Deepesh

When the car is the real star?

A recent press release that landed in my inbox was from Lamborghini about the Gallardo featuring in the Tom Cruise starrer Mission Impossible: 3 quite prominently. Apparently, the movie's cast arrived in ten Gallardo's to the movie's premiere in Rome. ... Read >

Hyundai India's new head is a simpleton

I am just back from a media event organised by Hyundai. No, it was not the launch of a fancy car. It was, instead the launch of H S Lheem, the new Managing Director and CEO of Hyundai Motors India to the Indian media. It was a necessity as the post-Subbu ... Read >

China's tryst with the Xerox machine

I was recently in China for the Beijing Auto Show. Having roamed around the New Delhi Auto Expo a number of times, the Beijing show is a pleasant surprise in the sense that it is housed in about one-fourth the area of the New Delhi show. At the same time,... Read >

Zen Estilo is Maruti playing on its strengths

The Zen Estilo is a cute car, though not cute as a rabbit like the Matiz. It is more of a warped cuteness. It's more like a cross between Drew Barrymore and the Mogwai from Gremlins. To put it in perspective, I loved it, my wife hated it. It should have b... Read >

The Indian component industry is progressing; but is it progressive?

A few days back I was participating as a panelist in a group discussion jointly organised by Rothschild and SupplierBusiness. The other men around the table were some of the top guys and promoters of leading mid-size auto component manufacturers. Also chi... Read >

Labour unrest shuts down HM plant

I was reading with interest today's news story on Hindustan Motors shutting down operations at its Uttarpara, West Bengal plant. That another plant in the Communists ruled state of West Bengal is facing labour unrest is nothing to be surprised of, but, wh... Read >

Maruti and fifty thousand luxury condominiums

As a small kid, in the early 1980s, I grew up in the suburban town of Gurgaon - then more known for growing wheat and vegetables than rampaging Toyota Qualises ferrying sleepy teenagers. Things changed in 1983 when the government set up Maruti, in col... Read >

A Spark to light up GM India? Or will it immolate?

I was at the launch of the Chevrolet Spark yesterday. It's a good car, perhaps the most credible and promising product to have come out of GM India ever. The looks are smart and cute and the specs are promising. GM guys seemed to be gung-ho about the prod... Read >

So how many platforms does Maruti have?

Automotive reporting done by daily newspapers seems to be getting absurder by the day. Most of our reporting relies on 'getting a byte from some senior executive' and then 'weaving a tall tale around it'. There is very little research, no understanding ab... Read >

Fuel efficiency is dead and buried

As a marketing weapon, that is. The TVS Star returns 102kpl, the Hero Honda Splendor - last I checked - returns 85 kilometers to a liter of fuel; the Bajaj CT 100 is a 101kpl bike. To borrow a cliché from The Cranberries "Ode to my family," Does an... Read >

Dismal product placements in Indian movies

The upcoming movie" Tara Rum Pum" has some in-movie-advertising of GM in the form of brand Chevrolet. The movie's star, Saif Ali Khan, is a stock car racing champion for the Chevrolet team. Sure enough, one can make out Aveo stickers on the racing machine... Read >

What if they place your product without you knowing it?

Visualise this. Amitabh Bachchan, playing a simpleton, just retired from service, walks past a car showroom with his wife when he stops to admire one of the cars parked outside. He knows that he cannot afford it, but hey, there are no costs for admiring a... Read >

Glimpses into the Tata one lakh car

Forewarning: These are just my Sunday morning musings on the upcoming Tata small car and not entirely supported by facts. The prototypes are undergoing testing and the small budget car is reported to be only 20% off its price target. This is a commenda... Read >

Bundling - Is this the end of entrepreneurship?

The buzzword in the automotive supplier industry is "bundling." That is the clubbing of requirements of a platform over many production plants to create greater volumes for a supplier and drive down costs. That along with global sourcing means that you ge... Read >

Cost saving goes deeper than we imagine

I recently bumped into a Project Manager of Strategic sourcing at BMW. The person was responsible for sourcing from India. While the sourcing from India is in the nascent stages only, BMW is gung-ho (isn't everyone?) about India. And to think of it, they ... Read >