'If the targets become unscientific and unjust, Then, just to meet CAFE-III regulation, a small car -- which produces a very low absolute carbon dioxide -- will have to be discontinued.'
The appointment will be effective from April 1.
The company, which already has around 66 per cent market share in the hatchback segment and about 50 per cent in the overall domestic passenger vehicle segment, currently sells Vitara Brezza and S-Cross in the SUV segment. In an interaction with PTI, MSI managing director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa acknowledged that there was some lag in launching new products due to the pandemic but the company is now on track regarding new model launches.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Thursday said it has appointed Hisashi Takeuchi as the new managing director and CEO with effect from April 1, 2022. The company's board in its meeting held on Thursday, appointed Takeuchi as the managing director and CEO from April 1, consequent to the completion of the term of Kenichi Ayukawa on March 31, 2022, MSI said in a statement. In order to facilitate a smooth transition, Ayukawa will continue as a whole-time Director designated as Executive Vice Chairman till September 30, 2022, and will continue to provide guidance to the auto major, it added.
'It will take some more time because the affordability of these cars have changed drastically.'
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Thursday said its new manufacturing facility in Haryana, the company's third in the state, would reach peak production capacity of 10 lakh units per annum in the next eight years entailing a total investment of Rs 18,000 crore. The new facility, which would come at a 800-acre site at IMT Kharkhoda in Sonipat district, will entail total investment of Rs 11,000 crore in the first phase with a production capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum. The first set of vehicles are expected to roll out from the facility in 2025.
Passenger vehicle dispatches from factories to dealers declined 13 per cent to the lowest level in five years in December last year as the industry continued to face production issues due to semiconductor shortage, auto industry body SIAM said on Friday. Passenger vehicle dispatches last month stood at 2,19,421 units compared to 2,52,998 units in December 2020. While acknowledging that the chip shortage situation is not expected to dramatically change in the short term, the industry body expressed hope that things will improve soon.
The new model, which is based on the company's fifth generation HEARTECT platform, comes with a BS-VI compliant one-litre petrol engine with a claimed fuel efficiency of 21.7 km per litre.
Passenger vehicle wholesales in India declined nearly 4 per cent to 279,501 units last month, auto industry body SIAM said on Wednesday. Passenger vehicle (PV) dispatches from factories to dealerships in March 2021 stood at 290,939 units. As per the latest data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), two-wheeler sales also fell 21 per cent to 11,84,210 units as compared with 14,96,806 vehicles in March 2021.
Passenger vehicle wholesales in India witnessed a decline of 41 per cent year-on year in September as automobile manufacturers struggled to produce adequate units owing to semiconductor shortage, auto industry body SIAM said on Thursday. Passenger vehicle sales last month stood at 1,60,070 units as compared with 2,72,027 units in the year-ago period. As per the latest data by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), two-wheeler dispatches to dealers also witnessed a dip of 17 per cent at 15,28,472 units, compared to 18,49,546 in September 2020.
High cost of acquisition due to a variety of reasons, including higher GST than all other major countries, is slowing down car demand in the country and unless the Centre and states take steps to reduce it, the industry is unlikely to experience reasonable growth, according to Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava. Addressing shareholders in the company's Annual Report for 2020-21, he said after the devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic hitting the first quarter of FY22, the performance in the next three quarters will largely depend on how effectively people get vaccinated and observe safety protocols.
Passenger vehicle wholesales in India slipped to a 10-year low in the April-December this fiscal, and the industry will have to work hard to regain better volumes and business health, industry body SIAM said on Thursday.
Passenger vehicle wholesales in India increased by 17 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal year as buying sentiment improved and companies stocked up to cater to enhanced demand in the festive season, auto industry body SIAM said on Friday. According to the latest data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), passenger vehicles sales in the July-September quarter increased to 726,232 units from 620,620 units in the same period last year. Similarly, two-wheeler sales during the September quarter this fiscal rose marginally to 46,90,565 units as compared with 46,82,571 units in the same period last fiscal. However, commercial vehicles sales saw a dip of 20.13 per cent at 133,524 units in the quarter under review as compared with 167,173 units in July-September 2019.
Named ConceptFutureS, it is a uniquely styled compact car with distinct SUV like characters and will define the next generation of design for compact vehicles in India, the company said.
Japanese auto major Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) on Wednesday said its long-serving chairman Osamu Suzuki will retire and assume the role of senior advisor subject to shareholders' approval in the ordinary general meeting to be held in June this year.
Developed in-house, the 1.5-litre engine comes mated with six-speed transmission and offers improved performance.
Maruti Suzukisaid it was trying to offer more factory-fitted CNG cars to address environmental concerns
Seven years after it announced Nexa, there's no mistaking the seriousness with which Maruti wants the segment to grow, says Pavan Lall.
Future strategy will not just revolve around EVs: Maruti Suzuki's Ayukawa. Maruti Suzuki's MD&CEO says electric vehicles cannot be a solution outside the cities.
That means a manufacturer looking at a market like India needs to decide whether small, cheap cars or small, expensive cars or both will work better for them, says Pavan Lall.
Improving human resource capability and communication with workers are among the top priorities of Kenichi Ayukawa, the new Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India, which witnessed violent labour unrest at its Manesar plant last year.
Passenger vehicle wholesales in India rose by 14.16 per cent in August to 2,15,916 units, driven by pent-up demand, industry body SIAM said on Friday. According to the latest data by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, passenger vehicle wholesales stood at 1,89,129 units in the same month last year.
A law graduate from Osaka University, Ayukawa has been associated with Suzuki Motor for over three decades.
'It leads to more investment, more money put in R&D, expansion and modernisation.'
'Bharat has been leading, but it cannot carry India as the bulk of the sales come from India in terms of volume and profitability.'
Tata Motors, India's third largest passenger vehicle maker, took pole position in the competitive sport utility vehicle (SUV) market in October, reveals the data from industry sources. Riding high on the Punch - the sub-compact SUV offering launched on October 18 - the Tata group flagship sold a record 23,381 units in October, higher than 20,022 units sold by archrival Mahindra & Mahindra, 18,538 units sold by Hyundai Motor India, and 15,931 units sold by Kia Motors India. Utility vehicles - that include SUVs and multipurpose vehicles - accounted for almost one in every two passenger vehicles sold in India in the first seven months of the current financial year, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
Maruti Suzuki India will launch electric vehicles in the country only after 2025 as demand for such vehicles at the moment is less and it would like to sell around 10,000 units a month whenever it enters the electric mobility space, company chairman RC Bhargava said on Wednesday. Addressing a virtual conference on the company's second quarter earnings, he said under the current circumstances a lot of things in the EV ecosystem such as batteries, charging infrastructure and electric supply are done by other parties and therefore the costing is not in the hands of the company. Also with fuel prices going up, car market leader Maruti Suzuki India is intensifying its focus on more CNG offerings of its models.
The figures are encouraging for the auto industry amid apprehension that due to higher cost and lack of fuel availability, cars with stricter emission standards may not be popular in initial stages. Automakers had even cited this confusion as one of the reasons for dwindling car sales in India, reports Arindam Majumder.
Maruti's exports are limited and mainly to countries in Africa and Latin America.
The company will begin exporting Baleno early next year to over 100 global markets
Recently, Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) in an investor presentation expressed strong intent to enter the electric vehicle (EV) space. This is part of a larger strategy the Hamamatsu-based firm has drawn up in developing electrification of technologies as it seeks to achieve carbon neutrality. The significance of this presentation is that it marked the first time that the Japanese carmaker spelt out its EV strategy with well-defined timelines. SMC plans to develop electrification technologies by 2025, fully implement them in products from the same year, and make a full-scale quantitative increase from 2030.
Celerio's 793-cc diesel engine is the smallest in the market.
The number of participating automakers has fallen from 50 in 2018 to 30 this year. The count of exhibitors, including technology companies, has come down from 119 to 112. And showstopper luxury and supercar brands, including Toyota, Jeep, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Volvo will be missing. Similarly, the commercial vehicle makers also gave the show a miss -- a prolonged economic slowdown has dented their fortunes and near chances of any recovery.
In October, the company had launched Ciaz in both petrol and diesel options.
The company has already received bookings for 33,000 units so far.
The five-year (2015-16 to 2020-21, or FY21) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of the overall auto industry is now negative at 2 per cent, against 5.7-per cent growth it saw in the previous five years (from 2010-11 to 2015-16).
Maruti Suzuki claims the new SUV delivers an outstanding fuel efficiency of 24.3 km per litre.
The challenges of transition to stricter emission norm BS-VI from BS-IV and compliance to new safety norms thereby making vehicles costlier are lurking around the sector.
The muted expectation of dealers come at a time when vehicle manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra and others reported a double-digit fall in wholesale dispatches to dealerships in July and August.
From Hyundai to Tata Motors, automakers are staring at a bleak future. With no succor provided in the Budget, the pain for companies is likely to continue for the next two quarters.
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