We have already featured an allegedly leaked photograph of the 2-door Proton EMAS that’ll be rebadged as a Lotus. Now thanks to Paul Tan, we’re able to show you the 4-door version which is better suited for India.
To the naked eye, this certainly looks like a leaked picture and not a photoshopped one. The front-end is very aggressive, without looking at it in flesh or a clear photograph, we will not be in a position to comment on it. The design is very bold and Proton has adopted a very sharp and pointed design. The wheels have also been pushed to the corners of the car thereby liberating more space for occupants.
Likely to come with a 1.2-liter petrol engine, the EMAS will be brought to India to take on the Hyundai i10 in the next couple of years.
One question remains – Where are the door handles?
We will launch the Linea T-Jet in India next month.
When asked about a specific week or date, he said nothing was decided as of now. Fiat could look at launching this in the middle of October, the T-Jet might come in a phased manner too.
Fiat will also run special finance schemes during the festive season. It has not planned any special editions or models, apart from the T-Jet for this year.
The Audi Q3 test mules have been spotted indicating that testing is well under way on this new SUV that’s expected to hit the Indian market next year. The Audi Q3 will be assembled at the Aurangabad facility here in India where the A4, A6 and Q5 are also assembled.
Audi India is making aggressive plans to become the number one luxury car brand in India by 2015. Audi has set itself a target of producing 6,000 cars annually in India.
Based on the Volkswagen Group A5 (PQ35) platform, the 2011 Q3 will be positioned under the Q5, so prices are going to start somewhere near the 30 lakh rupee mark.
The Skoda Octavia (the Octi) was one car that turned the fortunes of the Volkswagen-run company and proved to everyone that Skoda can make a truly world class car. The car also put Skoda as one of the premium car manufacturers in the Indian market and made the scene suitable for entrants like the Laura and the Superb to follow.
But since then Skoda has ignored this child with no major design or product change since the time it was launched back in 2002. The rumor mill is turning again with news of the new Octavia (probably named Felicia) hoping to be launched in the future as a replacement model. There are two sides to the Felicia tale – one says it’s just a Fabia sedan while the other says it’ll be different car but will sit on the Vento’s platform.
Here we have an artist’s rendering of the new Skoda baby. The design language has been drastically changed (we are still not sure of whether it is for good or bad) with more sharp lines, new headlamps and a new grill.
The Skoda Octavia as of today cannot be sold in 13 cities because it is not BS4 compliant. Even in the remaining markets, it hasn’t showed any real jump in the sales. Over all it is bleeding its market share to the Europeans and Japanese. We hope the new Octi & Yeti will bring back a lot of joy for Skoda.
A windshield wiper is a device which moves a rubber blade back and forth to clean the windshield, operated electrically.
In the early years, the windshield wiper was actuated by vacuum or by compressed air to remove rain water, moisture, dead insects and dirt from the windshield.
The Tata Nano isn’t the first car to come with a single windshield wiper. Mercedes Benz invented a windshield wiper system termed as “monoblade” where a single wiper could do the job of two. The wiper arm was built so that during the sweeping action, it would extend as it went closer to the top and retract as it reached the bottom.
In several cars, smaller wipers were used to clean the headlights ! These days you don’t see them.
The wiper blade is fastened to the arm in six to eight places so that even during fast action, it doesn’t come off. Modern cars switch on their wipers automatically when they sense rain. A hygroscopic material (which balloons with water contact and switches on the wiper) served the purpose until recently when a optical sensor came about, which was better in every way and needed little or no maintenance.
Compressed air wipers were the most annoying ones since they relied on the manifold (a component of the engine) pressure for their operation. During idling or low speeds, the pressure is less and the wiper worked slowly. At high speed, the wiper worked faster.
Following the trend set by GM & SAIC partnership, another Chinese-American partnership Chang’an Auto & Ford, plan to expand beyond the borders of China. Chang’an Auto is a major small car and MPV manufacturer and Ford wants to use their expertise to tap the emerging south Asian markets like India, Vietnam, Philippines etc.
GM and SAIC are working closely. The Chinese company is helping GM to understand the dynamics of emerging markets. The duo plans to bring the Wulling brand to India next year. The Wuling vans will be manufactured in India and fitted with locally made Fiat Multi-jet engines.
On similar lines, the Ford-Chang’an Auto will work together to build low cost vehicles by using Chang’an’s R&D center. Ford had recently announced 8 new vehicles by 2015 in India. So our guess is that a few of them would be mini vans through this Chinese connection.
Picture – Chang’an Baoguang 4500 MPV for Chinese market
Entry posted on September 9, 2010 by
Shrawan Raja;
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Social networking is the new buzz in Marketing 101 lectures. Tell someone that you are not on facebook and you will raise all eye brows immediately. Car makers have gone absolutely berserk over this new medium and are launching their products online. Mazda gave us a facebook app for Mazda2 whereas Ford unveiled the Explorer 2011. Companies like Ford, Mahindra and Chevrolet have used this medium well in India.
Skoda Belgium decided to take online marketing/promotion to an all new level by offering a free Skoda Fabia as a prize for the maximum number of Facebook ‘likes.’ If you offer Skoda page 1 like – 1 Euro will be deducted of your cost price for the car. For 2 days fans can share the page with friends asking them to like as well and then they place a bid. The more the number of likes the less you pay for the car.
We think this is a fantastic campaign and wish them all the luck in the world. We hope that this campaign is successful so that we can get such ingenuity in India as well.
Actually, the Skoda Fabia has been a case of neglect in India with the company yet to upgrade to meet BS4 emission norms. Skoda India should first offer a car which everyone can buy and then look into Facebook.
