As we previewed earlier, Suzuki showcased its future technology with two of its current hatchbacks. The Swift gets a Plug-in hybrid treatment while the SX4 hatch gets to play Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV). This Swift has a 600cc engine and a motor powered by batteries. The batteries can be charged from the house-hold power socket, which will be good enough for a distance of 20kms. To cover longer distance the engine will charge the batter and the battery will run the motor and the car. so the engine never runs the car directly. This technology is similar to that to GM’s Chevy Volt.

The SX4 fuel Cell Vehicle has a onboard arrangement which converts Hydrogen into electricity and this electricity in used to run the motor which in turn runs the car. This Fuel Cell arrangement in the SX4 comes from GM. This concept even has regenerative braking which saves fuel. Big and bring the technology might be but there is no official word from Suzuki that they will put these two into production. So this might just be a matter of “Look how Green we are” theme that’s been going around in Auto shows.

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As reported earlier Suzuki showed off the concept version of its global small car Alto, sold in India as A Star. The concept comes with a puny 658cc 3-cylinder engine matted to a CVT (automatic gearbox). The concept even has a 4-wheel drive option.

Though the car is tagged as a concept, it is likely to go into production next year. At this point it is not clear with the production version will have the puny engine as the current ongoing Altos around the world have a 1Litre engine. There is a possibility that Suzuki might replace the Maruti 800 in India with this one as they are closer cousins with their similar engine capacity.

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The motor show at the Asian Auto capital Tokyo Kicked off today in grand fashion and the first car we are taking about can pretty much be called “the next big thing” in supercar world. This car has been praised by some of the well known petro heads as the best car they have ever driven.

Only 500 pieces will be made and each will cost US $375,000. That makes the LFA exclusive and expensive. But Lexus say they are making a loss with every LFA sold, like the Veyron both are more worthy than what you pay for. The car looks absolutely cracking with the curvey sharpness of a samurai sword, the design as Japanese as Sushi.

The spec of the car is pretty impressive with 4.8L V10 which puts out 552 bhp with a torque of 354 lb-ft. the car hits 0-62mph in 3.7 seconds and it breaks the 200mph barrier with a top speed of 202mph. but the specs are not as impressive as the sound it creates. Check it out in the video.

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Click through for more photos of the LFA

Honda is likely to show case its in-development electric scooters at the Tokyo Motor Show this month. Honda sees the potential in this growing niche, which is predominantly possessed by small scale manufacturers. This is the first time a big company has stepped down into this alcove, might this trigger the avalanche? We would have to wait and watch, but my guessing is that many would buy an electric scooter in India if it’s from Honda rather than Hero. Bad news is that Honda doesn’t seem to have plans of producing it any time soon, too bad.

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Looks like its Frankfurt all over again at Tokyo with every car maker with a hybrid variant of their existing cars. This time around it’s our beloved Swift which is under the shock. Besides its obvious drive train changes it get a crapy exterior paint job (remember the honey comb paint job on Hyundai’s blue concepts at Frankfurt?) and a few street mod like changes to the head light cluster.

As it’s a hybrid, it has a small conventional engine, an electric motor and lithium-ion batteries and since it’s a Plug-in Hybrid, the lithium-ion batteries can be charged from a house-hold power socket. The batteries run the motor and in turn the car. This is in case of a short trip, but if you run out of charge in the battery, that’s when the gasoline engine kicks in. the engine runs a generator and this provides charge to the battery. So in the Swift Plug-in hybrid the engine never runs the car directly. This is similar to the power train of GM’s Chevrolet Volt.

The other changes to the car include a new set of alloys, a set of what appears to be light weight seats with netted holes and a rather good looking refurbished interior.

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Suzuki is celebrating its 30th birthday this year at the Tokyo motor show, to commemorate this Suzuki is featuring a concept version of its iconic model Alto. Few pictures and details of the car has emerged on the inter web before the expo. According to the reports this concept alto has a 658cc 3-cylinder engine coupled to a CVT (continuously variable transmission), automatic gearbox in plain English.

It is said that the concept is almost production ready, but we don’t know if the future of the Alto looks like this but what we do know is how the first ever Alto looked like and it looked exactly like the classic Maruti 800 without the rear doors.

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The Tokyo motor show is one the most prominent motor shows in the Pacific ring. It is a biannual event which last took place in 2007. The 2009 expo will begin on the 21st of October with the first two days allotted for the Press followed by a Special Guest day. The expo will be open to public from the 24th of October till 4th of November. The 2007 show servers as a launch pad for biggies like Nissan GT-R, Lancer Evo x and Subaru Impreza WXR STI (GE chassis).

This year the high up automakers to make it to the show are Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Yamaha and Suzuki. Hyundai pulled out of the show couple of days back. These Auto shows serve as a gateway into the future so we give painstaking attention to them here at Indianautotalk.