A while back, Motoring Weekly wrote an article about Pininfarina, the storied Italian design house, being bought by Mahindra and Mahindra from India. Pininfarina had been working with them for a while before the acquisition. Now Mahindra have launched a new vehicle in their home market that has been designed and engineered by a truly global team. The Marazzo is a people … [Read more...]
Creating a New Brand is Risky
India and specifically Tata have found in recent years just how difficult it is to run a car company - or race team, with several struggling financially or not able to get product to market. Recently Force India changed hands, the Formula 1 team was put into administration in August by the High Court in London. At the time I suspected that Lance Stroll, a junior F1 driver would … [Read more...]
Toyota Absorbs Daihatsu
In February, Toyota announced that it was going to absorb the remaining 49% of Daihatsu that it didn’t already own. Toyota has owned 51% of the fourth largest manufacturer in the Japan market (by sales) since 1988, and had an agreement to co-operate way back in 1967. Daihatsu is actually the oldest brand on sale today in Japan and is based in Osaka. The deal is expected to … [Read more...]
UAE Gives Free Oil to India
I had to bounce through Dubai en route to London and picked up a copy of The Gulf Today, from the 13th February and two stories piqued my interest. The first was about crude oil, a topic we should all be interested in, if we enjoy driving and cars. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has done a deal with India to store oil. This follows on the back of an economic plan … [Read more...]
Apollo Tyres
I read a great article on Apollo Tyres recently. Probably like many readers of this blog, I had never heard of Apollo, however I did know of their subsidiaries in Europe and Africa, notably Vredestein (a Dutch company) and the southern African portion of Dunlop which they spun off in 2013. I know that my readers from India will certainly know Apollo! Apollo Tyres was … [Read more...]