Vehicle registrations up in February, but not by as much expected. Jaguar Land Rover Shelves Plan to Sell Bonds to Raise Cash. EV batteries: Rare good news from a rare metal: Reserves of lithium, critical for EV batteries, found near Bengaluru. Bengaluru: Good omen for electric vehicles?
Reserves of lithium, a rare metal critical to build batteries for electric vehicles, have been discovered in Mandya, 100 km from Bengaluru — a find that should boost local manufacturing of EV batteries. Researchers at the Atomic Minerals Directorate, a unit of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, have estimated lithium reserves of 14,100 tonnes in a small patch of land surveyed in the Southern Karnataka district, according to a paper to be published in the forthcoming issue of journal Current Science. “The present data provides a total estimation of available Li2O as about 30,300 tonnes over an area of 0.5 km x 5 km, which works out to about 14,100 tonnes of lithium metal,” said N Munichandraiah, Emeritus Professor at the Indian Institute of Science and an expert on battery technologies. But, to put this in perspective, the lithium find is small compared to many major producers. N Chandrasekaran’s One-Tata Plan Gets Going With Tata Nexon EV. Auto Slowdown: Two-Wheelers, Commercial Vehicles Drag Down Retail Auto Sales In 2019.
Maruti Suzuki Cars: What Goes In Maruti Suzuki’s Favour As Auto Shares Rebound. ICICI Bank’s Smart EMI: Only for those who compulsively change car models frequently. Do you want to drive a car with the option of switching models every three to five years?
BS-VI effect: Auto firms see PV sales rising in December - Rediff.com. A nationwide and compulsory switch to BS-VI is due from April 1, 2020.
Amid increase in input and other costs, companies had decided to hike the price of their vehicles from January 2020. This is expected to push sales of passenger vehicles by 2 to 4 per cent in December. After a tough environment for 15 months, the automobile industry now faces the final set of hurdles in the transition to BS-VI emission rules, say analysts. ‘Business as usual’ is likely, they expect, from the second quarter (July-September) of the coming financial year. A nationwide and compulsory switch to BS-VI is due from April 1, 2020. Amid increase in input and other costs, companies had decided to hike the price of their vehicles from January 2020. Why BS-VI transition could hurt Hero Motocorp more than Bajaj Auto and TVS. Hero Motocorp Ltd is the country’s largest two-wheeler maker, enjoying about half the market share with a dominance in motorcycles.
Yet, its stock has been the worst performer among peers in the past year. Hero Motocorp’s stock trades at 14 times its one-year forward estimated earnings, while peers Bajaj Auto Ltd and TVS Motor Company Ltd trade at 18 and 25 times, respectively. What gives? Analysts say Hero’s profitability may be hit the hardest in FY20 and FY21 among two-wheeler firms due to the transition to BS-VI compliant vehicles, starting April. Anand Mahindra says entering commuter 2-wheeler space was a mistake. Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the homegrown auto group Mahindra & Mahindra, on December 11 admitted that entering the commuter bike segment more than a decade ago was a failure on the part of the group.
Historic Slump in China Car Market Continues as Sales Drop 6.6% Used Cars, Not Just Millennials, Likely Behind India Auto Slowdown. Auto slowdown: The lady doth protest too much, methinks! Home Slowdown Blues Story Auto slowdown: The lady doth protest too much, methinks!
Indian Auto Industry Growth Story About To Collapse: Tata Motors MD. Royal Enfield’s Problem Is Bigger Than The Auto Slowdown. Retail Auto Sales Fall To 20-Month Low In August. Auto Sales Continue To Decline In July, Says FADA. CLSA's top stock ideas in auto sector after Q1 earnings. Auto Updated : 2019-08-19 14:58:11 The auto companies reported weak June-quarter results on the back a sever slowdown due to slowing consumer demand and increased registration charges and taxes on vehicle purchase.
The outlook also does not look good for the auto firms as top original equipment manufacturer such as Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp have announced plant shutdowns ahead of the upcoming festive season. The Nifty Auto index has fallen nearly 5 percent as of the end of the June quarter and has declined nearly 12 percent since then. For the year, the index has slumped 23 percent. Maruti Suzuki (Buy | TP: Rs 7,200 ): CLSA believes Maruti is the best way to play a potential recovery given the higher likelihood of a rebound in PVs, the superior long-term growth outlook for the segment, its solid franchise and benign competition. This week in Auto: Electric Vehicle companies spring up like mushrooms; Carmakers plan job cuts amid slowdown. Given the nature of the business the automobile industry is operated behind an iron wall.
A tightly knit community, which makes it nearly impossible for anybody new to enter the business, the industry is dominated by a handful of dictated mobility needs for decades. But the foundation of the industry is getting a rude jolt with the thrust of e-mobility. New entities are formed overnight and the established ones are rushing to their R&D department to find solutions. More on this later in the copy but here is a look at all the major news that made headlines during the week in the auto space: Tata motors to set up 500 public fast-charging stations for EVs. MUMBAI: Tata MotorsNSE 0.89 % plans to set up a network of 500 public fast-charging stations for electric vehicles in five cities in the next 24 months in partnership with Tata Power to address potential EV buyers’ concerns over per-charge range and long charging time.
The first 300 of these fast-charging stations will come up by the end of this fiscal across key locations in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, the Mumbai-based carmaker announced on Friday. “The top three barriers to EV adoption are price, range anxiety and (lack of) charging infrastructure. Without an ecosystem in place, you can't see demand in the market,” Shailesh Chandra, president of the electric mobility business at Tata Motors, told ET. Maruti job cuts: Maruti Suzuki cuts temporary workforce by 6% as sales sink. NEW DELHI: India's biggest automaker, Maruti SuzukiNSE 2.10 % India Ltd, has cut the number of workers it employs on temporary contracts following a plunge in vehicle sales, it told Reuters.
The auto industry, which accounts for nearly half of India's manufacturing output, is going through one of its worst slowdowns in nearly a decade, with vehicle sales falling rapidly and little sign of a revival anytime soon. The company said it employed 18,845 temporary workers on average during the six months ended June 30, down 6%, or 1,181 people, from the same period last year, adding that job cuts had accelerated since April. It is the first time the reduction has been reported. The listed company doesn't have to disclose reductions in temporary workers. Maruti Suzuki, majority-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, said it had not reduced its permanent workforce -- which numbered 15,892 at the end of March -- over the past year but declined to say whether further reductions were planned. Parliament clears the Bill that will change the way India drives.
The Rajya Sabha today passed The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2019. The bill contains provisions that will make Indian roads safer. The Bill was passed earlier in the Lok Sabha. The Bill proposes huge increases in various penalties for traffic violations, protection to Good Samaritans, recall of defective vehicle parts by auto companies, holding builders accountable for poor quality of infrastructure and making vehicle owners criminally liable for violations committed by juvenile drivers. In a survey conducted last year by Consumer Voice, an organisation involved in policy making and complaints redressal, 96 per cent of the consumers surveyed believed that passage of the Bill would help meet the UN mandate to reduce road accidents up to 50 per cent by 2020.
Ninety-seven per cent felt the Bill should be supported by all the parties since it was important to bring down fatalities due to road accidents, currently the highest in the world at 1.46 lakh annually. JLR looking for financial partnership in China: N Chandrasekaran. MUMBAI: Hit hard by the continuing volume slowdown and mounting losses at its British arm JLR, Tata Motors is looking for partnerships in China to lessen the financial burden on group's bottomline, chairman N Chandrasekaran said on Monday. Addressing the shareholders at the AGM here, Chandra however, pointed out that the automobile sector is such that a company cannot shut the cash tap as the very of this business demands continuous investment in product and technology development.
Chandra also said, more than the final outcome of the Brexit, it's the continuing uncertainty that is hurting JLR in its home market of England and continental Europe, which is the largest source market for the millions of parts that JLR procures annually. "The only way to handle the ongoing crisis and the continuing need for large capex is additional investment through partnerships, because we want to spread the investment, which cannot be shut either.
The Lithium Mine Buildup Is Outpacing the Electric-Car Boom. Automobile Industry News: Dealerships Shut Showrooms, Cut Jobs To Survive Auto Slump. BAIC-Daimler Partnership: China’s BAIC Takes 5% Stake in Daimler to Boost Partnership. Charging Station Builders Still Await Clarity As India Pushes Electric Vehicles. Planning to buy an electric vehicle? Here's how lithium-ion batteries work, explained. Planning to buy an electric vehicle? Here's how lithium-ion batteries work, explained. Tata Chemicals may start manufacturing lithium-ion cells. Tata Chemicals plans to set up a factory to make lithium-ion cells, said two persons directly aware of the matter, as it seeks to capitalize on the emerging electric vehicle (EV) industry in India. The Tata group company, which recently demerged its fast-moving consumer goods business, also plans to undertake research and development on lithium-ion technology to develop suitable applications for the domestic market, especially the EV industry, said the two persons cited above, requesting anonymity.
According to the people mentioned above, Tata Chemicals will play a key role in the long-term plan of sister company Tata Motors to devise an EV ecosystem in India. They said Tata Chemicals has already acquired the land in Dholera town of Gujarat’s Ahmedabad district for the factory. Details such as the investment towards the new factory and operational timelines could not be ascertained immediately. The factory is expected to augment Tata Motors’ ambitions to build a sustainable EV ecosystem. BloombergQuint sur Twitter : "Automation came as a game changer for the auto industry. In our eighth video we take you to the Volkswagen India plant in Chakan, Pune where robots and humans work in unison. #MadeInIndia #Manufacturing Read more.
Hyundai launches India's first electric SUV Kona at a price of Rs 25.3 lakh. Is India's automotive industry ready for an EV makeover? Rahul Sharma cannot be accused of harbouring modest ambitions. “We will bring a complete disruption in India’s 21 million two-wheeler market,” says the man best known as the co-founder of mobile-devices-maker Micromax.
Not so long ago, Micromax was India’s largest seller of mobile handsets. Eight Maruti Suzuki Models Among India’s Top 10 Best-Selling Cars In May. Carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. had eight of its models in India’s Top 10 best-selling cars list for May, amid an extended auto slowdown. Maruti Suzuki Swift was the best-selling car in May with 17,039 units sold—up from the fourth spot in the same month last year when it sold 19,208 units, according to industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Coming in second was entry-level model Alto with 16,394 units sold, as against 21,890 units in the year-ago period. Maruti Suzuki Dzire was third with 16,196 units sold, followed by Baleno (15,176 units), WagonR (14,561 units) and Eeco (11,739 units), Hyundai Creta (9,054 units), Hyundai Elite i20 (8,958 units), Maruti Suzuki Ertiga (8,864 units) and Vitara Brezza (8,781 units).
Retail Car, Bike, Truck Sales Slump To 18-Month Low In June. Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor Strongly Object Niti Aayog Pitch For All Electric Two Wheelers The companies said concerns of all stakeholders must be taken into consideration instead of imposing adoption of electric vehicles. “This (transition to electric two-wheelers) is not like Aadhaar, not a software and print cards. Electricity Billionaire Is Building the Tesla of Thailand. India to acquire reserves of strategic minerals to power the country's move into EVs. Kolkata: India's move to acquire reserves of strategic minerals like lithium and cobalt to power the country's move into electric vehicles is all set to become a reality with three state-owned metal and mining companies due to ink a joint venture agreement early next month. The jv will have National Aluminium CompanyNSE 0.90 % (Nalco), Hindustan Copper (HCL) and Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL) as partners with a shareholding pattern of 34:33:33 respectively.
The initial equity base of the company is expected to be around Rs 100 crore. “The boards of the respective companies have already cleared the proposal. Jaguar, Where’d That Extra $1 Billion Come From? Maruti Suzuki Shuts Production For A Day at Gurugram, Manesar Car Plants. Why Canteen Stores May Also Be One Of India’s Largest Auto Dealers. India Ratings and Research Private Limited : India's Most Respected Credit Rating and Research Agency : FY19: Stable Performance in CV, CE Loans; Improvement in Tractor & MFI Loans; Caution on LAP.
Passenger Vehicle Sales In April Fell The Most In Nearly Eight Years, Says SIAM. Heres the real reason why you are still not driving an electric car. Tata Motors May Drop Small Diesel Cars From Its Portfolio. Electric vehicles should overtake traditional sales in just 20 years #environment #technology… Ride to future: Auto firms are crafting new strategies to stay on track. In this digital era, disruptions have become routine. But not many disruptions are as deep and comprehensive as those facing the automobile industry. To be sure, these upheavals have been in the works for a decade now. In 2009, China overtook the United States in car sales, signalling the decline of Detroit as the world’s car production centre and the shifting of centre of gravity from the West to the East.
That was just a trailer of the coming tectonic shift. Amid technological progress, concerns over fossil fuel emissions and global warming, the century-old internal combustion engine is facing an existential crisis and dirty fuel, diesel, is being abandoned as electric vehicles become the buzzword. Shared mobility platforms — from Ola to Uber — are also impacting the behaviour of potential car buyers. India Ratings and Research Private Limited : India's Most Respected Credit Rating and Research Agency : Auto Monitor: Auto Industry Sales Volume Growth Down 14% yoy in March 2019. Baleno Launch: Maruti Launches Baleno With BS-VI Compliant Petrol Engine. Five Reasons Why Tata Motors Stock Has Surged 50% Since Posting Biggest Loss. 50% local sourcing likely for companies to book EV ride under FAME-II.
NEW DELHI: The government will insist that electric vehicle makers source at least 50% of their components locally if they want to avail of its incentive programme and bid for its orders, even as it looks to promote local manufacturing and discourage imports. An inter-ministerial steering committee led by Niti Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant has decided that only companies that meet the 50% localisation threshold will be eligible for the incentives that will be available under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME-II) scheme to boost electric mobility as well as the ‘Make in India’ initiative. “Government will not use taxpayers’ money to subsidise imports but will push for 50% localisation content as we want to promote local manufacturing,” Kant told ET. The steering committee, which held its first meeting on April 1, has finalised the mission’s approach to make domestic industry competitive at the global level.
With five straight months of falling sales, Royal Enfield's (@royalenfield) decade-old dream run has come to a screeching…” Twitter. Will continue to make diesel cars that customers can afford, says Maruti. Toshniwal Equity sur Twitter : "Top Selling Indian 2 wheelers - Top 3 contributed 38% & Top 10 contributed 66% of overall 2-wheelers - No Royal Enfield Classic in the Top 10 list (with Jawa not yet taken off fully) - Bajaj’s strategy to focus on only bike. Bajaj Auto Gains Market Share At The Cost Of Peers. But Can It Hold On To It? Bajaj Auto Ltd. gained market share at the expense of other two-wheeler makers in the year ended March 2019 as it focused on entry-level cheaper bikes. The market share of the Pune-based company rose over 200 basis points to 12.3 percent, according to Maybank Kim Eng Securities, citing Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers data.
This week in Auto: PV sales slowest in 4 years; Can Ford give up India ops? It is the age of collaboration at the world stage, and India should not be an exception. Extremely competitive market scenarios, challenging regulations, changing buying habits of consumers are leading to a surge in partnerships even from the unlikeliest of pairs. Toshniwal Equity sur Twitter : "Indian Auto (2018 vs 2019) - Top 6 OEMs posted growth albeit in single digits (except Tata Motors) - All OEMs riding on 1 or 2 models for sales growth (except for Maruti) - All OEMs practically now have an offering in all s. Auto Sales: Auto Sales Recover In March But... Rajiv Bajaj: Nobody knows when the growth is going to come back. Nor do we: Rajiv Bajaj. Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj AutoNSE 0.62 %, discusses the significance of his company increasing market share by 8% in the motorcycle segment at a time when growth appears to be difficult to come by.
“Nobody knows when the growth is going to come back. @RajanWadhera1, President, @siamindia says FY19 saw 5% growth in auto industry Vs 7% in FY18; Expect pre-buying ahead of BS-VI emission norms & capacity utilisation was low at 60-70% in the last quarter #SIAM Da. March Passenger Vehicle Sales: Passenger Vehicle Sales Dip 2.96% In March. Ashok Leyland eyeing CIS countries, Africa for setting up assembly plants. Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland is looking to set up more assembly plants overseas, including the CIS region and African countries, as part of plans to scale up its global operations, a top company official said.
The company is banking on its new range of medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV) and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) to help it enter new regions beyond its traditional stronghold such as the Middle East, SAARC countries and pockets of Africa. The Chennai-based Hinduja flagship firm is in the process of developing a new modular platform on which it plans to roll out its future medium and heavy products from next year. The company, which has earmarked a capex of Rs 1,500 crore for various projects during the current fiscal, is also working on a separate platform for light commercial vehicles (LCVs). The company expects to roll out the new range of products from April next year. Hero MotoCorp widens gap over Honda in 2-wheeler sales in FY19. Maruti Production Cut: Maruti Suzuki Cut Vehicle Production By Around 21% In March.
March Auto Sales: M&M Auto Rises 1%; Tractor Sales Plunge. Indian Automobile News: Did Discounting Help Pull Automakers Out Of Gloom? BQ Survey. JSW Energy Puts The Brakes On Electric Vehicle Business Plan. FY20 could see double-digit growth, if we have well-distributed monsoon, says Escorts. FAME-II: India’s Electric Car Rollout Is Undergoing A Rethink. M&M Price Hike: Mahindra To Increase Price Of Vehicles By Up To Rs 73,000 From April. #M&M forecasts a slowdown in tractor ind after 3 good growth yrs, says FY19 will end with sub 10% growth while FY20 will also in all likelihood, be a single digit growth yr. @_soniashenoy with Prez-Farm E.
Rajiv Bajaj, @bajaj_ltd says liquidity, insurance & #crude prices have impacted sales, Minda Ind says H2FY19 has seen 8-10% drop in biz across auto ancillary ind & Rico Auto says exports is growing for co, hope. India Ratings and Research Private Limited : India's Most Respected Credit Rating and Research Agency : Auto Monitor: Commercial Vehicles Report Flattish Growth in February 2019. Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor, Bajaj Auto facing the heat of high inventory levels. India Ratings and Research Private Limited : India's Most Respected Credit Rating and Research Agency : FY20 Auto Ancillary Outlook: OEM & Replacement Demand, Regulatory Advancements to Favour the Industry. India Ratings and Research Private Limited : India's Most Respected Credit Rating and Research Agency : FY20 Auto Outlook: BS-VI Implementation to Drive Demand in 2HFY20; Volumes to Remain Tepid in 1HFY20. Inventory level of two-wheelers across major cities.