Mitsubishi to make Outlander in India

Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has decided to manufacture its sports utility vehicle Outlander in India, through its Indian joint venture with Hindustan Motors (HM), a C K Birla Group company.

The Indian JV currently manufactures the Lancer range of sedans, sells Montero, a premium segment sedan, and imports completely built SUV Pajero.

The company had earlier considered the option of importing Outlander as a fully-built unit for the Indian market.

Mitsubishi Motors' President Osamu Masuko said at the sidelines of the Geneva Motor Show that plans were afoot to import Outlander into India either as fully knocked down or partly knocked down units.

Against importing a fully built car into India, the other two routes would save as much as 70-80 per cent in customs duty, thus enabling the company to go for competitive pricing. Outlander at present is sold in other markers at around $29,000 to $30,000 (around Rs 12 lakh).

Masuko said that though the Indian venture was not a great success so far, the Japanese partner would commit larger resources for making the Indian operations more successful.

"We will continue the good relations (with our Indian partners). We have no plans to buy them out," Masuko said.

"We could not concentrate so far (on the Indian venture) due to limited resources," he added.

Though the company does not plan to enter the compact car segment in India, it hopes to treble its sales to 10,000 units a year over the next two years. However, this does not include sales of HM's own offerings, Ambassador, Trekker, Porter and Pushpak range of multi-utility vehicles.

Masuko, however, did not elaborate on the strategy his company would adopt to achieve the goal of trebling sales of the Mitsubishi range.

He said that future success of the venture including its plans to assemble Outlander would be pegged on greater localisation. Hindustan Motors has three plants in India, one each at Uttarpara, Pithampur and Chennai.

Citroen seeks local partner for compacts

French carmaker Citroen has kick started its hunt for a local partner in India. After finding a local partner, the company intends to foray into the compact car segment in India with its C1 and C2 range.

A company spokesperson at the Geneva Motor Show said that talks were on with more than one party and no definite timeframe can be committed on concluding a definite deal. This is not the first time Citroen is planning to make its foray into the Indian market.

While it has for the last five years shown interest to enter India, another group company Peugeot had a full-fledged operation in India, first as a joint venture with Premier Automobiles and later on its own by selling the small sedan 309.