Speaking to this correspondent, Ganesh Mani S, Director – Production, HMIL, said, to have the first-mover advantage in the industry, carmakers are constantly looking for newer technologies and innovations. The Indian auto industry is at the cusp of a new era with updated regulation norms for emission and recall. This brings more relevance to have fool-proof quality testing processes in place. “Towards fulfilling this objective, we at Hyundai Motor India have a Quality Assurance ‘Testing, Inspection, and Certification’ (TIC) process to ensure that every car we make is 100 percent defect-free. The ‘TIC’ process has a two-pronged strategy. First, we test the condition of the respective part before assembling at the vendor’s end and next we test the condition of the assembled vehicle as per the required standards at our end.” 

It may be recalled that both its R&D Centres in Namyang, South Korea and in Hyderabad, India work in tandem to design and develop any new model. They also conduct all the region specific tests before they sign-off the car for manufacturing. “At the production stage, we conduct several standard tests including the wheel alignment, head-light aimer, roll and brake and much more. We test the ride handling capabilities of our cars first at our internal tracks in our Sriperumbudur facility which simulates 17 types of Indian road conditions, and later also conduct a Vehicle Durability Test across India. At the Certification level, we also use government authorised test agency (Global Automotive Research Centre) tracks to conduct standardized tests,” he said.

Talking on the challenges faced in testing vehicles in the assembly line, he said, the digital revolution has created a great impact offering practically unlimited possibilities for a pleasant and safe driving experience. Today the cars are smarter and more connected than ever. This means an exponential increase in the number of tests and its duration at the assembling stage. “To offer best quality cars for our customers, we need to reach the desired quality targets and address defects related issues during assembling while successfully implementing the essential TIC solutions. This will help minimise the human error, if any. Solutions such as limiting the opportunity to insert the product on the wrong fixture (through appropriate mechanical constraints) and partially automating the activation of the correct test program (based on barcode readers) using in-line systems goes a long way. Along with maximum performance, the testing equipment should also be engineered to optimize system ergonomics with respect to operator comfort. This coupled with the precepts of lean production which will allow more flexibility in the mixing of various models. It is also necessary to guarantee high test results throughout to comply with the increasing production cycle-times. So, these testing machines should have the basic data analytics tool with summarized output screen, which could be used as an input for improving the process and design. This idea can also be extended to monitor the performance of the testing machine as well to proactively do the maintenance activities. Going forward, we will work towards minimising human intervention as much as possible and improve the process to do more self-learning and proactively suggest feedback & countermeasures,” he said.

Be it for the domestic or export markets, any OEM has to address three aspects to make cars with top-most quality. Firstly, at the design stage it is necessary to achieve the best performance and quality for the vehicle at optimal cost while keeping other factors in check. Hyundai ensures that all the learnings from previous models are implied in upcoming models. Secondly, during production it ensures that the vehicle meets all the required country-specific test standards and feature options for all its variants. Finally it understands the customer’s pulse and needs.    

“At HMI we transform metal into excellence with hand-crafted engineering and at 100 percent precision. To make the perfect cars we follow a 3-stage systematic tightening confirmation process which captures over 200,000 quality data points related to tightening, every day. We have linked this information with ‘Sign-off Gate’ to prevent the ‘not ok’ car roll out from the final assembly line. Our vehicle final inspection method is digitally enabled for assembled part specification/ type verification; we use a Hyundai Integrated Dialogistic System which is loaded with pre-set information on quality confirmations for 350+ variants. Such high degree of customization helps us to meet the growing customer requirement and enables desired results in the manufacturing process,” he said.

Beyond BS-VI

The move to make BS-VI compliant vehicles is not just important for cleaner air but it will also enable carmakers and Government agencies to record data on Real Driving Emissions (RDE). After the roll-out of BS-VI complaint vehicles there will be enough captured data available with the concerned authorities and regulators to be able to reduce the gap between type-approval vehicle emissions results and the actual ones on roads. Hyundai has global experience in the area of RDE vehicle development and this is a huge technical advantage to help develop vehicles for the Indian market. “We have done some amount of testing specific to the Indian road conditions. Before the Government’s regulations are set in motion, we too will be prepared to take up this challenge by upgrading our technical and analytical capabilities in all the required areas,” he said.

Nowadays, all cars come loaded with different kinds of infotainment, safety and communication systems. For instance, the recently launched Creta has 50 plus India-specific connected features which is 30 percent more than any other cars manufactured by the company. All these are absolutely important to ensure all these electronic devices work smoothly for the customer to enjoy a great drive. HMI has a multi-layered assurance process designed and developed by its in-house teams with specific performance indicators. ‘Hyundai Automatic Diagnostic System’ is another tool it uses to inspect the proper functioning of over 60 checkpoints in the electrical system and connected car features in all its cars.

Besides, it also has an integrated in-line testing facility installed in the assembly process line to check and approve the performance of all electronic systems fitted in all the cars at the sign-off gate. Also it ensures that the same​​ level of standards are maintained at the vendors end too. This makes the quality assurance process more robust & mistake proof, Ganesh Mani added.  (MT)

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Mumbai-based automotive major Mahindra & Mahindra has announced its wholesales for April 2025 at 84,170 vehicles, a growth of 19 percent, including exports.

The auto major sold a total of 52,330 SUVs in the domestic market, which was 28 percent higher than 41,008 SUVs sold for the same period last year. Commercial vehicle sales in the domestic market came at 22,989 units, which was 4 percent YoY. 

Veejay Nakra, President, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra, said, “Building on the strong momentum of last year's performance, we began the year on a strong note in April by achieving SUV sales of 52,330 units, a growth of 28 percent and total vehicle sales of 84,170 units, a 19 percent growth over the same month last year. These numbers indicate the strength of our portfolio and customer offerings.”

JSW MG Motor India, a leading passenger vehicles manufacturer, has announced its wholesales for April 2025.

The company reported sales of 5,829 units, which was 23 percent higher over April 2024, when it sold 4,725 vehicles.

Interestingly, the automaker's popular offering, the Windsor EV, has continued to be the top-selling electric passenger vehicle for the seventh month in a row.

JSW MG Motor India's Windsor EV has now gone home to over 20,000 customers.

Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest carmaker, has reported its wholesales of 179,791 units in April 2025, marking a 7 percent increase compared to 168,089 units sold in April 2024. The growth was primarily propelled by strong performance in utility vehicles and a sharp rise in export volumes.

Domestic sales, including passenger and light commercial vehicles, remained flat with 142,053 units, as compared to 140,448 units in April 2024. Within this, light commercial vehicles (LCVs) like the Super Carry saw a significant jump of 34.2 percent, with sales rising to 3,349 units from 2,496 units last year.

In the passenger vehicle segment, SUVs such as the Brezza, Ertiga, Grand Vitara and others recorded a 4.4 percent increase, selling 59,022 units compared to 56,553 in the previous year. However, sales for Eeco declined by 5.2 percent, while the mini segment (Alto, S-Presso) saw a sharp 45 percent drop, falling to 6,332 units from 11,519 units. The compact segment, which includes high-volume models like the Baleno and Swift, grew by 8.1 percent, reaching 61,591 units.

Sales to Toyota Kirloskar Motor rose sharply by 79.2 percent, from 5,481 units to 9,827 units, indicating a growing demand for cross-badged products.

The standout performer was the export segment, which surged 26 percent to 27,911 units from 22,160 units in April 2024. This strong export growth helped bolster the company’s overall numbers despite weaknesses in domestic sub-segments.

While some product lines such as the mid-size sedan Ciaz (-63 percent) continue to struggle.

Tata Motors reported total wholesales of 72,753 units for April 2025, reflecting a 6 percent year-on-year decline from 77,521 units in April 2024.

The passenger vehicle (PV) segment, including electric vehicles, accounted for 45,532 units, down 5 percent from 47,983 units in the same month last year. Within this, domestic PV sales dropped 6 percent to 45,199 units, while international business (IB) sales rose significantly to 333 units, up from 100 units. Electric vehicle sales (domestic + IB) declined 16 percent year-on-year to 5,318 units.

Commercial vehicle (CV) sales stood at 27,221 units, marking an 8 percent YoY drop from 29,538 units in April 2024. Domestic CV sales contracted 10 percent to 25,764 units, while CV exports (IB) grew 43 percent to 1,457 units. Key sub-segments like Small Commercial Vehicles (SCV) and pickups saw a steep 23 percent decline.

Despite growth in certain categories like ILMCV trucks and passenger carriers, overall sales momentum was tempered across both PV and CV segments.