Automobiles, Transportation, Vehicles
Toyota Corolla And Innova Get Costlier
Toyota Kirloskar Motor has announced increase in prices of its models Toyota Innova and Corolla Altis. Toyota Corolla Altis got costlier by Rs. 16,000 and Rs. 25,000 and the MUV Innova experienced price rise between Rs. 10,000 and 25,000.
According to the company officials, the company has tried its best to restrain the price rise and reduce the burden on the customer to the maximum extent. It has absorbed certain amount of the increase internally as well.
“Due to circumstances beyond our control, such as the increase in the rupee, dollar exchange rate by 20 per cent in the last three months, we have been forced to increase the price of our vehicles.” said by Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ CarTradeIndia
Suzuki Delays Its Plans For Large Cars
Japanese national daily, Nikkei, reports that Suzuki Motor Corp plans to delay launching its large cars in 2010. Suzuki planned to launch Kizashi in India in 2010 but now its plans to delay the start of overseas factories amidst sharp economic deterioration. The company is under growing pressure to cut the output and scrap capital investment plans.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ CarTradeIndia
Gordon Murray Talks About His 80 Mpg T25
Is it possible to make a car that carries 4 people comfortably, meets modern safety standards, provides decent performance and gets 80 mpg for barely more than $10,000? Even more impressive would be to do it without electric or hybrid drive. If it’s at all possible, Gordon Murray may well be the man to do it. Murray is one of the most innovative engineers of the past three decades. Like Colin Chapman before him, he believes weight is the enemy. Murray has created plenty of lightweight, high performance road and race cars but his latest project, called T25, is designed to also be practical and affordable. Shorter and narrower but taller than an original MINI, it will have to be a triumph of packaging to meet the stated objectives.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ AutoBlogGreen
Consumer Reports Tests Plug-In Prius Conversion, Finds It Lacking
While the main storyline for Consumer Reports’ February issue revolves around the new Hyundai Genesis and its toppling of the mighty Lexus ES350 as the mag’s top-rated entry-level luxury sedan, another tidbit of information regarding next month’s rag caught our attention. Apparently, CR purchased a Hymotion L5 plug-in Prius conversion kit from A123 Systems, and testing proved to be a mixed bag. We don’t have full details to share regarding the kit’s installation or full fuel mileage statistics, but CR’s press release indicates that the PHEV managed to increase its mpg rating from 42 to 67 over the first 35 miles of driving. Perhaps this will be an ongoing series from the consumer-oriented publication. While that kind of mileage increase is meaningful, it would take a very long time to recoup the $11,000 purchase price of Hymotion’s kit. Still, “the technology itself proved viable,” according to CR.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ AutoBlogGreen
Chery QQ Gets Sequential Gearbox And A Boost From The Government
One of the most well-known Chinese clones, the Chery QQ3, has been often been the target of retirement rumors. However, just like practically everywhere else, the Chinese auto market is getting help from the government, help that might help the QQ3 survive. One of the measures the Chinese government is applying is a tax reduction on certain vehicle niches, including vehicles mated to sequential gearboxes. Well, for the Chinese New Year, Chery is launching a new QQ3 model that, hey, uses a sequential gearbox. Mated to either a 0.8-liter or 1.1-liter engine, the gearbox manages to save 0.2 to 0.8 liters per 100 km. With the tax benefit, the prices for these QQ3 models have dropped 3,000 and 4,200 Yuan below the manual versions, respectively.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ AutoBlogGreen
Bond Would Kill For This Lotus-Developed Biofueled Antarctic Speeder
For the engineering crew at Lotus, building transportation devices that are not sports cars is nothing new. Back in the early 90s they put their knowledge of lightweight materials and aerodynamics together to create a race bicycle that tore up the velodrome at the Olympics, not to mention wild soap box racers. The latest project is a three ski snow speeder that will be used in an Antarctic expedition next November to raise awareness of climate change. The Concept Ice Vehicle (CIV) is powered by a two cylinder BMW bike engine converted to E85 operation and turning a propeller that pushes the vehicle across the ice and snow at up to 84 mph. The CIV will be used to scout for crevasses in the ice. When the voids are found the GPS coordinates will be sent back to the rest of the team to warn them before anyone falls in.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ AutoBlogGreen
Dale Vince’s Wind-Powered Car Could Be The Storm, The Zero Or The Nemesis
When he’s not taunting Tesla, Dale Vince is pretty focused on building his wind-powered car. The Zero Carbonista project (previous post) is moving along and the fourth (of six) video about the project is new ready for your viewing pleasure. The front of the car is taking shape and now it needs a name. On the shortlist are: The Zero, The Storm and The Nemesis. I think the Zero Storm would be a good compromise, and I think it’ll sound good with a British accent.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ AutoBlogGreen
Compressed Air Car From Tata
Dubbed as Minicat, Tata Motors is getting ready for a new car that runs on compressed air. This means that the Indian auto-maker may offer a “zero emission” passenger vehicle to the world after launching the world’s cheapest car. The car runs on compressed air that pushes the pistons instead of fuel combustion. The company indicated a range of 300 km or 186 miles between the two fill-ups which may cost around Rs. 80-90 in India. It will give a top speed of 65 mph.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ CarTradeIndia
Honda Advertises Cars With Green Hybrid Billboards
If you are going to bill yourselves as the World’s Greenest Automaker, as Honda does from time to time, you’d better be willing to back it up. Luckily, Honda always seems to be looking for a way to do just that. Whether it’s by offering the best overall fuel economy in the United States or powering billboards with solar power, Honda is often a step ahead. Wait, hold on… powering billboards with solar power? Yep, in the land of Oz at least, Honda has partnered up with APN Outdoor to create Australia’s first eco-friendly outdoor advertisements. The solar panels provide power when possible and a backup electrical connection that gets its power from a green feed is there to pick up the slack.
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ AutoBlogGreen
India Getting Porsche Cayenne Diesel
Porsche just launched its first modern diesel engine in the Cayenne sport utility vehicle, and the German automaker said when it was first introduced that it was planning on bringing the model to other markets. Considering that the Cayenne is Porsche’s best-selling vehicle in India, it’s not all that surprising that the oil-burner is slated for an Indian introduction in short order. Even better, according to Car Trade India, “a diesel version of this popular SUV is expected to sell like a hot cake.” That sounds good, right?
Click Here To Read The Full Article @ AutoBlogGreen
