The Mahindra XUV500 is one of the most hotly spoken about Indian cars after the Tata Nano. Built as a global SUV, the left hand drive version of the XUV500 was recently spotted by me in India, undergoing routine tests. Mahindra plans to launch the XUV500 in Europe (Spain will be the first country to receive it) next year, South Africa and the U.S.A are going to get the XUV by 2014. However it is Australia which will see the XUV500 go on sale next month. Read More >
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Category: India
Just recently we wrote a post on India’s highest selling car, which is the Maruti Suzuki Alto. Now its time to look at the other end of the scale. Which is India’s lowest selling car? The answer is quite shocking. India’s least selling car is indeed a global success, the Toyota Prius. The Maruti Suzuki Alto sells 99,000 times what the Prius sells. But how did the Prius become such a massive failure, in one of the largest car markets in the world? Read More >
Mahindra will soon be launching the XUV500 in global markets.The XUV500 is available in the Indian market only but the company has plans to offer it in Europe and US within the next two years.
India is touted to become one of the biggest car markets in the world by the end of this decade. However, there is a lot of uncertainty in the Indian automobile market. Fuel prices fluctuate (usually northwards) abruptly, while the Government tries to cover its mis-governance by increasing taxes on cars when its least expected. But which is the car that Indians are buying the most? It is the Maruti Suzuki Alto! Read More >
Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover is working on a bigger version of the Range Rover Evoque, which is set to debut after 2015, if my sources in India are correctly informed, and they swear they are. This bigger Evoque has been codenamed L560. The renderings were made at the time I received this information. However, these renderings can hardly be accurate as the styling of this bigger Evoque hasn’t been frozen yet and the company is still working on the design. However, my source says the drawings are mighty close. Read More >
Lamborghini has become very bullish about the Indian market. The Italian automaker launched its second showroom in the country last week and also set up a national sales agency.
Mahindra & Mahindra dates back to 1945, when they started to produce the Willys Jeep in India under license. Soon after that, they started developing light commercial vehicles and utility vehicles. In 2002, Mahindra launched the Scorpio, which was also introduced in Europe as the Mahindra Goa a few years later. Last year, the XUV5OO (pronounced five double Oh) was launched. Mahindra had to stop accepting bookings (which were opened in just 5 cities across India) after just 10 days of launch. They received 35,000 test drive requests in the same time. The second phase of bookings saw more than 25,000 applicants, which were put through a draw! Bookings have been closed since then and you can’t buy the XUV5OO even if you have the money. So what is the Mahindra XUV5OO all about? Read More >
According to lore, Americans dig big cars, Europeans love their hatchbacks, Australians love pick-ups. And the Indians? Indians love sedans. The sedan is a status symbol for most in India. It provides a feeling of accomplishment. It also costs more. A sedan does not cost much more to make than its hatchback platform cousin. What makes a sedan more costlier are the taxes we have to pay.
The Indian government wants to promote small cars as they are eco-friendly and consume less fuel. They are easy to park and maneuver. They take less space on the road and help in reducing traffic congestion. If you visit India, you will notice that the infrastructure growth is not keeping pace with the GDP growth. This makes small cars extremely important, and the Government of India is leaving no stone unturned to promote them. But how do they do that? Read More >
Horns are a fixture of Indian driving. Rather than being used to signal anger like in the United States, horns are used for almost everything on Indian roads – one study found that major intersections in Calcutta have one horn honk every three seconds.
After years and years and years of rumors and premature announcements, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has finally, honestly, cross your heart and swear to fry, “finalized a joint venture agreement with Chery Automobile Co to manufacture and sell vehicles in China,” Reuters reports. Read More >
India, often touted as the “next China,” has too much capacity and not enough sales, says a report by Reuters. It is getting worse: India’s carmakers “speed towards a head-on collision with a capacity glut,” the report says. Read More >
Launching the “world’s cheapest car,” the Nano, into one of the world’s fastest growing auto markets, India, looked like a surefire concept back in 2009. Today, it looks stupid. Like many surefire concepts, the Nano turned out to be a dud. Says India’ Economic Times:
“After several years of disappointing sales, it has now become clear that the snubnosed hatchback’s unique selling point — its price — was actually a commercial sticking point. Read More >
Maruti Suzuki’s big news at the Delhi Auto Show was the debut of its production compact MPV, the Ertiga. But it wasn’t all staid family-carriers at the Suzuki stand, as the Japanese-Indian automaker also debuted its XA Alpha concept, described in this dramatically-narrated (to put it mildly) video as “The Small God For The Big Future.” Remember the Suzuki Samurai (our global readers will certainly remember the Jimny)? It’s getting ready for its 21st Century makeover…
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MPV times in India. At the same Delhi show where GM demonstrated a good-sized MPV concept,market leader Suzuki showed what they call “India’s first compact Multi Purpose Vehicle” a.k.a. the ERTIGA.
While our friends at Motorbeam.com where snapping pictures, Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director and CEO of Maruti Suzuki explained that the MPV will strengthen Suzuki’s position in an increasingly crowded market: Read More >
In GM’s darkest hour, in December 2009, GM and SAIC cut a strange deal: GM ceded control of the 50:50 China joint venture by selling 1 percent to SAIC. GM also transferred half of GM’s India operations to the Chinese company. GM received a $400 million line of credit. SAIC received access to the Indian market, which it had coveted, but the Indians had sworn to keep the Chinese out. Now they rode in on GM’s coattails.
At the New Delhi auto expo, GM India yesterday “unveiled the first two products from its joint venture with SAIC,” while our friends of Motorbeam.com were in attendance to snap pictures. Read More >
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