Well as I sat with my wife in the night after a long day at work, the 9pm news wasn’t very cheery as I wanted to be… The news “Fuel prices to be hiked.. blah blah ”(who cares what came after that I thought to myself…..). I could sense the “gulps” everywhere throughout India for the daily commuter… Looks like riding to work is going to get a bit costly and dear on the pocket (plus taking the wife to the Mall on the other side of town…. The traffic… add to that the tension of petrol burning and the noise….. OH BOY……) and let’s not forget the crazed youths of today who love roaming around at night… Well kids, looks like someone has to park themselves at home and settle for some TV or some computer games… if your real studious, read some Jeffrey Archer novel (note…. I said studious)

Well what’s happening out there in the Indian automobile industry?? The fuel hike could not have come at a worse time for the sector already suffering a setback in the last fiscal year ‘07(note this is going to be technical… sorry folks… but as daily commuters… knowledge of the economics as well as the present scene is required…..) Hikes of Rs 5 per litre of petrol and Rs 3 per litre of diesel … imagine the entire of Mumbai taking the local transport to escape the crisis…. Add to that the increase of interest rates due to the RBI’s hike in the repo rate(that’s the rate at which you the RBI lends to commercial banks…) and you have the auto industry running for cover trying to figure out a strategy for this year….not yet a KO folks but nearly so

Well the Prime Minister did try his best to explain the reasons for the recent hike and well I have to agree… it was about to happen any time… Not unexpected by the auto industry who feels that fuel efficient and compact cars will be the way ahead from now… Well the Tata Nano is a fascinating development in the compact segment but critics are hounding all over the car citing it could be an environmental disaster(and ofcourse the chaos it will create on the roads in the future making a stray animal WAIT to cross the road.. but its still a marvel from Tata Motors). The proposed reduction of excise duties according to the budget from 16% to 12% though still won’t affect the Nano but the positives can be seen inspite of the murkiness caused….

Hyundai plans to release its Accent model in a natural gas variant with Maruti Suzuki offering to offer a new dual fuel variant… run it on petrol of LPG(I wonder what I would do….) This shows that the heavyweights realize the effect the prevailing energy crisis is going to have in the future and I read a very interesting claim by Hyundai that running a car on LPG reduces its running cost by nearly 75 percent(whoa….) Add to that Tata Motors recording a domestic sale increase of 15 percent from May 2007 and Hyundai Motor claiming a 51.1 percent growth from May 2007(wow… good going from the second largest car maker in our country)

What really stinks is the extra tax on the larger vehicles… above 2000cc a duty of Rs 20,000 and from 1500cc to 1900c, Rs 15,000… the claim being to stop people buying the guzzlers(makes sense considering the escalating price of oil in the barrel internationally but… SUV’s and MUV’s deserve much better…a wish perhaps) Add to this the heavily subsidized diesel (Rs 28.58 a liter) compared to the petrol (Rs 16.34 per liter) and my neighbourhood sabziwala screaming his head off when I bargain over a kg of carrot (Gajar Ka Halwa really necessary, dear wife?….. 8.75 percent 7 year high inflation and I hope no more… for my ears sake)

Well are thing going to better?? Can we drive in the morning normally.. Well frankly no.. Not with the grim look of the Indian industry as a whole.. I hate leaving the article on a disappointing note… So hope you know that by 2016, projections show that our automobile industry might contribute 10% of the country’s GDP , almost double as compared to 5% at present). Post liberization(1991)… everyone wants to be in India selling cars.. An achievement we should be proud considering that Ferrari are considering a move into India by 2010(oh boy goodie… at least my son can see the gleaming scarlet red Ferrari… (Keep dreaming some would say) and the possibility of Proton coming to the Indian markets in the near future…

So if the above info does give you sleepless nights, hey don’t shoot me or curse me…(please… ) Lets just keep our fingers crossed and well… small cars, fuel efficiency… if I do buy one of these “mini” cars, hope they have enough leg room so that I don’t squash my kid in the backseat while adjusting it… and if I fit a family as well as the in-laws….(silence)

Till next time, put a smile on your face (oh just do it remember it takes more muscles to frown…) and drive through the same traffic but save energy wherever possible…..