Tata Motors Ltd’s sales of the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, rebounded last month from a record low after the automaker more than doubled warranties and offered easier financing.
Sales rose to 5,784 from 509 in November, according to a statement from the Mumbai-based automaker on Saturday. Last month’s tally, a 60 percent increase from a year earlier, was below the 9,000 monthly sales record achieved in July.
Tata has begun television advertisements for the Nano, which costs as little as 137,555 rupees (US$3,075), has added more sales points in smaller towns and introduced a 99 rupee-a-month maintenance option to help revive sales. Sales had fallen on a month-on-month basis since July because of price increases and safety concerns following at least three fires.
“Tata Motors is now focusing on the Nano because its reputation is riding on it,” said Umesh Karne, a Mumbai-based analyst with BRICS Securities Ltd, who has a “buy” rating on the stock. “Measures such as easy financing and the maintenance offer have reassured customers.”
The automaker last month lengthened warranties to four years or 60,000km and added the maintenance plan. The company opened a factory in June with the capacity to build 250,000 Nanos a year.
Tata’s total vehicle sales, including trucks and buses, rose 31 percent from a year earlier last month to 67,441, according to the statement.
The company separately raised prices for some passenger-vehicle models and all commercial vehicles from Saturday because of higher costs. Prices for Indica and Indigo cars rose by as much as 15,000 rupees, the automaker said in a statement. Commercial-vehicle prices increased by as much as 30,000 rupees. Nano prices didn’t change.
Tata in November said it would retrofit Nanos with additional protection in exhaust and electrical systems after the fires. Investigations concluded that the reasons for the fires were “specific” to the cars involved, the company has said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”