Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director, M&M and Vinay Sanghi, CEO, FirstChoice

Mahindra Group Company Automartindia Ltd, which specialises in used car transactions has undergone a name change and will be called as FirstChoice henceforth. Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director, Mahindra Group unveiled the new corporate identity of the company recently. Along with the change of identity the company also launched an innovative multi-brand used car superstore in Mumbai. 

As the leading player in the used car market in the country with a pan India presence and nearly 80 outlets across 54 locations throughout India, FirstChoice’s innovative superstore will offer a new and refreshing buying experience to its customers. FirstChoice is a three-way joint venture between the Mahindra Group, HDFC and Sah & Sanghi. Interestingly as part of its customer-centric efforts, FirstChoice provides certification indicating the exact condition of the car, helping customers buy good quality used cars.

In a major step forward Bosch commissioned the common rail injector facility at its Nashik facility recently. This follows the announcement of common rail pump manufacture in India at Bangalore and is in keeping with Bosch’ 2005 announcement to invest Rs 550 crores. Also part of the Rs 1800 crore investment in India between 2005 and 2008 announced by Bosch the Nashik plant, which is the second oldest facility of Bosch in India and was set up in 1972, has been manufacturing common rail injector components since 2006 and exporting them, the most going to Korea. The common rail injector assembly is located within the Nashik facility that is spread over 100 acres and has been producing high quality injectors and nozzles for diesel engines of all types and applications. 

An MoU was signed between Bosch and the Government of Maharashtra for the manufacture of common rail injectors in the year 2005 other than the expansion of the mechanical injector facility. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Albert Heronimus, managing director, Mico, the flagship of Bosch Group in India, announced: “It is a very important and a very proud day for us. It is the beginning of the manufacture of the CR injector locally. Auto is the biggest technology operation area even though the focus of Bosch is also in industrial, consumer and construction technology”. 

The Nashik facility is capable of making injectors between 1400 to 2000bar pressure. In India the company sold 40,000 common rail systems in 2006 and sales are projected to reach the 1.3 million mark by 2010. 16 per cent of total sales came from Asia Pacific in 2006 and high focus areas for Bosch are India and China”, Dr Heronimus added. “We believe that the share of diesel cars in India will go up to 40-45 per cent”.

DaimlerChrysler and ICICI Bank have announced the nation-wide launch of Star Choice, a retail finance scheme. Bringing together the biggest auto finance player in India and renowned luxury car maker, the finance scheme aims to bring luxury cars within the reach of young, ambitious entrepreneurs and businessmen. 

Speaking on the occasion, N R Narayanan, Group Business Head, Vehicle Finance, ICICI Bank, said, “Finance makes vehicles affordable. I feel that we have an important role to play and are an integral part of the industry. ICICI is known for innovative technology and we are making Mercedes cars affordable. Mercedes cars are aspirational value and we are making them affordable”. 

Under the new scheme the buyer can drive away with the Mercedes C-Class with an equated monthly instalment of Rs 29,999. The scheme offers two options to the buyer, the first being financing at 9.99per cent interest and the other being financing with very low down payment. “I believe the Rs 29,999 finance scheme, which is akin to a finance deal for Rs 10 lakh car”, added Narayanan. Narayanan further expressed that luxury car make up nearly 60 to 70 per cent of its auto finance portfolio, which includes a customer database of a million plus. 

Dr Wilfried Aulbur, managing director, DaimlerChrysler India, said, “A Mercedes Benz need not remain a distant dream any more, thanks to this new finance option”. “Our vehicles are mostly financed by ICICI. We launched star choice to offer buyers unique and innovative solutions”.

Detroit Engineered Products-Autoline Industries Limited (DEP-AIL) solutions have introduced the Meshworks Morpher 4.0. With the launch of Meshworks Morpher 4.0 the company aims to address the gaps in product development of the design engineering market. Meshworks Morpher 4.0 enables the customer to rapidly generate a newer design by being able to morph the existing model to a target new design. This process of morphing a design avoids recreation of the design from scratch, thereby saving the manufacturer tremendous amount of time. 

Announcing the launch, Gopal Patwardhan, Chairman, AIL said, “In today’s very competitive market, automakers and other manufacturers face constant challenge of releasing products to market faster, better and at a competitive cost in order to maintain and grow their market share. Our product has been designed keeping this in mind and we strongly believe in its commitment towards deliverables.” Developed together by Autoline Industries and their newly acquired Michigan-based Detroit Engineered Products, the key features of the new software includes re-meshing/re-assembly after morphing, additional interfaces to Abaqus, Nastran, LS Dyna, Radioss, PamCrash, Star CD, Fluent, SC Tetra, advanced morphing features like pattern morphing, polycube, automatic control block, etc, and the capability to handle large CFD models of more than 50 million nodes. 

According to the sources at the company the software will not only enable its customers in different sectors like automotive, aerospace, bio-medical, consumer durables, etc, to compete with the global markets but will also allow them to release products which will meet global standards.

French tyre major presented the results of year that ended on June 30, 2007 at Paris recently. The company announced that it benefited from supportive markets, especially in Europe, South America and Asia in the truck tyre segment, a segment where demand was weak in North America. The price/mix effect was maintained at a high 4.4per cent plus, as the Group benefited from the favourable impact of price increases implemented during second half 2006 and from continued very positive mix. 

Combined with further streamlined SG&A costs and good sales performance, this progress translated into strong operating margin growth before non-recurring items to 10.2per cent and Euro 436 million net income. Michel Rollier, managing partner, Michelin, said, “In first half of 2007 characterized by a supportive environment, Michelin's results confirm the Group's ability to achieve significant operating margin improvements before non-recurring items. This clearly is encouraging progress that must be made sustainable over time”. “Maintaining structurally high operating profits is the key to achieving the Group’s other objectives by 2010, in particular return on capital employed of at least 10 per cent and significantly positive free cash flow. Accordingly, we will press ahead with the major programs undertaken to reduce our overhead costs and optimize our industrial base worldwide”, added Rollier. 

For the full year 2007, in light of healthy demand, despite higher average raw material costs in the second half than in the first, sources at Michelin expressed that fiscal 2007 should post a substantial improvement relative to financial year 2006. Full-year operating margin before non-recurring items therefore is expected to approach the first year-half level.

Bajaj Auto (Bajaj) and Renault (Renault) have announced that they are in preliminary deliberations to jointly understand customer requirements and business potential for "very competitive vehicles" in India. If the process concludes favorably, it would lead to a long term partnership between Renault and Bajaj for the development of the business so conceived. Coming from Renault the statement says that the above information is provided to clarify matters as they stand, in view of recent speculation of varying accuracy. 

Interestingly, Bajaj Auto with sales of over 2.7 million units in FY07 (including exports of 442.000 units) and representing revenues of US$ 2.3 billion has been in the news even before it was linked with Renault for its efforts towards the development of an entry-level four-wheeler commercial vehicle, the basis of which could transform into an entry level car. Renault at the other end has only recently entered the Indian market with its world car Logan and has set up a design centre at Mumbai. It has a strategic partnership with Mahindra & Mahindra in India.