Mercedes-Benz is all set to start the New Year with making a comeback into the segment which was long left. The Stuttgart based carmaker is all set to launch the V-Class in India on January 24, 2019 which will mark its return into the MPV segment. The Mercedes-Benz V-Class will be launched in India as a Completely Built Unit and will be imported from Spain. The company has not confirmed local assembly for it yet which would have neutralized the price to some extent. The local assembly would have helped to make the MPV more viable in the segment which otherwise is dominated by SUVs.
A long list of launches in the SUV segment is scheduled in the country for 2019. We've already given you a glimpse of what SUVs to expect next year but the luxury car makers have a whole bunch of cars lined up which will strengthen their SUV portfolio in the country.
Audi has begun working on the facelift for the much popular, Audi Q7. Slated to enter the market in 2020, recently spy photos of both the facelifted Q7 and its performance derivative, SQ7, were spotted undergoing cold weather testing.
India will move to Bharat Stage 6 or BS6 emissions regulations from April 1, 2020. With new emissions norms kicking in, new technology will be needed to keep emissions in check, in particular for new diesel engine vehicles. While it will be easier for petrol engines to meet BS6 emission standards with largely upgraded ECUs and engine mapping along with some exhaust after-treatment, the diesel cars will need a whole new type of technology in order to reduce emissions. These new add-ons are said to increase the prices of diesel cars even further and increase the gap between a new petrol car and a new diesel car by nearly 2.5 lakh rupees if taken into consideration something like a premium hatchback, subcompact sedan or entry-level compact sedan.
Hyundai Motor India has announced a price hike of up to Rs. 30,000 across its model range effective from January 2019. The decision comes due to the impact of rising input costs and is a part of cyclical price revision which happens at the start of every year and has become a norm in the auto industry. Recently, some of the major carmakers such as Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Ford, Honda, Renault, Nissan, Toyota and BMW have also made price hike announcements citing similar reasons.
Images of the next-generation Mahindra Thar have recently surfaced online, and these are one of the first sightings of the upcoming off-road SUV. The current-generation has been present in the Indian market since 2010, and save for a minor facelift that was introduced in 2015, the SUV remains unchanged.
Mahindra & Mahindra finally revealed the production name of its highly anticipated subcompact SUV S201 yesterday. The all-new offering will be called the Mahindra XUV300 upon launch and will be a premium offering in the sub 4-metre SUV segment. The automaker revealed the design details and feature list on the new model that is slated to go on sale in early 2019. The new XUV300 is an extremely important product for Mahindra not only for the Indian market but for its global ambitions as well. In fact, on the sidelines of the launch, Mahindra President - Automotive Sector, Rajan Wadhera told caranbike that the company will be exploring global opportunities with the new XUV300.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor has joined hands with Indian Institute Of Technology (IIT), Delhi to drive a road safety mission- Hackathon initiative aims at incubating ideas of young minds to support the national mission of 'Zero Fatality'. Over 180 teams which include over 370 students from more than 100 schools from the Delhi-NCR region have participated in the road safety campaign. The students who have been allowed to register for the road safety mission are from grades 9th to 12th who will be working in association with Indian Road Safety Campaign (IRSC), an NGO formed by IIT Delhi.
A silent revolution has transformed driving in Norway. Eerily quiet vehicles are ubiquitous on the ford-side roads and mountain passes of this wealthy European nation of 5.3 million. Some 30 percent of all new cars sport plug-in cables rather than gasoline tanks, compared with 2 percent across Europe overall and 1-2 percent in the U.S. As countries around the world - including China, the world's biggest auto market - try to encourage more people to buy electric cars to fight climate change, Norway's success has one key driver: the government. It offered big subsidies and perks that it is now due to phase out, but only so long as electric cars remain attractive to buy compared with traditional ones.
