• Mahindra is working on the Verito facelift as the product’s life cycle is reaching maturity a bit too fast. Expected to be in line with the new Xylo and XUV design style, the new Verito should appeal to the Indian customer.
• Mahindra is launching the Thar AC version, with a factory-fitted AC. Watch this space.
• Mercedes Benz India is officially launching the new facelifted ML 350 SUV, today, in Delhi. The Blue-Tec diesel Mercedes, launched globally in January, prices will be announced by noon.
• The Tamil Nadu government scored an ace amidst policy paralysis by signing pacts with five automotive giants ensuring a total investment of Rs 5700 crore in the state and roughly 10000 job opportunities. Companies like Daimler CV, Yamaha, Nissan-Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors and Philips Carbon Black are investing in Oragadam near Chennai which is developing as an extensive automotive hub in south India.
• India’s first online store for tyres, ChangeMyTyre.com, has started business with its launch and will deliver tyres across all major cities in India. CEO and co-founder, Mr. Neeraj Chauhan hopes to make the tyre market transparent and convenient thereby gaining big business.
• The Audi A3 Sedan, based on the A3 MQB platform will be positioned just below the Audi A4. Technically competing with the VW Passat, Skoda Superb, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, the speculated Mercedes CLA, Audi hopes to take the segment head on.
• Mercedes Benz India is beaming after registering a 30 per cent growth in sales year on year in spite of the said global slowdown. Around 7430 Mercs went on sale compared to last year’s 5810 units.
• Hyundai is now offering the rear-view camera as standard fitment on the fluidic Verna albeit at increased cost for the customer.
• General Motors have forayed into the competition by revealing pictures of the Trax, a mini-SUV that competes with the Ford EcoSport and Maruti XA-Alpha. The Trax will be showcased at the Paris Motor Show in September this year. They will have to rename the model when it comes to India given the existence of Force Trax.
• The Mercedes Benz E-class facelift was spotted testing in Europe. Though heavily camouflaged, the new E-class gave up a few details. Integrated daytime running lights into the headlamp, re-styled bumpers and tail are some of the features. We expect this car to debut in India with its world debut as the new A6 and current ruling BMW 5-series are eating away at Mercedes’ share in the segment.
• An American military research facility is working on using the exhaust gas thermodynamics of battle tanks to generate electricity to run the on board computers and other systems as far as possible. This would improve the efficiencies and also reduce emissions. It sounds similar to the electrical turbocharger that is rumoured to debut on the next Subaru Impreza WRX.
• Porsche has denied that it will develop a sports car that will slot under the Boxster. The Pajun, which we reported just days ago will compete with the E-Class, ‘may become reality’ in five or six years.
• McLaren has developed a convertible MP4-12C. It will go on sale after the McLaren F1 successor, we imagine. 
• Eterniti Motors has garnered their first sale of the Artemis super-SUV at the Bejing Auto Show.
• The US senate has okayed the installation of ‘black boxes’ in cars from 2015 onwards. This should help settle more than a few lawsuits quickly! 
• Jay Leno has added a Tata Nano to his garage. This wouldn’t have been remarkable if his garage didn’t house over 200 cars, some of them one-offs and really rare masterpieces. 

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.

One Mr. Blijdatikrij, an online spare parts provider from the Netherlands, imported a Tata Nano into his country and got it registered privately for use. They spent 2400 Euros to buy the car, another 625 to transport the car into the Netherlands and another 600 euros to upgrade the car to comply to the standards of the land.

The car has now been deemed safe to ply on the Netherlands roads by the RW (Rijksdienst voor het wegverkeer), the NL authority to homologate foreign cars.

This will serve as a boost to Tata's efforts to make a EU compliant Nano and go on sale in the European market. The Nano's universal appeal of a safe, comfortable and economical mode of private transport will help Tata turn around the Nano story.

• A prospective Ferrari California buyer, drove the $ 200,000 car into the bay after going a bit to hot on the pedal during the test drive. The incident was confirmed just to the north of San Francisco, CA and is the second such incident involving an exotic car in the state of California. Earlier, a Lamborghini Aventador got burnt while on test drive.

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 CNG Nano will house a 35 litre CNG tank along with a 15 litre petrol tank will fuel the same 624 cc two cylinder petrol engine. The suspension will be tuned to absorb the added weight. The CNG tank will have leakage detection system that would shut the tank even for mildest of a leak. Intelligent placement of the CNG tank will not hamper the space in the car. The extra care is taken to avoid unfortunate incidents of burning that marred the beginning of the Nano.

The price of the CNG version is expected to be 20 per cent above the existing price of the Nano.

Speaking on the introduction of the Tata Nano in Nepal, Mr. Johnny Oommen, Head – International Business (Passenger Vehicles), Tata Motors, said, “We are delighted to introduce the Tata Nano in Nepal. We are confident that with its comfort, performance and manoeuvrability, the Tata Nano is the ideal small car for discerning customers of Nepal and will win their hearts. With Sipradi, we have created a country-wide infrastructure to service our customers.”

Mr. Siddhartha Rana, Executive Chairman, Sipradi Trading Pvt. Ltd. said, “We in Sipradi are proud to bring the Tata Nano to Nepal. Customers in Nepal too will now have the joy and the benefit of a stylish, feature-rich small car. With the launch of the Tata Nano in Nepal, we with Tata Motors are committed to expanding passenger vehicles to new heights.”

The introductory price of the Tata Nano in Nepal is NPR 7.98 lakhs. In the first phase, bookings will be open for 10 days, starting from today. All the 3 variants will be available for booking at 14 Sipradi owned & Sipradi authorised dealer showrooms. The Nano Standard can be booked for NPR 10,000,  the Nano CX for NPR 20,000 and the Nano LX for NPR 30,000. The EMI for the Tata Nano will be as low as NPR 11,111.

Tata managed to sell 8262 units of its small car Nano while the Indica sold 10044 units in February. The Sumo/ Safari/ Aria/ Venture range accounted for sales of 4, 637 units. With the announcement of the BS-IV variant of the Indica and with the company unveiling the concept small car Pixel at the Geneva Motorshow Tata is sure looking to get some heads turning this year.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Carl-Peter Forster, Managing Director and Group CEO of Tata Motors, said, “Tata Motors holds true to its belief that there is an opportunity in Europe for a city car, which is optimal in space, manoeuvrability and environment-friendliness. The Tata Pixel is a reflection of Tata Motors’ idea of what such a car should be.”

The Tata Pixel’s ability to manoeuvre and park in the tightest of spaces is made possible by its Zero Turn toroidal traction-drive Infinitely Variable Transmission (IVT), which assists rotation of the outer rear wheel forwards and the inner rear wheel backwards, while the front wheels turn at acute angles. The result is a turning circle radius of just 2.6 metres. The 'scissor' doors rotate upwards from the front to allow passengers to effortlessly enter or exit the Tata Pixel, even in the tightest of spaces.

A 1.2 litre three-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine, positioned at the rear of the Tata Pixel, gives lively performance. The engine is a low-friction design, featuring variable coolant and oil pump and rapid warm-up technologies. With optimised aerodynamic drag, low rolling-resistance tyres, stop-start technology, and intelligent battery charging, the Tata Pixel returns European combined cycle (NEDC) fuel economy of 3.4 l/100km and CO2 emissions of just 89g/km.