The CarWale Daily Fuel is your quick daily dose of automotive news from India and around the world. If you want to know whatever's in the news but want it short and sweet, here's your solution.

• Mahindra launched the Thar AC version at its Mumbai headquarters for Rs 6.75 lakh, ex-showroom Mumbai along with the highly customised Thar Expedition that would cost more as per the customisation.

• Mahindra and Mahindra also unveiled the Adventure calender for 2012 starting this July. With single day as well as multiple day events, motorsports participation and a Mahindra off-road championship, Mahindra is going from strength to strength in its off-road arena.

• SBI is the largest financer for passenger car segment in India on basis of its 11.25% car loan offer. With an average loan amount of Rs 3.5 lakh, the bank is working towards online sanctioning of loans,

• Mercedes M-class facelift was launched yesterday in Delhi with the AMG kit CBU at Rs 66 lakh ex-showroom. Only this model will be available for the first six months after which the India assembled CKD M-class will be available for Rs 56.9 lakh ex-showroom, Delhi.

• Honda Siel's Indian partner, Usha International, is unhappy with Honda's valuation of their share for buyout. Saying that the shares are being grossly undervalued, the Siddharth Shriram led company is planning to increase its shareholding using the next rights issue.

• Tata Motors' global sales figures were flat for April as the increasing demand for Jaguar and Land Rover was dampened by the falling commercial vehicle sales.

• Karnataka Inspector General of Police has served a 31^st May ultimatum for car owners to remove the window tints on their cars. Offenders are liable to be fined and their cars seized for removal of tints. Till 31^st, the police will campaign for educating car owners about the new ruling and will suggest them to remove tints without fine.

• Volvo is planning for the long wheel base (LWB) S60 for the Chinese market after global leaders like Audi, BMW, Volkswagen have opted for LWB models for China. Volvo already has the LWB S80 on sale in China.

• A leading global car manufacturer is developing a system where the driver is induced by the car to have a power nap by using aroma-therapy and music. Initially targeted for the trucker segment, the technology may trickle down to passenger cars. A 20 minute power-nap is said to enhance concentration and reduce stress while driving long hours.

• Porsche is showing off the 918 Spyder after the final finishing touches that include the 917 inspired black and white paint scheme. The 500bhp 4.0 litre V8 hybrid combines with two electric motors is expected to do a 0-100kmph in 3.1 seconds and a top speed of about 320 kmph. The approximately Rs 4.5 crore car, in spite of its performance is expected to return a whopping 33 kms per litre.

• General Motors USA has decided to stop advertising on Facebook after analysts saw a very little impact on consumers. This is contrary to what US car manufacturers in India are doing - for example, the Blue Oval is investing heavily in the web medium to reach out to a wider audience.

• Formula One plans of a French GP have become dicey after the supporting Sarkozy government lost elections. The new government is not keen on subsidising the event as proposed by its predecessors citing the need of funds to combat the economic crisis in the EU.

• Another setback to Bernie Ecclestone has come after the Singapore market, where F1 was to offer its Initial Public Offering (IPO), is not very enthusiastic after the depressed stock markets. If the IPO is not conducted by June, you have to wait to buy your stake in F1 till next year.

• Sea Lion, claimed to be the fastest amphibious car by its creator Marc Witt, is capable of clocking 200 kmph on road and around 100 kmph in water. You could own the water proof amphibian racer for about Rs 1.35 crore without taxes in US.

The CarWale Daily Fuel is your quick daily dose of automotive news from India and around the world. If you want to know whatever's in the news but want it short and sweet, here's your solution.

• Mahindra-Reva sales have dropped after the subsidy that the government had offered ended on March 31 this year. The car now costs Rs 4-4.87 lakh. The new policy will be implemented in the second quarter of this financial year, which leaves three months of expensive electric vehicles - and poor sales for Reva. 
• The new Mercedes crossover has (finally) been christened the GLA. It will share its platform with the A and B Class, and will be slightly smaller than the BMW X1. 
• Luxury players like BMW and Mercedes are being extremely conservative with sales projections for this financial year, with both quoting between 10 and 20 per cent. Audi is positive, with a projection of over 50 per cent riding on the Q3's launch. 
• Thomas Chacko, a 62-year old motoring enthusiast, will set out to cover 25000km all over India in 80 days in his Tata Nano. He will visit significant locations like the geographic extremes of the country in all four directions, the highest motorable road and Nagpur, the geographic centre of India. 
• Land Rover has produced three lakh units of the Freelander 2 since the first examples rolled off the production line in 2007. 
• Renault-Nissan have committed to purchase 25 per cent more stake in Lada auto manufacturer AvtoVAZ, bringing its stake to 50 per cent. The purchase will be implemented by 2014 and will give Renault-Nissan an added advantage in one of the world's fastest-growing auto markets.
• Honda has found a unique way to ease traffic congestion: it has a technology that monitors the behaviour of the vehicle being driven, and analyses whether the driving characteristics will lead to congestion. It worked very well in test situations, by reducing fuel consumption by up to 23 per cent and of the trailing vehicles by 8 per cent. Now Honda plans to test it in Italy and Indonesia - we now plan to follow the test results carefully: to the best of our knowledge, there are very few things that can make an Italian driver slow down...
• Rumor has it that the next Subaru Impreza WRX/STi might have a turbocharger that runs on electricity. You heard that right: the heat from the exhaust gases will be used to generate electricity, not spin the impeller, and the electric power is what will spin the turbocharger. Less turbo lag, yes - but are we going to see (hear?) the death of the blowoff valve?

The CarWale Daily Fuel is your quick daily dose of automotive news from India and around the world. If you want to know whatever's in the news but want it short and sweet, here's your solution. 

The CarWale Daily Fuel is your quick daily dose of automotive news from India and around the world. If you want to know whatever's in the news but want it short and sweet, here's your solution. 

Automatic transmission cars have only two pedals, brake and throttle, and the lack of impending gear changes reduces driving stress or effort by 60 per cent. Congested city roads and heavy traffic can be nearly stress-free when driving an automatic. Rising traffic density and the stop-and-go commuting is affecting customer choice.

Maruti Suzuki was the pioneer for the small car automatic option it had launched for M800 in 1987. Now, it offers automatic gearboxes in the Dzire and A-star at the 'budget' end of its range. Honda, one of the first companies to launch an automatic sedan, Honda City, is witnessing a huge rise in demand for automatics. The automatic share in City sales is about 21 per cent ; for the Civic it is 32 per cent whereas it is above 60 per cent in premium offerings like the Accord and the CR-V.

The automatic revolution was ushered into India by BMW and Audi, who launched only automatic cars in India. They say that these cars are mostly chauffeur driven and automatics are more comfortable and smooth compared to manuals.

With automatic sales picking up, the price difference between the two transmissions has narrowed. The latest advancements in the automatic transmission technology has improved efficiencies and has helped companies to convince customers to look at automatics as a viable option. Ford even offers a 240,000km/10-year warranty on its Fiesta's automatic gearbox, along with fuel efficiency that nearly matches the manual's figures. With this sort of confidence, it isn't hard to imagine more and more consumers making the automatic choice.

Honda has been supplying automobiles alternatively from Japan to some countries in the Asia Oceania Region including Thailand, which were impacted by the disruption of production due to the flooding. However, as of today, all production plants have resumed production and are expected to normalize in April.

Positioning HATC as one of the most important production operations in the Asia/Oceania Region, Honda was totally committed to realizing the earliest possible recovery. Honda will maintain the same positioning of HATC in the future and further promote business operations in Thailand.

At the Tokyo Motor Show in December 2011, Takanobu Ito, President and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced that Honda is developing a new generation of drive trains named ‘Earth Dreams Technology’. This new series of engines and transmissions will deliver excellent performance and environmental values and will be gradually introduced throughout the Honda range.

The new Honda CR-V has a more aggressive stance than the current generation and this fourth-generation will go on sale in Autumn 2012. The lower front bumper wraps smartly upward to convey SUV capability, while the lower front bumper design now integrates more smoothly into the fascia for improved aerodynamics. 

 “We are delighted to announce that we have resumed two shift operation from today. We will have production of 370 cars per day from today and from next week it will ramp up to 440 units per day. We are confident to achieve peak production output in March 2012. We are thankful to our valued customers for their patience and understanding during these challenging times.  Honda has been carefully monitoring the part supply process and have taken all the necessary recovery actions to normalize production situation with critical components now being sourced from Japan & China” , Honda Siel Cars India Senior Vice-President (Marketing & Sales) Jnaneswar Sen said.

“Our top priority at the moment is to reduce the backlog and closely work with our dealers to ensure prompt deliveries. We are hopeful to clear most of the current Brio bookings within March 2012 and deliver cars to these waiting customers.  We will also be launching a comprehensive communication campaign to communicate the Brio availability and increase activities at dealerships to enhance touch and feel experience with the car.” he further added.

The production of the new City has already been resumed and more than 1500 units were rolled out in January 2012. The production of Honda Brio is resuming from mid February 2012 while the production of Honda Jazz will start towards the end of February 2012.