Automotive Updates- 8th July 2014

• Piaggio today launched the Limited Edition Vespa Esclusivo at Rs 74355 (ex-showroom).The Esclusivo is the first limited edition Vespa in India with only 1000 exclusive pieces to be made and numbered. The new scooter has same feature of Vespa VX.

• Honda Cars India announced today that bookings for the Honda Mobilio are now open. Dealers have started accepting pre-launch bookings for the proposed Ertiga beater for INR 50,000.

• Daimler India Commercial Vehicles has rolled out its first left-hand drive (LHD) Fuso trucks for the export markets from its facility at Oragadam, near Chennai. The first heavy-duty truck - the FUSO FJ (equivalent to a 2528C), will first be launched in Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt, and in the mid-term will be rolled out in markets in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

• Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will invest up to £ 20 million (Rs  200 crore) to develop the latest electric vehicle (EV) technology, the UK chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne said in Mumbai yesterday. Osborne added that a Mahindra vehicle could be on UK’s roads as early as 2015. Autocar Professional was unable to get a confirmation of this from an M&M spokesperson.

• Tata’s new 1.2-liter turbocharged Revotron engine will power the company’s Zest and Bolt, the two most significant launches for Tata Motors in recent times. Going forward, the engine technology will be used on a range of vehicles across Tata’s portfolio.

• Honeywell Turbo Technologies India (HTT India), the India arm of Honeywell’s transportation systems unit, has just begun locally manufacturing turbochargers for gasoline (petrol) engines at its Pune-based production plant. The plant until now was known for manufacturing only diesel engine-specific turbochargers with applications in passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, off-highway and mining segments within the automotive sector, with passenger vehicles forming the largest chunk.

• German component manufacturer, Bosch claims to have developed a mechanical vacuum pump that is at par with far more expensive electric vacuum pump, the company said in a press release."The Bosch EVOII offers the best value for money on the market and reliably provides the vacuum for the brake booster. Costing up to 75 percent less than comparable electric pumps, this new generation is the ideal solution for modern gasoline and diesel engines. With CO2 emissions of less than 0.4 grams per kilometer, this pump performs just as well as its electric competitors.

• Coinciding with the start of the EICMA show – one of the foremost trade exhibition events in the global two-wheeler industry – Ricardo, the global multi-industry consultancy for engineering,technology, project innovation and strategy, has announced that it will host a high-level technical summit, addressing key themes in the areas of market drivers, and future powertrain and vehicle technologies.

• Honda, with expansion plans in mind has said that it will reach the farthest corners in the country with dealer and service network soon. Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India plans to add another 1000 customer touch points in the current fiscal after adding 800 last year. Out of the 1000 planned for this year,

• International automotive supplier Continental has been producing electronic brake systems (EBS) for 30 years now. Two other milestones will occur this year: the 100 millionth EBS unit will roll off the assembly line in Frankfurt, which will also be the 250 millionth unit manufactured worldwide.

•  image from rediff.com