Audi to invest Rs.1,86,340 Crores for 11 new models

Audi has planned invest €22 billion (Rs.1,86,340) over a period of four year between 2014 and 2018. Investment in fixed assets is €16 billion (Rs.1,35,520). Other than fixed assets €6 billion in capitalized development cost.  This investment is for increasing its number of models from 49 to 60 by 2020

Audi, the four wheeler major is an world-class luxury cars manufacturer. Audi concentrates and develops cutting edge technologies in automotive sector. Now about 70% of the above investment is to be spent for new product and technology development.

Audi has target of 20 million car deliveries per year. And to achieve this goal, production facility of audi have to be improved. Apart from new model, current investment is also focused towards improving present technologies and increasing fuel efficiency of the audis.

"We had set the goal of 1.5 million deliveries per year by 2015, but we already achieved that quite comfortably in 2013. We are now decisively steering towards our next milestone of two million deliveries. This is why we are keeping our foot on the gas regarding investments and why we are hiring new employees in 2014.”says Rupert Stadler, Chairman of Board of Management, at Audi AG.

1800-103-8090(Toll-free) Chevrolet 24x7 Free Roadside Assistance

Chevrolet owned by General Motors, is now providing free roadside assistance for the chevrolet customers anywhere and anytime in india. This free roadside assistance is applicable only for chevrolet cars bought from January 2014.  Existing chevrolet customers can also avail this facility at a cost of Rs.1000 per year. For three years plan cost reduces to Rs.2,700/- both under warranty.

For free roadside assistance two phone numbers are announced by General Motors(Chevrolet),

1. 1800-103-8090 (Toll-free)
2. 0124-4388090 

Service supports is 24x7 (anytime, anywhere in india). In case vehicle can not be serviced immediately, free taxi provision will be made for the passengers. Also towing facility is provided, so that car is connected to some other vehicle by rope and brought to service points.

General Motors India has launched this initiative to improve sales and to provide better hassle free, round the clock assistance to chevrolet owners anywhere in the country. Chevrolet claimed to provide immediate service, irrespective of  nature of the problem in the car. Support is provided to all kind of problems like mechanical failure, electrical failure, road accidents, tyre puncture, fuel drain, lose of key, battery down etc.

“The customer is the most important facet of our business. With the launch of the roadside assistance program, we are taking the ownership experience a step further by ensuring complete peace of mind and comfort. The initiative includes special care for our customers in the event of vehicle immobilisation such as free taxi provision and towing facility anywhere in India” said P Balendran, vice-president, General Motors India.

Garmin Launches Newer Navigation Devices

Garmin Ltd. is world's leading satellite navigation devices manufacturer. Garmin produces navigation devices for aviation, marine industries and also for public users. Garmin has launched two navigation devices,

1. Nuvi 2460 LM at Rs.14,990
2. Nuvi 2568 LM at Rs.17,990

Important features in these devices are, 

• Multi-route options
• Parking lots location near a destination
• Nearest Tourist Spots
• Voice Guidance both in English and Hindi
• Previous Search History

One click home to office/office to home route. Text to speech feature which pronounce the street name in indian english. And the maps are updated freely for lifetime. Device also rate the fuel economy and carbon emission from the engine. 

Photo Real Junction View

Major advantage is Photo Real Junction View. When the car is heading towards a junction, where single road splits into two roads, the device shows the real view of the road, while the previous version shows only the animated image.

“With the launch of these devices, we are ensuring that people should get the world class experience in navigation. Being a company which has reached a mark of selling more than 110 million products, we take it as our responsibility to constantly upgrade our products and this is an attempt in that direction,” says Tony An, sales and marketing director, Garmin Corporation.

Honda City Diesel

Honda is to launch '2014 Honda City' on 7th January, 2014. Honda city is to be launched in three variant,with petrol engine, with petrol engine and CVT gearbox (Continuously Variable Transmission) and the third variant is highly expected diesel engine model.

Honda city is known for its mileage with out compromising the high comfort and performance. It has 1.5litres, i-VTEC engine which produces 120PS power. Also has six speed gear box with optimised gear ratios. Pick up of Honda City is also quite good, 100Kmph speed can be reached in just 12.8 seconds.

Honda City Mileage is 26 Kmpl as per ARAI (Automotive Reasearch Association of India). Top speed of the City is 163 Kmph. Bookings for Honda City is already started and booking charges are around 50,000 to 1,00,000. Honda City shall be delivered to the customer at the end of January 2014.

Best Car and Bike of 2013

JK Tyres and Industries has announced Hyundai Grand i10 as '2014 Indian Car of The Year' (ICOTY) for the year 2013. Grand i10 has excellent comfort features and mileage performance.
Its is a good blend of comfort and mileage with competitive price around 5 Lakhs. Grand i10 has surpassed Honda Amaze and Ford Ecosport and won this prestigious award.

Royal Enfield Continental GT has won the '2014 Indian Bike of The Year' (IBOTY) award for the year 2013. This bike surpassed KTM Duke and Hyosung Aquila Pro, which won second and third places respectively.

Both the car and bikes are judged by considering various factors like, fuel efficiency, price, style, comfort, safety, performance, innovation, price worth and drivability on indian road conditions.

Some of the previous ICOTY winners are,

• Renault Duster (2013)
• Maruthi Suzuki Swift (2012)
• Ford Figo (2011)
• Tata Nano (2010)
• Honda City (2009)
• Hyundai i10 (2008)
• Honda Civic (2007)
• Maruthi Suzuki Swift (2006)

Previous IBOTY winners are,

• KTM Duke 200 (2013)
• Honda CBR 250R (2012)
• Honda CB Twister (2011)
• Kawasaki Ninja 250R (2010)
• Yamaha R15 (2009)
• Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi (2008)

Suzuki Hayate - Complete Review

Suzuki Hayate is a commuter bike with good style and mileage (Hayate means 'fresh breeze' in Japanese).  It has better body work which is aerodynamic and good looking. Has 5-spokes alloy wheels but no disc brakes. Hayate provides better mileage, cost worthy and stylish. Hayate has been advertised frquently in magazine, television and in internet with bollywood superstar salman khan as its brand ambassador.

Engine: Hayate has single cyclinder, 4 stroke, air cooled, 112cc engine, with single overhead cam shaft. Engine provides maximum power of 6.2KW@7500rpm (8.3HP@7500rpm) and maximum torque of 8.8 Nm at 5500 rpm. Engine has wet sump lubrication system. Also has normal compression ratio of 9.5:1, which is good for a petrol engines. Hayate has both kick starting and electric starting(self starting) facilities.

Gear Box: Hayate has four speed gear box, with manual transmission. Clutch is also multi-plate wet clutch which is usual in an commuter bike. Gear ratios are four down type, which means the gear lever has to pressed downwards to shift to next gear. Need not to pull the gear lever up by inserting the foot below the lever and lifting the gear pedal. Hence the gear shift is simple and easier to shift gears quickly.

Brakes: Hayate has drum brake on both front and rear wheels. There is no disc brake option, hence bike have to be bought with drum brakes only. Most of the companies provides drum or disc brake option, so that buyer can choose any one type of brake(though disc brake variant is a little expensive). Disc brakes are very effective than drum brake because the bike stops immediately when using disc brakes. Today, many mileage bikes have disc brakes like  bajaj discover, tvs phonix, honda shine, etc. Absence of disc brake is a disadvantage of the bike.

Mileage and Power: Hayate provides very impressive mileage around 70 Kmpl. Mileage is the biggest advantage in hayate. Hayate is priced around Rs.50,000 (on-road chennai) for only kick start variant and Rs.52,000 (on-road chennai)for variants having both kick and electric/self start facilities. Price changes across the country and price is cheapest in chandigarh around 44K for kick start variant.

Performance: Top speed of hayate is around 90 Kmph with pick up of 0-60 kmph in 8.9 seconds and 0-400 metres in 23.61 seconds (courtesy: overdrive.in). Hayate has relatively good pick up, which is normal and sufficient for commuter mileage bikes.

Styling and comfort: Hayate has better body stlyes and graphics. 5-spokes alloy wheels provides good looks for the bike. Telescopic, oil damped suspension in front and swing arm, coil spring and oil damped suspension in the rear, makes the ride quite comfortable. Better seat and head lamp design adds to the style of the bike. Also hayate has six different colour variants. 

Colours: Suzuki hayate comes out in six different colours,


Red
Black and Blue combination
Red and Black combination
White
Grey
Green 

Scores:
(+)

1. Better Mileage around 70 Kmpl.
2. Good Style and body design
3. Worth for price of the bike

(-)

1. No Disc Brake
2. Head Lamp is not much brighter

National Energy Conservation Award for M&M

Mahindra and Mahindra has received National Energy Award 2013 for its energy efficient manufacturing setup at zaheerabad plant. Many models of mahindra vehicles are manufactured here like Max, Camper, Alfa passenger, etc. The plant has consumed 18% lesser electric energy and 29.96% lesser heat enegy compared to the previous year.

National Energy Award is given by Ministry of Power, Government of India for efficient usage of energy through innovative and effective utilisation methodology in various sectors.

Importantly, Zaheerabad plant receives this award for the 8th time in a row. Indian President, Dr. Pranab Mukerjee presented the award on 16th December 2013 at New Delhi.

Pravin Shah, chief executive, Automotive Division, M&M, said, “It is our privilege and honour to receive such a prestigious award. This recognition validates our efforts in sustainable manufacturing to offer value to our customers and thereby benefit society at large. At Mahindra we are committed to our vision of a cleaner tomorrow through a frugal and innovative approach to automotive manufacturing.”

Harley Davidson Rally in Goa

Harley Davidson is to conduct its second rally exclusively for harley davidson bike holders in goa. Such an event took place last successful and this year rally is also expected to be a big success. Hundreds of harley davidson holders and their families across the country participate in the rally. This event starts by 16 January 2014 and continue through the India's Bike Week.

Frank Savage, the leading motorcycle designer for harley davidson will be one of the juries. He had played major role in developing HD's Street 500 and Street 750.

"Today we are the leader in premium leisure motorcycling with 13 dealerships across the country and nearly 4,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles on the road.  Our association as a founding sponsor of India Bike Week is natural as we continue to develop leisure motorcycling in India for all enthusiasts. Our first India H.O.G. Rally at the beginning of the year saw over 600 Harley-Davidson owners riding into Goa from across India. This year we take it up a notch and are expecting close to 1,000 riders. Besides the opportunity to see their favourite experience of the Harley-Davidson lifestyle at the event, enthusiasts visiting India Bike Week will also be among the first in India to see the all new Harley-Davidson Street 750," said Anoop Prakash, MD, Harley-Davidson India.

Triumph Sold 50,000 Bikes

Triumph, the British bike manufacturer has sold 52,089 bikes across the world. About 85% of the bike are exported from England globally. A century old company (111 years) has made this sales during the financial year July 2012 to June 2013. This is 7.6% higher, compared to the previous year sale.

Triumph has wide dealership network of 750 dealers in 35 countries. Around 61% of the total turn over happened only in Thailand. Triumph recently entered indian market launching 10 new bikes and also planning to enter china and indonesian markets in near future.

Click Here for complete information about 10 new bikes from Triumph launched in November, 2013.

Suzuki Inazuma GW250 Launch

Suzuki Inazuma GW250 to be launched in india by January, 2014. One of the officials of suzuki confirmed to autocarpo about the launch. Inazuma GW250 comes to india through the CKD (Completely Knocked Down)route and it will be assembled at the Gurgaon Plant. Price of the bike would the major factor determining the success of the model, because many similar bikes are already in market launched by different companies. Some of the competitive models are Honda CBR 250R, KTM Duke 390, Kawasaki Ninja 300 and also the upcoming mahindra mojo.

Inazuma GW250 is powered by 248cc liquid-cooled engine which can produce peak power of 26 Bhp at 8500 rpm and peak torque of 24.2 Nm. And the engine is a parallel twin cylinder type. Bike has 182 Kgs of kerb weight which is quite higher for a 250cc bike, and this could considerably reduce the mileage. Additionally bike has six-speed manual transmission.

Hero Enters World Super Bike Championship

Hero MotoCorp. is entering World Super Bike Championship, which is an prestigious two wheeler racing event. Hero join hands with an American company Erik Buell Racing(EBR) jointly to participate in the race and the team is named as Hero EBR. EBR is the first american company to enter WSBK and Hero is the first indian company to join hands with an american.

MV Agusta also confirmed their participation in the upcoming year. The 2014 season of SBK starts on 23rd February in GP Circuit of Philip Island, Australia. This season will consist of series of 14 races going to held at different places. Below picture shows the provisional calendar of SBK.

Hyundai i10 Sedan & MPV Spotted

Hyundai Grand i10 Sedan was spotted testing in road by Overdrive. Car was spotted in Sriperumbudur at chennai. The side barricade in one pictures shows advertisement in tamil, this confirms the spotted location to be chennai where hyundai's manufacturing plant is located. Hyundai's i10 and Grand i10 are already huge hit models and now i10 sedan is to join the success queue. i10 sedan have the looks of Maruthi Dezire and Honda Amaze.

i10 Sedan is to have same interiors as that of Grand i10 which has special features like rear A/C vents which most of the cars in the segment does not have. Sedan also expected to have the same engine of grand i10 83PS 1.1 litre Kappa 2 petrol engine and 73PS/165 Nm 1.1litre diesel.

Hyundai i10 MPV is also spotted in chennai. This MPV has large rear lamps, aerodynamic shape reflecting hyundai's design philosophy. The car is relatively smaller not as spacious as Maruthi Ertiga.

Tata Nano Twist with Power Steering

Tata Nano is evolving over years since its launch five years ago. Nano has become better drivable and comfortable to travel. Ratan Tata said "promoting the Nano as the cheapest car was one of the main reasons behind its failure, but it is not all doom and gloom". Nano Twist is to launched by Tata on 15, January, 2014. Nano Twist has Power Steering feature in it. Power Steering feature likely to make the car more popular and more easier to drive.

Power Steering features makes the car more expensive by Rs.15,000 and hence total price of the car would be Rs.2,25,000. Nano's 624cc parallel twin cylinder engine remains same. Introducing, power steering in nano might bring name and fame to the car.

Mahindra Centuro - Massive Hit Model

Mahindra Centuro is becoming one of the top hit models in indian two-wheeler market. Centuro is jam-packed with innovative technologies which makes it unique from other vehicles. Distance to empty system, Follow me lamps, Flip key and Engine Immobilizer are the popular features in the bike. Engine immobilizer would be the bigger reason for the massive sales because this feature prevents the bike from theft.

Sales of Centuro gone up from 400 bikes per day to 1200 per day. This huge demand makes the waiting time for the vehicle to be 3 to 4 weeks. Mahindra is planning to increase its production rate upto 2000 vehicles per day within a month. This makes centuro to be one of the top ten bikes of the country.

Mahindra has poured in lot of R&D work into this machine that resulted in four international patents for mahindra. Mahindra Centuro is the first cabureted machine in the world to have fuel gauge meter, distance to empty system and engine immobilizer feature. This bike would be a landmark in mahindra's two-wheeler history.

Click Here to know more about mahindra centuro.

Online Car Sales by Nissan

Nissan decided to sell their cars online. The website shall be intimated later by the company, but the selling cars online is an modern move to improve sales. Online sales are increasing rapidly in india, and people are deciding online to buy products. The car shall be booked and payment shall be payed through credit cards. Nissan is developing website and secure online portal to enable safer online transaction.

Once the car is booked, the car will be delivered to the nearest dealership centre and the buyer has to pick up the car from the dealership. This system enables quicker buying of car in just few minutes and clicks.

7 Star Luxury Buses

7-Star Luxury buses are jointly launched by private firms Sidhi Vinayak Logistics Ltd. and Scania. The companies launched 120 luxurious 7-star buses which will ply between Mumbai-Pune, Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Mumbai-Bangalore and Surat-Ahmedabad routes. The bus has 32 recliner high comfort air cushion seats with conference room, Wi-Fi connectivity, rest room and projectors.

The bus also has set of people on-board who serves food and beverages to the passengers. Food and beverage items required shall be booked along with the journey ticket. Indian Luxury transport industry is booming with multiple luxurious flying across the country.

7-Star Luxury Bus - Scania

32 Recliner Seats

Conference Room with Wi-Fi Facility

Projector Display

Mahindra receives Four International Patents

Mahindra had received four international patents for its in-built technologies. The four patents are for fuel gauge system, automatic ignition cut off, distance to empty fuel system and the engine immobilizer. Mahindra Centuro has all these technologies. Click Here to know more about the new technologies in mahindra centuro.

Automatic Ignition Cut off system, turn off the engine during idle conditions (when the vehicle is not moving) and get started by just turning the accelerator. So this system saves considerable amount of fuel during waiting in traffic signals. Distance to empty fuel system display the distance that can be covered with the available amount of fuel. This display comes on when the fuel level comes down to reserve. Engine Immobilizer saves the vehicle from theft.

So, here after mahindra bikes is going to have its own unique features which other bikes won't be having any. This makes mahindra bikes unique not only in indian market but also globally since it these are international patents.

Hero Impulse 250

Hero Moto Corp. is re-launching their Impulse bike model. The company had received positive feedbacks about the bike, though the bike didn't performed well in sales during its first launch. The older variant is to be re-launched by more powerful engine of 150cc capacity. Also this time HMC has planned to launch three variant of Hero Impulse. Impulse bikes are likely be to launced in 100cc, 110cc and 250cc segments. 250cc is the new model which was not launched before.

HMC is advertising the impulse variants frequently in televisions and also in newspapers and magazines. This off-roader vehicle certainly created bigger expectation about its performance. The bike is expected to be launched in an Auto Expo which is to be happen next year. HMC recently joined hands with italian based component manufacturer Magneti Maralli to supply electronic fuel injection systems and components. But there is no confirmation whether Impulse will get electronic fuel injection or not.

Indian Government Restricts Bike Pollution

Indian Government is to change the allowable pollution levels from bikes by 25%. The two-wheelers contribute 75% of the automobile sales in india and is one of the major polluting source. Implementing strict norms will make the bike manufacturers to re-design their engine accordingly.

The norms has been formulated and this would be made available to the bike manufacturers soon. But the new norms come in effect only from 2015. The time period upto 2015 might be to provide sufficient time to the bike manufacturers to re-work in their engines.

The new norms compels the engines to be re-designed and hence the cost of the two-wheeled vehicles will increase appropriately. On an average, price of mileage bikes shall increase by Rs.1,500 while sports bike (or performance bike) price might shoot up to Rs.10,000 higher than the present price value.

Hyundai Grand i10 - Fifth Larest Selling Car

Hyundai has launched Grand i10 in september 2013. Since its launch, the car has created greater expectations in the sales and within 90 days 33,000 grand i10s has been sold out. Hyundai recently celebrated the achievement of five millionth car roll out from the chennai plant. This is an addition achievement of the hyundai. Now Hyundai has become fifth largest selling car in the country.

Top five sales performing cars in india are,

1. Maruti Alto
2. Maruti Swift
3. Maruti Dzire
4. Maruti Wagon R
5. Hyundai Grand i10

The korean company has made out this car well, giving a mileage of 24Kmpl. Grand i10 is available in both petrol and diesel engines. The diesel engines had contributed to the majority of the sales. Click Here for review of the Grand i10.

Hero's Another Joint Venture

Hero Moto Corp made an joint venture with a famous Italian components manufacturing company, 'Magneti Marelli (MM). This joint venture is to be called as HMC-MM Auto Ltd. with 60% share holding with Hero and rest with MM. By this JV(joint venture), MM will supply electronic fuel injection systems and components to Hero. Mileage is one of the biggest expectation of indian consumers. Advanced fuel injection system would provide optimised fuel injection than the carburated injection. Only Karizma ZMR and Glamour bikes have electronic fuel injection system in india.

Magneti Marelli is also to supply slip and traction control system, immobilizers, flexi and multi fuel systems. Both the companies planned to invest $27 millions (170 crores) over next 10 years. The expected sales is around $100 million (630 crores) by 2024.

Any how, introducing electronic fuel injection system in bikes, improves the mileage which is highly demanding in indian market. Future bikes from Hero might provide better fuel economy than others.

Tata Nano - A Flop model

Tata Nano does not perform in sales as it was expected during its launch. Immediately after the launch of Nano, Tata's market shares mounted up drastically. But the car is almost a flop model. Even, Ratan Tata, ex-chairman of Tata Groups accepeted that Nano is a flop model. He also added that the price tag 'World's Cheapest Car' is the major reason for its failure.

But, the Nano Emax (with CNG compatibilty) is performing well. The CNG version of Nano is giving positive results and quiet good orders for nano manufacturing plant in gujrat. Tata has also planned to export nano to Indonesian and European markets as market trend changer in their countries. Have to wait for the results of Nano's International Performance.