Volkswagen Beetle In First Week of December

VW Beetle is scheduled for a launch in the Indian auto market on December 04 in Mumbai. The company has planned a complete advertising campaign including internet, print, electronic and digital media to generate a furor about its upcoming high cost model. Volkswagen AG has embarked on Rs 40 crore ad campaign to build its brand in the run-up to its December launch of small car Beetle and sports utility vehicle Touareg and the January launch of another small car, the Polo. The main aim of launching Beetle in India is to build a brand image in the country.

The car will be imported as a completely built unit in India which will make it pricier due to high import duty. It is expect to be priced around Rs. 20 lakh and above. The company will launch another premium car, Polo, at Rs 4.5 lakh in January. Polo will be the cheapest form the Volkswagen stable in India. The vehicle will compete with Maruti Swift and Ritz, Skoda Fabia, Hyundai i10 and Aveo U-VA.

“We will soon be introducing new car models like Beetle or Polo in India to enhance our presence in the market, besides providing technologically advanced cars for Indian customers. Our factory in Pune is ready for the start of production of Polo, which will be launched during the upcoming Auto Expo 2010,” Joerg Mueller, president and managing director, Volkswagen India, said.

Chevrolet’s new Spark is coming to India!

If you ask around and mention the Matiz to anybody, the word cute is mostly blurted out instantly. The same holds true for its spiritual successor, the current Spark - even though General Motors India now runs the proceedings. And when GM decided to build the successor to the current Spark for the global markets, needless to say it will make it to India, but will co-exist with the Spark as we know it now.



This then is the new Spark. And before you ask how they will run Spark Sr and Spark Jr around at the same time, don’t fret. GM might just call it the Beat in India, since the concept at the 2007 New York Motor Show was called thus. And from what the specifications seem to suggest, it will take on cars like the Hyundai i10 Kappa and Maruti Suzuki’s upcoming Splash, nee Ritz, head on.

The Spark is GM’s global small car that will be sold not only in countries in Asia and Europe, but also become GM’s entry ticket into the growing small car space in North America. And the fact that the Beat concept was chosen from among three after 1.9 million people voted over the Internet means that the Spark is a good looking car. Keeping true to the concept, the Spark retains most of the lines, except that it now gains four doors. If you can’t spot the door handles for the rear doors, don’t worry, it had us stumped too. But as we spotted closer, we realised that the Spark has stolen a design cue from the famous Alfa Romeo 156. The door handles are hidden in the plastic cladding around the C-pillar. Neat indeed. Measuring in at 3640 mm, the Beat is some 75 mm longer than the i10. The new car of course can’t be called cute anymore, as it is rather aggressive and muscular.

On the inside, there are a few design elements that trace it back to the current Spark. Such as the encapsulated speakers on the dashboard or the AC louvers and even the manner in which the central console is designed. What is rather interesting is the way the instrument binnacle has moved from the centre console to the more traditional ‘behind the steering wheel’ position. It looks like it came off a space shuttle, sheathed in silver and a cleverly designed LCD interface. The funky blue centre console dials and the riot of colours make this a fairly lively place to be in. We suspect it will be comfortable too for four adults and their luggage.

Internationally, the Spark will be sold with a variant of the current 1.0-litre four-cylinder petrol that also powers the existing Spark and a new 1.2-litre four-cylinder double overhead petrol that probably traces back its roots to the U-VA mill. No power figures are available just yet, so expect a small bump in power for the 1.0-litre engine from the existing 65 bhp, while the 1.2-litre engine should make about 80-85 bhp. We expect the latter to be the engine of choice so that GM can differentiate between it and the Spark and U-VA. Given how the current Spark is a lightweight city scorcher, the new Spark too should be equally good around town with some ability to cruise on highways.

And cruise it will, but only after GM brings in the Cruze, its Honda Civic/Toyota Corolla competitor, sometime in May-June this year. This will be followed by a new small car before the end of the year, which we guess is nothing but the facelifted U-VA. With Europe being the first recipient of the new Spark in early 2010, we suspect India will be on the launch list of the Beat only by late 2010 or early 2011.

GM to introduce new, fuel-efficienct and bi-fuel cars in India

With the success of its two hatchbacks in the Indian market, General Motors India is set to come out with a third one by the end of the year.

Following the Chevrolet and Spark, the "new Chevrolet Mini will not be a competition to Tata Motors' Nano. We are not in the numbers game. It will be positioned above the Chevrolet U-VA. Pricing will be around that range," said Karl Slym, president and managing director of General Motors India.

Speaking at the launch event of the company's sports utility vehicle (SUV) the Chevrolet Captiva's automatic variant, being at Rs20.3 lakh.

Reports quoted company executives as saying that the Chevrolet Mini would be positioned against Hyundai's recently launched i20.

Initially GM had planned to import the car as a completely knocked down kit into India, though now reports said it would manufacture the vehicle at its Talegaon plant in Maharashtra. The car is expected to hit the market in both petrol and diesel options, and is presently reported to be undergoing the fine tuning process of mapping the product to suit Indian road conditions.

In the premium segment, the Chevrolet Cruz would make its début sometime around the middle of 2009, providing some competition to the likes of Honda's Accord and Toyota's Camry. GM said that a one-week planned shut down at its Halol plant in December 2008 was to allow it to outfit the assembly lines to manufacture the Chevrolet Cruz.

Starting this year, General Motors India will also start offering bi-fuel cars that run on CNG or LPG as well as petrol. In the US, the Captiva has a hydrogen fuel variant. Slym attributed the lack of infrastructure as the reason the company has not introduced thye hydrogen-fuel car here in India.

GM would launch an LPG-powered car sometime during the first half of the year, Slym said, while adding that it would be followed by other LPG vehicles.

GM India already has the its current sedan, the Chevrolet Optra, available in the CNG variant, and the company would look at a similar course of action for its entry level sedan, the Chevrolet Aveo.

Slym said that GM's strategy has been to first come out with "high fuel efficiency in all our vehicles". "Then we will be introducing vehicles powered by (alternative) fuels like CNG and LPG, besides having different power-trains and different displacements," reports quoted him as saying.

GM is reported to have sold around 65,000 units last year in the domestic market, growing by 10 per cent despite the two per cent drop in growth witnessed by the passenger vehicle industry in 2008.

Reports said that GM's domestic market share notched up a few points from 2.9 per cent in 2007 to 3.4 per cent in 2008. the company is planning to make India its hub for power trains for Asia Pacific, after the completion of the $200 million power train facility at Talegaon in 2010.

GM launches new Chevrolet Aveo U-VA

The engineering centre of General Motors India here is fast becoming a ‘power train hub’ for the entire Asia Pacific operations of the company, GM President and Managing Director Karl Slym said here on Friday. The Bangalore centre has 1,600 staff and 100 of them are engaged in research and development, he said.

Speaking to reporters at the southern launch of the new Chevrolet Aveo U-VA, he said “no jobs are being cut; in fact we may hire 500 more hands before year-end, some for the Bangalore engineering centre”. The company planned to launch a new small car by the end of 2009, he added.

GM had plans to take the investment in India to $1 billion by 2010 and had invested $500 million so far, Mr. Slym said. The staff at Bangalore dealt with designs that matched consumer preferences and Indian road and driving conditions.

GM India’s new plant at Talegaon near Pune would increase the capacity to 1.40 lakh vehicles annually with additional capacity for making engines, he said. The dealer network was also being expanded to reach 200 by the end of 2008. Vice-President P. Balendran said, “Prices are likely to go up for all GM models by January, by 2-3 per cent.

The festival season discounts cannot continue; our bottomline has taken a hit”. The season, which usually saw a 25-30 per cent increase in sales, grew below 10 per cent this year, he added.