Autocar Professional March 15 issue out now

As India drives towards the BS VI implementation date of April 1, 2020 and also announces a Rs 10,000 crore outlay to accelerate electric mobility, vehicle manufacturers across segments and component suppliers are aggressively adopting technologies that can enable development of cleaner and greener vehicles.

On February 28, the Mahle Group opened its global engineering IT and shared sales services centre in Pune, which will help drive the supplier’s multi-technology growth strategy in India, which banks on both IC engines as well as alternate powertrains. Along with a comprehensive cover story, we have interviews with Raj Kalra, president, Mahle Holding India and Arnd Franz, executive vice-president, Mahle Group.

The past fortnight saw the Geneva Motor Show hold centrestage. Tata Motors, which was participating for the 21^st time at this leading global event, had all of four global premieres and one European premiere. They included the eye-catching Altroz hatchback, the Altroz EV, the Buzzard and Buzzard Sport (Geneva Editions) and the show-stopping H2X Concept, which holds cues to the micro-SUV Hornbill which is expected to be shown in production sped at the Auto Expo 2020.

We also have a scoop! Find out how the Tata Altroz got its name. We’d love to tell you more but that’ll be letting the cat out of the bag!

At the end of February, the PSA Group announced that it would be Citroen, and not the Peugeot brand, that would be marking its re-entry into India. The carmaker is banking heavily on localisation for its India market strategy – as much as 90-95% – as Carlos Tavares, CEO and chairman, PSA Group reveals in his interview.

In the Interview of the Fortnight, we speak to Anuj Kathuria, president (Global Trucks), Ashok Leyland, who speaks in detail on how the country’s first 16-wheeled rigid truck – the 4123 – was developed, the drive to introduce innovative and disruptive products, changing dynamics of the CV industry, impact of new axle norms and the company’s sharpened focus on customer profitability.

Optimising customer productivity is also what VE Commercial Vehicles is doing, by taking extensive customer feedback on driving and transport load patterns to manufacture fuel efficient trucks that help reduce the cost of ownership. Kiran Bajad visits the company’s plant in Pithampur.

The tractor industry in India is notching decent growth but there are ways to accelerate that growth as Ashim Sharma, partner and Group head at NRI Consulting & Solutions reveals.

Global enterprise resource planning (ERP) providers are finding the Indian automotive industry to be a strong potential business source. Now, the US-based QAD Inc, which caters to 93 of the 100 top-selling cars worldwide and vehicle makers in over 60 countries, has turned its full focus to India, where it already has 80 customers and is now looking to add speedily to that count.

In the guest column, Sanjiv Paul, Unit Head, Yamaha Surajpur Plant, India Yamaha Motor, writes on how a good and sustainable safety culture can be developed with organisations.

All this plus an exciting News section, sales analysis for February 2019 along with April-February 2019 cumulative numbers.

Where to buy?
Autocar Professional magazine is available through select newsagents and for digital download from Magzster. 

You can also buy one-off copies of Autocar Professional magazine – contact Ganesh at ganesh@haymarketsac.com