Nissan India is keen to introduce a car below the Micra in India. The MD of Nissan Motor India, Mr. Kiminobu Tokuyama in an interview with BS Motoring has said that most of the volumes that are generated in India are from the segment that is below the Micra and therefore Nissan was keen on entering that space (for the full interview please proceed to bsmotoring.com). A few months ago, Autocar India had carried the news that Nissan is considering not one but two sub Micra cars for India and that these would be based on the older Micra platform. There also was some speculation that India could see the renaissance of the Datsun badge for these inexpensive cars.
Yearly Archives: 2011
The venerable Defender from Land Rover is probably the world’s most enduring vehicle with go anywhere capabilities and ease of maintenance and repair. It would be an understatement to say that the vehicle is now very long in the tooth. Land Rover seems to have decided to test the waters for a possible launch of a new Defender that has all the ingredients of the old one but will be more contemporary. Autocar in the UK has talked about a new concept being unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show and that this new concept is of Defender that is build on the Land Rover Discovery platform. Interesting news this.
The longer version of the Defender
The shorter version of the Defender
The new Defender concept. Picture Courtesy: Autocar India.com
Only a few days ago we had brought you the news that Hindustan Motors was readying a slew of products to be launched in the commercial vehicle space. One of the products mentioned was the Ambassador car based pick up. Hindustan Motors has actually launched the said vehicle with the name Veer. In the naming style, Hindustan Motors is following the lead of Ashok Leyland which has announced a pick up called the Dost. The Veer is a less than one tonne payload carrying vehicle. We see some problems here. The Veer has to compete with the Tata Ace, the Mahindra Maxximo, the Force Trump and the Piaggio Ape Truk. All vehicles mentioned as competition and the Veer are for the last mile transportation. In India typically the last mile transportation vehicle needs to be compact and very manoeuvreable and all the vehicles that the Veer will be competing with have that capability. The Veer by having the ponderous front end of the Ambassador car could lose out on the manoeuvreability front. In fact Mahindra once tried to take on the Tata Ace by creating the Max Pickup that was built on the old jeep platform and having a front end similar to the MM 540. The size ensured that the said vehicle was no match for the Tata Ace. That prompted Mahindra to make the Maxximo. Interesting enough in the same space, Hindustan Motors has another pick up called the Winner. So one wonders about the logic behind the launch of the Veer. Surely, Hindustan Motors know a thing or two that we do not know. There are two versions of the Veer; the first has the load bed separate from the front cabin and the second called the Veer LX has the load bed that is seamlessly integrated with the cabin.
Picture Courtesy: Autocar India.com
Garware Motors who are the importers and sellers of the Hyosung range of motorcycles currently sell the fully faired GT 650R and the cruiser style ST7. Garware have announced intentions of increasing the product range and the first step in that direction is likely to be the naked version of the GT 650R and this will be followed by the GT 250R, an earlier version of which was sold in India by the now defunct Kinetic Motor Company. The naked 650 is likely to be priced closer to the Kawasaki Ninja 650R and the GT 250R will be priced closer to the Kawasaki Ninja 250R rather than the Honda CBR 250R. The former is a parallel twin engine while the latter is a single cylindered one. The Hyosung 250 will be a V twin engine.
Hyosung GT250R
Hyosung 650 (Naked and new version)
General Motors has once again become the world’s largest seller of cars, dethroning Toyota who had dethroned them a few years back. General Motors did file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was bailed out by the Governments of the USA and Canada, but after that it has been rebuilding its reputation and has been launching products that have been well received. The Chevrolet label has brought them more buyers in newer markets with the Cruze and Spark (Beat in India) raking in the numbers. On the other hand Toyota has had a couple of misfortunes, one in the form of one of the biggest recall of cars for defect rectification but more significantly the hit its Japanese operations took due to the tsunami and the nuclear reactor melt down in March of this year. It remains to be seen how long GM can stay on the top this time.
Indian Autos Blog.com has posted a picture of the Mercedes Benz SLK (new generation) car. The picture has apparently been sent to them by a reader who chose to remain anonymous. According to IAB its price is likely to be around Rs. 61.99 lakhs and that the car will be available in black and red colours initially.
Pictures Courtesy: Indian Autos Blog.com
Indian Autos Blog.com is featuring pictures of the Audi Q3 undergoing testing in Mumbai. The car has been photographed by Suraj Arumugam who is the founder of Exotic and Supercars in India.
Pictures taken from: Indian Autos Blog.com
Autocar India.com is at it again. It has scooped pictures of the Toyota Etios Sedan with a diesel engine. Autocar India believes that the diesel powered Etios could be coming as soon as next month. According to Autocar India, the diesel engine that will go into the Etios is the same as the one that does duty in the Corolla Altis with one significant difference. While in the latter car the engine comes with variable geometry turbo charger that allows the engine to pump out 88 PS in the Etios it will come with a fixed geometry turbo charger and therefore the power out put is likely to be around 75 PS. Toyota intends to capitalize on the buying that usually happens around Dussehra and Deepavali.
Pictures Courtesy: Autocar India.com
Piaggio has been in India for sometime now. But it has only been manufacturing its Ape and Ape Truk range of vehicles that are primarily used for the last mile transport. After seeing the revival of the scooter market in India thanks primarily to Honda and its Activa scooter, Piaggio is now emboldened to launch the Vespa range of scooters in India. The Vespa is a house hold name in India, thanks first to the collaboration that Piaggio had with Bajaj and subsequently with LML and Andhra Pradesh Scooters which made the XE (100cc), 150 NV (with LML) and PL 170 (with Andhra Pradesh Scooters). Piaggio is apparently even thinking of looking at getting motorcycles in the premium segment in the country, though it is not looking at the commuter market. Piaggio owns Gilera (which makes both scooters and motorcycles), Aprilia and Derbi. The last is a Spanish marque. Interesting times ahead.
Hindustan Motors, the oldest car manufacturer in the country is trying to reinvent itself to become relevant to the present times. As a part of this effort, Hindustan Motors will be launching several new vehicles. However, it seems that most of them will be in the commercial vehicle space. Reports suggest that it is building a 7-8 seater passenger vehicle on the venerable Ambassador platform and a passenger vehicle of 7-8 seater capacity on the Winner platform to take on the Tata Ace Magic. A new pick up on the Ambassador platform for less than a tonne weight has also been developed . Apart from this the Mitsubishi range of vehicles will be refurbished and made more attractive. The sub four metre Ambassador however should be the most interesting. All HM has to do is to pull out the dies of the old Landmaster.
Picture courtesy: Autocar India.com