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The Indian car scene these days is down right exciting for a car guy. Unfortunately, it’s not about the horsepower or hotness of the cars but instead the business side of it. Everything from clean energy to low priced cars. Just 20 years ago you had two options if you wanted to buy a car: an Ambassador or Fiat.

It’s the night before the big announcement in Delhi from Tata Motors about their new USD 2500 vehicle, the world’s cheapest car (even cheaper then the Yugo from 1986 when factoring in inflation). If you’ve been to India and have seen 3-5 people on a scooter then you’ll know who this car is targeted at.

The NY Times has a great article on the new car. One of the most notable things I picked up from the article was that most carmakers buy no more than 10 percent to 15 percent of parts electronically however this car has about 30 percent to 40 percent sourced electronically.

The new Tata car is only one of many news stories around the Indian car scene:

- Bajaj introduced their low priced concept car in Delhi on Tuesday. The majority of Indians travel via two wheelers and the king of the hill in that segment is Bajaj. It’s their first attempt at a four wheel vehicle.

- Ford announced a USD 500 million investment into India, to source parts and expand it’s operations.

- Tata Motors in addition to the low end segment is also looking at the luxury segment. It’s currently in a bidding war for Jaguar and Land Rover.

- Clean energy cars are currently being made in India by Reva. They may not look as sexy as the Telsa, but for city use the Reva is the smarter option. (SIDENOTE: it is me, or do you hum the song Signs every time you here the word Tesla?)

That’s a status check on the Indian automotive scene.  If the US is headed for a recession, I’m assuming there will be even more deals announced which means more options for the Indian consumer.

What a birthday present for me, after watching patiently for over 6 months while the the new Porsche Centre Mumbai was being put together it’s now open. Their grand opening was tonight and the pics are from the event after most of the people had cleared out so I could get some pics without some lame Harry Potter fan getting in the way. The showroom/dealer is located at Kemps Corner in South Bombay. This is the 2nd showroom for Porsche in India, the first one was opened in Delhi last year. I had expected them to have a couple Cayenne’s and 911 Carrera’s but I had no clue they would pull out the big daddy Carrera GT. Around 1200 GT’s were made and sold for around USD 500,000 a piece. This particular GT is on loan from the Porsche Museum located in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, it will be making it’s way back home in a couple weeks.

Pics of the GT

It’s been awhile since I posted some pics of cars I’ve seen around Bombay and other cities. I’ve moved my new pics over to the Facebook platform. Just click on the car images to open up the album for each car.

Some pics of cars I’ve seen around Mumbai. The gray Bentley and maroon S class were seen around Peddar Road. The black Bentley and Cayenne Turbo were seen near the Mahalaxmi Racecourse. The 911 was parked at the Hyatt in Kalina.

I went to Hong Kong last week for the first time and I was blown away by the city. It happened to be the 10 year anniversary of the handover back to China, so as you can imagine a lot of festivities around that. It also happened to be the 10 year anniversary of the Asian Financial Crisis that started with Thailand.

It was tough to not draw comparisons between HK and Mumbai.  Both are financial hubs and many people live in both cities.  But, that is where the similarity ends, HK has the infrastructure that Bombay only dreams about.   Getting around the financial district was as easy as walking around the elevated walkways to shield you from the rain and the traffic down below. People were very helpful and the city was full of energy. The city is geared towards business and it shows, I can only imagine what mainland China is like.

People told me that HK has the highest number of Rolls Royce’s per capita in the world, they forgot to tell me the streets are littered with 7-series Beamer’s and S-class Benzo’s.