Manufacturers by Region India

Tata Sons has named Cyrus Mistry as its next CEO, as current CEO Ratan Tata prepares to retire. The unmarried, childless Tata named Mistry as CEO of the holding company responsible for Tata’s numerous divisions, among them their automotive sector which owns Jaguar and Land Rover, along with the namesake Tata Motors brand.

The world’s cheapest vehicle has just gotten a whole lot (little bit?) better, with Tata announcing a batch of upgrades for their economical Nano. The 624-cc engine now makes a ferocious 37.5-hp, giving it a max speed of 65-mph.

A report by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants claims that by 2015, Brazil will be the world’s third largest auto market, with China and the United States occupying the first and second slots respectively.

Suzuki may be an also ran in America, but in India, their Maruti Suzuki partnership can boast the title of “best-selling car” with their Alto subcompact. With a population of 1 billion people, the Indian market is a significant one, and the Japanese auto maker is facing competition not just from home grown efforts like Tata, but Hyundai as well.

Look for the little green car in this video. No, not that one. See it?

It’s just another day in Bangladesh (according to the comments), one of the many South Asian countries with more notorious drivers than the last 6 Nicholas Cage movies. After the bus knocks over the other one, the little green car ejects itself from the scene of the crime like a wayward booger. It appears to be a tuk-tuk, traveling alongside the bus without enough time to stop its puny self.

We hope nobody was seriously injured, though Mr. Tuk-Tuk Driver may have to wipe down his seat. Click the jump to see the whole video.

Today, a report was released regarding the possibility of Tata motors entering a joint engine-development program with Jaguar Land Rover. Tata is currently India’s leading automaker by sales, and presently obtains engines from Jaguar and Land Rover models from the brand’s previous owner, Ford Motor Co.

As part of the celebrations for the World Environment Day, Chevrolet showcased an electric version of their Beat sub-compact car in India.

India sure knows how to do small (and cute) right. So you wouldn’t normally describe a truck as “cute,” but in the case of Tata’s Magic Iris and Ace Zip, we think you’ll agree that it’s okay this one time.

Jaguar Land Rover has announced that it will be spending some £400 million (approximately $640 million) on developing a new engine plant in India.

Parent company Tata is serious about their British crowns. Over the next 5 years, they will inject 8.2 billion dollars into making sure that Jaguar and Land Rover are not only afloat, but good enough to beat the Germans.

That certainly helped push sales, with Tata selling 9000 units in July 2010. However, after a few vehicles caught fire and concerns over its safety became public, sales took a plunge and resulted in just 509 units sold in November.

Remember the Tata Pixel concept at Geneva? If not, this link should help refresh your memory…or, you can wait until your next European vacation, where you’ll be seeing the tiny little Pixel on the streets.

If the maker of the world’s cheapest car does move ahead with plans to sell it here in the U.S., the sticker price won’t be the $2,000 figure that the car retails for in its home market of India.

Is America ready for another strange-sounding offshore nameplate? That answer seems irrelevant in light of Ssangyong’s new plans to introduce their vehicles in America by 2016, with a goal to be in the marketplace by 2013.

Tata has been trying to dip its toe into the wild, wacky world of the European automobile market ever since they released their $2,500 Nano supermini. They made an attempt at appeasing discerning European customers with the Nano Europa, an “upscale” Nano with alloy wheels, power steering, and an extra cylinder (bringing the total to three).

Along with China, India’s economy has experienced rapid expansion in the last decade, helping fuel the creation of a new middle class, which of course wants all the trappings most middle class folks do, their own house, car and plenty of creature comforts.

Yet another bump on the increasingly rough road for the Mahindra pickup has emerged,this time in the form of fuel economy figures published by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The brain child of Ratan Tata, head of India’s massive conglomerate, the Nano, billed as the ‘world’s most affordable car,’ has never been far from controversy.

We’ll spare you the awful cliches about failing to learn from the past and get right to the point. “Emerging markets” like China and India are all the rage right now for profit-hungry car makers, but the same problems of too much supply and weakened demand could spell doom for OEMs if a similar situation pans out in the locales that automakers are banking on to help propel their recovery.

There is such a thing of having too much of a good thing. Like gold… especially when it is on a Tata Nano. The most basic car on the road just got pimped to celebrate the 5,000th anniversary of Indian jewelry.

Despite being hailed as the vehicle that would motorize a billion-strong economic powerhouse, the Tata Nano has turned out to be a spectacular flop, with November sales totalling just 509 units, from a peak of 9,000 units in July. For comparison, Mercedes-Benz cars, far beyond the reach of a majority of India’s population, regularly sells over 500 cars a month.

India’s Mahindra will buy troubled Korean carmaker Ssangyong for $463 million, with Mahindra gaining a 70% stake in the company. The deal is expected to conclude in March, 2011.

In yet another development of the Global Vehicles USA/Mahindra Pickup saga, Global’s CEO John Perez is adamant that the small, diesel engined pickups will be available to U.S. buyers by spring 2011.

Beleaguered Indian truck manufacturer Mahindra has had their American launch delayed indefinitely, thanks to a series of legal battles between Mahindra and vehicle importer Global Vehicle Sales USA.

Will it ever end? Hot on the heels of the announcement by Global Vehicles that it had placed a $35 million order for U.S. spec Mahindra Pik-Ups; Mahindra has now issued a statement declaring the order ‘invalid’ and accusing Global Vehicles of theatrics and working hard at attempts to damage its reputation in the U.S.

Mahindra is also sticking fast to its claims that the contract between it and Global has expired and it is free to pursue its own channels of distribution for the trucks in the U.S. In fact, P. N. Shah, Chief Executive of Mahindra’s International Division; Farm & Automotive, stated that;  “Mahindra’s goal remains to bring its vehicles to the U.S. market, satisfying the desires of U.S. consumers and dealers alike.” Quite how they’re going to do that remains to be seen. The saga continues…

Official press release after the jump:

In the latest installment of the Mahindra/Global Vehicles Soap Opera, it appears that the first order for U.S. spec trucks, now called Pik-Ups has been placed, according to a statement released by GV.

Land Rover‘s new Range Rover Evoque two-door SUV is on a publicity blitz ahead of its deubt at the Paris Auto Show, and details are begging to emerge.

Rather than the usual 8-cylinder powerplant, the Evoque will use a 2.0L Ecoboost 4-cylinder, dubbed the Si4, which makes 240 horsepower.  Land Rover will likely have to resort to some creative marketing to sell customers on the idea of a 4-cylinder, even if it’s likely more than adequate for urban driving.

A 2.2L turbodiesel has also been announced, but power figures haven’t been announced yet beyond the 187 horsepower number. The torque figures will be far more important, and expect this engine to be sold in most of the Evoque’s 160 world markets, but not the United States.

Gallery: Range Rover Evoque

[Source: Land Rover]

Rumors have been circulating for some time, but now Global Vehicles CEO John Perez has come out and said it – Mahindra delayed EPA certification of its TR series pickup so it could end the agreement with GV as the official US importer.

Nissan is denying reports that Suzuki‘s tie-up with Volkswagen will affect their small car ventures in countries like India. Nissan sells a rebadged version of the Suzuki Alto (one of India’s most popular cars) in that market, but a senior Nissan exec was quoted as saying that ““Suzuki and Nissan have done a lot of business for many years. As far as we are concerned, nothing changes.”