If there’s one lesson the global economic crisis taught automakers, its that the need to diversify their products and not focus too much on the high return-on-investment established markets. Now there’s plenty of talk about building low-cost cars for places like China, India and Brazil.

In a bid to grow with these emerging auto markets, Honda has just introduced the Honda New Small Concept at the Auto Expo show in New Delhi, India. With seating for five an a futuristic design, a production version of the concept is already on the way and will hit the market in 2011.

Honda says the new small-car will be, “beyond the expectations of customers in rapidly growing markets and offer it at an affordable price.”

It is set to go on sale in India and Thailand, with sales likely expanding to other emerging markets after that.

GALLERY: Honda New Small Concept

Official release after the jump:

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Mercedes will introduce at least one small car to the U.S. in 2012, doing a 180 on a past decision to stick to larger vehicles in order to enforce the brand’s high-end image. The news comes directly from CEO Dr. Dieter Zetsche, in an interview in the Wall Street Journal. The car would compete with vehicles like the BMW 1 Series, Audi A3, Volvo C30 and MINI Cooper – as well as a possible compact luxury vehicle from Lexus based on the LF-Ch concept.

Analysts have suggested the move is the result of lessons learned from the recent economic downturn, with sales of larger luxury vehicles and SUVs taking a significant hit, while the share of the market made up by compact and subcompact vehicles has grown. The introduction of a smaller and more fuel efficient model in the Mercedes lineup in the U.S. would also help the manufacturer meet increasingly strict CAFE regulations.

In the past Mercedes had decided to introduce the B-Class to the U.S. market but canceled plans when an unfavorable Euro-to-dollar exchange rate made the car’s business plan unsound. (The B-Class was, however, introduced in Canada, where vehicles are sold for significantly more).

The new Mercedes small car will be based on an all new platform that Mercedes says is much cheaper to manufacture, making the Euro-to-dollar exchange rate less of a factor. It is not yet known if the car will follow in the B-Class’s layout of being a premium-people mover or if Mercedes will opt to build a more sporty offering to better compete with cars like the 1 Series or MINI Cooper.

Over the past two years, Mercedes has introduced three concepts based on the B-Class architecture, including a hydrogen fuel-cell concept, a hybrid concept and an electric car concept. It’s likely that the future Mercedes small car platform will bring one of more of these concept car technologies into production.

[Source: The Wall Street Journal]

Unlike traditional compacts these cars can be costly; the Mini goes for as much as $34,000 depending on optionsDaimler’s tentative move comes as buyers in Europe and the U.S. are increasingly redef

Volkswagen is reportedly looking at purchasing a 10 percent stake in Suzuki as it looks to create a solid partnership with the Japanese automaker. Te reason for VW’s interest is Suzuki’s expertise in mini cars – like the Suzuki Alto, pictured above.

The Alto is currently the best-selling vehicle in India and Volkswagen wants to make sure it has a strong presence in emerging markets.

Suzuki, while a small player in developed markets like North America, is actually Japan’s second largest automaker if you count mini-car sales.

The partnership between the two automakers would see the development of a mini car to slot in under the upcoming small cars that will be based on the Volkswagen Up! concept (pictured below). The family of cars based on the Up! will be manufactured in Bratislava, Slovakia, are due out in 2011.

Representatives from both Volkswagen and Suzuki have denied to comment on the matter, but VW’s CEO Ferdinand Piech has previously expressed interest in the Suzuki brand.

GALLERY: Suzuki Alto

[Source: Reuters]