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Volkswagen brought down the first in a series of Up! concepts which, though not shown for the first time, was an equally important gesture by the largest car maker from Europe. The Up! is a more evolved answer to the small car puzzle and features a rear-engine layout like the Tata Nano and will form the basis for an all-new, five-door hatchback from the makers of the Beetle. This car may get built from India if plans go well. But if you think VW believes in Auto Expo as the natural habitat for small cars, you could be wrong. Last October, VW chose to show the five-door Up! concept variant at…you guessed it, Tokyo. After selling well-built Octavias and Superbs for a while, Skoda chose to officially launch the brilliant Fabia small car. With the Fabia, India gets a car with European upbringing, technology and safety features and a very Indian price-tag. The key word here is “launched” and not merely “unveiled”.
Want more proof why Auto Expo should become the small car showcase for the world? Hyundai today builds the i10, its newest small car, only in India and exports it to all parts of the world. GM is setting up a new car plant with an installed capacity of 1,40,000 cars in Maharashtra to build an all-new car that will slot between the Spark and the UV-A. Honda’s new facility at Rajasthan will yield two small cars in the next two years. Toyota is planning its small venture which may come on-stream in two years time. The Renault-Nissan combine is busy building a plant in Chennai for small cars that will be sold in India as well as the rest of the world. The Bajaj-Renault alliance is set to challenge Tata Nano and they already had a concept car to show before Tata unveiled its entry. Volkswagen’s small car plant is set to build a new model which is, in all probability, based on the Up! concept. Ford has just announced fresh investments to enhance its production facility at Chennai and build a small car.
There are no ifs and buts in any of this. All of these projects are certainly coming through and all of them revolve around the concept of “small cars”. It is only natural then that the organisers of Auto Expo start positioning their fare as the first and only stop for small cars. Then Pragati Maidan will attain a certain status, leading designers would want to be seen next to their small car creation unveiled at New Delhi, and journalists from the ecologically-conscious developed world as well as the financially-challenged developing world will fill up the pavilions to the brim. Till then.
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