Raikkonen’s relationship with Lotus ends early

The relationship between Kimi Raikkonen and Formula 1 team Lotus has been through some difficulties this year, and now it’s come to an early end as Raikkonen will have back surgery this week and miss out on the Constructors Championship in Austin, Texas, next week and the Brazilian Grand Prix at the end of the 2013 season.

Although an old back injury has been blamed as the reason for his early exit, Raikkonen has not enjoyed his relationship with Lotus this year, claiming he hasn’t been paid all of his salary this year. In 2012, Lotus didn’t pay him until the end of the season and this year, it’s thought that Louts owes him 17.15m euros in unpaid salary and bonus.

Lotus hasn’t announced yet who will step in for Raikkonen at the Austin race. There are two drivers who look likely to replace him in the Lotus team next year – Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) and Pastor Maldonado (Williams) – but neither is likely to be released from their existing contract early. So it looks like the Austin spot will become available for Lotus reserve driver Davide Valsechhi.

At the time of writing, Betfair has only given four drivers odds under 20/1 for being the winning driver at Austin. These are Sebastian Vettel (2/7), Mark Webber (5/1) and both Lewis Hamilton and Romain Grosjean at 16/1. Grosjean is, of course, Raikkonen’s fellow driver at Lotus.

As for winning car at the Constructors Championships, Betfair has put Lotus in as third favourite – with odds of 10/1 versus the 1/10 odds for Red Bull.

While there’s an overall feeling in the motor racing world that Raikkonen’s early exit from the 2013 Formula 1 season is more about the difficult relationship with Lotus rather than a flare-up of an old back injury, that’s the party line that both Raikkonen’s management and the Lotus team are sticking to.

BMTC to test run BYD K9 all electric bus

BMTC might create a milestone in mass transportation in India by running all electric bus in Bangalore.

Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will be shortly running an all electric bus in the city for testing purpose. The all electric bus ‘BYD’ K9 is built by Chinese which can run up to 250 Km from a single charge. According to reports, a BYD K9 bus is housed in one of the BMTC depot, waiting for RTO approval for the test run.

BMTC will run the test vehicle for 3 months before making a decision to purchase. Sources say, the company has already received an additional allocation of 90,000 volts from BESCOM, the city’s electricity controller. The all electric bus will be tested on long and high traffic routes to check its capabilities in tough conditions.

BYD is a Chinese company which builts ‘K9’ electric buses. It uses iron phosphate battery developed in house and the eBus is run in many countries like USA, Spain, Denmark, Netherlands, Columbia and Hong Kong. The eBus weighs 18 tonns and has length, width and height of 12267 mm, 2550 mm and 348 6mm respectively. It takes about 5 hours for one full charge and almost half of the time for a fast charge. BYD company website claims the eBus capacity is 40 persons and it consumes less than 100 Kwh/60 minutes.

Hopefully Bangalore City will be the first city in India to run all electric buses on a regular basis and hence reduce the pollution in the city.

KYD K9 all electric eBus Specifications

BYD K9 all electric eBus Video

All new Honda City design sketch

All new Honda City Specifications

Technical Specifications of 4th Generation Honda City

	City Petrol	City Diesel
Engine
Configuration	4-Cylinder inline	4-Cylinder Inline
Valvetrain Type	SOHC	DOHC i-DTEC
Displacement (CC)	1497	1498
Maximum Power (ps/rpm)	116 @ 6600	98 @ 3600
Maximum Torque (nm/rpm)	146 @ 4800	200 @ 1750
Transmission
Type	5 - Speed MT / AT	5 - Speed MT
Suspension
Front	McPherson strut with stabilizer,coil spring	McPherson strut with stabilizer,coil spring
Rear	Torsion beam axle with stabilizer, coil spring	Torsion beam axle with stabilizer, coil spring
Steering Type	Rack & Pinion Power steering	Rack & Pinion Power steering
Brakes
Front	Disc	Disc
Rear	Drum	Drum
Tyre
Size	175 / 65 R15	175 / 65 R15

All new Honda City 2013 pictures

4^th Generation Honda City pictures

 

4th Generation Honda City unveiled in India

Honda has unveiled its 4th generation Honda City in India. This is the first time Honda has unveiled any of its cars for international markets from India. With so much of suspense, the new City was unveiled, for which Honda had indeed worked hard to not let any pictures of the car let go to the public before its unveiling.

The new City is noticeably bigger and the design is more sharper than the outgoing model. As Honda had earlier mentioned, the new City is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Based on the Jazz platform Honda City provides the best interior space in its segment.

The interiors look basic, almost resembling the 1st generation model, but the quality of plastics have been improved and looks as they have borrowed from the bigger brother Civic. Overall the car looks to be fantastic package if priced close to Hyundai Verna.

The most highlighting part of the new City apart from the design is under the hood. The new City comes in diesel option for the first time and the same Amaze 1.5L i-DTec does the duty here as well. The engine will be tuned for better performance and mileage though the details have not been released.

Stay tuned for more updates on the 4th Generation Honda City in India...

All new Honda City pictures

Honda Mobilio India launch by mid 2015

Honda Mobilio which was launched recently in Indonesia is the third product on the Brio platform and the first MPV from Honda for India. Though Mobilio will be showcased at Auto Expo 2014, launch of the vehicle will be by middle of next year.