The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on January 30, 2024, issued the Draft End-of-Life Vehicles (Management) Rules, 2024. The following provisions have been stated: Responsibilities
Plans for a fuel-cell powered concept sports car has been revealed by luxury UK manufacturer Morgan.
P Chidambaram's push for hybrid cars may not see an immediate splash of green cars on the roads, but it would certainly encourage more companies to seriously look at the segment. Hybrids, that alternate between a fuel and a battery to power your vehicle, have received a special focus from FM, who prefers cars that are less taxing on environment. He has cut excise duty for hybrids cars by 10%, bringing it down to 14%, giving a big incentive for companies to look at the option. This move will benefit Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), which will introduce hybrid versions of Scorpio and Bolero by June. And, prices may be cheaper than the existing petrol or diesel versions. "The duty cut will certainly boost work on hybrid vehicles,' said Arun Jaura, senior V-P. While Honda is close to launching a hybrid version of its sedan Civic, it will be imported, which means price will be nearly double the petrol version due to over 100% duties. The company says it is not feasible to make that car in India, as it would have limited volumes of 200-300 cars annually. "Excise duty cut would encourage manufacturers to bring in environment-friendly cars with advanced technology,' said Honda Siel India president and CEO M Takedagawa. While Honda does not get any direct benefit, the cut in excise helps it indirectly, in terms of lower counter-vailing duty on import
The Nano, whose projected Puja rollout is being greeted with a host of new showrooms Dealers of Tata Motors in the state are busy putting infrastructure in place for the Puja rollout of Nano. Lexus Motors, the largest Tata Motors dealer in West Bengal, has acquired land in Barasat, Chinsurah and Uluberia for opening outlets to showcase Nano, while RD Motors is preparing to launch showrooms in Baruipur and Chinsurah. The third dealer, KB Motors, is strengthening its network by opening outlets in Madhyamgram, Kalyani and Hooghly. Since Nano is expected to have a strong semi-urban and rural market, the company is looking to augment its distribution network in the districts. "We will add showrooms and also open dealerships in areas where we don't have a presence,' said a Tata Motors spokesperson from Mumbai. "The idea is to take Nano to the customer rather than make him come to Calcutta to buy the car,' said Anil Bagaria, the director of KB Motors. The new showrooms for Nano, as specified by Tata Motors, will be D-class outlets with floor space of about 1,000 sq ft. "These will be sales stores without workshops,' said Vinod Kumar Agarwal, the managing director of Lexus Motors. "The company is yet to give us an LoI (Letter of Intent) but is guiding us in opening the outlets. I am expecting the LoI within a couple of weeks,' added Agarwal. The company is laying a lot of stress on the rollout. "We are adding new dealerships every fortnight. Currently, we have 170 dealers across the country. We hope to appoint more distributors before the Nano arrives,' said the spokesperson. In addition to three distributors in Calcutta, Tata Motors has four others in the rest of the state, with eight showrooms in Siliguri, Malda, Kharagpur, Asansol and Haldia. "We are looking to add four to five showrooms through our existing distributors in Durgapur and Burdwan. We are also looking for a new distributor in Howrah,' added the spokesperson. The Lexus Motors Uluberia store will be for commercial vehicles but will also sell the Nano, said Agarwal. RD Motors opened a 1,000-sq-ft showroom in Krishnagar in November last year and is launching the two stores by April. "Yes, we are preparing for the Nano rollout,' said Pradip Jain, the proprietor. KB Motors is looking at a branch in Joka, said Bagaria. Tata Motors remained tightlipped about when bookings for Nano would start. Trial production is slated to start in June-July. The dealers expect bookings to open by August.
The aim of the proposed new legislation from the European Commission is to limit the average emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from new cars sold within the Union to 120 g/km by 2012. But carmakers will only be responsible for an average of 130 g/km, with the last 10 g/km to be made up by other measures for which legislation will be proposed by the Commission later this year. March 2008
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's budget has good news for Tata Motors. The Railway Budget proposes a dedicated freight corridor from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni, located near Tata Motor's small car project site at Singur. Needless to say, the dedicated corridor will connect the Tata factory with the rest of India. However, there's some bad news for the company as well. As the preliminary survey work for the project from Dhanbad to Dankuni remains incomplete, funds have not been allocated. With Nano expected to hit the roads by October-November this year, the dedicated freight corridor might be a long way away for the Tata Motors to reap its benefit, unless put on fast track. Apart from this, however, there is not much for West Bengal to be happy about. The state has got only four new trains. Moreover, long standing projects like development of Howrah and Sealdah stations, Shalimar terminal station, the Kolkata station in Chitpur and extension and improvement of the Metro have been ignored. "Continuing the trend of the past few years, the Railway Budget is hopeless for Bengal. The dedicated freight corridor will benefit the much talked about Singur project. The original corridor was from Ludhiana to Dhanbad, which has now been extended to Dankuni. But no funds have been allotted and even preliminary survey is incomplete. Therefore, it will take years to become operational,' said Bhaskar Chaudhuri, a retired chief commercial manager of Eastern Railways. Tata's small car project lies in Singur, which is close to both the Dankuni Expressway, part of the Golden Quadrilateral, and the proposed freight corridor. The four new trains for West Bengal state are
THEworld's largest car maker General Motors (GM) is set to shift gears in India. The company is now looking at investing over $200 million to set up a powertrain plant in India to manufacture engines and components which will reduce the vehicle costs. The powertrain facility is aimed at a lot more than just meeting the domestic demand as engines made at the proposed unit are expected to be used in GM's global brands. Powertrain facility will manufacture engine, transmission and drivetrain that power vehicles. "We have not decided on where to locate the plant or by when it would be operational. But we do know that investment would be in excess of $200 million,' said GM India president and MD Karl Slym. An announcement in this regard is expected soon. Mr Slym, however, did not divulge details on the type of engines or specifications of the engines that would be made in India. This could be GM's third plant in India after Halol (Gujarat) and the under-construction unit at Talegaon (near Pune). The move is aimed at gaining a competitive edge in the domestic market as the company aims to capture a 10% share of the passenger car market here. GM India registered a 68% growth in sales in 2007, selling 60,032 units as against 35,823 units during 2006. GM is also drawing up expansion plans at the Talegaon plant which is to start production by the year-end. It will have an initial production capacity of 1,40,000 units. According to Mr Slym, the second-phase of expansion at Talegaon will see the production capacity being raised to 3,00,000 units. "Expansion at Talegaon is a long-term plan. We don't have a timeframe for this. But once phase-II is over, our production capacity will be in excess of 3,50,000 units
Company plans to sell Flame with single spark plug Stressing "there is no injunction against selling the
Japan's top three carmakers produced a record number of vehicles globally last month, highlighting the resilience of the Japanese car industry in the face of a higher yen, soaring oil prices and slowing economic activity in key markets. Toyota said January production for the group, which includes Daihatsu, the mini-vehicle maker, and Hino, the truckmaker, rose 8.2 per cent to a record 801,873. Japan's largest vehicle maker is experiencing strong demand in emerging markets, such as China, India and Russia, which has more than offset slight weaknesses in the US and Europe.
WORLD-CLASS: (from left) M.Takedagawa, President and CEO, Honda Siel Car India; T. Oyama, President and CEO, Asian Honda Motors Co.; and H. Iwata, Operating Officer, Honda Motor Company and GM, Suzuka Factory, at the inauguration of a new production facility at Greater Noida near New Delhi on Monday. NEW DELHI: Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) on Monday inaugurated its new production facility at Greater Noida and announced an initial investment of Rs. 1,000 crore at its upcoming plant in Rajasthan that will start operation next year, producing 60,000 units a year. HSCI, which has now doubled its production capacity to to one-lakh vehicles annually, has so far invested Rs. 1,620 crore at the Noida plant since its establishment in 1997. The plant now produces Honda City, Honda Civic and Honda Accord models. World-class facilities The new facility, with a host of world-class manufacturing techniques and technological advancements, was inaugurated by Asian Honda Motors Company President and CEO T. Oyama in the presence of HSCI President and CEO M. Takedagawa. Speaking to media persons here, Mr. Takedagawa said the new plant in Rajasthan would be spread over 600 acres. The investment would be in the region of Rs. 3,000 crore by the time it reached its full capacity of over two-lakh units annually. The company intended to produce 60,000 units in 2009 from the new plant. Honda planned to enter the Indian compact car market, besides launching hatchback
The Impact On Urban Transportation By TATHAGATA CHATTERJI Thousands of sleek, little Tata-Nanos are likely to jostle for urban road space within a year. Nano boasts a brilliant design innovation for the all-weather travel requirements of the budget-conscious Indian family. However, the very affordability of the car has raised certain critical questions: If the roads are clogged by millions of new cars, will there be enough space to drive? How does one manage the legitimate aspirations of the Indian family in the urban context? The future of mobility in Indian cities, already teeming with bumper to bumper traffic and exasperated commuters, needs urgently to be addressed as the country moves towards an increasingly urban future along with the structural shift in the economy ~ from agriculture to industry and service. With 285 million people, urban India now accounts for 28 per cent of the country's population, 62 per cent of the GDP and the bulk of the car purchases. Between 1981 and 2001, on an average, the population in the six metro cities increased by 1.8 times but the number of vehicles rose six-fold. In the Delhi-NCR area, 420 million man-hours are lost every month because of traffic congestion, according to ASSOCHAM. With 1,421 cars per square kilometer, Kolkata now has a higher car density than the vastly more affluent Berlin. There has been a spatial shift as well with the IT and the IT-enabled sector emerging as the main factors of the urban economy and frequently locating to self-contained business complexes in the fringe areas of big cities. Such sleepy residential suburbs of the eighties as Gurgaon, NOIDA or Salt Lake, have now overtaken traditional business areas like Connaught Place or Dalhousie Square as corporate destinations of choice. This combined effect of "suburbanization' of the urban economy and the rising road congestion had compelled the state governments to construct highways and flyovers, replicating the American urban model of car dependent, low-density garden suburbs of the 1950s. However, as the Americans found out the hard way, by the 1970s, the ever-increasing freeways resulted in increased use of cars. This led to rising energy cost, pollution and travel time. Delhi is witness to a similar phenomenon today. Amongst the Indian cities, Delhi has the most extensive roadspace along with an elaborate programme of flyover construction. Over the past 10 years, road length increased by 20 per cent, but cars increased by 132 per cent. The ambitious Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway appears to have crossed the carrying capacity estimated for the year 2016 by the time it was inaugurated this year. The 32-lane toll plaza ~ supposedly the largest in Asia ~ has earned the sobriquet, "parking plaza'. Elsewhere, traffic moves fast on the flyovers but gets stuck in bottlenecks down the road. Compare this with New York, London, Paris or Singapore ~ the high temples of international finance ~ cities where people get around on foot, by taxi or via mass transit. Zurich, Melbourne, Copenhagen ~ which frequently tops the urban quality of living index ~ a sort of ATP ranking of the cities, have a dense urban core, pedestrian-friendly streets, a network of high quality mass transit and policies which discourage private cars in core areas. In parts of Tokyo, one cannot own a car unless one owns a private parking space. London introduced congestion charges in city centre areas in 2003. Since then the volume of traffic has been reduced by 21 per cent and delays shortened by two minutes per kilometer. The present gridlocked mess in India is the outcome of short sighted and uncoordinated policies on land use and transportation. According to a Centre for Science & Environment study, a bus carrying 40 passengers occupies about 2.5 times the roadspace than a car with one or two persons and, at the same time, pays 2.6 times higher tax as well. So the poor end up paying in terms of higher travel time and cost. The real estate costs are sky-high but a single parking slot that occupies 23 square metres costs only Rs 10 for a day, whereas a shop or desk space are charged full commercial rates. Diesel subsidies meant for the trucks and buses are gobbled up by chauffer-driven limousines. Public transport is chronically mismanaged and inadequate. The term
