Cars Competition Continues
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Market Survey BY: DR I. SATYA SUNDARAM CARS ComPETITIon ContINUES Big battles are ahead in small cars. While Tata’s Rs 1.3-lakh Nano is expected to hit the market by October, General Motors too is planning a very small car. Bajaj Auto has already unveiled the prototype of its small car that will run 34 km for every litre of fuel! he Indian car market is and some base models of the Hy- of non-car owners. in upbeat mood. The en- undai Santro and Maruti’s Wagon-R. In India, over 12.88 million try-level car market is These are priced below Rs 3 lakh to households out of the 19 million estimated at 4 lakh units Rs 3.5 lakh on the road. The immedi- households with annual income a year, primarily consist- ate potential demand for a car at 1.6 above Rs 2 lakh currently do not own Ting of Maruti-Suzuki’s 800 and Alto million units is based on the number a car (either new or second hand). Tata’s Rs 1.3-lakh Nano Market Survey launch of the Swift Dzire. The com- Second-hand Cars pany is trying to push export sales, The used car market is estimated to be nearly as big in size as the new car market which contribute 7 to 8 per cent of with nearly a million vehicles changing hands annually. With half a dozen organised players the total production. in the market, the risk factor is certainly low. Maruti has not given up its ex- Some prefer the charms of a used car over a new one. People who want to move from periments. In 2003 the Alto did the a small car to a luxury car but cannot afford to buy directly from the showroom will opt unthinkable when it overtook the for second-hand cars. Some people are car crazy. They change cars very frequently. For Maruti 800 for the first time on the such people, the used cars come handy. Before purchasing a second-hand car, the follow- sales charts in 22 years. While the ing rules may be observed: 1.1-litre engine was dropped, Maruti 1.Get all the relevant ownership documents; continued to tinker with the Alto’s 2.The original owner needs to inform the RTO where the car is registered. No objection pricing and offered more variants on certificate need to be obtained; the 800cc engine platform. 3.The new owner needs authenticated copies of the registration, insurance certificate Maruti has decided to replace the and also proof of tax payment; old Esteem with the Swift Sedan, 4.The car has to be presented at the RTO during the transfer of registration. called the Dzire. The car has been It may be concluded that customers are so well informed these days that there is no completely redesigned from the sec- scope for deception. However, one has to look at as many cars as possible before one ond pillar onwards (behind the front finalises a purchase. The overall condition of the car needs to be examined with the help door). The car gets a boot with a of a mechanic. raised trunk lid that can take good amount of luggage and a chrome strip across the lid above the number Some of the most commonly de- for cars like Alto, Maruti 800 and plate. The Dzire has four variants: manded models in the market in- Wagon R. However, Swift and Estilo LXi, VXi and ZXi and a ZDi (diesel clude Maruti’s Swift, Zen Estilo, buyers are forced to wait for a month variant). Chevrolet Spark and Skoda’s Fabia. or two. These models are currently carry- Currently, the company is able to Tata Motors ing a waiting period of about one to produce just 66,000 to 68,000 units three months. a month, which falls short of the de- Tata Indica is a good car for the Helped by a lower excise duty of mand. It recorded a growth of 13.3 hard earned money. The market is 12 per cent (against 24 per cent for per cent during 2007-08 due to the no doubt value-conscious. Tata Mo- bigger cars), small cars account for success of Zen Estilo, Swift and SX4. tors has been constantly changing almost three quarters of car sales The company registered a sharp 212 and improving the car over the years in India. The market leader in this per cent growth in 2007-08 in the and the Indica DiCOR is the latest segment is Maruti-Suzuki. Small car A3 segment. This was on account of in this line of changes and improve- sales are expected to nearly double sustained demand for SX4, and the ments. The all-new Indica that was to 2 million units a year by 2010, helped by the rising middle-class in- come. Eco-friendly Cars Vehicles powered by internal combustion engines are of many kinds and classified as Maruti: the undisputed petrol or diesel engine driven, two-stroke or four-stroke engine powered, two wheelers, leader three wheelers, passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, etc. Major pollutants from automobiles are carbon monoxide (CO), hydro carbons (HC), The now venerable Maruti 800 oxides of nitrogen (Nox), lead compounds and sulphur compounds. Large engines emit made its bow in 1982, heralding a large quantities of pollutants compared to smaller engines and the quantity of pollutants revolution in not just the automotive dumped into the atmosphere depends on the vehicle population. industry but the very lifestyle of the Indian auto giants have tied up for hydrogen vehicles. Five automobile majors—Bajaj Indian. A comparatively sleeker look Auto, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra and Eicher Motors—have come and Japanese (Suzuki) technology together to develop hydrogen-blended compressed natural gas (HCNG) run vehicles. The combined to make it the most sought pilot project will use CNG with different blends of hydrogen ranging from 12 per cent to after car in the country. Maruti Ud- 30 per cent in different vehicles. The project will use hydrogen as an automotive fuel for yog now has eleven models—five the first time in India. of them in the small car segment Some believe that environment-friendly electric cars will dominate the future as auto- alone—and nearly 100 variants. makers join the fight against global warming. At the international level, efforts are on to Maruti has experienced a healthy produce zero-emission cars. growth. It is able to satisfy demand Market Survey Trends in Car Sales (units) Year Sales 2001-02 509,088 2002-03 541,491 2003-04 696,153 2004-05 820,179 2005-06 882,094 2006-07 1,076,582 2007-08 1,203,531 costs Rs 4.33 lakh (ex-showroom, Maruti Suzuki Alto Mumbai). This makes it Rs 27,000 more expensive than the turbo-die- sel Indica DLG. Tata has also launched the cheap- est-of-its-kind product—the Tata In- digo CS (compact saloon) is said to be the cheapest saloon in the world. Priced at 379,000 (ex-showroom, Mumbai), it is Rs 91,220 cheaper than the regular Indigo’s base vari- ant. In fact, the regular Indigo will continue to be produced and sold alongside the CS. Fiat India Automobile (FIAPL), a 50:50 joint venture between Ita- Hyundai i10 ly’s Fiat group and Tata Motors, will make an additional invest- ment of Rs 23,410 million in the Ranjangaon plant near Pune to increase production capacity. The companies have so far invested Rs 16,790 million in the facility. The additional amount will enable the plant to manufacture 2 lakh cars, 3 lakh engines and 3 lakh units of other spare parts, gear-boxes and accessories. The project is expected to reach the peak of its production capacity by 2012. Tata’s all new Sumo Grande has arrived. The old Sumo was not popular. The new design is impres- Chevrolet Spark sive. There is plenty of space in- cluding the very useable third row. Its contemporary look is a genera- unveiled at the Auto Expo held in power) has gone up marginally. tion ahead of its predecessor. The Delhi in January 2008 is also set to The increase in power delivery also interiors have been completely hit the market soon. translates into less gear shifting. changed and the new stylish steer- The DiCOR engine puts out 68 The DiCOR is a little bit smoother ing wheel and gear lever look awe- bhp—almost identical to the older than the turbo-diesel but too much some. Grande is priced at Rs 7.84 turbo diesel—but torque (putting noise still enters the cabin. The car (ex-showroom). Market Survey and give the car its own identity. Even at the rear, the car looks great with distinctive tail lights, tailgate and sharply cut bumper. Small cars: Big potential Sanjay Gandhi promised cheap car or the poorman’s car, but it re- mained only on paper. As a result of liberalisation policy of the govern- ment, Daewoo and another South Korean auto giant Hyundai came in with their small cars—Daewoo’s Ma- tiz and Hyundai’s Santro. Both were instant hits, and for the first time, Maruti-Suzuki Zen Estilo the Indian consumer had a wide choice of small cars. Santro and Ma- Tata Motors announced price re- highway Spark has a clear edge with tiz (the latter faded with the collapse ductions in the range of Rs 8500 to 16.9 kmpl. of the South Korean parent company Rs 15,300 on the Indica and Indigo which was ultimately taken over by CS after the budget 2008-09.