It’s incredible that cars would now be made of coconut. Researchers at Baylor University have introduced a innovative way to transform coconut husk into automotive interiors.

Researchers believe that the coconut husk can be used to design the trunk liners, floor boards, and car door interior covers replacing the synthetic polyester fibres.

Most of the people will wonder that why only coconuts were selected among a long list of plants grown across the world. But the leading researcher, Walter Bradley, has the answer.

He says that coconuts has been picked up from the long list because it is grown in abundance. And about 96% of the total coconut production is taken over by poor farmers who don’t even manage to earn their basic living requirements with this plantation. The idea to utilize coconut fire to build automotive interiors will create a viable new market for these poor farmers along with making the cars more environment friendly.

In addition, coconuts having better mechanical properties not only preserves natural resources but are also cost effective and comparatively reduces a car weight. Adding to the green concept, coconut do not emit toxic fumes and are thus light on environment.

Though this concept is new for the Indian car industry, in the global car market Mercedes-Benz is know to be the first to use natural fibre in cars. The exterior of Mercedes-Benz A-Class Coupé is manufactured using the abaca banana plant replacing the traditional glass fibre.

As the New Year thrill moves ahead with a season of festivity, Mahindra offers a huge discount on its electrifying Mahindra Scorpio to give its customers an opportunity to rejoice the festival of Sankranthi.

Mahindra passes the complete excise cut benefits to its esteemed customers with an an amazing discount of Rs 1,11,111 on its flagship model, the new Mahindra Scorpio.

Mahindra Scorpio is one of the leading SUV in the country with winning characteristics and technologies that individualizes the car. Since the credit crunch in the market is repelling the car buyers from car showrooms. This sizzling offer by Mahindra is only a measure that is expected to attract the buyers and give them a reason to buy the car.

Get ready to witness the biggest and the most electrifying auto show in Bangalore at Bangalore International Automotive Expo (BIAE) 2009.

The Expo will exclusively showcase cars, bikes, motorcycles, and high-end car accessories, bringing over 500 automotive brands under one roof. The show will also caters the needs and requirements of car consumers and car fans.

The event will portray the entire Indian automobile industry providing a strong platform for the growth of the auto industry especially the South Indian Automotive Industry.

The list of exhibitors include leading car manufacturers like the Audi, Nissan, Maruti Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Maini Reva, and the Mahindra & Mahindra. Two-wheeler manufacturers comprising the TVS, Kinetic, Royal Enfield, and the Yamaha along with a number of auto component manufacturers like the Bosch will also exhibit a variety of their products, valuables, and services.

Being supported by bodies like the ARAI, FIAA, AASI and the WIAA, the cynosure of the show will be the hot bikes, customized cars, Nitrocars, and imported vehicles. Apart from these products, this event will also organise various seminars and interactive forums to bring forth the current trend in the automotive market. The auto show will occur from Jan 9th to Jan 11th.

Not shattered by the uncertainty in global financial markets and weakening economic, General Motors is all set to make India a manufacturing hub of engines for the Asia Pacific regions. The General Motors is known for manufacturing compelling and high quality cars. Recently, its Chevrolet cars like the Spark and Aveo U-VA topped the list of Quality Cars in India unveiled by the J.D. Power Asia in their respective segments.

Seeing the performance of its car models in the country, General Motors is optimistic about the Indian market. And with this perception, the company is taking various steps to strength its presence in India. It now plans to develop new and refined car engines in its R&D centre at Bangalore which will be manufactured at its Talegaon facility.

The plant is expected to produce 200,000 units and the capacity can be further increased depending on domestic demand. These engines will be targeted for export to emerging car markets in the Asia Pacific and Eastern European region.

To achieve the desired production capacity and meet the export target, the company also plans to hire more number of employees and workers for its R&D centre as well as manufacturing facility. About 300 employees in the Bangalore facility and 200 workers in the Talegaon facility are planned to be hired for quick and efficient design and production.

As speculated in 2008, the car manufactures are now increasing the car prices to combat the rising input costs. Hyundai Motors has already revealed its plan to increase the car prices by 2% which will put extra an expense of Rs 1,000 – Rs 18,000 on the purchase of Hyundai cars. Honda is also set to hike the prices of all its car models.

The rising input costs and currency fluctuations have compelled many car manufacture to increase their car prices. Earlier, in order to boost car sales, car manufacturers have announced various discount and schemes with their car models. These offers were also declared to pass the benefit of the lowered excise duty to the car buyers.

Following the suit, General Motors has unveiled the price hike by around Rs 10,000 across all models from January 10. So now the cute little Spark will be available with an extra addition of Rs 3000 to its price tag, whereas the Optra from the sedan class will cost of Rs 10,000 more. The SUV Captiva will also witness a price hike in the same range.

Mahindra-Renault Logan gets a completely new look. The credit for this goes to the three graffiti artists who travelled all the way from France to Mumbai to paint and transform the Logan. With a key motive to reflect Indo-French harmony in an Indian Car, the three creative and highly talented artists painted the Logan.

Applying their artistic abilities and wild imaginations, the trio painted two Logans from bonnet to the rear bumper with innovative and artistic pictures. One of the artist among them has passion for Hindi music and is a die-hard fan of Bollywood legends, Kishore Kumar and Bappi Lahri. So, the two cars were painted with creative images of these legends. You can also find picture of a famous French football midfielder Zidane. With all these it gives a look as if music lyrics have been imprinted on the car along with exciting notes, phrases, and creative images.

Overall, the painted Logans are surprisingly attractive. And one such Logan is found driven by the director of Alliance Francaise de Mumbai. And the other two Logans is expected to be auctioned soon.

Mercedes-Benz is heading ahead keeping pace with other German car manufacturers like Audi and BMW. The company is planning a bunch of new car launches in the Indian car market.

The first in line is the new E-Class that is speculated to be introduced in January this year. The next generation E-Class is known to be introduced with better styling, wheel-arched extension, massive bumpers, sculpted wide-frame grille, and a greenhouse.

Following the E-Class would be the elite S-Class facelift that is believed to hit the successful BMW 7-Series. The proposed S-Class would be launched with new front skirt, sculpted bumpers, elegant side flashers, and a re-designed rear bumper.

Additionally, Mercedes plans to introduce the fourth generation CL-Class that is expected to be launched by 2011. This new car would be designed on the platform of the E-Class and is speculated to beat the Audi A7, S-Class, and the Porsche Panamera.

An innovatively designed SLK-Class and a SLR-Coupe are also significant additions in the future portfolio of Mercedes cars.

Hyundai Motors has started a customer centric programme with a view to provide a helping hand to its customers. Named as ‘Hyundai Assurance Program’, which allow the Hyundai car buyers to return the car within the first year of purchase if a buyer looses his or her source of income. This is an amazing step taken by Hyundai amid the prevailing uncertain economy. But sadly, this offer is only applicable for US customers.

Car which always considered as a status symbol have now turned into a burden for many due the present financial crisis. Maintaining a car has become a costly affair with fluctuating fuel prices. At this time of recession, when layoffs has become everyone’s fear, this type of programme will definitely attract the car buyers towards car showrooms.

The first of its kind programme in the auto industry is held in partnership with an Dallas based national performance management company called WALKAWAY USA. It is a subsidiary of EFG Companies that services the retail automotive industry. The organisation has helped many consumers to walk away from the burden of heavy automotive-related debt.

Excitingly, this Buy Back Cars programme has received good response from car buyers. Hope Hyundai also introduced similar programme in India which will solve the problems of many. This will further help the manufacturer to build brand trust and confidence of customers.

2009 brings a good news for the foreign car manufactures with the renewed export policy on new cars.

Now foreign car manufacturers will be able to export vehicles to India from places other than their country of manufacture. This policy implies to cars having a free on board (FOB) value of Rs 1.9 million or more with engine capacity of more than 3,000cc for petrol variants and 2,500cc for diesel variants.

The flexibility of the policy has simplified the export process for the foreign car manufacturers. The policy was introduced in the Exim Policy for 2001-02, but was unfriendly and created a lot of export issues. The new policy will now help those foreign car manufacturers who were unable to export cars to India due to various restrictions.

Further to facilitate the import of cars in India, Kochi has been added in the list of permissible customs ports which currently comprises the Nhava Sheva, Kolkata, Chennai, ICD Tughlakabad, Delhi Air Cargo and the Mumbai Port.

The rat race among car manufacturers to rule the top position in the car industry is on. With the presence of so many domestic as well as foreign car manufacturers imparting pathbreaking models in the market, the competition among them has become very tough and rigid.

Maruti Suzuki dominates the Indian car market with 50 percent share in the industry. Whereas car brands like the Hyundai and General Motors are very close to Maruti Suzuki with their small cars acting as atom bombs in the Indian market.

When speaking about small cars, we can’t even think of neglecting the winning model ‘Hyundai i10′. The car has captured everyone’s attention with its style, performance, and reliability. Wagon R standing against the Hyundai i10 has maintained the brand image of Maruti Suzuki with comparable sales score. Whereas in the premium hatchback segment, Hyundai Getz petrol variant scores higher than the Maruti Swift petrol variant.

Though Maruti Suzuki could not defeat Honda and Chevrolet in sedan segment, its has rolled a new weapon in the hatchback battle field with the launch of the A-Star. The hatchback segment also witnessed the new Indica Vista, a product of Tata-Fiat alliance in India. With its improved design and performance, the new Indica Vista is known to give a strong sense of enmity to its rivals.

Maruti Suzuki being the leading car manufacture of the country still dominates the small car segment. Now the company’s grip is loosen due to tough competition. As the competition gets tougher, the car manufacturers are thinking of different ways to be on the top position. Only the time can tell, who will rule the Indian car industry?