Maruti-Suzuki unveiled the R3 concept at the Delhi Auto Expo 2010. It’s an MPV with seating for six people, but for a car which seats six, it looks ridiculously small and quite good in fact. The good looks are as much of a surprise as the capacity, considering the fact that it was Indian-Designed (at ths point one may recall the Swift “Dzrie”). The R3 has more going for it as it is bound to hit the market in about two years and should hit it at its soft spot. The MPV segment is getting rather crowded at the moment and this car could not have come at better time as Maruti looks to consolidate its market-leader position.
How much of the concepts quirkiness will the production model retain? What engine will it be powered by? How will it hold up against competition from Tata and Toyota to name a few?…All questions for which we will know the answers by 2012, when it is scheduled for production.
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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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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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The2009 Frankfurt Motor Show came to an end couple of days back and we though it’s time we wrap it up with the exclusive pictures sent to us by our friend Anand Nair. Before that let’s jog our memories with what’s what of the 2009 Frankfurt motor show.
The trend at Frankfurt was evidently “Green” with almost every automaker showcasing an electric or a hybrid unless if you’re thinking of Brabus of course. The interesting ones of the lot were the 3000 Nm torqued electric version of the R8, the R8 e-Tron concept, the Merc-SLS electric, BMW’s Vision Dynamic concept, the groovy electrics from Renault and of course the twins from Reva.
Out of all the concepts unveiled, the exciting ones were the Mini coupe, Fiat 695 Tributo Ferrari and Citroen Revolte. The super car ring got a fair share of the pie with the unveiling of the SLS Gullwing, 458 Italia, the one of 20, Reventón roadster, R8 spider, Aston Martin’s 4-door sedan Rapide and Maserati GranTurismo spider. On the ultra-luxury end of the spectrum Bentley’s Mulsanne and Rolls-Royce’s 200Ex Ghost summoned up the Show.
The show saw some carbon-fiber craziness with Mansory blacking out the Vantage and Veyron. The already crazy Pagani showcased a complete carbon fibred Zonda R. Tuning legend Hamann has its entire arsenal at its disposal at Frankfurt.
The Mercedes show stand was stupendous with a Wall of classic and concepts and interactive displays. BMW had oval circuit thing going on, around which its cars took drives. The show also had motorcycles, choppers, classic cars and even drag cars.
We have posted 365 photos of everything from the show in our Picasa page. Our train leaves Frankfurt with this.
A piece from the Picasa page:
Santa Fe Facelift
This face lifted Santa Fe is awaiting its launch into the Indian market and we expect it to hit the showrooms by this November.
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Ix-35/ Tucson
This is the new Tucson which will be replacing its uglier older self in India and elsewhere.
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