Adequate rainfall across the country along with the start of the long festive season will keep the demand for automobiles positive and help keep the momentum going, rating agency CareEdge said in a report on Tuesday.

It said that new model launches by the automakers along with some improvement in the availability of semiconductors helped sustain the demand for automobiles in July.

On a year-on-year basis, the domestic sales vehicles’ growth stood at 11 per cent, with 2.9 per cent growth on a month-on-month basis.

With the upcoming festive season, the automakers are focusing on building up inventory in anticipation of higher demand, the report said.

The domestic sales in the two-wheeler segment registered a growth of 5.5 per cent on a monthly basis in July 2022, with the scooters subsegment growing strongly by 14 per cent while the motorcycles sub-segment grew marginally by 2 per cent.

“Normal monsoons in most parts of the country resulting in a decent agricultural harvest kept the demand sentiment positive.” Coming to exports, shipments for two-wheelers fell 9.6 per cent on a monthly basis with declining export sales of 15 per cent motorcycles sub-segment as the international markets were facing some headwinds due to rising inflation, geopolitical tensions, and adverse economic conditions in Sri Lanka and Nepal.

The passenger vehicle segment domestic sales showed an improvement in sales of 6.3 per cent on in July.

“The OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are continuously launching new models, especially in the compact SUV segment which will further help to sustain the demand in the festive season. With the improving availability of semiconductor chips, there is an expectation of a lower waiting period in the coming months,” the report said. However, the third hike in repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India to restrain high inflation will make auto loans costlier.

“This (lending rate hike) may restrict the growth, especially in entry-level vehicle segments which have price-sensitive customers,” it further said.

India’s e-mobility journey is on a fast track, with an estimated 45-50 million electric vehicles (EVs) on road by 2030, a new report said on Tuesday.

As the EV ecosystem matures at a rapid pace, a critical facilitator of EV adoption is ready availability of slow and fast chargers ensuring easy access to efficient and cost-effective charging, according to a KPMG in India report.

“Development of a robust charging network has gone hand-in-hand with accelerated EV adoption across the world, and we believe a similar trend is expected to play out in India,” said Rohan Rao, Partner, M&A Consulting, KPMG in India.

Charging technologies will vary by different vehicle segments and public and private charging solutions will be deployed to serve different customer segments and use cases, according to the report.

“2Ws and 3Ws are best suited for AC slow charging. Battery swapping is likely to be the more prevalent model for use cases requiring quick charging turnaround,” it added.

The Indian market is likely to have a dense network of AC private and public chargers and DC chargers to be restricted to buses and few use cases for 4Ws and LCVs. According to the report, expectations from home/workplace charging are likely to be different from destination charging or on the go charging which will differ from fleet charging.

“Strategic partnerships for real estate and interoperability among CPOs/ service providers are crucial to strengthen customer proposition,” the findings showed. “With an estimated 50 million EVs on Indian roads by 2030, the potential opportunity for a pure play charging business is enormous, Rao added.

Herbert Diess, the current chairman of the board of management of the German motor vehicle manufacturer Volkswagen Group, has said that the carmaker will take the lead over Elon Musk’s Tesla by 2025. During a meeting at the company’s headquarters in Germany, Diess said that Tesla will lose its strength trying to ramp up two gigafactories — one in Austin, Texas and the other in Grunheide, Germany, reports the Daily Mail. He sees this as an opportunity to take the lead, as Volkswagen is running at full capacity. “Elon must simultaneously ramp up two highly complex factories in Austin and Grunheide — and expand production in Shanghai. That will cost him strength,” he told workers on Tuesday, as first reported by Financial Times. “We have to seize this opportunity and catch up quickly — by 2025 we can be in the lead,” he added. Diess has had his sights set on Tesla for quite some time — earlier this year he said Volkswagen is capable of selling more electric vehicles than its rival by 2025. During the presentation, Diess also mentioned that Tesla is weakening and then presented a slide with a meme that showed actor Jason Momoa representing Volkswagen creeping up behind fellow actor Henry Cavill cast as Tesla. Diess and Musk are friendly outside of the EV race, but the German executive continually notes Tesla as Volkswagen’s biggest rival. Volkswagen sold 4,52,900 electric vehicles worldwide in 2021, while Tesla sold 9,30,422. It is listed fourth when it comes to electric car companies and fifth among the largest EV companies.

German prosecutors have launched investigations into regional offices of Hyundai Motor and Kia in Germany and Luxembourg. The prosecutors said it will deploy 140 investigators from the Hessen State Police, Frankfurt Prosecutors and Luxembourg investigation authorities to obtain evidence, communication data, software, and design documents along with the European Justice Organization (Eurojust). According to the prosecutors, Hyundai Motor, Kia, and its parts partner Borgwarner Group allegedly manipulated the diesel emissions. The prosecutors accused them of fraud and air pollution. The companies have distributed more than 2,10,000 units of diesel vehicles with manipulated diesel emissions devices by 2020, the prosecution said. Due to the manipulated device, the exhaust gas purifiers of the vehicle were not properly working, emitting more nitrogen oxide than permitted, the prosecution explained. Prosecutors said that the companies did not notify customers that the vehicles did not meet the Euro 5 or Euro 6 standards, the European environmental standards. Customers might have damaged due to Hyundai Motor and Kia’s deception, the prosecution added. The vehicles caught are all models of Hyundai and Kia equipped with 1.1L, 1.4L, 1.6L, 1.7L, 2.0L and 2.2L diesel engines. The engine control software was allegedly produced by Bosch and Delphi, a parts subsidiary of Borgwarner Group, the prosecution said.  

The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has manufactured an EDrive Auto named ‘Hawk’ by assembling scrap. The e-drive auto has been made by the trainees of the ITBP Auto Electrician course as a learning project by overhauling and assembling scrap. The e-vehicle has been manufactured at Transport Training School, Transport Battalion ITBP Chandigarh. The maximum speed of the e-vehicle is 20-25 km/hr with a seating capacity of five persons and battery backup for six hours. The vehicle is made of scrap and the total cost of fabrication stands Rs 30,000. Presently, the ‘Hawk’ is being used at the ITBP Chandigarh campus to carry personnel to various destinations. A total of four batteries are used in the vehicle with 48-volt capacity and telescopic shock absorber and leaf spring-type suspension. The vehicle is equipped with cutting-edge mechanical drumtype brake, direct-drive transmission and 3”X12 6 PR tyre. With the vision to have environment-friendly vehicles and innovations along the lines of ‘Make in India’ by making quality vehicles, ITBP Spokesperson Vivek Pandey told ANI that the “initiative will be a landmark in the force more such innovations in the future”. “With the help of scrap and other related waste materials more innovations may take place. It will surely motivate other such innovators to go ahead with their innovations with low cost and durable e-vehicle solutions,” Pandey said. “The E-Drive Auto ‘Hawk’ has been made by the trainees of the ITBP Auto Electrician course. Almost 8-10 trainees manufactured the e-vehicle as a learning project by overhauling and assembling scrap at Transport Training School, Transport Battalion ITBP Chandigarh. The maximum speed of the e-vehicle is 20-25 km/hr with a seating capacity of 5 persons and battery backup for six hours,” said the officer. Raised on October 24, 1962, the ITBP first time has come up with such a vehicle beyond its primary work to guard 3,488 km long India-China borders ranging from Karakoram Pass in Ladakh to Jachep La in Arunachal Pradesh. Apart from this, the ITBP also has important roles in many internal security duties and operations against the Left Wing Extremism in the state of Chhattisgarh. ITBP is a specialized Armed Police Force of the Nation which trains its personnel in various disciplines including mountaineering and skiing apart from intensive tactical training, thereby creating a distinctive image of the Force. Most of the ITBP’s Border Out Posts (BOPs) are located at altitudes ranging from 9,000 ft to 18,800 ft where temperatures drop to minus 45 degrees Celsius in extreme winters

After making its maiden foray in Gurugram in 1983, country’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd is going to set up its third facility with an outlay of Rs 18,000 crore in Haryana that will give boost to the auto industry. The automaker already has two manufacturing facilities in Haryana. The upcoming facility will have a production capacity of 250,000 vehicles per annum and is expected to be commissioned by 2025. In the past few years, Haryana has made rapid strides on several fronts, including industrial development, under the leadership of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, an official statement said on Tuesday. Haryana is well on its way to inclusive growth driven by a strong commitment of the government towards public welfare and ensuring the advanced facilities to its citizens. Likewise, the government is actively working towards making the state an industrial and automobile hub. The growth in automobile sector in the state can be gauged by the fact that Maruti Suzuki is coming up with its third plant in the state. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Suzuki Motorcycle India Private Ltd and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (HSIIDC) will sign an agreement for the allotment of 800-acre and 100-acre land at IMT Kharkhoda, respectively, at a ceremony on May 19 in Gurugram amidst the presence of the Chief Minister. The event would also celebrate the four decades of Haryana-Japan business relationship, which began in 1981 and continues to flourish even today, says the statement. Chief Minister Khattar said this is a huge achievement for the state as Maruti is setting up its third plant in the state. He said Maruti Suzuki has purchased an additional 800 acres at IMT Kharkhoda for its proposed new car manufacturing facility. The total project cost is esti