 10,399 6,645 3,867 14,227 3,618 6,481 3,993 7,111 1,495 4,617 4,253 8,745 16,310 9,460 8,380 5,950 8,735 516 750 869 25,703 312 11,346 594 2,560 6,912 1,280 193,783 11,168 12,743 23,566 5,060 13,209 9,508 2,511 19,784 55,843 22,694 4,301 5,550 6 1,153 635 2,979 2,467 606 20,921 14,258 366 6,297 209,917 3,940 4,539 3,807 2,531 5,485 1,038 489 168 5,664 1,819 3,547 7,256 4,150

26.9% 32.1% 22.2% 39.2% 99.9% 10.5% 12.4% 57.6% 589.2% 6.2% 74.1% 111.1% 40.7% 115.6% 499.0% -100.0% 16.4% -8.2% -41.0% 537.7% 253.2% 40.0% 111.0% 11.3% 35.0% 36.9% 19.5% -79.4% 20.8% 22.5% 13.4% 26.6% 7.1% 31.0% -100.0% 42.4% 21.1% 35.9% 18.8% 26.9% -100.0% 7.8% 52.8% 693.9% 17.7% 37.3% 55.3% 87.6% 25.3% 141.4% 10.0% 55.3% 39.6% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% 14.2% 20.9% -21.8% 4.1% -1.6% -25.4% -3.1% -100.0% 27.6% -100.0% 12.2% -22.5% -6.9% -100.0% 18.4% -2.3% -100.0% 2.6% 69.7%

1.1% 0.5% 0.5% 2.0% 0.9% 0.8% 0.3% 16.5% 1.0% 0.5% 1.0% 0.7% 0.4% 1.4% 0.4% 0.6% 0.4% 0.7% 0.1% 0.5% 0.4% 0.9% 1.6% 0.9% 0.8% 0.6% 0.9% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 2.5% 0.0% 1.1% 0.1% 0.3% 0.7% 0.1% 19.2% 1.1% 1.3% 2.3% 0.5% 1.3% 0.9% 0.2% 2.0% 5.5% 2.2% 0.4% 0.5% 0.0% 0.1% 0.1% 0.3% 0.2% 0.1% 2.1% 1.4% 0.0% 0.6% 20.8% 0.4% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.5% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.6% 0.2% 0.4% 0.7% 0.4%

YOY Share Chg 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.3 0.4 (-0.1) (-0.0) 4.1 0.8 0.5 (-0.1) 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.5 (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.2) (-0.1) 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.4 (-0.1) 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 (-0.1) 0.0 0.0 (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.0) 1.9 (-0.5) 0.2 0.0 0.3 0.0 0.1 (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.1 1.7 (-0.0) 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 (-0.0) 0.1 0.0 (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.3) (-0.0) (-0.1) 0.0 (-0.0) (-0.1) (-4.2) (-0.2) (-0.1) (-0.3) 0.4 0.3 0.0 (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.2) (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.1) (-0.3) (-0.1) 0.1

Volume 31,874 17,567 14,307 71,680 33,098 27,944 10,638 532,692 32,482 16,509 27,922 23,649 12,818 40,694 11,200 23,849 12,636 27,045 6,156 15,614 13,436 28,640 51,254 24,623 23,475 17,773 28,060 2,058 2,726 2,100 85,740 2,233 45,582 2,030 9,120 29,872 4,560 654,140 28,432 45,648 80,171 16,757 46,699 33,732 8,698 64,189 184,049 76,231 21,837 19,892 84 3,780 1,933 9,833 10,220 1,955 72,091 47,209 1,741 23,141 738,095 11,563 17,041 10,066 4,471 18,554 3,168 1,670 548 20,649 5,473 17,480 5,615 20,685 17,181

YOY % Chg 11.9% 28.2% -3.2% 41.3% 105.9% 16.2% 0.2% 47.2% 2203.7% 93.6% -100.0% 3.3% 96.5% 6.3% 1.7% 72.3% 528.6% -100.0% 268.5% -9.9% -16.5% 2056.6% 1029.3% 5.1% 60.9% 14.7% 14.5% 29.1% 13.7% 47.0% 42.5% 28.4% 18.4% 60.4% 11.9% 13.8% -100.0% 4.1% 19.3% 19.5% 15.5% 44.6% -100.0% 3.9% 13.8% 45.4% 14.0% 12.3% 58.9% 44.5% -24.3% 7.5% 57.2% 12.7% 45.4% -1.7% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% 11.9% 14.7% 5.3% 7.2% 5.2% -30.6% 9.6% -100.0% 27.2% -100.0% -10.9% -41.8% 4.2% 3.4% -100.0% 5.8% 34.7% -24.8% 10.2% 97.7%

Assembly Share % 0.9% 0.5% 0.4% 2.1% 1.0% 0.8% 0.3% 15.6% 0.9% 0.5% 0.8% 0.7% 0.4% 1.2% 0.3% 0.7% 0.4% 0.8% 0.2% 0.5% 0.4% 0.8% 1.5% 0.7% 0.7% 0.5% 0.8% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 2.5% 0.1% 1.3% 0.1% 0.3% 0.9% 0.1% 19.1% 0.8% 1.3% 2.3% 0.5% 1.4% 1.0% 0.3% 1.9% 5.4% 2.2% 0.6% 0.6% 0.0% 0.1% 0.1% 0.3% 0.3% 0.1% 2.1% 1.4% 0.1% 0.7% 21.6% 0.3% 0.5% 0.3% 0.1% 0.5% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.6% 0.2% 0.5% 0.2% 0.6% 0.5%

Year to Date

YOY Share Chg (-0.0) 0.1 (-0.1) 0.4 0.4 0.0 (-0.0) 3.4 0.9 0.2 (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.3 (-0.0) (-0.2) 0.1 0.6 (-0.2) 0.3 (-0.2) (-0.1) 0.4 0.4 0.8 (-0.1) 0.2 (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 (-0.0) 0.0 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.2 (-0.0) (-0.2) (-0.5) (-0.1) 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.3 (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.0) 0.4 (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.2 0.1 (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.0) 0.1 (-0.0) (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.1) (-2.1) (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.2) 0.3 0.1 0.1 (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.1 (-0.1) (-0.0) 0.2

Volume 117,836 78,286 39,550 277,757 122,289 111,289 44,179 1,998,576 122,625 55,052 110,483 75,951 51,841 168,851 44,068 91,523 17,390 71,796 108,601 26,042 56,972 33,160 103,671 174,664 77,919 81,732 62,798 102,368 4,555 3,968 2,827 335,368 14,351 159,482 8,220 34,681 98,893 17,688 2,605,100 66,096 133,850 171,285 320,975 59,073 170,676 125,971 31,163 221,514 721,447 294,110 97,222 77,661 408 12,636 5,873 35,622 35,399 9,785 10,192 3,977 165 239,699 155,419 6,396 77,884 3,088,639 70,244 64,729 15,882 23,715 4,471 64,935 6,515 17,085 7,769 2,404 85,465 1,907 25,407 68,403 37,183 105,387 42,798

YOY % Chg -4.1% 0.8% -12.4% 76.1% 660.6% 13.3% 1.8% 27.2% 8596.8% 39.3% -100.0% -100.0% -15.6% 28.4% -23.3% 2.0% 10.1% 9.6% -8.7% 1993.8% -15.3% -5.5% -100.0% -100.0% 7769.1% -100.0% 201.3% 39.6% 21.0% 23.0% 6.1% 19.7% 49.4% -8.5% 22.0% 27.1% 10.2% 29.9% 6.2% 12.5% 26.7% 10.2% 14.1% 16.4% 15.2% 95.0% -100.0% 62.8% -24.1% 11.2% 12.8% 9.9% 37.6% -6.5% -51.8% -21.4% -1.5% 30.0% 45.5% 1.5% -15.7% -100.0% -57.1% -99.5% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% -0.3% 5.6% 15.7% -11.2% 10.1% -5.6% -11.9% -46.4% 7.5% -69.0% -24.9% -38.8% -8.7% 11.7% -60.1% -5.7% 24.0% -24.1% 11.7% 40.2%

Assembly Share % 0.9% 0.6% 0.3% 2.1% 0.9% 0.8% 0.3% 15.3% 0.9% 0.4% 0.8% 0.6% 0.4% 1.3% 0.3% 0.7% 0.1% 0.5% 0.8% 0.2% 0.4% 0.3% 0.8% 1.3% 0.6% 0.6% 0.5% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 2.6% 0.1% 1.2% 0.1% 0.3% 0.8% 0.1% 19.9% 0.5% 1.0% 1.3% 2.5% 0.5% 1.3% 1.0% 0.2% 1.7% 5.5% 2.2% 0.7% 0.6% 0.0% 0.1% 0.0% 0.3% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 1.8% 1.2% 0.0% 0.6% 23.6% 0.5% 0.5% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.5% 0.0% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.7% 0.0% 0.2% 0.5% 0.3% 0.8% 0.3%

YOY Share Chg (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.8 0.8 0.0 (-0.0) 2.1 0.9 0.1 (-0.1) (-0.3) (-0.3) 0.1 (-0.2) (-0.1) 0.0 (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.5 (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.6) (-0.0) 0.4 0.3 (-0.0) 0.5 0.3 0.1 0.1 (-0.0) 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 (-0.0) 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 (-0.0) 0.5 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.6 (-0.1) 0.3 (-0.1) 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.0 0.1 (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.3) (-0.2) (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.2) (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.1) 0.0 (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.2 0.0 (-0.0) (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.1 (-0.1) 0.0 0.1

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

Auto Monitor

N A M E R I C A N A S S E M B LY December 2010

Ownership Org/ Brand & Nameplate

Volume

YOY % Chg

Chevrolet Cobalt Chevrolet Colorado Chevrolet Corvette Chevrolet Cruze Chevrolet Equinox Chevrolet Express Chevrolet HHR Chevrolet Impala Chevrolet Malibu Chevrolet Silverado Chevrolet Sonic Chevrolet Suburban Chevrolet Tahoe Chevrolet Traverse Chevrolet Volt GMC Acadia GMC Canyon GMC Savana GMC Sierra Pickups GMC Terrain GMC Yukon GMC Yukon XL Hummer H3 Hummer H3T Opel-Vauxhall Ampera Saab 9-4X Saturn Outlook Saturn VUE Honda Motor Company (Japan) Acura CSX Acura MDX Acura RDX Acura TL Acura ZDX Honda Accord Honda Civic Honda Crosstour Honda CR-V Honda Element Honda Odyssey Honda Pilot Honda Ridgeline Hyundai Motor Company (South Korea) Hyundai Elantra/i30 Hyundai Santa Fe Hyundai Sonata/i40 Kia Optima Kia Sorento Mitsubishi Motors Corp (Japan) Mitsubishi Eclipse Mitsubishi Endeavor Mitsubishi Galant Nissan Motor (Japan) Infiniti JX Series Infiniti QX series Nissan Altima Nissan Armada Nissan Frontier Nissan March Nissan Maxima Nissan NV-Series Nissan Pathfinder Nissan Pickup Nissan Sentra Nissan Tiida Nissan Titan Nissan Tsuru Nissan Versa Nissan Xterra Suzuki Equator NUMMI (USA) Toyota Corolla Toyota Tacoma Tesla Motors (USA) Tesla Roadster Toyota Motor Corporation (Japan) Lexus RX Series Toyota Avalon Toyota Camry Toyota Corolla Toyota Highlander Toyota Matrix Toyota RAV4 Toyota Sequoia Toyota Sienna Toyota Tacoma Toyota Tundra Toyota Venza Volkswagen (Germany) Volkswagen Beetle Volkswagen Bora Volkswagen Golf/Jetta Variant Volkswagen Jetta Volkswagen New Beetle Volkswagen Passat Total Light Vehicle

2,841 1,011 12,699 18,022 5,011 12,185 16,937 32,561 7,874 2,985 4,748 6,397 1,585 9,122 1,015 2,500 14,794 8,253 2,663 1,672 609 104,181 5,061 1,776 4,259 149 20,028 34,211 2,628 13,623 11,571 8,984 1,891 38,109 5,020 3,185 16,080 7,549 6,275 2,003 2,003 86,181 58 24,868 5,374 5,361 5,295 753 2,543 3,348 8,993 12,545 1,779 3,052 10,104 1,938 170 126 126 108,268 5,929 2,311 26,614 17,347 8,024 971 12,546 1,921 10,306 10,310 8,849 3,140 37,995 2,548 28 9,131 21,306 4,982 1,011,548

13.1% 18.7% -33.5% 14.8% 1.9% -100.0% -5.9% 2.8% -10.5% -26.8% -26.6% -7.6% 257.8% 28.0% 25.0% 59.5% -4.3% 25.6% -30.0% -44.5% 18.1% -100.0% 51.3% 9.8% 126.7% 24.2% -3.8% 92.6% 236.1% -28.1% -100.0% 16.3% -7.9% 61.6% -0.1% -55.7% -71.1% 117.7% -25.4% 16.9% -100.0% -100.0% 90.2% 13.7% 19.0% -100.0% 67.6% -0.3% -18.9% 57.3% -31.9% 155.3% 14.6% -45.1% -11.9% 3.4% 13.3% 113.6% 113.6% 16.0% 14.1% -18.7% 63.5% 13.2% 3.6% -30.0% 5.6% 10.3% -0.2% -14.0% 54.6% 8.2% -6.3% -67.1% -24.8% -24.8% 18.1%

Last 3 Months

Assembly Share % 0.3% 0.1% 1.3% 1.8% 0.5% 1.2% 1.7% 3.2% 0.8% 0.3% 0.5% 0.6% 0.2% 0.9% 0.1% 0.2% 1.5% 0.8% 0.3% 0.2% 0.1% 10.3% 0.5% 0.2% 0.4% 0.0% 2.0% 3.4% 0.3% 1.3% 1.1% 0.9% 0.2% 3.8% 0.5% 0.3% 1.6% 0.7% 0.6% 0.2% 0.2% 8.5% 0.0% 2.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.1% 0.3% 0.3% 0.9% 1.2% 0.2% 0.3% 1.0% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 10.7% 0.6% 0.2% 2.6% 1.7% 0.8% 0.1% 1.2% 0.2% 1.0% 1.0% 0.9% 0.3% 3.8% 0.3% 0.0% 0.9% 2.1% 0.5% 100.0%

YOY Share Chg (-0.0) 0.0 (-1.0) (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.6) (-0.3) (-0.3) (-1.0) 0.8 (-0.2) (-0.3) (-0.2) 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.1 (-0.3) 0.0 (-0.2) (-0.2) 0.1 (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.1 (-0.0) 0.2 0.0 (-0.5) 1.3 0.2 (-0.9) (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.3) 0.1 (-0.7) (-0.8) (-1.0) 0.7 0.7 (-0.4) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.1 (-0.3) 0.0 0.0 (-0.3) 0.2 0.5 (-0.1) 0.1 (-0.1) 0.1 (-0.7) 0.7 (-0.0) (-0.3) (-0.3) (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.0 0.0 (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.1) 0.7 (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.2) (-0.4) 0.2 (-0.0) (-1.0) 0.3 (-0.0) (-0.5) (-1.2) 0.5 -

Volume 10,964 2,928 58,953 61,248 17,743 41,322 55,782 108,013 24,558 13,746 22,844 22,852 5,842 24,988 3,125 6,812 52,371 29,578 10,784 8,348 1,130 314,324 12,940 6,722 11,828 458 57,258 95,558 5,805 51,971 36,986 29,365 5,433 150,027 20,322 13,604 58,150 28,566 29,385 5,031 5,031 297,456 178 83,015 16,685 19,580 15,186 2,540 8,897 11,236 34,394 43,430 6,227 11,220 38,524 5,794 550 421 421 366,812 20,744 9,207 85,331 59,733 27,745 3,259 44,308 6,688 35,583 36,180 26,506 11,528 139,881 10,947 162 33,636 78,483 16,653 3,420,106

YOY % Chg 31.3% 18.9% 2.5% 9.2% 1.3% -100.0% -0.6% 1.1% -5.5% -11.0% 0.0% -14.5% 1218.7% 10.8% 11.8% 45.5% 4.3% 17.5% -13.2% -16.7% 2.1% -100.0% -5.4% 25.9% 57.2% 27.6% -19.8% 39.7% 46.6% -19.8% -100.0% 13.5% -6.0% 74.1% 16.2% 3.1% -54.5% 14.7% 2.3% -28.7% -100.0% -100.0% 20.2% 15.8% 26.2% -100.0% 41.5% -9.1% -1.3% 44.3% -22.2% 133.6% 23.9% -43.7% -11.2% -9.8% 41.0% 109.5% 109.5% 13.8% 11.5% 13.6% 51.7% 16.6% 10.4% -20.0% 2.7% 1.8% 2.0% -2.9% -0.1% 9.2% 8.5% -62.3% -12.7% -12.7% 15.3%

Year to Date Assembly Share % 0.3% 0.1% 1.7% 1.8% 0.5% 1.2% 1.6% 3.2% 0.7% 0.4% 0.7% 0.7% 0.2% 0.7% 0.1% 0.2% 1.5% 0.9% 0.3% 0.2% 0.0% 9.2% 0.4% 0.2% 0.3% 0.0% 1.7% 2.8% 0.2% 1.5% 1.1% 0.9% 0.2% 4.4% 0.6% 0.4% 1.7% 0.8% 0.9% 0.1% 0.1% 8.7% 0.0% 2.4% 0.5% 0.6% 0.4% 0.1% 0.3% 0.3% 1.0% 1.3% 0.2% 0.3% 1.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 10.7% 0.6% 0.3% 2.5% 1.7% 0.8% 0.1% 1.3% 0.2% 1.0% 1.1% 0.8% 0.3% 4.1% 0.3% 0.0% 1.0% 2.3% 0.5% 100.0%

YOY Share Chg 0.0 0.0 (-0.2) (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.5) (-0.2) (-0.2) (-0.7) 0.7 (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.2) 0.2 (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.2) 0.0 (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.0 (-1.2) (-0.0) (-0.1) 0.0 0.1 0.0 (-0.7) 0.5 0.0 (-0.7) (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.2) 0.1 0.0 (-0.1) (-0.6) (-0.0) 0.8 (-0.1) (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.1) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 (-0.3) 0.1 0.6 (-0.1) 0.1 (-0.0) 0.1 (-0.5) 0.6 0.0 (-0.3) (-0.3) (-0.0) 0.0 0.0 0.0 (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.6 0.0 (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.1) (-0.2) (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.3) 0.3 (-0.0) (-0.3) (-0.7) 0.5 -

Volume 41,012 13,222 281,810 233,244 79,162 29,460 188,838 214,388 492,733 36,527 58,185 100,134 118,846 14,510 92,747 13,208 26,214 211,259 110,700 50,091 34,965 2,605 480 1,103,124 1,170 52,069 19,377 35,763 1,940 229,439 263,499 18,839 211,403 7,500 130,443 118,362 13,320 605,019 112,665 89,758 225,462 35,129 142,005 37,150 7,142 10,567 19,441 1,138,908 181 319,131 15,105 60,762 44,688 65,906 13,830 35,454 47,178 156,704 130,133 26,254 57,875 139,576 23,931 2,200 1,841 1,841 1,176,465 65,242 38,684 227,663 206,243 101,502 17,280 126,030 19,841 126,475 114,718 83,895 48,892 547,477 21,496 551 146,400 341,595 37,435 13,097,073

YOY % Chg -100.0% 18.9% -15.9% 325.0% 29.2% 14.2% -59.6% 6.2% -9.1% 8.1% -1.2% -1.3% 0.6% 3175.4% 12.4% 6.3% 20.9% 3.0% 44.0% -0.6% -2.3% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% -14.3% -40.9% -18.5% -5.7% 1.3% -60.2% -22.4% -12.9% -43.3% -16.0% -55.4% 9.1% -2.4% -34.0% 33.6% 469.6% -2.7% 3.1% 16.1% 26.5% 11.2% 65.0% 17.5% 14.2% -100.0% 16.0% -42.5% 19.6% -8.2% 19.0% 64.1% 6.8% 91.3% -6.3% -22.4% -16.3% -8.6% 35.0% -100.0% -100.0% -100.0% 115.1% 115.1% -8.0% -20.1% -3.7% -15.8% 7.3% 17.3% -48.9% -16.6% -19.6% -4.7% 19.5% -22.3% -20.2% 25.9% -95.5% 27.6% 27.6% -100.0% 9.9%

Assembly Share % 0.3% 0.1% 2.2% 1.8% 0.6% 0.2% 1.4% 1.6% 3.8% 0.3% 0.4% 0.8% 0.9% 0.1% 0.7% 0.1% 0.2% 1.6% 0.8% 0.4% 0.3% 0.0% 0.0% 8.4% 0.0% 0.4% 0.1% 0.3% 0.0% 1.8% 2.0% 0.1% 1.6% 0.1% 1.0% 0.9% 0.1% 4.6% 0.9% 0.7% 1.7% 0.3% 1.1% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 8.7% 0.0% 2.4% 0.1% 0.5% 0.3% 0.5% 0.1% 0.3% 0.4% 1.2% 1.0% 0.2% 0.4% 1.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 9.0% 0.5% 0.3% 1.7% 1.6% 0.8% 0.1% 1.0% 0.2% 1.0% 0.9% 0.6% 0.4% 4.2% 0.2% 0.0% 1.1% 2.6% 0.3% 100.0%

YOY Share Chg (-0.8) 0.0 (-0.0) 1.6 0.3 0.0 (-0.4) (-0.0) (-0.3) (-0.1) 0.3 (-0.0) (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.1 0.0 (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.1) 0.2 (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) 0.0 0.0 (-0.0) (-0.0) (-2.4) (-0.0) (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.0) (-0.7) (-0.5) (-0.1) (-0.5) (-0.1) (-0.0) (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.8 0.7 (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.0 (-0.0) 0.1 (-0.1) 0.0 0.3 (-0.1) 0.1 0.0 0.1 (-0.0) 0.4 (-0.0) (-0.2) (-0.3) (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.8) (-0.5) (-0.2) 0.0 0.0 (-1.7) (-0.2) (-0.0) (-0.5) (-0.0) 0.0 (-0.2) (-0.3) (-0.1) (-0.1) 0.1 (-0.3) (-0.1) 0.5 0.2 (-0.1) 0.2 0.4 (-0.3) 0.3 -

Auto Monitor

PRODUCT INDEX

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

Products .......................................................... Pg. No.

3D co-ordinate measuring machines ................ 15

Electronics products ......................................... 35

Programmable terminals.................................. 31

Acc padel sensor assy ....................................... 45, 53

Encoders ........................................................... 31

Proximity sensors ............................................. 31

Auto-coding systems ......................................... 23

Epoxy and polyurethane systems ..................... 19

Quality steels .................................................... 4

Automatic painting systems.............................. 34

Exhibition - EngineeringExpo ........................... 36

Rapid prototyping tools for automotive software .. 23

Automotive component .................................... 13

Exhibition - Modern Machine Shop-2012.......... 32

Reach trucks ..................................................... 30

Automotive dealership excellence award ......... 42

Extension springs.............................................. 3

Reamers............................................................ BIC

Automotive electrical components................... 16

Fork lifts ........................................................... 30

Resistor assembly ............................................. 51

Automotive lighting systems............................. 21

Form and cylindricity testers ............................ 15

RFID .................................................................. 31

Automotive wire harness .................................. 51

Gasoline engine oils.......................................... 37

Roundness ........................................................ 15

BOPT................................................................. 30

Gun drills .......................................................... BIC

Safety light curtains .......................................... 31

Cable glands ..................................................... 35

Hand pallets ..................................................... 30

Salt spray chambers ......................................... 22

Cable ties .......................................................... 35

Hardware in loop system.................................. 23

Capacitors discharge igniters ............................ 51

Heat shrink tubing ............................................ 35

Car paints ......................................................... 20

Horizontal CNC machines ................................. 17

Car polishes ...................................................... 20

Horizontal machining centres .......................... 17

CED/KTL coatings .............................................. FIC

Hot/cold and warm forged machined parts ..... 16

Centralised asset & maintenance management systems.. 6

Hydrogen and CNG bulk transport/storage systems.. 11

CNC horizontal machining centres ................... 17

IC engine valves ................................................ 16

CNC lathes ........................................................ BC

Induction heating equipment .......................... 8

CNC machines ................................................... 17

Industrial control and sensing devices ............. 31

CNC machines ................................................... 17

Industrial metrology......................................... 15

CNC oval turning centres .................................. 17

Intelligent automated guided vehicles ............. 6

CNC turn mill centres ........................................ 17

Inverter/variable frequency drives ................... 31

CNC turning centres .......................................... 17

Level controllers ............................................... 31

CNC vertical machining centres ........................ 17

Lightweight cylinders ....................................... 11

CNC/VMC machines .......................................... 18

Logistics services .............................................. 7

Combination switches ...................................... 51

Machinery steels ............................................... 4

Compact measurement modules...................... 23

Manufacturing execution systems .................... 6

Compression springs......................................... 3

Material handling systems ................................ 33

Connectors ....................................................... 35

Measuring and monitoring relays .................... 31

Counters and power supplies ........................... 31

Metal cutting tools............................................ 39

Countersinks ..................................................... BIC

Micro measurement modules........................... 23

Cylindrical grinders........................................... BC

Milling cutters................................................... BIC

Diamond tools .................................................. BIC

Model-based design ......................................... 23

Diesel engine oils.............................................. 37

Modular tooling systems................................... BIC

Drilling tools ..................................................... BIC

Motion controls ................................................ 31

E-coatings solutions .......................................... FIC

Multi gauging systems ...................................... 15

ECU interface modules ..................................... 23

Online business ................................................ 25

Vacuum pumps................................................. 45, 53

EGR valves......................................................... 45, 53

Opto-electropnic systems ................................. 15

Vacuum solutions ............................................. 10

Electrical checkout systems .............................. 6

Oreder pickers .................................................. 30

Ventilators ........................................................ 10

Electrical products............................................ 35

Paint circulation systems .................................. 34

Vertical line series ............................................ 17

Electronic control units .................................... 45, 53

Paint pumps ..................................................... 34

Vertical machining centres ............................... 1, BC

Photoelectric sensors ....................................... 31

Vision sensors ................................................... 31

Plant information display systems.................... 6

VMCs - linear series........................................... 17

Plastic moulded components ........................... 16

Vna man down ................................................. 30

Powder coating systems ................................... 34

Vna man up ...................................................... 30

Power chucking cylinders ................................. BC

Wire connectors................................................ 35

Programmable logic controllers ....................... 31

Wire forms ........................................................ 3

Sealer dispensing systems ................................ 34 Seat assemblies ................................................ 16 Self adhesive tapes ........................................... 10 Sensors ............................................................. 41 Silicon carbide based particulate ďŹ lters ........... 43 Solderless terminals ......................................... 35 Solid carbide drills ............................................ 39 Solid carbide mills ............................................ 39 Solid carbide reamers....................................... 39 Solid carbide special drills ................................ 39 Solid carbide special mills ................................ 39 Solid carbide special reamers ........................... 39 Spray guns ........................................................ 34 Spray painting equipment ................................ 20 Stacker .............................................................. 30 Strip steels ........................................................ 4 Switching relays ................................................ 31

Looking for a Supplier? We will make your search simple. Just type AM (space) Segment of the Supplier and send it to 51818.

eg. AM (space) Castings and send it to 51818.

FIC : Front Inside Cover BIC : Back Inside Cover BC: Back cover

Taps .................................................................. BIC Temperature controllers ................................... 31 Timers .............................................................. 31 Tool bits ............................................................ 4 Tool steel .......................................................... 4 Torsion springs ................................................. 3 Tungsten carbide metal cutting tools ............... 9 Turning machine solutions ............................... 28-29 Turrets .............................................................. BC Tyre-pressure monitoring systems .................... 6

Auto Monitor

Advertiser’s Name & Contact Details

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

ADVERTISERS’ LIST

52 Pg No

Ace Designers Ltd

Advertiser’s Name & Contact Details G W Precision Tools India Pvt Ltd

Pg No 39

Advertiser’s Name & Contact Details Omron Automation Pvt. Ltd.

T: +91-80-28360508

T: +91-80-40431252

T: +91-80-40726400

E: ams@bgl.vsnl.net.in

E: info@gwindia.in

E: in_enquiry@ap.omron.com

W: www.amsindia.net

W: www.gwindia.in

ADEA

W: www.adea.in Anand Automotive Ltd

Google India Private Limited

T: +91-11-26564542

Osram India Pvt Ltd.

W: www.osramindia.com BIC

Padmini Vna Mechatronics Pvt. Ltd.

E: arpita.bhatia@anandgroupindia.com

T: +91-80-40322500

T: +91-124-3207398/99

W: www.anandgroupindia.com

E: info@guhring.in

E: sales@padminiengg.com

Assab Sripad Steels Ltd

T: +91-44-24951980

Carl Zeiss India (Bangalore) Pvt Ltd

T: +91-80-66246600

W: www.assabsripad.com

T: +91-80-43438102 E: imtndia@zeiss.co.in

Precision Components Corporation 37

W: www.dynatherm.in JMX Works 41

T: +91-20-40147840

45 Presto Stantest Pvt Ltd

T: +91-124-4147912

E: presto@vsnl.com

W: www.jmxworks.com

W: www.prestogroup.com

W: www.cognex.com Jyoti Cnc Automation Pvt. Ltd. 12

T: +91-22-3308 8249 E: Commercial.India@damco.com

T: +91-22-65803331

E: info@jyoti.co.in

E: sales@spraytec.net

T: +91 22 3226 6868

Larsen & Toubro Limited

M And M Auto Indus Ltd

Meiban Engineering Technologies Pvt Ltd

E: getcranes@emech.in

E: sales-turning@meibanengg.com

W: www.emech.in

W: www.meibanengg.com

E: sreelakshmitraders@gmail.com

Sumitron Exports Pvt Ltd.

T: +91-11-41410631 28-29

E: sumitron@vsnl.com W: www.sumitron.com Toyota Material Handling India Pvt Ltd

T: +91-09582255579 E: info.sales@tmhin.toyota-industries.com

Micromatic Machine Tools

T: +91-09819552270

T: +91-80-41492285

E: engexpo@infomedia18.in

E: mmtblr@acemicromatic.com

Molex Incorporated

E: sales.in@etas.com

E: adam.ong@molex.com

W: www.etas.com

W: www.molex.com

T: +91-240-2556227 E: varroc.info@varrocgroup.com 27

W: www.varrocgroup.com World Courier India Pvt Ltd

T: +86-28-8789-5088

T: +91-80-4191 6581

W: www.toyotamaterialhandlingindia.com Varroc Engineering Pvt Ltd

W: www.acemicromatic.com

W: www.engg-expo.com

T: +91-80-43438607 E: ripudaman@worldcourier.co.in W: www.worldcourier.com

Napino Auto & Electronics Ltd.

Yamazaki Mazak India Pvt Ltd

T: +91-253-6618100

T: +91 124 2290050

E: sales@foxindia.net

E: info@napino.com

E: sudhir_patankar@mazakindia.com

W: www.foxindia.net

W: www.napino.com

W: www.mazak.com

FIC : Front Inside Cover BIC : Back Inside Cover BC: Back cover

T: +91-44-24343343

W: www.sreelakshmitraders.com

T: +91-80-26860600

T: +91-20-66542222

Fox Solutions

W: www.schmalz.com Sreelakshmi Traders

W: www.mandmsprings.com

W: www.elantas.com

T: +91-20-40725500 E: schmalz@schmalz.co.in

E: corporate@mandmsprings.com

E: sanjay.patil@alanta.com

Etas Automotive India Pvt Ltd

T: +91-124-4763200

T: +91-20-30210600

Engineering Expo

W: www.safexpress.com

W: www.larsentoubro.com

W: www.ecocat.com

T: +1800-113-113

Schmalz India Pvt.Ltd.

E: SM.Haridas@larsentoubro.com

E: alok@ecocatindia.com

Safexpress Private Limited

E: suyash.srivastava@safexpress.com

T: +91-9967800456

T: +91-129-4266500

Electromech Material Handling Sys Pvt Ltd

T: +91-09313137970

W: www.kamalenvirotechgroup.com

W: www.dynetek.com

Elantas Beck India Pvt Ltd

.FIC

E: enquiry@kamalcedsolution.com

E: write2us@dynetekindia.com

Ecocat India Pvt Ltd

Kamal Ced Solutions LLP

W: www.spraytec.net

W: www.jyoti.co.in

Rohan Standox Autolack

T: +91-2827-287081

W: www.damco.com Dynetek Cylinders India Pvt. Ltd.

T: +91-129-4272727

E: info@jmxworks.com

E: sales.in@cognex.com

Damco India Pvt. Ltd.

T: +91-40-65229339, 27242339 E: info@dynatherm.in

W: www.indianoil.co.in

W: www.zeiss.co.in Cognex Sensors India Pvt Ltd

T: +91-22-27780310

W: www.patvin.co.in

W: www.imtma.in Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

Patvin Engineering (P) Ltd

E: patvin@patvin.co.in

E: imtma@imtma.in 15

W: www.padminivna.com

W: www.guhring.in Indian Machine Tool Mfg. Association

E: chennai@assabsripad.com

T: +91-09871474036 E: pankaj.pandey@osram.com

W: www.indiagetonline.in Guhring India Private Limited

W: www.omron-ap.com

T: +1800-266-3000 13

Pg No

T: +91-2137-668800

Our consistent advertisers

PADMINI VNA MECHATRONICS PVT. LTD.

PADMINI VNA

Regd. Office : 5, Padmini Enclave, Haus Khas, New Delhi -110016 Factory : Jal Vihar, Basai - Garhi Road, Dhankot, Distt. Gurgaon, Haryana (India) Ph.: +91-124-3207398/99 Mobile : +91 9818610607, +91 9810384215 E-mail : sales@padminiengg.com, Website : www.padminivna.com

Auto Monitor

THE OTHER SIDE

Getting Personal with Chris Villavarayan, Managing Director, Meritor India If not in the auto industry, where would you be? Construction What car do you drive? What do you dream of driving? Innova. What car will I drive? An ALL Dost minivan Your most recent indulgence… Pistachio ice cream What are you currently reading? Steve Jobs’ ‘Innovation’ What is Mr Chris Villavarayan doing when not talking auto? Building teams Outdoor activities you would miss ofﬁce for… Walk on a beach! Where did you go for your last holiday? Mahabalipuram You get angry when… When plan B does not work and we do not have a plan C What is the one thing you would like to change about you? Spending more time with my family Best thing to have happened to you…. My wife and children, a close second would be my team in India

In Person Chris Villavarayan graduated as a Civil Engineer from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He has 16 years of leadership experience in operations management, strategic planning, and project management, delivering flawless execution of cost reduction programmes, production transfers, facility rationalisation and greenfield startups. He has worked as the General Manager of European Operations based in Italy before coming to India. He is uniquely skilled at developing ing cohesive and collaborative teams, while empowering employees to drive out waste and improve the bottom line ne of the company’s performance. His enthusiasm and ability to confront tough situations and turn them into to beneficial ones for the company has been one of hiss strong attributes. nd a never say die Excellent operational knowledge and attitude has catapulted him towards success. Villavarayan has been associated with Meritor since ng Director, Meritor 2000 and presently, as the Managing India, he has turned the company’s presence in India around by expanding its footprint to cover more than six locations, improve product qualials ty multifold, expand business verticals d and has given Meritor India a world class facility in Automotive Axles. On the personal front, Chris loves to travel to places with a water body and makes sure he gets a chance to visit one with his family as and when his hectic travel and work schedule permits. A proud father of two sons, Chris has a natural ability to inspire the younger generation to over-perform.

An experience I won’t forget… Spending time with my colleague, Nanda and the aftermarket team...!

Illustration: Sachin Pandit

16 - 31 MARCH 2012

Regn. No. MH/MR/WEST/20/2012-2014. RNI No. MAHENG/2000/11414 Licenced to post at Mumbai patrika channel sorting office G.P.O. Mumbai 400 001. Date Of Mailing:16th & 17th Fortnightly Issue. Date Of Publication: 13th of Every Month