Major players unveil mega investment plans

Automobile majors today made a slew of mega investment announcements at the annual Siam convention.

Leading the pack was Tata Motor with an announcement to invest over Rs 10,000 -12000 crore in the next four years. Maruti's parent company Suzuki will be shelling out Rs 9000 crore to enhance the capacity of its new diesel plant at Manesar in Haryana.

Hyundai will invest Rs 2350 crore to double its annual capacity from the present three lakh cars per annum to six lakh in another two years. It will export half of the production by 2008. Honda will be investing about Rs 940 crore to enhance its capacity from the present 60,000 cars.

"We will be producing 2 lakh cars by the end of 2008. There has been tremendous demand for our cars and to meet the expectations of the customers both in quantity and quality we will spend this amount to establish another plant in India," said Masahiro Takedagawa, President and CEO, Honda Siel Cars India.

Mahindra group is going in for a greenfield project in Maharashtra and for major acquisitions in Europe. "We have major acquisition plans in Europe. We will also be going for a greenfield project in Maharashtra soon, but the total investment could not be disclosed at this point," said Anand Mahindra, managing director, Mahindra and Mahindra.

Mico Bosch will establish a research & development unit in Coimbatore for its diesel fuel based systems for the global market.