The Italian Job

Italy, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, stylish, cars and one of the oldest in the field. These are the few words that flashes in your mind once you hear the word "Pininfarina". They are one of the oldest design studios which has given us some awesome cars in the Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maseratti brands. It was 2008 when they came to an agreement with the banks to which they were indebted to. They were in a move to sell the their family owned major stake of 50.7% to a suitable buyer in 2009. So, guess what was the news going around the rumour mills, Tata Motors was one of the viable customers in line. What made this news to go around the media?

Pr1ma in the making

With already JLR in their pockets and Tata Nano already making the world automotive industry turn their attention towards Tata Motors, they wanted to go global in every aspect, this time being on the aesthetics part. So, where did they go? Pininfarina. They wanted to develop a saloon on the Indigo platform. The result was the launch of Tata Pr1ma(Italian for "First") in the 2009 Geneva Motor Show. The design was elegant and sleek. Both the interior and exterior dimensions were larger than the existing Indigo platform. It is expected to be launched by mid of 2012. The launch price would vary between 1200000 to 1500000 (approx $24000 to $30000). It would compete with market leader in the segment like Hyundai Verna Fluidics, Chevy Cruze and Honda Civic. With both Diesel and Petrol variants on the line and if Tata manages to give the fuel efficiency which they managed with their other models then it would definitely be a run for the money for both Honda and Hyundai fans.

As Pininfarina's collaboration with Tata Motors came into light with the launch of Pr1ma, the grapevine was buzzing in 2009 with the news that Tata Motors might be on a golden run in stepping into the Global market. It is already 2012 now but still nothing has happened regarding the deal. But if Tata really needs to breach that Global niche of clientele then it has to bring its A game, we can see glimpses of it with its Pr1ma.


Sources:
http://www.cartradeindia.com
http://www.insideline.com
http://www.worldcarfans.com

Pulse

It was a topsy-turvy few months for the Indian stocks. The stocks tumbled, Indian Rupee lost is value in the global market, India's economy grew 6.9% in the last quarter which was the least in the past two years and it was looking for revival in the past few days. What it is meant for the companies?

Tata Motors Ltd., the owner of Jaguar Land Rover, lost 3.1 percent to 177.35 rupees. With AutoExpo in January we could expect some revival in the automotive sector though rupee will take sometime to gain value again in the Global Market.

Speaking of AutoExpo 2012, Tata Motors is planning to unveil the diesel version of the Tata Nano. It is expected to give a fuel efficiency of around 30kmpl to 35kmpl and would cost 200000 to 300000(aprrox $6000). With most of the diesel cars starting in the 400000 range and with such a fuel efficiency, I think it would create the magic which the petrol nano missed. It has also given some face-lift for the interiors too. As I often say in my posts, with the rise in fuel costs if they promise to offer the same mileage as promised then it is a definite click in the Indian market.

Fortune 500

And this years "Fortune India 500" is out. The top spot is bagged by Indian Oil Corporation followed by Reliance Industries Ltd. Tata Motors occupy the 6th spot. Tata Motors has moved two spots up from 8th last year. This means that the company is on the right track towards sales and exports. With a slew products about to be launched and in the R&D and also with JLR in their belt its not a long for them to breach the top spot.

The New Breed

Similar to Maruthi Suzuki, Tata has also surprised me in recent times. This time I am going to speak about one such car which had impressed me from Tata Motors' stable.

Tata launched the Indigo sedan in 2002. It went to launch a few more variations of it in the upcoming years. It even had a station wagon called Indigo Marina but nothing was up to the par till 2009. It was the time when Ford Fiesta and Honda City were in the peak of its sales. Tata launched the Indigo Manza, in the third quarter of 2009. It had both 1.4litre petrol and 1.3litre diesel variants.

Indigo Manza

 So, what was the public and media reactions? It got rave reviews and the waiting list for the car started to increase. The design was pretty straight forward with the usual Tata front grill and a quite spacious boot. The interior was clean and neat with good quality plastics and leather, which came as a surprise for everyone from Tata. It was priced between 500000 to 800000 which was almost 200000(aprrox $4000) less than Ford Fiesta and Honda City. There are around four variants with the higher end variant having ABS and Airbags. 

With the increase of fuel prices in India, diesel was always quite cheaper than petrol. So, the first one to get hit was Honda. The sales of the Honda City dropped just within months. Almost ever customer started to get second thoughts. Higher fuel efficiency, cheaper fuel and spares and costs almost 20% cheaper with the same kind of comfort.

I myself have been in and driven one of my friend's car back in India. His was a diesel variant but the acceleration was very good for a diesel car. Very posh interiors, I would say at par with its competitors in the segment. With touches of chrome in both interior and exterior design, it makes a statement on the road. The ride control is pretty good even at higher speeds and the ABS does really work well. The engine though is a Fiat-Tata collaborated one, no complains about it.

Manza 2012

With the sales peaking for Manza, Tata is set to unveil a Hybrid version of Manza in the AutoExpo 2012 in January. It is going to be a tough competition for Toyota, which is still struggling to gain market share for its sedan Etios, Hyundai's new face-lifted version of Verna and also Ford's new Fiesta.

Chinese Footprint

When every other top tier automotive companies were wondering and not sure how Tata Motors is going to make a turn around in sales of its acquired JLR brand, Tata has made a statement in the past with some really good sales figures. With launch of Range Rover Evoque it has reassured that Land Rover is still in the game and a pretty good competitor in its segment.

JLR

 As everyone knows most of the big players in Europe are shifting their focus on the emerging markets like China and India, as still the economy in Europe is still trying to recover and automotive sales is still not so on a high. Land Rover's sales has been on a high especially in the Chinese market with already has around 100 dealerships across the country. Sales in the Chinese market has crossed 33600 units which is 60% more than last year. At this juncture JLR is planning for a joint venture with Chinese car maker Chery. According to Chinese media Jaguar Land Rover which is owned by Tata Motors, Chery is in all probability to be the chosen partner for JLR.

With Chery being one of the leading car manufacturers in China and with JLR entering into a JV with them will make the profit margin bigger while working on common platforms. Even though their sales slumped around the globe they recovered it from the emerging South East Asian market.

Seriously!!!!

I was taken aback and was quite surprised when I came to know about this piece of information from my friend. How does the name "Rover Indica" or "Tata CityRover" sound? But that is the reality.


In late 2003, UK based MG Rover group launched a hatchback "CityRover" which was nothing but the rebadged version of the Tata Indica. Though it was spacious for a hatchback, with just rebadging an Indian version of Tata Indica for an European clientele doesn't suit the bill. Its lack of quality in interiors and road handling which also added with expensive price tag led to the downfall of the product.

City Rover - Tata Indica

The price tag was in the range of the already established card like Skoda Fabia and Fiat Punto which was designed for the european market and had the niches for them while Indica was designed for the Indian market and designed for the Indian roads so by just rebadging it didn't work. 


In 2005, CityRover was given a face-lift and the price was slashed down to improve the sales. Then the production of the CityRover was stopped along with the rest of the model range when company went into receivership.

Moving Up the Ladder

With the launch of Nano Tata Motors proved that it has been pumping up and diverting lot of funds into R&D. We have also heard faint news of Tata Motors researching about a car running on Compressed Air but not sure how far that is true. European Commission has now made it clear that Tata Motors has made maximum investment into R&D topping the list in India pipping top players like Reliance Industries and Infosys.


In my post about Tata Nano, I mentioned about the face-lifted 2012 version and also the fact about how bad ad campaign was the cause for the low sales of Tata Nano. So, here is the ad for the Nano 2012. They send a strong message that Nano is still their signature model.

Tata Motors is on a roll now with sales still on a rise for the past few months. On this note, the November sales have risen by 47% when compared to the same month last year. Even though Jaguar's sales reduced by 5% to last month, Land Rover's sales were high by 38%. With China becoming a major player in JLR's Global sales, it is not a surprise to see these figures.

My Crush List

There was this session in our class where Andrew, my Professor, spoke about the cars which had to play an important part in Automotive Industry's History. It was very astonishing and most of the cars where new to me. Then I saw one of my friend posted a blog post about his favourite cars, so why not I post some of my favourite cars.

I don't know how to sort or rank them, so I am laying out some of my favourite cars.

As every other guy, most of them, I have a thing for both Lamborghini and Ferrari. Though both have some classic, sleek, trendy and cool cars in their line up, there are a few cars which I love the most. First lets start with Lamborghini.

I don't want to speak about my first offering, let the video speak for itself.

Lambo Reventon

Hope you are done with the video. The next from the Lambo's stable is the Reventon. It is a muscle car in disguise. I just loved the car for this picture.

Next in line would be the Ferrari California. I always loved a hard top covertible and with a Ferrari logo, what can I ask more? 

Speaking about convertibles, I always wanted to own this car, not the California. This is a German engineered one, yeah, its the BMW Z4. Whenever I look this car on this streets my mind would say, "I would own you someday".

Ferrari California

I would love to see a convertible next to a SUV in my garage. SUV's have this sense of ruling the road which makes look other small cars even smaller. I was just wondering which SUV which I like the most but I couldn't zero in on any particular. Whether is it the Audi Q7 or BMW X6 or Porsche Cayenne or the new Land Rover Evoque. I think I would go with both X6 and the Evoque both of which has some design similarities which I like.

BMW X6 - Range Rover Evoque

Chevy Camaro and Bumblebee

The next car is the Bumble Bee, you got it, its the Chevy Camaro. I love the way how a muscle car was transformed into a modern looking car with the sound of muscle roaring under the hood.

So far, all the cars which I have spoken about are my admirations and dreams but I don't know whether I would be able to own one. But the following cars are the ones which I may get a chance to own someday.

It may not be the best in its category and maybe considered too little for an SUV but I love this car. Its the Skoda Yeti.

Skoda Yeti

It was Suzuki's first offering in the luxury sector and they really played it well. It is the Suzuki Kizashi. Since in India we were born and brought up around the Maruthi Suzuki cars, it always attracted me. I am saying this because my next car is also from Suzuki. I have drove this car for almost 2years now and it is kinda my travel buddy. It is the Maruthu Suzuki Swift. A sleek compact car which is selling like hot cakes in India from the day of its launch and even the new face-lifted version looks awesome.

Suzuki Kizashi

My Swift back home in India

If I sit over and think for few more minutes then I could get few more cars to add to the list but I don't want to drag it more.

P.S. Sorry I couldn't squeeze in BMW Z4's picture.

A Historical Day

It was a rather historical week for Tata Group on the whole. With Ratan Tata about to retire this December at the age of 75, there was much speculation about who will be his successor, whether someone from his family or someone from the board. It was all put to an end when the announcement was made today. Cyrus P. Mistry, 43, will be crowned chairman of Tata Sons.

Ratan Tata

Considered a dark horse, Mr. Mistry is at present Managing Director of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. He is also on the board of Tata Sons, the holding company which controls the Tata Group. One of India's largest conglomerates with interests in diverse sectors such as telecom, automobile, engineering and hotels, the group is worth more than $70 billion dollars. Mr. Ratan Tata has been its chairman since 1991.

Cyrus Mistry

Mr. Mistry is the youngest son of construction tycoon Pallonji Mistry, who also owns a significant stake in the group. A unanimous choice of the committee, Mr. Mistry pipped to the post Noel Tata, younger half-brother of Mr. Ratan Tata, long considered a favourite. 

Mistry graduated from the Imperial College, London with a BE in civil engineering and holds a master of science in management from the London Business School. He has been a director of Tata Sons since September 1, 2006. He served as a Director of Tata Elxsi Limited, from September 24, 1990 to October 26, 2009 and was a Director of Tata Power Co. Ltd until September 18, 2006. He serves as Chairman of the Board of Shapoorji Pallonji Group and Afcons Infrastructure Limited.He holds Irish nationality and hails from one of the richest Indian families with a net worth of $7.6bn (£4.9bn). His family is also the single-largest shareholder in Tata Sons with a stake of 18%. Which makes him the first non-Indian national to take over the Tata Empire.

Reacting to his nomination, Mr. Mistry said, “I feel deeply honoured by this appointment. I am aware that an enormous responsibility, with a great legacy, has been entrusted to me. I look forward to Mr. Tata's guidance in the year ahead in meeting the expectations of the group."

Ten to the power of minus Nine

There are and were quite a number of cars from Tata Motors' stable. Now and then I would like to discuss a few cars which made Tata stand out as a brand and raise the bar. Hopefully by now you would have guessed what is the car which am going to discuss now from my blog title.

It the world's cheapest car, Tata Nano. It gained media attention for its low price tag of 100000  (approximately US$2000). Tata motors began the development work back in 2003. Nano's nearest competitors' sales dropped 20% immediately after the unveiling of the car. It was announced that Nano would be manufactured in Singur, West Bengal and there was a big controversy about that. Read my previous post The Singur Song to know what went wrong.

Tata Nano Europa

So, how did they manage to make a car with such a small cost package. The Nano's design implements many cost-reducing measures.

• The rear hatch does not open, so Nano's trunk is only accessible from inside the car
• One windscreen wiper instead of the usual pair
• No power steering, unnecessary due to its light weight
• Three lug nuts on the wheels instead of the usual four
• Only one wing mirror
• radio or CD player can be fitted as accessories
• No airbags in any model
• 624cc rear engine has only 2 cylinders
• No air conditioning in base model

Even though it was announced and launched with a price tag of US$2000, due to rising material and labour costs its price was raised. As of the beginning of 2011 the Nano costs 140,000 (more than US$3000). Now, Tata has launched the 2012 version of the Tata Nano. Which has got certain features from its Europa Version.

Carl-Peter Forster, a former boss of General Motors Europe who took over as head of Tata Motors in February 2010, admitted earlier this year that he had to reinvent the Nano business model. There was no real national distribution scheme, very little marketing and advertising, and no effective system of consumer finance. Many rural Indians never got to hear about or had the opportunity to see the car that was supposed to help transform their lives. Which has helped a lot in improving Nano's sales in the past few months. With the announcement of the 2012 face-lifted  version, we can expect the sales to improve.

Tata Pixel

As Tata has already grabbed the attention of International auto makers, it was now time to get into the Global market. The export version of the Nano was unveiled at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show but has yet to go on sale. It was heavily upgraded to meet EU safety and emission standards, the car will have a number of improvements over the standard Nano, including an extended wheelbase, a new 3-cylinder engine, power steering, an anti-lock braking system (ABS) and an improved interior and exterior. The Nano Europe will be more expensive, heavier, and less fuel efficient than the standard Nano with prices said to be around US$6000. At the 2011 Geneva Motor Show Tata unveiled the Tata Pixel, a rear engined, four passenger city car based on the Nano Europa platform.

Technical Specifications

Engine:	2 cylinder petrol with Bosch multi-point fuel injection (single injector) all aluminium 33 horsepower (25 kW) 624 cc (38 cu in)
	bore × stroke: 73.5 mm (2.9 in) × 73.5 mm (2.9 in)
	Power: 35 PS (26 kW; 35 hp) @ 5250 rpm
	Torque: 48 N·m (35 ft·lbf) @ 3000 +/-500 rpm
Layout and Transmission	Rear wheel drive
	4-speed manual transmission
Steering	mechanical rack and pinion w/o servo
	Turning radius: 4 metres
Performance	Acceleration: 0-60 km/h (37 mph): 8 seconds
	Maximum speed: 105 km/h (65 mph)
	Fuel efficiency (overall): 23.6 kilometres per litre (4.24 litres per 100 kilometres )
Body and dimensions	Seat belt: 4
	Trunk capacity: 150 L (5.3 cu ft)
Suspension, Tires & Brakes	Front brake: 180 mm drum
	Rear brake: 180 mm drum
	Front track: 1,325 mm (52.2 in)
	Rear track: 1,315 mm (51.8 in)
	Ground clearance: 180 mm (7.1 in)
	12-inch wheels

The Singur Song

Singur is a town comprising of villages around Singur in Hooghly District, West Bengal, India. It is located just about 35kms from Kolkata(Calcutta), one of the major metropolitan city and the capital of West Bengal. What is that so intriguing about this small agriculture town that had to do with a blog about Tata Motors?

The district suddenly got the attention not only of the local media but also international media in the year 2006. It was the year when Tata launched it's world impact car Tata Nano. And also later it made the announcement that it would be built in a factory which is to built in Singur, West Bengal.

Rally lead by the Opposition Party

It was not a cake walk as things started to fell into places for Tata in Singur. The choice of Singur was made by the company among six sites offered by the state government. The project faced massive opposition from displaced farmers. The unwilling farmers were given political support by West Bengal's opposition leader. Preliminary surveys by officials of the state and Tata Motors faced protests and manhandling on one occasion, from the villagers organized under the Save Singur Farmland Committee with the opposition party forming its chief component. The project had, however, generated controversy right from the start, particularly on the question of state acquisition of fertile agricultural land for private enterprise. The ruling party went all out for acquiring 997 acres (4.03 sq.km) of fertile agriculture land required for the car factory, which raised many eyebrows about the party forcibly acquiring the land under the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The law has provisions for state taking over privately held land for public purposes but not for developing private businesses.

The main reason for West Bengal being the front runner for the factory was the rapid rise in the population of West Bengal has not been accompanied by significant economic growth . The ruling party gained power by promising agricultural land to landless farmers, but given West Bengal's population density, the land-holdings are small and the yields are insufficient to sustain poor families. While the shift from agriculture to industrial jobs requires re-training, given India's economic growth, it provides an opportunity for earning higher income.

The land reserved for the project was taken control of by the state administration amidst protests and fencing off commenced on December 1, 2006. The opposition leader was prevented from entering into the area by the state police which led to the statewide strike(bandh) by the opposition. The fenced off area was regularly guarded by policemen and also cadres of the ruling party. Intermittent attacks by villagers have since continued on the fence. However, continuing agitations against the project appeared to have proved ineffective and a farmer who lost land committed suicide. Tata officially started the construction of the plant in January 21, 2007. But Tata Motors have made substantial promises for the people of Singur. According to their claims, Singur would become a mini-auto city and approximately 70 vendors would set up shop along with the factory. The total investment planned was approximately Rs 1,000 crore(US$20million).

Finally after more than a year and half into the construction of the plant, Tata Group announced in October, 2008 that it officially pulls out of Singur due to political unrest and agitation but the land still being with the Tata Group.  Then Tata went on to set up the Nano factory in Sanand, Gujarat which was completed in just 14months.

In the 2011 state elections the opposition party became the ruling party now and the battle was taken to the next level. It passed a bill that allows the government to revoke the 99 year old lease given to Tata for 997 acres of land which led Tata to take the government to court.

Sources:

www.ndtv.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano_Singur_controversy

Star to the "T"

Before I get into any other news or history, I wanted to let know that the launch of Tata Nano in Bangladesh had been delayed. Since the exclusive distributor for Tata Motors in Banladesh, Nitol Motors, wanted the cheapest car even more cheaper. It costs around 599000taka in Bangladesh which is almost 3times higher than what it costs in India. Nitol Motors has said it would go all down to get a price cut for Nano.

In the last couple of posts we have seen the rise of Tata Motors in the past couple of decades. It was in 1988 Ratan Tata took over as Chairman for Tata Group. After which he brought major changes to TELCO which later went on to become Tata Motor. Here are some important milestones from the year 1945 when TELCO came into existence, till it became Tata Motors.

• 1945 - Tata Locamotive and Engineering Company Ltd. was established.
• 1945 - A 16yr agreement was signed with Indian Railways for boilers and locomotives.
• 1948 - Road roller introduced in collaboration with Marshall Sons, UK.
• 1950 - Agreement with Krauss-Maffei, West Germany for manufacture of steam locomotives was signed.
• 1952 - Rolled out its first locomotive, 2651 YG.
• 1954 - Collaboration with Daimler Benz AG, Germany for the manufacture of Medium Commercial Vehicles at Jamshedpur.
• 1960 - The Company's name was changed from Tata Locomotive and Engineering Company Ltd. to Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Ltd. (TELCO).
• 1961 - Collaboration with Pawling & Harnischfeger(P&H), USA for manufacture of excavators and cranes.
• Tata rolled out its first Excavator, Tat P&H from Jamshedpur.
• 1964 - Started the manufacture of the 1210 model vehicles.
• Also in the same year exports started with the first truck being shipped to Sri Lanka.
• 1966 - The Engineering Research Centre was set up at Pune to provide the driving force to automobile Research and Development.
• 1969 - The Mercedes-Benz Star was replaced by Tata's "T" in all its vehicles.
• 1970 - The last steam locomotive despatched.
• 1977 - First commercial vehicle engine manufactured in Pune.
• 1985 - First hydraulic excavator was produced in collaboration with Hitachi.
• 1986 - Production of first Light Commercial Vehicle(LCV), Tata 407, indigenously designed.
• 1989 - Introduction of the Tatamobile 206 - 3rd LCV model.
• 2003 - Even though it was well known as Tata Motors by this time, the name was officially changed to Tata Motors from Tata Engineering and Locomotive Ltd.
• 2004 - Acquires Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company Ltd., Korea.
• 2007 - Tata Motors buys Nissan facility in South Africa.
• 2008 - Tata Motors acquires Jaguar Land Rover(JLR), UK.
• Unveiled the world's cheapest car Tata Nano at the 2008 AutoExpo in New Delhi.
• Tata Motors signs deal with Chrysler Electric vehicle unit.

Pulse

• Tata Motors celebrates the Silver Jubilee of its leading LCV, Tata 407. Going forward company plans to build on it and develop new platforms for both Indian and international markets.
• Tata Motors' stocks soar high as JLR sales beat market expectations. JLR's total sales for the quarter is 68000 units which is 23% higher than last year and also beat market expectations. Most of JLR's sales came from Land Rover which increased by 51% to last year. Given that JLR alone accounts for a little over half of Tata Motors’ consolidated revenue and three-fourths of the company’s net profit, it’s an ample cause for optimism.

Sources:
http://www.scribd.com
http://danielkafka.blogspot.com/2010/09/tata-benz-trucks.html
http://www.moneycontrol.com/company-facts/tatamotors/history/TM03