Remember the stunning Range Rover LRX concept from the 2008 edition of the Detroit motor show? Land Rover has now confirmed the production of the 2-Door LRX which will debut next year and go on sale in 2011.

The coupe’ish SUV will wear a Range Rover badge hinting that it would be marketed  as a premium vehicle, more expensive than the cheapest and smallest Land Rover, the Freelander 2. The company has not given out any details on the powertrain credentials but say that “it will be the smallest, lightest and the most efficient vehicle the company has ever produced”

 Reports also suggest that it would share the undepinnings with the latest Freelander 2 and will come with a transverse mounted engine driving the front wheels or an optional all-wheel-drive hybrid.

The rendering released with this announcement suggests that the looks will remains unchanged save for the door handles on the production version and a slightly reprofiled front fascia. The details will start emerging once it nears its scheduled launch for the year 2010.

Jump over for the Press Release and Gallery Images

Source: Autoblog via Land Rover

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Yes your prayer have finally been answered! Bajaj Auto will launch the much anticipated Kawasaki Ninja 250 on 5th October.

We were the first blog to have reported Bajaj’s plans of launching this superbike for the masses for around two Lakhs. Information coming from reliable sources now confirm the price tag which is expected to be anywhere between Rs 1.5 to 2.0 Lakhs.

“The bookings would start just ahead of Diwali and the deliveries would happen immediately,” Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj stated. He added that a new version of Pulsar would also be launched within three months.

Source: bsmotoring

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India’s largest automobile manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki has temporarily halted the production of its mid size saloon SX4.

According to sources, the production halt is in place to upgrade the engine to the newer and tougher Bharat IV emission norms which will come into effect from April, 2010.  A little birdie has told us that the engine will now come with a VVTi head, Suzuki’s version of Honda’s i-Vtec and Toyota’s VVT, meaning slightly more power and efficiency.

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As we told you earlier, Mercedes Benz have launched the ninth generation of the E-Class W212 in the Indian market.

The all new E-Class has been introduced with the top-of-line Avantgarde styling and 3.5 Litre V6 Petrol engine. The car will be assembled locally at Mercedes’s pune plant. Mercedes E-Class is one of the most popular luxury sedan in India and has sold more than 10,000 units overall.

The ninth generation E-Class W212 has been priced at Rs 46.98 Lakhs (Ex-Showroom, Delhi)

“The all-new E-Class is the perfect embodiment of the brand’s core values rooted in timeless design, craftsmanship and innovation. This outstanding product- the ninth generation E-Class displays outstanding driving dynamics, and represents our cumulative experience garnered over 123 years of automotive leadership. The overriding theme behind the E-Class has been to create a vehicle that has a perceptive, sophisticated, intelligent and intuitive persona- much like the owners of this distinctive automobile,” Dr. Wilfried Aulbur said.

All the details and exclusive image gallery after the jump.

Don’t forget the ultra detailed press release.

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Possibly the biggest launch from Ford after their launch pad into the Indian market, the Ikon, their new small car Figo has been unveiled at a glittering ceremony here in New Delhi. The significance of this announcement can be gaged by the fact that Ford Motor’s company’s global CEO, Alan Mulally himself was in the city to make it.

The Figo is Ford’s brand new small car and is based on the latest 2008 Fiesta platform.The Figo which stands in italian for “cool”  follows the brand’s new kinetic design language which has been appreciated by the customers worldwide. The car will be manufactured at Ford’s chennai plant and the company is making an investment of US $500 million to increase the annual capacity to 200,000 units.The plant will also produce the both petrol and diesel engines for domestic consumption and for exports to Ford’s Asia pacific and Africa region. These efforts are also a part to make India, a major manufacturing hub for the blue oval’s small car portfolio.

The Figo will come with a 1.2 Litre petrol and a 1.5 Litre diesel engine and will have three variants - Ambiente, Trend and Titanium. The company hasn’t divulged any numbers for the maximum power or torque.

“Our exciting new Ford Figo shows how serious we are about India,” said Mulally. “It reflects our commitment to compete with great products in all segments of this car market. We are confident the Ford Figo will be a product that Indian consumers really want and value.

Ford’s transformed Chennai plant will also introduce eco-friendly techniques like new Three-Wet High-Solids paint process. This new approach to painting according to the company produces “beautifully painted vehicles” with three wet coats - primer, base coat and clear coat of high solids content paint applied one after the other without oven curing between coats. The process also emits fewer carbon dioxide emissions and reduces volatile organic compounds emissions by about 20% compared to the current medium-solids solvent-borne paints.

The company hasn’t given out further specifications or pricing information on the new Figo. The information will be revealed in the due course and like always we will be the first one to give that out.

And although CC was present at the launch, a corrupt CF card meant that we are posting images courtesy our friends at www.worldcarfans.com

Jump over for the press release and the image gallery.

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Land Rover has launched the highly acclaimed Freelander 2 in the Indian market. This is the third Land Rover model in India after the recent launch of the Discovery and the Range Rover Sport.

The Freelander comes in three trim levels - S, SE and HSE with a starting price of Rs 33.79 Lakhs Ex-Mumbai.

The Freelander comes powered by a 2.2 Litre common rail turbodiesel engine which is mounted transversely to provide for extra space for better crash protection, front end styling and a shorter bonnet to maximize cabin space. All this and a rigid monocoque body and shell has helped Freelander to achieve a full 5 stars in the EURO NCAP for adult protection - a first in its class.  Land Rover’s trademark Terrain Response System also comes as standard.

Commenting on the launch, Rohit Suri, head, premier car division, Tata Motors, said, “We are encouraged by the response to the Land Rover vehicles in India. The Freelander 2, Land Rover’s best-selling model globally, now complements the Land Rover range in the country. As we expand our reach across various cities in India, we will continuously enhance the Land Rover product portfolio and enable more and more customers to experience the benchmark in premium offroading vehicles.”

Jump over for the Press Release.

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CC will be back soon. We are facing some technical issues and we are handling them on a war footing. Please bear with us while we get everything back to normal.

In case you have any suggestion, improvements, scoop pics or plain old feedback, please send us an email, the address of which is given in the “contact us” page.

Thanks all for your continued support.

Keep Vrooming!

We spilled the beans on the new Karizma ZMR FI when we showed you these pictures earlier. Hero Honda has now officially launched the new Karizma ZMR FI at a launch event in gurgaon. These pictures come to you from our friends at indianautotalk.

The new Karizma ZMR FI comes with the same 223 cc engine but now augmented with fuel injection which increases the power marginally at 17.6 bhp @ 7000 rpm with a maximum torque of 18.35 nm. Hero Honda also claims a top speed of 135 kmph.

The list of changes to the new Karizma include:

* Full Fairing

* Split Clip On Handle Bars

* Split rear grab rails

* New Colors

* PGM-FI (Programmable Fuel Injection)

* Mirrors mounted on the fairing

* New rear mud guard

* New headlamp and tail lamp which are now LED

* Fairing mounted front indicators

* New Graphics (Traditionally Hero Honda)

* Slightly reprofiled body work

* Gas Charged Rear Shock Absorbers

Jump over for more images.

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Mahindra Renault have launched a new variant of their midsize saloon Logan christened the Play in the Indian market.

The new Logan play comes with factory fitted extra features such as

* USB enabled music system

* Black colored contrast central console

* Leather seats, special floor mats, steering cover and end rack

* Driver Information System with average fuel consumption and speed display

Jump over for complete details and pricing information.

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Hyundai has revealed its first zero emission electric car i10 at the Frankfurt motor show. The car will get a test production run beginning next year in its home market Korea.

Hyundai i10 Electric weighs around 1000 kgs, impressive considering the normal IC car tips the scales somewhere around 900 kgs, and comes with Li-Polymer batteries which are 20% smaller in volume than the equivalent Lithium-ion batteries. The i10 electric is powered by a 49 Kw electric motor with 210 nm of torque. The battery pack supplies 16 kwh of electric power giving it a range of 160 kms before needing a recharge.

The car can be recharged upto 85% of its full capacity with in 15 minutes if used with a 413V industrial charger while it will take around 5 hours for a full charge on a normal 200V household outlet. The car does a 0-100 kph sprint in 15 seconds while the top speed is a respectable 130 kmph.

Other tech bits include a steering by wire system, brakes powered by an electrical vacuum pump which eliminates the need for a hydraulic system and an electric water pump to cool the battery and the electric motor.

Hyundai hasn’t announced the pricing details which will only be disclosed when it is launched officially.

Jump over for the Press Release.

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