The Dilip Chhabria designed Nano body & paint job was showcased at the 2009 Autocar performance show. This time the picture spoke more about DC’s work on this one. The front is well designed keeping in mind the design character of the Nano DC has made in quite comical. But DC went too far with the rear literally, feels like the rear bumper extends a meter away. Though everything is plastic the rear feels plastickier, a slight rear-end and there goes your 40k off the 80k price tag for the Nano kit.

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After a million meetings between the partners, the duo/trio has come to a decision on the Ultra-Low Cost car (ULC) which was showcased a year back. Renault/Nissan’s boss Carlos Ghosn said to the press that they have come to a decision on the project after talks with Bajaj but a formal written agreement has not been signed yet.

From what Ghosn said, it looks like Bajaj who is the brains behind the cheap sourcing of raw material and cost effective design of the car won’t be getting its badge on the car. According to the deal struck Renault/Nissan would take care of branding, marketing and sales. Rajiv Bajaj was not present during the Ghosn speech and was out of contact to get a quick comment.

Carlos Ghosn’s punch lines from the Press meet:

“I am sure that the cost of the car will be lower than any car made in India”.
“There would be no Bajaj name on the badge of the car,”
“We have a clear strategy now on who does what,”
“As per the verbal agreement between both the companies, the design, engineering, sourcing and manufacturing of the proposed car will be handled by Bajaj Auto, while its branding, marketing and selling will be done by the Renault-Nissan,”
“We are looking at low cost frugal manufacturing, but the price of the car would be determined by the competition prevailing in the market,”

During the Tokyo motor show, Mr. Akira Okabe , Toyota Motor Corporation’s Senior Managing Director informed Indian motoring journalists that

“We will showcase the concept of the car in the upcoming Delhi Auto Expo. We are ready with the concept model of both the compact and the sedan versions of the car, we can launch both the hatchback and the sedan together but nothing has been finalized as yet.”

The car is code named EFC800L and is expected to have a 1.2Litre and a 1.3Litre engine with petrol and diesel options. The price of the car is likely to start at 5Lakh Rupees which will make it the cheapest car Toyota has ever made beating the Aygo hatchback. Now lets sit back and wait for the first set of spy shots.

Tata Nano is currently the most sort after car in India, why wouldn’t it be when it wears a “World’s something” Crown! It is so sort after that it is being bought off in second hand for more money.

Tata has announced yesterday that it will be increasing the production of Nano by 20% from this month. This means 3000 Nanos will now be produced every month to its previous 3 month’s figure of 2500 a month.

After Tata’s original plan of producing the Nano in the West Bengal plant went burst, it is currently producing the Nano in its Pantnagar plant along with its LCV Ace and hence the reason for just 2500 Nanos a month, which resulted in demand exceeding supply by 2Lakh units.

The New mother plant for Nano production is being erected up at Sanand in Gujarat. It has a capacity of 5Lakh units per annum and production will start from March next year. Now that ought to do it.

Click here to know the list of new features, price and more on the new Xcite.

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Our sources claim that Hyundai has started the designing of a Nano competitor which will be completely designed and produced in Hyundai’s Chennai plant. The car is code named HN30 and will have a 3-cylinder engine unlike the Nano which just has 2.

i10 in UK is getting an engine upgrade (rather a downgrade) with an 800cc turbo-charged engine by next year. It’s our guess that the NH30 will be based on the same engine without it being turbo ready. The project is projected to be complete by 2012 and only then the HN 30 will see the day light.

This rumor has been going on the rounds with in Toyota circles for a while now. The car will in fact be based on the IQ platform with a longer body with a bit more of front and rear over hang. The car’s body won’t look anything like the IQ. The length of the IQ which is being sold in elsewhere is a bit less than 3 meters and it can transport 3 adults and 1 child in decent comfort.

It is also rumored that Toyota had originally planned to launch the small car this year, but couldn’t pull it off yet so it went with the Fortuner’s launch instead and also because the Premium SUV segment is more easier than the Indian small car segment.

This piece of information might be in contradiction to what the Toyota people have told the reporters during the Fortuner launch but hey the magician doesn’t expose the rabbit before the trick!

Note: the car in the picture is Toyota’s global small car Yaris.

Honda India is currently working on a small car based on India as the mother market. The car is supposedly code named 2CV and is looking for a launch in March of 2010. The car will be built in the Company’s factory in Rajasthan and in Thailand.

The car in the picture is Honda Tif (that’s the reverse of “Fit”, which is sold as Jazz in India). The Tif is speculated to be a sub-Jazz version of Honda for the Asian Market, which evidently includes China. It is unsure if this is the small car for the Indian market but the Tif does look like a conventional hatchback from Honda for India with its new city like grills.

Today at the Delhi launch Mr. Alan Mulally unveiled Ford’s Indian small car, Figo. Ford scored its first goal with the name Figo which is Italian for cool and soon it will be cool in Hindi as well. The car just looks perfectly fordly. Though It might have bit of Fiesta in it (which in itself is a perfect looking car) it is as fresh a design as one would expect.

This event was not as much a launch as just an introduction of what is to come. Though the car was unveiled there was no disclosure of any details about the car or it’s pricing. The only info out of the launch is that the car will be launched during March of 2010 and will be produced in the company’s Chennai plant which recently received a major expansion worth $500 million.

Mr. Mulally, Ford’s Global President and CEO said in his press address that “The Figo is designed to compete in India’s small car segment, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the market. Our exciting new Ford Figo shows how serious we are about India. It reflects our commitment to compete with great products in all segments of this car market. We are confident the Ford Figo will be a product that Indian consumers really want and value. Ford is reserving further details about the car till its launch in early 2010”.

When Michael Boneham, Ford India president and managing director addressed “It’s going to be very competitive with the current market leader and will offer a tremendous value for our consumers, it will transform our brand into a volume player in India” he added that “it’s going to be a big game changer”.

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Maruti has started work on a small car homogeneously designed and manufactured in India with the support of its Japanese wing Suzuki. This move would help Maruti bring down the price of the car, since it doesn’t have to pay Suzuki any royalty cost.

The project is at a pre-mature stage now; Maruti has started working on the basics like design, engine and interior. The project is under way at Maruti’s plant in Gurgaon with the car code name YP8. Maruti is expected to use the Ritz’s platform for producing this car.

It is likely that Mr. Desi will dance the floors at the Delhi Auto Show next year.