Chevrolet Beat achieves 1 million in sales

GM's Chevrolet Beat achieved 1 million in sales worldwide this month, coincidentally my car also completed 50,000 Km run last month.

It has being a satisfactory and fulfilling ownership experience for me driving Chevrolet Beat for the past 4 years, as a hatchback it drives efficiently in the city and a decent highway performer. Back in 2010 when hatchbacks were not expected to look great, Beat won me over with it's radical design. My personal after sales experience is also very positive with Beat.

What i like most about Chevrolet Beat is it's highway drive which feels very well planted on the road and high quality interiors with good rear seat comfort that can seat 3 passengers easily and ample legroom and less body roll. I also get close to 14-15 kmpl city driving mileage under heavy traffic conditions.

It was a skeptical risk I took with a brand like Chevrolet while the market has always stayed tilted in favor of established names like Maruti, Hyundai and Honda.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra's India visit provided some help to reinstate dropping brand confidence as GM does not have a strong offering apart from Beat and Cruze in it's lineup in India, in fact Ford has managed to build consumer base and strong brand confidence with Figo and Ecosport.

I hope GM comes up with new offering's for Indian car market soon to provide consumers options in compact MUV and 4-meter sedan segment.

Check out this stunning Chevrolet Beat Mod from Tashkent

Home grown hybrid solution for cars

I noticed a Maruti Alto car with this logo today while travelling to office today, I thought probably it would be some kind of CNG branding stuff by some firm into vehicle mods, however I was proved wrong when I checked out this product's website which has being developed in India, Pune by KPIT Cummins and Kalyani Bharat Forge and surprisingly has also got media coverage earlier this year.

Both these companies have come up with a fuel efficient alternative to spruce up the battery power in your car with an additional motor installed as a kit that claims better fuel efficiency and cost savings for the car owner. USP targeted for this product is to convert your existing car into a fully functional hybrid vehicle. check out one of the video features below which explains how this product is going to work. Hatchback car models are surely going to loose some boot space and the basic cost quoted for a car like Alto is going to be around INR 65,000 and for sedan sized cars it may go beyond INR 1,25,000.

Do you think this product/service is going to be commercially viable? or the trend of skipping petrol cars in the favour of diesel cars going to continue in India. If this product does not cause any safety issues to the car with the kind of battery installation is shown in the video, I think it can work well with the Indian consumers and could probably emerge as a viable option to adopt hybrid car technology at affordable cost.

Jay Leno reviews Tata Nano 2012

Jay Leno reviews the Tata Nano 2012 which is specially made for him at Tata Motor's Nano plant in Gujarat transported to Los Angeles, notable point in this review is that Jay Leno appreciated that Nano had a better air conditioning system than his F1 Mclaren.

Check out the video review, do you think this review comes as a real compliment for Tata Nano?

Small and Beautiful : Evolving Asthetics for car market in India

Both Honda and Hyundai are up for important launch in the compact car segment with Brio and Eon. Global car manufacturers are taking note of the taste of Indian consumers for design and decor while buying a new car which could turn out to be the differentiating factor beyond the bells and whistles of features that may turn out to be common over a period of time. While every car consumer zeroes in on a vehicle choice with a specific budget, they definitely look at Value for Money proposition offered by a specific variant of the same car model.

Honda's Brio could land up giving competition to Hyundai's i10/Chevrolet Beat/Ford Figo/Nissan Micra. It comes with a 1200 CC engine and claims to deliver a mileage close to 18 kmpl with an entry level model pricing at Rs 3.95 Lakh. I liked the rear windshield design of the car which gives it a tall look and enhances rear view visibility for the driver. Noticeable curves streaming from the front and rear section of the car, compact grill in the front with a wide stance complement the interior of the car as well. I noticed 4 fan blowers on the front dashboard of the car in the 360 interactive view on their website, which also is an intelligent feature allowing cooling to be available equally for the driver and passenger on the front seat. With the kind of quality and customer service Honda is known to deliver, Honda Brio should be able to find a sweet spot with consumers with their new launch offering with the sales picking up by the arrival of Diwali festival.



Hyundai too is ready to take on Maruti in the small car segment directly with their upcoming car Eon scheduled for October launch pitching it directly against Alto, It has got ARAI ceritified mileage of 21.1 kmpl which goes beyond Alto's 19 kmpl benchmark. Powered by a 814cc petrol engine it is aiming entry level variant pricing at Rs 2.5 Lakh. This car looks well styled for a small car segment category. Hyundai could be looking at a potential winner on hands for offering a much needed option for small car buyers interested to look beyond Maruti, given that Hyundai is the 2nd largest car manufactuer in India today after Maruti with a very strong after sales and service network. Personally i never liked Hyundai Santro/i10 in terms of the design, post the launch of i20 Hyundai made serious efforts to enhance the wow factor for consumers and they now seem to be committed in this direction with Eon's upcoming launch.

Hopefully amidst rising petrol prices and interest rates, these new launches could bring the much required cheer to both consumers and car manufacturers during the upcoming festive season.