Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007
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Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007 ePaper |
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Corporate
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Outlook ICML plans Rs 800-cr investment to increase production
The company has already invested Rs 200 crore to set up its manufacturing unit. The additional investment would be utilised to ramp up the production capability from the present 2,000 units per month to around 5,000 units per month.
Phalguna Jandhyala Amb (Himachal Pradesh), Aug. 13 International Cars and Motors Ltd (ICML), a Sonalika Group Company, is looking at investing Rs 800 crore in the next three years to ramp up production capacity and in research and development (R&D). The company is also working on developing sports utility vehicle (SUV) for which it has tied up with an international design house. “Though it would be too premature to discuss what sort of a SUV it would be, all I can say at the moment is that the project has started and we have tied-up with a global design house,” Mr Deepak Mittal, Managing Director, ICML, told Business Line. The company expects to launch the car in about three years and is looking at pricing it in the Rs 10-lakh range. “Our aim is to become the number one player in the domestic multi-utility vehicle (MUV) market by 2010 and we would invest an additional Rs 800 crore to double our production capacity by then to achieve this goal,” Mr Deepak Mittal said. The company has already invested Rs 200 crore to set up its manufacturing unit. “The additional investment would be utilised to ramp up the production capability from the present 2,000 units per month to around 5,000 units per month. A part of the investment would also be utilised in R&D work,” he added. Pan-India launch
ICML launched the MUV Rhino Rx in select markets of north India last month and is planning for a pan-India launch by October-November this year. It has sold 150 units since the launch, which also includes a couple of units which were exported to South Africa. The company is also in the process of finalising exclusive dealerships and has so far identified 139 applicants. It plans to have a dealership base of 160 in the next two months before the national launch of Rhino. ICML’s Rhino has been designed by UK-based design house Lotus and is powered by a two litre MG Rover engine. “Since out target is to be a long-term player in the MUV market we would soon start fabricating all the plastic parts in-house. The raw material for this purpose is being imported and the manufacturing facility would come up in our plant at Hoshiarpur,” Mr Mittal said. He also said the company would launch several new models including a Common Rail Diesel injection (CRDi) engine-powered Rhino. “ICML is presently working on a CRDi engine for Rhino, which is expected to be showcased at the auto-expo next year,” Mr Mittal said.
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