Sales of light-duty passenger vehicles (7.5 tons and below) fell by 73.6% in the fiscal year 2020-21 (April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021) to 12,078 from 45,814 units in the previous fiscal year and from 52,170 units two years ago. Exports also fell dramatically by 61.8% to 1,641 units in 2021. Production experienced a decrease in output of 65.8% to 15,475 year-on-year from 45,291, and from over 55,000 in 2018-19.

India - Sales of light-duty passenger vehicles (7.5 tons and below) in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020-21 (April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021) fell by 54.3% to 4,652 units from 10,170 in the same quarter of FY2019-20.  Exports fell by 37.2%  to 733 (1,168) and production fell sharply by 50.2% to 5,688 (11,429).

Domestic sales of medium and large buses and coaches (7.5t gvw and above) fell by 56.1% in the fourth quarter of financial year 2020-21 (January to March) to register just 4,744 units, down from 10,810 units in Q4/2019-20. Total bus and coach production also fell sharply during the fourth quarter by 54% to just shy of 5,000 units (10,763). Total exports decreased by 38.7% to 1,211 vehicles from 1,974 units in Q4/2019-20.

JK Tyre & Industries Ltd of New Delhi, one of India’s largest tyre manufacturers, says it has partnered with integral bus builder, JBM Auto Ltd1 of Gurugram (New Delhi) to supply radial tyres fitted with its smart tyres device for JBM’s CNG (JBM Citylife) and electric buses (JBM Ecolife).

Electric bus and light van builder, Switch Mobility Automotive Ltd of Bengaluru has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Siemens Ltd of Mumbai, India to address jointly the need of electric commercial vehicle customers and execute e-mobility projects in India.

JK Tyre & Industries Ltd of New Delhi, one of India’s largest manufacturer of tyres has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX)1 of Pithampur towards the development of a wet grip test track at NATRAX Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh.

CEAT Ltd of Mumbai, a full range tyre manufacturer, says it plans to make an investment of USD164m (INR1200Cr) in financial year 2021-22 to expand production of its radial bus and truck tyres.

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd (DICV) of Oragadam, near Chennai, a subsidiary of Germany’s Daimler AG, has opened a Virtual Reality Centre (VRC) in Chennai.

Pune-based SCDE Solutions Pvt Ltd (Safe Cams Digital Eye Solutions) has launched a Driver Status Monitoring (DSM) system-based camera. The DSM functionality has been made available in three camera devices being sold by Safe Cams – SC 200 AI, SC DS02 and SC 400. While SC200 AI and SC400 models can be configured without a DSM camera, the SC DS02 has been designed exclusively as a ‘DSM-only’ camera.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), based in New Delhi, has released the Draft Central Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, 2021, further amending the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) for the government of India has issued a draft notification proposing new tyre standards to be incorporated as a part of the Automotive Indian Standards (AIS) 142:2019 as an amendment, subject to clearance and no objection, and that all current tyre design meet these new standards from October 2022.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) for the government of India, has announced it plans to implement a ‘Star Rating’ system for tyres, which will be based also on standards set by the European Union; ‘Tyre Labelling’ standards set under the regulation UNECE R 117.