Volvo likely to develop C90 Luxury Sport Coupe

A new luxury sports coupe is on the way from Volvo, which would be specifically made for competing with the likes of Mercedes Benz E-Class coupe and other high profile two-doors. Though C30 and C70 are going nowhere, but still the company is hoping to offer a new sports coupe sooner than later which would be priced more than C70.

Nothing is concrete yet, but as rumors go, the bigger sports car will be called C90 and will also feature a convertible. The car will be sharing Scalable Platform Architecture along with S80 and other cars from Volvo. VEA four-cylinder gas and diesel engines will be powering the car and in the near future a hybrid version might make it to the roads.

The C90 would be a step further for the carmaker in terms of premium and luxury two door segment. If the car is a go, we can expect it but not before a couple of years. Volvo has always stood for value of money, but they are now trying to mix luxury with profitability.

Mini drives into New Delhi

After Mumbai has set up its shop in New Delhi. Mini India has announced the opening of Bird Automotive, its first dealership in Delhi. Located at Vasant Kunj, it will display the Mini Cooper Hatch, Mini Cooper Convertible and Mini Cooper S Countryman.

Bird Automotive’s showroom, is spread over 5,000 square feet, has a six-car display set across two floors. Aftersales support to Mini customers will be provided from the dealer’s workshop located at Gurgaon. This is the second exclusive Mini outlet after Infinity Cars in Mumbai. The third Mini outlet — Deutsche Motoren — will be launched in the third quarter of the year at Delhi.

Mini has managed to sell 50 cars since its launch in the Indian market. An equal proportion of Mini cars have been sold in the Capital and financial capital of India.

Currently the Mini portfolio includes only petrol cars but the company is not ruling out the launch of Diesel cars in the Indian market.

Mini Financial Services has been launched as a separate brand under BMW Financial Services India. It will offer finance and insurance options as also a comprehensive insurance package to customers.

Hindustan Motors Looking Forward

The Indian car market is attracting a number of foreign manufacturers, the Malaysian national car maker Proton Holdings Bhd is one of them. The company is soon going to tie up with Hindustan Motors (HM) to assemble cars for them under a contract manufacturing agreement.

The decision and other details regarding the Protons and Hindustan Motors deal will be announced by the end of February. The HM’s Chennai plant currently assembles Mitsubishi Lancer and Proton is in talks to use the plant to locally produce the company’s multi-purpose vehicle Exora. HM also have plants in in Uttarpara and Indore that could be used. Apart from its vehicle Exora HM is interested in sourcing engine and transmission systems from HM’s group company Avtec.

BVR Subbu, director on the Proton board told a leading English daily, “It’s true Proton has been speaking to some Indian manufacturers but I would not like to comment on the matter.”

According to reports in the Malaysian media the Protonis likely to launch the Saga, Persona, Exora and Emas hybrid models in India. The reports suggest that Proton is likely to use the expertise of a local Indian company and this quarter will see the final announcement take place. Apart from HM Proton has been in talks with Mahindra and Mahindra, Hero group and Argentum Motors.

Initially Proton is likely to make very small investment on an assembly operation to keep costs in check. According to the Malaysian media Proton could also tie up with Renault for diesel engines as diesel vehicles form a major chunk of the total sales in the country.

Honda to launch Brio based MPV FREED to compete with Ertiga

Honda plans to launch a Brio based MPV  "Freed" in the Indian market. The company has seen the response of Maruti Suzuki's Ertiga, which has crossed 32,000 bookings in the opening month.

Nissan and Suzuki have recently introduced their renewed MPV models (NV200 Evalia and Ertiga) in Indonesia that were well received. The Brio-based MPV could be a replacement to the Freed (shown above) that is Honda’s current rival to the improving competition.