Indian Autos Thread

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Klaus
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Klaus »

Fiat stocks surge after Chrysler acquisition & merger.
Fiat said the long-awaited agreement included a $1.75 billion cash payment for the 41 per cent stake that has been held by the VEBA fund of the US auto worker's union United Automobile Workers since Chrysler's bankruptcy procedure.

What was originally seen as a risky bet for Fiat - German automaker Daimler had failed to turn around Chrysler - has paid off handsomely as Chrysler's sales are now booming after decades of turbulence and decline.

Chrysler's profits have been keeping Fiat buoyant in recent years amidst a deep downturn in Europe, and Marchionne has been steadily expanding Fiat's stake in Chrysler.
dinesh_kimar
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by dinesh_kimar »

Following with keen interest Capabilities wrt Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors. TVS Motors has grown tremendously in product development and intro of new models thanks to foresight of its management and also following Japanese Best Practices:
> 5 S
> Kaizen
> Lean Mfg.
> TPM
> TQM
> VA/VE
> Quality Functional Deployment, etc.

Their Hosur R&D use different CAD Packages (I heard CATIA and SolidWorks, and FEA includes ANSYS) to develop models.

Their main drawback is in engines and gearboxes, which many in the field believe goes kaput at 30-35000 km, while Hero Moto Corp's Splendor goes about 80,000-1,00,000 km (6 + years life)

Hero Advantage: reliable and efficient Honda based engines from 100-200cc, which power vehicles people buy in large numbers. The Munjals have World Class marketing and Largest And Fiercely Loyal Dealer Network (didnt ditch them and join Honda after split)

TVS Advantage: Organistaion is flexible,progressive and follow best practices, but vehicles reliability not good, no takers for 2nd hand bikes. I heard rumour that Venu Srinivasan is himself a biker, owns few Japanese Superbikes, and keen interest in racing (Team TVS).

Winner: Hero Moto Corp. Fill it, Shut It and Forget it. Passion and efforts from TVS are good, but a buyer wants Basics like Performance, Reliability, Trouble Free Service, Re-Sale Value and mileage ensured first. The market has chosen reliability over passion.TVS may be Organizationally strong and flexible, but HERO has good product and many more dealers. However, Hero's post split scooter (Maestro?) not as good as Activa, their main seller is Splendor Plus.
arshyam
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by arshyam »

dinesh_kumar wrote:
Their main drawback is in engines and gearboxes, which many in the field believe goes kaput at 30-35000 km, while Hero Moto Corp's Splendor goes about 80,000-1,00,000 km (6 + years life)

Winner: Hero Moto Corp. Fill it, Shut It and Forget it. Passion and efforts from TVS are good, but a buyer wants Basics like Performance, Reliability, Trouble Free Service, Re-Sale Value and mileage ensured first. The market has chosen reliability over passion.TVS may be Organizationally strong and flexible, but HERO has good product and many more dealers. However, Hero's post split scooter (Maestro?) not as good as Activa, their main seller is Splendor Plus.
Dinesh sir, reliability is one thing, but local R&D is also important (at least to me) - please read up Sagar's post here, on what Hero passes off for R&D: http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... s#p1530462. As you said it yourself, they still bank on the Splendor line - I won't be surprised if the engine is the same Honda engine used during their JV days. The article referenced in Sagar's post says this:
Sources in Hero MotoCorp told Business Standard the company has rights to use the new products sourced from Honda till 2017 but the
At least TVS and Bajaj are doing more R&D and incrementally improving. They will get there. Maybe Hero will, have to see.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Javee »

TVS is working with BMW to introduce sub-500 cc bikes to India and the world in general. The design is happening right here in our backyard.
NEW DELHI--The two-wheeler unit of Bayerische Motoren Werke AG BMW.XE -0.65% and TVS Motor Co. 532343.BY -2.59% Monday signed an agreement to develop a new range of motorcycles in India with engine displacement of less than 500 cubic centimeters.

The new range would be a first for the BMW unit, called BMW Motorrad, which now makes 19 premium motorcycle and scooter models with 650cc-1,600cc engines in its traditional sport, enduro, roadster, tour and urban-mobility categories. The companies plan to sell the new motorcycles in India and overseas.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 0656038972
http://www.motorbeam.com/bikes/bmw-moto ... otorcycle/
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Sagrawal »

Seems like Ford has again increased prices of thier compact SUV EcoSport by 50000 INR. Thank god I cancelled my booking and bought somethign else as they are still delivering only 300-400 petrol cars a month.
Picklu
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Picklu »

dinesh_kumar wrote:Following with keen interest Capabilities wrt Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors. TVS Motors has grown tremendously in product development and intro of new models thanks to foresight of its management and also following Japanese Best Practices:
> 5 S
> Kaizen
> Lean Mfg.
> TPM
> TQM
> VA/VE
> Quality Functional Deployment, etc.

Their Hosur R&D use different CAD Packages (I heard CATIA and SolidWorks, and FEA includes ANSYS) to develop models.

Their main drawback is in engines and gearboxes, which many in the field believe goes kaput at 30-35000 km, while Hero Moto Corp's Splendor goes about 80,000-1,00,000 km (6 + years life)

Hero Advantage: reliable and efficient Honda based engines from 100-200cc, which power vehicles people buy in large numbers. The Munjals have World Class marketing and Largest And Fiercely Loyal Dealer Network (didnt ditch them and join Honda after split)

TVS Advantage: Organistaion is flexible,progressive and follow best practices, but vehicles reliability not good, no takers for 2nd hand bikes. I heard rumour that Venu Srinivasan is himself a biker, owns few Japanese Superbikes, and keen interest in racing (Team TVS).

Winner: Hero Moto Corp. Fill it, Shut It and Forget it. Passion and efforts from TVS are good, but a buyer wants Basics like Performance, Reliability, Trouble Free Service, Re-Sale Value and mileage ensured first. The market has chosen reliability over passion.TVS may be Organizationally strong and flexible, but HERO has good product and many more dealers. However, Hero's post split scooter (Maestro?) not as good as Activa, their main seller is Splendor Plus.
Pleasure is doing quite well AFAIK.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Lilo »

Mumbai: After a gap of over a decade and half, Tata Motors Ltd, India’s largest automaker, has developed a new engine for its passenger cars in the one litre-plus range. The last time it developed an engine was in 1998, when it entered the passenger car market with the Indica.
On Monday, the company unveiled a 1.2 litre gasoline engine that will power all its future passenger vehicle models run on petrol. With the new Revotron brand of engines, which Tata Motors says is quieter and more powerful and low on maintenance, the company hopes to address the critical issues of high noise vibration and harshness levels Tata cars are associated with.
The auto market is seeing demand swing back in favour of petrol-run models and carmakers are revisiting their product development strategies by working on smaller but powerful engines with improved fuel efficiency.
http://www.livemint.com/Companies/Zr4AD ... ngine.html
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by SaiK »

o

regarding vibrations on diesel engines, how did the germans and others got it smoother? i don't understand ToTos problem here.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Yogi_G »

Will the new govt reduce taxes on new car purchases? If the 30% for large disesel vehicles is brought down we could see a huge explosion of purchases fueling the entire industry generating jobs in the process even for associated industries/services.

I myself will buy a SUV (not the sub 4 meter ones) if the 30% duty is reduced to 10%
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by putnanja »

The government still thinks that Sedans/SUVs are only for the rich and so should be taxed more. I wouldn't hold my breath on taxes going down, especially when the deficit is high! In fact, they raised it by 2.5% for SUVs in 2013 budget.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by SaiK »

such large scale subsidy and tax reduction should be compensated by demand vs supply, and increased purchase will increase traffic management issues especially the size of cars taks much more space on the roads.

if the gov has a planned approach to infrastructure, the size and standards can improve.. roads needs to be standardized for reduced price automobile setups.

the best idea is reducing the tax if the owner of the vehicle is in a 5 mile radius of improved roads infrastructure.. this will also drive people to seek better cities and facilities. and increase the tax for people buying cars where they stay in around places where such vehicles cause traffic problems.

increase down town tax, down town home owners tax etc... by huge amount. double it!
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Gus »

the govt has a stated goal of reducing and eventually eliminating diesel subsidy. to that end, in the past couple of years diesel rises more than petrol and it will eventually catch up to a point where it is on longer economical to buy diesel. at that point, they will prolly reduce the extra taxing. this is my observation and i haven't been following closely of late..so could be wrong.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Yogi_G »

Hopefully with diesel's charm coming down, vehicle makers will stop giving step motherly treatment to petrol vehicles in the SUV category.

BTW, though Tata's vehicles are attractive I will never dare buy one after the horror stories I have heard. They keep saying they are going to improve it but it never happens at least per what I have heard.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by manish »

Things are going from bad to worse for Tata Motors.

Karl Slym, the MD of Tata Motors has died in Bangkok, reportedly a result of a fall he suffered at a hotel.
New Delhi: Karl Slym, managing director of India’s largest vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors Ltd, died in Bangkok on Sunday, the company said. Slym was 51 and is survived by his wife.
The circumstances of Slym’s death were not immediately known.
He was the man brought in to fix the mess at TML India. He is a well known figure for all Indian auto enthusiasts - he was the ex-head of GM India when he sort of turned the company around and stabilized its business around the Chevrolet brand after the initial disasters during the Opel-branded days. Subsequently he had moved on to PRC from where he was poached by TML in Oct 2012. Guess he had built quite a connection to India.

RIP to Mr. Slym and condolences to his family.

On the other hand hope things turn around for TML soon - the sales have nosedived this year and company has already announced a VRS for its employees. Mr. Slym was leading the charge to thoroughly revamp strategy, product quality and product lineup.

Too bad.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by svinayak »

Many foreign countries and global brands do not want Indian companies/products to become competitive and Indian brands to go global
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by hanumadu »

Gus wrote:the govt has a stated goal of reducing and eventually eliminating diesel subsidy. to that end, in the past couple of years diesel rises more than petrol and it will eventually catch up to a point where it is on longer economical to buy diesel. at that point, they will prolly reduce the extra taxing. this is my observation and i haven't been following closely of late..so could be wrong.
Doesn't diesel give more mileage than petrol? Also diesel emissions are lesser than petrol?
manish
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by manish »

manish wrote:Things are going from bad to worse for Tata Motors.

Karl Slym, the MD of Tata Motors has died in Bangkok, reportedly a result of a fall he suffered at a hotel.
New Delhi: Karl Slym, managing director of India’s largest vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors Ltd, died in Bangkok on Sunday, the company said. Slym was 51 and is survived by his wife.
The circumstances of Slym’s death were not immediately known.
He was the man brought in to fix the mess at TML India. He is a well known figure for all Indian auto enthusiasts - he was the ex-head of GM India when he sort of turned the company around and stabilized its business around the Chevrolet brand after the initial disasters during the Opel-branded days. Subsequently he had moved on to PRC from where he was poached by TML in Oct 2012. Guess he had built quite a connection to India.

RIP to Mr. Slym and condolences to his family.

On the other hand hope things turn around for TML soon - the sales have nosedived this year and company has already announced a VRS for its employees. Mr. Slym was leading the charge to thoroughly revamp strategy, product quality and product lineup.

Too bad.
All indications currently point to a possible case of suicide.

If that is indeed the case, it could be perhaps linked to possible prosecution of Slym by Govt authorities for the vehicle emissions data manipulations by GM India during his tenure which blew up a year or so ago and even claimed the head of GM's world-wide head of engine development (?) a while back.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Sridhar K »

hanumadu wrote: Doesn't diesel give more mileage than petrol? Also diesel emissions are lesser than petrol?
Yes it does but maintenance cost of diesel is higher at least in India despite the common rails but the difference is reducing. The other is the torque on the diesels which makes city driveability better.

BTW, the latest doing the rounds is the safety aspects of Indian car which we have discussed before. Some of the base models of Indian cars were subjected to Euro NCAP crash testing and failed miserably. Nano, i10, Polo, figo and alto 800 all fared poorly though structurally polo and figo fared better.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/tata- ... 1391193028
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Gus »

hanumadu wrote:
Doesn't diesel give more mileage than petrol? Also diesel emissions are lesser than petrol?
depends on a lot of things. in cities you can drive a diesel on higher gears due to higher torque available at lower RPMs and that can give you better kmpl compared to a similar petrol engine car.

but the major saving is from the price difference, that is on a trend to narrow.

just today there is a 50 paise increase in diesel and none in petrol.
Theo_Fidel

Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Theo_Fidel »

Each 45 Gallon barrel of oil can produce about 11 Gallons of Diesel to 19 Gallons of Petrol. While some minor tweaks in this yield ratio are possible wholesale changes are not, at least with present technology. By simple math Diesel is useful but cannot run the economy.

While there is some efficiency increase due to the increased compression ratio, a large fraction of increased millage is due the fact that ay volume Diesel contains about 30% more energy than petrol does. On pure energy content by gallon basis, Diesel is a more expensive fuel.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Lilo »

Acharya wrote:Many foreign countries and global brands do not want Indian companies/products to become competitive and Indian brands to go global
Tata Nano, other Indian small cars fail independent crash tests

Some of India's best-selling small cars have failed independent crash tests conducted by a global car safety watchdog.

All five small cars popular on the Indian market last year, including the famous Tata Nano and the Hyundai i10, failed the crash tests performed by London car-safety watchdog Global NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme).

The cars that were tested were the Tata Nano, Maruti Suzuki Alto 800, Hyundai i10, Ford Figo and Volkswagen Polo. All cars had to be made-in-India models only, and the most basic or entry-level version available in the market was selected for testing. This meant none of them had airbags - one of the most basic prerequisites globally to pass a safety test.....

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/industries/ ... sts-379193
Above test results coinciding with the recent FAA downgrade of Indian Aircarriers , and the ongoing hounding of Indian Pharma (Ranbaxy is a prominent case) by Massa along with persistent psypops using the bugbear of Antibiotic resistant bacteria against our Medical tourism industry ... points to a requirement of retaliating against foreign brands in related domains operating in India. Bring them down vis a vis competeing Indian Brands and make a Brand damaging exercise out of it .

Btw it seems ,Western rags are quite hellbent on burying the threat NaNo poses - Bloomberg used the Tata CEOs death to harp again on NaNo's supposedly "dismal" fate (they have been doing since a a few years but NaNo still persists as a Brand) and now Al-Guardian and others are using the Crash "test" results to again target NaNo prominently in their headlines.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by svinayak »

Lilo wrote:
Btw it seems ,Western rags are quite hellbent on burying the threat NaNo poses - Bloomberg used the Tata CEOs death to harp again on NaNo's supposedly "dismal" fate (they have been doing since a a few years but NaNo still persists as a Brand) and now Al-Guardian and others are using the Crash "test" results to again target NaNo prominently in their headlines.
MSNBC and Bloomberg have been mocking Nano since it was launched. It look like Pro US Chinese have been funding these reports against Indian products and Indian image inside US market similar to what they have been doing for 20 years.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by KrishG »

Some real change from Tata. Zest looks better (interior and exterior) than most of it's contemporaries like DZire and Amaze. And the features Tata is offering is really awesome for this class. Man! That's some real improvement!

Tata Motors unveils Zest sedan & premium hatchback Bolt

Image

Image
Aditya_V
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Aditya_V »

Plus the new petrol engine, 85ps at 5000 rpm and max torque at 1750, unlike Honda maruti, max torque at 4500 and power at 6500. So unlike theoritical power its power which you can use in the real world.

How many people who have driven in India have ever driven above 4000-4500 RPM. My guess it would be less than .5% of car users. Like the 15inc wheels on the zest too.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by pdj »

Phenomenal effort by Tata Motors in producing the zest and the bolt. Here are the official videos. They've done a brilliant job with the interiors as well.

Bolt:


Zest:
hanumadu
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by hanumadu »

A bunch of sub 4 meter sedans released in the last 4 days. Tata zest, ford figo compact sedan and hyundai grand i10 CS. Zest compares well with them and existing ones. Tata made the best of its existing x1 platform. When it comes up with its new platform in a year or two, hope it will bring in a quantum leap in its models.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Mahesh_R »

I tried looking for the on road prices of both Diesel and petrol model....I guess it might take time for them to show up in showroom...
How is the price comparison wrt I20, Swift or Dzire, Amaze...
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by hanumadu »

AFAIK the prices are not announced yet. Thy hyundai Xcent is slated for a March release and tata zest probably for june or later release. Ford figo is for next year I think. The prices, especially for tata should be comparable or lower than swift. It definitely looks better than swift or amaze.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by hanumadu »

I read its a replacement for Fiesta, but Fiesta is a much longer car than 4 meters. Focus is of course bigger than fiesta.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by pdj »

hanumadu wrote:I read its a replacement for Fiesta, but Fiesta is a much longer car than 4 meters. Focus is of course bigger than fiesta.
Nope it isnt a replacement for the Fiesta but Ford's entry into the small (for India) sedan class. I guess we are going to see a large scale migration from the hatches to these sub 4m sedans with launch of the Tata Zest, figo sedan and the Hyundai Xcent in addition to the existing Dzire and Amaze.

Ford is going to give the Fiesta a makeover by putting the new hexagonal family grill and a few other twerks. More importantly, they are likely to reduce the prices. The Fiesta sedan is a good car let down by some crazy pricing.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

Impressive- looks like there's real innovation in the motorcycle segment

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/com ... epage=true

New Delhi, Feb 5:

Hero MotoCorp on Wednesday unveiled a series of concept bikes -- Hastur, a 620 cc super premium street fighter motorcycle, iON, hydrogen-fuel cell powered two wheel vehicle, and SimplEcity, first light weight urban electric motorcycle from India, at the Auto Expo here.

Hastur will be the company's foray into the super bike segment.

The company also wants to drive in path breaking innovation in existing 100 cc range by introducing youth focused variants -- Splendour Pro Classic, India's first 100 cc bike with cafe racer styling, and Passion TR, India's first 100 cc on-off bike.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Rahul M »

Image
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Singha »

hopefully Tata will use good quality premium plastics on the interiors and not skimp on that for a few 1000.
Tata and MUL in general use poor quality plastics vs the likes of honda and even hyundai.
once inside, this is the UI we see n feel not the outside looks - so plastics, instruments, steering wheel and seat materials play a big role in long term perception of the car. tight gaps between all panels interior and exterior, good quality sunlight blocking glass and a solid AC are also must haves.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Gus »

good luck with that..

the game is in making the appearance outside look the same premium for all trims and go el cheapo on the interiors to bring cost down for the lowest trim.

and then they throw what should be standard, to differentiate trims.

Tata is the worst in this, they keep adding trims to a released product confusing the branding like LX, EX, VX, VX plus etc..

Ford did the same with fiesta, i think.

you cannot have every product having trims that crossover in other products in price range. it is very difficult for consumer to know what would suit him and the sales people play with consumers on this confusion.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Prem »

India should be the Leader in thia
Toyota puts three-wheeled i-Road into public tests in Japan [w/video]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... -dw9NwF3lM
The lucky citizens of Japan are getting it now, and some folks in France will join the fray later this year, but that's about it for public, leaning-trike fun. The car in question is Toyota's three-wheeled i-Road concept electric vehicle. And in addition to being really narrow and quite environmentally friendly, this little EV leans quite a bit when it scoots around curves.Earlier this week, the Japanese automaker started testing the super-narrow vehicles in Toyota City, Japan. They're part of a broader scheme called "Ha:mo" in which people can link shared vehicles with public transportation systems to get around with minimal environmental impact. Grenoble, France, will be the recipient of some i-Road EVs for a vehicle-sharing project that starts later this year. The i-Road weigh about 660 pounds, is less than a yard wide and has a 28 mile per hour top speed.The i-Road was first shown off at the Geneva Motor Show early last year and shortly thereafter was the subject of a groovy video that showed a group of four cruising and leaning through the streets of a Mediterranean village in France. Check out Toyota's video on the vehicle-testing program and the official press release below and read our driving impressions here.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by uddu »

Untapped potential of hybrid cars in India
http://www.thehindu.com/news/internatio ... 960835.ece

When the scientists, simulated drive cycles in two Indian cities, New Delhi and Pune, based on published studies and the Modified Indian Drive Cycle, they obtained “engineering results [that] were a little surprising,” that driving a hybrid would achieve fuel savings of about 47 to 48 per cent over a conventional car in India and about 53 to 55 per cent in China.

Contrarily in the U.S. hybrids are rated to produce a fuel savings of about 40 per cent over their conventional counterparts, the scientists noted, despite which hybrid and electric vehicles currently have a tiny share of the market in India and China and are seen as a higher-end product.

The Indian government has not missed the importance of these findings, and Ambuj Sharma, Additional Secretary of India’s Department of Heavy Industry said, “This research performed by Berkeley Lab has helped us understand in much better detail the real-world value of electric vehicles to India… and has given a greater impetus and importance to the National Mission on Electric Mobility.”

The Government in 2013 launched a national plan with the goal of getting six to seven million hybrid and electric vehicles on the road by 2020, and has already begun working with the Berkeley Lab to further analyse their results.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Vriksh »

we need to do comprehensive testing of hybrids in Indian conditions to be sure that they are valid. I found for example in India the larger cities such as Delhi are moving towards a metro+electric auto system for local transportation needs.

The Electric Auto is an example of Jugaad: They use Lead acid batteries on a Thela like chassis and gets about 80 km per charge which is sufficient for 40 trips from metro station to local drop off point. The driver make on average Rs 30 per trip.

All the govt has to do in this scenario is to provide recharging at the metro station and more standardized efficient vehicles produced en-masse and we will be well on the way to solving our human transport problems in metros.

The big advantage is we would not need our electric systems to depend on Oil and can run the entire system on solar or nuclear.
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Aditya_V »

Looking for a Sedan, the new ford fiesta diesel looks good is ok, just Ford can bring in the red and black editions with the fuel efficient 1.0 Ecoboost producing 138 BHP
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by darshhan »

Vriksh wrote:we need to do comprehensive testing of hybrids in Indian conditions to be sure that they are valid. I found for example in India the larger cities such as Delhi are moving towards a metro+electric auto system for local transportation needs.

The Electric Auto is an example of Jugaad: They use Lead acid batteries on a Thela like chassis and gets about 80 km per charge which is sufficient for 40 trips from metro station to local drop off point. The driver make on average Rs 30 per trip.

All the govt has to do in this scenario is to provide recharging at the metro station and more standardized efficient vehicles produced en-masse and we will be well on the way to solving our human transport problems in metros.

The big advantage is we would not need our electric systems to depend on Oil and can run the entire system on solar or nuclear.

yup. Electric autos are the rage of the day. If only electric cars were also ushered in.

One of the areas where Indian R&D efforts should be focussed is battery/energy storage technology. This will go a long way in ensuring our energy independence.
Aditya_V
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Re: Indian Autos Thread

Post by Aditya_V »

Finally sold my 2007 accent yesterday and booked a Ecosport Ecoboost yesterday. On the Test drive, it did not seem to have too much turbo lag and went a bridge pretyy fast for 70KM 2nd gear. I expect city milage to be around 11KPL. Any gurus can help and let me know if I should chnage my mind as I 2 months before delivery.
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