Everybody knows that when it comes to diesel engine technology, especially in smaller cubic capacities, Fiat is king. The 1.3 litre multijet engine that Fiat made has been the staple for many car manufacturers such as Maruti, Tata and GM in India. Suzuki has realized that the future is tending to lean more and more towards diesel engines and has therefore decided to buy the rights to making the 1.6 litre diesel engine for its bigger cars that will come out from 2013 onward. It is well known that Suzuki does not have the know how to make good diesel engines.
Yearly Archives: 2011
The huge success of the Figo in India can be attributed to the frugal and efficient diesel engine that Ford has been able to make for the car. Ford has now decided that diesel is the way forward what with petrol prices reaching the three digit mark. Diesel is still highly subsidized and therefore it is much more affordable than petrol. Ford has the good fortune of having the technology to make good diesel engines and therefore has decided that it will focus more upon diesel engines in the future. Good thinking.
The humble Figo has been the block buster that Ford India has been looking for since 1999. The Figo thanks to good engineering and a frugal diesel engine has been able to sell in numbers that have surprised even Ford. In just about a year of launch the car sold more than one lakh units and Ford in order to celebrate has decided to undertake a pan India Yatra with the Figo.
The PSA group of France manufacturer of Peugeot and Citroen cars have decided to come back to India after its failed joint venture with Premier Automobiles Ltd. This time around like their compatriot Renault, the company has decided to come on its own steam. For sometime now the company has been scouting for locations to set up its manufacturing plant with Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh having been shortlisted. The PSA group had announced that they would wait for the elections in Tamil Nadu to be over and a new government installed before taking a decision and that was a dead give away of their interest in Tamil Nadu. Now that a new government is in place, it appears that things have gone to the satisfaction of the PSA group and they have decided to set up their plant at Sriperambudur where there are several others such as Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Daimler India, Renault-Nissan, HM and Mahindra. This is yet another instance of Andhra Pradesh losing out on getting an automobile factory. Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India evinced interest only to go to Karnataka and at one time BMW showed interest only to go to Chennai. Volkswagen was involved in a scam and went to Maharashtra. Only Royal Enfield seems to have set up a plant apart from the old Allwyn Nissan plant which was taken over by Mahindra.
One can say without too much doubt that Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have been the two states that attracted the most number of automobile manufacturers. However Gujarat and Karnataka are also emerging as manufacturing destinations. Honda Motorcycles and Scooters has announced that it will be setting up its next plant in Karnataka, while Toyota is already there. In Gujarat, apart from GM at Halol, Tata have their Nano plant in Sanand and it is being said that Maruti Suzuki and Ford have evinced setting up new plants in this state. The latest news now is that Hero Honda or Hero MotoCorp now, is interested in setting up a plant either in Karnataka or Gujarat. Will Hero set up a factory near that of its erstwhile collaborator Honda? Only time will tell.
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa who has had to miss a few GPs thanks to an injury sustained at the French GP at Le Mans will make his return to racing at the hallowed Mugello circuit for the Grand Prix of Italy in the MotoGP category. Pedrosa was in the hunt for the MotoGP title till he was torpedoed by Marco Simoncelli at Le Mans and broke his right clavicle that required a couple of surgeries to be set right. Pedrosa is no longer in the hunt for the world title but one assumes that he is fired up to win races.
The MotoGP Grand Prix of Italy which will be held at the famous Mugello circuit will see the absence of veteran Italian rider Loris Capirossi who was badly injured with a couple of broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder after his crash at Assen last weekend. Capirossi who rides for the Pramac Ducati team has not recovered sufficiently to take part in a race and hence will not figure on the grid this weekend.
Genius designer of Formula1 cars Adrian Newey, who has made the Red Bull Racing car unbeatable even though it is powered by the Renault engine which is claimed to be nearly 80 PS down on the engines from Mercedes and Ferrari, has said that Volkswagen/Audi were to blame for the imbroglio that recently surrounded the new engine formula for F1. Newey has said that Volkswagen/Audi first said that they would be interested in F1 only if a four cylinder turbo engine would be interested only to walk away even after the formula was supposedly adopted by the FIA. Newey has said that a V6 engine is more true blue racing engine and can be packaged better in an F1 car and so is happy with the new regulations that will come into force from 2014 thanks to VW/Audi not entering the sport.
The new Fluidic Verna from Hyundai is attracting people to the Hyundai dealerships in droves. Since the launch of the vehicle, Hyundai says it has garnered more than twenty thousand booking for the vehicle that not only looks stunning but also offers more engine and trim options than the competition does. While this is good news for Hyundai, it is not so for the other ‘H’ Honda whose City competes with the Verna has been seeing a fall in sales. Volkswagen may also not have it all easy now with the Verna offering not one but two diesel engine options. Interesting times these.
Motorbeam.com is reporting that after the introduction of the diesel version of the Chevrolet Beat, GM will shift its attention to the SUV Captiva. The Captiva will feature a prominent facelift which brings the face inline with what GM has been giving to other Chevrolets with a prominent split grille. Motorbeam is also claiming that there may be engine tweaks for better performance and efficiency.