Jaguar Land Rover, now a Tata Motors owned company, is planning to shift gears at the Frankfurt Motor show. Each brand is planning to bring something new at the motorshow. More so, each company will put these models in production in the near future.
Let’s start with Jaguar. Jaguar is expected to reveal a new sports car in concept. Rumor has it that it will be a small sport car below the XK. It will be the show stopper from Jaguar and will directly compete against the Porsche Boxter.
The car could be potentially named the XE and will be powered by V6 petrol engines, boosted by turbochargers. However, there could also be a XF station wagon that the market is waiting for since a long time. Only time will tell what is this secret leaping cat.
Let’s move on to Land Rover. This brand is even more ambitious than its sister. Land Rover is planning to display a concept that will be the modern day Defender.
The current Defender dates to 1983 and is a direct descendant of the original 1948 Land Rover Series. So you can imagine how desperately the brand needs to rejig the Defender. The new Defender could be based in the LR3 chassis. The company wants the new defender to score a bigger slice of the utility market.
Back home, there are good chances that the XE will be launched considering its bigger sister XK is already in the market. However, Tata Motors is mum about bring the Defender brand in India.
WhatCar reports that Skoda will bring a concept bigger than Fabia to the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. In the production form, the hatchback will sit between the Fabia and Octavia. Besides this, Skoda will unveil the Vento-based Rapid to the global audience expected to hit our market next year.
Above the Fabia there’s a wide open space. There’s no model, in India and internationally between the Fabia and the Laura (branded Octavia in Europe) which is based on the previous-generation VW Golf except for the Roomster.
As the Laura is roomy and big vehicle, a smaller car is in need. The Rapid and the XL hatch will sit at two different points between 6-12 lakh rupees.
We hope Skoda doesn’t bring out a Laura hatchback as that won’t make any sense for India, a key market for Skoda. A source has told WhatCar that the concept car is about 85% production-ready meaning it will be similar to the Etios concept – nothing drastic will change or leave when it turns into a real-world car.
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Hyundai has announced that it is bringing a i10 Electric Vehicle to the Frankfurt Show next month. Specifications of the EV is unavailable but the car plays a major role in the company’s mission to be in the top four largest green car makers.
Hyundai is working on hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and it hopes within two to three years it will begin selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in the United States.
Hyundai is already working on a EV based on the i2o and a more fuel efficient engine for the i10 is waiting behind the curtain.
Autobild India carried a photoshop mock-up last month of the upcoming new small car from Ford for India and similar markets. The new small car as we reported earlier, will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September with a 1.2-liter petrol and 1.4-liter diesel engine.
The new small car from Ford could be named Splash in India. It is certain that the company has used an older generation Ford Fiesta platform to base this car which will begin at around 3 lakh rupees. The new small car shares components with the existing Fiesta, like the A.C vents, door handles among other small items.
This rendering is not very convincing but it does its job of reminding us of a new and stylish SUV, which is heading our way. The ix35/Tucson is looking good from all the spy shots so far, Indians unfazed by the Japanese SUVs will find this Korean high spirited with its trademark “i” looks and flair.
The Frankfurt Motor Show will host the production version of the Hyundai ix35/Tucson. We’ve spoken about it in detail in previous occasions.
Spy photographers are unnecessary if you look at what Simon Gregg, a follower of Car Magazine has just caught on his cam- That’s right, he snapped a production model of the 4-door Aston in a parking lot without ANY camouflage. Take a bow Simon.
The car spied here could be one of the final prototypes before the actual car is shown at the Frankfurt Motor show in mid-September. The naked prototype finished in black, has its interiors soaked in red.
Poised to take on the 4-seat-4-door contenders like the stylish Porsche Panamera and the Mercedes Benz CLS, the Rapide is fitted with a 6.0-liter V12 engine that makes 470bhp and 600Nm of torque. Power will be directed to the rear wheels through a six-speed ZF automatic transmission with Aston’s Touchtronic control.
The Aston Martin Rapide will arrive at showrooms around the globe in 2010. Don’t expect it to cost any less than $200,000.
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Now that the production of the F430 is over, Ferrari can fully focus on the replacement car, the Ferrari F450, which is expected to debut this fall at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The newest set of shots confirms the presence of a diffuser. The Ferrari F450 will be laid out on a wider track.
The F450 will make use of a modified F430′s chassis and body. Codenamed F142, the 4.5-liter V8 engine that produces 585 horsepower, which is more than the outgoing car. Power transfer is performed through the open-top California’s double-clutch gearbox.
The controversial Kinetic Energy Recovery System could be lifted from Ferrari’s Formula 1 pit garage for the F450, which is yet to be confirmed. The KERS system accumulates energy from the wheels during braking.
An official announcement has arrived from BMW that the 3 Series GT, inspired by the larger 5 Series GT is heading to the Frankfurt Motor Show which happens in September. The 3 Series GT will carry the design cues of the 2012 BMW 3 Series as well.
