Word: volkswagen
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...Suzuki India leads the segment with a 46% share, followed by Hyundai at 16.5% and Tata Motors at 14%. But the rankings are set to change as others pile in. On Dec. 12, Volkswagen announced its first made-in-India compact, the Polo, which will be manufactured at Chakan, 110 miles (175 km.) from Mumbai. India will also be the lead country for Honda Motors' planned global small car - tentatively named the 2CV - which will begin selling by the end of 2011. Struggling General Motors began producing the pint-sized Chevrolet Spark in India last year and plans to roll...
...India's government has been encouraging automakers to build cars in India to avoid high import levies of up to 120% and to minimize production costs. Volkswagen, for example, plans to increase sourcing parts locally from 50% currently to 80% in the next two years, according to Joerg Mueller, head of the German carmaker's India group. (Watch TIME's video "Owning a Nano, the World's Cheapest...
...Kenya's wabenzi just got downgraded. Thanks to a government cost-cutting program aimed at saving taxpayers some $27 million, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta announced this summer that government ministers, along with assistant ministers and permanent secretaries, must turn in their ubiquitous Mercedes-Benz for Volkswagen Passats, which not only cost about two-thirds the price of a new Benz in Kenya, but are, says the government, cheaper to run and maintain. (See the 50 worst cars of all time...
...This being Kenya, though, what at first glance appears an admirable austerity move has quickly fueled conspiracy theories and come to symbolize the government's inability to set priorities in the face of drought, food shortages and the lingering threat of political violence. Why, average Kenyans are asking, the Volkswagen Passat and not a Toyota, Honda or some other cheap and more widely available alternative? "To me, these guys are playing around with the minds of Kenyans," says Martin Kitunga, the 37-year-old senior mechanic at New World Auto in Nairobi. "Passat or Mercedes, it doesn't make that...
...Many people are also puzzled that all 126 new Passats come from a single dealer, CMC Motors, which has the Volkswagen license for Kenya and also enjoys strong political connections (one of its directors is a former attorney general). There is no public record that the government ever issued a competitive tender for the cars. "When every single vehicle is bought from one dealer and nobody could remember ever seeing an advertisement from the government saying, 'We want to buy these vehicles,' alarm bells start ringing," says Mwalimu Mati, who runs an anticorruption organization called Mars Group Kenya. "That...