Automotive Updates - 23rd and 24th August 2014

• The Suzuki Access has been in the market since 2007. The company also launched few special editions of the scooter, such as the Access Limited Edition as well as the Being Human edition. Now, the Japanese bike maker has launched the Access facelift in India, priced at Rs. 53,223/- (on-road, Delhi). The facelift is a very minor cosmetic update and does not carry any significant changes on the product. Companies keep giving such minor updates to their products to keep them fresh until a new generation of the said product hits the market.(motorbeam.com)

• Living up to the expectation it had built for itself before going on sale in India, Honda’s Mobilio MPV has received a gush of bookings from customers. Launched exactly a month ago in domestic market, Honda so far has received 14,000 bookings for Mobilio. While the company delivered 3,365 units in last week of July, discrete sales figure for the month of August will be revealed by beginning of next month. However from what we have come to know from bookings roped in until now, Mobilio’s diesel variant is more in demand than the petrol version. Almost 85 per cent of the bookings received so far belong to diesel variant. HCIL anticipated demand for diesel variant to be more than the petrol variant, however they had not expected that the response for diesel version will be so overwhelming.( cartrade.com)

• In what the company terms as a ‘normal treasury transaction’, the Bajaj Group has sold off all the shares it had held in Force Motors. A total of 23 percent stake was sold over a period of little over a year. (indianautoblogs.com)

• Mahindra & Mahindra’s Farm Equipment Sector (FES) today announced the launch of the new Arjun Novo, the most technologically advanced and stylishly designed new generation tractor in Maharashtra. The Arjun Novo is based on a whole new platform which can also be used to build some higher and lower capacity models.(motoroids.com)

• Launching the nation's first ethanol-run bus on a pilot basis, union minister of public transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said the central government would fund more such buses for the civic bodies. "I will give 200-500 ethanol-run buses to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). Minister of urban development Venkaiah Naidu has assured to fund the buses under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). I talked to Naidu on Thursday on this," the minister said.(ETauto.com)

• Automotive portal CarDekho.com has launched the iOS version of its phone app, the first among car portals to do so.Their recently released Android app has clocked more than 100,000 downloads, CarDekho is targeting 4.8 mn iOS users in India who are a prime car-buying segment. (finanacialexpress.com)

• Nitol Niloy Group, the sole importer and distributor of Tata vehicles in Bangladesh has launched the Tata Nano at 80,000 Takas (around INR 6.23 lakhs).(indianautoblogs.com)

• Joining its range of high-end Adventure motorcycles, KTM has unveiled the 2015 1290 Super Adventure that will make its world premiere at the upcoming INTERMOT show in Cologne, Germany on 30th September 2014. The new 1290 Super Adventure shares its underpinnings with the 1190 Adventure R and will be positioned alongside the latter when it goes on sale next year. KTM is tight-lipped about the details on the 1290 Super Adventure and apart from its engine size; there is not much that we know about the motorcycle coming from the Austrian manufacturer. (motorbeam.com)

• The 3M Car Care, touted as the single organized player in car detailing and a unit of the Automotive After Markets Division of 3M, today launched its first store in Chandigarh in the presence of legendary athlete Padma Shri Milkha Singh.Vishesh Nigam, General Manager, 3M Car Care told during the inauguration that Ludhiana and Jalandhar in Punjab and Jaipur in Rajasthan would be the other stores to opened in couple of months. (finanacialexpress.com)

• Dilip Chhabria headed DC Designs has been testing its first production car, the Avanti rigorously through various parts of India. DC Designs first showcased the Avanti at the 2014 Auto Expo. The latest images of the Avanti come from Motoroid reader and follower Samarth Modi spotted and snapped the car on Mumbai-Pune Expressway. This time, the car was spotted tackling heavy rain on the expressway.(motoroids.com)