Bike India’s website is saying so. A few days ago we carried the news that Hero Honda could become Hero Moto in the future. Now according to Bike India it appears that this is indeed the final name. Hero Honda has applied to the Registrar of Companies for a change of name to Hero Moto and Bike India says that the process will take up to two months before the name can finally be changed.
Yearly Archives: 2011
There are reports on various automobile websites that Tata is likely to introduce an engine stop-start system if the vehicle is at a stand still. Mahindra introduced this system in their Scorpio and gave it the fancy name of micro hybrid. Tata it is said is interested in using this system in the Nano to make it more fuel efficient and less polluting. The system works on the principle of switching the engine off if the car is standing still and the engine starts with the depressing of the accelerator. In India’s stop and go traffic this is probably a terrible idea.
Autocar India says that it is possible that the inaugural F1 GP of India will be postponed to the 4th of December in order to accommodate the GP of Bahrain in case it is reinstated on the calender this year. The 3rd of June is the date when a decision on Bahrain will be taken and that is when the dates of both GPs would be known. If the Indian GP does get postponed it will be the season finale.
Fernando Alonso has surprisingly signed a five year deal with Ferrari that will see him racing for the prancing horse team till the end of 2016. It is surprising because it is unusual for both driver and team to commit over such a long duration. But both the parties seem happy so who are we to wonder?
The battered and bruised Daniel Pedrosa has had to undergo yet another surgery on the right clavicle that he broke in last week’s French GP at Le Mans. Pedrosa was punted out by Marco Simoncelli during the race. The next race at Catalunya is under three weeks time and Pedrosa would want to be fit by then to keep his challenge for the championship alive in the year in which Honda has finally got the better of its competitors.
Yeah, but then who wants to buy it? That is a very big question. During the early 1970s when the Innocenti company of Italy shut shop for good, the dies and designs owned by the company were bought over by the Indian Government under the Prime Ministership of Indira Gandhi. Innocenti were the manufacturers of the renowned Lambretta line of scooters that were as popular as Vespa scooters from Piaggio. Like most European manufacturers Innocenti just could not withstand the Japanese onslaught and therefore the closure. Innocenti had previously licenced the Lambretta brand name and certain models of scooter under it to Automotive Products of India. The Government of India created a new company called Scooters India Limited and manufactured newer models of the Lambretta line up under the Vijai brand. The scooter was first sold as Vijai Deluxe and later on as Vijai Super. Scooters India Limited licenced the manufacture of this scooter to Karnataka Scooters Limited who sold it under the brand name of Falcon and also to Andhra Pradesh Scooters Limited (a part of the State Govt owned Hyderabad Allwyn) who first sold the scooter as Vijai Pushpak and subsequently as Allwyn Pushpak. Karnataka Scooters signed an agreement with BSA of England to manufacture under licence the BSA GT 50 which was sold in India as the BSA Falcon GT 50. Karnataka Scooters later on sold out to Brooke Bond of India who called it the BSA Bond GT 50. The bike was a almost styled like a motocross bike and featured a monoshock arrangement at the back and featured a high strung engine that wailed and howled as the revs climbed up. This bike bombed in the market and that was the end of the company that started as Karnataka Scooters Limited. The other company Andhra Pradesh Scooters Limited took advantage of the fact that the Government of India opened up some more licences for two wheeler manufacture. It entered into a collaboration with Piaggio to make the PVX model of Piaggio and called it the Vespa PL 170 with the PL standing for pay load and the 170 for 170 kg. Though the scooter was well received initially it bombed later especially since Lohia Machines Limited (later on just LML) also manufactured a Vespa in collaboration with Piaggo and called it the Vespa XE. Though both scooters were of a hundred cc the XE was a bigger scooter and the puny looking PL 170 was seen as no competition. Finally Andhra Pradesh Scooters shut down along with Hyderabad Allwyn. Through all this Scooters India Limited persisted. It tried making the Lambretta Cento a 100cc scooter and also the Vikram three wheeler based on Lambretta three wheelers. While the scooters disappeared the three wheelers have continued selling in Lucknow and other areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. SIL is based in Lucknow. Every once in a while there has been talk of reviving or selling the company but nothing has happened either way. The company has accumulated losses and a big workforce so it is difficult to see who will want to buy this. A couple of years ago there were rumours that Piaggio would buy the company but nothing has happened on that front.
This is one question that is truly confounding us. We read reports that the KTM Duke 125cc which was developed by KTM and Bajaj will be launched in India by the end of the year. Then there were reports that said that the bike in its 125cc guise will be too small and too expensive for a market like India so India will get a 200cc version of the bike. Then again reports say that it is going to be 125cc only. The usually garrulous Rajiv Bajaj does not have much to say about this. There are a couple of things to consider here. Irrespective of the cubic capacity the bike which is supposed to have been jointly developed by KTM (in which Bajaj has a marginally over 39% share) and Bajaj in India and that which is being manufactured in India by Bajaj, should not have a high list price. That is supposed to be the advantage of doing things in India. But all reports suggest that this bike will be expensive. If that is true then the bike will have a difficulty selling because KTM is not a big name in India. But again all this speculation. We reserve our judgement till the time the specs and the price are announced.
We recently reported that the R3 concept that Maruti unveiled at the Auto Expo 2010 was going to make into production. On the back of that comes the news that a production version of the R3 will be shown by Maruti at the next Auto Expo in January, 2012. The R3 uses a stretched platform of the SX4 car and will have three rows of seating but will be smaller in length than the Toyota Innova.
Scania has been in India from the year 2007 mainly with Larsen and Toubro, selling heavy duty trucks used in mining. Now the company has decided to increase the number of its products by introducing newer models of trucks and also buses. For this purpose, a new subsidiary of Scania, called Scania Commercial Vehicles India has been formed and a new manufacturing and assembly unit (most probably near Bengaluru) will come up in just over a year’s time. Scania is majority owned by Volkswagen which has been bullish over India and therefore it is no surprise that Scania is looking to take on fellow Swede Volvo and Mercedes Benz both in the trucks, inter city buses and city bus segments.
Indian Cars Bikes.in has put up a picture which is very hazy, but does have the silhouette of the Honda Brio car. This picture was taken in Delhi. This is indeed good news for Honda has cut production by 50% and therefore has delayed the launch of the Brio in India. All these developments can be traced back to the unfortunate tsunami that has ruined many lives and families in Japan. The Brio is expected to be the first big volumes car for Honda in India and a lot rests upon its success here.