Bajaj Auto, India’s second largest motorcycle manufacturer has announced to launch an ultra low-cost car in the future that will likely run on the road by 2011. For this, Bajaj auto has a formal agreement with two renowned car manufacturing companies: Renault’s France and Japan’s Nissan.
The ultra-low-cost car entitled to the same name, ULC car would likely to cost nearby $2500 (slightly more than Rs.1,00,000) excluding several other taxes beyond the factory’s duty at that time, as jointly announced by Bajaj-Renault-Nissan in Mumbai. As per sources, the car would be launched first in petrol and then in diesel.
The joint venture has also finalised the place at chakan near Pune close Bajaj auto’s motorcycle plant for setting up the car plant.
For the project of Rs.4500-crore, Bajaj auto has tied up with Renault and Nissan at 50:25:25 ratio means Bajaj has 50% stake while both the allies would own the remaining share at equal basis.
Bajaj has already presented the sample model of the car in January auto expo at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi just two days before the Tata’s ‘nano’ exposition in January 2008.
Announcing the newly joint-venture (JV) project, Bajaj said, “The JV has owned the 250 acre of land at Chakan and would begin the construction work very soon to establish the plant….. The price tag of $2500 would be ex-factory rate including excise and other levies, but excluding VAT, octroi, sales tax and local municipal tax. However, the actual price would be decided at that time after analysing the price of steel, rubber and other material indulged in manufacturing the cars, besides taxes”
“The plant would produce 4,00,000 car per annum”, as per announced the JV. “The most parts of the car would be made in India but some critical areas of the product like product design, powertrain and chassis will be incorporated from Renault-Nissan’s global R&D centres,” added the joint venture.
Describing about the car features, Rajiv Bajaj, the managing director, Bajaj auto said, “The engine on a higher-variant car would not differ much, from the 600-700 cc engine, which the base level model is expected to have.”
Unlike Tata Nano, the engine would be on the front side similar to classic cars, as per sources said. The engine in Tata Nano would be under the back seat, as per its presented model revealed the fact.
After, Tata’s announcement regarding ‘lakhtakia car’ (Rs.1-lakh car), Bajaj is the first company to decide to give tough competition to Tata Nano; however, it will take a long gap and till then, several other companies would likely to show the dare of presenting nearby Rs.1-lakh car as per viewing the popularity of the cars.
According to latest auto industry figures, the growth in two-wheeler sector is moderating in India and the car segment especially small car segment is increasing rapidly with 12 percent annual growth. “Till March 31, 2008, as much as 12 lakhs car has been sold out in last fiscal year as against 4.5-crore two wheelers,” said the latest stats.
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