It’s the biggest auto show ever showcased in India. But the Ninth Auto Expo 2008, scheduled to open to the public on January 10 at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, is really two shows, not one.
Show One – the show – is the launch of the much ballyhooed Rs 1 lakh Tata small car on Thursday. Everyone, from the public to competitors, is waiting with bated breath for the curtains to go up on that car.
Which is why the rest of the crowd is planning Show Zero – the show before the show - well before the Expo formally opens. To avoid being overshadowed by the Tata car, automobile manufacturers are scheduling their announcements for January 8-9.
 all begins with Bajaj Auto’s small car on Tuesday, followed by General Motors, Volkswagen, Fiat (Tata’s joint venture partner), Maruti, Volvo Cars and the rest.To be unveiled by Rajiv Bajaj, managing director of Bajaj Auto, this small car has been planned as a joint venture with Renault and Nissan. If everything goes according to plan, the car will hit the roads in 2010.
n a way, the rush to grab eyeballs before the Tata small car makes it presence felt is similar to the scenario in 1998, when Tata Motors unveiled the Indica, prompting other carmakers like Hyundai to showcase their products in advance. They were right, going by the huge crowds that thronged the Tata pavilion then. It is going to be even more intense this time around and Bajaj Auto possibly knows it better, considering that its own small car, to be priced at $3,000, will ultimately take on the Tata offering.”The car that will finally emerge will definitely be an improvement over the one (to be) displayed in Delhi. This is just a prototype and more work needs to be done,” Bajaj told DNA over telephone. What is especially interesting is that his engineers and R&D team had been working on the project even before Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Renault and Nissan, kicked off talks for a possible alliance.
While Bajaj refused to comment on the specifications of the car that will be unveiled on Tuesday, he only ventured to say that the focus was on technology.
For the record, the 624cc Tata car is a four-door gearless car with a rear engine. Ratan Tata has also said on more than one occasion that the inspiration for the vehicle was the gearless scooter and, to that extent, it only made sense for a two-wheeler manufacturer to make something similar.
This is precisely what Bajaj Auto is doing, though the inspiration will possibly be drawn from the top-end Pulsar mobike. Bajaj was confident that his engineers would do a great job. “Tata’s dream is in safe hands,” he said tongue-in-cheek.
So, who will eventually triumph in this tug-of-war? Tata Motors, of course, has a two-year headstart and is projecting volumes of a million units by 2011. The company’s model is even more innovative, where one mother plant (at Singur, West Bengal) will supply kits for assembly to three or four satellite units across the country.
Bajaj Auto, in contrast, could settle for one plant and, to that extent, numbers could be lower. What is clear, though, is that both cars will be completely different and yet sold at a competitive price tag. Will this pave the way for a third player to throw his hat into the ring? Only time will tell.
Source : DNA
1 comment so far ↓
Who cares? If this car ever made it to our shores, it will be so bloated with emissions standards and safety equipment that the price tag would surely be much greater.
Leave a Comment