Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, has extended an official invitation to Tesla motors for setting up a manufacturing plant in India. Gadkari met top officials of the EV manufacturer during his visit to Tesla's manufacturing facility in San Jose, California. Interestingly, this visit comes 10 months after India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's trip to the same facility.

In order to lure the company to make India a manufacturing hub for its Asian operations, Nitin Gadkari has also offered to provide land near any one of the major ports of the country, in order to facilitate exports to South and South-East Asian nations. Moreover, the minister has offered to promote the possibility of a joint venture with Tesla and the existing Indian automotive OEMs, in order to work in the field of commercial and public vehicles.

Tesla officials have welcomed the Indian invitation and have said that the offer would be considered at the right time in the future. Tesla is indeed looking to set up a manufacturing hub in Asia, in order to enhance its footprint in the market. Reportedly, the company is also in talks with China to put up a plant near Shanghai.

Source: Autocar Professional

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI) has inaugurated a new assembly line at its scooter-only plant in Vithalpur, Gujarat. The new assembly line will help the two-wheeler manufacturer to double its annual production from the Gujarat plant to 12 lakh units. This line will be responsible for manufacturing the country's largest selling two-wheeler, the Honda Activa.

Honda is currently offering the Activa scooter in three-variants - Activa i, Activa 3G, and Activa 125. All these variants cumulatively clock more than 2.3 lakh unit sales every month. As a result, the Activa currently has a waiting period of around 3 months. The new assembly line at Vithalpur plant will help the company decrease this waiting period and prepare for the surge in demand during the upcoming festive season.

The Gujarat plant is HMSI's fourth plant in the country, making it the only two-wheeler manufacturer to operate production facilities from 3 geographical regions of the country: Manesar and Tapukara - North, Narsapura – South and Vithalapur – West.

The new assembly line has increased Honda 2Wheelers' annual production capacity to 58 lakh units, which includes 16 lakh from Haryana, 12 lakh from Rajasthan, 18 lakh from Karnataka, and another 12 lakh from Gujarat.

Toyota Industries Engine India (TIEI), a joint venture between Kirloskar Systems (KSL) and Toyota Industries Corporation - Japan (TICO), has inaugurated a new engine manufacturing plant in Karnataka. This new plant is located in the Jigani Industrial area of Bengaluru, and is spread over an area of 22 acres. Toyota claims to have made an investment worth Rs. 1,100 crore on the new manufacturing facility.

With a production capacity of 108,000 engines per year, the new manufacturing facility is Toyota's first Global Diesel Engine Plant in India, and third across the globe. The manufacturer's other two diesel engine plants are located in Japan and Thailand.

The Bengaluru-based Toyota plant will produce 2.4-litre 2GD-FTV and 2.8-litre 1GD-FTV diesel engines that will power the Innova Crysta MPV, and the upcoming next-gen Fortuner. The GD series engines on the new-gen Innova and Fortuner have replaced the KD series of engines that powered the earlier-generation models. While the KD engines were imported from Thailand, the new GD series engines will now be produced in India, thus reducing the manufacturing costs of the Toyota Innova Crysta and the next-gen Fortuner.

Source: ET Auto

General Motors India have officially announced that they are working on an updated version of the Chevrolet Tavera MPV, which will come with a BSIV engine. Currently, the Tavera is powered by a BSIII engine, which has been discontinued from all metro cities as it failed to comply with the Government's emission standards.

The new Tavera would be produced at the company's Halol plant in Gujarat. The new Tavera is expected to come with some exterior and interior modifications, in order to make it a worthy competitor in the narrowing MPV space.

GM has been trying to shut down operations at its manufacturing facility in Halol, Gujarat, as the company plans to shift its entire manufacturing process to its other plant in Talegaon, Maharashtra. But a recent announcement from the American automaker suggests that the Halol factory will continue its operations till March 2017. This extension will give time for the employees, suppliers and stakeholders for a smooth and orderly transition.

In addition to the Tavera, Chevrolet India will be launching many new products in the next 24 months, including the new Trailblazer, the next-gen Beat, Essentia compact sedan, and production version of the Beat Activ concept that was showcased at this year's auto expo.

Force Motors has set up a new manufacturing plant at Chakan, which is located near Pune, Maharashtra. The new plant will be supplying engines for all 'made in India' Mercedes-Benz cars. Force has been responsible for producing Mercedes engines since 1997, and has also recently started supplying front and rear axles of all Mercedes cars produced in the country.

Force started working on the new plant in June 2015 and the production of first engine began in February 2016. Force Motors has invested around Rs. 100 crore for the new plant, which is a part of the Rs. 700 crore worth commitment that the company had made to Mercedes-Benz. The remaining amount needs to be spent within a period of next two years.

The new Force Motors plant in Chakan is spread over an area of 1,30,000 square feet, which is dedicated to manufacture inline-four and V6 engines for Mercedes cars produced in the country. In the current configuration, the plant has an annual capacity of developing 20,000 engines and 20,000 front and rear axles. But both these capacities can be expanded depending on the market requirements.

Source: Autocar India

The upcoming Maruti Suzuki Ignis will be produced and exported to many global markets from the company's new manufacturing facility in Sanand, Gujarat. This new factory will thus be the global production hub for the Ignis.

The Ignis is expected to be launched in India in the festive season this year. It will be marketed as a hatchback-crossover, and will compete with the Mahindra KUV1OO. It might also be a potent competitor to the Toyota Liva Cross and the Hyundai i20 Active, though both of these currently retail at a price which is higher than the expected price of the Maruti Suzuki Ignis in India.

A production-ready concept of the Ignis was showcased at the 2016 Auto Expo. In the international markets, the Ignis might get a 1.25-liter four-cylinder K12C DualJet petrol engine that develops around 89.7 BHP and 118 Nm of torque. This engine will come with VVT (Variable Valve Timing) and SHVS (Smart Hybrid Vehicle by Suzuki) technologies.

For the Indian spec, the Maruti Ignis will borrow the same 1.2-litre petrol and 1.3-litre diesel engines that are found in the Maruti Ritz, Swift, Dzire and Baleno.

Source: OVERDRIVE

Triumph Motorcycles India have officially announced their plans to pull back an investment worth Rs. 850 crores for their manufacturing plant, which was to be set up in Narasapura, Karnataka. The reason behind this step is being cited as the state government's 'uncooperative approach'.

Under the aforementioned plans for Karnataka, Triumph had proposed a motorcycle manufacturing facility spread over an area of 30-acre, in Narasapura, which is located in the Kolar district of Karnataka. This plant would have brought in an investment of Rs. 850 crores in the state, while also creating thousands of job opportunities for the locals. Triumph had earlier said that it expects the Narasapura plant to produce 2.5 lakh bikes every year.

But what came in as a deal sourer was the fact that despite paying an (undisclosed) advance amount for land acquisition and even getting a project clearance in 2012, the state government could not provide undisputed and clear land to the British automaker. Irked by this approach, Triumph India have now decided to pull back all investments from the state, and have even demanded a refund of the investments made till date.

The Iconic British motorcycle brand is now eyeing its plant in Manesar, Haryana as its manufacturing hub. The company will be consolidating and strengthening the production processes of its manufacturing plant here, and will even plan to enhance production by introduction of new assembly lines, if the market demands it.

Source: ET Auto

A huge fire broke out today at Tata Motors' plant in Sanand, located in the state of Gujarat. An official statement released by the manufacturer suggests that the fire originated in the manufacturing facility of M/s Supreme Treves. This particular vendor is responsible for supplying trim parts for the Nano. No casualties have been recorded, and the capital loss is yet to be evaluated. Around 12 fire tenders were rushed to the site in order to douse the fire.

The Sanand manufacturing facility of Tata Motors was inaugurated in 2010, exclusively for manufacturing the Nano. Currently, the company also manufactures the newly launched Tiago hatchback in the same campus. It remains to be seen whether production of the Tiago will be affected by the fire or not.

The Sanand-based manufacturing plant is spread over an area of 725 acres, and is adjacent to a 375 acres vendor park that houses all major component vendors for the Tiago and Nano.

Jaguar Land Rover group has opened a new manufacturing facility and Education Business Partnership Centre in the Rio de Janeiro city in Brazil. Commenced at a cost of around £240m, this new Brazil plant marks JLR's first ever fully-owned manufacturing plant outside the United Kingdom. It is also the first time for a UK-based automotive manufacturer to open a plant in Latin America.

In addition to the manufacturing unit, the Brazil facility also houses Jaguar Land Rover’s first overseas Education Business Partnership Centre. This centre will be responsible for delivering educational programs and activities to over 12,000 local children every year. Once trained, the children will be able to pursue their careers with the JLR group, if the company finds them worthy enough.

The new Brazilian manufacturing facility will be responsible for developing the Range Rover Evoque and the Land Rover Discovery Sport. Brazil-made models will be available for sale across the country's dealerships from this month itself.

Maruti Suzuki manufacturing plants in Gurgaon and Manesar have returned to normal operation after the company's annual maintenance related shut down. The plants were closed from June 6 to June 11, after the company decided to advance its maintenance schedule by three weeks.

This advancement of plant closure was an attempt to stabilize component supplies in both the plants. Supply of AC compressors had been affected earlier, after a fire broke out at Subros Limited, which is the chief compressor vendor for the Japanese automaker.

There has been no official word on whether the supply related issues have been completely dealt with or not.