The small car city

Padmaja Shastri / TNN / Dec 31, 2007, 02:43 IST

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As affordable cars are developed in the city, the anticipated growth gets bigger for the automobile industry.

The year 2007, saw Pune in the driving seat of the Indian automobile industry.
The city sort of became a hub of the Rs 1-lakh car, which is expected to drive the passenger-car market in the country in a big way this year.
Not only were the final touches given to the Rs 1-lakh car of the Tata Motors, at the company’s Pune facility, this year, but city-based two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto went in for an exclusive collaboration with French and Japanese automakers, Renault and Nissan, to develop and sell a $ 25,000 ultra low-cost car (ULC).
In October, Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, visited the Bajaj Auto’s 198-acre two-wheeler manufacturing facility at Chakan, to announce the tie-up.

It may be a tough call, but not an impossible one, feel both Bajaj and Ghosn. A view Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors, also seems to hold.
“If Tatas can do it, there is no reason Bajaj cannot with the help of Renault and Nissan,” said Ghosn, who Bajaj spoke of as the “rockstar” of the global automotive industry.
The Tata car, to be unveiled in January at the Auto Expo 2008 in Delhi, is expected to be rolled out later next year. It was developed mostly at the Tata Motor’s Pune facility. The development team of the most-talked-of car in the country was centred here, and it co-ordinated with engineers working on Ratan Tata’s pet-project across Tata Motors facilities.

While the Bajaj-Renault-Nissan car is not expected to be on the roads before end-2010, the design and development of the vehicle is expected to begin in full-throttle in 2008, if the feasibility study gives the project a go-ahead. The study is expected to be completed in January 2008, after which the exact scope of the joint venture will be hammered out.
Bajaj is planning to set up a new research and engineering team for body and chassis engineering at its Akurdi facility. The engine and transmission of the ULC car, however, is expected to be taken care of by its existing research and development team led by Abraham Joseph.
The ULCs would be manufactured at Bajaj’s upcoming 250-acre four-wheeler facility, close to its motorcycle plant in Chakan. Apart from Tata Motors and Bajaj, a relatively lesser-known auto company in the city, Kandaa Motors, is also planning an entry-level small car priced at around Rs 1.5 lakh.
The two-wheeler manufacturer is part of the Rs 500 crore Kandaa group which has been supplying sheet-metal parts for commercial and passenger vehicles to auto companies like Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra. It had entered the two-wheeler market in 2004, with its first brand of motorcycle - Thunder 100 - and now plans to make four-wheelers.

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