The Ecofuel Voolkswagen Caddy was in Mumbai recently as part of its unique global tour. The team, sponsored by Volkswagen, started this record breaking attempt at Volkswagen Hannover in October 2006 and passed through Germany, France, Italy, Egypt, UAE and Pakistan before reaching India. 

Swagelok, a major developer and provider of fluid system component technologies has co-sponsored a team as part of the Ecofuel World Tour – with the aim of demonstrating the long-term quality of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) engine and its components, as well as to highlight the growing use of CNG vehicles in more than 30 countries worldwide. 

Volkswagen chose Swagelok tube fittings, valves and hoses, as reliability and safety are paramount to the exercise. Apart from co-sponsoring the tour, Swagelok technology provided a vital contribution to the Ecofuel World Tour, which also marks an attempt to set a world record by driving a standard natural gas Volkswagen Caddy nearly 28,000 miles (45000 km) across five continents powered only by fuel bought on route. The Tour will raise funds for charity SOS children's village which supports abandoned children and orphans, as well as disadvantaged families worldwide.

Solapur-based Precision Camshafts has acquired a 100 per cent stake in the joint venture, Clancey Precision Components Private Limited (CPCPL), with UK-based G. Clancey. While this has made Precision one of the global leaders in camshafts, the company has also claimed to bag the prestigious orders from BMW and Porsche. The order from BMW and Porsche should add to the bottom line of the company, which had earlier reiterated its focus on passenger car camshaft market. 

“We got a on the site clearance from a seven-people Porsche team, which visited our facility at Solapur for three-day audition”, said Ajit Jain, head of projects, Precision Camshafts. Keeping in view the focus of the company to penetrate the European car market further, the buyout of the 49 per cent stake in the joint venture held by G Clancey from G Clancey’s receivers should present the company with a greater leverage. “We are now free to market our products on our own and this will give us an opportunity to speak about our achievements effectively. We can now offer products that were the hold of G Clancey to our Indian customers as well”, said Yatin Shah, managing director, Precision Camshafts. “The 100 per cent ownership of CPCL has given us the opportunity to look at effective tie-ups with potential customers like DaimlerChrysler and many others”. 

Precision, which has been supplying camshafts to a number of General Motors facilities in Europe, including the Saab facility in Sweden and the Austrian facility where Opel cars are built, will soon start supplying to other GM facilities, namely in S Korea, (Holden) Australia and (Brazil) Latin America. The company, which is running almost at 100 per cent capacity and on the verge of kicking off expansion plans early next year is now looking at a total annual revenue of more than Rs.125 crores for the year 07 -08. 

A family owned firm, Yatin Shah declined to reveal the investment made by Precision to buy the 49 per cent stake. He however revealed that Precision would soon embark on Rs 100-crore expansion plan that would help it up its current capacity of 3.3 miliion cams to 12 million cams by 2010. Said Yatin, “We are looking at growing up in the export market. However we will continue to focus on the domestic market. Our export drive will never come at the cost of our domestic participation and we want to remain strong in the domestic market” 

Precision is said to hold 85 per cent market share in the domestic market. It is a major supplier to Tata Motors and involved in various new engine projects that are expected to be announced very soon by the company. Hyundai is yet another company with whom Precision is working closely on its new engine project, 45 per cent of which is said to be export oriented. To better assist Hyundai and Tata, Precision is looking at setting up machining facilities at Uttaranchal (where Tata Ace will be made) and Chennai where Hyundai has a facility. 

Precision is a major supplier to Maruti, Bajaj Auto, Force Motors, Ford India, etc. Precsion is a 100 per cent supplier to Ford India, which builds its engines at Avtec, Pithampur. Precision, which set up the Ford machining line at Solapur to cater to the requirements of Ford is also looking at replacing its conventional machining centres with current-technology machines to further improve the efficiency and offer better cost saving to its domestic customers. “Conventional process manufacturing will be phased out in the near future to shift to technology that essentially makes the Ford line”, sources close to Precision put it. 

In addition to refurbishing its machining facilities for which the company is already in the process of raising funds in the equity, debt or other options (it has already secured Rs 30 crores in terms of debt out of the Rs 100 crores), Precision would look at bringing into India advanced cam technologies like profiled hollow cam technology. At present the company supplies nearly 30,000 cams to Tata, 16,000 to Maruti and 30,000 to Hyundai. Customers also include M&M Tractor Division, Sonalika, Force Motors, Indian Railways and many others. Precision will supply cams to the MAN Force joint venture in addition to supplying cams to the Force DC611 engine. 

Through the MAN Force JV, Precsion Camshafts could be looking at bagging a contract to supply to MAN, Germany said sources close to the company. They added that the company is also looking at bagging orders for the Fiat engine project that is scheduled for Ranjangaon. The 1.3JTD to start with and the 1.2 and 1.4 FIRE engines in the near future as they have a nodular cast iron camshaft. Precsion does not make nodular cams but would be keen to bring the technology to India. 

Interestingly, the company, which has a ambitious plan to reach the Rs 350-crore mark and 12-milion cam capacity by 2010 is also looking at acquiring business abroad that will fuel its desire for inorganic growth. It is already in discussion with a company in Germany.

Tyre major, CEAT, in partnership with the Mumbai Traffic police, has come up with an Educational Campaign to promote safe driving. Satish Mathur, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said “The Mumbai traffic Police over the years has done some pioneering work in promoting road safety in Mumbai. This year we have partnered with CEAT Ltd for further strengthening this cause”. 

Arnab Banerjee, Vice- President – Sales & Marketing, CEAT Ltd. said “CEAT Ltd is proud to be associated with the Mumbai Traffic Police for the cause of road safety. We are a part of Mumbai and it is our pleasure to be associated with this cause. Let us have a great fun without making our fellow Mumbaikars unsafe”.

The Auto06 took place at Pune recently. Aiming to get the auto industry in and around Pune that is aprticularly strong and includes some of the best names like Tata and Bharat Forge, the expo could have done better. 

The December chill in the air had its effect. The Auto06 at Pune took off on a sluggish note. The first day hardly evoked any response. The 9th event in the series of Indian Automobile Trade Fairs, Auto06 was sponsored by the government of Maharsahtra and saw a good deal of participation from the public sector. The Pune Traffic Police set up a stall and also did the Police Wireless. The most notable exhibit from the public sector was probably that of the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation. The corporation, which infused 22 Volvo B7Rs into its existing fleet of 60 Volvos recently put up a regular bus on display finished in a lively red and attractive graphics. The state transport corporation was presented by the Dapodi (Pune) facility, which is one of the three body building facilities of the corporation, the other two being Aurangabad and Nagpur. The Dapodi facility also does tyre remoulding for commercial vehicle tyres, claim sources close to the corporation. 

The most interesting part of the state tranport corporation exhibit was the miniature city complete with roads and even a section modelled on the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Plying on these roads were transport corporation bus models dating to the pre-independence era. The 512 Army Base Workshop displayed two dandy refurbished tanks in the open in front of its stall in Hall 6. The stall displayed various components that are employed in the tanks. Neighbouring the tanks was the Piaggio Ape exhibit represented by its dealer Arco. Next to Arco was the vintage pavilion, displaying a assortment of some popular models like the Volkswagen Beetle, Austin Seven, 1950s Skoda and Ford Model A. Indian participation came from the lively Hindustan 10. 

Lt Gen Aditya Singh, GOC-in-Southern Command, inaugurated the Auto06. In his speech, Lt Gen Singh said, "The concept of energy saving is necessary because limited sources of oil will exhaust in future. Alternative sources like hybrid vehicles will also be used in the defence services". "Different departments like police, transport corporations, manufacturers, buses and sellers under one roof will give community success in the automobile industry", he added. 

The Mahindra Hy Alfa and Scorpio HEV represented hybrid vehicles. Two electric two wheeler manufacturers--R K Rim and Ace Motors made their presence felt. The attractive-looking electric scooters attracted a large number of crowds. Visitors inspected the electric two wheelers with eagle eyes accompanied by a barrage of questions that ranged from the feasibility of these vehicles to the sustainablity and price. The fairly large R K Rim display stood right in front of the entrance of the Hall 1, which saw the participation of diverse players in the Indian auto sector. Companies like Car Commando, Pdilite Motomax, Ravi Fasteners, Indian distributor for Ecoflam systems--Vinoshi Enterprises, Eurotech Cylinders, Shiv Shakti Impex, etc. 

The most notable exhibits in Hall 2 were Tec Air Tools, Dewas-based Bakul Castings, bangalore-based Monarch, TVS Tyres and TVS Sundaram Rubber division, Nilkamal crates, Hans Laser, Saroopsons Industries, Nana Industries, L G Balakrishnan & Bros and Ralco Enterprises. Tube Investements (TI) of India put up a big display in the same hall showing the components it manufactures along with the door inserts. TI is an established supplier to many vehicle manufacturers ing India. Ahmedabad-based Texspin put on display its range of bearings. Said Solanki, business development manager, Texspin, "We supply bearings to the diverse requirements of the industry". 

Similarly, sources at Saroopsons said that their company supplies components to commercial vehicle manufacturers like Tata, Ashok Leyland and tractor manufacturer, Punjab Tractor. Rosler displayed the range of high temperature furnaces; Pix displayed its range of belts and hoses; Atlas Copco displayed a industrial compressor to highlight its capabilities. Firestone air springs was represented by its Indian distributor, Gibraltor. 

Hall 4 highlighted the presence of Avdel, Snap-on, Cizon, Remco, Impex, Impex, Informate Data Systems, DP Combines, Pragmatic Sales & Services, Protech Progressive Tech, Prayag, Strapex, Dnovo, Punjab-based KMP, Precise Fasteners, Air Care Engineers, Noble Tools Corporation, etc. Hall 6 was made up of Rai Automotive, Ace Motors and others. Strapex exhibit displayed Karcher machines whereas the MBL Impex stall displayed diagnostic scanners. The rest of the portion was occupied by the public sector exhibits. Hall 8 witnessed the participation of Poona Brush, V-Kool Fims India, Automotive Products Finder and Micro VBB. Micro VBB displayed a Maruti Alto fitted with its security system to give a live demonstration. 

On the whole, the Auto06 failed to generate the amount of interest expected of it. In spite of its close proximity to major auto makers and component makers that have made Pune their home, the expo did not quite succeed in putting up a formidable show. There is a definite potential in the event but the lack of professionalism was felt. Hope next year brings in more professionalism and a better venue.

Hindustan Motors along with its global partner Mitsubishi Motors, Japan has introduced two variants of Lancer CNG. This is the first time any premium car is being offered with factory fitted CNG fuel option. Both the variants Lancer CNX and Lancer CNE will have factory fitted CNG kit. 

Powered by a 1.5 litre engine and the CNG variants have well proven CNG kit, which is custom developed for Lancer based on international design of BRC Italy. The entire car including the CNG kit and the cylinder design has been approved by ARAI, Pune. 

Lancer CNX is targeted at private car owners, and is equipped with power window, central locking, electric mirrors, separate AC ducts for rear seat passengers, power steering, MP3 CD Player and dual tone interiors etc. 

The Lancer CNE is targeted at fleet owners and has power steering, AC with rear ducts and electric mirrors. Lancer CNX is priced at Rs. 7.60 lakhs and Lancer CNE is available at Rs. 7.40 lakhs (ex-showroom - all over the country).

Volvo's Truck Division in India launched its new FM 400 8x4 tipper recently. Speaking at the launch, Eric Leblanc, Managing Director, Volvo in India said, "Volvo has the richest experience in the country, when it comes to high-performing trucking in the mining sector and today, we have renewed our Tipper portfolio with the launch of a new version of tipper truck – FM 400 8x4 tipper. Over the past 6 years the Volvo tipper solution has become better and better and today regarded as one of the most reliable solution in operations demanding extensive utilization. The FM 400 8x4 tipper is an efficient, advanced and powerful tipper, manufactured using Volvo hi-end technology and has additional features which directly contribute to even better transport economy at the mines. The reason we have this truck in India today, is because a new generation of Volvo customers are today demanding increasing performances, just as they take on new challenges & contracts in the mining & infrastructure industry". 

Mr. Leblanc handed over the first batch of the new tipper to customers - Subash Pramanik, CEO, Gulf Oil Corporation, V Prabhakar Reddy, Partner, VPR, & Co and Ravi Agarwalla, Director, Dhansar Engineering co. Between them the customers have placed an order for 100 of this vehicle which will be delivered over the coming months. 

Mr Reddy, who now owns 150 exclusive Volvo trucks, commented, "One builds a fleet such as mine, when one can find a partner we believe in. With Volvo trucks and with Volvo as an organisation, I see a highly competitive partnership where customers such as me offer the most productive and high-performing mining solutions to our own customers." 

The FM 400 is equipped with the new 13 litre engine providing wider economy band from 1050 rpm to 1600 rpm, providing increased opportunities for better fuel efficiency. The payload is higher in the rock body version at 18 cu.m. The new 400 hp engine offers increased engine torque of 2000 Nm which helps in maintaining higher average speeds over gradients and provides the possibility of operating the engine at lower rpms and achieves a longer life span. 

Number of smaller but important details have also been given consideration, such as the new parking brake alarm feature, improvements across a range of sections – the rear-axle hub, the new VDS3 engine, power steering cooling and a host of other improvements that promise a longer overall life for the product.