Burnyourfuel.com has reported that Maruti is seriously contemplating opening a design centre of its own for future product development instead of relying on parent company Suzuki for everything. Maruti Suzuki India has an ambitious plan of designing brand new cars from ground up and to take this process forward may open a design centre of its own in Rohtak which is very near the National Capital Region and Gurgaon where Maruti’s manufacturing plants are.
Yearly Archives: 2011
After the resounding success of the Figo, Ford has become gung ho about India. India has now been made a part of the One Ford strategy which Alan Mullaly has created for it and as per this strategy all the markets will have the same Ford products. As a part of this the new Ford Fiesta is coming to India. Ford has now decided to invest $72 million in its engine plant in India to make it a sourcing hub for other markets as well. So Ford’s made in India diesel engines could find their way into cars in other parts of the world. Good news indeed.
It was announced sometime ago that Ferrari had appointed the Shreyans group as their India dealers. The Shreyans group is also dealing with Porsche and Ducati and also has been chosen by Maserati as their Indian dealer. Ferrari’s first India showroom and store will be at New Delhi and will be inaugurated on the 26th of May, 2011. The second showroom will be in Mumbai and will take sometime before is inaugurated.
It appears as if Skoda India is planning an SUV which will cost less than Rs. 10 lakh. The Yeti which is a smallish SUV but commanding a price which is nearly Rs. 15 lakh has not been seen as a value for money product and therefore the response to it from the Indian customer has been less than enthusiastic. Skoda India is therefore planning an SUV that will cost less than Rs. 10 lakh and offer the feeling that it is value for money. The grapevine doing the rounds suggests that this could be based on the Fabia platform and be akin to the Fabia Scout that has been seen testing around Pune. Needless to say it will have to have underpinnings different from the Scout to make it an SUV.
The web space is abuzz with the news that Hero Honda Motors will drop the Honda name after the recent split between the two companies. Hero has bought out the Honda share and what remains now is a technical arrangement between the two companies till 2014. Hero will have to pay royalties to Honda for every bike or scooter sold. There has been news that Hero has hired services of internationally renowned branding firms and that by June this year Hero would unveil its new identity. It appears as if Hero has zeroed in on Hero Moto. However what is still not clear is how this branding will be exercised. Will their products carry Hero Moto as in Hero Moto Karizma or Hero Moto Passion or will it be Hero Moto Limited as the name of the company and the products becoming brands in themselves? The coming weeks should clarify all.
It has emerged that the Indian F1 GP organizers have roped in Indian telecommunications giant Airtel which has operations in 19 countries in Africa and Asia as the title sponsor for the Indian GP for the next five years. While this is great news for the proposed GP there are still all kinds of rumours circulating about the circuit ranging from “the circuit will not be completed in time for the race” to “local unrest over the Buddh(a) International Circuit encroaching on to a temple land as also a cremation ground”. However, the organizers have mentioned that the circuit will be ready much before the date of the race and that there will be no problems from anyone and that the GP will be conducted smoothly and efficiently.
Adrian Sutil, the Force India Formula1 team driver was in the news recently over an unsavoury incident which apparently saw him physically assault on Eric Lux, the CEO of Genii Capital, the concern that now owns and runs the Lotus Renault team. This incident took place at a night club in Shanghai in China. It has now emerged that Eric Lux has decided to initiate criminal proceeding against Sutil for physical assault and causing grievous injury. Sutil’s spokesperson has however said that should Lux press charges then, Sutil will do everything in his power to clear his name. The Force India team has clarified that as yet there is no reason to believe that this incident will have any consequences for Sutil’s place in the team.
This year is the 50th anniversary of Yamaha in racing. However, the departure of Valentino Rossi from the team and him being replaced by Ben Spies who is not a high profile rider along with the easy to dislike Jorge Lorenzo, has resulted in the team not having a title sponsor. Yamaha is now funding its own operations completely. However, the team has taken this opportunity to use its own colours and now it has shown a new livery which celebrates its fifty years in racing. This livery will be used at Assen and Laguna Seca and feature a red and white scheme. The bike looks gorgeous and has been praised by everyone including Spies and Lorenzo.
HRC or Honda Racing Corporation which runs Honda’s MotoGP operations had in the past conducted a shakedown of next year’s bike which incorporates a 1,000cc engine instead of the 800cc that it uses presently. But at that event none of the GP riders were there. Casey Stoner has now become the first rider to test the new for next year bike. Usually it is Honda’s long time rider who gets the chance to do such things, but due to his injury this year the responsibility seems to have fallen on Stoner.
Fausto Gresini the owner of team Gresini that runs Marco Simoncelli on a factory spec Honda has sprung to his riders defence. He has acknowledged that Simoncelli was at fault for what happened at Le Mans but believes that Simoncelli does not deserve the amount of flak that he has been getting. Alberto Puig the Saturnine mentor of Dani Pedrosa was very vocal in his criticism of Simoncelli. Gresini has reminded Puig that Dani Pedrosa had taken out Nicky Hayden in 2006 when the latter was leading the race and the World Championship and has said that things such as these can and do happen in racing. Puig is not the most popular person anywhere and probably deserved the dressing down.