NEW AUTO TECHNOLOGY

Maruti Suzuki Inaugurates KB Series Engine Plant

Maruti Suzuki today officially inaugrated it's new KB Series Engine Plant at it's Gurgaon facility. The new plant will was inaugrated by Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi, MD, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd in front of the media. This new plant will manufacture the 1 litre KB Series engine which will be used in the upcoming Maruti Suzuki A-Star and Nissan Pixo (for export). The A-Star will be solely built at Maruti's Manesar plant for domestic and international markets. The new engine will pave the way forward for Suzuki's future models in India and overseas. After the A-Star the Suzuki Splash will sport the KB Series engine and in the next 3-5 years all Suzuki's will be powered by this series as Suzuki is planning to make this engine in various displacements upto 1400cc.









The 1 litre 3-cylinder DOHC KB10 engine produces a healthy 67 bhp and 90Nm of torque. What is unique is that the torque is delivered early in the powerband at 3500rpm making for easy city driving and less frquent gear changes. Other new innovations include a plastic intake manifold, distributor less ignition system and imprved rigidity for better NVH. The new plant can produce upto 2,40,000 engines per year. The KB series engine will also increase fuel economy by about 10% over current 1 litre Suzuki engines and will also be cheaper to maintain. Spark plug changes will come every 40000km as againts 20000 now and even the first oil change will be needed at 10000km instead of 1000 as of now.

Toyota Reveals Rear Window Curtain Airbag

After Honda revealead it's sequential inflating airbag just a week ago, it's arch rival Toyota has come out with a unique rear window curtain shield airbag which will protect the rear passengers' heads in the event of a collision. Toyota is calling this aribag as 'the world's first' and will use it in the upcoming Toyota iQ hatchback. Later on we will see this rear curtain airbag used on other Toyota models as well as by other manufacturers. The rear window curtain airbag will help in protecting the rear passengers from rear end collisions as well as from broken parts hitting them after an impact. Normally the focus has been on the safety of the front passengers but with this new innovation, the safety equation within a car will be more balanced.