The company’s cumulative scooter sales during April to September 2012 were at 58,689 units. Standalone sales in September 2012 touched 8,122 units. Despite tough market conditions, Mahindra Two Wheelers crossed the landmark figure of 4 lakh units.

Viren Popli, Executive Vice President – Strategy and Market Development, Mahindra Two Wheelers said, “Today, Mahindra has a rich legacy of manufacturing powerful, reliable and stylish vehicles designed specifically for Indian roads. With the onset of festive season, we are expecting the buoyancy in market to be restored which will drive growth for new offerings of Mahindra Two Wheelers. An aggressive marketing plan is lined up to ensure this.”

Mahindra Duro DZ continues to be positioned as a ‘ROMBA SOLID’ family scooter while the new Mahindra Rodeo RZ is targetted at young, modern couples. The Flyte is Mahindras equivalent of the Yamaha Ray targetting the fairer sex.

“The new campaign establishes how the scooter range continues Mahindra’s legacy of providing powerful, reliable and stylish vehicles for its customers. It showcases how Mahindra’s expertise in manufacturing high performance automobiles for Indian roads, has been leveraged in the development of its new scooter range.” says Mahindra.

Renault’s collection features more than 740 vehicles, archives including documents and event information and more than 3,200 miniature-scale models and toys, 1,900 posters, miscellaneous items and some 270 one-fifth scale mock-ups. This living collection is kept, maintained and managed by Renault Classic which frequently releases vehicles for various events including the World Series by Renault, Le Mans Classic, the Goodwood Festival of Speed. More than five million people were given a chance to admire vehicles from the Renault Collection from close quarters at the 200 operations organised by Renault Classic in 2011.

Renault Classic also enjoys close association with more than 2,550 registered collectors and 305 clubs, the Renault sales network, and media, historians and writers. More than 200 special operations are organised every year and more than 500 vehicles are displayed at different events each year. More than 5,000,000 people get a chance to admire Renault Classic vehicles every year.

The website will allow clubs, collectors and Renault and Alpine enthusiaststo communicate together and also allow them to access a realm of useful information, not only about Renault Classic but also about the Renault and Alpine fans community.

Contents will also feature a presentation of Renault Classic, including a calendar of the events in which it plans to take part, plus an introduction to Renault’s own collection of vehicles.

Meanwhile, clubs will be able to register and publish their own news, dates and pictures.

Another section of the website will be given over to the availability of downloadable documents, such as authenticity document requests or entry forms to take part in special events.

Each year, Popular Mechanics magazine selects the 10 breakthrough technology products. Ford’s innovative 1.0 Liter EcoBoost engine is one of the winners this year. The new 1 liter EcoBoost engine is Ford’s first three cylinder engine and also one of the smallest displacement engines ever built by Ford.

The 1.0-litre EcoBoost uses turbocharging and direct fuel injection to extract impressive levels of power and fuel efficiency from its three-cylinder engine block, which is so small that it can fit on a sheet of A4 paper. Already on sale in Europe, Ford claims this newest EcoBoost engine packs up to 125 horsepower, and elsewhere has mentioned a peak torque of peak torque of 170 Nm from 1,300-4,500 rpm!

Developed at Ford’s Dunton Technical Centre in the U.K., the 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine features a new compact, high performance turbocharger design. The extremely fast response of the turbocharger and its ability to reach nearly 250,000 rpm results in virtually no turbo lag and peak torque of 170 Nm. The all-new EcoBoost engine also features an exhaust manifold cast into the cylinder head, which lowers the temperature of the exhaust gases and in turn enables the engine to run with the optimum fuel-to-air ratio across a wider rev band. An advanced “split cooling” system reduces fuel consumption by warming the engine more quickly. Cast iron has been selected for the 1.0 liter engine block, reducing the amount of energy needed for warm-up by up to 50 per cent compared with aluminium.

Variable air-conditioning compressor and oil pump also reduce demand on the engine, improving economy and emissions and special coatings for engine components reduce frictional losses. An innovative design that immerses the two main engine drive belts in oil results in quieter and more efficient running but with the durability of a chain.

A three cylinder engine brings with it the usual tendency for higher vibrations. Rather than employ the traditional method of adding energy-draining balancer shafts, Ford engineers have deliberately “unbalanced” the flywheel and pulley to offset the engine configuration.

Earlier this year the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine was named “International Engine of the Year” by a jury of 76 journalists from 35 countries.

“We placed the bar incredibly high when we set out to design this engine,” said Joe Bakaj, Ford vice president, Global Powertrain. “We wanted to deliver eye-popping fuel economy, surprising performance, quietness and refinement – and all from a very small three-cylinder engine.

“The team responded to this seemingly impossible challenge with some really exciting innovation,” added Bakaj. “We are thrilled Popular Mechanics has recognized the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine for a Breakthrough Award.”

OuUr first contact with the 1.0 liter EcoBoost should be next year when Ford India brings home the new EcoSport. The 1.0 liter EcoBoost is being offered in different configurations globally, Brazil gets the 109.6 hp/6500 rpm and 153.6 Nm/4250 rpm configuration when using just gasoline, the figures increase with the use of Ethanol. No details for the Indian variant are available at this moment.

Ford has won a Breakthrough Award last year for their innovative Rear Inflatable Seat Belts.

This year GM also took one of the Breakthrough Awards for their Crash-Avoidance System. General Motors uses a practical and cost-effective single-camera vision system for crash avoidance in passenger cars with its GMC Terrain. Mounted behind the rearview mirror, the system watches the world much as humans do, detecting shapes and their positions relative to the car. With visual information taken in from a 37-degree field, the system warns the user of possible collisions and unintentional lane departures.

The other winners this year include Microsoft for their Surface tablet & Windows 8, the much talked about Lytro Camera with which you can shoot images and then choose the point of focus, and the 1299$ Cubify Cube 3D Printer.

Check out the other award winners here.

The new engine project is a jointly developed 4-cylinder gasoline engine family co-led by Renault and Daimler. The direct-injection turbocharged engine will feature state-of-the-art technology in a compact package. It targets low emissions as well as a significant improvement in fuel economy. The companies expect to jointly manufacture the new engines. They will debut in Daimler and Renault and Nissan vehicles in 2016.

The new transmission project will be led by Daimler, which is licensing the technology to Nissan for use in Nissan and Infiniti vehicles starting in 2016.

“These new components demonstrate how broadly and rapidly our collaboration is proliferating – while all the time remaining rooted in specific projects that give tangible benefits to our customers,” Ghosn said. “The relationship is expanding organically and logically.”

“The collaboration achieved a milestone this year, with the first vehicles and engines from the partnership now on the roads,” Zetsche said. “Furthermore, all our engineers are keeping an open mind, looking with fresh eyes at all potential new areas of collaboration.”

At the Paris Motor Show, the new CR-V made its European debut. Honda also announced that the new CR-V will also be offered with the 1.6 liter i-DTEC engine.

The new smaller diesel engine is the first in a series of engines to be introduced under the name of Earth Dreams Technology. Honda has explicitly stated that the 1.6-litre i-DTEC engine will be available on CR-V for the European markets from September 2013.

Honda mentions the use of a new high-strength material in the cylinder head that has enabled Honda to create the world’s lightest aluminium open deck 1.6-litre diesel engine.

Autocar India has mention that the new Honda CR-V should reach Indian shores early 2013 and to start with will be offered with the 2.4-litre in-line-four engine that is smooth and responsive. The engine puts out 185bhp and 22.5kgm of torque and is mated to a five-speed transmission. The diesel is expected to make its way here later.

Remember all those sprockets, screws and nuts that flew around and fused together in the teaser video for the new Gallardo, well it turns out most of the components were from this year’s Gallardo. The slightly refreshed Gallardo gets new front and rear.

The new Gallardo LP 560-4 gets more triangles with the front end being divided diagonally by elements in both the body and black colour. New 19-inch “Apollo polished” alloy wheels, painted in matt black, featuring precision-machined spokes in polished silver further distinguish the new Gallardo.

The rear gets more of the triangle-trapezoid treatment. The air outlet for the V10 inside now has now a wider surface area, which improves its thermodynamic efficiency.

Edizione Tecnica Special Edition

The LP 570-4 Superleggera and the LP 570-4 Spyder Performante, the top end variants of the Gallardo with mind numbing focus on lightness and power, can now be had as the special edition Edizione Tecnica.

Features of the Edizione Tecnica include the fixed high rear wing, as well as brakes in carbon-ceramic technology. The pillars and front air intakes are painted in a daring contrast color that sets the Edizione Tecnica visually apart from its siblings. Colour options available are Nero Nemesis (matt black) body with Arancio Argos (orange) pillars and front air intakes, Bianco Canopus (matt white) body with Arancio Argos pillars and front air intakes, and Arancio Argos body with Nero Nemesis pillars and front air intakes.

The Gallardo LP 550-2 can be still had in both the Coupe and Spyder forms.

There has been no mention of whether the Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder gets the new fascia or if the redesign is just for the coupe variant.

The Gallardo range now includes six models, with each differentiated well from each other.

Ok, this was out of the blue. Lamborghini put out a teaser for what is mostly the new Gallardo. The new bull will be be unveiled on September 27th at the Paris Motor Show at 10.15 a.m. Fans from India might have to skip office/college/school since that translates to around 1.45 p.m. IST.

The Panamera Sport Turismo undeniably looks better than the Panamera we’ve come to terms with, and its shocking that the one with the looks is the station wagon that can carry more luggage than the other ever could.

The new Porsche loses the external rear view mirrors for cameras and the direction indicators and sidelights are integrated in the C-Blades up front. The four-point LED headlights makes this Porsche one of the most aggressive designs we’ve seen from Stuttgart in a long time.

The new colour is what Porsche calls Liquid Metal Blue. The brake callipers and the 3 dimensional Sport Turismo badge are finished in ‘Acid Green’.

The Sport Turismo also highlights progress made with hybrid technology at Porsche. The “e-hybrid” badge on the front wings is lays emphasis on the drive technology. The milled aluminium battery housing is mounted under the boot floor, which is made of electrochromatic glass and can be lit up in ‘Acid Green’ electrically.

The drive system of the Panamera Sport Turismo is a step ahead of the systems used in the Panamera S Hybrid and Cayenne S Hybrid. The new electric motor produces about 70 kW (95 hp), which is around twice as much as in today’s Porsche hybrid drive, while the supercharged three-litre V6 engine still produces 245 kW (333 hp) here. Both modes of propulsion can work together to accelerate the Sport Turismo from zero to 100 kph in less than six seconds. In pure electric mode, the Porsche can hit 130 kph top speed and range is about 30 km.

The concept vehicle with its 416 hp (306 kW) of peak system power is designed to be driven in pure electric mode up to a speed of 130 km/h and can cover distances of over 30 km. The Sport Turismo also exhibits impressive fuel economy per the NEDC standard; its combined fuel consumption is less than 3.5 litres per 100 km, while CO2 emissions are under 82 g/km.

Built on the Ingenio platform, the Quanto stakes claim to being India’s first body on frame compact SUV with a ground clearance of nearly 180mm. The Quanto also offers 5+2 seating, the practicality of which remains to be tested. Mahindra is also flaunting the 1.5 L mCR100 diesel engine, India’s first twin stage turbocharged 1.5 litre diesel. Mahindra says the Quanto delivers 100 PS power and 240 Nm torque with fuel efficiency of nearly 17.2Kmpl. Mahindra having used the term ‘twin stage’ means the twin turbo is not the twin scroll turbocharger that we ( at Riot Engine) thought to be a possibility. The twin stage turbocharger uses two turbocharger units. Autocar India reports that driving the Quanto at low speeds is a breeze, but ‘power tapers off’ beyond 3500 rpm.

The sub 4 metre dimensions of the Quanto and the 1.5L engine has given Mahindra excise duty benefits that have been passed on to the customer and hence the fantastic pricing. The mCR100 engine also uses Mahindra’s ‘micro hybrid’ technology, essentially a stop-go system.

Transmission is via the 5MT320 box with Indirect Shift.

The Quanto also gets Intellipark Reverse Assist and Digital Drive Assist System (DDAS).

Prices (ex showroom Thane, Mumbai)
C2 BS4 Rs 5.82 Lakhs
C4 BS4 Rs 6.35 Lakhs
C6 BS4 Rs 6.86 Lakhs
C8 BS4 Rs 7.36 Lakhs

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Pawan Goenka, President, Automotive & Farm Equipment Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, “The launch of Quanto, our first compact SUV, is another defining moment in our automotive journey. For the Mahindra Group, the Quanto represents yet another example of our alternative thinking approach. It has been developed keeping in mind the evolving needs of our customers. I am confident that the Quanto will create a new category within the SUV segment while offering a unique value proposition to our customers”.

Colors available include Mahindra’s usual: Toreador Red, Diamond White, Fiery Black, Mist Silver, Java Brown, and Rocky Beige