Indian Automotive Sector
- Thread starter Amal
- Start date
Someday India will have enough money to do that. Till then nothing wrong with using Autos- or is the expenditure of collective public spending more acceptable that Individual wealth because you too are a socialist? (I guess you clearly are).
Tata Harrier has the same base as Land Rover. To that extend yes.
(I noted that majority of your post shows an obsession middle class products- I guess that explains the socialist bone).
I have friends who works for japanese companies, they are very clear, the moment this market mature to higher CC's thats when they can milk. But on the other side Indian companies are smart too, they are acquiring or JV with other bigger companies. BMW/TVS/Norotn, Bajaj KTM etc. So they wont have a free run, and with bs6, indian companies will be competent too....... They are good in reverse engineering too, but the difference is, they improvise over it and make the world feel its a new thing
Very interesting, Socialist? Please tell me more about how you arrived at that conclusion. I would love to find that bone and cut it out.
I think I may have given the wrong impression here. I'm tolerant to the middle class part- I'm a very tolerant guy. But it is important for us to realize that for society to move forward we need to promote individual quest for growth over dependency on state/ artificial ways of keeping things 'affordable'. Look at any economic study and you will find many such tactics are actually inefficiencies hidden as public spending projects.
Ohh do not worry, I am as middle class as they come, I make no qualms about it.
given I was talking about cars/motorcycles, I do not think anyone in India is either on a path towards growth and neither is the government trying to do anything to hinder anyone's growth. As far as promoting rickshaws to save roads, I really don't care for rickshaws, they are a pain in traffic.
TVS acquiring Norton was a good deal, and TVS, in general, has always been passionate about motorcycling. RE part of Eicher is already completely broken even in 2016 and Sid Lal is an amazing brain. I am pinning my hopes on him to be the next big thing in the motorcycle world. I have a feeling a bunch of foriegn mfg's are going to feel the brunt of Indian-global player done right.
Bajaj on the other hand, I have a bad feeling about. I don't think highly of Rajiv Bajaj. With his stake in KTM, is quite eager to cede the Bajaj space for KTM which may or may not backfire, time will tell. Hero has never been exciting, Munjal is great at manufacturing, I am not so sure about Hero's growth strategy.
I have maintained this though, in the bigger segment, you need good powerplants, to play with the big boys, you need a, reliable single, good twin, an excellent triple, a high rev liquid-cooled V-Twin (today), and a bonkers 4cyl that can go up against the best like Yamaha's Crossplane. My money is on RE getting it's house in order the fastest, It might not venture into 4cyl and triple, but it will bring in a low rpm counterbalanced 500 single, a high revving 500 counterbalanced single based on the Himalayan powerplant, it has a decent parallel-twin which will see tweaks, I am excited that it will bring in a medium V-twin. So it's almost there. TVS, on the other hand, might go the other way around, with norton it already has a crazy V4 mill, and a high revving twin, I wouldn't be surprised to see TVS get there first. And then there is a fringe player with exceptional discipline - Mahindra with it's the acquisition of brand BSA. AM's cards are held so close to his chest, we don't know if the chrome beast would be ever resurrected.
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I doubt Norton’s value to TVS. Norton has already sold a lot of engine design to Chinese companies in separate deals made earlier. Most importantly their best 961 cc engine
www.carandbike.com/news/norton-sold-961-engine-rights-to-chinese-firm-2205675/amp
It looks more like a brand purchase than anything else
Anyway TVS is competent enough to design a good 600 cc parallel twin with the help of the partners like BMW. They are in racing game since decades and know how to tweak with engines
RE with Siddharth is at right track though. Their new 600 cc twin motor has been in news in British and Australian media for all right reasons. It’s refined, less vibrating and delivers power linearly across the power band. Gearbox is smooth and precise and comes with slipper clutch for extra convenience.
I hope they come up with a triple too, like the Triumph Street Triple. It’s asymmetric growling engine sound is treat to ears.
Rajiv bajaj and Munjal both are old school money oriented businessmen. To them quick money is the best money.
Hero, during their decades of JV with Honda, almost maintained monopoly over bike market. But they never bothered to setup any real R&D centre for development of core technology like engine etc. All they did was put a different shape fuel tank on the splendour and slap some stickers. Viola you have a brand spanking new HH model. It’s good that Honda decided to part ways otherwise we would have been still riding CD dawn and CD deluxe.
Bajaj OTOH has a competent R&D setup where they tweak the existing Kawasaki and KTM engines. Though their QC sucks big time and their engines are crude and make terrible humming noise, but they are torquey and love being revved. They are consistently improving their engine technology and refinement levels even in their basic commuter models like boxer and pulsar 135 etc.
their recent 200 cc Dominar is rated best in 200 cc segment for its engine refinement and ride quality.
But I have doubt over Rajiv Bajaj. He is too much into politics. It could ruin the prospects of Bajaj as a company.
Rajiv bajaj is an exceptional talent. I can tell you much about the automotive industry in India- I can tell you that he forced Bajaj Pulsar over the objections of his father and brought it into the market. My discussion with colleagues indicate that he is very choosy about his segments. While he has promoted segments like the highly affordable Discover, his biggest focus is on keeping the 'mass-premum' (like the Pulsar) within their grasp. He is ok with KTM alliance because, though premium, it is low volume and he doesn't think building specific products is good ROI. The 'mass premium' is where he gets good margin and acceptably large volumes.
Norton 961 is a pushrod parallel twin, that's not the engine that I was referring to. TVS will get the monstrous 72 deg V4 1200cc engine from the Norton C, at the point it's making 200HP at 130Nm. That puts it knocking on +literbike territory (BMW RR 1000, ZX14r, GSXR, V4 pan, R1m) .
With RE do you mean the 650twin or is this a new 600 twin?
Rest I totally agree.
I don't think so, there is 836 liquid-cooled vtwin on the cards, 650 is supposed to get new cams and valves, and then there might be two new 500/550 singles.
For the Indian market, there will a new single 250,
Is it DOHC or SOHC ?
Is it true that it’s based on old RE engine with modern mods ?
250 is in testing. Have seen many spy shots in Team BHP
Edit: It’s still SOHC
