Bajaj Auto plans small car within four years

NEW DELHI: Bajaj Auto Ltd, India's No. 2 motorbike maker, said on Tuesday it plans to launch a low-cost small car in two to four years, probably with French carmaker Renault and Japan's Nissan Motor Co. Bajaj's announcement comes two days before Tata Motors Ltd unveils its much-anticipated $2,500 "People's Car" at an auto show. Renault and Nissan both said a deal was yet to be signed. "We think the world is moving to small cars and big bikes and we are moving there," Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj told reporters at a news conference. Small car sales, which make up more than two-thirds of India's domestic market, are expected to nearly double to 2 million units a year by 2010, helped by rising middle-class incomes. Volkswagen, Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and Fiat have also said that they are looking to build low-cost cars. Bajaj is negotiating with Renault and Nissan to co-develop the small car, a project which would be spearheaded by Bajaj with inputs from the two overseas firms, officials and a company statement said. "In the very, very unlikely event (that talks with Renault and Nissan fail) we have every intent to move forward," Bajaj said, adding he was confident talks would be successful. A Renault spokeswoman in Paris said that a deal on the low-price car had not yet been signed with Bajaj, while a Nissan spokesman said the Japanese carmaker was still in negotiations with Renault and Bajaj over whether to go ahead with the project. If the partners decided to build the car, he said, it would be launched in two to four years as Bajaj stated. Bajaj said it also hopes to use Renault and Nissan dealer networks to sell the car, which will have both petrol and diesel variants, in the overseas market. The car would be manufactured at Chakan near Pune in the western state of Maharashtra, Bajaj said. The plant, which is being built with an initial capacity of 250,000 units, will also produce light trucks, which Bajaj expects to launch in 2009. One of the trucks will have Bajaj's first diesel engine, Rajiv Bajaj said. MOTORBIKE LAUNCHES Bajaj, whose two-wheeler sales have dropped 19.1 per cent in April-December from a year ago, said it would launch high-end KPM and Kawasaki bikes in India sometime this year as sales of lower-margin 100cc bikes are falling. Total two-wheeler sales in India in the same period have fallen by 7.7 per cent to 5.5 million units from a year ago. Bajaj has a technological tie-up with Japanese heavy machinery and engineering company Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. "This is the market that appreciates qualitatively superior products," Rajiv Bajaj said. Bajaj will also introduce two new motorbike models and a scooter model in 2008. Shares of the company were trading up 0.22 per cent at 0853 GMT, after rising 2.5 per cent earlier in the day, on Mumbai stock exchange, which was down 0.02 per cent. Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

World’s First Commercial Compressed Air-powered Vehicle Ready for Mass Production

Alternative fuels have been attracting a lot of media attention lately and the very first commercial compressed air car (zero pollution car) is on the verge of production. Yes, I am talking about the Air Car, which has been developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy Nègre. Approximately 6000 Air Cars will be built by India based Tata Motors and could probably be seen on Indian roads by next year.

The CityCat model will offer an average of 68 mph on a driving range of 125 miles. Refueling will be too easy and would take least of your time. A single fill-up is said to cost $2.00 and if the driver is not near to a compressor station, he can use the car’s integrated compressor to refill the tank in about 4 hours. The technology nehind the vehicle is to store electrical energy without the toxic batteries. So, we can say that The Air Car is an electric car with no electric motor. The only thing that the pipe of the emission-free vehicle throws out is the air.

Anyway, Air Car might not make its way to the North American streets. The guys behind the Air Car are already working on a hybrid version that would be using on-board, gasoline-powered compressor in order to refill the air tanks. Check out the videos.