Latest news with #Maruti
Mint
4 hours ago
- Automotive
- Mint
CAFE puzzle: Tailpipes must not get to wag India's car market
A controversy is raging in the Indian automobile industry over what India's new norms for Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) should be. Maruti Suzuki has said the current proposals are unfair to makers of small cars, while the rest of the industry—makers of bigger cars, mostly, including EVs—seems to support the CAFE-2 norms proposed for 2027-28 onwards and CAFE-3 five years later. Whether India's largest carmaker expects special treatment for small cars (as with GST) or a correction of this policy designed to reduce carbon exhaust depends on what's at stake here. Since this is about a road traffic clean-up, it is hard to ignore a basic flaw in our CAFE norms: they do not take into account the number of people moved. Also Read: CAFE comfort: New fuel efficiency norms can speed up clean mobility in India Instead of splitting hairs over whether tailpipe exhaust targets should be adjusted, the government should create a new formula to replace what we have. As of now, the formula uses the average kerb weight of an automaker's vehicles for a per-kilometre emission goal to be achieved, but it should be replaced with the average number of passengers per kilogram of kerb weight for that company. CAFE norms were invented in the West after the 1970s' oil shocks to restrain fuel use. Instead of specifying a fuel efficiency target for each car model, it set an average for all cars made by each maker—the 'Corporate Average' bit. Over time, they evolved to cover emissions and various countries adopted them, including India. An automaker's CAFE goal is set as follows: the industry-wide target multiplied by the average kerb weight of all types of vehicles rolled out, divided by the industry's average kerb weight. The ratio of a company's average kerb weight to the industry's is the key variable here. Also Read: Cutting taxes on small cars is a quick fix that ignores the elephant in the room Maruti makes cars that are lighter on average than what others make. Since its ratio is less than one, the current formula gives it a steeper target. News reports suggest a proposal is being considered to let Maruti go by a normatively higher average kerb weight than its actual figure. This is not right. To set the policy straight, we must go back to the whiteboard and take into account the overarching fact that the purpose of cars is to transport people. What matters thus is the emissions per person moved. For the total tonnage of its fleet, an automaker that rolls out a large proportion of small cars would move more people per kilogram of average curb weight, assuming a common occupancy rate per vehicle for the industry. It may even turn out that small cars carry more people per car, given that those who buy larger cars tend to be relatively well-off and belong to households with multiple vehicles. But going by common occupancy is enough to serve the purpose. Also Read: Siam scrambles as CAFE-3 consensus crumbles Yet, taking passengers into the calculus is not enough to account for the entire carbon footprint of vehicles—reducing which is also important. While there are other issues that must be tackled to strengthen climate action, such as EVs using electricity that's likely to be spewing carbon at the generation end behind the power grid, not to mention the pollution of battery production, that point is crucial because big cars have a larger footprint. Any CAFE norms tilted against a maker of small cars would incentivize climate-unfriendly size enlargement across a fleet. While it is true that the Indian market has been shifting towards larger cars anyway, we shouldn't let policy distort it further in that direction.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Maruti Suzuki Share Price Live Updates: Maruti Suzuki's Performance Over the Last Week
17 Jul 2025 | 09:19:41 AM IST Stay informed with the Maruti Suzuki Stock Liveblog, your comprehensive resource for real-time updates and in-depth analysis of a leading stock. Get the latest details on Maruti Suzuki, including: Last traded price 12581.0, Market capitalization: 395015.39, Volume: 6436, Price-to-earnings ratio 27.24, Earnings per share 461.2. Our liveblog combines fundamental and technical insights to provide a holistic view of Maruti Suzuki's performance. Stay ahead of the market with breaking news that can influence Maruti Suzuki's trajectory. Our expert analysis and stock recommendations empower you to make well-informed financial decisions. Trust the Maruti Suzuki Stock Liveblog for up-to-date information and expert insights. The data points are updated as on 09:19:40 AM IST, 17 Jul 2025 Show more
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Maruti engine sputters on small car woes
Production at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd , India's largest carmaker, fell to a five-year low in June as demand for its bread-and-butter small cars and compact sedans continued to weaken. An email sent to Maruti remained unanswered. June is typically when Maruti undertakes its bi-annual plant maintenance shutdown, but this year's figure is the lowest for the month since 2020. Output has fallen 23per cent to 125,392 from 163,037 in June 2021, according to the company's monthly production filing. The slide is reflective of broader fatigue in the small car segment, once Maruti's mainstay, amid a shift in consumer preferences toward sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and premium models. SUVs now account for 66per cent of the total sales mix, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Besides this, Maruti lacks electric vehicles in its model range. Rivals Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have a head start in that segment. Dealers say inventory levels have been gradually building up at outlets, particularly for models such as the Alto, S-Presso, Dzire and Celerio, forcing the automaker to regulate output to avoid overstocking. 'Despite attractive consumer offers, demand in the entry-level segment has remained tepid for several quarters,' said a senior executive at a leading Maruti dealership. Changing Buyer Preferences 'Rising ownership costs, changing consumer aspirations, and urban market saturation are all playing a role.' According to a July 1 report by Kotak Institutional Equities, Maruti's domestic sales declined 4.5per cent year-on-year in the June quarter, pulled down by a steep 36per cent drop in the sales of its smallest models. The broader market hasn't fared much better. Passenger vehicle sales in India fell 1.4per cent to 1 million units in the April-June period from the year earlier, snapping a four-year growth streak, according to data released by SIAM on Tuesday. Analysts said the outlook for small cars remains weak in the near term, and manufacturers may need to re-strategize product portfolios to align with evolving buyer preferences. 'Apart from the structural changes in the car market, lack of a completely new model introduction in the small car segment has made it unattractive for the buyers,' said Puneet Gupta, director at S&P Global Mobility. Companies are no longer looking at investing in new small car models as tighter regulations on emissions and safety have made it unviable for manufacturers to sell cars at competitive prices, he noted. Brokerage Nomura Research has maintained its FY26 growth forecast for passenger vehicles and two-wheelers at 5per cent and 7 per cent, respectively. 'We expect demand to improve in the second half, led by lower income tax and reduced interest rates,' Kapil Singh of Nomura Research said in a note. Expectations that the upcoming festive season—along with lower income taxes and interest rates—may revive demand need to be balanced by Chinese curbs on the export of rare earth magnets, a critical component of EVs and ICE engines.
Indian Express
8 hours ago
- Business
- Indian Express
Why even moderate rainfall leads to flooding in Gurgaon
The Delhi Master Plan of 1962 saw Gurgaon (Gurugram) as a place of modest urban growth, primarily because the area has no groundwater resources. In 1980, with Maruti setting up its factory in Manesar, Gurgaon emerged as an industrial hub. A decade later, with liberalisation and the promise of rapid economic growth and infrastructural development, the mythical village mentioned in the Mahabharata became India's Millennium City, a model for 21st century urbanisation in India — and everything that is wrong with it. Every monsoon, Gurgaon witnesses extreme flooding: hours-long traffic jams, cars floating in the deluge, and people being electrocuted are common occurrences. All this happens even though Gurgaon receives only about 600 mm of rain on average every year. In comparison, Kochi receives well over 3,000 mm of rain annually without going under every monsoon. What makes Gurgaon, home to nearly 2 million people and boasting the third highest per capita income among cities in India, this vulnerable to monsoon flooding? The Aravalli ridge, on the southern edge of Gurgaon, is the natural high ground for the city. From there, the land slopes down towards the north, which is at a lower altitude. Rainwater in Gurgaon thus flows mainly from the south to the north, towards the Najafgarh Jheel in West Delhi. Maps from the 1920s show a large number of water channels in Delhi-NCR. The ones in Gurgaon ran along an east-west axis. 'Before MG Road and Sector 56 came up, there were water channels that ran parallel to the Aravalli ridge,' architect-urban designer Suptendu Biswas told The Indian Express. These were natural drainage channels, which carried runoff towards what is now the western edge of Gurgaon, from where water would travel further north. But these channels have all but disappeared, and subsequent urban expansion has not kept the city's topographic reality in mind. Today, Google Earth images show arterial roads like the Golf Course Road run on a north-south axis — this makes them ideal routes for surface runoff, especially given that drains are non-existent or poorly planned. 'Topography was not only ignored but also abused,' Biswas said. One reason why urban expansion in Gurgaon has not kept up with topographic realities is the piecemeal nature of city planning. This is borne out of the city's unique land acquisition model which is central to Gurgaon's growth story. From the 1970s onwards, the Haryana government introduced a series of laws, which enabled private firms to acquire land on a large scale to develop townships. The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) was created in 1977 to streamline the process. Having developed neighbourhoods such as South Extension and Kailash Colony in Delhi, Delhi Land and Finance (DLF) alone acquired 52 villages in the initial years from farmers. As other players came along, land acquisition was not carried out in a uniform manner. This led to irregular plots, and roads that led to nowhere. 'Allocative decisions form the very core of conventional urban planning, which was missing in Gurgaon's story from the beginning,' Biswas wrote in Gurgaon to Gurugram: A short biography (2021). The 'plug-and-play' mode of urban expansion meant that roads were not built with proper gradients, nor was there any big picture thinking behind basic planning decisions for the city. In Gurgaon, mustard fields have long made way for highways and highrises. A region which once had 60 natural canals, critical to absorb its excess rainwater, barely has four today. But as concrete, impervious to percolation, has covered Gurgaon, civic authorities have failed to build a robust drainage system to deal with the problem. Concrete drains only add to the flooding due to their inability to absorb water. According to Biswas, India's engineering codes have no reference beside steel and concrete — earth is simply not something that planners consider while building a city. Biswas offered three 'common sense' solutions to address flooding in Gurgaon.
Time of India
9 hours ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Maruti engine sputters on small car woes
Production at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd , India's largest carmaker, fell to a five-year low in June as demand for its bread-and-butter small cars and compact sedans continued to weaken. An email sent to Maruti remained unanswered. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Select a Course Category Artificial Intelligence Design Thinking others healthcare MBA Public Policy Management Digital Marketing Data Analytics MCA CXO Others Product Management Finance Leadership Healthcare Data Science Technology Operations Management PGDM Cybersecurity Degree Project Management Data Science Skills you'll gain: Duration: 7 Months S P Jain Institute of Management and Research CERT-SPJIMR Exec Cert Prog in AI for Biz India Starts on undefined Get Details June is typically when Maruti undertakes its bi-annual plant maintenance shutdown, but this year's figure is the lowest for the month since 2020. Output has fallen 23% to 125,392 from 163,037 in June 2021, according to the company's monthly production filing. The slide is reflective of broader fatigue in the small car segment, once Maruti's mainstay, amid a shift in consumer preferences toward sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and premium models. SUVs now account for 66% of the total sales mix, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Besides this, Maruti lacks electric vehicles in its model range. Rivals Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have a head start in that segment. Live Events Dealers say inventory levels have been gradually building up at outlets, particularly for models such as the Alto, S-Presso, Dzire and Celerio, forcing the automaker to regulate output to avoid overstocking. 'Despite attractive consumer offers, demand in the entry-level segment has remained tepid for several quarters,' said a senior executive at a leading Maruti dealership. Changing Buyer Preferences 'Rising ownership costs, changing consumer aspirations, and urban market saturation are all playing a role.' According to a July 1 report by Kotak Institutional Equities, Maruti's domestic sales declined 4.5% year-on-year in the June quarter, pulled down by a steep 36% drop in the sales of its smallest models. The broader market hasn't fared much better. Passenger vehicle sales in India fell 1.4% to 1 million units in the April-June period from the year earlier, snapping a four-year growth streak, according to data released by SIAM on Tuesday. Analysts said the outlook for small cars remains weak in the near term, and manufacturers may need to re-strategize product portfolios to align with evolving buyer preferences. 'Apart from the structural changes in the car market, lack of a completely new model introduction in the small car segment has made it unattractive for the buyers,' said Puneet Gupta, director at S&P Global Mobility. Companies are no longer looking at investing in new small car models as tighter regulations on emissions and safety have made it unviable for manufacturers to sell cars at competitive prices, he noted. Brokerage Nomura Research has maintained its FY26 growth forecast for passenger vehicles and two-wheelers at 5% and 7%, respectively. 'We expect demand to improve in the second half, led by lower income tax and reduced interest rates,' Kapil Singh of Nomura Research said in a note. Expectations that the upcoming festive season—along with lower income taxes and interest rates—may revive demand need to be balanced by Chinese curbs on the export of rare earth magnets, a critical component of EVs and ICE engines.
