Cyrus Dhabhar was born and brought up in a motorsport family and cars run deep in his blood. As a passionate founder and head of a classic car club in Mumbai and an avid part of the vintage and classic car scene in the country, Cyrus prefers his cars older and simpler. That said, he loves everything on four wheels and the occasional two-wheeler as well. Cyrus currently is the Assistant Editor - AUTO for the NDTV Group.
Electric vehicles in India will finally have some differentiation from their internal combustion counterparts on the road. All electric vehicles in India will soon get a new (and we think rather cool) green license plate. The government yesterday approved of this new move to a different coloured plate specially for zero emissions vehicles for both private and commercial use. The private electric vehicles will have a green backing and white fonts while commercial electric vehicles will have a green background and yellow fonts. These will also be applicable to electric busses and other electric commercial vehicles that are road legal.
Aston Martin has announced that it will launch an all-electric SUV in 2021 under the recently resurrected Lagonda marque.
The Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza is the largest selling SUV in the country and by some margin. So far, it has only had a diesel engine on offer with a 5-speed gearbox, a similar setup as compared to the likes of the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz sedan. Packing a 1.3-litre engine under the bonnet, the Vitara Brezza now gets mated to a 5-speed AMT unit too, which makes it an even better proposition, especially for those wanting a sub-compact, sub 4-metre SUV as an urban runabout in start and stop traffic. The Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza automatic though isn't the only AMT in that segment. It will go up against the likes of the Tata Nexon and the Mahindra TUV300, both of which also get AMT units as compared to a traditional automatic gearbox.
Japanese automakers, Honda, Toyota and Nissan have all come together as a part of this program in order to benefit from it for their electric and hybrid mobility projects.
The Mercedes-Benz G-Class was revealed in its all-new avatar earlier this year and was followed by the fire-breathing, Dubai socialite or Russian mafia car of choice, the Mercedes-AMG G63 a few weeks later. And while the G-Class in India has had limited sales in the last few years, Mercedes-Benz India will launch the newest avatar of the SUV in India in late 2018.
The Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza is the highest selling SUV in the country. Available with bright colours and two tone options such as a red body and a black roof or a blue body and a white roof in the top spec variant, the Brezza ha ushered in a whole variety of factory or dealer fitted accessories. And now a brand new bright orange colour option on the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza has been spied undergoing what appears to be a shoot for a video advertisement. The orange colour seen here, is slightly darker than the bright orange seen on the recently launched Maruti Suzuki Celerio X and is more like the orange that was available on the first generation Swift back in 2005. While we have not had a chance to peak into the cabin, this updated car could possibly be theMaruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza AMT Diesel that is due for launch in the coming months. With AMT available on the Ignis, Dzire andSwift with both petrol and diesel engines, offering an AMT option on the Vitara Brezza is only a logical step. When the Brezza goes get the diesel AMT option, it will be a 5-speed unit just like the one available on the likes of the Dzire.
The C-Class coupe is a 2+2 seat configuration and while the rear can hold two people, best be limited to children
Dieselgate is the biggest (and dirtiest) scandal to ever hit the global automotive industry. And now in a rather unexpected development, the United States Justice Department has disclosed that it has filed criminal charges against Volkswagen's ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn. The charges have been filed accusing him of a conspiracy to cover up the Volkswagen Group's emissions cheating between 2006 and 2015 when it was finally uncovered. Martin Winterkorn had resigned days after news of the Scandal broke in September 2015. The Justice Department has charged him with four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud and violating the Clean Air Act.
Tata Motors has announced that it will be selling off the defence and aerospace parts of its business to another Tata Group entity, Tata Advanced Systems. This will entail its large trucks and weapons system carriers along with large specialised vehicles that Tata Motors makes for both Indian military forces and international ones. Tata Motors however will continue to retain and will continue to supple lighter civilian use vehicles like the recently spied Safari Storme that has been prepared for the Indian army. Included in this deal will also be the TAL Manufacturing Solutions, a subsidy of Tata Motors that specialises in Heavy Engineering and more recently, to Aerospace and Defence sectors.
Named after a charming village on the Italian Riviera, Portofino conjures up visions of sun soaked beaches, little cafes, sprawling villas and topless beauties. No, not that kind, the car kind! And that is exactly what the new Ferrari Portofino is, a topless i.e. convertible beauty from the legendary Italian automaker.
With over 50 per cent market share amongst the new car segment in the country, Maruti Suzuki is without a doubt, the largest automaker in India. With over 4.6 lakh vehicles sold in the first three months of 2018 and with waiting lists for certain models - like the new Swift and the premium hatchback, Baleno extending into several months, meeting demand has always been the biggest internal issue for the automaker. Now though, waiting periods, especially for the likes of the Baleno are expected to reduce drastically. The Baleno is produced at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar facility, which is running at full capacity and Suzuki's newly opened Gujarat facility which is still running only on one line and not to its full production strength. The first line at the Gujarat plant however, will be running to its full capacity by the end of the year. This line will make 2.5 lakh cars a year alone and currently mainly makes the Baleno.
Bodo Buschmann, the founder and head of Mercedes-Benz tuning house 'Brabus' has passed away. Buschmann, the man behind some of the most powerful cars in the world was 62 and passed away following a short illness according to an official statement that has been put out by the company. Constantin Buschmann, Bodo's son who was in charge of Marketing and Sales for Brabus, will now head the tuning house. Formed in 1977 after Buschmann could not find worthy customisers for his own cars, Brabus has developed into one of the most recognised and finest tuning house in the world, specialising in Mercedes-Benz, Smart, Maybach and more recently, Tesla. Brabus modified cars all have one thing in common though - ridiculous levels of power and more importantly, absurd levels of torque!
At the announcement, R C Bhargava, Chariman, Maruti Suzuki India Limited also mentioned that the automaker will be opening 300 new showrooms in this financial year. These new showrooms will include the premium outlets Nexa, the mainstream outlets, now called 'Arena' and also the commercial outlets from which Maruti Suzuki sells its small utility pickup vans.
From the likes of smaller ones like the Maruti Suzuki Ignis and the Toyota Etios Cross to premium ones like the Honda WR-V and the Hyundai i20 Active here is a detailed price comparison to the new Ford Freestyle.
The Ford Freestyle is available in four variants for the petrol and diesel - the Ambiente, Trend, Titanium, and Titanium+.
About a year ago, Mahindra Electric and app-based taxi service provider Ola tied up in the Central Indian city of Nagpur to provide clean mobility point to point solutions. Amongst the electric cars, the four door Mahindra e2o Plus was put into service as a taxi and despite some initial teething issues, mainly due to range, have done rather well. 100 electric cars were put into service and according to tweet put out by Mahesh Babu, Chief Executive Officer of Mahindra Electric, these cabs have already covered 25 lakh kms in under a year. While naturally aspirated petrol or diesel cars regularly cover extensive distances, a fleet of electric cars covering such a high distance average is actually quite the rarity.
For both Tata Motors and Mahindra, recent and future launches have showcased an ability to improve tremendously, in terms of quality, fit and finish but more so in terms of design. While in the mid 2000s, or even a few years ago, both these auto brands needed to shout (in terms of outrageous design) in order to be seen, both these auto brands now seem to be on a cusp of design maturity. In a recent casual banter on Twitter between Pratap Bose, Head Of Design of Tata Motors and Pawan Goenka, Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra, both seem to agree on the fact that Indian home grown designers and designs need to be given more importance, more chances to grow and certainly a bigger place in the automakers ecosystem. And with design studios in India making its mark, we think that process is well underway for both Tata Motors and Mahindra and we at carandbike.com think this is a wonderful thing indeed! Homegrown talent making homegrown designs for homegrown automakers is certainly something to be proud of. And with design studios in India making its mark, we think that process is well underway, not only for Tata and Mahindra, but even automakers like Renault.
The Maruti Suzuki Baleno is the king of the hill in the subcompact premium hatchback segment when it comes to sales figures. Even though the Baleno is sold only through the Nexa outlets, the hatch sells on average close to 15,000 units a month. That said, the benchmark in the segment has always been the Hyundai i20 with its sharp European looks and well made, well equipped package. And now, Hyundai has given the i20 a mid-life facelift with updated exterior bits, minor interior bits and some mechanical upgrades too. So does it help the Hyundai i20's continued benchmark domination of the segment? And can it now take the fight to the Maruti Suzuki Baleno in terms of sales figures too? Read on to find out..
The new Suzuki Ertiga has been showcased for the first time at the annual Indonesia Auto Show. The Ertiga has been an important car for Maruti Suzuki since its launch in 2012 and over 7 lakh Ertigas has been sold globally - a majority in India. Although Maruti Suzuki gave the current Ertiga a facelift a couple of years ago, the MPV has been chugging along at about 4500-5000 units a month. The new Ertiga could possibly make it to the Indian market by late 2018 or early 2019 and will feature both petrol and diesel engines. While the diesel will get the micro hybrid SHVS system, the petrol will also be available in a CNG+Petrol combination, which sees great sales in the private and fleet markets. So here is all you need to know about the new seven seater 2018 Maruti Suzuki Ertiga.
The Toyota Innova is the king of the hill in India and in most south-east Asian countries when it comes to the MPV segment. With great comfortable interiors, outstanding build quality and an exterior design language that has evolved with age across generations, it is the segment benchmark. No wonder then that there are a plethora of MPVs that take inspiration from the Innova. The Maruti Suzuki Ertiga is one of the most popular affordable MPVs in the country. Currently still in its first generation in India since its launch in 2012, albeit with a facelift, the Ertiga will soon be replaced with a new generation, which is much larger and more tech laden than ever before. But that apart, the new Ertiga has a lot of references in terms of design to the Innova. So here is a pictorial comparison between the two MPVs, first in their original form an then in their current (in the case of the Innova Crysta) and future (in the case of the new Ertiga).
