Tata Motors hikes prices of some of its vehicles

     Come 2011, Tata Motors has hiked the prices of some of its vehicles ranging from Rs. 1500 to 30,000. The company cites the hike due to rise in the input costs. The price hike for the passenger car will be between Rs. 1500 to 15,000 and for the commercial vehicles between Rs. 1500 to 30,000.

The price hike for various vehicles is as follows

• Indica and Indigo family – Rs. 3000 to Rs. 30,000
• Tata Sumo, Grande MK II, Safari and Xenon – Rs. 8,700 to 14,500
• Commercial Vehicles – Rs. 1500 to Rs. 30,000

Honda Accord face-lift to be launched soon in India

     Honda will soon launch the face-lifted Accord luxury sedan in India. SidIndica of Team-Bhp could snap couple of pictures of the face-lifted Accord on the Indian soil.

Tata Nano sales recover in December, sells close to 5000 units

     The sales of the Tata Nano have recovered in the month of December by over 500% selling close to 5000 cars. The Nano sales had suffered in the month of November with only 509 cars sold, thanks to the fire issues and lack of easy finance options.

     Tata Motors had come up with a zero down payment scheme to push the Nano sales which has worked to a great extent. However the scheme ended on the 31^st of December and we will have to see how the sales fares in the month of January 2011. Tata Motors has invested heavily on its Sanand plant which has a manufacturing capacity of 2,60,000 units per annum.

     Tata Motors is also planning to launch an upgraded version of Nano which comes with power steering and 5 speed gear box. The upgraded version is undergoing testing at the plant and will be only available after 15^th of January 2010. A diesel Nano is also on the cards but we will have to wait for a while to see it on our roads.  

Honda CR-Z named Japan Car of the Year(JCOTY) 2010

     Honda’s tiny sports hybrid CR-Z has been named Japan Car of the Year 2010. In celebration to the award Honda has come up with a new special edition with “Pearl Dipusafaiaburu" blue paint. Along with the special paint the car makes use of unique 16 inch alloy wheels and premium metal pedal pads inside. Honda has also gone through the extra effort of placing a "Japan Car of the Year" commemorative sticker on the rear quarter glass behind the driver's side door. No power or fuel efficiency updates have been done. 

Source: Honda via Autoblog

Scoop: Next Gen Dzire to be under 4 meters

     Maruti is going the Tata way. Like Tata's designed a Indigo less than 4 meters, the next generation Dizre based on the all new Swift platform will be less than 4 meters length. This means the car will qualify for small car excise duty exemption which is 10% for a small car as compared to 22% for the cars above 4 meters.


     The new Dzire will be powered by the same 1.2 L , 84 Bhp petrol engine and 1.3L, 75 Bhp diesel mill. A more powerful diesel engine with 90 Bhp power sourced from Fiat is also on the cards.

     The Dzire is designed in-house by Maruti and will be sold only in India. Since the all-new Swift platform has bigger dimensions than its earlier model, engineers at Maruti have a challenging job to fit a boot with less than 4 meter in length. The excise benefit with is around Rs. 40,000/- will be passed on to the customer. The new Dizre will be launched soon after the new Swift which will make its appearance on roads by June this year. 

Ratan Tata dreams of running a car fueled by water

     Ratan Tata is an industrialist who does not want to hang up his boots. After the launch of Rs 1 lakh car which was his dream, he has an other dream of running a car on water. It might sound strange but the way scientists are going the possibility of a car being run on water might come true.

     Ratan Tata has invested US $ 15 Million with a Professor of Massechusetts Institute of Technology for reseach on breaking the hydrogen and oxygen from water in a new way to propel the vehicle. Mr. Tata intends to buy the technology which it comes true. 


     The information of the funding was given by noted Scientist of India and Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Prof C N R Rao.

New car launches for India in 2011

Chevrolet Beat LPG and Diesel: Launch Jan 2011

Maruti Suzuki Kizashi: Launch Jan 2011

Next Gen. Maruti Swift/Dzire: Launch April 2011

Renault Fluence: Launch early 2011

Honda Brio: Launch March 2011

New Volkswagen Jetta: Launch 2011

Nissan Sunny: Launch mid 2011

Skoda SK215: Launch Sep 2011

Toyota Etios Liva: Launch mid 2011

New Ford Fiesta: Launch Dec 2011