The curtains came down on Singur on the evening of 3rd October, 2008 as Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors announced his company's decision to withdraw the Nano project from Singur. Addressing the media post the announcement of the pullout, Tata expressed anguish over the heightened level of agitation and hostility by the opposition parties in West Bengal over the Nano project, and which would result in a concern for the physical security of their staff, contractors and vendors. “Through the two years we have faced enormous destruction, and assault and intimidation on to some of our people. By taking all things into account, mainly the well being our employees, the security of our contractors and in fact our vendors also, we have taken the very regretful decision to move the Nano project out of West Bengal”, he added. “There is responsibility to our shareholders, we cannot let lie something in limbo, cannot let our investment lie….and I do hope that where ever we move we can look back and learn a lesson a congenial environment will be there for such a project to prosper”. 

Prior to announcing the decision, Rata Tata had a meeting with the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and minister in charge, department of commerce and industries, Nirupam Sen. With the exit from West Bengal certain, the Nano is now expected to roll out from Pantnagar where Tata already makes the Ace LCV, followed by Dharwad where Tata is said to have just started the rollout of Marcopolo buses. If West Bengal would ever be a part of Nano project in the future, it is expected to be a satellite facility, and part of an arrangement that would resemble “hub and spoke”. Again depending on the situation then. The question at present is how much would the Nano project get delayed and what would be the cost implcations. The answers to which are expecte dto be announced in the coming days.

Visitors at the Paris Motor Show this year will notice the absence of Chinese players like Great Wall and Landwind, which put up huge displays at the 2006 show. Only two Chinese players, Brilliance and China Automobile France, made an appearance this year. The reasons attributed to the absence of a large number of Chinese players is the combination of tough European conditions, a focus on serving the fast-growing China market, and difficulties in adequately meeting European emissions and crash-testing standards, all of which are said to have dissuaded the Chinese from making a major play for Europe right now. 

And while some of the manufacturers, notably Great Wall, drew praise for some of their designs, they have yet to sign up any distributors in major European markets. Brilliance is already selling cars in Europe, and is rolling out a range of models in a number of markets, but progress has been slow, and a poor EuroNCAP score has done its image no good. The same problems – especially a much-publicised independent crash test – has sent Landwind back to the drawing board. The company now plans to wait until it has more suitable models before making a play in Europe. 

The other Chinese exhibitor, the French division of China Automobile Deutschland, a controversial German company that caused a major cry at last year’s Frankfurt Show, when it upset a number of manufacturers by showing cars that were blatant copies of established models, including the BMW X5 and Toyota RAV4, showed two new original models – a leisure-oriented lightweight 4x4 called the Kiff. This is made by Shanghai Xingyue Power Machinery co, and is powered by a 812cc three-cylinder Chery petrol engine. It’s on sale now, priced around £8,000. The other was a cute electric city car called the Chika. This prototype was designed by China’s best-known car stylist Li Shi Guang Ming, who is working on a range of original designs for China Automobile.

Armed with a $500-million investment outlay, Ford Motors has set early 2010 as the target to launch a small car in India, start its new engine-making unit and double the assembly line capacity, a top official said in Chennai. The US-based giant will also unveil its refurbished Ikon by next month to expand its range of offerings in the country that includes Fusion, Endeavour and Fiesta, said Michael Boneham, Managing Director and President of Ford India. "Ford now has a presence in only 30 per cent of India's automobile market segments. We are entering other segments too. 

These are exciting times," Boneham told a news agency at the company's factory at Maramalai Nagar on the outskirts of the Tamil Nadu capital. "We are also commissioning a new engine manufacturing unit. It will serve both the domestic and global markets. It will have the flexibility to produce diesel and petrol engines. The idea is to go for higher localisation in the months to come," he added. 

Speaking about the small car project, the Ford official said it was being designed and developed specifically for India by a global team. "It will meet the needs of Indian conditions - like water wading, air-conditioning and emission standards," he said.

Germany-based automobile major Audi announced the local assembly of its new model, Audi A4, at its Aurangabad plant in Maharashtra, the company said in a statement. "Audi A4 is our second Audi model to be produced at our group plant in Aurangabad after the Audi A6," said Frank Dreves, Member of the Board of Management for Production at Audi AG. "By 2015, we will have over 11,000 Audi A4 and 7,000 Audi A6 models on Indian roads. The investment would be over 30 million euros (Rs 1.68 billion) for our Indian production site," he added. 

Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member, Board of Management for Marketing and Sales, said India was one of the most important future growth markets for his company. "Compared to last year, the sale of our cars this year has gone up by over 190 per cent to 700 units," Schwarzenbauer said. Audi aims to sell about 1,000 units of the whole model range this year, 3,000 units per year by 2010 and 10,000 units per year by 2015, the company said.