Friday, September 21, 2012
By Manoj Kumawat
Peugeot scraps India plans, return land rights in Gujarat
Call it a time when the Indian car market’s ship is about to sink or it may be tough time for it but car makers are losing patience. Honda India was the first to have reportedly declared that it will not launch new Civic in India and will pull out Honda Accord from the country and now reports have come in that the French car maker Peugeot Citroen has shun its plans in India. As per the update, the car maker has returned the legal rights of the land that was allotted to it in Sanand Gujarat saying that it will be focusing on its operations in Europe rather than thinking of an expansion. Notably, the French car giant proposed to launch new cars in India and wanted to set up a car manufacturing facility at Sanand by investing Rs 4,000 crore.
Whatever reasons might be behind it, but it is sure that car makers are losing their interest in the Indian car industry. However, the launch of Mahindra Quanto and other cars lined up by Mahindra seems to be just opposite to what other car makers think. Indian SUV maker is too bullish about India and even more than Maruti that has only a couple of launches ahead. Notably, Mahindra will be launching four more cars in the coming months. Meanwhile, industry experts believe it to be an ill omen for the industry while other think that it has little to do with the existing slump in the Indian car industry. The reasons behind the roll back are the economic crisis in Europe and India still is a favorite destination for foreign car makers, said an expert.
As per the information available, Peugeot intended to set up a plant with the capacity of producing 3.4 lakh cars in the next four years but the car maker has scrapped all the plans as of now. The car maker intended to launch Peugeot 508 and B-segment hatchback Peugeot 3008 in India and has also enthusiastically showcased the cars at the Auto Expo held in New Delhi this year. But then came the European economic crisis and as per reports, the car maker will be diverting all its resources to Europe to play its part in saving the homeland economy from a crash.
