Recently, Kia became the fastest carmaker to cross 3 lakh sales in India.

Kia India plans to ramp up production at its Anantapur facility by around 40%.

Kia will be starting a third shift at the factory, which is expected to boost production from 18,000 units per month to nearly 25,000 units.

Tae-Jin Park, Chief Sales & Business strategy officer, Kia India, has stated that the company will continue to invest for growth in the future, especially in enhancing its manufacturing capabilities. He also confirmed that further expansions would happen at the existing location.

Recently, Kia became the fastest carmaker to cross 3 lakh sales in India, while over 2 lakh units of the Seltos have been sold in the 2 years. The Sonet and Carnival have also been selling in decent numbers.

Source: TOI

Besides contract manufacturing, Ford is also said to be keen on selling off its Indian factories.

Earlier this week, there were reports about Ford exploring contract manufacturing opportunities in India. But, according to a new report, the carmaker may be planning to wrap up its India operations completely.

It is said that Ford could shut down manufacturing operations at its factories in Chennai and Sanand, Gujarat. Besides contract manufacturing, Ford is also said to be keen on selling off its Indian factories. Rumours suggest that the company has been in talks with Ola, which could use Ford's factories to build electric cars.

Ford's Chennai plant has an installed annual capacity of 2 lakh cars and 3.50 lakh engines, while the Sanand facility can produce 2.4 lakh cars and 2.7 lakh engines.

Last year, talks between Ford and Mahindra over a possible joint venture broke down. It is said that Ford had initiated talks with other manufacturers like MG, Changan and Great Wall following this. Initially, Ford and Mahindra had plans to share platforms and technologies and would've utilized the production capacity at Ford's factories in India.

Source: ET Auto

The new factory is being built as a replacement for the Gurgaon plant.

Maruti Suzuki - India's largest carmaker by volume, plans to set up a new manufacturing facility in Haryana. The company has earmarked Rs. 18,000 crore for this project.

The factory will be spread over 700-1,000 acres and is expected to have a production capacity of 7.5 lakh to 10 lakh units per annum.

The new factory is being built as a replacement for the Gurgaon plant. The latter is spread over 300 acres and is facing space constraints. The facility is located in the heart of the city and is surrounded by residential areas.

Maruti Suzuki had hoped to get the new factory up and running as quickly as possible, but the plan was delayed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: ET Auto

It seems Ford may have an unutilized production capacity at its manufacturing plants in India.

Ford and Mahindra had plans to share platforms and technologies as part of their joint venture. Unfortunately, the plan was called off earlier this year. Now, according to a recent report, Ford is hunting for a new partner.

The report suggests that Ford is looking at partnerships for contract manufacturing at one of its factories and is said to be in talks with Citroen India. Ford has also had discussions with MG Motor in the past, which supposedly fell through.

The fact that Ford is exploring contract manufacturing opportunities suggests that the company may have an unutilized production capacity at its manufacturing plants. Ford's Chennai factory can produce 2 lakh vehicles and 3.40 lakh engines annually, while the installed production capacity at its Sanand plant in Gujarat is 2.40 lakh vehicles and 2.70 lakh engines.

The carmaker builds the EcoSport and Endeavour at its Chennai plant, while the Aspire and Figo are produced in Sanand. The factories also manufacture vehicles for export markets.

Source: Hindu Businessline

Hyundai's sole manufacturing facility in India is located near Chennai.

Hyundai has expressed its interest to set up a new manufacturing unit in Haryana - a stronghold of rival Maruti Suzuki.

Seon Seob Kim, Managing Director, Hyundai Motors India, recently had a meeting with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, where he expressed the company's desire to set up a new factory in the state.

At present, Hyundai's sole manufacturing facility in India is located near Chennai. The factory has an installed capacity of 7.5 lakh units per annum. Besides serving the domestic market, the factory also builds vehicles for 88 other countries.

The city of Gurgaon in Haryana has emerged as a hub for automakers in recent times. Besides Maruti Suzuki's sprawling manufacturing facility, the city is also home to the corporate offices of a number of brands, including Hyundai.

Source: ET Auto

Export oriented industries which include carmakers like Renault-Nissan, Hyundai and Ford can now operate at 100% capacity.

The government of Tamil Nadu has allowed export-oriented industries to operate at full capacity after a drop in Covid-19 cases. These include carmakers like Renault-Nissan, Hyundai and Ford.

Earlier, Renault-Nissan workers had approached the Madras High Court seeking a complete plant shutdown. They had alleged that social distancing norms were being flouted at the factory and the risk to their lives outweighed the health benefits provided by the company.

While the Renault-Nissan plant was shut down for a short period of time, Hyundai and Ford too decided to halt operations following worker protests.

New Covid-19 cases in the state have fallen to about 8,000 a day from a peak of more than 30,000 in May.

Source: ET Auto

The factory will operate with 50% workforce and will conform to all Covid-19 norms laid down by the government.

Toyota has announced that it has resumed partial operations at its plant at Bidadi, Karnataka from June 15, 2021. The factory will operate with 50% workforce and will conform to all norms laid down by the government.

Official statement:

TKM confirms partial resumption of operations at its plant at Bidadi in Karnataka beginning 15th June, 2021. Operating at the prescribed workforce strength of 50%, TKM will resume its operations as well as enhance training of all employees for the “new normal”, both in terms of facilities and processes. Furthermore, all such operations will be carried out in strict concurrence with all State and Central Government’s directives. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, we are very clear that we will respond to the needs of those in the midst of this outbreak, making prompt decisions and taking immediate action to help ensure safety and security of all our employees and other stakeholders.

On the manufacturing side, we are trying to ensure that all possible measures & preparations are made to resume production soon, so as to be able to cater to the immediate mobility needs of our customers, at the earliest. Our focus will be to cater to pending orders that could not be met due to the non-production days of planned annual maintenance shutdown, followed by the lockdown announcement by the state Government. Moreover, we are also focusing on vaccinating both our employees as well as their families and extending our support to have dealer and supplier staff vaccinated too, so as to ensure lower risk & severity of infections.

In April, Toyota had halted production at the Bidadi factory for 3 weeks. Since then, Hyundai, Renault-Nissan and Ford have also had to suspend production due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

Hyundai resumed plant operations in two shifts from May 31.

Hyundai has suspended its third shift from May 31 till June 19, 2021. The decision was taken in view of the current Covid-19 situation. Third shift operations will resume from June 21.

According to Hyundai, the suspended third shift operations will be treated as 50% paid holidays and 50% compensatory holidays. The employees would therefore have to compensate for 9 shifts.

The company resumed plant operations in two shifts from May 31 following a week-long shut down due to rising Covid-19 cases.

The state of Tamil Nadu has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases over the last few weeks. In the wake of this, other manufactures like Ford, Renault-Nissan and Yamaha had also suspended operations at their factories.

Source: ET Auto

Hyundai and Renault-Nissan have also shut down their manufacturing units temporarily.

Ford India has suspended production operations at its Tamil Nadu plant on May 28 and 29. The announcement was made following a demand from workers to halt production due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the area.

This is the second plant shutdown this month. Earlier, Ford had halted production for 8 days before production resumed on May 24.

In the wake of the rising number of cases in the state, Hyundai and Renault-Nissan have also shut down their manufacturing units. Hyundai plans to temporarily suspend plant operations for a period of 5 days, between May 25 to May 29, while Renault-Nissan has decided to shut down its manufacturing plant from May 26 to May 30, 2021.

The plant is also reducing its energy use and aims to save around 20,000 MWh by 2023.

Volvo has announced that its Torslanda factory in Sweden has become its first car manufacturing plant to reach climate neutral status.

Torslanda is the second plant in Volvo's manufacturing network to achieve this status. In 2018, the Skovde engine plant in Sweden had become climate neutral.

A Volvo Cars factory is considered fully climate neutral when it registers no net increase in the emission of greenhouse gases as a result of the electricity and heating used by the plant.

The Torsland plant has been powered by climate neutral electricity since 2008. It now has climate neutral heating. Half of the plant’s heating comes from biogas, while the rest is sourced from district heating through industrial waste heat. The plant is also reducing its energy use and aims to save around 20,000 MWh by 2023.