NEW DELHI: In what may come as music to the ears of Mauti Suzuki fans in the country, the company reportedly plans to incorporate Harman Kardon music systems to its cars from 2017. 

Harman Kardon is a US-based home and car audio equipment manufacturing company which has tie ups with several luxury car makers - globally as well as in India. 

According to a report in Team-BHP, Maruti is looking to bring Harman Kardon systems to its lineup in a bid to make their offerings even more lucrative for buyers. The Ignis - expected to be launched in December - may become the first car from the auto giant to be fitted with these systems.  

It is highly unlikely that the small car offerings from Maruti will get fitted with these systems as it would bump up the prices in a price-sensitive segment, the sedans and sub-compact SUVs will get the systems on the higher variants - subject to the deal materialising, media reports suggest. 

Harman Kardon though has already collaborated with Tata to bring in their products in the entry-level segment. A deal with Maruti will act like a catalyst for the company in the vibrant Indian auto market. 

KOLKATA: A day after the chief minister pitched for an automobile hub from Singur, Swedish car maker Volvo expressed its interest to invest in Bengal. The Bengal government has allotted 25 acres of land to the multinational at Panagarh in Burdwan district.

"Volvo has expressed interest to set up a unit in Bengal. We will give them 25 acres of land at Panagarh.We will provide all help if anyone wants to invest in Bengal. We have adequate land and infrastructure," Mamata Banerjee said at Nabanna.

Mamata, in her efforts to establish that everything is "normal" between the Tatas and the Bengal government, has taken a step forward towards building a fresh association with the group. The government has roped in Tata Metaliks to launch a skill development programme. She held a meeting with Tata Metaliks on Thursday. 

"It is indeed great that Tata Metaliks and the Bengal government are joining hands for a skill development programme. We are happy that Tata Metaliks has taken the initiative for an ITI in Midnapore. We are ready to extend all help. Skilled manpower is the need of the hour for the industry. We aim to train six lakh youths in a year," Mamata said. The group signed an agreement with the government on Thursday in presence of the chief minister. 

Source : Volvo to drive into Bengal, state government allocates 25 acres 

CHENNAI: Scooters may be more preferred by urban customers but market leader Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) is kicking in a new strategy to push rural sales ahead of the festival season. The company is increasing production to better capture the rural markets, where demand is expected to rise, thanks to a good monsoon.

"Currently 28% of our total volume comes from rural markets. Earlier, the ratio was 1 scooter to 9 motorcycles in rural markets but now, of late, with better availability of scooters the ratio has improved to 3:9 ," said YS Guleria, senior VP-sales and marketing, HMSI.

Honda is able to kick off this rural focus in scooters thanks to a recent capacity addition that has allowed it to allocate more scooters for the festival season. "We started with our scooter-only factory in Sanand to breach the demand-supply gap in scooters and we have brought forward the second line in that plant to hit peak capacity by end August," said Guleria. As a result, the piling up of back orders have come down.

"Scooters back orders are down to 18,000 starting September compared to 35,000 last year. For the first time in 10 years, Honda scooters will be available off the shelf this festival season," he added. Typically, given the demand pile up, scooters were not available at the last mile in rural networks. With the new capacity addition, Honda hopes to fix that skew.

Also with a network increase of an additional 2,000 outlets in the last 3 years, HMSI is looking at a more balanced urban-rural mix. Honda commands 59% marketshare in scooters.

The capacity ramp would mean a higher share of scooters in Honda's overall sales mix. In the April-August period, 66% of the company's total sales came from scooters. With the ramp up in capacity, it will be in a position to supply enough to take that to 70% scooters.

Overall, Honda expects a more than 20% demand growth in the festival season as well as the first 10 months of the calendar. "We have been growing at a 22% trot in the April-August period as against the industry growth of 12%," said Guleria.

"We should be able to maintain 20% plus growth in the festival season and through the first 10 months. Overall we are seeing positive momentum already. The 7th Pay Commission, OROP and good monsoon should contribute to good growth," he said.

Source : Honda 2Wheelers India to push scooter sales in rural market

NEW DELHI: Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo has launched India's first plug-in hybrid SUV, the XC90 T8 Excellence, at a price of Rs 1.25 crore (ex showroom Delhi). The 7-seater SUV's T8 petrol engine delivers 49 g/km CO2 backed with an electric range of up to 40 km. It churns out 407 hp of power and 640 Nm of torque, and clocks 0-100 kmph in 5.6 seconds.

"The XC90 T8 Excellence is not only a segment first but India's first plug-in hybrid SUV and we see a lot of interest from our more affluent customers, who prefer to experience 'responsible' luxury," said Tom von Bonsdorff, Managing Director, Volvo Auto India.

It comes with three drive modes, which can be selected by a touch on the centre console - Pure (the high voltage battery is fully charged), Hybrid (default mode), and Power (combined performance of combustion engine and electric motor).

It has a host of safety features - Adaptive cruise control, Lane departure warning, Collision warning with full auto-braking, Blind spot detection with cross traffic alert, Rear collision warning, and Park pilot assist. It also comes with an integrated ionic air cleaner in the CleanZone climate system, which restricts particulate matter PM2.5 and PM10 by up to 95 percent, claims the company.

Some other features of the SUV include - surround sound system with 20 speakers, panoramic sunroof, air suspension for all 4 wheels, perforated heating/cooling and massage functions in all seats, and tyres with noise cancelation technology.

Source : Volvo XC90 plug-in hybrid launched at Rs 1.25 cr (ex Delhi)

Toyota India is looking to alter their line-up in the Indian market with the launch of the facelift version of the Toyota Etios. Moreover, the facelift Toyota Etios will be called Etios Platinum, inspired by the recently launched in Brazil with the same name.

The images of the upcoming facelift of Toyota Etios Platinum were doing the rounds on the internet for some time now, but with the images shared by AutomotiveIndia, the news is confirmed that the Japanese car-makers have started bringing the facelift sedan to dealerships across the country.

According to reports, the new Toyota Etios Platinum will come with minor cosmetic changes and no mechanical changes.

Engine:

According to reports, the new Toyota Etios Platinum will come with the same 1.5L petrol engine and 1.4L D-4D diesel engine. However, the only changes made to the mill is that the clutch system and shock absorbers of the Etios Platinum diesel variant is tweaked for better performance. Apart from this, there is no other change to the powertrain of the upcoming Toyota Etios Platinum.

Design:

Exterior:

From the images leaked online, it looks like the front side of the upcoming Toyota Etios Platinum will feature a new chrome plated V-shaped grille, redesigned bumper with larger intakes and boomerang shaped round fog lamps in the front.

However, the rear side of the Toyota Etios Platinum gets refreshed bumpers, among other changes.

Interior:

On the inside, the new Toyota Etios Platinum gets a redesigned instrument cluster with refreshed speedometer and a digital tachometer along with new wrapping for the steering wheel. Moreover, it also comes with dual-tone dashboard and power-operated ORVMs.

Features:

If reports are true, then the upcoming Toyota Etios Platinum will come with ABS and EBD as standard feature.

Source : Toyota Etios facelift to launch tomorrow in India