Hardly a few days after exposing the front of the Chevrolet Tavera facelift, we show you a picture revealing its side profile and rear snagged by IndianAutosBlog fan Rituraj Dubey. In his note Rituraj said his 150bhp Cruze just managed to tail the speeding mule on the expressway outside Baroda.
The Tavera facelift, spied ahead of its Auto Expo unveiling, sports part-body graphics, redesigned alloy wheels and a special dual tone paint job. No visible changes to the luggage door and tail lamps hint this is a milder facelift than we first expected. Under the mildly revised body, there lies the bulk of changes. The 2.5-liter diesel engine from Isuzu has been traded in for a Sonalika-sourced 2-liter CRDI developing 100PS, controlled by an ECU sourced from electronic components supplier Continental.
GM India is expected to launch the updated Tavera in late February or early March.
Sources have told IndianAutosBlog.com that Volkswagen replaces the Touareg with the latest generation model during the Auto Expo. The second generation Touareg makes it to India almost two years after it was first shown. IAB readers have been served with spyshots of this model during its testing program in Pune. Many asked why Volkswagen did not bother removing the V6 TDI badge from the mules.
New Volkswagen Touareg caught on test by a Pune reader this year
In late June, we told you that the new Touareg is unlikely to come in the petrol-hybrid guise and the BlueMotion tag could be adopted on the diesel variant. The latest update we have received is that the new Touareg could be priced just below 42 lakh rupees. Current ex-showroom price of Touareg is over 50 lakh rupees.
Maruti will lift the curtains on the mini SUV concept at the Auto Expo next week. We already sensed that the concept was a close relative to the Jimny/Gypsy due to the familiar grille and the aging current generation model calling out for help.
Moreover Suzuki is unlikely to design a SUV to compete with the Scorpio, Safari or XUV500 as its strength lies in the compact car space. Though the Gypsy has left showrooms to serve the security forces, the direct descendent Jimny is alive and kicking in other markets.
Shoeb R Kalania used the trimmed teaser images to capture the essence of the concept and rendered his version sporting thin A-Pillars, narrow front-end, fat tires, large wing mirrors and a black interior. His argument that beige interiors can get soiled during off-road adventures is valid!
The Jimny/Gypsy is a low-priced off roader Maruti has neglected. On seeing the competition enter this segment, Maruti has finally woken up. The Auto Expo concept may turn things around for the good old Gypsy that is set for a comeback before the beginning of 2014.
Have you read Skoda’s ambitious plans for the next 5 years. If you think those plans were aggressive, you have no idea what the parent company is capable of. VW is thinking big, no actually, it is thinking MASSIVE. The German Czar plans to take over the world automotive market by 2018. Adding to that, the current CEO Martin Winterkorn believes that he can achieve the target sooner than expected.
VW is currently the third biggest auto manufacturer in the world having sold 7.14 million vehicles. It is trailing behind Toyota’s 8.42 million and GM’s 8.39 million. The group has said it aims to sell 10 million vehicles annually by 2018. I am sure you are tempted to know what is the blitzkrieg strategy Ze Germans are going to adopt this time.
Our friends at Car&Driver has exposed VW’s plans for world domination and here are some juicy details:
VW is going to adopt a three-way assault on the world automotive market.
US of A: Dethrone GM and Toyota from their fortress
- In 2011, VW is projected to sell about 300,000 vehicles here, up 40,000 from 2010 and up 100,000 from two years ago.
- The new Jetta is expected to account for 180,000, or more than half, of VW’s total sales this year.
- Made-in-America Passat will follow the Jetta. VW is preparing to sell about 100,000 of them here next year
- Chattanooga Plant has capacity to produce 150,000 vehicles per year which will be expanded to build up to 500,000; all for sale in the U.S. market.
- By 2013 or 2014, a 7 seat crossover built from VW’s upcoming ‘compact modular transverse’ architecture will debut with the next Audi A3 and VW Golf.
- With these new models, the group hopes to boost VW sales to 800,000 in the U.S. market by 2018 and reach 200,000 by Audi, Porsche, and its other luxury brands.
click through to read more
GM India was dormant in 2011. The company had no new launches to show. Sure, it presented the Beat Diesel/Electric/CNG and the Smartech engine but these are categorized as variants or upgrades. When it came to new models, Chevrolet was pretty much in ‘consolidation phase’.
However, Chevrolet is making super plans for 2012. Apart from the Beat and Spark, they have no mass market products in their portfolio. Their people mover Tavera was banished from the metro cities due to lack of BSIV compliance. So a facelifted Tavera is in the making which will use engines from ICML. Another people mover – Hong Guang MPV is expected to lock horns with the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, while the smaller diesel-engined HongTu is the Maruti Eeco’s nightmare.
However the MOST important segment in the Indian automotive scene is the B and C segments. Chevrolet’s existing contenders – the Aveo and Aveo U-VA went to high school with Stonehenge. Their replacement is coming in the form of the Sail twins.
The hatchback version of the Sail was spotted by a Team-BHP member with the handle siddhu_engg24 testing near Nashik. The Sail hatchback is powered by a 1.2L petrol engine and a 1.3L Smartech diesel to directly compete against Indica Vista, Maruti Swift and Volkswagen Polo.
The sedan version of the Sail was spotted first by IAB in a parking lot. It will go head to head with the Fiesta Classic, Maruti Dzire, Tata Manza et al.
However, Chevrolet has not opted to bring the Sonic twins to India as planned earlier. GM’s original plan was to land the Sonic sedan in early-to-mid 2011.
Do you think that the Sail twins will have a fighting chance against competition?
Maruti has updated us with a new image of the SUV concept set to debut at Pragati Maidan next week. Designers have cut out holes on the radiator grille leading to speculations of the concept previewing the next generation Jimny.
Maruti is a master of the small car game and it was only a matter of time before Maruti joined the bandwagon. The next step will be seeing it off to a production line and we’re sure by late 2013, this must take place. We expect the car to sit on an existing platform and make complete use of Swift parts.
Maruti had provided a glance of other angles of the SUV concept through tightly cropped pictures on its webpage. This is the first time a high resolution image is being circulated.
The 1.3-liter Fiat Multi-jet diesel engine is at their disposal and in the next couple of years the K Series engine range will spawn a wider number of spin-offs. Maruti can position the SUV between the new Dzire and the SX4.
Renault India has confirmed the showcasing of the mini SUV Duster at the Delhi Auto Expo on January 6. The Renault version of the Dacia Duster sports a revised center console, new alloy wheels, and a dash of chrome on its front-end.
Renault announced its plans to sell the 4×2 and 4×4 versions of the mini SUV in India in 2012 during an event in Delhi to handover keys to Fluence’s first fourteen customers. Renault officials had then stated two Dusters could be bought for the price of a Volkswagen Tiguan. The model reaching Auto Expo/India was premiered at the Buenos Aires Expo back in June.
The difference between the Koleos and the Duster is the latter will be localized heavily for a much lower price point. Renault will manufacture only RHD models at its Chennai plant and export it to the UK.
The other attraction will be the launch of the Pulse hatchback.
The age of the mini SUVs in India is dawning in a few days with the showcase of Duster, EcoSport and a Maruti concept at Pragati Maidan on the 5th and 6th of January 2012. Unconfirmed reports in the media talk about hungry Hyundai, aspiring to compete across segments, working out a compact SUV. We had SRK predict the outcome if such is the situation last month.
Mahindra’s S101 and S102 are in the pipeline to enter the same ring. Nissan is closely watching the performance of its alliance partner’s Duster to take a call on its participation. Honda’s staying mum, whether or not the Brio’s underpinnings is suitable for a sedan and SUV remains unanswered. Toyota’s third product on the Etios platform has to be either a MPV or an SUV. It has confirmed its interest in filling the gap left by the Qualis in the future.
Have we left out any important names?
Oh yes, Tata Motors!
The company that was once sitting pretty with Indica, Sumo, Safari and Indigo carlines is not having the best times since the competition decided to change gears. In the last two years, apart from the existing models that have changed clothes, the entry of Volkswagen, Ford and Nissan in the volumes segment has not made life easy for the Vista.
Hardly a few days after exposing the front of the Chevrolet Tavera facelift, we show you a picture revealing its side profile and rear snagged by IndianAutosBlog fan Rituraj Dubey. In his note Rituraj said his 150bhp Cruze just managed to tail the speeding mule on the expressway outside Baroda.
