Indian Car News

Luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz is planning to launch its small car, the A Class, in India in a couple of years. Peter Trettin, president and CEO of Daimler, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, said the company would position the A Class as its entry- level car in the country. “This will be lower priced in line with competition,” Mr Trettin said. However, auto experts feel that even the entry level Mercedes will be priced in the range of Rs 16-20 lakh. Mercedes Benz officials have been talking about introducing this car in India for over a decade, but they kept delaying the launch. Experts say this may be due to doubts over whether a high-priced entry-level car would find enough takers here. BMW too has deferred introducing the MINI in India. However, Mr Trettin sounds positive. “In the region I look after, India is a growth market and demand is growing because the economy is growing,” he said. Mercedes Benz India managing director and CEO, Wilfried Aulbur, said sales have picke

BMW has commissioned artist Jeff Koons to produce the 17th BMW art car. The project is now in its 35th year and previous artists to produced art cars include Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Frank Stella. Koons has been keen to produce an art car since 2003 and has been a fan of BMWs since living in Munich 20 years ago. "I always thought it would be an honour to work on a BMW art car,” said Koons at the launch of the project at his New York studio. “I look forward to participating in a tradition set forth by such great artists as Calder, Lichtenstein, Stella and Warhol." BMW art cars have been regularly produced since 1975 and have been on display at the firm’s Munich museum since 2006. Models that have been given the art car treatment include the BMW Z1 and BMW M1. Koons' art car will be revealed later this year. Full details of the car he will use will be announced in due course.

Volvo India will be launching S80, a premium luxury car in the Indian car market in next few months. Volvo sedan S80 will be at price Rs. 39 lac. Volvo sedan S80 will be sold through 12 dealers of the Volvo India. The company has 7 dealers currently and will increase the dealer base to 12 soon. With Volvo sedan S80, company want to improve its market share in luxury car market and also establish itself as a major auto player in India for long term. The car S80 is branded as most youthful and powerful ever. Volvo sedan S80 is equipped with personal car communicator which allows to get all information about THE CAR. To ensure better safety, the car communicator provides alerts and other related information. Volvo S80 car has special feature of collision warning which helps to improve safety while driving. Interesting feature of Volvo S80 car is its steering which is dependent on speed. It is very smooth in slow speed and more stable in high speed. Volvo sedan S80 has two turbo engine ha

A resolving move from the British car maker Aston Martin Lagonda for instilling the sports pleasure into India seems certain. With the model for India yet to be decided, negotiations are on with the local dealers for the formal launch of the car, said an official spokesman over phone. Amidst the downfall in the industry in 2009, luxury cars shone bright giving hope to the makers better fare in the Indian market. BMW secured a growth of 28% during the fiscal year(2627 units) Audi 977 units @ the growth of 61%. Mercedes-Benz India met the dismal show with the fall in its sale to 2% by selling 2478 units. Observers see the mind set among the buyers who switch their loyalty to the brands and the new comers take advantage of this. Luxury sector in two wheelers too promised a lot as Harley-Davidson launched new ranges of its bikes as well as Ducati furthering its flock to the areas of the country. With the opening of second showroom in Gurgaon, Ducati sketched its operation to other cities l

BMW India will be investing $50 million on its wholly-owned subsidiary, BMW Financial Services India. Speaking to reporters at the launch of the limited edition BMW Gran Turismo here on Wednesday, Peter Kronschnabi, President, said the finance company would become functional by mid-2010 and have a car insurance adjunct in collaboration with Bajaj Allianz. Also to be introduced this year will be the pre-owned cars showrooms. While BMW India sold 3,619 cars of all variants in calendar year 2009, it was difficult to hazard a guess about the company’s prospects in the fragmented pre owned cars market, he said. “In the premium cars segment, with around 10,000 cars sold annually, BMW can claim a 40 per cent share. This segment is expected to grow 20 per cent this year after a dull period last year” Mr. Kroschnabi said. Asked about the probable date for the debut of BMW X1, he said it would be made at the Chennai plant, the existing capacity of which was 3000 units in a single shift. “We have

Maruti Suzuki, the country’s largest carmaker, recently outgrew its Japanese parent in sales. The company, whose products have been driven by Japanese engineers for quarter of a century, now plans to do one better than Suzuki Motor Corp in research and development (R&D). Maruti, 54.2% owned by Suzuki, aims to grow out of its parent’s lingering R&D shadow by propping up an ambitious project that it hopes will earn it independent manufacturing capability. The company will turn its upcoming R&D facility at Rohtak — Suzuki’s only such significant centre outside Japan — into a self-reliant setup by 2012 to coincide with the introduction of its first Made-in-India small car, said a senior executive. The target is to make the R&D capability independent and self sufficient by 2012, said SY Siddiqui, head of administration, HR, IT & finance at Maruti. Indeed, Maruti has been spiking the Indian engineering and product development content in new cars. The A-Star and Eeco, whic

Virgin Racing has unveiled its debut Formula One car as it prepares to become one of four new entrants in the 2010 championship. The VR-01 missed the first all-team test in Valencia, Spain this week, but will be at the second Jerez test later this month for its public testing debut. The first stage of Virgin’s on-track evaluation program will take place at Silverstone on Thursday and Friday. Technical director Nick Wirth said that “the chassis design implications created by the refuelling ban were obviously considerable.” Virgin’s drivers are Timo Glock of Germany and Lucas Di Grassi of Brazil.

Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) has declared to stop the production of India’s first economy car Maruti 800 by the year 2012. The Maruti Cervo will take the place of Maruti 800 in the cheapest category. The sources revealed the price of Maruti Cervo will be somewhere around Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh (approx). Maruti cervo is planned to give a toughest fight to Tata people’s car Nano. Although ,Maruti cervo will be little higher than Tata Nano in price but it is expected that the car will be the replacement of wagon R, Alto and Maruti 800. It is true to believe that this will be India’s next small car soon. Maruti Suzuki Cervo will be equipped with an engine capacity of a litre. Considering the trend flowing in the Indian market, 60-65 bhp is a realistic estimate of the power that will be sent to the front wheels. Maruti Suzuki India Limited has revealed its January Month sales for the year 2010 on Februry 1st 2010 via press release. The company has sold a total of 95,649 vehicles in Janua