Low-cost cars

It’s the hottest of hot topics – but it’s open to the widest of interpretations, writes Mark Bursa. What, exactly, is a low-cost car? The Dacia Logan? Fiat Palio? Toyota Aygo? Tata Nano? Maruti 800? Lada Zhiguli? Or a five-year-old VW Golf?

RESEARCH: Low-cost cars: opportunities and challenges

11 April 2008

EMERGING MARKETS ANALYSIS: BYD’s bid to become the breakthrough Chinese automaker

8 April 2008

Its vast expertise in battery technology gives China’s BYD a major unique selling point – but can it translate that to success in the marketplace without resorting to deign piracy? Mark Bursa surveys China’s potential auto champion.

EMERGING MARKETS ANALYSIS: Decision time as Zastava bids to become another Dacia

3 April 2008

The emergence of a bidding war for the Serbian automaker formerly known as Yugo took a lot of people by surprise. Wasn’t the company bombed into the Stone Age a decade ago? Far from it, as Mark Bursa discovers

INDIA: Maruti Suzuki denies sub-800 'Nano fighter'

6 February 2008

Suzuki in India has denied media reports that Maruti Suzuki is readying a small car with a 660cc engine priced at Rs1.5 lakh (USD3,800) to compete with Tata's Nano.

FEATURE: Take one lemon tart and add (a) sage

1 February 2008

The lemon tart served at Bertorelli Italian restaurant in London’s fashionable Soho district is good, very good. On another occasion it could quite plausibly have stopped everyone in their tracks and stymied thought processes beyond a simple ‘hmm’. But yesterday lunchtime the lemon tart was taking a deserved second place to the musings of a sage who has been around the automotive industry block quite a few times.

THAILAND/INDIA: Volkswagen, Tata, plan 'eco-car' assembly plants

7 January 2008

Following its failure to form an alliance with Proton, Volkswagen has said it may build a car assembly plant in Thailand as a way of expanding its market in south east Asia and Tata has similar ideas.