INDIA LURES GERMAN AUTO GROUPS

       India, home of the world's cheapest car, this week urged German carmakers and auto-parts companies to pitch their world-class wares to one of the toughest and potentially biggest markerts on earth.
       Managers of such brands as Audi, BMW and Bosch were warned, however, that the fast-growing class of young Indian consumers and partners were tough and wanted the best at a fair price.
       Auto-makers around the world are focused on emerging markets like those in Brazil, China, India and Russia, because sales in Europe, Japan and the United States are forecast to drop again next year as government subsidies taper off.
       With an average age of around 25, Indian consumers are more educated, wealtheir, tech savvy, have more choices and "are not loyal", said Indo-German Chamber of Commerce vice-president Wilfried Aulbur.
       "It's a pretty difficult animal to handle," he concluded during a seminar on the country's auto sector at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
       Aulbur, who is also managing director and CEo of Mercedes-Benz India, told German business leaders to expect "very interesting discussions" on price and value.
       India produces the world's cheapest car, the US@2,055 (Bt68,900) Tata Nano, and the country is now the 11th-largest auto producer worldwide, said India's ambassador to Germany, Sudhir Vyas.
       All major auto-makers have a presence in the country of nearly 1.2 billion people, where car sales rose in July for the sixth consecutive month.
       Suzuki of Japan plans to build a new Indian plant in 2011, and Volkswagen opened one in March, while estimating the market at more than 2 million vehicles by 2014.
       There are now between seven and eight cars for every 1,000 people in India, compared with around one for every two people in Germany.
       German and Indian cooperation has grown steadily since Mercedes and Tata first teamed up around 40 years ago, and the Nano is laden with parts from 12 German suppliers, said seminar moderator Bernhard Steinrueke.
       The Nano "is a car of Indian vision and German technology," he said.
       Meanwhile, Indian manufacturer Reva showed an electric car at the Frankfurt show that it plans to launch in 12 European countries next year.
       The four-seater NXR has a range of 160 kilometres and solar panels in the roof and can be recharged from a domestic power supply in eight hours. It is expected to cost 12,200 euro to 14,000 euro (Bt603,000 and Bt692,000).
       Eight Indian auto-parts makers also showed equipment in Frankfurt, and Ambuj Sharma, a secretary from India's Heavy Industry Department, said the country had become the auto-component centre of Asia, a region with two of the world's fastest-growing auto markets.
       Sharma invited small and medium-sized enterprises, "the strength of the German automotive industry, to be a part of this growth story."
       German suppliers were hammered by a global plunge in auto sales after the onset of the financial crisis a year ago.
       Ambassador Vyas, meanwhile, underscored the importance of "capacity building and vocational training for the auto industry" from foreign investors as India built the sector into what it hoped would become a world leader.
       Aulbur laid out the challenges for German manufacturers and stressed that "no 'one size fits all' for your customers and your business partners" on a subcontinent equal in size to the 27-member European Union.
       He said that "India has the makings of a blockbuster", with sales expects to grow 10 per cent next year as the economy expands about 5.6 per cent.
       Auto-sector investment should grow by 11 billion euro over the same period, said Pawan Goenka, head of the Society of India Automobile Manufacturers.