Northern Lights Energy has signed a deal with Bangalore-based REVA Electric Car co. for the exclusive rights to distribute REVA electric car models in Iceland.

Who else is not yet on the Indian small car bandwagon? If this the way it goes, soon we would not be able to swing your hands without hitting a small car or two. Can't blame the car companies, they are here to make money.

Hyundai Motor India, the largest car exporter in India, plans to increase its focus on the domestic market. 

There is going to be a CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) coming from Fiat India in 2010. While initially it was not clear which model this would be, it was later confirmed by the Hindu Businessline that the new car would be a CNG variant of the Fiat Punto hatchback.

Hyundai joins the mini-car race, to come out with its small car in India in about 2 years

So the small car from Honda which we talked about a while back is very much happening. It is going to take some time, but it will be there.

Remember we talked about the Ajantav Oreva electric car several months back? They are back in the news.

It has been announced that Delhi will be the first city in India to ultra low sulphur diesel (ULSD).  Introduction of ULSD in India will begin with Delhi in April 2010 and it is expected that Mumbai will follow suit.

According to the new Mahindra Xylo brochure, the Xylo E8 now gets dual SRS airbags as an option. It is said that the Mahindra Scorpio, the SUV from the Mahindra stable, will get them soon. Update: We now hear that the Mahindra Scorpio VLX already has airbags. Great news.

Generally, we have stayed away from news stories about premium and luxury vehicles in India.  The logic always was that very people would be able to afford them in any case and if they did, they would hardly make up their minds by reading articles on the Internet.  However, recently we have come to realize that there is a large audience out there that wants to read about these cars irrespective of whether they can afford them or not. Here is a look and the approaching launch of the Volkswagen Touareg in India, quite possibly in December 2009.

After much controversy and bare knuckle fisticuffs with Bajaj Auto and finally permission from the Supreme Court to sell while keeping records, TVS Motor Company has finally be launched its Flame DS125 twin spark, 3 valve motorcycle in India.

We know we are a quite late with a test drive of the Fiat Linea.  Test drives of new cars are not what we have specialized in so far, but all that is going to change in the next few months as we go after driving impressions, road tests and comparisons with a vengeance. What is the point of having a road test months after the launch of  a car? Well, better late than never. Plus, tomorrow, we do not want an avid reader to ask us why a certain road test is missing from our archives. So here we go, on our first ever car road test.

The new diesel the 350 CDI BlueEfficiency sedan is priced at Rs 48.08 lakh (ex-showrom Delhi). The 2987 cc, six cylinder diesel car offers muscular performance, touching 100 kmph in just 6.9 seconds.

When the original Karizma was introduced in India, it immediately caught the fancy of every motorcycle enthusiast in the country.  That was in 2003.  At that point, it was the most powerful modern motorcycle available.

Here is a bit of information that we missed from last month.  Bajaj Auto has entered into a joint venture with MotoCzysz LLC of United States to explore the possibilities for the next generation vehicle.  That is what the official press release says.  It has got something to do with green technology, electric power plants and all that.  And for some reason, they are calling it the "Dream."

We have been hearing occasional rumors about an upcoming vehicle from Mahindra for a while.  We have talked about the limited, but pent up, demand for a smaller suv to replace the Maruti Gypsy.  However, the only vehicle which even tries to be a mini SUV is the recently launched Premier Rio.  But that is a little too small and too unsophisticated to become a hit for that audience.

Looks like the launch season is not going to end anytime soon.  The latest that we hear is that the much anticipated Volkswagen Beetle will be coming to India by December 2009.  More car and motorcycle launches will of course happen during the upcoming 2010 Auto Expo.

Sometimes, the sheer audacity of some headlines take you by surprise.  Not good, not bad - just gutsy.  I came across one of them today on the MotorCrunch blog, why I was going through Saturday's automobile headlines in my Google Reader.  It simply said-"Mahindra launch ugly compact truck."

And the recently concluded Tokyo Motor show, the company told the Indian media that it has plans to launch a new MPV in the Indian market which will be priced below the Toyota Innova.

Bullet Classic 500 EFI and Classic 350 have been launched by royal Enfield in India.  We had talked about this motorcycle quite a few months back, but missed out on it when the story broke.