The company has planned a 5,000 km drive for the car powered by the Jatropha plant extract oil. Starting from Pune, the car''s first halt was at Bangalore and then Cochin, Coimbatore Chennai and Hyderabad before going back to Pune. The second phase of the test run will be to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and concludes in Delhi. The car gives a mileage of 13 km/litre. According to officials, the company has a stock of 1,000 litres for the test run. The diesel engine has been modified for the purpose.

Curiously the naming of the bio fuels — DaimlerChrysler India calls the Jatropha oil as bio-diesel fuel for instance - seems to be influenced by the fuels traditionally used in vehicles. While the discredited Ramar Pillai called his herbal fuel `herbal petrol'' and tested the same on two wheelers fuelled by petrol.

DaimlerChrysler India initiated this Rs.3.5 crore project last August partnering with the country''s premier research agency Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the University of Hohenheim, Germany.

According to Manas Dewan, manager, Press Relations, the project spans over five years and the company is into the second year.

The second stage will be testing the oil on a car fleet and then comes the third stage where DaimlerChrysler India will look at the issues in commercialisation of the bio-diesel cars. According to Dewan, the company is testing Jatropha oil as a car fuel only in India and if found satisfactory, the same would be replicated in other parts of the world.

Meanwhile DaimlerChrysler India plans to roll out a commercial vehicle Actros next fiscal. Work on the project has commenced. The 400 HP three axle 19,000 gross vehicle weight (GVW) truck will have a special gear shift system. Actros will come in two versions — rigid body truck and as a trailer.