FACED with rising crude oil prices, Indian automakers are getting back to the drawing board to design more compact vehicles with smaller engines that burn lesser fuel. While a vehicle with smaller engine may be less powerful than current models, it would be far more fuel efficient, say most top auto companies including Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors.

The first Nano car will roll out from the Singur plant in West Bengal, Ravi Kant (pictured) said, ending speculation over the possibility of rolling out Nano from other locations. Kant said that the company is on schedule as far as the launch date of mid-October is concerned. Work at the plant is moving at a brisk pace. Fierce agitation from locals, a political backlash and controversies over land acquisition, recruitment of workforce, arrangement of basic utilities and water logging during the last monsoon had already pushed the original deadline back five or six months.

Amara Raja Batteries announced its entry into the two-wheeler battery segment on Monday with the launch of Amaron Pro Bike Rider two-wheeler batteries, powered by VRLA (valve regulated lead acid) technology from Johnson Controls of the U.S., customised by Amara Raja's R&D for the Indian markets. Amaron brand ambassadors Narain Kartikeyan, Armaan Ebrahim and Aditya Patel were present on the occasion.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee reiterated here on Monday her demand that the 400 acres of land that she claims had been acquired from peasants in Singur without their consent for the setting up of the Tata Motors' car manufacturing project there should be returned to their owners. She scoffed at veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu's remark on Sunday that any attempt to sabotage the project would send the message to the people that the Trinamool Congress is against development.

To make them vehicle-specific hubs Mr P.M. Telang, Executive Director (Commercial Vehicles), Tata Motors (file photo). The country's leading vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors is in the process of re-organising its manufacturing facilities for commercial vehicles, and over time, intends to create hubs for a particular category of vehicle at each of its various production units. Towards this goal it is expected to move out manufacture of nearly 10,000 heavy commercial vehicles from Pune to Jamshedpur during the current fiscal. Investment

When CEO Takeo Fukui says he would spend $ 10 billion to rack up a Formula One victory for Honda, you get the sense that he really means it. Under Fukui's five-year leadership, Honda Motor's car sales have jumped by a third and profits by an even bigger margin to a record $5.8 billion last year. But it's the lack of an Fl win that sticks in the craw of the 63-year-old former engineer, who joined Honda precisely because it was the first Japanese automaker to enter the world's premier motor sport. Fukui just doesn't like to lose.

GOING HYBRID: The Mahindra group will launch a mild hybrid version of the Scorpio later this year. The full hybrid will come later

When CEO Takeo Fukui says he would spend $10 billion to rack up a Formula One victory for Honda, you get the sense that he really means it. Under Fukui's five-year leadership, Honda Motor's car sales have jumped by a third and profits by an even bigger margin to a record $5.8 billion last year. But it's the lack of an F1 win that sticks in the craw of the 63-year-old former engineer, who joined Honda precisely because it was the first Japanese automaker to enter the world's premier motor sport. Fukui just doesn't like to lose.

Trouble broke out at Singur in West Bengal's Hooghly district on Sunday when police had to burst tear gas shells to disperse a mob that damaged a watch-tower near the project site of the Tata Motors' automobile manufacturing unit where construction work was underway. The mob allegedly hurled bricks at the police when challenged, injuring some of them. Additional security forces were rushed to the area, a senior district police official said.

Honda will sell a new, improved and affordable gas-electric hybrid in the U.S., Japan and Europe starting in early 2009, the company president said Wednesday. President Takeo Fukui told reporters that green cars, especially hybrids, will be a pillar of Honda Motor Co's strategy for the next three years, starting this fiscal year that began April 1.