Drive

Free fuel from Unimo Enterprises

Unimo Enterprises Limited, a fully owned subsidiary of United Motors Lanka PLC, has launched its latest promotional campaign for Zotye Nomad, the company's SUV.

This promotion offers the first 30 Customers who purchase a Nomad SUV, free fuel for two months from the date of purchase with applicable conditions.

During this promotional period the company has also made arrangements to offer its prospective customers attractive leasing and insurance packages.

Nomad comes in both 1.31 and 1.61 engines with air-conditioning, power steering, power shutters, central locking, radio and CD and has Optional features such as ABS, alloy wheels, roof rails, rear spoiler, side steps, reverse sensors among other features. Unimo has seen over 200 units take the roads from its launch in mid 2007.

This special promotion is valid till March 31.

Ford take pay cuts, Workers offered buyouts

Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford and Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally will take 30 percent pay cuts and the unprofitable carmaker's salaried workers will forgo 2009 bonuses, according to a company memo.

Local officers of the United Auto Workers, the automaker's biggest union, also approved concessions yesterday and set March 9 as a target date for ratification by rank-and-file members. The terms include buyouts valued at as much as $75,000, cuts in lay off benefits and a reduction in Ford's cash contribution to a retire healthcare trust, a union summary shows.

Executive-pay reductions may help union leaders persuade the automaker's 42,000 UAW employees to accept a wage freeze and other concessions so Ford can avoid tapping government loans General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC rely on to survive.

The "pay cuts indicate shared sacrifice," said Harley Shaiken, labour professor at University of California at Berkeley. "It's an important gesture on the eve of the ratification vote."

Bill Ford said his total compensation will continue to be set aside and not paid until the company's worldwide auto operations return to profitability. Ford's board awarded him deferred compensation last year, which will now be cut by 30 percent. He hasn't taken compensation since 2005.

In 2007, Mulally earned total compensation of $21.7 million, according to Bloomberg data.

"We realize the proposed sacrifices for UAW members are painful," union President Ron Gettelfinger and Vice President Bob King wrote in a letter to workers. Amendments to the union's contract and the healthcare fund "are truly essential to keeping Ford in business."

Ford is offering workers who qualify for retirement and have at least 20 years of service as much as $40,000, depending on their skill level, and workers who aren't eligible to retire can take $50,000 to quit, Gettelfinger and King wrote.

The second-biggest U.S. automaker also will offer workers accepting a buyout the option of taking a $25,000 voucher for a new car or $20,000 in cash, according to the union summary.

Performance bonuses for Ford's salaried employees will be eliminated this year, as they were in 2008. Merit-pay increases for North American salaried workers were eliminated previously. Ford had 22,400 salaried workers in North America as of Dec. 31.

"We know these are challenging times and we all are affected by the tough actions we are taking," Ford and Mulally wrote in the memo. "However, these are necessary actions to help us emerge as an even stronger, profitably growing Ford Motor Company for the benefit of us all."

Ford is trying to conserve cash after consuming more than $21 billion last year as it posted a record $14.6 billion loss. The executive-pay cuts were reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.

"We remain firm in our resolve to operate without needing to access a bridge loan from the U.S. government," Mulally and Ford wrote. Bloomberg

Japan production plunges 59% in Jan.:

Nissan to boost Japan output in March

Nissan Motor Co., Japan's third- largest automaker, will raise domestic production in March compared with this month after lowering vehicle inventory levels to match demand.

The company will resume the 13 days of production it halted this month at its Tochigi plant, spokesman Mitsuru Yonekawa said. Output at Nissan's Kyushu and Oppama factories will also be boosted next month, he said without giving details. Those plants halted production for 11 days and 9 1/2 days respectively this month.

Nissan is cutting production by 64,000 vehicles in February and March, compared with its original plan, as the global recession decimates demand for new cars. The carmaker said yesterday in January Japan production plunged 59 percent, compared with a year earlier, to 47,477 units.

The company's February output will decline by more than 70 percent, the Nikkei newspaper reported earlier today, without citing sources.

Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's biggest carmaker, has said domestic production will rise in May, compared with April, as it introduces new models including a revamped Prius hybrid. Mazda Motor Corp., Japan's second-largest car exporter, said it expects domestic output cuts in February and March to be less than in January when output tanked 66 percent.

Bloomberg

Suzuki Motorcycle to invest Rs 150 cr in three years

Undeterred by the current economic slowdown, two-wheeler maker Suzuki Motorcycle on said it will invest Rs 150 crore on tripling its manufacturing capacity by 2012, besides launching three new models.

"We will be expanding our production capacity from 12,000 units per month to 40,000 units per month in next three years at our plant in Gurgaon, which will entail an investment of Rs 150 crore," Suzuki Motorcycle India Zonal Head (North and East) Rakesh Kumar said.

Stating that the investment would also go towards developing new models to woo customers, he said, "At present, we have four models of bikes, which are ingeniously manufactured and we plan to roll out three more new models during our capacity expansion drive."

Being a late entrant in bike segment and having a minuscule market share in the country's over seven million units bike market, the company expects to witness tremendous improvement in its share post expansion.

"We sell 12,000 units per month against the sale of six lakh bikes each month in the country which means we have very small share... But this capacity expansion will enable us to consolidate our share in the biking segment," he asserted. PTI

Maruti to give six months time off on leases

AMW is set to launch a leasing scheme offering Maruti M800 customers six months' time off on premium payments.

The local motor industry, which has been a rife with rumours of a major Japanese brand pruning down its Sri Lankan operations in the face of the global recession, has had a hard struggle in the last two quarters.

The unique leasing scheme appears to be an attempt to retain Maruti sales volumes against the recent slump demand for new motor vehicles in the local market. Initial reports suggest the launch is set for mid March, industry sources revealed.

Tata Motors to launch Nano in March

Indian vehicle maker Tata Motors said on Thursday it would launch its Nano, slated to be the world's cheapest car, on March 23 and accept bookings from the second week of April.

The car expected to be priced around 100,000 rupees ($1,984) was unveiled in January 2008 and was scheduled to go on sale last October, but problems with the main plant location delayed the launch. Reuters