With 7 million units, it is projected to overtake Japan, Germany and Korea by 2017; to beat initial estimate of becoming third-largest market globally by 2020.India has overtaken Brazil as the world’s sixth largest automobile manufacturing country, going by data on the first six months this year, according to the international organisation of motor vehicle manufacturers.The Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles also reveals that India is steadily inching its way up on the global charts to make its mark as the third largest automobile market over the next five years, even as high interest rates and fuel prices have put ...

When MarutiSuzuki India Ltd set about refreshing its best-selling Swift hatchback, social media provided ideas on what needed to be done. The company’s online reputation management team tracks the digital media, including social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut and Twitter for comments regarding products and services.One key criticism that kept coming up online was that the “plasticky” interiors lacked finesse. That was sought to be fixed in the new Swift launched in August last year.Due to their explosive growth in the past few years, social media platforms have become a key tool that helps auto makers improve their vehicles, ...

Austrian motorcycle maker KTM has said it expects India to become No 1 market for its bikes after overtaking United States by the next year. The firm rode into India, the second largest motorcycle market after China with the launch its bike ‘Duke 200’ on Tuesday.“India will become the biggest market for KTM in 2013 by volumes. In India, we will launch our models above 200 cc engine capacity. We will launch the Duke 350 model next year,” said Hubert Trunkenpolz, member of management board and chief sales officer, KTM Power Sports. “However, we do not plan to launch models ...