Delhi Auto Expo small cars

The Maruti Eeco, APV (all purpose vehicle) minivan, will be unveiled at the 2010 Delhi Auto Expo. The family vehicle comes in two versions, a five-seater and a seven-seater, and is aimed at India's small car market. It will go on sale in January 2010, costing $8500, and powered by a 1.2L engine.

Other small cars to be unveiled in the Delhi Auto Expo are Toyota's Entry Family Car, the Etios with a 1.3L diesel engine while the gasoline version is 1.2L. It goes on sale towards the end of 2010. Ford has previously unveiled the Figo small car, while Honda will unveil its small car for the Indian auto market. Volkswagen will also debut its small car Polo and a sedan variant based on the same platform.

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Lambretta scooters Brazil

Lambretta in Brazil was the first automobile factory in the country, even before the automobile industry. Founded in 1955, in the Lapa district in Sao Paulo, the Lambretta SA company built on the worldwide success of the Lambretta scooter, in the 50's. The production of the Lambretta, between 1958 and 1960 reached its peak, with an annual production of 50,000 units per year. Later the firm became known as Pasco, after the owner whose name was Pascowitch. In Brazil, the word “lambreta” is used as a synonym for “scooter”.


Nowadays local production has ceased and Lambrettas and other scooter brands are imported, mostly from Asia. But they are all still called Lambretas in Brazil. Above, sexy biracial Brazilian model Emanuela de Paula poses with a Lambreta.

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Hybrid Volkswagen research

Globally, auto companies are looking at alternative fuel technologies in a bid to reduce carbon emissions and comply with stringent environmental regulations. Because of high development costs, automakers are opening research and development centers overseas. German car giant Volkswagen AG, which bought a 20% stake in Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation, is looking to leverage Suzuki’s R&D centre in India for developing hybrid and electric cars.



Jochem Heizmann, Volkswagen board member and responsible for production, said, "It’s too early to give out concrete details of our plans, but what is definite are common projects on hybrids and electro mobile cars. VW can offer hybrids and electric technology." Heizmann says that Suzuki and Volkswagen complement each other, even in terms of product portfolio. "India has huge potential to offer. Suzuki is strong in the Asian markets, including Japan and India. We are investigating the areas of synergies as we look for scale effect in operations," he said.

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