Indian Autos blog

Our friends at Maruti Suzuki sent us this TV commercial that will hit the small screens starting tomorrow.

According to Maruti Suzuki –

The TV Ad aims to celebrate the unique moments each Ritz owner has had in his car. Over 1 lakh Ritz models have been sold across the country and each owner has multiple memories attached to his car.

What do you think about it?

By Kaustubh Shinde

These days everyone wants to make a small car. If you don’t have a small car under your portfolio, you are nobody in the auto market.

A similar ambition has been undertaken by Fiat as the top boss Mr. Rajeev Kapoor earlier announced about an Alto competitor in works for 2012. In his speech he said -

“It will be an all-new car, nothing to do with any of our other models and will be priced aggressively. It will compete with the Alto and will have a one-litre engine. The new car will be an India-specific one, made in India, made for India, keeping in mind the country’s unique terrain and temperatures. Our R&D team is working day in and day out to develop the car that meets consumers’ needs in the best manner. The small car market in India is blazing and there is intense competition. The entry level car space excites us”

We are guessing this new model will borrow design cues from the new Uno, Punto and Panda. We can bet a million bucks that Fiat will drop a 900 cc Twin Air petrol motor under the bonnet. May be the higher variants will come with a 1L or a 1.2L engine including the 1.3-liter multi-jet diesel.

We have also spoken about the Project 326 which is the Palio revival, which Brazilian engineers are working on as we speak. Since we lack enough information on the India small car, we sense there is a possibility of the two being related, perhaps both are the same car.

Taking on the kingpin – The Maruti Alto is a tall order. After all, it has been the best seller since the dawn of time. Fiat engineers clearly have the work cut out for them.

Best of luck to you Fiat!

Unable to price the Micra aggressively, Nissan has understood that the only way to penetrate the Indian market is by developing another inexpensive compact car.

Nissan is working on this small car and the Indian wing is helping them complete the task. Earlier this year, Nissan held talks with Ashok Leyland for a car between the Bajaj-Nissan-Renault ULC and the Micra, but no headway was made.

As wheelosphere.org points out, Nissan could develop this mini car with another objective – Pixo replacement for Europe. The Pixo is the Maruti Suzuki A-Star wearing a Nissan badge. Maruti Suzuki agreed to supply Nissan Pixos till 2013. Beyond this point, Nissan might fill that void by manufacturing the next generation Pixo at its Oragadam plant in Chennai where the Micra is manufactured.

Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama, Managing Director & CEO, Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. (NMIPL) to Business Standard -

We plan to have a car below the Micra. We have a significant demand for this segment and we have been studying it. We are, at present, in the concept stage and studying customers

Rumor has it that Volkswagen expressed interest in cosmetically altering the A-Star to fill the product gap under the Polo for India. This might be another reason why Nissan could have chosen to look beyond the A-Star and its partnership with Maruti Suzuki for the future of the Pixo. Recently there were reports of a possible tie-up between Malaysian car maker Proton and Nissan, where the latter would provide its V-Platform to Proton for developing its small car for India.

In 2013, Nissan will manufacture the V-Platform MPV at Oragadam which might not be suited for the Indian market. Nissan will however introduce the NV200 MPV in India by 2012 under the Ashok Leyland-Nissan alliance.

Nissan’s third product for India, from Oragadam, instead of the V-platform MPV, could be the sub-Micra mini car which will serve dual purpose – take on the likes of the Maruti Alto and Hyundai HA here in India, and serve as the Pixo replacement in Europe and other parts of the world.

As we reported earlier, Chevrolet exhibited the Sail EV at the Guangzhou Auto Show in China last week.

Jointly-developed with the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), the Sail EV showcased is only a concept.

Design wise, the front-end gains inspiration from the Chevrolet Volt. There are turbine style wheels and flush door handles, atypical of a EV.

Power comes from a small electric motor that produces 87 hp and 220 Nm of toque. The Sail EV is able to accelerate to about 130kph and travel up to 150km in a single charge.

Kevin Wale – President and Managing Director of the GM China -

GM is committed to delivering a range of advanced propulsion technologies and offering a portfolio of solutions that will allow our customers to choose the vehicle that best meets their needs.

The Sail EV isn’t approved for production but there is a strong possibility of it arriving in India next year in the prototype form. GM India has said it will display a concept EV in April 2011.

Recently, the British government revealed the list of 9 electric cars that are eligible to receive subsidies of up to £5,000 under a plan to promote low-carbon transport and the Vista EV made it to the list!

The idea is to promote electric vehicles by offering the cay buyers cash back of £5,000 towards the purchase of a low-carbon car from January 2011 to the end of March 2012. The government has promised to dole out £43 million until the end of March 2012 just to make sure that car buyers are attracted towards electric vehicles that are emission free.

The other vehicles on the list include Mitsubishi’s iMiEV, Daimler’s Smart fortwo electric drive, Peugeot’s iON, Citroen’s CZero, the Nissan Leaf, the Toyota Prius Plug-in, Vauxhall’s Ampera and General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt.

To go one step further, the UK government is also investing 20 million pounds to set up local charging points for 5 regions – the Midlands, Greater Manchester, East England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Indian Autos Blog already presented pictures of the facelifted Suzuki SX4 in the form of spyshots. At the Guangzhou Auto Show this week, it made its debut with significant changes.

There’s no change under the hood of the SX4. After the VW-Suzuki partnership was announced last year, many of us felt TDI engines would feature on the sedan and hatch, but that isn’t the case. Perhaps the next generation SX4 could receive some of the smaller VW group powertrains. The Swift and the Kizashi could also feature VW powertrains at a much later date.

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If one German does something new, of course the rivals are going to follow suit. Recently we brought the all new BMW 3 Series and walla! Mercedes strikes with the 2012 Class.

If you have a look at the pic above, you can easily notice that this is just a modest facelift. One can easily make out the detailing of the outgoing car. A few touches from the elder sister –The E class, have also been borrowed near the head lamps. The designer hasn’t really bothered with the rear of the car.

Where major changes have taken place is under the hood. Mercedes has introduced a 4 cylinder; direct-injected 1.8-liter turbocharged engine that produces 201 horsepower. The top model gets a 3.5-liter V6 with 302 hp. There are 3 diesel engines as well with power ranging from 136 hp to 204 hp. Mercedes say that the new engines provide 15% better fuel economy.

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Here is a small exercise that you can do just for fun. Walk up to your friend or colleague and appreciate something that he/she is wearing. It can be anything – clothes, shoes, watch etc. The instant reply will be – “Oh! This is ‘X’ brand and I bought it from ‘Y’ place”. This is called ‘the Badge game’ which is based on a simple principle – People (me included) love to flaunt. Pricey badges are totally ‘IN’. Offices, Colleges, Parties etc are the arenas and if you can’t play the ‘Badge Game’ you are nobody.

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