Car News in India

It seems that bug of making small cars has caught everyone. Now Hindustan Motors limited in collaboration with Japan???s Mitsubishi Motors is planning to develop a small car that will run on electric power. The car is likely to hit the market in three years time.

???We are the leader in premium SUV segment. Now we want to enter the electric car segment. We want to launch the eco-friendly electric i-MiEV (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle)??? said Mr. YVS Vijay Kumar, Vice-President and Business Head of Hindustan Motors. He added that since the technology is expensive by Indian standards, they would wish the government to provide subsidy on the electric vehicles. The car is capable of running up to 180 kms on a single charge. The technology was developed by Japanese car manufacturer Mitsubishi. i-MiEV car have already won the best tech car award in Japan, recently. The car has already hit the markets of Japan and Hong Kong. The interesting point of this electric car which works on lithium ion battery is that it can be charged up to 80 per cent in just 30 minutes, using a special charging system. Hindustan Motors has decided to import the technology from Mitsubishi for sale in India. The company is already selling premium SUVs like Pajero and premium sedan Montero. The other sedans Lancer and Cedia hold coveted position among sedans. Mitsubishi is also planning to launch very costly, yet sophisticated the SUV Outlander and a crossover sports utility vehicle like the Honda CR-V and Chevrolet Captiva, later this year. The company plans to assemble it in India.

The SUV is currently priced at Rs 12 lakh in European and US markets. Outlander is likely to hit the Indian roads by September this year. The company plans to treble its sales to 10,000 units by 2010.

The RSA programme will be implemented in a phased manner across Delhi, NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune in phase one. The service will also be extended to Hyderabad, Kochi, Ludhiana and Chandigarh.