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Auto Expo: General Motors launches Captiva

General Motors (GM) launched the much awaited Chevrolet Captiva SUV at the Auto Expo. Captiva is priced at Rs 17.74 lakh. General Motors (GM) hopes to sell 1,000 units of captiva SUV by the end of 2008. “The two-litres diesel engine powers Captiva has everything that a premium SUV customer in India wants. We are positioning it as a contemporary SUV here,” Mr Karl Slym, President and Managing Director, GM India said.The other specifications of Indian captiva is expected.
Chevrolet Captiva SUV will compete with Honda’s best selling sports utility vehicle (SUV), CR-V, which is sold at Rs 19.1 lakh, Mitsubhi’s Pajero priced at Rs 18.1 lakh and Ford Endeavour CRDi among others. General Motors is also considering local assembling or producing of the captiva SUV in the future. “We expect to sell 1,000 units of Captiva in India in 2008. Currently we import it as a completely built unit, but if the market dynamics change, we may consider local assembly or production,” Karl Slym, president and managing director of General Motors India Pvt. Ltd. said at an Auto Expo.

LPG Aveo Sedan:

GM also intends to introduce environmentally-friendly gas-powered variants of its Aveo sedan in India.We are working on compressed natural gas, or CNG, and liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG variants of the Aveo sedan,” said Ankush Arora, the vice president of sales, marketing and service for General Motors India, without providing a timeframe for their introduction.

Market share and expectations

” We are in the sixth position now, and have already overtaken Toyota in market share. By 2010, we want to be in the fourth position,” Ankush Arora, vice president (sales and marketing), General Motors India, said after the launch of SUV Captiva at the Auto Expo. Arora added that by the end of 2008, the company’s manufacturing units in India will have a total capacity of 225,000 vehicles. GM is building its second plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra, which will have a total capacity of 140,000 vehicles by the end of this year. “The full capacity of the manufacturing units in India will be utilised by 2009,” Arora said.

Auto Expo: Tata’s new Indigo CS

Tata Motors today launched the new Indigo CS (known as Indigo Compact). Tata Motors has cutdown the length of exiting indigo sedan to avail the tax benefits of the small car for the Indigo CS. Tata Motors dubs the new Indigo CS as the first “sub-4 metre Sedan” of the world. The new Indigo CS would have two engine variants 1.2 litres petrol and 1.4 litres diesel. Tata Motors will soon announce the price for Indigo CS. With the new Indigo CS, Tata Motors is looking at a substantial increase in the sales of the Indigo series.” Currently, the company sells 2,400 units of Indigo a month.

Update: Tata Motors today launched the Indigo Compact Sedan (CS). Tata terms Indigo Compact Sedan (CS) as the world’s first sub four-metre sedan. Tata will position as the first car for young professionals. Indigo Compact Sedan (CS) carries forward the cabin seating comfort and space package, that is now closely associated with the Indigo range and a capacious 400 litre boot. Clever and efficient design has made it possible to encapsulate this Compact Sedan (CS) within the four metre length, making this car a complete package to address the combined demands of space and manoeuvrability in our congested cities. The Indigo Compact Sedan (CS) sports a stylish new tail light cluster in the rear embedded in a smart new rear profile completed with a new, trimmer rear bumper. The front of the Compact Sedan (CS) has also been visually differentiated with a new front grille and new headlamps.

The new Compact Sedan (CS) is available in both petrol and diesel variants. The petrol variant of the Compact Sedan (CS) is equipped with a multi-point fuel injection engine powered by a 32bit microprocessor and churns out a maximum power of 65PS @ 5200 rpm. The diesel variant of the Compact Sedan (CS) comes with the turbo-charged intercooled engine that generates 70PS @ 4500 rpm. The petrol variants will have beige interiors, while the diesel variants will have black interiors. The Indigo Compact Sedan (CS) will be available in two trim levels – a basic AC model & an AC, power steering model. It will be made available in an exciting new Scarlet Red colour, apart from the existing range of Indigo shades. Priced attractively, the car goes on sale mid-January 2008.

Auto Expo: Tata new Sumo Grande

Tata Motors today launched the new sumo grande (known as sumo phoenix). The new Tata Sumo grande is powered by a 2.2 dicor engine and the company expects to make the vehicle available to customers by the first week of next month. This 2.2L Dicor is first introduced in the recently launched safari. Tata Sumo ‘Grande’ priced between Rs 6.6 lakh and Rs 7.49 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).Tata Motors expects the sumo sales to go up by 30 per cent with this sumo grande. With the new Sumo Grande we are expecting about 30 per cent increase in the sales of the Sumo family,” Tata Motors Managing Director Rajiv Dube said

update: The new Sumo Grande combines the looks of an SUV with the comforts of a family car. Sumo grande been specifically designed to satisfy the needs of city customers in the areas of driveability, manoeuvrability and fuel efficiency. The Sumo Grande sports an all new styling with clean chiselled looks mating with flowing contours. The tall aggressive stance of the sumo grande is complimented by large clear headlamps, and a cutaway air dam in the front. The clean rear look, with the spare wheel tucked under the body, is accentuated by attractive tail lights and a chrome overlay.

Designed with a longer wheelbase of 2550 mm (existing 2400 mm), the Sumo Grande sports comfortable 3 row seating with best in class third row seats. Beige interiors are complimented by fire and stain resistant fabric upholstery. Dual HVAC with roof integrated louvers ensures personalised climate adjustment for the occupants in each row. Power steering, power windows, motorised ORVMs, height adjustable driver’s seat and a state of the art CD/MP3 music system further add to the comforts and convenience of a family traveling in the Sumo Grande. The sumo grande is powered by the new generation 2.2 L direct injection common rail (DICOR) engine, fitted with a variable geometry turbocharger creating a perfect blend of performance and fuel efficiency. Maximum power and torque of 120 PS and 250 Nm, coupled with high torque levels over a wide RPM band enhance driveability in stop start city traffic. For a vehicle its size, the Sumo Grande is extremely manoeuvrable with the turning circle radius of 5.25 m, similar to a small car.

The Sumo Grande will be available in 3 variants – Lx, Ex and Gx — all of which have two seating configurations – 6+1 and 7+1. The vehicle will be available in 7 colours, including 4 new shades, Sunset Orange, Zephyr Green, Mineral Red and Marine Blue. The Sumo Grande range is priced in the range of Rs.6.55 lakhs to Rs.7.49 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi). Sumo grande comes with an enhanced warranty of 2 years or 75000 kms. (whichever is earlier). An additional 2 years’ warranty can be availed through the extended warranty option. The sumo grande will be available in showrooms across the country from the first week of February 2008.

Ford to pump $500 million into india

In it move to roll out Fiesta hatchback (Ford’s small car for india), Ford plans to invest $500 million in india. Few days back we reported you Ford plans to bring Fiesta hatchback to India and Ford is planning to construct an engine plant near chennai. The engine plant is the Ford’s first engine plant with diesel engine production capability outside Europe. However, Ford India will continue sourcing petrol engines and transmissions from Hindustan Motors. With the new engine plant in place, Hindustan Motors would meet the increased requirement for transmissions. Ford India will source transmissions from them for its engines meant for the domestic market. In the first phase a diesel engine assembly plant with an initial annual capacity of 50,000 units will roll out engines to be used in the locally made Fiesta and Fusion by April 2008. Producing engine in India will help Ford to price its products competitively especially the Fiesta sedan prices will be slashed.

Ford which has been considering a small car for india finally prepared a blueprint to produce the small car.Production of the small car is will commence within two years, and this will increase the overall annual production of Ford India to 2lakh units by 2010. Ford remains tight lipped on its plans, it refused to divulge the engine capacity or the price of the small car. “It will be smaller than the Fusion, which is already classified as a small car by Indian norms,” Arvind Mathew, president and MD of Ford India said. “The new investment increases Ford’s total financial commitment in India to more than $875 million, and underscores its plan to elevate India as one of the strategic production hubs for small cars in the company’s Asia-Pacific and Africa region. India is a priority market for Ford,” he added.

Bajaj’s to make truck on lite platform

Bajaj which unveiled the ‘lite’ platform today has said that it will use this platform for both the cargo vehicle and small car. Bajaj will roll out two commercial vehicle on this platform in 2009. Two base models with short and longer wheelbases on lite platform will be launched. Both these trucks will be powered by a multi-cylinder diesel engine which Bajaj claims produced indigenously. According to Mr. R.C. Maheshwari, CEO-CV, Bajaj Auto, “We have frozen the key performance parameters for the new commercial vehicles. The values that will drive the business will be those of innovation and offering the highest value for our customers. The Lite Commercial vehicles will also be rolled out from the new Chakan plant.” These models could then have varying body frames for various application i.e. open bodied pick-up van, close bodied delivery van, soft drink, gas cylinder carriers etc. Bajaj plans to produce 2,50,000 units for both LCVs and the car at its chakan plant. The lite based LCVs price would be announced closer to its official launch. The light commercial vehicle segment has been witnessing growth since the launch of Tata’s Ace and Piaggio ape truk. Force Motors recently launched four wheeled cargo carrier called ‘M4’. In the last few months, Ashok Leyland entered in to a joint venture with Nissan, Swedish automotive giant Volvo tied up with Eicher and Daimler with the Hero Group, each competing for a pie of the LCVs segment. Besides them, AMW is producing a LCV which will be launched soon.

Bajaj to bring Kawasaki Ninja and KTM Duke to india

Apart from the new Discover 150cc, XCD Sprint and Blade 125cc DTSi, Bajaj will add two new models to its Probiking range. Bajaj has 18% stake in KTM an austrian Bike maker and has technological tie-up with Japan based Kawasaki for more than 20 years. Indian bike market has now matured to absorb to superbikes, international majors are planning to bring the flagship products to india. Yamaha has already launched MT-01 and YZF R1 in india. Suzuki has already announced it will bring 600cc bike this diwali. Bajaj which has been setting benchmark for performance bikes doesn’t want to miss the bus. Bajaj will bring India 250cc Kawasaki Ninja and 690cc Duke to India in 2008. Bajaj will market this bikes through its exclusive Probiking showroom.

Mahindra acquires Italian design firm

Mahindra & Mahindra Tuesday said it plans to acquire Italian auto design firm G R Grafica Ricerca Design for an undisclosed amount. Through this acquisition, the company intends to develop a global design centre for the group and cater to global auto original equipment manufacturers, the automaker said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange.“The synergies resulting from this acquisition will not only help us strengthen our existing design capabilities but will also help us emerge as a global auto design powerhouse,” M&M Automotive Sector President Pawan Goenka said. Complementary capabilities between Mahindra & GRD will enhance the product development capabilities and provide a strong European footprint to leverage technologies and skill sets through the available talent pool of designers and engineers, Goenka added. The company would incorporate a new subsidiary, Mahindra Graphic Research and Design (MGRD), for acquiring the Italian firm, M&M said. GRD executes designing, body engineering and feasibility and styling work for leading auto OEMs and designing companies based out of Europe and Asia. The current GRD management team will continue to drive all operations for MGRD, the transaction is expected to close by end of January 2008. Today, Mahindra officially announced it would exit from Renault-Nissan-M&M JV.
The latest acquisition of Italy-based auto design and engineering firm Grafica Ricerca Design indicates that M&M has decided to explore options beyond Renault-Nissan to strengthen its design capabilities and hence, its access to the European market.

Lectrix Motors to manufacture ebikes

SAR group is foraying into the fast-growing automobile market with their own range of e-bikes. A new venture has been floated under the name of Lectrix Motors to manufacture and market the bikes, and a Rs 200-crore plant is being set up in Himachal Pradesh. “Initially we would be putting in Rs 30 crore in the plant and the rest of the funding will be done over the next three years,” said Rakesh Malhotra, founder & CEO of the SAR group. The e-bikes, initially being launched in two models (in six variants) and priced between Rs 28,000 and Rs 29,500, will be on display at 2008 Auto Expo.

Bajaj XCD Sprint

Bajaj which tasted the success with the XCD will come out with a new variant of the same in 2008. To be named as XCD sprint 125cc will cater to the needs of 125cc customer. Unlike the current XCD, the new XCD sprint will host Nitrox suspension and disc brake which means superior comfort and improved safety. XCD sprint will also feature larger alloy wheels to improve the style.Apart from XCD sprint, Bajaj Auto today announced that it will launch 150cc Discover and blade 125cc DTSi in 2008.

Bajaj’s new scooter Blade 125cc

Bajaj which showcased the blade scooter in 2006 Auto Expo will launch the scooter in 2008. Though the motorcycles sales continues to dip, scooter sales soars. In 2007, it posted double digit growth. Bajaj once a dominant player in the scooter market confined to concentrate only on motorcycles. kristal the only scooter from Bajaj Auto fails to inspire customers unlike activa and scooty pep. In the mean while Suzuki Access and Kinetic sym flyte made a new segment (125cc) in 2007 Both access and flyte are received well by the customers and posting good numbers every month. Bajaj will debut in this 125cc segment with the new ‘Blade 125cc’ (yes, it will not feature 160cc engine as showcased in 2006 Auto expo) The new blade 125cc DTSi will target not just the girls but the working men. Disc brakes, Telescopic front fork and superior suspension settings will set a new benchmark for other scooters. Bike owners may take back their words, Blade is not just for commuting it will be peppy and compete even with the motorcycles. The 125cc engine will feature proven DTSi technology and the presence of four valves will help in efficient charging/discharging and hence we can expect improved fuel efficiency figure from blade 125cc DTSi. Watch this space to know more about Bajaj’s Blade 125cc DTSi