MARUTI TO LAUNCH NEW MPV ERTIGA AT AUTO EXPO, JANUARY.

Maruti's all-new mini-MPV known until now by its codename R III will be called the Ertiga

Maruti Suzuki plans to launch its first compact multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) Ertiga early next year. The Ertiga will be unveiled globally at the Auto expo to be held in January 2012. The company will also unveil its first sports utility vehicle (SUV) at the expo.The Ertiga is a global unveiling of Maruti’s first compact MPV.The Ertiga is seven seater and will come with petrol and diesel engine options.

Maruti is also adding another engine to its popular K-series family - the K14. As the name suggests, the K14 is a 1.4-litre petrol motor that is equipped with variable-valve timing (VVT). It will displace 1372cc & delivering 95bhp. The Ertiga will debut this new engine, but will also be available with a 1.3-litre DDiS “Super Turbo” diesel engine. This front-wheel-drive, car-based mini-MPV has been designed to drive like a car and features quality interiors, making it an appealing family car.

With these launches, the company is eyeing over 50 per cent market share in the passenger vehicle segment by 2015.

SOURCE – autocarindia,ndtvprofit

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MARUTI TO BUY 1 LAKH DIESEL ENGINES FROM FIAT.

Maruti has signed the deal in which Fiat India would supply 1,00,000 engines to Maruti for use in Maruti car models over the next year ownwards or so. Maruti Suzuki group firm Suzuki Powertrain India already supplies 3,00,000 Fiat Multijet diesel engines each year and despite these many engines already being supplied each year, Maruti Suzuki continues to huge waiting periods for its diesel engined powered cars, due to the massive demand.

And the ongoing series of hikes in petrol prices has led to a steep rise in the demand of diesel variants of cars. As a result, the largest car maker in the country, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, is facing a surplus capacity of petrol cars on one hand, while on the other it has a long waiting list for its diesel cars. To correct the situation, Maruti Suzuki has entered into an agreement with Fiat to procure 1 lakh diesel engines per year.

With this move, the company hopes to reduce the long waiting period on some of its best-selling models like the New Swift hatchback, which has a backlog of about one lakh units. The current range of diesel cars hosted by the company includes the Ritz, Swift -Dzire, SX4 and Swift. All the popular models have a waiting period ranging between four and eight months.

The company's production facility at Manesar was affected due to a lingering labor strike in October 2011, which led to a loss of 28,539 units, while incurring a 53.25 per cent loss in sales. Earlier in the month, Maruti Suzuki had hiked the prices of its diesel cars in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 because of the recent depreciation of the Indian rupee and also to make up for the increase in the cost of production.

SOURCE - indiancarsbike , oncars

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MARUTI TO BUY 1 LAKH DIESEL ENGINES FROM FIAT.

Maruti has signed the deal in which Fiat India would supply 1,00,000 engines to Maruti for use in Maruti car models over the next year ownwards or so. Maruti Suzuki group firm Suzuki Powertrain India already supplies 3,00,000 Fiat Multijet diesel engines each year and despite these many engines already being supplied each year, Maruti Suzuki continues to huge waiting periods for its diesel engined powered cars, due to the massive demand.

And the ongoing series of hikes in petrol prices has led to a steep rise in the demand of diesel variants of cars. As a result, the largest car maker in the country, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, is facing a surplus capacity of petrol cars on one hand, while on the other it has a long waiting list for its diesel cars. To correct the situation, Maruti Suzuki has entered into an agreement with Fiat to procure 1 lakh diesel engines per year.

With this move, the company hopes to reduce the long waiting period on some of its best-selling models like the New Swift hatchback, which has a backlog of about one lakh units. The current range of diesel cars hosted by the company includes the Ritz, Swift -Dzire, SX4 and Swift. All the popular models have a waiting period ranging between four and eight months.

The company's production facility at Manesar was affected due to a lingering labor strike in October 2011, which led to a loss of 28,539 units, while incurring a 53.25 per cent loss in sales. Earlier in the month, Maruti Suzuki had hiked the prices of its diesel cars in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 because of the recent depreciation of the Indian rupee and also to make up for the increase in the cost of production.

SOURCE - indiancarsbike , oncars

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MAYBACH IS GOING TO DIE......

Daimler will provide its 2013 luxury brand Maybach. Reason: The Mercedes brand is to be with the new S-Class luxury segment even more successful.

Daimler makes 2013 a production of the Maybach models. A successor is operating under the brand name MAYBACH not give. The background is the belief that Mercedes under its own brand name in the upper class can still be successful. The targeted for 2013 new S-Class will therefore give it in an extra-long Pullman version as well as a luxury coupe and a convertible. The new Mercedes luxury class will have many new security systems from the experimental vehicle ESF 2009 and shine including new augmented-reality displays.

MAYBACH DIES FOR THE SECOND TIMES

Maybach was revived as a historic mark (1921 to 1941) in 2002 from Daimler. In the upper price segment they should against (BMW) ROLLS-ROYCE and BENTLEY establish (Volkswagen). In 2009, Germany's 31 new MAYBACH sold in 2010 it had fallen to 23rd Worldwide new registrations stagnated at around 200 units per year. At the IAA 2011, the public waited in vain for the presentation of a new generation Maybach, instead there was the unique "Edition 125!" shown on the basis of the current series.

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TOYOTA & BMW DISCUSSING A BROAD PARTNERSHIP IN ENVIRONMENTAL VEHICLES.

BMW AG and Toyota Motor Corp plan to form a partnership to develop lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, a person close to the industry told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.

The batteries could be used for the next generation of electric cars produced by the companies and the partnership is likely to be announced this week, the person said.

Batteries for BMW's i3 model, to be launched in 2013, are produced and supplied by a joint venture between Robert Bosch GmbH and Samsung.

Contrary to some media reports, the partnership doesn't include wide-ranging cooperation on hybrid technology, though BMW will deliver diesel engines to Toyota, the person added. Toyota aims to increase its European market share by using such engines.

It is expected that TOYOTA will look to use BMW’s 2.0 litre diesel engines a number of its European – market models.

In February, BMW announced a hybrid technology partnership with PSA Peugeot Citroen (UG.FR) to develop and produce systems including high-voltage storage, electric engines and generators, as well as electronics and loading devices. The two companies invested a total EUR100 million in the venture.

The PSA deal will not be affected by the new partnership with TOYOTA, which is

expected to be announced at this week TOKYO MOTOR SHOW.

In the coming year, BMW will unveil production versions of its i3 electric vehicle and i8 hybrid sports car, while reports suggest that an i4 coupe & i5 sedan will follow

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SPY SHOOT – TOYOTA FACELIFTED INDIAN SPEC INNOVA

The FaceLifted TOYOTA INNOVA was snapped during the shoot for its TV commercial in Goa.

The facelifted TOYOTA INNOVA in India has features a new music system with reverse camera screen , multi-function steering wheel like TOYOTA COROLLA ALTIS ( G ) variant & the centre console have some little change & the other parts of interior has not changed.

EURO - 4 engine with inter-cooler, they offer to all over India , When we compare Indonesian spec model with Indian spec model ,There are some little features absent like wooden steering wheel, reverse sensor ( in India they offer only reverse camera only ,In other countries reverse camera with sensor ,& the orginal Toyota wiper included ( India they don’t offering the orginal wiper ) & the colour of tail light is different when we compare with internationally launched innova .

FULL SOURCE – IAB

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TOYOTA CONFIRMED LEXUS BRAND IN INDIA BY 2013

Toyota has officially confirmed that it will introduce the Lexus brand in India by 2013. The Japanese carmaker has been evaluating the feasibility of its luxury brand in India for several years now and has finally decided to go ahead with the launch. “We have been watching India with keen interest and we are happy to announce that we will bring Lexus to India in 2013” confirmed Yukitoshi Funo, executive vice-president of Toyota Motor Corporation.

The Lexus range will be sold through dedicated dealerships, though several Toyota dealers are likely to take up the franchise to take advantage of their service set up that requires common equipment for both brands. However, Toyota will take a very cautious and diligent approach to appointing dealerships. “We would rather have a few, quality dealerships than a large number of mediocre outlets” said Funo who also emphasised that he wanted to differentiate Lexus from its German rivals. Last month Kazuo Ohara, who oversees the Lexus brand globally, made a visit to India and gave the green light after intense market research, which included studying the dealer and service outlets of other brands.

Toyota plans to follow a top-down strategy and the Toyota is initial plan is to introduce the LS saloon and RX SUV, both premium luxury models. This is likely to be followed by the GS executive luxury saloon which competes directly with the E-class and 5-series.

The company will initially bring the Lexus range as imports or completely built-up (CBU) units to test the market before considering local assembly. “We need consider local production to compete with the others in the market, but this is still being studied,” said Funo. It is likely that the compact IS models will be locally assembled in time.

The initial feedback and market studies for the Lexus brand have been very encouraging. “The Indian consumers’ awareness of Lexus is quite surprising and much more than we anticipated,” said Funo. However, the challenge will be to price the cars competitively, especially since Lexus will initially import cars and will be at a cost disadvantage in comparison to rival luxury brands that locally assemble and hence pay lower duty.There are so many problem they wantto face in india & they are in, there is no diesel engine in the Lexus range .& if they import cars ,then the price range too higher when we compare to AUDI,BENZ,BMW Lexus will introduce its hybrid technology also india.

SOURCE- AUTOCAR INDIA

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TOYOTA IS STUDYING LOW COST SUV IN RS 10-12 LAKH , LIKELY TO BE BUILT ON MODIFIED ETIOS PLATFORM

Toyota is studying to launch new low cost SUV, that will be based on a modified Etios platform. This information from AUTOCAR INDIA editor Hormazd Sorabjee , While plans for the low cost Toyota SUV still seem to be in the early stages , the price of the Mahindra XUV500 competitor is being speculated to be in the 10-12 L Rs bracket.

A five seater SUV at this price tag is what will make plenty of sense ,
if Toyota doesn’t cut corners in the name of competitive pricing.

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MAHINDRA IS GOING TO LAUNCH FACELIFTED XYLO
ON EARLY NEXT YEAR

Mahindra is going to launch new facelifted XYLO MPV early next year. I am guessing from the spy shot front grill is too similar to Mahindra scorpio , The facelifted XYLO interior & interior plastics are big improvement & radical change on it.The facelifted XYLO is may going to launch around the same period of TOYOTA INNOVA facelifted in end of January or in 2011 Auto Expo.

PICTURE SOURCE – TEAM BHP

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HONDA IS PLANNING LAUNCH NEW PRODUCTS IN

2012 AUTO EXPO IN INDIA

HMSI (HONDA MOTORCYCLE & SCOOTER INDIA ) had earlier set a target for itself of selling 2.1 Mn
units in the Financial Year 2012. Now, the company is even more confident of achieving its target within the specified time.

According to one of the latest news article in Financial Chronicle, ‘While other two wheeler makers such as Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj and TVS reported fall in sales in the range of 5-15 per cent in October when compared with September this year, Honda Motorcycle managed to maintain its sales volumes with a marginal drop in sales. The company sold 178,181 two wheelers in October, against 178,146 units in September.’ This figure clearly reveals the potential of the company in the Indian market.

To take these figures forward during the FY 2012, HMSI has also planned to launch two new products in the next year out of which one will be a bike and the other a scooter. But, we’ve no clues on what category would these new products be falling under. It’s not to be forgotten that Honda Activa was indeed a game changer when coming to the scooter segment in the Indian two wheeler market.

Talking about the plans of the company, Mr. NK Rattan, Vice – President – Sales & Marketing told, “We expect this growth momentum to continue. We plan to sell 21 lakh units from our Manesar and Tapukara plant and end the fiscal FY’11-12 with an estimated 27 per cent growth over 16.56 lakh units sold in FY’10-11. We are on track to achieve this target.”

The reason for them to stay on track achieving their target is their new plant which started its operation from the month of July this year in Tapukara, Rajasthan. The first phase of this plant with an installed capacity of 0.6 million units production capacity has already been completed. With the second factory of HMSI in the same state of Rajasthan, the company intends to increase the total capacity of its production to a whooping 1.2 Mn units by the month of March 2012.

As a customer , this should rejoice every single customer of HMSI who is either waiting to het its product delivered after waiting for many long months besides satisfying the frequent customer issue of unavailability of spare parts for Honda products. Mr. Rattan said in the interview, “This shall ease out the waiting period to less than one month.”

Currently, almost all Honda products are facing a waiting period of 90 days to as much as 180 days and at times even more. This had only added woes to the customers in the recent past.

He also said the present order booking is around 60 days and the company is in a position to serve its customers faster. “Aviator and CBF Stunner are doing very well,” he added without providing any further details on the statement

The company’s new scooter will most likely be showcased in Delhi Auto Expo which is scheduled to take place in the month of January 2011. One info we’ve got about the company’s yet to be launched bike is that it’s gonna be targeting the youth of the nation exclusively. This news makes us go crazy now. This simply means that the bike is gonna be worth the wait. But, unfortunately its only he scooter which will be showcased and not the bike. The bike will be launched only by the end of current fiscal year. The two launches is solely done with the intention of boosting the company’s sales further which enhance the HMSI in achieving their target specified above on time.

Further, to meet the growing demand o Honda’s products in theSouthern part of the country, the company has recently laid the foundation stone for its third manufacturing facility in the state of Karnataka. With its expansion from 16.5 lakh units in FY2010-11 to 40 lakh units in early half of the year 2013, HMSI hopes to reduce waiting periods for all its products in the portfolio.

Mr. Subrata Ray, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Ratings, Icra mentioned in one of his comments, “HMSI continues to maintain its leadership position in the scooters segment through its flagship brand Activa (besides Aviator and Dio) enjoying a market share of 45.4 per cent in Q2, 2011- 12.”

The figures seems really impressive for a company like Honda with ling waiting periods though its taking all necessary steps to reduce it. We just want our readers to stay with us at the time of Delhi Auto Expo as we’ll bring more insights onto these products. Do open up your discussion on the new products from Honda in the box below.

FULL SOURCE - BIKE ADVICE

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IS MERCEDES-BENZ GOING TO DEBUT

NEW S- CLASS ON 2012 ATGENEVA MOTOR SHOW ?

Is MERCEDES – BENZ going to launch new S – class on 2012 GENEVA MOTOR SHOW ? , The new S-Class is expected to debut an autonomous driving feature that will allow a driver to let go of the controls during heavy traffic. Relying on a series of camera and radar based monitoring systems, the new S-Class should be able to follow a traffic queue at speeds of up to 25 mph, it means that it should even be able to navigate curves in the road.

MERCEDES saying this system “allows the driver to concentrate on other things” in traffic & it too help full for drivers.

And the other main important interesting safety feature is said to be a new airbag system that deploys under the front axle to help further slow the car during emergency braking situations.

The exterior & interior of new S- class is totally radical different from current S- class.

The engine they going may going to offer , the current S550 and S600 designations, but with new engines designed to be much more fuel efficient. A new nine-speed automatic may also debut with the 2013 S-Class.
And that the S400 Hybrid may switch to a diesel-electric setup rather than the current gasoline-electric one, however, we’ll have to wait until closer to the car’s debut to confirm the claims.

SOURCE - WORLD CAR FANS

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TOYOTA OFFICIALLY REVEALED NEW GT 86 ,

GOING TO LAUNCH ON JUNE 12 , 2012

Toyota officially revealed NEW GT 86 in Tokyo Motor Show, They going launch GT86 on june 2012 in UK , They release the details of final specifications of GT 86 in UK’s press release,

· 2.0-liter boxer with D4-S injection (direct and port injected)

• 197 hp @ 7,000 rpm and 151 lb-ft (205 Nm) @6,600 rpm
• 6 speed manual or automatic transmissions
• 17-inch tyres
• 4,240mm (167 in.) L, 1285mm (50.6 in.) H , 2,570mm (101 in.) W
• 53:47 front-to-rear weight distribution
• 475mm (18.7 in.) center of gravity

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Maruti Suzuki New Baby SUV

There are whispers in media circles of a Maruti SUV on show at the Delhi Auto Expo next year. Like the R3, the junior SUV could debut in concept form and take shape into a charming crossover SUV in the next two years, ready for the 2014 Auto Expo.

A segment in its own, this vehicle is said to have certain capabilities of a grown up SUV besides the handling of a Swift.

Shoeb studied these speculative media reports and did some guess work. He feels that the junior SUV can be built using Swift parts. Coming to the vehicle, the high ground clearance gifts it with the ability to negotiate any terrain. The flared wheel arches and upgraded tires add extra oomph to its masculine looks. Higher variants could be equipped with a 4X4 to make it a somewhat civilized Gypsy.

Since most Maruti vehicles are exported, we expect lots of safety features and driving aids on the top-end version. The 1.3 Multijet is the logical choice and Maruti could look at the 1.6-liter petrol engine on the SX4 for equipping the export model.

For the Indian market, the 4X2 version missing some of that equipment will find many buyers. Design language is same as on the new Suzuki models.

Full Source - IAB

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       Parts Shortage Problem for Honda India ,                                             This Affected On Their Production Of Their             Vehicles.

 

Honda Siel Cars India said Thursday it has drastically cut car production in November due to a severe shortage of parts from Thailand, caused by floods in the Southeast Asian country

"Our plan was to make more than 8,000 cars from November, but we'll make less than half of that [this month] due to a shortage of auto parts,"

They said the supply shortage is "much worse" that caused by the March tsunami in Japan. "Production remains very fluid and we are assessing the situation week-by-week."

Honda India sources some electronic and under-body car parts from Thailand.

Honda Siel, which is 99.9% owned by Honda and 0.1% by India's Siel Ltd., makes the Brio and Jazz hatchbacks as well as the mid-sized City and Accord sedans at its factory at Greater Noida in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. It also sells the CR-V sport-utility vehicle by importing them.

The automaker unveiled that production of the models like Honda City has been shut down temporarily while the output of Honda Jazz model is reduced considerably.

To tackle the problem, Honda is making emergency arrangements to source components from locations in China and Japan to normalize output.

*  “We are looking at China and Japan very keenly. We hope to firm up things soon and return to normalcy in the coming months, though nothing can be confirmed as of now.”

Last month, Honda manufactured 6,000 units at their manufacturing plant; it is expected to cut 95 per cent of its capacity in December, as only 250 units of Jazz and few more of Civic and Accord will be made.

In addition, it remains to be seen whether Honda will go ahead with launching the facelifted Honda City next month as per schedule in light of this latest development.

Source : inautonews , india.wsj

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