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| World Home » Business » | Wed. Oct 8, 2008 |
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TATA Motors to create revolution to introduce People's car in India MIL/NYT, Oct 12, 2007. New Delhi: October 12, 2007 – Tata Motors is to create a revolution in India to change most of the world drives. Next fall, the Indian automaker Tata Motors is scheduled to introduce its long-awaited People’s Car, with a sticker price of about $2,500 or Rs. 200,000.00. Hot on its tail may be as many as half a dozen new ultra-affordable vehicles — some from the world’s leading carmakers, including Toyota and Renault-Nissan. With a median age of just under 25 and a rapidly expanding middle class, India will overtake China next year as the fastest-growing car market, according to estimates by CSM Worldwide, an auto industry forecasting service. To tap that emerging market, automakers are starting to respond to Indians’ desire for small and cheap cars. As a result, car companies are coming up with new ways to develop and build automobiles worldwide. “Ask one billion people, and 99 percent of them are going to say they want a car,” said Jagdish Khattar, managing director of Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest car manufacturer. “The problem is, How many can afford it?” For a long time, only a few carmakers in India concerned themselves with that question. The small-car market in this country is dominated by Hyundai Motors India, Tata and Maruti Suzuki, which is a joint venture between Maruti of India and Suzuki of Japan. Maruti Suzuki has more than 50 percent of the car market, thanks to models already as low as 195,000 rupees (about $5,000). Now, foreign carmakers are entering the competition, increasing pressure to make cheaper yet appealing cars. From June to September alone, Skoda, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, said it would start making and selling the Fabia, its small car, in India; Toyota’s chairman, Fujio Cho, said his company might introduce a new small car to India; Ford Motor executives said they were studying the situation; and Renault-Nissan announced it would set up an engineering and design center, adding to previous plans to build a plant in India. Renault-Nissan — a car-building alliance between Renault of France and Nissan of Japan — has been talking with local scooter maker Bajaj Auto about building a cheap car that analysts say could cost as little as $3,000. Hyundai is adding a new small car model to its existing line and doubling its local production, and Honda is planning a small car tailored to the Indian market. On Thursday, Fiat stepped up a partnership with Tata, announcing a 50-50 joint venture to make cars, engines and transmissions in India for the domestic and overseas markets. India differs from giant slow-growth and no-growth auto markets like the United States and Western Europe, and even from fast-growing markets like China, in that the emphasis is on small, low-cost cars — but with four doors, not two, and room for the extended family. Full Sory: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/business/worldbusiness/12cars.html?th&emc=th
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