Hear about those reports last week of a potential tie-up between Suzuki and Volkswagen for microcar development? Osamu Suzuki, chief executive at the automaker that bear his name, heard the same rumors that we did, and they apparently came as news to him. Though Suzuki falls short of denying outright that any potential deal could be struck, he told the Chunichi Shimbun daily (via Reuters):

So far there's been absolutely no contact (with Volkswagen). Lately, we've been the victim of a lot of rumors (of equity tie-ups and cooperation deals).

Suzuki sells more mini cars – albeit tiny 660cc Kei urban runabouts – in Japan than any other automaker not named Toyota, yet it has a limited footprint in most other markets. Thus, it's not surprising that rumors of impending partnerships are common. In this case, though, it would seem that reports of a potential 10% stake by VW are at least a bit premature.


[Source: Reuters]

According to reports from Reuters and Manager Magazin in Germany, Volkswagen is keen to purchase a 10% stake in Suzuki in order to cooperate on future small cars for emerging markets. In its home market of Japan, Suzuki is the second-largest automaker behind Toyota and dominates the tiny Kei car market alongside Toyota-owned Daihatsu.

These miniature 660cc vehicles are extremely popular in Japan's dense urban settings and Volkswagen reportedly believes this class of automobile holds great promise for emerging markets. In India, for example, Tata Motors has seen a great deal of success with its diminutive Nano, which is billed as the cheapest car in the world.

Suzuki already enjoys a measure of success in Tata's home turf, where its Maruti Suzuki subsidiary offers the Alto, which has been the best-selling automobile in India since 2004. At this time, both Suzuki and Volkswagen are declining comment, but VW chairman Ferdinand Piech has praised the Japanese automaker numerous times in the past.



[Source: Retuers]

Are you holding out for a Mahindra trucks and wondering how they stack up against more established brands? Then you need to head on over to Mahindra's Web site and sign up for some seat time.

Mahindra importer Global Vehicles is all set for a fourth-quarter 2009 launch of their first offerings from India and is taking names for early test drives. From what we can gather from the company's U.S. Web site, they'll be parading around the country soon, giving interested pickup shoppers a spin around the block in its two- or four-door diesel-powered pickup trucks. On the site, there's a lot of bragging about the two-door's seven-foot bed (Toyota's Tacoma has a six-footer), four-year, 60k-mile warranty, six-speed automatic trans, and clean-burning, four-cylinder diesel engine.

No word yet on, well, a lot of things. Like what cities this national tour will be trucking through or even when it will begin. More importantly, the company has said it has 325 dealers lined up, but still hasn't brought up pricing, EPA fuel economy numbers, crash test ratings or an exact date that sales will begin. For now we'll have to make do with the vague "fourth quarter of 2009" and the promise of an early test drive.

[Source: All Cars All the Time]

Looks like Tata Motors is trying to get the Nano into U.S. dealerships by 2011. India's largest domestic automaker thinks "the world's cheapest car" could do well here, especially given our nation's economic conditions right now. The car will likely not be as cheap when it is re-engineered to meet U.S. crash and emissions standards, but it should still be inexpensive enough to attract quite a few buyers.

There remain a couple of big roadblocks, however. First of all, how do you re-engineer the car so quickly, and secondly, where do you sell it on these shores? Rumors of distribution through Jaguar/Land Rover dealers was quickly dispelled, so that's where Fiat-Chrysler may come in, argues New York Times correspondent Nick Kurczewski.

The logic proceeds as follows: Fiat and Tata already collaborate on several joint ventures. They share a huge factory in India. Tata sells Fiats in India. Tata gets to use Fiat diesel engines and Tata developed a pickup truck that will be sold as a Fiat as well. Adding Chrysler into the mix at least helps with distribution and possibly with engineering help for a speedy conversion to U.S. standards.

Kurczewski argues that the American market Nano could even revive the Autobianchi name for Fiat, as the Italian carmaker has expressed an interest in launching an entry-level brand below Fiat. A Fiat-Chrysler Nano would go a long way toward meeting the EPA's new 35 mpg standards, even after it's upgraded with air bags and possibly a more powerful three-cylinder engine to please American drivers.

[Source: New York Times]

Bajaj, India's largest manufacturer of two-wheeled vehicles and holder of a 14.5% stake in X-Bow maker KTM, is known not only for innovations like adding fuel injection to small-bore motorcycles and introducing dual spark technology, but also for producing excellent advertisements and commercials for television. We highlighted one of their better videos a little over a year ago, and today we've run across another great one.

It seems Bajaj is trying to capitalize on Transformers mania with this video, and that's fine by us. We're not sure what three lonely bikes were doing hanging out in an abandoned gym, but every story needs a plot, right? Click past the break to watch the video in all its computer-generated glory.

[Source: YouTube via Bikes in the Fast Lane]

The Nano is off to a smashing start, with Tata reportedly claiming it has already received 500,000 application forms since the car went on sale April 9. Tata Motors sent out order forms to 30,000 locations throughout India, and charged 300 rupees ($6.00 in US funds) to anyone that filled out the form. Tata Motors has generated the equivalent of $3 million so far, and interested parties have until April 25 to order their own Nano. The company is expecting between 750,000 and one million orders by the deadline, giving the Indian automaker up to $6 million in income without making a single vehicle. The State Bank of India, which has about 25% of the total orders to date, will finance the Nano for up to seven years at interest rate of 10%.

One million pre-order applications is a mighty impressive sum for the $2,500 micro car, and it's a number that Tata Motors doesn't even intend to hit in the Nano's initial batch. Tata will fill 100,000 orders in the first tranche, and it intends to hold a raffle to see which of the orders will get fulfilled. Tata Motors will begin delivering the Nano this July.



[Source: Business-Standard via Indian Autos Blog]

Rather than get all hung up on what's in a model name, Mahindra may want U.S. consumers to become more familiar with the new-to-America brand itself. Initially, the Indian automaker's mid-sized pickups were expected to carry the "Appalachian" moniker when they came to America, but now, PickupTruck.com is reporting that the trucks will probably go alphanumeric, if recent patent filings for TR20 and TR40 designations are anything to go by.

The website speculates that the "20" and "40" indicate two- and four-door versions of the trucks, which will be tweaked to better cater to buyers in the US market. The imported, Toyota Tacoma-sized, diesel-powered newcomers are expected to be available by December, no matter what they're called.

[Source: PickupTrucks.com]

Tata knew pent-up demand for its super-cheap Nano would be so high in advance of its official delivery date that the Indian automaker set up an unique pre-ordering system allowing potential customers to sign up with booking forms. After all these forms have been collected, a computer will randomly choose the first 100,000 people to take possession in July.

That process began just five days ago on April 1st, and Tata has already sold over 51,000 booking forms to its dealer network and individual customers, with another 30,000 or so being taken from a number of Tata partners. Each order form is being sold for 300 Rupees, which is about $6.00 in U.S. funds. Prices for individual Nanos are reportedly ranging from between 95,000 and 145,000 Rupees ($1,880 to $2,780), which officially makes this the World's Cheapest Car.

One thing seems sure: Tata is going to sell a ton of these cars. Whether or not that's a good thing depends on your particular viewpoint. It's almost a certainty that people will be safer in the four-wheeled enclosed Nano than on the little scooters and cycles they are currently riding, but a number of environmental groups have voiced concerns over the impact this many new cars will have on their surroundings. Regardless of how this ultimately plays out, this is only the beginning.



[Source: Economic Times]

Now that Tata's tiny little Nano is officially on sale, a number of media outlets around the world have found themselves behind the wheel, pouring over the positives and negatives associated with driving such an inexpensive vehicle. Interestingly, most of the reviews we've seen have been highly favorable. As it turns out, the World's Cheapest Car is just that – a real car. And it's a surprisingly decent one at that according to a motoring journalist from Autocar India who captured his initial thoughts on video.

We got a good chuckle from the reviewer's assertion that if the Germans had built the Nano, they would have added too much stuff to it and made their version just as expensive as the MINI, while if the Americans were behind the Nano, we would've priced it right below the competition and took away its striking price point. Is that funny because it reinforces stereotypes or because it's true? Click past the break to watch the video in full and decide for yourself.



[Source: Autocar via Jalopnik]

Could an extremely inexpensive, minuscule little car like the Tata Nano actually sell in America, a land historically enamored with powerful V8 engines surrounded by as much sheetmetal as possible? According to the Financial Times, Tata Motors may be about to find out, as the Indian automaker is said to be looking at an introduction into the U.S. market by 2011 or 2012.

What makes Ratan Tata, chairman of the automaker that bears his name, think that his diminutive rear-engined machine might sell in the United States? The economy, of course. Americans may be willing to accept some of the sacrifices that would go hand-in-hand with owning the World's Cheapest Car, though the version likely to sell in the States would surely differ in major ways from what is now on sale in India.

If the Tata Nano were to hit the U.S. market, it would need to pass the same safety and emissions regulations as any other car currently sold in America. Those are not insurmountable tasks, however, as proven by the version of the Nano that's planned for European markets.

So far, there is no indication of how much a Tata Nano would cost in U.S. dollars if it were sold here.



[Source: Financial Times]