OnCars India Buzz: 08 August 2012

- We have no doubt that you have seen and remember the epic futuristic movie, Wall-E, which took us through a beautiful love story between robot - Wall-E and Eva. Four years after the film's release, Wall-E has come to real life. All thanks to the efforts of California robotics enthusiast, Mike Senna who took on the project of building Wall-E to put smiles on faces of kids with cancer. Senna along with his life-sized, working robot are now seen regularly at events organized for City of Hope, a pediatric cancer charity. The California resident estimates that it took him between 3,200 and 3,800 hours to complete the project from scratch working an average of 25 hours a week for more than two years.

- Luxury carmakers and three German arch rivals are mulling to extensively explore the small car segment to roll out cars in the Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh price bracket. Mercedes will get in it's B-Class - a compact sports tourer and the A-Class - a small family hatchback, while Audi is planning to introduce its A3 hatchback and BMW is expected to roll out the 1-Series sedan or even a small car based on the new 3-Series. 

- BMW is reportedly, working on a new 3-Series hatchback that will be based on the recently launched BMW F30 3-Series sedan in India. The said hatchback is expected to be ready as early as 2013 and will compete with the upcoming Mercedes Benz A-Class and the Audi A3 hatchback.

-  Tata Motors has reported to have supplied five mine-protected vehicles to Jharkhand police that will help in improving the combat capability of the force. The Tata MPV, which is know is known to possess high level of mobility with combat survivability will protest its occupants from threats like ambushed and sudden violent attacks. The completion of this order comes close on the heels of another order received from the Maharashtra State Police to supply 32 MPVs, which the company has executed.

- Fiat India has now officially expanded to Nepal with introducing the 2012 Fiat Linea and the Punto in the Nepalese market. Batas Brothers Motors (BBM), which are the sole distributors of Fiat in Nepal have introduced a total of nine variants of the two models in multiple engine options. 

- The teaser shots of the upcoming 2013 Fiat 500X crossover have been leaked on to the Internet ahead of the its official debut at the 2012 Paris Motor Show in September. Based on the 500L mini MPV, the 500X will be the biggest model to come out of the 500 family when it goes on sale in the latter half of 2013.

- Maruti Suzuki is facing a 15 per cent to 20 per cent dent in profit due to missed production at its shuttered Manesar plant, portending more trouble for the country's biggest carmaker whose profits slumped for the fourth straight quarter last month. Analysts say this estimate is based on the output loss in the fortnight, since the lockout. The losses due to damage to Maruti's assembly line, paint shop and other facilities at its key Haryana plant are pegged at 525 crore.

- Hyundai is currently readying the next generation model of its popular small car, the i10. Unlike the current model, the new i10 will get a full treatment of Hyundai’s signature Fluidic design language. It will also receive another major update in the form of an all-new 1.1-litre diesel engine. The company is also busy developing a new 3-cylinder, 1-litre Kappa petrol engine based on the larger 1.2-litre, 4-cylinder unit. The car will be launched in India during the latter half of 2013. 

- BMW, the leader in the luxury car market, has said that 2012 will see the "slowest growth" for the company since its India debut in 2007 as competitive pressures and weakening economy dampen demand. Andreas Schaff, president of BMWIndia, said new purchases are hard to come by as it is getting difficult to convert customer inquiries into sales.

- The all-new Fiat Viaggio, which was first made its global premiere at this year's Beijing Motor Show in April will be officially launched in China on 10 September 2012 and the model is expected to go on sale with a range of turbocharges engines. We do expect the Viaggio sedan to roll into the Indian market as well by 2013. 

- Lamborghini is planning to offer new technologies on the 2013 Lamborghini Aventador such as the cylinder deactivation system or the engine start/stop that will help reduce the Italian supercar's fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. However, there is no official confirmation on the said development from the iconic brand.

- Ralp Gilles, Dodge SRT and Motorsports CEO has confirmed that the automaker will no longer be a part of NASCAR after the current season concludes. The move of leaving NASCAR has been taken after months of speculation that spurned back in March when Penske Racing announced its decision to end its partnership with the Chrysler Group brand at the end of 2012 season and switch to Ford for the 2013 Sprint Cup. The official announcement of the withdrawal was made on Tuesday where Gilles backed his statement by saying "you have no idea how much we feel the pain."