The Festival of Colours - Holi

As Nano Sales Fall, Tata Motors Invests on Jaguar and Land Rover to Raise Profits

When Tata Motors bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in 2008, it had great plans for both brands. Driven by sales of the sub-$5,000 Nano, the Indian conglomerate would have enough funds to secure their future. Now it seems that the tables have turned, and it's the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit that may have to bring in the profits.

Tata Motors reported an 8.5% drop in sales in India for the first quarter of 2011, due to rising interest rates in a country where, according to Bloomberg, 80% of new car sales are based on loans.

Demand for the Nano dropped by a whopping 48% in the last two months alone. Jaguar's global sales dropped even more in the first quarter, as the luxury carmaker reported a 27% decrease.

“Tata Motors had a pretty flat quarter as far as Jaguar sales are concerned, and Indian passenger vehicles sales went down” said Juergen Maier, a manager at Raiffeisen Capital Management in Vienna.

“Everyone is looking at the Evoque and also the product launches from Jaguar that will help increase sales”. Ashvin Chotai, the managing director of Intelligence Automotive Asia, agrees: “The company now revolves around the JLR unit and not the other way around”.

Fortunately for Tata, Land Rover is doing quite well: its sales in the past quarter grew by 22% to 50,747 units. And the Range Rover Evoque has already 18,000 orders even before it officially goes on sale in September, something that according to the brand’s director, John Edwards, will create a waiting list “well into next year” for new buyers.

Tata also has in the pipeline several Jaguar products including a Sport Break version of the XF and the exotic 200 mph C-X75 hybrid supercar. More importantly, Jaguar will launch a small sedan to rival luxury models like BMW’s 3-Series (hopefully with better results than the X-type).

In order to achieve its goals, the Tata Group plans to invest $2.4 billion annually in the development of 40 new products and variations of Jaguar and Land Rover models in the next five years.

Story source: Bloomberg

PHOTO GALLERY

Ford Announces 45% Increase in Sales in India

Ford's India subdivision announced today that it sold 71,347 units from January 1 until July 31, which corresponds to a 45% increase compared to the same period of 2010 when it delivered 49,131 units.

The Detroit firm wants to further increase its presence in the country and has announced the signing of an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the State of Gujarat to invest approximately $1 billion to build two new plants in addition to the one in Chennai, for vehicle and engine manufacturing on a 460-acre site in Sanand.

“These are exciting times for Ford in India,” said Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India. “We are investing in the future and reinforcing our long-term commitment to India by building two new plants in Gujarat and by adding the new Fiesta to our portfolio. The new Fiesta is the first of eight new vehicles we will bring to India by mid-decade”.

Ford India was established in 1995 and is owned by Ford Motor Company. Until now it operates one factory in Maraimalai Nagar, near Chennai, which produces the Figo, the Fiesta Classic, the Endeavour and the new Fiesta which was launched in April this year.

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Toyota to Launch New Small Cars for China, Brazil and Indonesia

Toyota is planning to launch a new small car designed specifically for China in 2013, according to a report from Reuters citing the Nikkei business daily newspaper.

The new small car will be a little larger than the low-cost Etios that is sold in India. A 1.5-liter gasoline engine will power it and prices are expected to begin from under 1 million yen (approximately US$12,853).

Toyota aims to keep the manufacturing costs of its new China-built small car as low as possible by using many parts from the Etios and is willing to spend some 40 billion yen for the local production of the model at a rate of 200,000 units per year.

The Japanese company wants to raise its 5% market share in the Chinese market by launching the new car with its two local joint ventures, China FAW Group and Guangzhou Automobile Group.

It also plans to more than double the production of the Etios in India, from the current number of 80,000 units to 190,000 by the end of 2013. In addition, it intends to produce another low-cost car in Brazil starting from the second half of 2012, at an annual rate of 70,000 units, as well as manufacturing low-priced cars in Indonesia.

TOYOTA ETIOS

India

Tomorrow I leave for India. Because of the time zones and international date line I won't actually arrive there until early Wednesday morning. The purpose of the journey is to attend an international translator's conference sponsored by Khyentse Rinpoche. Click on the link to see an old photo of Khyentse Rinpoche and me taken during the Lamdre Tsogshe teachings is Rajpur, India, back in 1975. Khyentse Rinpoche is on the far left, Sakya Tridzin Rinpoche is on the far right and I am in the middle. For those very few people that know this blog address and also care about what kind of trouble I get into I will try and keep everyone informed as often as I am able while traveling abroad.

The photo of me and the Bactrian camel is from last year when I was taking a break from lecturing in Mongolia.