Bajaj Auto has already stated showing teaser pictures of the Kawasaki Ninja 650R. According to AutoCarIndia Bajaj will soon launch the Ninja on the Indian roads.
Kawasaki Ninja is powered by a 649cc, four stroke, parallel twin, liquid cooled, fuel injected engine. The engine produces whooping 73 Bhp at 85pp rpm. The bike will be imported as CKD unit and assembled at Bajaj’s factor in Chakan. Expected to be priced at around Rs. 5.5 lakh and will compete with Hyosung GT650R.
Hindustan Motors which is a JV partner for Mitsubishi in India will launch the Pajero Sport SUV at Delhi Auto Expo 2012. The Pajero Sport was supposed to be launched this time but due to raising Yen, there as difficulty in pricing the vehicle competitively.
The Pajero Sport is powered by a 2.5 liter 16 valve intercooled turbocharged diesel engine which produces 134 Bhp of power and 32 Kgm of torque. The SUV is fitted with Mitsubishi’s rally-proven shift-on-the-fly Super Select 4WD and has ground clearance of 215mm making the vehicle to glide on the potholed Indian roads. Unlike the current Pajero, the Pajero Sport is a 7 seater, thanks to the low seats. The vehicle will be priced between Rs. 20-23 lakh.
The Pajero Sport will be manufactured at HM’s Tiruvalluvar plant in Tamil Nadu where the current Pajero is manufactured. Recently the current Pajero was upgraded to BS4. To keep the cost competitive HM is trying to localise most of the parts for the new SUV.
Porsche has launched a diesel variant of its lone sedan Panamera in India. It is priced at Rs. 1,23,15,000/- ex-showroom New Delhi.
Porsche Panamera diesel is powered by a VW engine tuned by Porsche. The Porsche tuned VW engine is 3.0 liter V6 turbo diesel with common rail unit and variable geometry turbocharging with 247 Bhp of power and peak torque of 551 Nm at 1750-2750 rpm. The same engine powers Porsche’s SUV Cayenne diesel but is less powerful than the Panamera’s. The engine is mated to a 8 speed gear box and has top speed of 240 Kmph. 0-100 is achieved in 6.8 seconds.
Force Motors is ready with its SUV to be launched in India. A showroom owned by the company in Pune is getting finishing touches for the SUV launch. Force Motors has been relying heavily on the SUV to click in Indian Market. The company known for its utility vehicles in India is launching an SUV for the first time in the country.
The Force Motors SUV is basically the Foday Guangdong Explorer III, a Chinese SUV. The company has bought the tooling for body from China and the interiors has been sourced from Thailand. No names have been announced yet, but we are sure it will not bear a Chinese name.
The Force Motors SUV is not a great looking vehicle. It looks just like a big box on four wheels. But the company is making up by underpinning with some sturdy materials. The body-on-frame chassis with robust ‘C-in-C’ construction is suspended by a torsion bar set-up in front and coil springs at the rear. Powering the massive SUV is the Mercedes OM 611 2.2 liter common rail turbo diesel engine with 140 Bhp of power and 35 Kgm of torque, coupled with a five speed manual transmission.
Thought the Mercedes OM 611 is a decade old, it still meets the BS4 emission norms and perform better than any other Indian SUVs. The ride and handling has been tuned by Lotus of UK. The SUV is expected to be priced at Rs. 10-12 lakhs and will come with lots of features such as airbags and ABS.
German luxury automobile manufacturer Audi is preparing an all new A9 coupe based on the A8 limousine. The company will replace the A8 limousine with A9 as the flagship car brand of the company.
The A9 will come with a four-seat coupe configuration. It will be placed above BMW 6 Series but below Mercedes Benz CL. A convertible is also expected later on.
The A9 is expected by 2015 and will be built on the A8 platform. It will be manufacted alongside the A8 and R8 supercar at Audi’s Neckarsulm factory.
Unlike the A8 which is powered by a 3.0 liter turbocharged V6, the A9 is expected to get a more powerful 4.4 liter V8 with twin turbochargers. A 3.0 liter V6 TDI and a 4.2 liter V8 TDI could be offered as the diesel option. Quattro will be standard and so do the 8 speed automatic transmission.
Its been a common seen now a days to see huge rush at petrol bunks. People flood the bunks with the news of the fuel price hike, to fill the fuel their tanks and same some buck. Least are they bothered about the extra money they have to shell out for the same fuel after the price hike.
Reserve Bank of India has urged Indian Government to immediately hike the prices of petroleum products. According to RBI, the subsidies given to petroleum products is increasing the fiscal deficit, with could potentially damage the country’s financial health.
Here is the letter from RBI Governor Mr Duvvuri Subba Rao
The critical assumption that petroleum and fertiliser subsidies would be capped is bound to be seriously tested at prevailing crude oil prices. Even though an adjustment of domestic retail prices may add to the inflation rate in the short run, the RBI believes that this needs to be done as soon as possible. Going forward, high oil and other commodity prices and the impact of the RBI’s anti-inflationary monetary stance will moderate growth. The outlook for crude oil prices in the near future is uncertain given the geopolitical situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). In any case, the likelihood of oil prices moderating significantly is low.
This means there could be another fuel price hike very soon. Already at the price of Rs. 65/liter of petrol and Rs. 42/liter of diesel, people in the upper middle class are finding hard to run and maintain the cars. Most of the middle class people who are dependent on the two wheelers for their daily community to work place are the most hit. Now thinking of the common man, he has to perish as always. Time to think better and switch on to electric … are you ready?
A Forum topic at Team-Bhp says that Fiat is going to get a facelift to its Linea and Punto models. As it is just a rumor we are tight lipped about the news. However some of the points seems to be worth thinking about the Linea and Punto.
Since Fiat is struggling to maintain the sales of Linea and Punto it is likely that there will be some changes in the exterior and interior to make the cars look fresh. The Linea might get some facelift in the front and some attention could be given to the interiors as well. As for Punto, it might get an all beige interior like the Linea and an integrated stereo system which will make its hot hatch to buy. However there could be no changes under the hood.
Fiat has withholded the 1.6L Multijet diesel and Dualogic transmission options in its cars. With the news of some changes in Fiat cars we could as well expect the powerful 1.6L Multijet diesel making into the Linea and an automatic variant being added to the Linea portfolio.
As we already stated, these are just the rumors, so shall keep the fingers crossed.
