MOTOR

BMW 7 Series for German Embassies, General Consulates

A pan-European invitation to tender for the Central Supplier Agreement of Luxury Class Vehicles has ended in success for the BMW Group.

Issued by the German Foreign Office, the call for bids covered all the country’s major Embassies and General Consulates. The open tender process resulted in the BMW Group obtaining all three contracts for its 7 Series.

With the agreement in place, the company is now set to equip the highest representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany with 7 Series automobiles.

Following the standard 730d, the second contract from the tender process went to the all-wheel variant. The third went to the ActiveHybrid 7.

The Central Supplier Agreement of Luxury Class Vehicles takes effect on the day of the award and runs for a whole year, with a one-off option to extend by another twelve months. With immediate effect, the Foreign Office can order the vehicles it needs from VH-41.

They will be delivered direct to the country of use with the appropriate local equipment package in place.

“Everything will be sourced from a single supplier,” said VH-41 (International Direct Sales, Special and Corporate Sales Market Consultant) Katja Reichemberger. That means we can offer the Foreign Office an attractive complete package.

From quotes and order management to worldwide transport and global delivery coordination through the BMW delivery organization, VH-41 is always going to be the first point of contact for the Foreign Office. “This will ensure that German Embassies and General Consulates around the world receive their allocated business vehicles in good time and with the right country-specific package,” he said.

Convincing on all counts when it came to selecting a producer, a number of factors played a decisive role in the Foreign Office’s decision.

Among them were the coverage and structure of the worldwide service and logistics network.

Also important were environmental issues, with harmful emissions, CO2 output and fuel consumption being among the main considerations influencing the decision. The BMW brand was able to convince the Foreign Office on all counts, with the Efficient Dynamics technologies in its 7 Series models being just one decisive factor. As a result, the Group was the favourite compared with other producers in the competition.

roadplus.lk:

Taking local auto marketing global

roadplus.lk is one of Sri Lanka’s largest auto web portals today, which allows buyers and sellers to meet over the internet. With the IT infrastructure development and the improvement in IT awareness in Sri Lanka there have been an exponential trend in using the internet for personal needs such as buying vehicles for domestic use.

The site administrators have been experiencing a speedily rising usage of roadplus.lk, not being limited only to the cities but also from rural areas interacting with the site extensively. Improvement in mobile technology also has contributed to this tremendously.

The web portal roadplus.lk facilitates to upload images of vehicles along with all the other information free of any charge and this can be done from buyers’ own internet access point. With the widespread use of broadband internet, it can be from the buyer’s own home.

Since the website is designed with a very simple, human friendly user interface, any novice user new to web applications is able to grasp it quickly. Any user with basic knowledge of IT following the simple steps to submit his information can access the web portal with ease. On the other hand the roadplus.lk web portal is structured in such a way that information required by the sellers is just a click away.

The website is divided according to different segments based on different automobile requirements without abandoning the user in the site. And also the site has some space allocated to introduce new automobiles.

Above all, each segment has thousands of options from which the user can select the best automobile to suit his requirements.

Further, roadplus.lk also consolidates other basic requirements of a vehicle seeker.

This is provided through enabling services such as bank loans, insurance, leasing from the site, by connecting relevant service providers to roadplus.lk. This inclusion has made roadplus.lk a comprehensive service provider to the automobile industry.

The team at roadplus.lk consists of highly professional individuals who have performed deep market analysis on internet marketing and especially the automobile industry.

“Our licence to operate is our customer’s satisfaction” is the motto of roadplus.lk. With a fine blend of locally and internationally qualified team with past experience of providing similar trade platforms globally, roadplus.lk has been in operation for over six months to date. roadplus.lk provides easy interfaces and guaranteed contacts to ensure quicker, smoother and hassle free trade opportunities in automobiles to satisfy the most stringent needs of any customer.

Toyota global April sales up

Japanese automaker Toyota said global sales surged 21.3 percent year-on-year in April, despite millions of safety recalls worldwide that have left it facing a series of lawsuits in the US.

The Toyota group, which includes brands Daihatsu and Hino trucks, said it sold 671,921 vehicles in April, up from 554,034 a year earlier, spokesman Paul Nolasco said. The figure was lower than March sales of 876,126 however.

The world’s largest automaker said global production jumped 53.8 percent to 667,495 units compared to a year ago, when the industry was in the grip of the financial crisis.

Toyota continues to see its sales rise despite having pulled around 10 million vehicles worldwide since late last year for safety issues.

It also paid a record 16.4-million-dollar fine to settle claims it hid gas pedal defects blamed for more than 80 deaths in the United States, with US officials refusing to rule out the possibility of more fines.

The beleaguered auto giant also faces a host of lawsuits over “unintended acceleration” issues that prompted the majority of the recalls, which analysts warn may yet dent the future profitability of the company.

Earlier this month it said it would recall 11,500 Lexus vehicles worldwide because of a steering system defect, in the latest blow to the Japanese auto giant’s reputation.

Despite the recalls, Toyota posted a return to profit in the past fiscal year, including a net profit of 112.2 billion yen in the three months ended March, the height of its crisis, defying many expectations.

Other Japanese makers posted sales and production gains Friday as the industry continues to rebound on booming global demand which has helped drive Japan’s export-led recovery from deep recession.

Second-largest maker Honda Motor marked its 10th straight monthly increase of domestic sales, which rose 9.5 percent on-year. It did not give global sales figures.

Third-largest Nissan saw global production rise 57 percent on-year to 319,673, what it called an all time record for April.

Fourth-largest maker Mitsubishi Motors, said its global production gained 72.7 percent from a year ago. Close rival Mazda saw production soar 51.4 percent.

Honda production ‘partially resumes’ at China plant

Japan’s second-largest automaker Honda Motor said Monday production had “partially resumed” at a parts factory in China where an unprecedented strike has forced the company to close other plants. Honda’s assembly lines in China came to a halt last week due to a lack of parts from Honda Auto Parts Manufacturing Co, located in the southern city of Foshan.

A Tokyo-based Honda spokeswoman said that despite a partial restart at the parts plant Monday, production at all four of its car assembly factories would remain frozen Tuesday as negotiations with striking workers continued.

“Parts production has partially restarted this afternoon, but auto assembly will not be restarting yet,” said Honda spokeswoman Natsuno Asanuma, without giving further details. “We need more time,” she said. She said Honda’s Chinese joint ventures, Guangqi Honda Automobile and Dongfeng Honda Automobile, would stay closed Tuesday as negotiations continued at the transmission and engine components unit.

Production at Guangqi Honda Automobile Co., Honda’s 50-50 joint venture with China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group, stopped a week ago. The venture’s two plants are in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong.

Output at Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., the company’s other joint venture, located in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province, came to a standstill Wednesday afternoon. The venture also operates two factories.

AFP