Category: Motoring

Automobile major Tata Motors has achieved the production milestone of 4 million passenger vehicles in India since its inception.

“Over the years, Tata Motors has produced legendary vehicles like the Indica, Sierra, Sumo, Safari and the Nano that have played a pivotal role in the shaping the country in its post-economic liberalisation era,” the company said in a statement on Saturday.

“These iconic vehicles have broken barriers across categories in the Indian automobile sector. With the launch of the Tata Safari, the company pioneered the concept of a ‘lifestyle SUV’ to the industry, thereby creating the most aspirational four-wheeler for its customers.”

The company had also introduced the first ever MPV in Tata Sumo.

In the more recent past, Tata Motors launched the entry level car and the compact SUV segment with the rollout of the Tiago and the Nexon, respectively.

“Tata Motors is also India’s largest EV manufacturer with 67 per cent market share and leading the way on electric vehicle adoption in India,” the statement said.

“The company had achieved the 1 million production mark for passenger vehicles in 2005-06, 3 million in 2015 and the 4 million production milestone was achieved this month.”

As of today, its ‘New Forever BS6’ range consists of the Tiago, Tigor, Nexon, Harrier and the Altroz.

Besides, Tata Motors has been India’s first car manufacturer to have received a 5-star Global NCAP rating for its model, the Nexon.

Also Read: TATA to take on e-com giants with super app

Also Read: Tata Motors betting big on electric buses

Kia Motors India on Wednesday said its recently-launched compact sports utility vehicle (SUV) Sonet has got 50,000 bookings.

In a statement, Kia Motors India – a wholly owned subsidiary of Kia Motors Corporation of South Korea – said: “This record booking number affirms its status as a game-changer by customers in the highly competitive compact SUV category. This milestone figure was attained within two months of opening of bookings on August 20, 2020.”

Kia Motors said that last month 9,266 units of the Sonet were dispatched, making it the leader of the compact SUV segment within 12 days of its price announcement and market launch.

Curiously, the announcement comes on the day when Japan’s Nissan Motor Corporation world premiered its new compact sports utility vehicle (SUV) Magnite and said it would be made in India for Indian and the global market.

The Magnite will soon be fighting against Sonet, Hyundai Motor’s Venue and others in the Indian market.

Also Read: M&M’s new Thar clocks 15K bookings

Automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra has reported that bookings for ‘All-New Thar’ SUV has now crossed 15,000 bookings, since its launch on October 2, 2020.

“Today 57 per cent of all buyers of the All-New Thar are first time car buyers and a significantly large share of all bookings are for the automatic variants,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

The all-new Thar will be available in two trims, namely “AX & LX”, with prices starting at Rs 9.80 lakh for AX series and Rs 12.49 lakh for LX series.

It is powered by two all-new engines “the 2.0L mStallion TGDi” petrol engine, and “the 2.2L mHawk” Diesel engine.

“These engines are offered with a choice of 6-speed manual transmission or 6-speed torque converter automatic transmission, with an authentic 4×4 manual shift transfer case with a low ratio,” the company had said on Oct 2nd.

The deliveries of the SUV will commence from November 1, 2020.

Also Read: Mahindra launches all new Thar

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has further revealed plans for the India entry of the electric car maker, saying the process to bring Tesla cars to India will begin in January 2021.

Earlier this month, Musk said the electric car maker is finally ready to enter the India market next year.

Reacting to a tweet by Tesla Club India, he said there is an India team working on the next year for sure scheduled Tesla entry. “Will release order configurator probably in Jan,” he added.

It means that Tesla sales teams are working on building custom sales and production orders for the India market, ensuring orders are complete and validated once the configuration is finished.

The move will also open India to select as one of the countries where Tesla cars can be purchased.

However, whether Musk will announce a Tesla plant in India to push Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s domestic manufacturing dream or source them from other facilities (Gigafactory in Shanghai, China is the nearest one) is not yet clear.

Earlier, Musk revealed his plans to bring Tesla cars to India in his response to a Twitter post that asked about the progress on Tesla’s planned entry into India.

“Next year for sure,” Musk said in response to the tweet that posted pictures of T-shirts with “India wants Tesla” and “India loves Tesla” printed on them.

“Thanks for waiting,” he added.

On several occasions earlier, Musk had revealed that he would like to bring Tesla to India, but in a 2018 Twitter post, he cited “some challenging government regulations” as a hurdle.

He also criticised the foreign direct investment norms for the delay in the electric car maker’s entry into the Indian market.

“Would love to be in India. Some challenging government regulations, unfortunately,” Musk had tweeted in response to a Twitter user who wrote “No Tesla in India” on his Twitter handle.

In July this year, he hinted at allowing Tesla’s Indian fans to drive an electric Model 3 “hopefully soon”.

However, the new tweets give a more definitive timeline of Tesla’s entry into India.

This comes at a time when India is ramping up charging infrastructure for electric vehicles with the aim of significantly increasing the proportion of electric vehicles plying on the roads.

In 2015, Modi visited Tesla headquarters at Palo Alto, California and met Musk who gave Modi a tour of the company’s electric car plant.

Tesla has not launched any of its electric cars in India or any other country in South Asia yet. The only Asian market where Tesla has a presence is China.

Also Read: Tesla to enter India next year