Auto India, Car India

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Auto car giants in the country are gearing up to launch new vehicles in India in an attempt to woo the consumers this festival season. The car makers who plan new launches this month are Tata Motors, Hyundai Motor Company, and Skoda Auto. Some companies like Honda Motor Company, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nissan Motor Co., and Daimler AG have already launched their new models in September.

Many consumers book their vehicles during or prior to the festival season, as they consider it to be an auspicious occasion to buy durables. The new launches introduced in the past two months have reported good sales.

Hyundai plans to launch Eon in mid-October, said Arvind Saxena, the director of marketing and sales at the company. Eon, a small car, with its 814-cubic centimeter gasoline engine will be the smallest engine capacity of Hyundai across the globe. He added that the design of Eon has been made keeping in mind the Indian consumers.

The company has declined to announce the price of this car. However, the media speculate that Eon will be priced at 250,000 rupees or $5,094. Eon is expected to give a stand against Alto made by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. The pricing of Alto starts at 232,246 rupees in New Delhi showrooms and it is one of the highest selling car models in India. About 25,000 units of Alto are sold every month.

The auto companies hope that the introduction of new models will bring relief to the auto industry at a time when the companies have to boost the sales combating the rise in the loan rates, hike in petrol prices and decline in the sales in August. So they hope that by introducing new vehicles, they will be able to revive sales. In August and July, the sales rerecorded a biggest drop since November 2008.

Debasis Ray, a spokesperson from Tata Motors, remarked “The auto industry is not like the soap industry. Here, people work on the long-term”. He added that “When people put new products, it increases the market.” Tata Motors is expected to launch an upgrades version of its Sumo SUV; apart from the other changes this version will have a more powerful engine.

Skoda Auto India is likely to introduce an entry-level sedan in this quarter. This was revealed by Thomas Kuehl, the director for sales and marketing for the company. However, he did not elaborate on the model, he said that by introducing this model, the company wants to broaden its “customer base in the industry than what we have now.” He expressed hope that although the auto industry had faced an all-time low in the previous months, the festive season will spur the sales.

The leader of the two-wheeler segment Hero MotoCorp Ltd., plans to introduce its first ever dirt bike, the Impulse in the latter half of this month.

Honda’s Brio, Nissan’s Sunny, Mahindra’s SUV and the above launches are expected to give boost the sales of the auto industry.