OnCars India Buzz: 30 May 2012

- A spectacular round of colorful fireworks and laser display elates and dazzles the thousand of spectators on Sunday night who flocked to celebrate the 75th birthday of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Franciso, US.

- Many automakers such as Mahindra and Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki are now looking to concentrate on local markets to source parts and components to build cars in order to offset the increased import costs due to the diving value of the Indian rupee.

- Mahindra & Mahindra have confirmed the launch of new Mahindra Verito-based notchback that is slated for this September. The Indian automaker has also confirmed that the awaited launch of the Mahindra Reva NXR will get underway before the end of 2012. 

- Tata Motors has reported about 139 per cent jump in its fourth-quarter net profit to Rs 6,250 crore from Rs 2,650 crore in the year ago period. The company sales also climbed 44 per cent, bringing the total revenue to Rs 50,900 crore.

- For the current fiscal year, 2012-13, Tata Motors is confident that China will be its second-biggest market for its Jaguar and Land Rover cars. In the last fiscal year, China was the fourth largest market for JLR, while Europe was the leading market followed by the U.K and the U.S.

- Tata Motors has confirmed to bring the CNG variant of the Tata Nano in the Indian market by the end of the current financial year 2012-13. 

- Skoda having announced their new design language, all their current products are now lining up to get its respective design updates. The Skoda Yeti facelift is one of the vehicles that has now been caught on test, while hiding all its changes under a world war-inspired camouflage. The facelifted Yeti SUV is expected to land on the Indian shores by late 2013.

- The new 2013 Skoda Superb facelift doing test round in China has been snagged by spy photographers. The facelift luxury sedan is expected to arrive in the Indian market by the second quarter of 2013.

- Mr Keshub Mahindra has announced his desire to retire as the chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd at the conclusion of the forethcoming Annual General Meeting that is scheduled to get underway on 8 August 2012. With Kesub Mahindra's retirement, Mr Anand Mahindra will take over as the chairman and managing director of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

- The guys at PS-Garage have completed work on yet another interesting rendering. This time they have targeted the upcoming 2013 Range Rover. The full-size SUV is expected to debut before the end of 2013. 

- After tons of spy shots of the 2013 S-class' exteriors, followed by a slew of artist impressions, the spy photographers have now managed to snag the shots of the super luxury sedan's interiors.

- After Skoda released a handful of teaser images of the its European Skoda Rapid, spy photographers have managed to capture not only the sedan adorned in red but also got close enough to snag the interiors.

- Land Rover reportedly, is developing a big brother of its hugely popular Range Rover Evoque and is expected to debut in late 2015. The development name of the big Evoque is understood to be L560.

- Two earthquakes struck the mecca of supercar makers, Italy on Tuesday morning causing operational disruption in Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini headquarters that are located in the city of Modena, Maranello and Sant'Agata Bolognese respectively. A total of 5,000 workers were asked to return to their homes. 

- Jaguar has announced a special edition of its XF called the Jaguar XF Alive Edition that is expected to launch in Italy soon at a starting price of 47,000 euros.