French auto major Peugeot-Citroen has firmed up plans to re-enter the Indian market which it exited in 90s after poor showing of its 309 and worker agitations at its factory in Maharashtra.
Peugeot-Citroen is studying the possibility of setting up a production facility in Chennai. If it finalizes plans, the state will provide home for two biggest French car brands.
Rajeev Ranjan, principal secretary, industries department, government of Tamil Nadu -
We are in discussions with the company. The plant would be located near Chennai. Everything is still at the discussion stage at this moment.
Peugeot-Citroen is exploring several opportunities from assembling imported units to setting up a full scale production line on the outskirts of Chennai city. The Chennai city outskirts already boasts of industry giants such as Ford, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Renault-Nissan and BMW.
Chennai has pockets consisting of many suppliers. It also produces many engineers and diploma holders who are highly eligible for jobs in the automotive industry.
What you see in the picture above is the creativity of Toyota‘s Tokyo Design Studio folks. This is an illustration of how radical utility vehicles and minivans could look in the future.
The artists got their inspiration from Japan’s Bullet train and Tokyo’s futuristic river boat. The car with its flowing contours look too good to be built into a car.
The designers seem to have taken Toyota’s ‘Going Green’ approach a bit too seriously as they have ‘planted’ a tree in the middle of the extended center console. 
Is that bonsai or will it grow through the roof? The sun roof finally found a purpose for the Indian customer!
The car has been given transparent door panels, and a panoramic roof that gives a scenic view of the surroundings.
The car also has a little seat which can revolve 360°, this is for curious kids.
Though this wouldn’t be the related to the 2nd generation Toyota Innova, these styles and design cues could be carried over to the third generation Innova?
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GM India is banking on the Beat to conquer the small car segment as the Chevrolet Beat and things have been going according to plan. GM’s bestseller in India in about to get additional firepower, and we have proof here.
GM India recently announced that it would soon be introducing a diesel Beat with a 1.0l engine. Now we have spy pictures of what DWS claims are diesel Beat test mules. We expect the Chevrolet Beat diesel to be launched a year after its petrol model’s arrival (January 2011).
The engine is speculated to be a 936cc, 3-cylinder engine based on the Fiat 1.3l Multijet. This engine is expected to produce around 57 bhp and around 140 to 150 Nm of torque. This core focus of this engine would be to deliver high on fuel efficiency. The ARAI figure could be around 22-23 kpl which translates into a real world figure of around 20kpl.
This engine is said to have been completely developed at GM’s world-class engine facility in Bangalore.
We can expect the sales numbers of the Chevrolet Beat to soar once the diesel version is launched. The LPG Beat which is also going to be launched soon would make the Beat range very lethal to competitors like the Ford Figo which has been doing very well in the market.
Tata Technologies, a company that provides solution for Engineering Services Outsourcing (ESO), Enterprise Solutions services, and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) showcased the Tata Nano in the “BETTER INNOVATION on Tour” for the first time ever in Canada at the APMA-Auto21 Annual Conference in Windsor, Ontario, June 8-10.
The conference had more than 800 members of Canada’s automotive component supply industry and research community participating, who keenly observed the car, which to them would be the cheapest car they can buy or supply components for when it sails to their country in the future.
The Tata Nano has been on tour across the United States this year. Its overseas journey first caught our attention during its stopover at Chicago’s Judson university on its way to the North American motor show in January this year.
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Ford India has hit the jackpot with its small car Figo. The Ford Figo sold more than 16,000 units within 14 weeks of its launch. This is a tremendous achievement for any car manufacturer in India.
The Figo sold in such huge numbers mainly because of the value it offered. The frugal diesel engine was another main selling point. Ford would soon be ramping up Figo’s production at its Chennai plant to meet the excessive demand for the Figo.
The diesel model has slightly outsold its petrol sibling with at least 60% of the buyers going for the oil-burner. Majority of the Figo buyers prefer the high end variants, ZXI and Titanium. Ford has been overwhelmed by buyer’s preference to these variants of the Figo.
Even Delhi and Mumbai which are not considered as Ford’s prime markets, have a large number of Figos plying on the roads. Figos have become dime a dozen in Ford’s home market, Chennai.
Just before the launch of the vehicle, Ford India expanded its dealer network to 165 outlets and this has contributed to the success of the Figo considerably. Ford India is also keen on increasing the number of its dealers and is looking to expand its network to about 185 dealers by the end of 2010 and 200 dealers by the end of this fiscal year.
Ford Figo’s good sales performance could also be boosting the sales of its stablemates, the Fiesta and the Ikon slightly.
They (customers in Kerala) had bought (Tata) Nano out of curiosity and to mainly use them in the (Kochi) city. They are not citing any specific reason for selling them, but it is understood that they are not too satisfied.
A remark from a used-car dealer in Kochi when asked by Express Buzz why many Tata Nanos are ending up in the used car market.
Honda Siel India has finally decided to wake up and do something about the dwindling sales of the Jazz, reports Burn Your Fuel. The Honda Jazz has been a successful car worldwide and the space and practicality of the car were highly acclaimed. But in India, it sold miserably.
The Honda Jazz was highly anticipated in India and Honda was extremely confident about the Jazz mainly because of the image it enjoyed here. Though Honda was held at high pedestal (it is even now), the pricing of the Jazz was simply too much for the typical Indian consumer to digest.
Honda paid the price for not doing enough market research and being too complacent. Honda, the website reports, is now planning to re-position the ailing Jazz into the A2 segment (Swift, Figo, Punto and Polo) by adding more features and possibly effecting a price cut.
The new version of the car would get revised interiors, a new ‘Rally Red’ color, alloy wheels, front grille, USB connectivity and a tailgate spoiler.
Though there hasn’t been any price-cuts announced till now, but we expect Honda to reduce the prices of the Jazz by Diwali.
There is also widespread speculation that Honda is re-engineering (making major modifications) to the Jazz to bring down its sticker price. If Honda can develop a cost-effective Jazz, the car could take the market by storm.
Indian Autos Blog recently had a close encounter with the ubiquitous Mahindra World SUV test mule on the outskirts of Chennai. Thanks to the driver who had parked the car away from ‘Idli’ shop where he was having a sumptuous meal, we didn’t miss the chance to take a few pictures and make a few observations.
1. The Mahindra World SUV (W201) is huge. It looks more like an MPV than a SUV. The front of the car seems to be too heavy and even the massive tires look puny on the car.The stance isn’t as impressive (read aggressive) as a Scorpio: clear sign of Mahindra trying to become civilized. We expect this to be the best looking Mahindra (or rather the only good looking Mahindra after the Scorpio).
2. The interiors aren’t as bad a Mahindra should be. The dashboard of the car looks refined and well made. Nothing looked like an after thought. Xylo’s steering wheel looked out of place. The twin-pod instrument cluster looked good. A/C vents weren’t as cruel as the ‘fish-mouth’ inspired vents in the Xylo.
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