Tata Motors November domestic sales down

New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS)

Automobile major Tata Motors Saturday reported a 13.96 percent decline in domestic sales of commercial and passenger vehicles for November which stood at 62,354 units as compared to 72,477 units sold in the corresponding month of 2011.

Passenger vehicles sales last month was down 34.98 percent at 18,031 units from 27,735 units sold in November last year.

Sales of the company's entry level Nano last month was down 45.27 percent at 3,503 units from 6,401 units sold in the corresponding month of last year.

Commercial vehicles sales in the month under review was marginally down by 0.91 percent at 44,323 units from 44,732 units sold in the corresponding period last year.

The company's sales from exports at 4,146 units in November 2012 are lower by 4.66 percent compared to 4,349 units in the same month last year.

--IANS

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Tata Motors enters Bangladesh's car market

Dhaka, Nov 27 (IANS)

Tata Motors Tuesday entered the Bangladesh passenger car market, introducing two sedans and a hatchback.

"Bangladesh's customers for new cars demonstrate high discernment. They will see that reflected in our cars. Our service will be easy-to-reach and prompt," said Johnny Oommen, head, international business, passenger cars, Tata Motors.

The company launched its Tata Indigo eCS compact sedan and Tata Indigo Manza, a luxury sedan, as well as Tata Indica Vista hatchback.

The company said its passenger cars will be available in Dhaka through one showroom and by 2013, three other cities will be covered, with a showroom each.

Tata Motors holds a 70 percent market share in the country's commercial vehicle segment. The company first set shop in Bangladesh way back in 1972.

--IANS

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Tata Motors Nov sales at 66,500 nos

Mumbai, Dec 1 (IBNS)

Automobile giant Tata Motors' total sales (including exports) of Tata commercial and passenger vehicles in November 2012 were 66,500 vehicles.

The company's domestic sales of Tata commercial and passenger vehicles for November 2012 were 62,354 nos., over 72,474 nos., sold in November last year.

Cumulative sales (including exports) for the company for the fiscal were 548,168 nos., over 544,492 nos., sold last year.

Commercial Vehicles

The company's sales of commercial vehicles in November 2012 in the domestic market were 44,323 nos., compared to 44,732 vehicles, sold in November last year. LCV sales were 34,828 nos., compared to 28,673 vehicles sold in November last year. M and HCV sales stood at 9,495 nos., compared to 16,064 vehicles sold in November last year.

Cumulative sales of commercial vehicles in the domestic market for the fiscal were 342,855 nos., over last year. Cumulative LCV sales were 243,543 nos., while M and HCV sales stood at 99,312 nos.

Passenger Vehicles

Sales of passenger vehicles for November 2012 were at 18,031 nos., over 27,735 nos., sold in November last year.

There has been encouraging response to the Tata Manza Club Class, now available across the country, and the Tata Safari Storme, now available in the NCR region, Punjab, UP, Rajasthan and Gujarat, for which the company is ramping up production.

Sales of the Tata Nano were 3,503 nos., compared to 6,401 nos., sold in November last year.

The Indica range sales were 6,956 nos., over 10,926 nos., sold in November last year.

The Indigo range recorded sales of 3,709 nos., over 6,213 nos., sold in November last year. The Sumo/ Safari/ Aria/ Venture range sales were 4,493 nos., over 4,197 nos., sold in November last year.

Cumulative sales of passenger vehicles were 169,792 nos., compared to 178,309 nos., sold till November last year. Cumulative sales of the Nano were at 47,130 nos., over 39,646 nos., sold till November last year.

Cumulative sales of the Indica range were at 55,739 nos., over last year. Cumulative sales of the Indigo family were 32,702 nos., over last year. Cumulative sales of the Sumo/Safari/ Aria/ Venture range were 34,221 nos., over last year.

Exports

The company's sales from exports at 4,146 vehicles in November 2012, compared to 4,349 vehicles, in November last year.

The cumulative sales from exports for the fiscal were 35,521 nos., over 39,598 nos., sold in the same period last year.

--IBNS

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Tata Motors consolidated net profit up 10.5 percent

Mumbai, Nov 7 (IANS)

Automobile giant Tata Motors Wednesday reported an increase of 10.5 percent in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter of the current fiscal which stood at Rs.2,075 crore from Rs.1,877 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2011-12.

The company's consolidated income for the quarter under review rose by 19.9 percent at Rs.43,403 crore from Rs.36,198 crore in the second quarter of last fiscal.

The company said that it received dividend worth 150 million pounds from Jaguar LandRover (JLR), whose volume of growth during the quarter under review increased by 13.9 percent, helped by high demand in markets like China.

"Volumes growth at JLR was driven by China and especially Range Rover Evoque," the company said in a statement.

Other Tata Motors subsidiaries including JLR contributed a dividend of Rs.1,312 crore from Rs.29 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2011-12.

On a standalone basis Tata Motors net profit rose by 750 percent at Rs.867 crore including the dividend from JLR of Rs.102 crore in the second quarter of 2011-12.

However, standalone operating margins declined to 5.9 percent in the quarter under review from 7.2 percent in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

"Competitive pressures on pricing in certain segments and weak product mix has impacted operating margins on the standalone basis," the statement said.

The income on the standalone basis declined by 3.65 percent at Rs.12,481 crore from Rs.12,954 crore in the second quarter of last fiscal.

Total sales including exports of commercial and passenger vehicles increased by 5.8 percent for the quarter ended Sep 30 and stood at 223,655 units.

However, the company said that sales of medium and heavy commercial (M and HC) vehicles were impacted.

"Weak macro economic outlook and sluggish industrial demand coupled with diesel price increase have impacted medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales," the statement added.

--IANS

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Hyundai Motor's November sales down 2.3 percent

New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS)

Hyundai Motor Saturday reported a marginal 2.3 percent decline in November sales at 55,762 units from 57,071 units sold in the same period of 2011.

The company's domestic sales fell by 0.7 percent at 34,751 units from 35,000 units sold in the corresponding month of last year.

The exports fell by 4.8 percent in the month under review, and stood at 21,011 units from 22,071 units shipped out in November 2011.

"The adverse market conditions due to high interest rates and inflation continued to pose challenges for growth. Increased diesel fuel price temporarily affected the strong momentum of diesel car sales," said Rakesh Srivastava, vice president, sales.

However, he added: "The festival season stimulated sales of petrol cars. Eon demand continues to grow month on month leading to supply challenges."

Segment-wise, cumulative sales of A2 segment which includes hatchback majors like Eon, Santro, i10, i20, were 48,650 units, followed by the A3 sedan segment which includes Accent and Verna at 6,526 units, A4 luxury segment sedan of Elantra at 513 units, A5 Sonata at 20 units and sports utility vehicle (SUV) Santa Fe at 53 units.

The company added that its cumulative sales during January-November 2012 grew by 4.65 percent at 593,448 units from 567,090 units sold in the corresponding period of 2011.

The domestic cumulative sales during the period under review increased by 5.92 percent at 364,579 units from 344,193 units sold in January-November 2011.

Exports during the period under review grew by 2.68 percent at 228,869 units from 222,897 units shipped out in the like period of last year.

--IANS

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General Motors plans integrating Apple's Siri in some cars

Sydney, Nov 29 (ANI)

General Motors has planned to integrate Apple's voice-recognition software Siri into some of its cars next year.

The move will allow iPhone users to perform hands-free tasks.

According to the Herald Sun, GM announced at the Los Angeles International Auto Show it would use the Siri intelligent assistant in the Chevrolet Spark and Sonic LTZ and RS.

"Through the cars' standard Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system, customers with a compatible iPhone running iOS 6 can direct Siri to perform a number of tasks while they safely keep their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel," GM said in a statement.

"To further minimise distraction, Siri takes hands-free functionality even further with an eyes-free mode that enables users to interact with their iPhone using nothing more than their voice while keeping the device's screen from lighting up," it added.

According to the paper, drivers will be able to use the system to make hands-free calls, play songs in the iTunes library, or switch music sources from radio to iPod mode.

They may also listen to, compose and send messages to people in their contact list, the report added.

--ANI

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Tata Motors global wholesales post 6 percent rise in October

Mumbai, Nov 15 (UNI)

The global wholesales of Tata Motors Group, including Jaguar Land Rover, were 1,00,660 units in October, which was higher by six percent over the corresponding period of last year.

Cumulative wholesales for the fiscal were 6,79,051 units, which were higher by seven percent, compared with the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

The global wholesales of all commercial vehicles like Tata, Tata Daewoo and the Tata Hispano Carrocera range -- were 51,396 units, in October 2012, up by 19 percent over the same period of last year.

Cumulative wholesales for the fiscal were at 3,34,941 units, higher by four percent over October 2011.

The global wholesales of all passenger vehicles were at 49,264 units in October 2012, down by five percent compared with the corresponding period of last year.

Cumulative wholesales for the fiscal were 3,44,110 units, higher by 10 percent as against the corresponding period of previous year.

Global wholesales of Tata passenger vehicles were at 21,367 units for the month, down by 17 percent over the same period of October 2011.

Cumulative wholesales for this fiscal were flat at 1,55,319 units.

Global wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover in the month of October 2012 were 27,897 vehicles, up by seven percent over October 2011.

Jaguar wholesales for October 2012 were 3,339 and cumulative wholesales were 24,945 vehicles, while Land Rover wholesales for the month were 24,558 and cumulative wholesales were 1,63,846 vehicles.

Cumulative wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover for the fiscal were 1,88,791 vehicles, higher by 21 percent over the last year.

--UNI

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Farewell, Time. Goodbye, Money. Hello, Rust: We Review the New eBay Motors App

“Dammit Johnson! Stop being useful! Now I’m looking at 914s! [expletive redacted]”

We received the preceding note in an e-mail from contributor Sam Smith while waiting in the Hell Line at our local DMV office. The impetus for Mr. Smith’s consternation? (Besides the fact that he’d recently become involved in a multi-party vintage Alfa Romeo project-car purchase?) The new eBay Motors iPhone app, from which we’d alerted him of what seems like a pretty nice ‘70 1.7-liter example of Ferry’s first bastard child. We also found the above “PORSCHE”-emblazoned brassiere, certainly a boon for one lucky bidder.

As a mirror site, the Motors app is of course part dealership, part obscure-parts emporium and part dream-fodder. Unlike the site, it loads quickly and is a breeze to navigate. In fact, we’d go so far as to say it’s much more fun to use, which, depending on the state of one’s pocketbook, could be a rather dangerous thing. Bonus? The only unfortunate HTML pops up in the sellers’ descriptions of their wares, often accenting the unintentional hilarity of their listings. Said descriptions are hidden by default.

While the app lacks some of the site’s useful features—searches can’t be pre-filtered by “Lighting & Lamps” within a parts-search inquiry, for example—if you know exactly the piece you’re searching for, some prudently-worded searches should produce the results you’re after. You can, however, add your car to your “My Vehicles” garage simply by scanning its VIN barcode using your phone’s camera. Brokedown luddites, without UPC-encoded vehicles, will have to  to enter theirs old fashioned way. (You know, by tapping on the glass of a futuristic communications device.) Once a vehicle is added to the garage, you can ask the app to search for only those parts that work with your whip.

Naturally, it’s also a snap to share a listing with friends and easily distracted coworkers, whilst you both suffering through meetings. Perhaps our favorite feature, though, is the opening-screen slide show. When the app first launches, you’re presented with a parade of items selected specially for you, based on previous searches and items you’ve checked out. We’re wondering if, with use, said cavalcade of exotica will devolve into an endless stream of Wartburgs, gray-market Lada Nivas, barely-salvage-grade 308 GT4s, ‘70s personal-luxury coupes, and 917K-replica balsa shift knobs. We rather hope so.

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