Nissan announces commencement of Micra

Nissan is in the headlines these days as it tries to increase its foothold in India. Be it the BMW Z4 and Porsche Boxster rivalling 370z or the to be launched Micra, Nissan seems to have going in the right direction.

They had a few announcements to be made regarding their to-be launched Micra. The most important was that they have started commercial production of the car here in India.

The car in question will be displayed in showrooms on May 25th and pre-order bookings will start the same day at a nominal amount of Rs.50,000. Micra ( codename – W02A) will be produced in Oragadam, Chennai at the Renault-Nissan plant. The 640 acre big plant is worth of 45 billion Rupees. 1900 workers are on duty now, which will be increased to 3000 in the next two years. The plant can produce 4,00,000 cars at its full capacity, while the initial production will be of 2,00,000 cars only.

The pricing is yet to be done, though expect this Nissan to be priced competetively. The sales will begin in July this year.

Being built on Nissan's V-platform opens up possibility of other models making it to the Indian market.

Nissan will use their Chennai facility to produce Micra for the international market too. As we reported earlier, they sent a batch of cars for testing in the international market too. The export will begin this September.

Source: Motoroids

Hyundai Plans to Regain Market Share

Small car maket is witnessing a lot of heat this year. Ford Figo is giving nightmares to all other players in the market. And Hyundai is no exception. Hyundai's consistent efforts and products have made sure that the brand attained its niche in the market. But now as the competetion speeds up Hyundai seems to have lost its sleep.

And if Economic Times is to be believed, Hyundai will launch a diesel version of their i10 car soon in order to show the competetors what Hyundai is worth of. After all Hyundai once gave nightmares to every brand from Maruti to Mercedes, here in India. Hyundai Motor India (HMI) MD H W Park said that he wasnt worried because of the to-be launched Nissan Micra but because of the Ford Figo and the new Wagon-R. He hinted at Hyundai's plans of launching a diesel i10 but he didn t comment on the when the car is going to be launched.

If i10 diesel is launched then Hyundai will be able to snatch some customers from both Figo and Ritz diesel. This will increase i10's sales as well as Hyundai's foot hold in the market.

He also said that there still exists demand for their once best selling car, Santro, which manages to sell around 8000 units a month and they dont plan to phase it out anytime soon. “Development of the sub-Santro model is at evaluation stage at Namyang (its R&D centre). We are on schedule as far as the development stage work is concerned,” he said about their sub-Santro category car. “We will launch one new model every year, one face-lifted version and a model year model,” he said regarding their plans. So expect some surprises from the Korean manufacturer soon.

For the i10 diesel we will have to wait until some concrete announcement is made. Once that happens, Hyundai will be able to regain its lost market share.

Alto might get a K-series

Take a small car and fit a bigger engine to it and see what difference it makes. All of a sudden your everyday car gets a much needed soul and it becomes a lot more desirable. But then bigger engines mean lesser fuel efficiency, which in turns makes small cars with big engines impractical. Seriously?

Well, not exactly. The engines made these days are actually more efficient than the ones made some ten years back. So when NDTV's sources suggest that Maruti plans to give its bread and butter car, Alto a heart transplant, we should be happy. And by now some of us might have thought of buying the car. Alto has proved itself in the market. It is a proper successor to the legend, the 800. Though Alto had a 1.1L engine in the past, but it was thirsty. So they discontinued it and the car was available with just one engine option. But as emission norms get stricter with each passing day, Maruti had to upgrade the 800cc engine to BS-IV. But replacing the engine to an already BS-IV engine makes more sense. The only engine they have in their line-up suitable for this small car is the 1L K-series (K10B)engine doing the duty in Alto's European namesake, the A-star. So fitting a 1L K-series engine solves a lot of problems. Maruti-Suzuki can produce a total of 2.5 lakh K-series engines annually, which will have to be upgraded once they start producing the new Alto.

Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava said, "Alto needs a face-lift. It has been there for quite a while." No comment was made on how the car be like, an upgrade or an entirely new one. Sources suggest that if this plan of Maruti's materialises, then Alto's price will go up by a small margin.

Alto has been doing good in the market with around 20,000 units selling per month. The new car is worth a wait. Lets see how Maruti plans to upgrade the Alto.

Source: Motoroids

2011 Volkswagen Passat – a technological marvel!

Germany’s highly regarded magazine Auto Bild has come up with the first leaked image of VW’s much awaited 2011 Passat. The new car (in case it really is what it’s said to be) is the most honest representative of the VW’s new design language.

The new design stresses on highlighting the width of the car and is reminiscent of the recently updated Phaeton limousine as well as the Touareg. The front and back of the new car have been accentuated with a heavy dose of chrome. The new Passat has a flat shoulder line and with the subtle, yet strong lines of its reasonably big size, it presents itself as a transportation tool of choice for well-to-do executives. The new Passat is expected to hit the international market by the end of this year and it should be first previewed at the Paris Motor Show.

The new Passat is expected to take the game higher for VW, and the company expects the new machine to be comparable to the 3-series, C-class and the A4 in terms of brand perception. While that may sound a little too optimistic to a lot of people, it’s not difficult to understand why VW are so positive. The new Passat will host an array of technologies which have yet been unheard of. Some of these wondrous technologies will include airless tyres and a wiper-less windscreen cleaning system. A magical electronic stability system is also expected which will automatically offer counter-steering assistance in adverse driving conditions.

Engines for the new car will include a 300bhp power plant with a displacement of 3.0L. The new engine will also be using direct injection for enhanced power and fuel efficiency. The rest of the engine lineup is expected to benefit from some form of forced induction as well. Other models will include a new hybrid as well as a high-performance diesel with AWD.

Source: Motoroids

Fiat to launch a sportier Punto

Fiat Punto is undeniably the most beautiful car in its segment.The car looks elegant and it seriously turns more heads than a higher D-segment car too. It has a nice chassis too, which means good handling. And as now Fiat's service department is also managed by Tata, service shouldn't be an issue as it used to be. This means Punto should be a hit in India, like it is elsewhere.

But the sales figures tell a different story. Only 900 odd units were sold in the month of April this year. The irony of the situation is that the same car saved Fiat from bankruptcy in the International market. So what is stopping its prospective buyers and making them think over their decision again.

During a small survey carried out by a fellow Motorep it was found that the first sentence people say after driving the car is, “It is sluggish”.

Fiat also realised this and if guys at Autoholiks are to be believed, Fiat will be launching a new and sportier variant of the car called 'Punto Sports'. The car will be powered by the 1.3L Multijet engine that powers the Linea. The same engine, albeit in a more powerful avatar will produce 90bhp and around 205 Nm of torque.

The car will be given some visual treatment too. Remember they displayed an Abarth-Punto replica at the Auto-expo, Delhi earlier this year. Thats how the Punto Sport is going to look. Fatter tyres, better looking alloys, smoked headlamps and special leathers too and they might put a sunroof too is all the Sports is going to get. The Punto Sports will be dearer than the normal Punto. If Fiat prices it right, then they can easily get a good market share with this wonderful product of theirs. This might be not be as sporty as a petrol engined car would have been,nevertheless we will love to have this car in the market. Won't we? With this car they might be able to continue selling this car before they plan to launch the Punto-evo here, if they want to. The Sports will be launched in June this year as Punto completes 1 year in the market.

Aveo CNG unveiled

GM was hit bad during the slump and most of you know what happened afterwards. But the brand shined in the developing markets like India, China etc. And now these 'key' markets require more attention and obviously GM is taking all the right steps.

They launched the LPG version of their Chevrolet Aveo sedan on 13th of this month. This important step was taken keeping the market trend and the competetion in mind. CNG is a cleaner fuel and is more economical than petrol. The same old 4-pot 1399 powerplant produces 94ps when run on petrol but a small drop in performance is expected. Mind it, as this is a factory CNG kit, the drop will be negligible. The CNG unit is computer controlled which means low wastage. The engine gets anodized pistons while the body and suspension are reinforced to welcome the introduction of CNG.

The car is priced at Rs. 6,26,645 (ex-showroom Ahmedabad), which is quite reasonable for a car that is greener and lighter on the pocket too.

Mercedes-Benz brings CGI technology to India

“Effortless performance with excellent fuel economy,” is just what the CGI technology from Mercedes-Benz has to offer. The firm has launched this technology just recently in India. Riding a brand new car with an age old technology does not fit into the scenario of a luxury car manufacturer. Thus, the firm has unveiled its plan for gasoline engine technology in India.

During the launch, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bharat Balasubramanian, Vice President Product Innovations & Process Technologies, Group Research & Advanced Engineering, Daimler AG stated, “The CGI technology heralds a new era in gasoline engines with improved output, optimized consumption and even more impressive emission statistics.”

This new technology CGI engine is the first one-of-its-kind in the world to use sophisticated petrol direct-injection engine with spray guided combustion process. CGI engines use sophisticated piezo-injectors (also seen on the F700 DiesOtto concept). Mercedes-Benz has replaced the previous 4-in-line petrol engine with the world's first spray-guided direct petrol injection and chosen to move over to direct-injection technology for its petrol engines. The powerful, efficient and clean engine has four catalysers and a series of in-engine measures mean that as well as meeting all current legislation.