German car maker Volkswagen AG’s Rs 700 crore investment and a new small SUV from Mahindra & Mahindra on Indian roads in a fortnight were part of plans revealed by car companies at an annual meeting of their industry body, SIAM, here on Thursday.
John Chacko, group representative, Volkswagen India, said, “We need investments for improving our facilities and making minor changes on products for exports. We are investing euro 100 million across our group companies over the next two years for the same.” The company exports mid-size sedan, Vento, to West Asia, South Africa and Malaysia.
The investments would be made in its group companies Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd, Skoda India Pvt Ltd and Audi India. “Because of various efficiency measures, production levels will go up by 10-15 per cent”, added Chacko.
The company, however, said it would hold on to investments of Rs 2,000 crore it had planned earlier due to uncertain policy environment in Maharashtra.
“Policy decisions have not been favourable. We are continuing to put investment in the state on hold in order to build pressure on the Maharashtra government,” Chacko said.
The Maharashtra government earlier used to refund value-added tax (VAT) on all vehicles sold by companies having manufacturing facilities in the state. The policy was modified last year with the state government announcing it would only provide refund of VAT on vehicles sold within Maharashtra.
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Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) said it had started making the newly launched compact sedan, Swift DZire, at its Gurgaon facility to hasten deliveries of the vehicle which has over 65,000 bookings.
The DZire sub-4 metre, launched in February this year, is manufactured at the MSIL’s troubled Manesar unit.
With production work at the facility severely disrupted by labour unrest for over a month, the company has now tweaked production processes to produce the DZire at Gurgaon additionally.
S Maitra, chief operating officer (COO, supply chain), MSIL, said, “We have started producing the new DZire at Gurgaon after the lock-out was lifted at the Manesar unit last month. The increased production will help us clear pending orders and reduce the waiting period for the car.” The DZire currently has a waiting period of four to five months.
Additionally, the company is also working on increasing production at its Gurgaon unit to recover the production loss it had incurred due to the arson and damage at its Manesar facility. “We are adjusting production at Gurgaon. We will increase production by 10 per cent to 1.15 million units in this financial year”, said M M Singh, COO (production), MSIL.
| SIAM 2012 |
| Toyota to increase exports of Etios to Africa Toyota, which has scheduled to export 20,000 units of petrol-powered Etios to African markets, is looking at increasing supplies to meet strong demand in the continent. Vikram Kirloskar, vice-chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), said, “We are looking at increasing exports by 10-15 per cent due to strong demand for the Etios in Africa.” The company has invested Rs 500 crore to expand capacity in Toyota Auto Parts and will also double exports of petrol engines to 250,000 to units from this year to South Africa and southeast Asia. No decision has been taken regarding establishing a diesel plant in India. TKM has, however, commenced studies to gauge the feasibility of introducing a compact SUV in the country. Force Motors to invest Rs 1,000 crore in 3 years Force Motors has said it will invest nearly Rs 1,000 crore for developing new products and expanding capacity in the next three years. Abhay Firodia, chairman, Force Motors said, “We are in the process of evaluating opening of a third plant. We are looking at locations for this.” Force Motors’ two plants are located at Akurdi in Maharashtra and Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh, which has an annual capacity of about 100,000 units. Ford India to export engines to Europe Ford is looking at exporting engines to Europe to utilise its expanding production capacity in India. “From an engine perspective, we’ll be exporting not just to Europe but also to Thailand,” said Gary Johnson, vice-president, manufacturing, Asia Pacific and Africa. Ford India currently exports 40 per cent of its engine production and 25 per cent of its car production to 35 countries. Ford will have the capacity to build 450,000 cars and 600,000 engines in India by 2015. |
It is estimated that the company lost 36,000 units in production and Rs 1,400 crore in revenues due to the lock-out at Manesar. The company has commenced fresh recruitments and the process of screening and regularising 1,869 contract workers. MSIL expects to have full workforce of 3,300 workers by October, and start full daily production of 1,500-1,700 vehicles at the unit.