Piaggio has been India for sometime now making the three wheeled cargo version of the Ape and also the passenger version. While the passenger version is less seen, the cargo version is more easily visible especially in urban areas. Piaggio has launched the Ape Truk, which is a four wheeled version of the Ape or a quadricycle to take on competition from the Tata Ace. Force Motors too had to do the same launching the Trump on the originally three wheeled Minidor. After Tata launched the passenger version of the Ace as the Magic Ace the competition has felt the heat and Force Motors has launched passenger version of the Trump and Mahindra has launched the Maxximo in both passenger and cargo versions. Piaggio does not want to be left behind so it is launching a four wheeled passenger version of the Ape Truk. But it will be a while before the product hits the market place.
Yearly Archives: 2011
Bajaj Auto Chairman Rahul Bajaj has said that Bajaj will only make a load carrier on the ULC platform. He opined that the Renault-Nissan alliance will make a car on the same platform and sell it under whatever brand name they wished to sell. Renault however has said that it has not come to any conclusion about the proposed low cost car and will do so only if they feel that it meets the norms of being a proper car. In the recent past Rajiv Bajaj the MD of Bajaj Auto has said that this platform is a four wheeler or a quadricycle and if that is the case it is unlikely that it will meet the norms of a proper car. A quadricycle is when an extra wheel is attached to a three wheeler platform. Bajaj makes the ubiquitous autorickshaw and it is believed that the ULC platform is nothing but an additional wheel attached to the autorickshaw platform.
In spite of being in India for almost a decade longer than BMW and Audi, Mercedes Benz has been feeling the heat from its competitors, especially BMW that has overtaken Mercedes Benz convincingly in sales. One of the reasons has been BMW’s pricing strategy. To counter this Mercedes Benz has decided to increase sourcing from Indian vendors for key components and bring its prices down significantly. Audi however only has a CKD assembly operation and may therefore not be in a position to join any price wars, at least not yet.
The qualifying for tomorrow’s GP of France at Le Mans has unsurprisingly thrown up Casey Stoner on pole. Through out free practices Stoner has demonstrated that he is the man to beat this weekend. Super Sic has shown speed yet again in qualifying to finish second on the grid while Andrea Dovizioso managed to get ahead of team mate Daniel Pedrosa to finish third while Pedrosa finished fourth. Lorenzo will start fifth while rookie Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow will start in sixth ahead of factory rider Ben Spies and team mate Colin Edwards. Valentino Rossi could only manage ninth after reaching a high of only sixth in the one hour qualifying. His team mate Nicky Hayden will start from tenth.
Aston Martin has released a teaser of its much talked about collaboration with Milanese design house Zagato. Aston Martin is celebrating the 50th anniversary year of the DB4GT Zagato by unveiling this new concept at the Villa D’Este Concours on 21st May 2011. The Aston Martin will have the good company of the Ferrari Super America 45, a one off custom by Pininfarina, and various other concepts and classics.
via Autoblog
Press Release
ASTON MARTIN ANNOUNCES NEW COLLABORATION WITH ZAGATO
– Aston Martin and Zagato reunited for a new project in the 50th anniversary year of the DB4GT Zagato
– First outcome of the new collaboration to debut at the Villa D’Este concours in Italy from 21st May
– Aston Martin and Zagato first collaborated on the DB4GT Zagato; later debuted in race car form at Goodwood in 1961
Wednesday 11th May: Gaydon. Aston Martin announces an exciting new collaboration with renowned Italian design house Zagato in the 50th anniversary year of the iconic DB4GT Zagato. The first product of this renewed working partnership will be shown for the first time at the famous Villa D’Este Concours on 21st May 2011, with a racing debut at Nürburgring later in the month.
Aston Martin and Zagato have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship since their first collaboration which culminated in the production of the now iconic DB4GT Zagato 50 years ago.
Dr. Ulrich Bez, Chief Executive said: “The DNA of both Aston Martin and Zagato has combined successfully to make some of the world’s most desirable collector cars in the past and in this special anniversary year of the DB4GT Zagato it is appropriate to explore a modern collaboration.
“Now is the right time for a new Aston Martin Zagato and in combining our design intelligence I think we can create something fitting of the iconic DB4GT Zagato that has gone before and since established itself as one of the most famous Aston Martins of all time.”
Work on the new Aston Martin Zagato collaboration is well under way with an initial concept to be presented at the Villa D’Este Concours in May to gauge initial customer reaction with a view to a production car following in 2012.
Aston Martin Design Director, Marek Reichman added: “Our designers are able to collaborate with a broad spectrum of organisations and individuals to seek new and exciting ideas and inspiration due to Aston Martin’s independency.
“Working with Zagato again in 2011 is inspirational for the team – certainly DB4GT Zagato is one of my favourite ever designs as it is with many of the designers in our studio. We can create a truly modern Aston Martin interpretation which stays true to the historical routes of the relationship with Zagato.”
The first partnership between Aston Martin and Zagato came to fruition in 1961 after Aston Martin sought to remove even more weight from the very special DB4GT. In the search of an ever lighter and higher performance version, Aston Martin approached Zagato, a company renowned for such projects. Managing Director, Elio Zagato and Technical Director Gianni Zagato along with a talented team managed to draft the main designs of the DB4GT Zagato in just one week.
After previewing the car late in 1960 at the London Motor Show to great acclaim, Aston Martin began taking orders from customers and production of this exclusive car began in 1961. Of the original 19 DB4GT Zagato built, all still survive and are held in pride of place within some of the worlds greatest car collections. The first car built and used to unveil to the public was later was raced extensively beginning with its debut at Goodwood in 1961.
Of all of the DB4GT Zagatos, three were built to a lightweight racing specification designated within Aston Martin as DP209 (Design Project Number). Among these were perhaps the two most famous DB4 GT Zagatos, ordered by the Essex Racing Stable and registered as ‘1 VEV’ and ‘2 VEV’. These cars were raced successfully by great names such as Jim Clark and Roy Salvadori. In tribute to this racing heritage the product of this great partnership in 2011, 50 years on, will be campaigned in endurance racing, commencing at the Nürburgring on 28th May.
25 years after this first collaboration between Aston Martin and Zagato the two companies joined forces again in 1986 to design and build a limited number of the V8 Vantage Zagato and then later the V8 Zagato Volante. The former of the two cars, based upon the highly acclaimed V8 Vantage, was heralded as one of the most dynamic Aston Martins offering performance figures of 0-60mph in 4.8 seconds and a top speed of 186mph (300 kph).
A more recent project took place with the design and production of the DB7 Zagato. Launched to the world at the Paris Motor Show in 2002 with production following in 2003; 99 examples were built for sale with number 100 kept by Aston Martin. Further to the announcement of the DB7 Zagato a great deal of interest was shown by customers in the USA for a version suited specifically to the climates of Florida and California and thus the collaboration extended to an identical number of DB-AR1 (American Roadster 1) being produced. Similar in styling to the DB7 Zagato but built as a pure two-seat roadster with no roof the DB AR1 answered this demand perfectly.
50 years on from the first meeting of the two companies the new collaboration from Aston Martin and Zagato will be shown for the first time at the Villa D’Este Concours held on the shores of Lake Como Italy on Saturday 21st May 2011.
In the first two practices of the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner was unstoppable. He set the fastest times by a fair margin and in the second free practice Super Sic or Marco Simoncelli tried to reach Stoner’s times but failed. Meanwhile Stoner’s best friend in the MotoGP paddock, Valentino Rossi who is still taming the Ducati set fifth fastest and ninth fastest times in the free practice one and two respectively. But the off track rivalry continued with Rossi having called the new generation youngsters pussies (we would have thought sissies was a better word, but Valentino Rossi’s English is far from good) sometime ago. J-Lo (no,no,no, not her) did not know the meaning of pussy and it was translated for him as kid and he said something stupid anyway. When Rossi’s riding cannot do the talking his mouth certainly does. And Jorge Lorenzo (our very own J-Lo) is good on the bike and also with his mouth. Its just that those antics are unbearable.
Hyundai’s new movement called “Fluidic Sculpture” has resulted in aesthetically pleasing cars. It all started with the New Sonata which put this design language to good use and has percolated to the new Verna as well. In India even the i10 has seen the front of the car use the new design language in the form of an upgrade. Hyundai had recently unveiled the estate version of a new car the i40 and now at the Barcelona Motor Show, Hyundai has revealed the sedan version of the same. The car looks gorgeous and some say that in India it will slot into the position that was supposed to be taken by the Elantra which bombed in the market here. That is pure speculation and there is no specific reason to believe that this car is headed for India. The Sonata which is also called i45 is only marginally bigger than the i40 so Hyundai may have to decide between the two. But Hyundai is known to have confounded market analysts, so maybe bothcome to India. Now this is greed, but we don’t mind being greedy.
Suzuki had launched the newer and bigger Swift in Europe sometime back. The Swift has been received rather well in all the markets that it was offered. So when the time came to offer a new model, Suzuki played it safe by creating a new Swift that looked like the outgoing model but was bigger and classier, a strategy that has paid of in Europe. Suzuki has been showing the Swift in different ways in different auto shows. Now Suzuki has shone the Swift in a two tone colour format with the roof essentially being white coloured. This strategy is taking a leaf out of Mini’s own strategy which did something similar. If only Suzuki had called this Bicolore in Italian, it would have sounded like music.
Honda makes more engines in the world than anyone else. Honda is known to make bullet proof, silky smooth and very fuel efficient petrol engines but does not have too many diesel engines in its range. In fact, Honda is vociferously anti diesel. This attitude is attributed to its pride as an independent thinking company that does not follow trends but sets them. In fact in Europe where diesel engines have a wide acceptability Honda found itself on the back foot and therefore made one diesel engine of 2.2 litre capacity. This engine finds use in the Accord and CR-V in Europe. In India, Honda refused to be drawn into making diesel powered cars. In fact, there were some reports about a year ago that Honda will ditch the diesel engine even in Europe and will look at hybrids to replace it. These reports were never confirmed. Now in India, with the advent of European players (read that as Volkswagen and its group company Skoda) and the Korean Hyundai diesel engines of the latest technology have found their way into cars and into the hearts of the Indian people who love the fuel economy they offer and also the lesser price that they have to pay for the fuel. Ford, GM, Fiat and Tata have long been offering diesel cars. Even Maruti uses the multijet diesel engine from Fiat in its Swift, Dzire, Ritz and the SX4 cars. However none of them have the brand value to that Honda has and therefore in spite of possessing great diesel engines they have not been able to make a dent in the sales of Honda’s bread and butter model, the City. The arrival of Volkswagen has been the game changer in India. VW is perceived of as an up market brand and its Vento which is the direct competitor of the City comes with diesel power and has been selling more than the City for the past couple of months. Now Honda has realized that there is no getting away from diesel engines in India and has officially said that it will make diesel engines for the City. However that will only happen sometime in 2013. Is this a case of reacting a little too late? Skoda will introduce the Rapid sedan which has the same underpinnings of the Vento and will have the same engines as well. The competition is hotting up for Honda and we think it needs a diesel engine quicker than 2013.
Bajaj Auto through its fully owned company Bajaj Holdings NV has been buying shares from the open market of KTM the world renowned motorcycle manufacturer. As of the year 2007 Bajaj held a little over 14% of KTM and till recently had grown to a little over 38%. Now Bajaj Holdings has bought more shares to increase its percentage by 1.21% to over 39%. However, CROSS the main company behind KTM, has said that it will not dilute its stake to less than 51% and that it will continue to be the main holder of KTM. Bajaj however plans to increase its stake continually to get a controlling interest in the company.