India's Best Selling Car 2011 - Tata Nano

Tata Nano, the small car from the Tatas, is projected to become India's second best selling car
next year, according to market research firm JD Power. According to a report by JD Power, Nano has been projected to become India's second best selling car next year.

By 2017, the top three models will be the Alto, Nano and Maruti Suzuki Wagon R, according to the report. Currently Alto is the highest selling car brand in the country, selling on an average of 25,000 units every month.

As per the report, the combined sales of mini and sub- compact vehicles would be 9,97,000 units in 2010, increasing to 3.14 million units by 2017. The size of the Indian domestic passenger car market stood at over 15 lakh units in 2009-10 and it is growing at a rate of about 30 % every month in this fiscal.

Tata Motors had launched the Nano, touted as the world's cheapest car, in 2009 and is currently delivering the first lot of one lakh cars to the customers. It produces the car from Sanand in Gujarat and the facility has an installed capacity to produce 2.5 lakh units annually.

JD Power also adds that the challenge for producers of low-cost cars in India will always be to keep production costs low, while meeting rising consumer aspirations. The government offers tax incentives to the small car buyers to promote fuel efficient mode of transportation. Cars that do not exceed four meters in length and are powered by 1200cc petrol or 1500cc diesel engines are levied 10 % excise duty compared to 22 % for other vehicles.

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Upcoming Cars in 2011 - Honda Accord Diesel car price,Features,specification

Upcoming Cars in india 2011
Honda Accord Diesel car price,Features,specification

                                                      Honda Accord Diesel photo
Expected in 2011
Estimated price: Rs 20-25 lakh
The present day diesel engines are quick, silent and efficient; they are giving the petrol engines a run for their money. After manufacturing only petrol engines for decades, Honda has produced its first diesel engine to boost its sales. Honda Siel will use this engine in its Accord to boost its sales and compete in the current Indian market.

Engine:

Honda has developed a common-rail diesel engine, its all four cylinder displacing a total of 2200 cubic centrimetres. The engine’s 134 horses pull the Accord and produce a maximum of 347Nm of torque.

Features:

The Honda Accord diesel looks no different from its petrol sibling. The only difference between the two is the powerplant running them. The car interiors, and the rest of the features remain unchanged.

Competitors:
Honda Accord’s main rivals include the Skoda Superb Diesel, the Mercedes C-Class, BMW 3-series and the VW Passat. Considering the current sales of Accord petrol, the diesel engine could trigger its sales further.
 

Specification:-
Displacement: 2200cc
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 347Nm
Overall Length : 4950mm
Overall Width :  1845 mm
Overall Height:  1475 mm
Seating Capacity:  5
No of Doors:  4 door
Gears/Speeds:  5 Gears
Minimum Turning Radius:   5.6 metres
Tyres:   215 / 60 R16 Tubeless

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Upcoming New Cars in India 2010 - 2011

The Toyota Corolla Altis priced at Rs 13,00,000 will be fighting hard with other premium diesel sedans like the Jetta, Laura and Sonata Emberra.

The Ford Fiesta hatchback is a great car priced at Rs 6,50,000. The hatchback segment will have to careful about this fuel-efficient car which is every Indian driver’s dream.

The cost of the Hyundai i30 is slightly high, Rs 7,50,000. But the power of the car is equally high.
Volkswagen Phaeton, providing unrelenting standards of safety, comfort and dynamics, will be out with a tag of Rs 58,00,000.

The Mahindra Renault Sandero is more handsome and more comfortable than the Logan. The price is just Rs 5,00,000.

The Chevrolet Spark with a 3-cylinder 800cc engine is priced at Rs 3,00,000.

Next comes the Maruti SX4 diesel car costing its owners Rs 8,00,000.

For SUV enthusiasts, the Volkswagen Tiguan will be here. It is called the Touareg’s younger brother with a price tag of Rs 25,00,000.

The Toyota Yaris hatchback, priced at Rs 5,50,000, scores very high when it comes to looks, space and comfort.

April 2010:

The Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 bearing a tag of Rs 2.5 crore is all set to defeat the luxury car market.

May 2010:

The Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class is a stylish convertible with a 3.5 litre engine. With the body of a coupe the car still hangs on to the headlight design of the older W280 C-class. The price tag, Rs 75,00,000.
The Nissan Micra priced at Rs 4.5 lakh will be hitting the Indian roads this May.

June 2010:

Mitsubishi is planning to come out with a small car, the Colt. The car, with a 74 bhp, 1.1 litre petrol engine has smart looks too. It is priced at Rs 4,50,000.
The diesel variant of the Honda CR-V will be out this June. The fuel-efficient car will be priced at Rs 24,00,000.

The Hyundai Genesis, priced at Rs 35,00,000 will help those Indians with a yearning for luxury, fulfill their dream.
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X with a 2-litre engine is extremely light because of the aluminum engine block below the hood. The car has a 4WD option and is priced at Rs 22,00,000.
The mid-size crossover SUV, Hyundai Santa Fe, will come to India with a tag of Rs 24,00,000. The car is powered with a 2.7L V6, 148bhp diesel motor.

July 2010:

The Volvo S60 priced at Rs 35,00,000 is simply smart. The car features a new collision warning technology with full auto brake.

Along with the sedan, Volvo will also bring out an SUV. This car, again, is a real beauty and is priced at Rs 30 lakh.
Skoda too wants to come up with a small car priced at around Rs 4 lakh. The car will first come to India and then will be unveiled in other parts of the world.

August 2010:

Volkswagen UP, a smart and friendly car, will make sure your head remains up with pride. The vehicle is priced at Rs 3,50,000.

October 2010:

The Skoda Fabia will be elongated a bit and brought to India as Skoda Fabia Combi. The car will be more spacious and comfortable than the previous version. It will bear a tag of Rs 10 lakh.
Another car with ample space and comfort will be the BMW X1. With a 6-cylinder engine, the car will be priced somewhere around Rs 30,00,000

November 2010:
The Skoda Roomster comes with enough room for everyone. Brilliantly styled and with the quickness of an aeroplane, the price of the car is unknown.

December 2010:

The Fiat Bravo with a 1.9L multijet engine has muscular exteriors. The interiors too are elegant and lustrous. It is priced at Rs 16,00,000.
The Maruti Kizashi is the first all-wheel drive sedan in the D-segment with an advanced turbo 2.0L petrol engine and 6-speed transmission. This family car costs Rs 15,00,000.
The ICML World Car is co-developing diesel and petrol versions of a 7-seater sports SUV and a 5-seater luxury car. It will be produced in Himachal.

January 2011:

Three car makers are planning to capture the Nano’s market share. Bajaj, Renault and Nissan have come together to produce a small car in India and hope to export it to other nations as well. The price is believed to be Rs 1,00,000.

August 2011:

The Volvo C70 has been turning heads everywhere and will soon come to India. It’s price would be Rs 35,00,000. The sleek and stylish car would be hard to resist.

Bentley too plans to get its Rs 2.1 crore Continental GT Speed into the Indian market. The classy coupe allows easy driving even at very high speeds. The car will give a maximum power of 600bhp.

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Upcoming new Nissan Leaf electric car in 2011 - Nissan

The world's first mass-market electric car, the Nissan Leaf, will cost nearly £10,000 more than its equivalent petrol and diesel rivals.

Nissan, which announced the European pricing for the fully electric Leaf today, said that the five-door car would set consumers back £28,350, dropping to £23,350 when a UK government grant is included.

                                                 New Nissan Leaf electric car Photo

The Leaf hopes to change the eccentric image of electric cars, which have been dogged by safety fears and a lack of recharging points. Similar-sized conventional cars such as the Ford Focus cost just under £19,000, and the Leaf's obvious direct rival, the Prius electric-petrol hybrid, costs £19,500-22,500.

"At first sight it looks expensive," said Edmund King, president of the AA, "but we estimate a Ford Focus or similar car in that category would cost about 14p a mile, where the Leaf would cost something like 0.3p per mile depending on your electricity tariff. If you do 10,000 miles you save around £1,500 a year. Over three years you almost make your money back on the premium." The car is also exempt from vehicle excise duty and London's congestion charge.

With a range of 100 miles, the Leaf will be able to go without the plug socket for more than double what first generations of the iconic G-Wiz electric car managed and should avoid drivers being worried they will become stranded after running out of power.

"This is the first proper electric car on the market, and 100 miles is the minimum that serious drivers will be looking for," said King.

The first 50,000 cars, which go on sale in the UK in February next year, will be made in Japan, but when a Nissan factory in Sunderland opens in 2013 it will be one of the first major electric cars made in the UK. Nissan said even with today's relatively dirty energy mix it represents a 60% improvement in CO2 emissions against conventional petrol and diesel cars.

But there could be bumps on the road ahead, with a question mark hanging over the last government's plans to pay car buyers up to £5,000 towards the asking price of a new electric car from 2011. A Department for Transport spokesperson said they couldn't confirm if the grant would be retained until the government publishes its 'final coalition agreement'.

A commitment to the grant was conspicuously lacking from the otherwise relatively detailed environment section of the coalition agreement published last week, which talks of "mandating" a network of electric recharging points. There are currently only a few hundred such points in the UK, mostly in London.

Nissan projects that by 2020 one in ten new cars will be electric. But it is not yet clear how strong consumer demand will be. An Auto Trader online survey earlier this year suggested that, while nearly two-thirds of people have environmental impact in mind when buying a new car, only 8% ranked it as a key factor, making it the least important, below five other factors such as reliability and aesthetics.

Ben Lane, editor of What Green Car, said Nissan would likely be losing money on the first sales of the Leaf but said, "It could do for electric cars what the Toyota Prius did for hybrids." Toyota has sold over 1m units of the Prius since it launched in 1999.
   

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Chevrolet Cruze One Final Test Drive - Upcoming New Car in 2011

Mark Reuss slipped behind the wheel of the metallic-red Chevrolet Cruze, buckled his seat belt and adjusted the seat and mirrors. Surveying the car’s instrument cluster and control console, he ran his fingertips across the dashboard, checking its surface texture and the consistency of fit between trim panels.


Mr. Reuss is a career G.M. engineer and accomplished amateur racecar driver, who was made president of the automaker’s North American business last December. On a chilly afternoon at G.M.’s proving ground north of Detroit this week, he was casually clad in a fleece jacket, blue jeans and western boots, but the expression on his face was dead serious as he turned the ignition on and listened to the Cruze’s turbocharged 1.4-liter engine come alive.

                                                Chevrolet Cruze  Photo

“I’m taking in a lot of data here — the sound of the engine cranking, the intuitiveness of the controls, the ‘human factors’ that determine how well the vehicle and driver interact,” he explained. Observing this ritual from the Cruze’s passenger seat, I was struck by Mr. Reuss’s preflight attention to detail and his quiet intensity as he prepared for the final engineering-evaluation drive of G.M.’s new small car.

The Cruze is expected to enter production this summer, as a 2011 model. Its introduction is critical for G.M., which hasn’t fielded a truly competitive small car in the United States since, well, since perhaps ever. Previous efforts, including the current Chevrolet Cobalt and its predecessor, the Cavalier, fell woefully short in terms of refinement, quality and customer satisfaction against the more polished Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, the segment’s perennial sales leaders.

With Ford about to release its new Fiesta and Focus small-car duo in the United States, as well as an upcoming wave of crisply designed, low-priced, well-appointed fuel sippers from Hyundai, Volkswagen, and others, there is enormous pressure on G.M. to “get this car absolutely right in every regard,” Mr. Reuss said.

I was among a small group of journalists invited by G.M. to ride shotgun with the engineers as they shook down the Cruze in earnest one final time before production begins. We participated in the last of four evaluation runs made by Mr. Reuss and the engineers during the course of the Cruze’s 32-month development — a process that is used for every new car and truck. These weekly events are called “knothole drives,” signifying the engineers’ tight focus on rectifying issues as early as possible. Each week (usually Fridays) the team assaults a 10-mile loop of rural public roads near Ann Arbor, Mich., with a different new vehicle and a few of its direct competitors.

The test loop, which is covered multiple times during the six-hour events, is favored by the G.M. engineers for its variety of road surfaces, elevation changes, twisty curves and lack of traffic.

Mr. Reuss and I led a convoy of eight cars — three Cruzes in different trim levels and stages of development, and a Civic, Corolla and Mazda 3 for comparison. After each lap of the loop, we stopped at a country market with a window sign reading “Walt’s Crawlers for Sale” to switch cars and drivers. A 2009 Cobalt played tail-end Charlie “to show us how far we’ve come,” said Tom Stephens, G.M.’s global vehicle–development chief who also attends the weekly drives.

Upon exiting the proving ground, Mr. Reuss began putting the Cruze through its paces. Past a roundabout, he cranked and nudged the steering wheel left and right to gauge its precision. He was on and off the gas, accelerating and braking, while giving me a seat-of-the pants commentary on everything he was experiencing: engine performance, transmission shifts, pedal feel, handling, ride comfort and cabin noise levels at various speeds.

Mr. Reuss obviously is a very skilled driver and intimately familiar with the test route. He quickly gained my confidence while hustling us briskly through the first set of tight corners — reeling off highlights from the Cruze’s development history as we drove past red barns and freshly plowed fields.

Six hours later, we were back at the proving ground. I shared the Cruzes and competitors with eight G.M. engineers, all of them specialists in key areas like chassis dynamics and noise, vibration and harshness. I listened to their debriefing as they identified the few minor issues still needing attention before the Cruze was cleared for production.

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