[Sinner666]

It is really heartening to know that an Indian City has shown so much promise. In my opinion, instead of fighting within ourselves and getting pulled into the "Mine is better than Yours debate", we should appreciate the fact that we have come such a long way in such a short time. But a very disturbing factor which I think remains common in almost all the above mentioned auto hubs seems to be the strikes by the Labour Unions though the Pune one seems to be a welcome exception. Labour Unrest seems to be a perennial problem that plague the auto and auto ancillary industry. e.g. Hyundai, Honda, Hero Honda, Rico etc.

[xingamazon]

Originally Posted by gshanky

I think it would be really incredible if chennai could produce about 15 lakh cars every year i.e. after Nissan starts producing its 4 lakh cars a year. Also it is important to note that 2 lakh people are employed by the industry.

However with the present yearly production does not seem to be even 7.1 lakh cars, it is better not to get trapped by this media given titles.

Here is a rough number of vehicles sold my various car manufacturers in chennai for April 2009 till March 2010.
Hyundai - 600,588
Ford - 100,000 (give or take a few)
BMW - 3000
Nissan - 1000?

Not sure how many significant others have i missed. Add to this if you have any figures

Not sure if you have taken the export figures into consideration. Remember Hyundai exports more cars than any other car makers in India. If I am not wrong, their export volume is more than half of what is sold in India.

Same with Micra, the amount of cars they are planning to export is 250000 p.a.

As I mentioned before, you call something manufacturing hub more when the amount of export the place generates is equally high. Remember these are bringing in much needed Forex flow into India thus contributing better to the economy.

WSJ is a respected newspaper, not a street side one, they don't just make statements off the cuff.

[RGK]

Very informative (promoting Chennai) thread.
-The power generation in TN is better is one of the reasons. The state has the largest windfarms in south near kanyakumari and in West near Coimbatore.
-Most no of engg colleges (around 500) is in TN
-TN has the Best public bus transportation system in India (Even I would say this may be around the top 5 in the world). Helps workers and migrants to travel to their places at any point of time.
-Lot of ancillary units in places like coimbatore
-Less crime compared to other metros and states

But - No new traffic management system in the pipeline
-No major plans of expansion of road networks and very very slow pace of existing expansion
-Huge encroachments on all roads( Bangalore , Navi Mumbai are excellently managed in this aspect)
- Highly Inflated real estate costs
-Poor living standards compared to Delhi & Mumbai

[gshanky]

Originally Posted by xingamazon

Not sure if you have taken the export figures into consideration. Remember Hyundai exports more cars than any other car makers in India. If I am not wrong, their export volume is more than half of what is sold in India.

Same with Micra, the amount of cars they are planning to export is 250000 p.a.

As I mentioned before, you call something manufacturing hub more when the amount of export the place generates is equally high. Remember these are bringing in much needed Forex flow into India thus contributing better to the economy.

WSJ is a respected newspaper, not a street side one, they don't just make statements off the cuff.

I am not sure if you have misunderstood me. I am all for the growth of chennai and its rightful place in the motor world

But I was just looking at the current scenario and current productivity levels. And I am also keen to point out that we should not let ourselves trapped with these hyped up headlines from magazines. WSJ is became a mainstream newspaper after RupertMurdoch bought it and having been involved with their online subscription management team for the last year I know a bit about how they do their business too.

So, IMO with or without fake titles like "Detroit of India", chennai is going to grow and I am proud of that. For me these titles do not make any difference. It is not like chennai's growth would be dented without this title..

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by neoonwheels

Pune region has:

TATA, FIAT, Mahindra, Merc, VW, GM, PAL, I guess Force as well and Bajaj

The article cites only the recent investments made in last decade.
But apart from that chennai has major facility of Ashokleyland, only facility of Royal Enfield, Hindustan Motors and Caterpillar.

[GTO]

Note from Mod : STRICTLY no slanging matches on the "Chennai versus other cities" topic. Please keep this thread focussed.

[GTO]

It also set up a single office for them to obtain the dozens of government approvals and licenses required to start or expand a business.

The only other State I know that has implemented such a system is Gujarat. Look at their progress over the last decade! Relevant to the automotive section, they snatched away the Tata Nano plant from right under the nose of other CMs (including Maharashtra).

I had commented on Chennai's emergence in the Micra test-thread:

Originally Posted by GTO

• Chennai must be doing something right. Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Nissan, HM-Mitsubishi, Mahindra, TVS, Royal Enfield, Ashok Leyland, Daimler Trucks, Apollo Tyres and MRF are all located in this TN city.

Support from the Babus has got to be the largest deal maker, followed by monetary incentives, technically skilled staff availability, the sea port, quick clearances and facilitation of acres of land.

Originally Posted by bubbu64

Hypothetically if PUNE was close to a SEAPORT it would have the bigger HUB since PUNE was home to Tata, Bajaj et all. It was already a established auto base. What drove many auto cos to Chennai was the SEAPORT for EXPORT.

How good or bad is it to be 180 kms from a Seaport i.e. Mumbai?

[amitk26]

Well I wish all the companies situated in Chennai prosper and expand production and none of them go bankrupt in any downturn so it does not become Detroit of India.

Same wish for Pune , NCR , Hillol , Pitampur or any other Auto hub.

After all in 2010 being a Detroit is not exactly a compliment.

[Stanher]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

The article cites only the recent investments made in last decade.
But apart from that chennai has major facility of Ashokleyland, only facility of Royal Enfield, Hindustan Motors and Caterpillar.

To add further, it -as Madras- also had Standard Motor Products, at Peranglathoor, who made Standard cars and vans since Independence until a couple of decades ago. Thus Madras has had a place in auto manufacturing industry early on.

[anachronix]

Happy to see Chennai being featured in WSJ as rising Detroit of India!

IMO, the State Govt. should be taking the credit for this!

[Mpower]

In addition to leadership, let me also focus on one thing that others have missed out. The people !

Hardworking, industrious and motivated people are key to making any country/state/region a big industrial success.

Even more remarkable considering the blistering heat and humidity of TN which is not suitable for labourious factory work.

[headers]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Even more remarkable considering the blistering heat and humidity of TN which is not suitable for labourious factory work.

How I beg to disagree with you on this one.

The blistering heat and humidity has got nothing to do with laborious factory work.

The work ethics, motivation, involvement, people orientation play a important role as well!!

[csentil]

Its quite nice when I drive down to Chennai these days. You see a lot of telecommunication manufacturers and h/w manufacturers on one side. (Motorola, Samsung, Dell, Flextronics, Nokia, St. Gobain, DuPont...). On the other side its the automobile sector and its associated companies.

Its like the town of Hosur, which is just 35 kms from Bangalore but it is in TN. The town was industrialized primarily to develop the district. But also utilized its close proximity to Bangalore to get the required technical workforce. Hosur has TVS, Ashok Leyland, Titan, HMT, Kamaz and a lot of other manufacturing companies. So many people from Bangalore have contributed to the success of Hosur.

I also believe its the availability of a great number of small scale industries in plenty that has also contributed to this in Chennai.

[yzfrj]

Originally Posted by headers

The blistering heat and humidity has got nothing to do with laborious factory work.

Sir, You are sadly mistaken. There is a very good reason why most offices are kept (at least here in India) at 25C or less. Do a quick search in google there are enough articles and research papers on this already.

The studies indicate an average 2% decrement in work performance per degree oC temperature rise, when the temperature is above 25 oC. When we use this relationship to evaluate night-time ventilative cooling, the resulting benefit to cost ratio varies from 32 to 120.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by headers

The work ethics, motivation, involvement, people orientation play a important role as well!!

Hmm...you are repeating exactly the same thing that I said !!!

Originally Posted by headers

The blistering heat and humidity has got nothing to do with laborious factory work.

What countries have you travelled? In the US the industrial belt is all in the north and midwest and places like Arizona, Texas are not suitable and Florida is all tourism.

In Europe, its a similar story with heavy factories located in colder climates like Germany, N France, Sweden and not in Spain, Portugal or Sardinia.

In case you did'nt get it, I was actually compimenting the people of Chennai for braving the odds.

Originally Posted by headers

How I beg to disagree with you on this one.

Yes, I know you love to