Initial export volumes of 5000-6000 units expected monthly.

Maruti Suzuki India is all set to export the Baleno to its parent company, Suzuki Motor Corp in Japan. The Baleno, launched in New Delhi on October 26, will be the first ‘Make in India and sell’ global model for Maruti Suzuki.

Kenichi Ayukawa, managing director and CEO, said, “The Baleno is not only for India but for the global markets and will be exported to 100 countries from India.”
Initial monthly volumes of 5,000-6,000 units are on the radar as exports to Japan and Europe. These will be scaled up to 55,000 annually for the global markets by next year to accommodate export volumes for Latin America (Chile, Mexico, Uruguay), almost all of Europe barring East Europe, and South Asian countries.

The Baleno comes in petrol and diesel guises with the base VVT petrol Sigma model kicking off at an introductory price of Rs 4.99 lakh, with the CVT petrol variant costing Rs 6.76 lakh. The DDiS 190 diesel Sigma is priced at Rs 6.16 lakh with the top-end Alpha version costing Rs 8.11lakh (all prices ex-showroom, Delhi). Safety features such as dual airbags, ABS with EBD and seatbelt pretensioners come as standard across all variants. It will also be the first car to offer the Apple CarPlay in India.

The Baleno will rival the Honda Jazz and the Hyundai Elite i20.

Courtesy : Autocar

Maruti Suzuki India that recently rolled out its premium hatchback Baleno in the country, has now announced to bring in the much-awaited Vitara compact SUV by April, 2016. The announcement came from the company's officials during a media interaction. The company also confirmed that the Maruti Suzuki Vitara will be showcased at the 2016 Delhi Auto Expo.

The India-bound Maruti Suzuki Vitara might look more or less similar to the iV-4 concept based model that had made its debut at the 2014 Paris Motor Show. Interestingly, the Vitara's production model is built on the same platform on which the Maruti Suzuki XA Alpha concept was built which was showcased at the 2012 Delhi Auto Expo.

Though there are rumours about the company's plans of bringing in a sub-4 metre version of the Vitara, we believe it will be the international model that's currently on sale in a few markets. This will also help the company position it against other urban SUVs including the Hyundai Creta, Renault Duster and the upcoming Honda BR-V. And the overwhelming response for the Hyundai Creta, which is an above 4-metre SUV, would have pushed Maruti Suzuki for a similar product strategy.

As far as the engine options for the Maruti Suzuki Vitara are concerned, the company has an option to consider using a 1.4-litre VVT petrol, a 1.3-litre multijet diesel and a 1.6-litre multijet diesel.

Mercedes AMG GT will be available only in the high-performance S spec for India.

Mercedes will launch the high-performance AMG GT supercar in India on November 24, 2015. Internationally, the AMG GT has been launched in two guises – the standard GT and the more powerful GT S version. India will get the latter.

The Mercedes AMG GT is the second production model to be conceived, engineered and developed at Mercedes-Benz's AMG performance car division at Affalterbach in Germany. It is powered by a 4.0-litre V8 engine good for 456bhp in the standard model, while the India-bound S version makes 503bhp. Developed from scratch, the direct-injection 4.0-litre V8 features twin turbochargers mounted inside the cylinder banks, and the carmaker claims this has optimised throttle response and reduced emissions.

The GT retains the exaggerated proportions of its predecessor, the SLS AMG supercar, albeit with more contemporary detailing. The new model has ditched the SLS’s heavy gull-wing doors for a lighter, front-hinged arrangement. At the rear, the AMG GT adopts a liftback-style tailgate in place of a conventional boot lid, intended to improve the car’s everyday practicality by allowing easier access to the luggage compartment.

Channelling the GT’s power to the rear wheels is a revised version of the Getrag-engineered seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox used on the SLS. Official performance figures for the GT S are 0-100kph time of 3.8 seconds and top speed of 310kph.

Mercedes has launched 13 models in India this year as a plan of launching a total of 15 models. The AMG GT S is the penultimate launch for this year. 

Courtesy : Autocar

New Honda sports car likely to sit below the upcoming NSX hybrid super-car; would have a motor driving each wheel.

The long gestation period for Honda’s next-gen NSX hybrid supercar launch has allowed the manufacturer to start work on several other projects in parallel.

Some of these include a smaller, four-cylinder engine based sports car and a successor to the S2000 roadster which is on high priority, according to the insiders. There’s also a performance-focused pure-EV in the works, which could showcase the next-gen Honda SH-AWD torque distribution system.

In the all-new NSX supercar which is set to go on sale internationally soon, Honda’s SH-AWD architecture extends to a pair of electric motors in the front, powering each wheel and a third motor which supplements the 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 engine at the rear. Honda also has an all-electric SH-AWD system ready that uses an inboard motor at each corner and mixes torque-vectoring along with four-wheel steering. This set-up was showcased on a modified CR-Z small sports car recently.

Our sister-magazine, Autocar UK understands that one of the chief attractions of four electric motors  that will be used in this upcoming sports car is that they can be relatively inexpensive, ‘stock’ components that are already available; the motors used on the CR-Z test mule that showcased the all-electric SH-AWD are from Honda’s American flagship, the Acura RLX Hybrid.

The new Honda NSX has been one of the more controversial sports car projects in its history. Honda is likely to gauge final reaction to the NSX before signing off on this new sports car project.

Courtesy : Autocar

Thanks to the blowback from Volkswagen’s emissions debacle, Toyota storms to the lead once again, six months after it lost the crown.

Toyota said it sold 7.5 million vehicles in the first nine months of 2015, beating Volkswagen’s figure of 7.43 million reported earlier this month. General Motors came in third, having sold 7.2 million vehicles in the same period. Still, Toyota’s victory is marred a bit by the fact that its sales is down by 1.5% from the same period last year. Arch-rival Volkswagen’s sales also saw a 1.5% decline in the same quarter. 

Earlier this year, Volkswagen overtook Toyota to become the world’s biggest carmaker for the first time. Toyota itself won the crown from GM in 2008, only losing it briefly in 2011 when the Japanese tsunami interrupted vehicle production. 

Unfortunately, this victory for Toyota doesn’t represent the full scale of the blowback Volkswagen will be receiving from its breitling replica ongoing diesel emissions crisis. Toyota now looks set to keep the crown for some time to come as VW tries to overcome a large-scale pollution scandal that broke after it was revealed that the company had installed cheating software in millions of its diesel-engine cars to thwart emission tests in many parts of the world. The Wolfsburg-based company had to start a huge recall to fix the rigged vehicles by the end of 2016.

But Toyota, too, is in the middle of another recall, affecting up to 6.5 million cars globally. The company announced last week the cars would have to be fixed because of a faulty power-window switch potentially able to cause overheating and the vehicles to catch fire.

Courtesy : Zigwheels