U.S. Economic Downturn this Year or Next?

Jim Downey

SUMMARY. As we are halfway through 2023, there is more uncertainty with the economy than earlier in the year. The general consensus is there will be a recession coming soon in the United States, and now it is just a matter of whether this will happen later in 2023 or the first of part of 2024.

The latter may be more assumed recently. The stock market has not fallen, and the US economy has not entered a recession this year, 2023. Some of the factors that have prevented this are market investors being enthusiastic over AI (Artificial Intelligence) potential, the Federal Reserve’s pause in interest rate increases, and the slowdown of inflation. So seemingly the pause button has been hit on recession scenarios.

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Powersports Industry Leading Economic Comeback

The Powersports industry–featuring ATVs, motorcycles and watercraft–appears to be leading the way on the road to economic recovery. According to Motorcycle & Powersports News magazine, this increased demand for powersports is helping values bounce back from historic lows.

Michael Aistrup
Michael Aistrup

According to Scott Yarbrough, senior analyst for motorcycle and powersports at Black Book: “After the first month of the COVID-19, shutdowns put a freeze on powersports values during the beginning of the spring selling season, and the second month saw dramatic declines.

This month values are up across the board, some by the largest amounts we have ever seen in a monthly update. A combination of surprisingly strong demand, coupled with drops in availability of units, has led to this resurgence in values,”

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Rapid Economic Recovery Puts Pressure on Supply Chain

Christopher Bamforth
Christopher Bamforth

After continued positive market trends which started towards the end of 2020, as well as good progress in their initiatives for integration and sustainability, the Finnish quarrying and mining equipment group Metso Outote grew their order intake in the second quarter by 43%. Supported further by a robust recovery fuelled by infrastructure investments in Europe and the US, and the quarterly orders were higher than in the first quarter.

They believe that many of these new order intakes are a direct result from their “Positive planet portfolio”. This new initiative has been designed help customers improve the sustainability and productivity of their operations. This initiative performed even better than expected, they have already estimated a value of €105m end of June, out of the predicted €120m for 2021. This highlights the ecological trend that we are seeing across most industries.

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Hyundai Agrees To Purchase GM India Talegaon Plant

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

The agreement covers the acquisition of land and buildings and certain machinery and manufacturing equipment at the General Motors India, Talegaon plant. The proposed acquisition is subject to the signing of a definitive asset purchase agreement, other certain conditions and receipt of approvals from government authorities and stakeholders.

Source: Economic Times    Read The Article

PSR Analysis. Hyundai is expected to expand its annual production capacity in India to some 900,000 units–760,000 units in its two existing plants and 130,000 units in the GM plant. Combined with production volume of its smaller Kia’s two plants in India, the total production capacity of Hyundai Motor Group could surpass 1 million units per year.

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Impact of COVID-19 in India on Engine-driven Applications

As of today, India is relatively less impacted by COVID than other nations. Because of the very bold and unprecedented move of a complete lockdown for about 40 days, India has managed to restrict the number of positive cases to 17,000.

Ritvik Kulkarni
Ritvik Kulkarni

Considering that India is a country with a population of over 1 billion persons living in challenging on-ground conditions, it is a phenomenal effort of proactive and timely response from the government as well as restraint observed by citizens.

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Trouble in India’s Motown

This report first appeared in the September 2019 issue of PowerTALK.

The bad times in the India automobile market started with the slowdown in Q4 2018, triggered by the NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Companies) crisis. Since then it has been 10 consecutive months of hard times for almost all automobile segments. All the segments in the country, be it passenger cars or commercial vehicles, have registered a decline.

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Toyota Launches India’s First Flex Fuel Hybrid

INDIA REPORT 

Aditya Kondejkar

Toyota has launched  the Corolla Altis, India’s first flex-fuel engine. This car will be able to run on petrol or ethanol as well as electric power. It is part of a pilot project developing Flexi-Fuel Strong Hybrid Electric Vehicles in India.

Source: Hindu Times    Read The Article

Because of the great diversity in India’s consumer population, especially its per-capita income disparity, and multiple applications of vehicles, India might not use one technology but might use a combination of technologies involving various fuel types.

The Indian market can’t simply shift from petrol/ diesel engines to EVs over the next few years. Hence, many OEMs are working on CNG/ hydrogen/ hybrid vehicles.  Toyota has launched this new vehicle for the Indian market as part of these efforts.

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India EV Market Provides Opportunities and Challenges

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 5th Annual TWF (Two Wheeler Forum) took place on Feb. 21 and 22, 2024, at the India International Convention & Expo Centre in Dwarka, New Delhi. Hosted in partnership with Trak N Tell, the event spotlighted aspects of the Indian two-wheeler and three-wheeler industry, spanning both electric and internal combustion engines.

The landscape of electric vehicles (EVs) in India is undergoing a transformative shift, with the recent 2 wheeler, 3 wheeler, and EV show held in Delhi showcasing the industry’s dynamic evolution. Despite constituting less than 1% of total vehicle sales, the electric vehicle sector holds immense potential, and is projected to grow to over 5% in the years to come. Currently, the Indian roads host over 5 lakh electric 2 wheelers and a modest number of electric cars. However, the market’s growth trajectory remains subject to fluctuations, predominantly influenced by governmental incentives.

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INDIA REPORT, March 2020

Coronavirus Reduces India Auto Components

This article first appeared in the March 2020 issue of PowerTALK™ News

China is one of the leading suppliers of auto components to India, and this supply chain was significantly interrupted in Q1 2020 by the caronavirus. In 2018-19, components worth an estimated US$4.5 billion (out of a total of approximately $17 billion) were exported from China to India. Most of this trade is in electronic components, EGR modules, fuel injection pumps, turbochargers, meter sets, LEDs, magnets, airbag components, and steering system components.

Since the discovery of the Coronavirus in December 2019, this supply chain has been affected. The covid-19 pandemic has started taking a toll on components supply and automotive production in India. The situation is further amplified, as China has terminated all sea routes to other parts of the world.

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Suzuki Moves Aggressively To Regain India Market Share

INDIA REPORT
Aditya Kondejkar

A key portion of Maruti Suzuki’s mid-term goal to achieve 50% overall PV (passenger vehicle) market share by becoming the number one SUV seller in the country. This is important for Maruti Suzuki because even though the automaker’s market share in the non-SUV segments is more than 65%, its SUV share was only 10.5% in 2022.

Source: The Times of India    Read The Article

Capacity Expansion.

The company is planning to invest Rs 18,000 crore for the Kharkhoda facility in Haryana. This will increase the capacity by one million units. Further, by the end of the decade, Maruti Suzuki plans to invest over 45,000 crore to quadruple production capacity to four million vehicles in order to meet domestic consumer demand and increase exports from India.

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