OnCars India Buzz: 2 July 2012

- In-car technology is evolving quickly, with automakers like General Motors and Ford keeping their cars up to date with latest infotainment systems. Joining the race of in-car technology systems is Honda, who will soon launch HondaLink - its next-generation infotainment package that will make its debut in the 2013 Honda Accord and will compete with Ford's SYNC technology. 

- The government is mulling to infuse an investment of close to Rs 13,000 crore over a period of eight years to promote electric and hybrid vehicles in the country. The Department of Heavy Industries will be seeking Cabinet approval for the same within the next three months. 

- The upcoming Chevrolet Sail U-VA, which will replace the Aveo U-VA reportedly, will be offered with a 1.4-litre petrol engine and a 1.3-litre MultiJet diesel engine sourced from Fiat.

- General Motors who rolled out the facelifted 2012 Chevrolet Captiva last week is yet to clear off stock of the out-going model. And to lure customers, the company reportedly, is offering a massive discount of Rs 2 lakh approximately on the previous Captiva, which is originally priced at Rs 19.26. However, only the manual variant LT is available in stock clearance. 

- Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd has launched a new CNG variant of its mini truck, Maxximo at Rs 3.99 lakh. (ex-showroom, New Delhi.)

- Skoda Auto is understood to have discontinued the Skoda Superb V6 variant in the country, almost three months back. The reason cited by the company for their move is the very low demand for the petrol powered V6 variant in the steadily increasing era of petrol prices.

- Bentley Continental GT Speed, the fastest Bentley till date has been launched at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the orders for which have already begun worldwide. Under the hood, is a massive 6.0-litre, 48-valve, four-cam, twin turbocharged W12 engine that throws 625PS of max power and 800Nm of torque. 

- Jaguar unveiled the 2013 XJ, XF and the XF Sportbrake at the recently concluded Goodwood Festival of Speed, revealing some limited changes made in terms of design to the said models and have also added two new petrol engines in the line-up. 

- Jagaur also showcased its highly-awaited F-Type sports car at the Goodwood Festival. However, while we were expecting to see a sports car with the Jagaur logos on it and dipped in shiny paint, the automaker presented the F-Type with camouflage. 

- Porshce AG rolled out its 500,000th vehicle from the assembly line at its plant in Leipzig, a white V8 Cayenne. The impressive number comes in just 10 years. At the ceremony, the president and CEO of Porsche AG, Matthias Muller handed over the keys of the milestone model, a Porsche Cayenne SUV to the Lord Mayor of the City. 

- BMW AG is planning to hire thousands of permanent staff after cutting the number of its temporary workers by half. The German automaker will bring the number of temporary workers from 12,000 to 6,000, while hiring 1,000 permanent employees from the pool of temporary ones. 

- Last December, the BMW Group and Toyota entered a mid-to-long-term partnership on the sharing of hybrid systems and diesel engines, which was enhanced this past March with an agreement on the development of lithium-ion battery cell technology. Now, the two companies have announced a significant expansion of their existing cooperation that will include the joint development of architecture and components for a future sports vehicle together with fuel cell, powertrain electrification and lightweight technologies. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the two partners today at the BMW Group headquarters in Munich.

- Porsche AG showcased its 918 Spyder Concept at the Goodwood Festival offering the first glimpse of the company's upcoming plug-in hybrid supercar. First seen at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show in concept form, the 918 Spyder is expected to take on its production avatar and go on sale in November of 2013.

- Its the beginning of a new month, so expect ton loads of sales reports for the month of June from various automakers.

- First up is Tata Motors and they have reported a 3 per cent drop in sales in the month of June 2012 with total sales of 64,341 units.

- Audi India has reported a massive jump in sales by 74 per cent with total sales of 718 units in the month of June 2012; largely due to the newly launched Audi Q3 SUV in the Indian market. 

- Maruti Suzuki India Pvt Ltd has reported total sales of 96,597 units in the month of June 2012, which includes 13,066 units for exports. The company had sold 80,298 units in the corresponding period last year.