Mumbai: Fiat India may reschedule the launch of its forthcoming product range. The company is considering launching the Fiat Linea first and then the Grande Punto, Giovanni de Filippis, Managing Director, Fiat India, said.

Earlier, the company had announced plans of launching the Grande Punto first, followed by the Linea. However, at that time the Linea was not launched.

The company’s evaluation on launching the Linea first is primarily due to the growing C-plus segment. As of now, the segment has grown to 18,000-plus units on a monthly basis. This is likely to grow further. Moreover, the company, when it launched the Fiat Linea globally, has targeted to attain sales of 2,80,000 units by 2012 of which India, a prominent player in this project, is expect to cross 50,000-60,000 units on an annual basis by 2012.

The C-segment car will be available with (1.4-litre petrol and 1.3-litre diesel) engine options. As a price indicator for the forthcoming Indian market, in Turkey, the vehicle is available in the price range of Turkish Liras 15,000-21,000. It has a localisation level of 60 per cent though the Indian model is likely to have a higher local content as the powertrain would be manufactured locally, said De Filippis.

The sedan will be manufactured at Fiat India’s plant at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra.

Besides the domestic market, there is high potential of India becoming the hub for the RHD (right hand drive) markets in the world, De Filippis said. Likewise, the country may become the export hub for the 1.4-litre petrol and 1.3- litre powertrains for select markets in the near future.

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Honda Motor Co. (TSE:7267) plans to market its Acura line of luxury cars in Russia as early as 2008, targeting the rising wealthy class in big cities by bolstering its sales networks, company sources said Saturday.

The Japanese carmaker aims to sell 100,000 vehicles annually in Russia by 2010, including other Honda brands, up a factor of 6 from 2006.

Russia is one of the fastest growing markets in the world after China and India, and Honda and other top automakers around the globe are vying to expand sales there.

Honda aims to set up 10 dealerships in the country, putting one or two each in major cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg. Its local subsidiary will import and sell Acura models, including the RL luxury sedan - known as the Legend in Japan - the MDX sport utility vehicle and the TL midsize model.

Honda sells the Acura line in North America, China and Mexico, but not yet in Japan. It has decided to push back the planned debut here in 2008 by two years due to sluggish sales in the domestic market.

Currently, the Japanese automaker operates about 30 dealerships under the Honda name in Russia, and saw a 77 per cent jump in sales to 15,723 cars in 2006. In the January-June period of 2007, sales soared 120 per cent on the year to 13,616 vehicles.

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BY KATIE MERX

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

With Chrysler LLC’s announcement last week of an additional 12,000 job cuts, the number of jobs to be eliminated from U.S. and Canadian automakers and their former parts arms in the second half of this decade has grown to 150,000 — and counting.

With buyouts or early retirement offers expected at all three Detroit automakers in the wake of new UAW contracts that allow new hires to get less in pay or benefits, the number is sure to grow soon.

And in the future, as the American automakers face competition from more and more rivals from low-cost countries, analysts say, more painful cuts will almost certainly follow. Just days after hourly workers ratified a new labor contract, Chrysler said it plans to nearly double the 13,000 job cuts it announced in February, now targeting the elimination of more than 25,000 hourly and salaried workers, or nearly one-third of its workforce.

Add the Chrysler cuts to the expected job cuts — at least 137,400 of them — already in the works at General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and its ACH unit, and Delphi Corp. between 2005 and 2009, and the total American job reductions rise to about 150,000. The total, derived from an analysis by the Center for Automotive Research earlier this year and subsequent company announcements, includes the 34,410 hourly buyouts and retirements at GM last year, and the more than 30,000 jobs eliminated at Ford since 2005 and the planned shutdowns and sell-offs of 35 Delphi and ACH plants.
That doesn’t include the thousands of jobs lost at other auto suppliers affected by the downsizing. And still, analysts, union officials and autoworkers say the pain isn’t over.

“We’ve been overbuilding for years and years, and now it’s catching up to us because we’re losing market share,” said Kenyon Hall, a 31-year-old assembly worker at Chrysler’s plant in Belvedere, Ill., where the automaker plans to eliminate a shift. “They waited too long to do something. Now it’s going to be painful for a while.”

Analysts expect that even the latest restructurings leave Detroit automakers larger than they will need to be in future.
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General Motors India Ltd, the Indian arm of the largest US automobile maker, will set up a car engine or power train facility in India. “We are going to set up a power train facility in India and are evaluating locations,” said Karl Slym, head, GM India.

GM sells only one of its many badges in India, the Chevrolet. The engine facility would lower GM’s cost of production by allowing it to source cheap parts from Indian manufacturers, said a Chennai-based analyst on the condition of anonymity.

Slym, however, did not elaborate on the investment that GM plans to make in the plant. GM has one plant in Halol, Gujarat, where its Tavera, Optra, Aveo and Spark cars are assembled.

Currently, engines and gearboxes for Chevrolet cars are imported from Southeast Asian countries like Thailand. The new car engine facility will complement GM’s expansion plans in India.

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