MOTOR

Formula Plus now Motor Plus

Sri Lanka Insurance increases value proposition:

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

Sri Lanka Insurance with its strategy to penetrate the insurance market has changed the Formula Plus motor insurance to Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus with added features and benefits to its customers, Sri Lanka Insurance Managing Director Dr. Nalaka Godahewa told Daily News Business.

"Since the nationalization of Sri Lanka Insurance last year, the company has made significant improvements to the value proposition of our motor insurance. Today, we are offering a much better motor insurance product to our customers with benefits unparalleled. Also we have moved away from the traditional view of focusing on profitable customer segments and expanded our benefits to a wider customer range at national level. Considering this total value enhancement, we have decided to re-launch the product under a more appealing customer-friendly brand name which is Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus, he said.

"Motor Plus is an enhanced value proposition. To understand this better one must look at three different situations of customer experience, i.e, at the point of purchasing, when met with an accident and making a claim from the insurance company. In all these instances Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus offers additional benefits," he said.

"For example, we consider ourselves to be the national motor insurance services provider hence, we have made our insurance products highly affordable, catering to all categories of customers. Today you can purchase a motor insurance policy from Sri Lanka Insurance, 24 hours a day.

We are quite flexible in our product offering and are willing to customize our insurance products to suit specific needs. We are also offering a unique benefit that no other insurance company currently offers to the customers, a facility to extend your manufacturer's warranty by a further period with no additional cost to the policy holder. With all these features it is one of the most affordable, easy to purchase motor insurance policy in the country, he said.

"In the event of an accident our policy holders have the services of Sri Lanka's largest and best trained technical team who provide road side assistance. They are even equipped and trained to provide emergency first-aid facilities to any person who is injured.

This is also a unique feature of Sri Lanka Insurance. Thirdly, when it comes to the claim settlement, Sri Lanka Insurance has gone beyond the expectations of normal insurance policy holders by allowing you to get your repairs done free of cost at eleven leading motor dealers in the country," Godahewa said.

"Usually, people do not go to their dealers even though it is the preferred option in anticipation of high repair cost. Today Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus policy holders can get their vehicles repaired at the dealer itself in a hassle-free manner.

We believe that now Sri Lanka Insurance has the fastest and most convenient third party claim settlement in Sri Lanka.

A third party liability arising due to a fault of a Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus customer is usually settled within three working days unless there is a specific issue with the documents required," he said.

"We also settle third party liabilities outside civil court action which is unique in the industry. If the accident is between two Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus policy holders, the customers' no-claim bonus is protected, which is also a special concession that comes with Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus.

Existing customers will automatically be converted to Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus with the all additional benefits with no extra costs.

Sri Lanka Insurance Motor Plus is clearly a better product with a number of new features and benefits.

The strength and stability is an extremely important criterion for a rational customer in selecting the right insurance company to partner with.

India's Maruti quarterly profit up

Maruti Suzuki, India's biggest car firm, reported a 170 percent jump in quarterly net profit Monday, as the vehicle market roared ahead, helped by cheap loans and government stimulus steps.

Maruti Suzuki, 54.2 percent owned by Japan's Suzuki, reported net profit for the final three months of the fiscal year to March 31 climbed to 6.56 billion rupees (148 million dollars) from 2.43 billion in the same period a year ago.

Government stimulus packages to boost domestic consumption and shield the economy from the global financial downturn, along with cheap financing and new model launches, helped drive demand among increasingly well-off consumers.

But the profit growth still fell short of market forecasts of 7.2 billion rupees as costlier steel and other raw materials ate into earnings from higher vehicle sales.

Maruti, which sells one in two cars in the country, said its performance had been hit by such factors "as higher raw material prices and an adverse foreign exchange movement".

Maruti's revenues climbed 30 percent during the quarter from a year earlier to hit 85.04 billion rupees.

Analysts said Maruti faced a rougher road ahead.

Maruti's parent, Suzuki, is anxious to fend off global rivals such as Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors, which are aggressively seeking to boost sales in India.

Last year, Maruti's sales outstripped Suzuki's performance in Japan and the company is credited with revolutionising transport in India by making affordable cars for a burgeoning middle class.

Maruti is expanding capacity to meet rising demand with economic growth forecast by the government for the financial year to March 2011 at up to 8.75 percent.

Suzuki Motor has announced plans to invest 50 billion yen (555 million dollars) in India to boost capacity and research and development.

India is Asia's third-largest car market, outpaced only by China and Japan, and is one of the few countries where automobile sales are rapidly increasing.

Indian car sales in the last financial year gained the most in six years but analysts expect the pace of growth to slow this year due to the unwinding of stimulus measures and rising interest rates.

AFP

GM to bring Chevrolet brand to S Korea

US car giant General Motors will introduce its Chevrolet brand into South Korea next year in an effort to boost sales, the chief executive of the struggling local unit said.

GM Daewoo CEO Mike Arcamone said the Chevrolet brand would provide "a significant momentum" to increase the local unit's sales and domestic market share, Yonhap news agency reported.

"According to our survey, half of the (Korean) public is familiar with the brand," he was quoted as telling reporters at a motor show in the southern port of Busan.

GM Daewoo, acting as the US company's global mini car development centre, uses the Chevrolet brand overseas but its cars are sold under the Daewoo brand in South Korea.

GM Daewoo's union has opposed the idea of selling the Chevrolet brand in South Korea, claiming it would relegate the company to a subcontractor for the US company.

Yonhap quoted Arcamone as saying GM Daewoo would not eliminate the Daewoo brand from the local market, allowing it instead to co-exist with Chevrolet.

GM Daewoo, the country's third largest automaker in terms of sales, suffered net losses in 2008 and 2009 amid the falling demand of the global downturn. Last October the company secured more than 400 million dollars in new funds through a rights offering but its US parent was the sole subscriber.

AFP

Hyundai raises sales target

South Korea's leading auto group Hyundai Thursday raised its sales target in China this year by a quarter to solidify its presence in one of the world's fastest-growing markets.

The target was disclosed by group chief Chung Mong-Koo during his visit to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, Hyundai said in a statement. Chung said Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia Motors should meet their target to sell a total of one million cars in China this year, up 23 percent from last year.

"China, emerging as the world's largest market, is becoming the battleground to set the future of Hyundai and Kia Motors," Chung was quoted as saying.

AFP