Automotive Updates - 13th July 2014

• India’s industrial production growth accelerated at the fastest pace in 19 months in May, official data released on Friday showed—heartening news for a government that got down to the business of fixing the economy with its first budget one day ago. Factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew by a faster-than-expected 4.7% in May, up from 3.4% in April. The growth, led by a robust recovery in manufacturing, compares with a contraction of 2.5% recorded in May 2013. Industrial output growth beat a forecast of a 3.8% rise in a Reuters poll of economists.

• Tata group's flagship Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is developing much smarter cars that will offer a completely personalised driving experience and help prevent accidents by reducing driver distraction.

• Using the latest machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques, JLR's proposed car will offer a comprehensive array of services to the driver, owing to a new learning algorithm that recognises who the driver is and learns their preferences and driving style. 

• Celebrating the extended excise duty cut relief, Chevrolet has announced special discounts of upto Rs 88,000 on its selected models. Under the scheme of ‘Blockbuster Weekend’, the company is providing offers on its hatchback Beat, Sail, Spark, Sail Sedan and Enjoy MPV. While it seems like Cruze, Tavera and Captiva are not included in this offer. This limited offer is valid on till July 14, 2014. So hurry make the most of it now. 

• Honda has recently announced a new addition to its commuter bike range, the Honda CD 110 Dream. The 110 cc motorcycle is the third member of the brand’s Dream family of commuters, following the Dream Yuga and the Dream Neo.Indian Autos Blog learns that the CD 110 Dream would be launched in a phased manner with the first lot of bikes slated to reach showrooms in select cities on July 15.

• Reports suggest that the Audi A3 sedan might be launched in India on August 7. The A3 sedan will be the most affordable car in Audi’s line-up and will compete with other entry-level luxury cars like the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and the BMW 1 Series. 

• Riding on the strategy of focusing on first time buyers and rural markets, country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has increased its market share in passenger vehicle segment in the first quarter of the current fiscal to 42 percentage.In the April-June period, the company sold 2,41,812 units of passenger cars and utility vehicles out of an industry total of 5,73,038 units, garnering 42.19 per cent market share, according to latest SIAM data.

• Renault bringing an MPV into India has been talked for long. However, for the first time, the car major from the land of Louvre, has been caught testing its Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) Lodgy in India by a reader of Indianautosblog.com.

• JSW Steel's production rose more than eight per cent to 3.1 million tonnes (MT) in the first quarter ended June 30.The Sajjan Jindal-led firm had produced 2.86 MT crude steel in the April-June quarter of last fiscal, it said in a statement

• An environment-friendly bus is all set to ply on the roads of the city. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari announced on Saturday that a bus that ran completely on ethanol would be handed over to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) within a fortnight.

• The announcement was made by Gadkari at a felicitation ceremony of scientist Raghunath Mashelkar organized by Vanrai Fondation. On the occasion of Guru Purnima, the renowned scientist was conferred upon the first Padma Vibhushan late Dr Mohan Dharia nation building award.
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•  image from theguardian.com