As the sun sets on Saturday, the historical lanes in Nizamuddin will witness a drive of vintage cars. The vintage car drive is being organised by the Heritage Motoring Club of India (HMCI) in association with the Nizamuddin East Colony Association.
Hyundai Motor India Ltd., today launched its eighth nationwide free car care clinic. Starting from 20th March till 29th March 2010, the free service will be conducted at 410 Hyundai dealer workshops across the country. The customers will also be able to avail this free check-up service at 30 Hyundai Authorised Service Centers (HASC) across India.
Daimler India Commercial Vehicle Pvt Ltd, the 100 percent Indian subsidiary of German automobile giant Daimler AG, said that it is setting up a plant in Oragadam, TamilNadu (near Chennai) to roll out 36,000 trucks by 2012.
General Motors is all set to launch the electric version of its small car ‘Spark’ in the Indian market by the end of this year.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), recently organised a Xylo Mileage Marathon, an initiative focused on testing Xylo’s fuel efficiency.
The luxury SUV segment in India got another competitor with Mercedes-Benz launching the GL 350 CDI Blue Efficiency - equipped with off road pro-engineering package, 7-GTRONIC gearbox, 4Matic permanent all-wheel drive etc.
The Toyota Corolla and then the newer Altis has seen plenty of competition over the last few years in the segment and to re-affirm their commitment to the environment they developed the clean and efficient Altis CNG last year, which is only sold in the national capital city and Mumbai. (Regular readers will remember that we broke the news first on our site when we got up close and personal with a CNG test car).
Now, they’re finally going to consider launching the diesel version of the Altis and the car is currently undergoing tests. While the final engine specifications are still unknown, one expects the engine to be in the 85 - 100bhp range if it needs to fight competition in the segment. Toyota are fairly tight-lipped on the possible launch dates of the car but we do hope it sees the light of day fairly soon – hopefully in the second quarter of 2010. Watch this space!
Renault-Nissan alliance today inaugurated the first dedicated Renault-Nissan alliance vehicle manufacturing plant to produce Micra.
Swedish car maker Volvo Auto India has brought the Volvo XC60 to India as per plans. The car arrived on the Indian shores last week and has been handed over for homologation.
BorgWarner Inc, a US-based auto component and systems manufacturing company, opened its Indian facility at the SIPCOT Industrial Park at Sriperumbudur in Chennai.
Japanese auto maker, Nissan Motors yesterday said that they are open for tie-ups to built a car that would be positioned between the ultra-low-cost car being developed with Bajaj Auto and the fourth generation Micra.
Tata Motor’s today opened a new showroom in central Mumbai - Galaxy Motors. The showroom is based in Mulund and will be central Mumbai’s flagship Tata & Fiat passenger car outlet.
Fiat India, which has done a comeback of sorts in the Indian car market, is leaving no stone unturned to be in the minds of the people. The company officials recently said that they plan to introduce Linea 1.4 TJet and Punto Sports in July-August 2010.
Indian automakers is very optimistic about the growth in Indian car market and feels that the rise in excise duty or price of fuel will not dent the market. In fact, 2010 is a year that everybody is looking forward to; manufacturers and consumers alike.
The Tata Motors Group global sales, comprising of Tata, Tata Daewoo and Hispano Carrocera range of commercial vehicles, Tata passenger vehicles along with distributed brands in India, and Jaguar and Land Rover, were 89,768 nos. in February 2010, a growth of 59% over February 2009. Cumulative sales for the fiscal (April 2009 – February 2010) are 771,238, higher by 17% compared to the corresponding period in 2008-09.
