Indian Autos blog

India’s flourishing car industry has fascinated car manufacturers from around the world and lured them into launching their product in the country. Soon Citroen, part of PSA Peugeot Citroen, group will also join this race according to the rumors circulating in the market.

Apparently, a top official from PSA recently visited Andhra Pradesh to meet Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and State Industries Department to discuss the nitty-gritty’s of a Greenfield project at Adibhatla SEZ near Shamshabad International airport. This is the same land that was offered to Tata’s for the Nano Plant.

But Citroen is very tight lipped about the development. The officials at Citroen -

We’re investigating the Indian market certainly. But we’re not in a position to give any details till we make an announcement.

Interestingly, this is not the first movie, it is rather a sequel. In 1993-94, PSA Peugeot Citroen had a JV with Premier Automobiles to assemble models such as the 309 for the Indian market. However, the JV was scrapped three years later after discrepancies had developed between the two partners and there were labor unrests at its plant.

Mr Daniel Zamparini, Chief Information Officer, PSA Peugeot Citroen in a teleconference last month-

You will have some news in a few weeks.

If all goes well, we are easily looking forward to a 4000+Cr investments and both brands, Peugeot and Citroen, to run on the streets. Peugeot will be the mass market brand and Citroen will touch the niche markets.

So it is just not the French President who is keen to visit India again, but the cars are too. Sarkozy is expected in India next month and along with could come good news for Peugeot-Citroen fans.

Image – entry-level Citroen C1

Skoda has issued launch invites for the much awaited Yeti to the media. The national launch of the vehicle will be held in Delhi on the 15th and deliveries should start almost immediately.

The Skoda Yeti will get a 2.0-litre common rail diesel engine belonging to the Volkswagen family currently being used on the Skoda Laura automatic and the flagship Superb. This engine generates 140bhp of power and 320Nm of torque. Power is fed through a 6-speed manual transmission and then through a fourth-generation Haldex Traction multi-plate clutch that distributes drive to all four wheels.

The feature list is almost endless for this 15+ lakh SUV. Corner function for fog lamps, hill descent control and VarioFlex seating system are a few of them.

Stay tuned for more action on the Yeti!

The month of October has been extremely good as far as sales were concerned. The demand was mainly driven by the festival period and pre-bookings done for Dussehra and Diwali. Compared with last year, our sales are up 45-50% this season.

Maruti Suzuki spokesperson explains to DNA newspaper the prosperity brought about by this festive season for his company.

If you are a Topgear nut like me then there is one car that you will be most familiar with even if you have never seen one – The Dacia Sandero. The parent company Dacia has some serious plans till 2015 and by serious we mean a total of 8 new cars!

Let’s unravel them:

1) First is a low cost car called Citadine with a price tag of EUR 5,000 (we about it under the name Dacia City). The car will have a mash up of design features from Logan and Clio and will be powered by 1.2-liter engine borrowed from the Renault Twingo.

2) The company showcased its first SUV – The Duster at Geneva. They will be exporting it to the international markets as well. In the list of countries lies India. We’re told that Duster will arrive in India by 2012 with the 1.5-liter dCI engine. It will be manufactured locally and part of it might also be exported.

3) Renault released a computer-generated photo of a mid-size 4.7-meter long concept code-named X52. Dacia can have its own version of it. We received information from our overseas friends that X52 is the codename of the next generation Logan which will be slightly more curvy and upmarket.

Groupe Renault’s commercial director in Romania, Fabrice Cambolive -

Work is being done on the future Logan range, with the first model expected to enter the market in two or three years

4) A facelift for the Duster compact SUV, the Sandero are also on cards in 2014.

5) There are also plans to introduced a Van and a Pick up truck in 2015. The pick-up will most likely rely on the Duster for its components while the van could use the Logan’s platform itself.

Dacia vice-president, Constantin Stroe -

Dacia will present a new model every year and in 2012 you will see extremely interesting things coming off the assembly line at the plant in Mioveni.

Will all these models come to India?

On its website, Nissan has released the spec sheet for the Micra diesel. As expected, the 1.5-liter CRDI engine makes its way under the Micra’s bonnet. The 1,461cc engine is capable of producing 64PS@4000 RPM and 160Nm@2000 RPM.

The fully loaded XV Premium model gets 15 inch alloy wheels and body colored roof spoiler, which aren’t available on the petrols or the basic diesel variant.

Image – Nissan Micra diesel spotted during the inauguration of the Oragadam plant.

Click through to view the brochure

Update - Tata Motors has distributed a press release stating there is no recall. The company will however install safety features (described below) to interested customers, free of cost from the third week of November to make it “even more robust.”

click past the break to read the press release

In the wake of several Nanos catching fire, Tata Motors today said some Nano cars will be recalled and installed with necessary safety features to prevent them from going up in flames.

Tata Motors Managing Director ( India Operations) P M Telang -

Yes, customers have been informed. Some have been already recalled. We don’t know exactly how many vehicles will be recalled as we have to check how many Nanos have to be rectified.

Tata Motors Group CEO and Managing Director Carl-Peter Forster explained what these specific safety features were -

The company has taken up several corrective measures and will now offer cover tool on catalytic converter to prevent the car from catching fire. It will also install fuse in electrical components to avoid short circuits.

Earlier in the year, Tata Motors had studied the Nanos that were affected by fire and said they were stray incidents and had no manufacturing defects. They claimed the Nano was “absolutely safe”.

click through to read the press release

The Tata Venture low-cost van, which debuted at the Auto Expo, will be introduced during new year, sources have revealed to IAB.

The Venture van comes with a 1.4-liter turbocharged diesel engine and has been set afloat in Jaipur. The Venture van had been showcased at the Auto Expo this year and recently, it was spied testing in Pune.

The Venture along with the Magic, will be two essentially segment-creating spin-offs from the Ace platform. The third variant coming off the platform is Ace Zip, a load carrier application of the Magic Iris.

Many in-cabin components are lifted from the Indica Vista. Part of the Venture’s dashboard, the steering wheel, door locks are acquired from the Vista, while the engine comes from the Indica.

The Tata Venture passenger van based on the Super Ace’s platform with flexible seating arrangement accommodating 5, 7 or 8 people.

The Venture measures 3.9m in length, 1.5m in width and is 1.8m high. Two-tone beige interiors with roof-mounted blowers enhance the passenger-friendly cabin comfort. Some of the features like power windows, reverse parking aid, keyless entry with engine immobilizer, and rear wipers will impress family MPV buyers. The Venture isn’t brimming with safety features. Collapsible steering system and side impact beams don’t ensure vault-like safety, but at the price point of under 5 lakh rupees, you can’t expect everything.

We have been bringing you regular updates on the next generation Aveo siblings. We showed you the first pics of the Aveo hatch that was unveiled at the Paris Motor Show last month. We also showed you the leaked sketch of the Aveo sedan and now we bring you the first spyshots of what is the next generation Aveo sedan.

Caught highly camouflaged in an unidentified location the next gen Aveo seems to have grown in terms of size. The front looks just like the Hatch with the twin barrel headlamps, the split Chevy grille and the creases on the bonnet.

The side looks like the Cruze with a coupe like silhouette and the rear has tail lamps very similar to the Beat and the Aveo hatch.

Continuing the family look on the inside, the interior has bits and pieces from the Cruze, Beat and Aveo hatch with the V shape of the dash is predominantly visible.

The Aveo sedan is expected in India with a 1.3 liter Multijet diesel engine with VGT technology that pumps 95 BHP and will be locally produced. A 1.4 liter petrol engine and a 1.6 liter petrol engine with power output of 100 BHP & 116 BHP respectively is also expected.

The next gen Aveo sedan will be unveiled at next years North American International Auto Show and is expected to hit India in late 2011, before the hatch arrives in late 2012. It is a very crucial car for GM as the current Aveo siblings turned out to be a flop. This next gen Chevy should help the company make its presence felt in the C segment.

Stick around to IAB for more on the Aveo siblings.