Big names stay away from Chennai show

Apart from some high-end cars and bikes, accessories including navigation products hogged the limelight at the Chennai Auto Show.

The Chennai Auto show held at the Chennai Trade Centre from July 12-15 saw a pot-pourri of participants ranging from dealers in Chennai, a clutch of high-end automotive players, and a host of companies displaying products for the retail car buyer.

Among the key players were BMW which had its pavilion at every entrance to the hall, its 650i saloon and the X5, X3 SUVs grabbing eyeballs. Keeping its German rival was Mercedes-Benz which had its SLS AMG gull-wing, E250 and the latest C-class on display. Meanwhile, Toyota showcased its new Innova and Fortuner.

Though advertised as one of South India’s largest shows, the big players were absent and for all who took part, it was the dealer which was the face of the company. Nissan and Skoda also had small displays of just three cars each. Among the dealers was the Chennai-based ACT India which showcased Maruti’s compact line-up, Tata displayed the Venture, Winger and the soon-to-be launched Xenon pick-up powered by a 3-litre turbo-diesel. Mahindra had the Bolero pick-up, single-cab Genio and Maxximo in its pavilion. Ashok Leyland had on display modifications (a ready-to-use steel container for Rs 45,000) based on the Dost and the Dost modified for an ambulance, launched in December 2011.

In the product area, the trio of companies with products for GPS and navigation were the most conspicuous and were represented by TomTom, Navteq and Calicut, Kerala-based AVL View.

The other exhibitors included Francis Klein, Wheels India, Gasi Italy, The Torque, and DC Design among others. Francis Klein represents a clutch of overseas including Feuer of Germany and Baltec. Feuer Powertrain Gmbh, which is targeting the Indian market, says it is one of the largest independent sources (outside of OEMs) for machined crankshafts (automotive, industrial, truck) in Europe and currently supplies crankshafts to JCB India. In the past, it did an initial limited quantity to the Ford engine plant in Chennai. The company, participating in the show for the first time, is keen to expand in India and its representative, Olav Berthold said the company is scouting for new clients. On display at the stall were crankshafts that the company supplies for the Audi A8. Francis Klein is also the local agent for BaltecMaschinenbau AG, a company that specialises in the manufacture of riveting systems for fastening technology. The company has 40 distributors worldwide and has begun to market its products in India. It has been able to sell about 10 machines. Each is estimated to cost about 15,000 euros (Rs 10.14 lakh).

Gasi Italy sells LPG and CNG kits that can be retrofitted on cars starting with the Eon and going up to the Innova. The company, which has been in India for a year, is scouting for dealers in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The company says it has retrofitted about 1,000 LPG and CNG kits. These are currently imported and retail at Rs 35,000 a kit, which can be retrofitted on BS III and IV vehicles. Also at the show was Deltronix, a France-based company which launched a range of lubricants imported from PTT Lubricants of Thailand. The range will be distributed in India by Deltronix which is looking for dealers in south India. It is important to mention that Deltronix, which has a plant in France, supplies alloys to Maruti. The French manufacturing unit has an annual capacity of two million alloys.

Now the company plans to set up a unit on the outskirts of Chennai with a capacity of a million units. KannanSelvaraj, the company’s sales director, said that an investment of Rs 100 crore will be made in the new plant which is expected to go on stream in a month or two. In the consumer retail section, Arcus India had a range of premium seatware for cars from the A segment to the D segment, while ProKlear of Singapore displayed its anti-glare product that it claims reduces eye fatigue and improves day and night vision while driving.

Among two-wheeler manufacturers, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India and Hero MotoCorp had stalls with the former generating more footfalls as a result of the two-wheeler basic simulator and the display of the entire Honda CBU range. Hero gave pride of place to the recently launched Ignitor motorcycle while Harley-Davidson had on display the Dyna, Night Rod and Sportstar. Singapore-based Ampere Vehicles had its range of electric bikes sandwiched into a small booth. It has a manufacturing facility near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and is looking for dealerships in the south.

Adding pizzazz to the show was DC Design which displayed a modified Mahindra Thar, christened the Urban Thar, with snazzy interiors. DC Design, which has styling kits for virtually every car in the country, has recently set up a base in Chennai.

Navigators at the show

A TRIO OF car navigation product companies set up shop at the show. Navigation major TomTom had on display models available in India and those it plans to launch. The existing line-up includes the Via 100, Via 120 and Via 125 and the model to debut soon is a navigation system for two-wheelers. The company has tied up with the Reliance Group for dealerships and the products are available in Reliance Autozone and Reliance Digital stores, in 58 outlets across India. It is also planning its own dealership network.

TomTom’s navigation solutions are aimed at the tech-savvy driver. All the three products available in India come with touchscreens and voice-based search as standard. While the Via 100, the basic model costing Rs 10,000 comes with lane-guidance and spoken street names as standard, the mid-level Via 120 — costing Rs 13,000 — can be integrated with the driver’s phone to make calls and use similar features. The top-end Via 125 comes with features similar to the Via 120 and costs Rs 16,000. This model comes with a five-inch touch-screen instead of the 4.3 inch in the Via 120 and Via 100.

Another exhibitor, Navteq, displayed products that are a combination of players in the car-navigation field. Navon supplies the GPS capability and hardware and it integrates iGO’s navigation software, while Navteq supplies the map interface with traffic data. The same stall roofed Penetrate Navigation’s wares as it also uses Navteq’s maps solution.



Navteq, wholly owned by Nokia, is headquartered in Mumbai. Its devices, aimed at fleet operators and car drivers, have standard touch-screen capability with voice controls and lane-guidance. A unique feature, however, is that these devices can display a car’s fuel efficiency as well. This feature can be accessed remotely and can be useful to fleet operators with wide-reaching delivery points.

The Calicut-based AVL View was scouting for distributors in the south. The company supplies software that goes into imported hardware, both European and Chinese. While the Chinese device costs Rs 6,000, the European product is twice as much but most buyers at the show opted for the latter.

KARTHIK H&BRIAN DE SOUZA