Arvind's Newsletter

1.War cry for 50%: Maruti's rise to number 1 in SUVs is the result of rejig, reports Business Standard.

The Indian passenger vehicle market is indeed in a sweet spot for SUVs. An ever-increasing mass of car buyers is opting for SUVs lured by the perception that SUVs can be “statement” vehicles, indicating that you have arrived in life.

This shows up in the sales numbers. Four years ago, SUVs were just about 26 per cent of the passenger vehicle market; now they are 47 per cent. This, amid rapidly increasing overall sales. Naturally, the country’s largest maker of passenger vehicles, Maruti Suzuki, could not stand by and watch the others drive away with the market.

“Our war cry is to have a 50 per cent share of the passenger vehicle market. In the non-SUV space, we enjoy a 65 per cent share. In utility vehicles, we have been number one for the last six years, with the Ertiga and the XL6. But our SUV market share was 12.5 per cent at the end of FY23,” says Shashank Srivastava, senior executive officer, marketing and sales, with Maruti.

With the share of SUVs in the overall market nearing 50 per cent, Maruti had to increase its presence in this segment to realise its ambition of owning half the passenger vehicle market, says Srivastava.

The latest figures would have reassured him that the war cry was not sounding hollow. Maruti’s share of the SUV market has grown from a modest 8.5 per cent share in the first quarter of FY23 to almost 21.7 per cent in the second quarter of the current financial year. In the process, it has overtaken the entrenched SUV warriors, such as Mahindra and Mahindra (21.4 per cent), Hyundai Motors India (18.6 per cent),and Tata Motors (17.2 per cent), to become the largest in the segment.

2.The “miracle drug” that’s turned Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk (NN) into Europe’s most valuable listed company, overtaking luxury retailer LVMH, is available in India… if you have the means. ThePrint claims wealthy Indians are spending ₹10,000-80,000 ($120-960) per month to access Rybelsus, Ozempic, or WeGovy.

For those who came late, Ozempic, it’s a weekly injectable prescribed to Type-2 diabetes patients. Rybelsus, also used to treat diabetes, is a daily oral medication. WeGovy, a higher-dose weekly injectable, is prescribed for weight loss. All three have semaglutide, patented by NN, as their active ingredient.

3.A fertiliser shortage is spreading hunger across Africa. The New York Times reported that Russia’s war in Ukraine and climate change already reduced the availability of grain, but the COVID-19 pandemic, the growing value of the dollar, and oil-price shocks have also doubled the cost of fertiliser in thirteen countries.

The World Bank says food insecurity concerns are “alarmingly high” in West and Central Africa, while 40% of Nigerians — 90 million people — face “insufficient food consumption.” Farmers are shifting from rice and corn to less valuable but less fertilizer-hungry crops like soybeans,thieves are stealing harvests, and parents are pulling children out of school, unable to afford tuition.

4.Tesla's Year of Price Cuts Exposes Crisis for Legacy Auto in USA, reports Bloomberg.

After a decade of being trounced by Tesla Inc., this was supposed to be the year that traditional automakers finally put up a fight for electric cars. General Motors was committing its biggest brands to a new line of electric models; Ford and Volkswagen were ramping up production of EVs designed for the masses. It was, many predicted, time for the automotive world order to re-assert itself.

Things haven’t turned out that way. Ford’s vaunted F-150 Lightning has been outsold by the R1T from Rivian, a startup that sold its first vehicle just two years ago. GM’s lineup of new EVs has suffered crippling setbacks in battery manufacturing. In July, Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Thomas Schaefer succinctly summarized his own company’s EV competitiveness: “The roof is on fire.”

With just three months remaining, 2023 has been less a redemption story for legacy automakers than further evidence of their quagmire. In the US, Tesla has been expanding production about as fast as all of its competitors combined. The Austin, Texas-based EV maker accounts for 61% of fully electric cars ever sold in the US, making it more dominant in EVs than Apple is in smartphones.

5.America’s ‘Gold Standard’ GPS Risks Falling Behind Rival Systems, reports Wall Street Journal.

The world’s default location service, so critical that everything from the internet economy to trade,warfare, and power grids depend on it, is under threat. The ageing Global Positioning System (GPS), run by the US military, is due for several upgrades that may not become fully operational before 2027. That leaves Chinese rival BeiDou plenty of time to further erode its dominance. Already, BeiDou is served by 46 satellites compared to GPS’ 31.

Other GPS equivalents, such as the EU’s Galileo and Russia’s Glonass, also have more advanced capabilities and are neck-and-neck in accuracy. The US argues that GPS is the undisputed leader in integrity and flight use. Also, US has the edge in low-orbit satellites. But in BeiDou, Beijing is expanding its reach in US-decoupled everything, from currency to technology. It’s already subsidising BeiDou and 5G offerings for Belt and Road countries.

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