Automobile

Researchers have found out that hybrid cars will be significantly more fuel-efficient in India and China than they are in the United States.

Lead researcher Anand Gopal at U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory said currently greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector in India and China are a smaller piece of the pie compared with other sectors.

Gopal said with the official fuel economy test procedure currently used in India, fuel savings for hybrids are fairly grossly underestimated, showing only a 29 percent savings over conventional vehicles.

McLaren driver Jenson Button has said that rival team Mercedes will dominate the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday.

General Motors president Dan Ammann reportedly believes that self-driving cars will take the automobile market by storm by the end of 2020.

Ammann said during an investor conference that he would be quite surprised if it didn’t happen by then.

According to Cnet, while Ammann was referring to the technical ability to create an autonomous car , and not necessarily the timing for its commercial availability, a lot of issues including the regulatory ones had to be overcome for such a car to actually hit a dealership.

Tata Motors and Renault India are looking to increase prices of their products from next month, mainly to offset higher input and operational costs.

Tata Motors is mulling increasing prices of its commercial vehicles portfolio by about 1 per cent, while Renault is yet to come out with the quantum of the hike.

“We are likely to increase commercial vehicle prices by about 1 per cent, primarily due to high input costs and continued inflationary pressures,” a Tata Motors spokesperson told PTI.

Automobile manufacturer General Motors India Tuesday launched updated sedan Chevrolet Cruze priced between Rs.13.70 lakh and Rs.16.19 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

According to the company, the new updated variant of the sedan comes with improved fuel economy. The automatic transmission variant provides a fuel efficiency of 14.81 km per litre, while manual transmission mileage remains 17.3 km per litre.

The updated Cruze comes with both a six-speed manual and automatic transmission mated to the turbocharged 2.0-litre VCDi engine.

German luxury auto brand Audi will begin selling its premium A3 Sedan in India from middle of the year and the much-awaited car will be rolled out from the company’s production facility in Aurangabad.

The brand with the four rings said it has decided to assemble A3 in India from the launch stage itself expecting that it will become a driver of growth for the company. India will be among very few countries where the luxury sedan will be produced locally.

The sale of A3 Sedan has started in only a few countries in Europe. It will be launched in the US next month.

Despite a tough Indian market, Ford India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of US-based Ford Motor Company, is not revisiting its business plan of launching eight new models by 2015, said a senior official.

“We are on target with our plans. The Gujarat plant will be ready by the end of 2014 and the first model will roll out early 2015,” Ford India president Nigel Harris told reporters here Thursday night.

When asked about Ford India’s plans to roll out eight new models by 2015, he said: “No comments on the eight products.”

BMW India ranked highest in sales and customer satisfaction in luxury car segment in both the J.D. Power Asia Pacific Sales Satisfaction Index Study 2013 and the J.D. Power Asia Pacific Customer Service Index Study 2013.

This was the first year that the luxury car market was included in the survey and the awards ceremony was held at Shangri-La’s Eros Hotel in New Delhi on March 11.

Mahindra Racing, the only Indian constructor in Grand Prix motorcycle racing, will see a record eight teams using its engine at the season opening Qatar Grand Prix March 23.

Two Mahindra Racing factory team bikes and six customer bikes — two each for Ambrogio Racing, CIP Moto3 and San Carlo Team Italia — will be seen on the 2014 Moto3 grid.

This is the second highest number of bikes on the Moto3 grid after KTM which has 19.

Mahindra Racing only began competing in the MotoGP support race three years ago in 2011.
(IANS)

Japanese auto giant Toyota has agreed to pay a penalty of USD 1.2 billion to end a four-year criminal investigation into safety issues with its cars, US Attorney General Eric Holder said today.
This is the largest penalty of its kind ever imposed on an automotive company, the Justice Department said as it also announced a criminal wire fraud charge against Toyota which alleges the Japanese automaker defrauded consumers in the fall of 2009 and early 2010 by issuing misleading statements about safety issues in Toyota and Lexus vehicles.

The largest collection of James Bond cars is up for sale for a whopping 33 million dollars.

The assortment of James Bond collection includes nearly 60 vehicles, most of which were used in the production of films, plus a few replicas and comprising the largest collection of “everything James Bond”, Fox News reported.

The collection features Sean Connery’s DB5 from ‘Goldeneye’ and the DBS driven by George Lazenby’s in ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, while the most unique of the vehicles, 1962’s ‘Dr. No’ replica of the iconic dragon-faced tank, is also up for sale. (ANI)

Shares of Maruti Suzuki India rose 7.6 per cent on Tuesday after the company decided to seek minority shareholders’ approval for the controversial Gujarat plant, which parent Suzuki Motor Corp decided to take over.

After surging 9.37 per cent to Rs 1,899.90 — a 52-week high, the car-maker’s scrip closed at Rs 1,868.85, up 7.6 per cent on the BSE.

On the National Stock Exchange, the stock settled at Rs 1,869.50, a gain of 7.54 per cent. The scrip was the best performer on the key Sensex and Nifty indices.

Automobile major Maruti Suzuki’s scrip closed Tuesday’s trade up 131.75 points or 7.58 percent after the company said it will seek minority shareholder approval to set up a plant in Gujarat as a unit of Suzuki Motor Corporation.

The company’s scrip at the Bombay Stock Exchange closed at Rs.1,868.85 — up 131.75 points or 7.58 percent from its previous close of Rs.1,737.10 on Friday.

Maruti Suzuki’s board decided to seek the minority shareholder approval after the proposal drew opposition from the company’s leading institutional investors.
(IANS)

Automobile major Maruti Suzuki’s scrip was trading up 130.80 points or 7.53 percent around 3.18 p.m. Tuesday after the company said it will seek minority shareholder approval to set up a plant in Gujarat as a unit of Suzuki Motor Corporation.

The company’s scrip at the Bombay Stock Exchange was trading at Rs.1,867.00 — up 130.80 points or 7.53 percent from its previous close of Rs.1,737.10 on Friday.

Maruti Suzuki’s board decided to seek the minority shareholder approval after the proposal drew opposition from the company’s leading institutional investors.
(IANS)

German car manufacturer BMW has launched its locally produced BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo. Priced at Rs 42.75 lakh, the BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo was launched in Chennai at the BMW exclusive dealership KUN Exclusive, a company statement said on Saturday.

Mercedes racer Lewis Hamilton has slammed the notion that he lacks technical knowledge and that his standing as Formula One”s fastest and most instinctive driver somehow disadvantaged him from getting his head around the sport”s most complex set of rule changes. It is perceived in many quarters that Hamilton”s teammate Nico Rosberg”s stronger engineering background could give him the edge in the fight for the title.

Automobile manufacturer Hyundai Wednesday launched its entry-level compact sedan Xcent priced between Rs.4.66 lakh and Rs.7.38 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi).

“The Xcent is developed for the Indian families. Developed with the best of Hyundai Motor’s world class technologies, Xcent will create a new benchmark in terms of quality, design, space, features and driving pleasure in the compact sedan segment,” said B.S. Seo, managing director and chief executive, Hyundai Motor India.

Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce has reportedly unveiled designs for its proposed drone cargo ships that would roam the European waters carrying crates of goods.

Facing the heat of a CBI probe in an alleged bribery scandal, British firm Rolls Royce has written to the state-owned HAL that it was ready to return Rs 18 crore paid by it to its commission agents to the government.

The Defence Ministry ordered a CBI probe into Rolls Royce’s alleged hiring of middlemen in contracts worth around Rs 10,000 crore for supplying aircraft engines to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

German automobile major Daimler AG will roll out buses out of its 1,500 unit per annum new factory here which is expected to be ready by 2015, the company said Thursday.

“We are now pressing ahead on the Indian bus market,” Wolfgang Bernhard, a board member in Daimler AG and responsible for Daimler trucks and buses, told reporters here.

The company laid down the foundation stone for the bus plant here where it already has a running plant rolling out trucks.

Daimler plans to invest around Rs.425 crore in the bus plant to roll out Mercedes-Benz and BharatBenz branded vehicles.

Sweden’s sports car maker Koenigsegg has claimed to have produced world’s first megacar.

Koenigsegg Agera One:1 promises the first 1:1 (1340 kilograms/1340 horse power) power to curb weight ratio in an approved production car, Stuff.co.nz reported.

The company has claimed that their car is able to reach 440kmh. Among other claims, there is a 2G cornering capability on road legal production cup tyres and 610 kg down force at 260 kmh utilising advanced active under and over body aerodynamics.

Tata Motors-owned luxury car maker Jaguar Land Rover is likely to invest 100 million pounds ($167.4 million) in a new plant in the Gulf kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The company is likely to produce 100,000 cars a year from the proposed facility in Saudi Arabia to meet the booming demand in the Middle East, The Sunday Times reported.

Addressing an India-Saudi Arabia Business Forum meeting here recently, Saudi Arabia Commerce and Industry Minister Tawfig Fawzan Alrabiah had said the plant would be located in eastern province of kingdom.

Rolls-Royce today unveiled its next generation of fuel-efficient plane engines to power civilian aircraft of the future.

Two weeks after announcing a shock profit warning with government cutbacks on defence spending impacting its military engines business, Rolls revealed plans to build on its successful Trent XWB engine used to power Airbus A350 passenger planes.

“These new designs are the result of implementing our ongoing technology programmes,” said Colin Smith, Rolls-Royce Director, Engineering and Technology.

Turn your nose up first. Car maker Hyundai USA has announced a new vehicle this spring that is fueled by processed sewage!

Out for lease, the new Tucson Fuel Cell crossover vehicle runs on hydrogen gas derived from excreta.

For this innovative move, Hyundai looked at scientists working at University of California Irvine.

They were busy converting waste from toilets and sinks into hydrogen.

How did they do this?

Hyundai has recently announced plans to begin leasing a new vehicle this spring, which will be powered by processed sewage. Last fall, Tesla’s Elon Musk was calling hydrogen fuel cell technology for vehicles “bullsh*t.