Bajaj Auto Ltd on Saturday said its small car, being developed in partnership with Renault SA and Nissan Motor, will be rolled out in 2011 as per schedule.

Bajaj managing director Rajiv Bajaj said: “The project remains largely on schedule, though in the course of development some specifications have been reviewed, leading to adjustments in the overall schedule.”

It had been reported in a section of the media that the ultra low-cost (ULC) project would be delayed by more than a year as Rajiv Bajaj was not happy with the work done so far, and he demanded major modification in the design.

“Bajaj categorically denies that the project is delayed by any significant period such as a year, as has been erroneously reported,” he added in a statement.

The report also cited insufficient and slow investment infusion into the project by Nissan and Renault as another reason for the delay.

“Bajaj has primary responsibility for the design, development, manufacturing, and supply chain activities of this project. Bajaj is proceeding as before to implement this project and any financial or other constraints that Renault-Nissan may have, have no bearing on the ability of Bajaj to implement this project,” Rajiv Bajaj said.

Announced last year, the ULC is pegged as a direct competitor to Tata’s small car Nano, priced at Rs 1,00,000.

The next time your car is keyed, park it under a ray of sunshine. If your car is coated in a new polyurethane film developed by scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi, the scratch will be gone in an hour.

The research is detailed in the current issue of the journal Science.

“We have developed a new macromolecule,” said Marek Urban, who, along with Biswajit Ghosh, wrote the paper. “When the polymer is damaged and exposed to sunlight, it is capable of repairing itself, and could be applied to many systems.”

The new coating is 99.99 percent standard polyurethane, a material found in a wide range of products, including hard plastic and soft foams. The remaining 0.01 percent is either a four-molecule oxetane ring or a long rod of chitosan. Chitosan is closely related to chitin, the tough material found in the shells of lobsters and crabs.

When the polyurethane is damaged, a ring of oxetane is also ripped open. Breaking the surface of the polyurethane also allows ultraviolet light to enter the scratch, which breaks apart a rod of chitosan.

The broken chitosan rods and oxetane rings then bond with each other across the damaged area, dragging the two sides together to eliminate the scratch. If the polyurethane coating is left in the sun, a scratch heals itself in an hour.

Scientists say that the reaction only takes place when the surface is damaged, and that it should be should be able to repair most scratches indefinitely. But since the material is so new, they haven’t been able to conduct long-term tests.

Long-term testing will be necessary before the coating makes it into any commercial products. If approved, however, the coating could be used for a wide range of materials.

“You can make it whatever color you want, just add pigments” said Urban. Car paint is “the first applications that comes to mind, but you can think of electronics, phones, iPods, etc.”

The beauty of the new coating, according to Craig Hawker at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is that since it is made from a derivative of chitin, it is environmentally friendly.

“The use of renewable materials is a centrally important selling point,” said Hawker. “And the novel use of UV as a trigger for healing is extremely versatile.”

“There could be some issues, especially when you scale production up,” said Urban. “But it shouldn’t be a long time before you see this material in commercial production.

Car maker Toyota Kirloskar Motor has increased the prices of its sedan ‘Corolla Altis’ and multi-utility vehicle ‘Innova’ by up to Rs50,000 from April 1, 2009, due to depreciation of rupee and yen against the US currency and rising input costs.

“So far, we have tried to absorb price increases (input costs) as much as possible, in order to limit the increase passed on to the customers.

“However, due to unavoidable reasons such as recent changes in the rupee/dollar and yen/dollar exchange rate, we are now required to make necessary revisions in pricing,” Toyota Kirloskar Motor Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh.

The company was also affected by rising operational costs, he said in a statement today.

After this price increase, Innova would be costlier by Rs 10,000-Rs 25,000, while consumers would have to pay Rs 10,000-Rs 50,000 more for Corolla Altis.