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Electric Cars - Will they do better in 2012?

SAAB car makers filed for bankruptcy.

SAAB the Swedish car maker had filed for bankruptcy recently after they saw no more funding or financing to run the 74 year old company. The company was owned by a Dutch company. Little number of cars came out of the line in April and the production ceased at all after the GM announced that they are not in the position to fund the struggling car company Saab.

Earlier, American Company General Motors sold the SAAB to Swedish Automobiles in the year 2010 where the SABB got a work force of more than 3,500 employees.

The SAAB was a good selling brand in Europe and allover the world. In the year 2006 only it sold nearly 133,000 cars and then it started to slide year after year and last year 2010 they made out only around 30,000 cars to the auto market.

The Company executives are waiting for the court order to come in which they had filed in a district court of Sweden.

Apetra Motors Shut Downed.

Much expected Electric car startup Aptera Motors said that they are closing the business after finding difficulties in getting financial support.

The Californian based was expecting much support from the DOE and other private investors to finance its production program. They were in the plan to produce 3 wheel cars with different looking design of their own. The main aim of the car was to give more mileage by the Aptera Motors.

Before the closer of the company on 2nd Of December 2011, they paid back the money which the customers had booked for their electric car Aptera 2E.

Ford to build new plant in India.

Tata Nano Enter New Markets.

Rolls-Royce motor cars expand its presence in India.

Rolls-Royce cars are seen as prestigious think to own by the rich Indians. So its car sales are thriving in India. To attract more high class Indians the company had moved its show room to a bigger one at Mathura Road in the Indian capital New Delhi. The sixth new Rolls-Royce model the Ghost Extended Wheelbase is proudly been show cased at this new showroom where clients have lot of selection for the interior of their Rolls-Royce models. The new Ghost Extended Wheelbase too will attract the Indian buyers as it got ample space for the passenger with very best interior design for the comfort. So this model which was introduced to India last year is expected to enjoy more unit sales in this year and the coming year 2012 too.

Rolls-Royce cars have earned a good name in India for its size, comfort and luxuary interior and they know it is coming from UK which they had seen in the early days and in the movies. The Indian owners will like to show it than ride it as they are very proud of owning these Rolls-Royce cars

Korean car maker Hyundai to develop compact battery powered cars.
8:38 PM 8/16/2011
Korean car maker Hyundai is planning to develop compact battery powered cars by 2014. Nearly US$95 million is going to be used to develop the compact battery powered cars which are jointly provided by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Hyundai along with its 43 partners.

These midsized electric cars are expected to be cheaper, eco-friendly and to be best performing cars when it is going to roll out in the year 2014. This is coming under the Korean Government's Green Car Development Plan.

Already the Korean top car manufacturer Hyundai had introduced its first compact electric car which is called as BlueOn. The popular electric cars like Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt are doing better distance by kilometers per charge when comparing them to Hyundai's BlueOn.

Cheapest car in the world.
There were times when companies tried to make the expensive cars for the rich people. Bugatti Veyron is priced at US$1,700,000 while an average American will spend US$ 30,000 for his new car. When India's Tata introduced the Nano as the world's cheapest car no other car makers tried to compete with them. But suddenly the Chinese auto maker Geely came out with the $2250 car, the IG "Intelligent Geely" to be the low priced car in the world.

So this will open a new market challenge for the car makers all over the world. If the trends of the people change to low priced cars then the industry may collapse slowly. Only the minimum safety standards will keep the life line for the middle priced cars all over the world.

On the other hand the IG is expected to be launched in India by 2012. So there will be big challenge for the Nano in its home ground.

Some time these cars can replace India's three wheeler market too. In Sri Lanka Tata Nano carts are used as cabs and are running at the same tariff of the Sri Lanka three wheelers or Tuk Tuk.

So the expensive cars should ride along with the low priced cars in the highways in the near future. My be the cheap priced cars owners can save money on their fuel bills and can buy an expensive car in the near future.

Will the Japanese disaster affect the auto sales?

Japanese earthquake and the Tsunami which shook the country on 11th March 2011 is going to have a bad effect on the auto sales world wide. Already major Japanese auto makers are in short of power supply for the production and have totally stopped or restricted partially the main auto parts production. This will take much time to recover from this kind of disaster.

Japanese Government is making all its effort to bring back the normal life back specially for the auto production plants to recover from the disaster. The auto sales lumped to its lowest level in Japan as people are concentrating on the financial recovery. Millions of cars are lost or totally damaged in this tsunami effect.
So in the future Japanese people may turn to small economic model cars rather than to luxury models till they become financially fit to have a good life.

On the other hand there will be a big demand for the industrial transport vehicles as many of them are damaged or lost and there will be big demand for the construction work transport vehicles as many building are collapsed or partially under damage that should need to be repaired.

Can't say any thing about the car sales in Japan as citizens in that country may turn to motor cycles as happened after the wwII.

So in the coming years Japan auto makers will vigorously try to capture the auto market and can change their production plants and parts making plants to other countries to avoid future disaster like these.

Car sales, increase again.
6:15 PM 2/1/2011

After a sales drop in the past years 2010 brought good hope for the world wide car making companies. Most of the companies are posting good profit while some of the other car makers reports too were not bad. India and China are the new fields for the new car buyers and most of the car makers promote small size cars and are doing well in their sales.

Maruti Suzuki India, the largest car maker in India has introduced their latest model Alto-K10 in 2010 and are reporting that their sales are nearly 15% up in the month of January alone giving them good profit through the passenger car sales in India and selected international market. Many big players like General Motors, Ford and Renault like companies are targeting the growing Indian auto mobile market.

On the other hand China is too becoming a good market for global car makers as the sales over there is steadily and strongly claiming up. In the year 2010 America's troubled auto maker GM sold 2.35 million vehicles in China and it is looking good on its recovery path.

Mean while Japanese automobile makers are providing good and bad news to the word wide automobile industry. In the year 2010 Japan's Toyota group kept the biggest car maker title with the sales of 8.418 million vehicles while the U.S automaker GM was second to it with 8.39 million vehicles sales in the year 2010.

The trend of the passenger car sales is turning towards the electric car from the petrol and diesel vehicles from last year. Most of the Green cars are heavily subsided by many Governments to keep the dependency on fuel and to save the community from air pollution that are emitted from the gas vehicles. The electric cars are going to be in good demand in this year 2011 as they are carrying reasonable price tag and capable of getting good speed on the roads between charges.

News about Ferrari's Super car.
Ferrari's recently introduced $550,000 priced supercar is in little trouble. Every thing with the car seems to be perfect except an adhesive used in the wheel-arch assemblies causing thermal incidents that are reported in USA, France, Switzerland and China. This glue due to overheating may melt and can ignite. Ferrari said it had discovered glue that was used in the production has cased the incidents. So the Ferrari officials issued a recall of nearly 1,240 Ferrari 458 Italia supercars that were sold before July 2010 and have been asked to bring those vehicles in to be corrected.

Those owners who had damaged Ferrari 458 due to thermal problem will be issued with new supercar which is popular for its top speed of 202mph.

Toyota in India.
Toyota the Japanese automaker who is currently the leader in the world wide auto mobile production is ready to double its production capacity in India in the Bangalore city plant. Toyota is producing cars for the Indian market through a joint venture signed with the Indian Kirloskar Group. They have planed to launch Etios in India in as sedan and hatchback versions this year. Currently they are rolling out 70,000 units from their plant each year. From next year it is expected to be 140,000 cars.

Automakers in Japan see strong growth.
Japanese automakers made good production and good world wide sales for the month of July where Nissan made 350,400 vehicle sales and Toyota Motor Corp did sold 633,00 units.
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Toyota Motor's to recall 270,000 vehicles.
Toyota Motor Corp is recalling 270,000 vehicles worldwide to fix those faulty engines. Toyota has received many complaints over faulty engines in Japan. Although there are no accidents were reported any where in the world including Japan. Some of the drivers told to the company that their engines made strange noises.
According to some newspaper information this recall may cost Toyota motors around U.S $227 million.Read More

Indian Motor Company to build Electric vehicles.
India's Mahindra group which is now doing well in the cars and SUV's had planned to build electric vehicles in India. Already the Indian motor giant Tata has stepped in to the EV production research with Norwegian company collaboration. Tata's EV is set to be delivered in to the Indian market by 2010 - 2011. More Reading

Ford India starts exporting petrol engines to Thailand.
Ford India is exporting petrol engines to its sister company in Thailand which were produced in their Chennai plant.More

Suzuki to boost car production in India.
As Indians are purchasing more cars every year, Suzuki Motor has made steps to build nearly 1.45 million passenger cars in the year in 2012 in India.More

India car sales rise
Car sales in India jumped 30.5 per cent year-on-year in May, industry data showed on Wednesday, as new launches boosted demand.More