Telco Construction Equipment Company Limited (Telcon), a venture between the Tata Group and Hitachi of Japan, has announced that it has signed an agreement with the existing shareholders of Serviplem S.A of Spain for acquisition of their 79per cent stake in the Company. The existing owners of Serviplem will continue to be associated with the venture and own the remaining 21per cent. Serviplem also has a presence in China through a joint venture, facilitating Telcon to leverage growth opportunities in China as well. 

Largest manufacturer of construction equipment in India, Telcon is in the business of designing, manufacturing, assembling, selling, distributing and dealing in all services related to earth moving machinery and construction equipment with manufacturing facilities at Jamshedpur and Dharwad and a marketing and service network across India. Its product range presently includes hydraulic excavators, crawler cranes, wheel loaders, backhoe loaders, dumpers and motor graders. The company is also a pioneer in adopting environment friendly road resurfacing technology. It has formed a joint venture, Telcon Ecoroad Resurfaces, with HCM, GreenArm Japan, and IVRCL India to promote environment-friendly road resurfacing technology in India.

Maruti has unveiled the DZire three-box compact saloon. The car is based on the Swift platform and is powered by a 1.3-litre 87bhp petrol and 1.3-litre (Fiat licensed) common-rail diesel engine. Maruti engineers took 11 months to develop the DZire out of the Swift, and the saloon offers luxury feature options like integrated stereo, steering mounted audio controls, automatic climate control and power windows. It also comes with safety features like Dual Airbags, ABS with EDB, collapsible steering column and an i-CATS anti-theft facility. The DZire (LXi) is priced at Rs 4.7 lakhs ex-showroom Mumbai.

In what is termed as a big milestone for Tata Motors, the company has entered into a definitive agreement with Ford to acquire British automakers Jaguar and Land Rover. With the transfer of ownership to Tata Motors is expected to close by the end of the next quarter, subject to applicable regulatory approvals, the total amount to be paid by Tata Motors for Jaguar and Land Rover upon closing will be approximately US $2.3 billion. Ford, at closing, will contribute up to approximately US $600 million to the Jaguar Land Rover pension plans. 

As part of the deal, Ford will continue to supply Jaguar and Land Rover for differing periods with powertrains, stampings and other vehicle components, in addition to a variety of technologies, such as environmental and platform technologies. Ford also has committed to provide engineering support, including research and development, plus information technology, accounting and other services. In addition, Ford Motor Credit Company will provide financing for Jaguar and Land Rover dealers and customers during a transitional period, which can vary by market, of up to 12 months. 

Expressing his pleasure over the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover, Rata Tata, chairman, Tata Motors, remarked, “Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Motors, Mr. Ratan N. Tata, said, “We have enormous respect for the two brands and will endeavour to preserve and build on their heritage and competitiveness, keeping their identities intact. We aim to support their growth, while holding true to our principles of allowing the management and employees to bring their experience and expertise to bear on the growth of the business.” 

Interesting, after Ford acquired Jaguar in 1989 and Land Rover in 2000, it has blended a number of operations that make the two brands dependent on each other for complementing capabilities. Both the auto brands have a number of models in the pipeline and with support from other Ford brands. Ford is therefore expected to be involved for sometime to come even though Tata assumes full control of the two brands. The best part of the deal for Tata is expected to stem from the technology and experience possessed by Jaguar and Land Rover, which are not only one of the oldest automakers in Europe but also the ones that command a large brand following. 

Tata Motors is claimed to have a R&D team stationed in the UK, which works in close co-operation with the ERC at Pune, and the takeover is only expected to further thrust the R&D efforts. For reasons like costs, Tata, in the near future, is expected to transfer an amount of sourcing tasks to India to further boost the competitiveness of the two British brands. This would however be one of the many challenges the Indian auto major is expected to encounter as it assumes the owner of Jaguar and Land Rover.

In a new development, according to industry sources, Caparo India has entered into an agreement with Hyundai to manufacture their luxury coach in India. To manufacture the coaches that are said to be modeled after Hyundai’s Aerobus, the UK-based company under its division, Caparo Vehicle Products India, is evaluating lands in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The facility, which is expected to employ 200 people initially, will build three variants of Areobus with powertrains in the 320-380 HP range, according to industry sources. 

The coaches are expected to start rolling out by the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010 and will be sold in India. Built from completely knocked down kits, exports are also on the cards with the initial production planed at 1,500 units per annum, claim sources. They add that localisation will be gradually hiked.

Volvo Buses has received an order for an additional 240 city buses to Bangalore. Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), which has placed the order for these buses already, has 70 Volvo buses in its fleet of operations. Deliveries are expected to start during later 2008 and beginning of 2009. Out of the 240, 40 of the buses will be placed in traffic between the city center and the new airport. The remainder will operate on various routes in Bangalore. 

The buses will be built at Volvo’s plant in Bangalore; the chassis at the joint plant with Volvo Trucks and the bodies in Volvo’s new body plant that was inaugurated in January this year. Volvo’s city bus in India is built on the B7RLE chassis and the body is designed after the Volvo 8700 European model. It features low entry, a wheelchair ramp and air conditioning. The 290-hp engine meets the Euro III emission standard.

Fiat India Automobiles has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Maharashtra to enhance the production capacity and for backward integration at its Ranjangaon plant near Pune. The MoU will enable Fiat to ramp up its operations to 200,000 cars, 300,000 engines and 300,000 parts and accessories. 

The capacity ramp up translates in Fiat investing an additional Rs 2, 341 crores over and above the ongoing investment of Rs 1, 679 crores. While this results in a total investment of Rs 4,020 crores, the Ranjangaon plant, spread over 8,50,000 sq mtrs. is a 50:50 joint venture between Fiat and Tata Motors.

Gulf has introduced a new gneration lube for new age bikes. The lube, Gulf Pride 4T Plus (10W-30) is a synthetic blend 4 stroke motor cycle oil and offers a significantly enhanced longer oil change interval based on its prevailing technology in the already available Gulf Pride 4T Plus (20W-40) series oils; a unique fuel saving formula that will ensure lower fuel consumption and enable the customer to go the extra mile. 

Ravi Chawla, President-Lubes Business, Gulf Oil said at the launch: “Gulf understands the special needs of today’s 4 stroke motorcycle users and our Global Technology team, which is based here in India, has specially formulated these products to deliver additional value-added benefits of longer oil life and fuel saving”. Gulf Oil is a Hinduja Group company.