Archive for Tata

They really should make more amusing ads like this. Check out this Volkswagen Touran TV commercial after the jump. They’re promoting the car’s Park Assist system, which by the way is available locally on the Volkswagen Tiguan. The dude in the video can’t dance though but he kinda looks like Schumacher. The Touran is a Golf-based MPV that isn’t available in Malaysia, though there were a number of pre-owned ones (CrossTouran) sold off by Volkswagen Malaysia recently. Volkswagen recently announced that they will start assembly of the Touran in Indonesia.

Click here to read the rest of Volkswagen Touran Park Assist System TVC

The Tata Nano is officially here and on sale! Bear in mind this is the Indian domestic market version and not the larger, more well-equipped version that was showcased as the Tata Nano Europa recently.

The Indian version of the Nano will go on sale from the 1st of April onwards at Tata Motors Passenger Car dealerships and other select authorised outlets, available in 3 variants – Standard, CX and LX, with a 24,000km or 18 month warranty. The cheapest one is priced at 1 lakh as promised, but only when it leaves the factory, after that it gets some other costs tagged on including shipping, taxes and registration.

The Tata Nano has its engine mounted at the back, a 624cc 2-cylinder aluminium multi-port fuel injection engine mated to a 4-speed transmission. The engine produces 35 PS at 5,250rpm and 48Nm of torque at 3,000rpm, with a top speed of 105km/h.

Not much power, but the car weighs only 600kg. It can negotiate a maximum of a 30% grade incline. Fuel efficiency is rated at 23.6 km/litre, certified by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) under mandated test conditions – this is said to be the most fuel efficient petrol car in India.

The Nano measures just 3,100mm long, with a width of 1,500mm and a height of 1,600mm. Tata claims despite it having the smallest exterior footprint of any car in India, it is 21% more spacious than the smallest car available today.

The Standard is very bare, with 3 colour options, single-tone seats and a fold-down rear bench. If you notice, it doesn’t even have side view mirrors. The CX adds 2 more colours, climate control, two-tone seats, a parcel shelf, boost-assisted brakes, and a fold-down rear seat with a nap rest.

The highest grade LX model adds complete fabric seats, central locking, front power windows, body-coloured bumpers and etc, fog lamps, an electronic trip meter, a front console cup holder, a mobile charger point, and a rear spoiler.

There is limited capacity at the moment, as Tata’s Sanand plant is not ready yet in terms of capacity. The State Bank of India will be managing the Nano’s bookings. Application forms will be sold at Rs. 300 from 30,000 locations in 10,000 cities – Tata Motors Passenger Car dealerships, State Bank of India and its branches, its subsidiaries and associates, other preferred financiers, and outlets of Westside, Croma, ‘World of Titan’ and Tata Indicom exclusive stores.

After one obtains the form, he can either pay the entire booking amount themselves or seek financing of the booking amount. Financing is available from 15 financial institutions, where a Nano can be booked for Rs. 2999.

After 60 days of the closure of bookings, Tata will use a lottery system to allocate the first 100,000 cars to be delivered in phase 1 of the delivery process. Deliveries will start in July 2009.

If you do not get selected for the first phase of delivery, unlike here where your booking fee gets stuck for ages if your car takes a long time to get delivered, customers will be eligible to interest on their booking fees – 8.5% for retention period between one year to two year and 8.75% for a retention period of more than 2 years.

Look after the jump for a full gallery of the Nano.

Related Posts:
The Tata Nano: how did they manage to make it so cheap?

Click here to read the rest of Tata Nano officially goes on sale, delivery in July!

The Tata Prima is the first collaboration between Tata and Italian company Pininfarina and is based on the Tata Indigo platform stretched to a 2,700mm wheelbase. It kinda looks somewhat like a Nissan Sylphy actually, and you can see some latest design “trends” incorporated there although some can be considered overkill – it has TWO sets of daytime running lights – you get one strip on each side the bumper and another set integrated into the headlamps. I feel Tata should really reconsider a stronger corporate grille for its car. The front end that ended up on this one kinda makes it look like a smart forfour when viewed head-on. A prominent and good-looking corporate grille is really important. Hyundai has found a new one in their i-series of cars, albeit somewhat shamelessly ripped off from the pre-facelift current generation Honda Civic, while Kia has its new H-grille design penned by Peter Schreyer. Look after the jump for a gallery of the Tata PR1MA Concept.

Click here to read the rest of New Tata PR1MA Concept designed by Pininfarina

Tata has unveiled a more regularly-specced version of the Tata Nano that it intends to sell in more sophisticated markets such as Europe. It will be a car that has all the creature comforts that you’d expect, unlike the 1 lakh version that it intends to sell in India which will be stripped bare of even an air conditioning unit.

This high-spec version has been exhibited at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show and is called the Tata Nano Europa. While the Indian Nano rides on a wheelbase of 2,230mm, the Tata Nano Europe has a stretched 2,280mm wheelbase and measures 3,290mm long and 1,580mm wide (the Indian Nano is 3,100mm by 1,500mm). It’s actually shorter both in terms of length and wheelbase compared to the Kancil but is wider. Powering the Nano Europe is an inline-3 fuel injection engine mated to a 5-speed automatic and it will also come with a power steering system.

Other features that the Nano Europa will get include ABS, ESP stability control and airbags, which already places it above many small cars in terms of equipment, especially the presence of stability control. Of course with all of this extra features the price will be far from the original pricetag that gave the Nano its “1 lakh car” nickname, but I doubt the European customer will accept driving something as bare as the Indian Nano. Who knows, we could even end up having this Nano Europa sold in Malaysia by the new Tata franchisee, whoever they may be.

Tata of course has other aces up its sleeve for Europe, and it begins to make sense why they acquired Jaguar once you see what else they are exhibiting at Geneva, coming soon right after this story.

Some of you may be wondering what has happened to the Tata Nano after all the buzz that was created after it was unveiled back in January last year. Tata’s 1-lakh car had gone through so many downs such as having to abandon a nearly-completed production plant because of regional protests, and the continuous economic downturn doesn’t do much to help the Indian conglomerate who dreamt up this car for the masses.

But good news this time – in less than 1 month’s time, the Tata Nano will be officially unveiled in Mumbai on the 23rd of March 2009, with the first batch of showroom cars delivered from the 1st week of April 2009 onwards. Dealerships will be accepting bookings from the 2nd week of April 2009 onwards. We will get the full details on the production car at the March unveiling, but at the moment please check out our past coverage on the Tata Nano. There are some very interesting details on how Tata plans to make the car so cheap as well as videos.

According to latest exchange rates – 1 lakh Indian Rupees is US$1,986 or RM 7,300. That’s seriously cheap, but the base model will be extremely bare, likely not to even have air conditioning! But still safer than a motorcycle.

Related Posts:
Tata Nano target market may face difficulty with loans
Tata Nano affects used car prices in India
Tata Nano to get US$10 airbag?
VIDEO: Tata Nano unveiling at Delhi 2008
Tata Nano: how did they do it? (engineering details)
More photos of the Tata Nano
Tata Nano – the name of the Tata 1-lakh car

I think we now know why Maruti’s low cost car was revealed to the banks earlier this month, they were probably pitching it to the banks to see if they would grant loans for people who want to buy it!

Banks in India are saying that they would only grant loans to buy the Tata Nano to second time car buyers instead of motorcycle owners who are looking to upgrade to a car. “We will not look to finance the purchase of the Tata Nano for those who already own a motorcycle but are stretching their budgets to buy a car. We have faced numerous problems of motorcycle loan defaults,” said an unnamed banker in an interview with Business Standard in Mumbai.

Rates to finance the Tata Nano are also expected to be higher at 18 to 19% instead of a usual new car interest rate of 13 to 14%, although it is still lower than the usual used car interest rate of 22%. This is because usually low income owners that buy such cars usually have their finances stretched to the limits every month, especially in the wake of astronomical fuel prices. This is also why Proton cars usually have higher interest rates than foreign makes in Malaysia.

According to a report by Marinews, it seems that the impending launch of the Tata Nano has had a bad effect on the used car market in India, with used car sales dipping between 15 to 30 percent because buyers are waiting for the Tata Nano to be launched before deciding whether to buy a Nano or a used car.

Even used car values are affected, with cars like a 6-year old Maruti 800 dipping in value by 30% from 110,000 rupees to 75,000 rupees and a 5-year old Hyundai Santro’s 200,000 rupee value down to 165,000 rupees. Values of small cars that are usually purchased by budget-concerned buyers are generally hit the most, because of the fear of an impending rise in fuel prices. Some of these buyers would have to go back to bikes.

The Tata Nano is a no-frills car, but one of the more well-equipped, pricier versions of the Tata Nano will feature dual front airbags. And with luck, they’ll only increase the cost of the car by a minimum. Autoliv IFB India on the request of Tata is trying to develop a US$10 airbag for the Tata Nano, less than 10 times the price of airbags in other compact cars which cost around US$150 per airbag.

Swedish-American company Autoliv currently supplies 28% of the world’s airbags. In our market, an Autoliv joint venture with a Japanese company called Autoliv Hirotako Sdn Bhd supplies airbags for Proton, and the upcoming Perodua MPV.

Given that even these normally priced airbags sometimes do not work completely as intended and may end up injuring or killing occupants rather than saving them, are US$10 airbags really safe to use?

Related Posts:
Tata Nano: how did they do it? Cost-cutting secrets exposed
Tata Nano: the name of the Tata 1-lakh car

MV Agusta F4 Tamburini

Apparently MV Agusta could have a new owner or at least a large shareholder in the form of Tata Motors, according to Italian bike magazine euroMoto. MV Agusta used to be owned by Proton and was disposed of a few years ago for a sum fo 1 Euro. Since then, MV Agusta’s new owners have not been able to do much with the company, and its ails continue, lacking funds to channel towards new product development.

Source [ Translated ]

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Tengku Mahaleel and Tun Dr M question the sale of MV Agusta

Business Times reports quoting sources that there are currently four runners in the race for the Tata franchise in Malaysia, currently held by DRB-HICOM’s Scott & English (M) Sdn Bhd. The current franchise agreement will expire in May 2008, and DRB-HICOM holders themselves have expressed that letting the franchise go is one of the options being considered pending results from an internal evaluation.

The interested parties are: 1) DRB-HICOM of course, this would mean they would keep the franchise, 2) the owners of Brooklands Motors Sdn Bhd (Citroen) and Competitive Supreme Sdn Bhd (Ssangyong), 3) Sime Darby Berhad (BMW, Hyundai, Inokom, Alfa Romeo, Land Rover) and 4) Naza.

If Naza gets a hold of the Tata franchise, it will be able to sell the Tata Nano here, probably positioned lower than the Naza Forza. Sime Darby will already have a relationship with Tata through its Land Rover distributorship here as Land Rover has just recently been bought over by Tata.

Related Posts:
Tata Nano archive at this blog

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