Creative Indian car designers

Indian designers are getting inspired by traditional symbols. Recently a student a student of the National Institute of Design (NID) was inspired with the ancient Indian treatise to design a car. His creativity was recognized and offered him an opportunity of an internship with Pininfarina of Italy-the world’s leading automobile design house.

 Vatsyayan re-invented symbol of passion and love will be seen on the on the wheels. Some of the other young designers were inspired were Ahmedabad signature landmark, Ahmedabad’s signature landmark — the Sidi Saiyed ki Jali — that has spurred another NID student, Neerav Panchal, to design ‘Ratna’ which he calls the “jewel of Indian roads”. A third student, Shailendra Petwal, was inspired by ‘Navras’ to create his design.

The winners of a competition on the theme ‘Luxury Car for India’ held by designers associated with auto giants like Ferrari, Ford, GM, Jaguar and Fiat, Panchal and Petwal will be also  joining at Pininfarina.

Small car from Toyota

On of the leading car makers Toyota is on the plans of rolling out cheap small car that will be cost-competitive in emerging markets and the big news is that India is being considered as a destination for production. The reason for India being considered is low-cost labor. There is no idea about the exact date of its production in India.

This adds up another rival to the Tata’s Nano, the one lakh car that will be launched this October. Looks like, the list of rolling out ultra cheap cars is increasing.

A-Star for Maruti

One of the leading car makers of India Maruti concept car A-Star will be rolling out by 2009. A-Star was unveiled at the 2008 Auto Expo held in Delhi.

This car will be the first indigenously, designed, styled and produced Indian car with Europe as the primary target. The team of engineer is burning their midnight’s oil in Maruti’s Manesar plant in developing the car, slated to be unveiled at the Delhi Auto Expo early next year.

However, the production car that will be exported to Europe will be different from the one being showcased. Maruti’s recent launch SX4 is already doing a great job on the Indian roads and hope A-Star will add more stars to Maruti’s reputation.

Mahindra’s biofuel plans

Fuel emission has been a topic of discussion for a while now. India’s top utility vehicle maker, Mahindra & Mahindra is set to invest around Rs 1.01 billion on improving engine emission, according to official of a company.

“We have spent about Rs 200 crore to bring M-Hawk engine in production … we will be spending about one billion rupees on further emission improvement,” Pawan Goenka, president of Mahindra’s automotive unit, as quoted by reporters.

In the lines of Honda, M&M is also launching a range of biofuel cars to meet the demands of “green” vehicles. Even Scorpio and Bolero would include its new biofuel engine. The company is really going green.

 

BMW eyes on 2000 figure

Luxury car sales are booming up in India. The demand is so high that the luxury car makers are even increasing the production capacity. And the competitions among the makers are high too.

Now the German maker of luxury cars BMW aims to sell 2,000 cars in India this year. This figure reveals the demand for their car in India. The company has already set their manufacturing capacity in the region and is on the verge of increasing their dealership.

Looks like their rivals like Mercedes Benz and Audi are gonnna have a real tough competition.

Q7-a Rocking SUV

Indian car buyers have a wide range of choice in every car segment, from hatch back to MUV’s. Now the latest trend I feel is the owning a SUV and not just SUV but the luxury SUV. Now in the range of luxury car, Q7 from Audi is one of the best SUV in its class. It truly breaks all the boundaries wherever it travels for its distinctive bold design, powerful stance and style.

 

 The first SUV by Audi was rolled out in India in 2007 and has been a great success till now. This machine comes in both petrol and diesel version with a gap of Rs.20 Lakh between them.

There is no doubting the ability of the Q7, but in the same breath, there is nothing ground-breaking about it either. The interiors are upto the Audi standard. The cabin features first-rate materials and an attention to detail seen in relatively few mass-produced vehicles. It is an all rounder in every sense.

Meet the style guru of cars

It’s a fashionable world. Designers rule everywhere, from clothes to jewelry. And when Indian auto market is booming so faster, why not car designer would rock?

 

If you have been following auto news, perhaps Dilip Chhabria needs no introduction. He is India’s car design guru, rocked at the recently held Auto Expo in Delhi early 2008. Dilip Chaabria, the style guru of Indian cars does spare any cars with out adding his creativity to it. He has put his fabulous imagination to all almost all the models creating wonders. DC’s Ambierod at the Auto Expo changed the look our oldie Ambassador giving a new birth to it. Amby’s redesigned truly proved that with little creativity and hard work, any thing can look so posh and trendy.

 

GM navigates with MapmyIndia

MapmyIndia is expanding in a bigger way. They are the best in the  car navigation system.  Their new product called Portable Navigation Device (PND), which will now come as a standard accessory in all the variants of Chevrolet’s premium cars in India.

 

   MapmyIndia Navigator is one of its kinds in India to accommodate the GPS navigator as the standard accessory in car. This device will be also available for sale with all the GM dealers across India under the authorized certification of GM.

 

This smart and sleek GPS gadget uses satellites to determine your current location and points of interest in 18 major cities with access to 55,000 towns and villages. Enter any destination across India, and the Navigator will guide you, turn by turn, with graphical map instructions supported by voice prompts.

Luxury time for India

It is a great time for the Indian car buyer with so many new car models both Indian and international car manufacturers. The Indian car market has become so competitive with so many models in the market in every segment.

Take an instant of Volkswagen, the luxury car makers will launching at least two small cars in the Rs. 5 lakh segment in India in the next three-four years, one of which is likely to be the Up! Concept car that was unveiled recently and the other a model from group company Skoda Auto India Pvt. Ltd.

The company has also come up with big expansion plan with an investment of Rs3, 500 crore for India to set up the new plant, which makes it the largest German investment in the country. And also plans to build a vendor park for its suppliers in India at its 575-acre campus at Chakan.

Inflated cars

One of the most affecting and critical issue Inflation, the silent killer has spared the car segment too. The impact is so high that the car companies are studying to roll out price hike as they finding difficult to tackle the increasing cost of input.
The prices have hit the raw material for cars like steel, aluminum, nickel, plastic and rubber resulting to affect the car makers.

The entry level car price will make difference of 4000-6000, where as the price of high end vehicles may go up by Rs. 12000 to 15000. On a total price rise may be 2-3% in coming days.