Jaguar and Land Rover India PHOTO GALLERY

Tata Motors bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in 2008, it had great plans for both brands. Driven by sales of the sub-$5,000 Nano, the Indian conglomerate would have enough funds to secure their future. Now it seems that the tables have turned, and it's the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit that may have to bring in the profits.

Tata Motors reported an 8.5% drop in sales in India for the first quarter of 2011, due to rising interest rates in a country where, according to Bloomberg, 80% of new car sales are based on loans.

Demand for the Nano dropped by a whopping 48% in the last two months alone. Jaguar's global sales dropped even more in the first quarter, as the luxury carmaker reported a 27% decrease.

“Tata Motors had a pretty flat quarter as far as Jaguar sales are concerned, and Indian passenger vehicles sales went down” said Juergen Maier, a manager at Raiffeisen Capital Management in Vienna.

“Everyone is looking at the Evoque and also the product launches from Jaguar that will help increase sales”. Ashvin Chotai, the managing director of Intelligence Automotive Asia, agrees: “The company now revolves around the JLR unit and not the other way around”.

Fortunately for Tata, Land Rover is doing quite well: its sales in the past quarter grew by 22% to 50,747 units. And the Range Rover Evoque has already 18,000 orders even before it officially goes on sale in September, something that according to the brand’s director, John Edwards, will create a waiting list “well into next year” for new buyers.

Tata also has in the pipeline several Jaguar products including a Sport Break version of the XF and the exotic 200 mph C-X75 hybrid supercar. More importantly, Jaguar will launch a small sedan to rival luxury models like BMW’s 3-Series (hopefully with better results than the X-type).

In order to achieve its goals, the Tata Group plans to invest $2.4 billion annually in the development of 40 new products and variations of Jaguar and Land Rover models in the next five years.

Story source: Bloomberg

PHOTO GALLERY

Tata’s Camry rivaling Vilasita is Shoeb’s wild fantasy

By SRK (Shoeb R Kalania)

Note – This post is purely imaginative and need not have any connection to the cars in Tata Motors’ drawing board.

I present to you Vilasita from Tata Motors.

Vilasita is a Hindi word which translate to “Lap of Luxury” and I have chosen this name for this new Tata Motors sedan that’s expected to rival vehicles like the Honda Accord and Skoda Superb.

Priced at around 20 lakh rupees, the Vilasita has all features of a modern imported luxury vehicle.

Exterior Styling
* Vilasita carries familiar Tata styling.
* This particular car boast of a long wheel base and an aerodynamic body shell.

Interior Styling
* The interior will boast of the best materials and the fit and finish would be top notch.
* The design itself would make the interiors spacious and provide the passengers the feel of being in their arm chairs or drawing room couch.

Safety features
* ABS, EBD, TCS, Airbags would be standard across the range
* Lane Change Assist, Night Vision, Collision Avoidance System would be available as an option and standard on top end models.

Eco Friendly
* Start-Stop system across all models.
* Platform ready for Hybrid and Fuel Cell variants.

Other Features
* Adaptive Headlights
* Smart Key
* Push start
* Mood lightning

And More….

This car would be made with inputs from engineers and designers at Jaguar. Quality could be class leading, while the powertrains will come from Jaguar as well. A long wheelbase variant could make it a very affordable luxury car.

Tata working on 40kmpl diesel Nano

The dream child of Ratan Tata, envisioned to shift masses away from bikes and upgrade to cars, hasn’t yet ‘clicked’ the way all of us expected. People are still buying bikes and they are buying them in plenty.

Obviously, the Tatas aren’t giving up so early. They are planning to complete with the two-wheelers on a critical factor that influences an Indian consumer the most, whether it is 4-wheeler, two-wheeler or one-wheeler – Mileage!

A report from IndianCarsBikes suggests that the Nano Diesel is expected to deliver 40kmpl. For our international audience that’s 94 mpg! ICB adds that the Nano will not have a CRDI engine but will instead rely on the Tata ACE’s IDI engine.



We are not very sure of this ICB report as all along we have been hearing of a 2-cylinder CRDI engine being developed for the Nano. The company has also confirmed this development recently, giving ICB another credibility point.

Tata Motors to NDTV Profit in September 2010 -

We are developing a two-cylinder diesel engine for the Tata Nano. We will give ourselves the time that is required to develop and refine the engine to our satisfaction. It is premature to speak on the details.

The ACE is powered by 4-stroke, 2-cylinder, 700 cc engine which is only BS III compliant. The engine block is the Indica’s engine cut in half.

Clearly, this engine will be tweaked to make it BS IV complaint as Tata doesn’t want to miss out the congested areas in India where bike riding is a harrowing experience. As a result, we really cannot comment on the performance of the Nano diesel.

But 40 kmpl is something unbelievably fantastic.

This sort of mileage could certainly match up against a few bikes that are currently sold in India. Plus, because it’s a diesel, which right cost 40 rupees per liter, the cost of running a Nano would be below 1 rupee per kilometer.

Will this effort finally ‘click’ with masses? What are your thoughts?

Source – IndianCarsBikes

Quote Source – profit.ndtv.com

Tagged as: Nano diesel, Tata Nano, tata nano diesel

Piaggio NT3 Concept targets the TATA Nano

At this week's 2010 Milan Motorcycle Show (EICMA), Piaggio presented the NT3 Concept, a three-seater four-wheel mini that could become the TATA Nano's biggest competitor in emerging markets like India or Vietnam.
Despite its small size (it only measures 2.4 meters in length), the NT3 is a highly versatile vehicle, with multiple cabin configurations, also made possible by the center driving position. It uses a spaceframe architecture with crashbox, meaning that it's safer than it looks. Power comes from internal combustion engines or a hybrid powertrain.
The smallest one has a capacity of 200 cc and it was created with economy in mind. It is followed by a more powerful 300 cc variant and a hybrid, which combines the more potent conventional engine with an electric motor.
The two can work together and propel the NT3 to a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). In "electric only mode" the car's top speed is 30 km/h or 19 mph.
Piaggio says that the NT3 can do more than 30 km with 1 liter of fuel – 3.33 lt/100 km or 71 US mpg –, though it's not known with which engine. In any case, the Italian manufacturer promises low operating costs and emissions.
The Italian maker, best known for its Vespa scooters, said the NT3 could enter the market in the next three years, but hasn't made any final decisions yet.

By Csaba Daradics

Piaggio NT3 Concept targets the TATA Nano

At this week's 2010 Milan Motorcycle Show (EICMA), Piaggio presented the NT3 Concept, a three-seater four-wheel mini that could become the TATA Nano's biggest competitor in emerging markets like India or Vietnam.
Despite its small size (it only measures 2.4 meters in length), the NT3 is a highly versatile vehicle, with multiple cabin configurations, also made possible by the center driving position. It uses a spaceframe architecture with crashbox, meaning that it's safer than it looks. Power comes from internal combustion engines or a hybrid powertrain.
The smallest one has a capacity of 200 cc and it was created with economy in mind. It is followed by a more powerful 300 cc variant and a hybrid, which combines the more potent conventional engine with an electric motor.
The two can work together and propel the NT3 to a top speed of 80 km/h (50 mph). In "electric only mode" the car's top speed is 30 km/h or 19 mph.
Piaggio says that the NT3 can do more than 30 km with 1 liter of fuel – 3.33 lt/100 km or 71 US mpg –, though it's not known with which engine. In any case, the Italian manufacturer promises low operating costs and emissions.
The Italian maker, best known for its Vespa scooters, said the NT3 could enter the market in the next three years, but hasn't made any final decisions yet.

By Csaba Daradics

TechArt “pimps up” Porsche’s new baby coupe: the 385 Hp Cayman S based GTsport

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Now tell me, isn’t this just plain sexy? A big bravo to TechArt who did quite a good job on the Cayman body which looks so much sexier than the original, especially if you look at it from ¾ behind.

But, appearance isn’t the only thing that changed on the Cayman’s alter ego as the GTsport is as bad as it looks. At the heart of this mid-engine sports car lies the increase in displacement from standard 3,387 cm³ to 3,824 cm³. The increase is facilitated by a bore enlarged to 99 millimeters with the corresponding larger special pistons, and by the installation of a special crankshaft.

The engine conversion further includes sports camshafts. A modified intake manifold with special air filter system and an aluminum header provide ample combustion air. The interaction of all these components including the fully stainless-steel high-performance exhaust system with high-performance manifold is orchestrated by new mapping for the engine electronics.

So what do all these conversion sum up too? Maximum power is now 385 hp / 283 kW while peak torque is 407 Nm . According to TechART, the GTsport sprints form 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.9 seconds while it’s top speed is 285 km/h.

Aerodynamics: The TechArt GTsport front apron is designed to replace the production bumper. With its large air inlets and four auxiliary headlights it lends the two-seater a more dynamic appearance while reducing lift on the front axle at high speeds. The extendable carbon air splitter can further minimize aerodynamic lift.

The TechArt rocker panels were modeled to calm the airstream between front and rear wheel houses. They also give the two-seater a longer, sleeker appearance. Carbon mirror moldings round out the racing look of the TechArt GTsport.

To optimize downforce on the rear axle and for even more striking looks TechArt Automobildesign further equips the GTsport with a rear wing with extendable carbon gurney flap. The rear apron is refined by a carbon diffuser.

Wheels: The especially light-weight one-piece TechArt Formula five-spoke wheels are mounted on the front axle in size 8.5Jx20 with ContiSportContact 3 tires in size 235/30 ZR 20. The rear axle features wheels in size 11Jx20 with size 305/25 ZR 20 tires.

Suspension: Specially calibrated to these wheels and tires is the TechArt VarioPlus coil-over suspension for all vehicles that are factory-equipped with the electronically adjustable PASM damper system. This suspension not only allows adjustable ride-height lowering by up to 25 millimeters, but also manual selection of damper settings “Normal” and “Sport” at the push of a button in the cockpit. The dampers are not limited by the manually selected setting: Sporty driving automatically firms up the dampers in both suspension modes. The result is an optimal symbiosis of excellent ride comfort during normal driving and agile direct response during fast cornering.

Price: The GTsport will be built in small-series production with prices starting in Europe forma 100,000 euros