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Category: Automotive

Retail News Asia is committed to providing both local and global retailers with the latest Auto and Car news throughout the Asian market. This on a daily base.

  • Royal Enfield Begins Operations In Singapore With New Store

    Royal Enfield Begins Operations In Singapore With New Store

    Royal Enfield has started operations in Singapore by setting up a new flagship store in the city’s Ubi Road. The new Royal Enfield Singapore store showcases the entire range of Royal Enfield motorcycles, including the RE Interceptor 650, Continental GT 650, Himalayan, and the Classic. The Royal Enfield Singapore store also has a complete range of Royal Enfield’s genuine accessories for its motorcycles, as well as apparel and riding gear range. While the 650 Twins spearheaded the brand’s global aspirations, the updated Himalayan and the new Meteor 350 have also been positioned as global products, and will likely suit the requirements of Asian motorcyclists.

    The Royal Enfield Singapore store expands the Indian motorcycle brand’s footprint across South East Asia

    Royal Enfield has ambitious plans to establish itself as a global leader in the mid-size motorcycle segment and is expanding aggressively across Asia, as it aims to tap into the world’s biggest motorcycle market, after India. With a focus on increasing sales across India, Royal Enfield now has operations across Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, with plans to open a new factory in Thailand, which will be a hub for exports to other countries in the region, including the motorcycle-intensive markets of Vietnam and Indonesia. The Thailand factory is the second overseas plant for Royal Enfield, after its factory in Argentina.

    Royal Enfield has 36 showrooms in Thailand and has started operations in other ASEAN (Association of southeast Asian Nations) countries including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia over the last few years. With the brand’s lion’s share of sales coming from the domestic market, which is the world’s biggest market for motorcycles sales, Royal Enfield will be increasingly looking to expand its presence in other strong motorcycle markets in the region.

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  • Ministry says no to cuts in auto registration fees

    Ministry says no to cuts in auto registration fees

    The Ministry of Finance has rejected a proposal to reduce auto registration fees by half, saying it is not necessary for the current setting.

    The proposal was made by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), seeking support for manufacturers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

    However, the Ministry of Finance said that the government had already implemented different measures to support businesses and citizens last year, including extending the deadline for payment of taxes and land use fees and incentives on special consumption tax for cars manufactured or assembled locally.

    “After reviewing the proposal, the Ministry of Finance sees that lowering registration fee is not suitable with the current setting,” it said.

    Last year, the government had provided a 50 percent discount on the registration fees for cars produced domestically.

    The move lowered the government’s revenues by VND6 trillion ($260 million).

    The Ministry of Finance also denied VAMA’s request to lower the production of cars under an import tax incentive program.

  • Ferrari Vietnam recalls cars over faulty airbags

    Ferrari Vietnam recalls cars over faulty airbags

    Ferrari Vietnam is recalling 24 cars for airbag faults that can cause severe damage in the event of a crash.

    The recall covers five models: 458 Speciale, 488 GTB, 488 Spider, California T, and F12 Berlinetta. The recalled cars were produced between March 2014 and July 2017, according to a statement submitted by the automaker to the Vietnam Register.

    The front passenger airbags in these vehicles are produced by Japanese auto parts producer Takata Corporation. It has been found that humidity can penetrate and damage them. In some crashes, activation of the airbag can break the inflator inside into pieces and push them through the inflated airbag, causing serious damage to users

    Customers can bring their vehicles for a free replacement of the faulty parts at Ferrari’s only showroom and service center in HCMC. The replacement should take one to three hours. The recall will run in one year from May 7, 2021.

    Ferrari opened its first showroom in HCMC’s District 7 in 2019 to sell old cars and provide maintenance service. Recently, it started to sell new Ferraris in Vietnam, but is yet to make a sale.

  • Renault Introduces New Nouvelle Vague Brand Strategy

    Renault Introduces New Nouvelle Vague Brand Strategy

    Renault is gearing up to give it’s brand a new direction. The French carmaker has adopted “Nouvelle Vague” strategy targeting to maximize its number of electrified vehicles by 2030 in a bid to move towards sustainable development. More than 2000 engineers from five companies will work on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, data processing, software, and microelectronics. Then, Renault’s Re factory in Europe will recycle or upcycle up to 1.20 lakh units every year. Nearly 80 percent of those recycled materials will be reused in new batteries.

    By 2030, Renault is targeting to become world’s best automotive manufacturer when it comes to the percentage of recycled materials in new vehicles. The company will also introduce seven electrified models in C and D segments. It has also unveiled the new Arkana coupe SUV that marks and the new-generation Megane E-TECH Electric. The company has also announced that the E-TECH Hybrid technology will continue to power upcoming C and D segment vehicles. Renault has been leading in the EV segment in Europe with almost 4 lakh vehicles sold to date. In Europe, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom – will continue to be its key markets. The company will also try and increase local dominance in Brazil, Russia, Turkey, and India.

    The brand has also unveiled its new logo and the Megane will be the first model to wear it. The latest iteration was created in 1992 and Renault felt that it began to look a little dated, even though it was reworked in 2015. The new brand logo adores a streamlined design, with neither typogram nor brand signature. The new logo is an open-ended shape and Renault says that it reflects the brand’s openness and transparency. It was co-designed with Landor & Fitch consultants and will be phased in on all Renault brand vehicles and across the Renault network. By 2024, the entire Renault range will sport the new logo.

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  • Julian Thomson Steps Down As Jaguar’s Director Of Design

    Julian Thomson Steps Down As Jaguar’s Director Of Design

    Julian Thomson, Design Director at Jaguar, has resigned and will be leaving the company at the end of this month. An internal memo revealed that he will leave Jaguar for exploring other exciting opportunities. He took over the reins at Jaguar Design after Ian Callum’s departure in 2019 and was tasked with establishing the future strategic design direction for the brand. He worked on production models, updated models and concepts cars as well. He was responsible for the design of various cars from Jaguar such as XK, XF, XJ, F-TYPE, XE, F-Pace, E-Pace, and Jaguar’s first-ever electric vehicle – the I-Pace as well. We have reached out to Jaguar Land Rover for a comment on the same, and the company is yet to respond.

    Thomson also served as the head of design at Lotus and was the brains behind the design of the famous Lotus Elise. He was appointed as Chief of Exteriors at the Volkswagen Group’s Concept Design Centre in Barcelona in 1998 and worked on production and concept vehicle design for various brands under the Volkswagen umbrella such as Audi, Bentley, Seat, and VW itself. Julian joined Jaguar in 2000 as Advanced Design Director and also served as Advanced Design Director for Land Rover between 2006 and 2008.

    Thomson studied Mechanical Engineering at Hatfield University before completing an MA in Automotive Design at the Royal College of Art. He began his automotive industry career in 1984 as a designer at Ford in Dunton, England, before moving to Lotus Design in Norwich in 1986. In the recent past, Former JLR CEO, Professor Ralf Speth moved to TVS Motor Company as the chairman while Wayne Burgess, yet another designer who had worked with Jaguar before was appointed as the Head of Vehicle Design at Ola Electric.

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  • EV Owners Shifting Back To Gas Power In The U

    EV Owners Shifting Back To Gas Power In The U

    A study by the University of California, Davis, which has been published by the Nature Energy Journal has shown some disturbing signs for EVs. While the world makes this tectonic shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles, between 2015-2019, 18 percent of EV owners in California shifted back to gasoline while 20 percent of the plug-in hybrid owners also did the same. The study reveals the primary culprit for the switch was the lack of reliable level 2 charging, particularly at home. While EVs, despite being more expensive than gasoline-powered vehicles, are considered more affordable because of the more affordable nature of charging and almost no after-sale cost which makes these vehicles more reliable, the limitations of range and the time that it takes to charge a vehicle offset these benefits.

    According to the research paper, almost half of the respondents who bought an EV had access to level 2 charging. 30 percent of them also had proper plugin charging at home and they still dumped their EVs. Interestingly, 54 percent of the respondents were less likely to buy an EV if they didn’t have access to convenient at-home charging.

    In the US particularly, things have moved along quite a bit in the last two years. EVs have become more ubiquitous because of the Tesla Model 3 which has become the best selling executive sedan in the world. Tesla also has a rather affordable SUV in the Tesla Model Y and there is a legion of new vehicles coming to the US mostly from traditional automakers.

    While all of this has happened, the charging technology has moved along. Tesla’s supercharger network has grown while also Volkswagen’s Electrify America has become the biggest charging network in North America. But more players are entering the space like Rivian which is highly capitalized and also pouring its cash into developing its charging network. GM has now partnered with 7 networks via a super app for charging its vehicles.

    The government has also changed in the US. Under Biden, EVs are getting a huge push and if tax credits come back, then things will be even more lucrative for EV adoption. The data from the report is also likely skewed slightly from the current trends because it takes broad 4 year period when EVs and their infrastructure weren’t as developed or refined.

  • Volvo’s Global Sales Increase By 97.3% In April

    Volvo’s Global Sales Increase By 97.3% In April

    Volvo Cars achieved its 10th consecutive month of sales growth, as the company’s global sales increased by 97.5 percent in April compared with the same month last year. In April, Volvo Cars sold a total of 62,724 cars, up from 31,760 cars in the same period last year. The growth was mainly driven by strong demand in the US and Europe, in combination with a recovery from a sales drop in April last year related to the Covid-19 pandemic. In China, where sales returned to growth around this time last year, the company reported a steady increase of 11.6 percent.

    Sales in the January-April period landed at 248,422 cars, up 51.8 percent compared with the same period last year. Sales of Volvo Cars’ Recharge line-up of chargeable models, with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain, remained strong in Europe during the month of April, representing 42.0 percent of the company’s overall sales in Europe. Globally, Recharge cars accounted for 24.3 percent of the total sales volume.

    In the US, sales increased by 185.5 percent in April compared with the same month last year, mainly driven by strong demand for the XC90 and XC60. Total sales reached 11,036 cars, an increase from 3,866 in the same period in 2020, when many states implemented stay-at-home orders due to the pandemic.

    European sales grew to 25,816 cars for the month of April, up 178.0 percent compared with the same period last year. The increase was mainly driven by markets that have started to recover after last year’s pandemic-related shutdowns, as well as strong sales increases in the UK, Sweden and Germany.

    China, Volvo Cars’ biggest market, reported solid sales growth in April, with total sales reaching 16,435 cars. The increase was led by high demand for the locally assembled XC60 and S90 models.

    In April, the XC40 was the top-selling model, with sales of 19,833 cars (2020: 5,708), followed by the XC60 with total sales of 17,925 cars (10,908 units) and the XC90 with 9,371 cars (4,425 units).

  • Honda Vietnam to recall cars over fuel pump issue

    Honda Vietnam to recall cars over fuel pump issue

    Honda Vietnam has announced it would recall 27,640 locally assembled and imported vehicles to resolve a fuel pump malfunction.

    The affected models are City (8,626 units), Civic (3,624 units), CR-V (10,687 units), HR-V (3,630 units), Jazz (630 units) and Accord (442 units) made in 2019. Out of nearly 28,000 defective vehicles, 19,014 were locally assembled, with the rest imported from Thailand. The recall will start this Wednesday.

    Faults related to the fuel pump installed in these vehicles may involve defective impellers. Over time, the pump may crack, deform and prevent the engine from starting or stalling.

    At present, there is no record of safety threats due to the fuel pump error in the Vietnamese market. Vehicle owners are advised to visit authorized dealerships to have their engines checked.

    Replacements will be made when spare parts become available. Spare parts and related services would be completely free of charge. For vehicles imported through non-genuine import dealerships, in case customers request, Honda Vietnam would still provide relevant information.

    Honda was the fourth best-selling auto brand in Vietnam in the first quarter of this year with 6,782 units sold, up 24.7 percent year-on-year.

  • Volkswagen Expects Chip Supply To Remain Tight In Coming Months

    Volkswagen Expects Chip Supply To Remain Tight In Coming Months

    Volkswagen expects semiconductor supplies to the car sector to remain tight in coming months, the head of the carmaker’s namesake brand was quoted as saying on Saturday.

    “I think the situation will remain tense,” Ralf Brandstaetter, CEO of the Volkswagen brand and member of the carmaker’s management board, told German news agency dpa.

    He said a fire at a factory operated by automotive chip maker Renesas Electronics Corp, as well as snowstorms in Texas that have hurt factory production, had effectively idled output.

    “The impact will certainly be felt in the coming months,” Brandstaetter said, adding Volkswagen’s procurement task force was busy around the clock dealing with the issue which remained at the top of the agenda of Volkswagen’s management board.

    Volkswagen AG has been unable to build 100,000 cars due to the shortage, CEO Herbert Diess said in March, adding the group would not be able to make up for the shortfall in 2021.

    Brandstaetter said the situation was expected to ease somewhat in the second half of the year.

    Wayne Griffiths, president of Volkswagen’s Spanish brand SEAT, said last month the challenges caused by the shortage were likely to intensify in the second quarter.

  • Intel To Invest $600 Million To Expand Chip, Mobileye R&D In Israel

    Intel To Invest $600 Million To Expand Chip, Mobileye R&D In Israel

    Intel Corp said on Sunday it will invest another $600 million in Israel to expand its research and development (R&D) and confirmed it was spending $10 billion on a new chip plant. The announcement was made during a one-day visit to Israel by Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger as part of a European tour that included Germany and Belgium last week. Intel is investing $400 million to turn its Mobileye unit headquartered in Jerusalem into an R&D campus for developing self-driving car technologies. Another $200 million will be invested in building an R&D centre, called IDC12, in the northern port city of Haifa next to its current development centre.

    Intel said the “mega chip design” facility will have a capacity of 6,000 employees. Gelsinger, on his first European tour since taking charge of the company in February, in a statement issued on Sunday predicted: “a vibrant future for Intel and Israel for decades to come”.

    In recent years, Intel has bought three Israeli tech companies – Mobileye in 2017 for more than $15 billion, artificial intelligence chipmaker Habana in 2019 for $2 billion, and Moovit a year ago for $1 billion. During his brief visit, Gelsinger met with Intel and Mobileye management and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s Finance Ministry in early 2019 said Intel would get a $1 billion grant to build an $11 billion chip plant, although at the time Intel would not confirm the amount.

    On Sunday, Intel said the investment would be $10 billion and the first phase of construction has begun. Its current Fab 28 plant at the company’s Kiryat Gat site produces 10 nanometres (nm) chips. Intel has not disclosed whether the new plant will produce smaller chips, which can increase efficiency, but in March it said it was building two 7 nm chip plants in Arizona for some $20 billion.

    Intel Israel’s exports grew to a record $8 billion in 2020 from $6.6 billion in 2019, accounting for 14% of total high-tech exports and 2% of Israel’s GDP. Intel is the largest employer of Israel’s high-tech industry with nearly 14,000 workers.

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  • Volkswagen’s CEO To Step Aside At Skoda

    Volkswagen’s CEO To Step Aside At Skoda

    Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess is stepping down as head of the supervisory boards at subsidiaries Seat and Skoda to focus on building up a stronger software-development team, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

    Volkswagen declined to comment.

    Handelsblatt had reported the news earlier.

    At Seat, Diess would be succeeded by current technology head Thomas Schmall and at Skoda by Murat Aksel, head of procurement on the Volkswagen board, the source added.

    Volkswagen has been heavily focused on regaining lost ground in the fast-growing field of software-heavy electric cars, where United States and Chinese manufacturers are seen as having a lead.

  • Triumph Motorcycles India Increases Prices Of Select Models

    Triumph Motorcycles India Increases Prices Of Select Models

    Triumph Motorcycles India has increased the prices of the Street Triple R and the Rocket 3 range in India by up to ₹ 1.05 lakh. The Street Triple R is now priced at ₹ 9.15 lakh, the Rocket 3 R is now priced at ₹ 19.35 lakh and the Rocket 3 GT is priced at ₹ 19.95 lakh. All prices are ex-showroom. In the last few months, Triumph has had multiple launches in India such as the Trident 660, Triumph Tiger 850 Sport, the updated Bonneville range and the updated Street Twin. Additionally, the company’s upcoming launches are the 2021 Street Scrambler and the Scrambler 1200 range

    The Triumph Street Triple R gets a price hike of ₹ 31,000 while the Rocket 3 R gets a significant price hike of ₹ 85,000. The Rocket 3 GT gets the biggest price hike of ₹ 1.05 lakh, on its previous ex-showroom, price. The Triumph Tiger 900 range is likely to get a price increment as well. The Street Triple R gets the same 765 cc in-line 3-cylinder engine as the Street Triple RS, but the power and torque outputs are slightly different. The R makes 116 bhp at 12,000 rpm and 77 Nm of peak torque at 9,400 rpm while the RS makes 121 bhp and 79 Nm of peak torque. The steering geometry is slightly different of the Street Triple R, which gets a different rake and trail.

    The Rocket 3 and the Rocket 3 R get the 2,500 cc in-line triple-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine, which is actually the biggest two-wheeler production engine in the world. It makes a massive 165 bhp at 6,000 rpm and 221 Nm of peak torque at 4,000 rpm. The torque output is also the highest of any production motorcycle in the world.

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  • Ford To Decide On India Investment Plan In Second Half Of 2021

    Ford To Decide On India Investment Plan In Second Half Of 2021

    Ford Motor Co expects to firm up capital allocation plans for India in the second half of 2021, a senior executive said in an email to staff, as the automaker overhauls its strategy in a loss-making market. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford has tasked senior executive Steven Armstrong with evaluating investment plans for India in his new role as transformation officer, South America, and India, the automaker said in a separate statement this week.

    “We have a lot of work to do as we continue to assess our capital allocations in the market,” Dianne Craig, president of Ford’s International Markets Group (IMG), said in an email to staff on Wednesday, referring to India.

    “While we expect to have an answer in the second half of this year, the appointment of Steven…will help focus our efforts and speed up the process,” she said.

    IMG includes India, where the company employs more than 16,000, and 100 other markets.

    Ford India head Anurag Mehrotra will report to Armstrong, who previously headed the Changan Ford joint venture in China and will take on his new role from May 1, the company said.

    Confirming that the company expects to reach a capital allocation decision in the second half of the year, a Ford India spokesman said that the country is an important market and a source of global powertrains for its Ranger SUV.

    Ford has said previously it will allocate capital consistent with its plan to generate consistently strong cash flows and achieve an 8% company adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) margin.

    The automaker beat Wall Street’s first-quarter profit estimate late on Wednesday, telling investors all its markets under IMG were profitable except for India.

    CEO Jim Farley, who is overseeing an $11 billion global restructuring of Ford, wants to boost profits in India but the country is a lower priority than some other markets, sources said previously.

    Ford is not the first western automaker to struggle to win over India’s frugal buyers and turn a profit in a market dominated by Suzuki Motor Corp’s and Hyundai Motor’s extensive line-up of mainly low-cost cars.

    General Motors exited the domestic market in 2017 after 20 years, while Harley-Davidson Inc packed up last year after a decade of unsuccessful efforts to gain a foothold.

    Ford entered India 25 years ago but has a less than 2% share of the passenger vehicles market in the world’s second most populous nation, where car penetration is lower than in the U.S. and China.

    A tie-up with domestic automaker Mahindra & Mahindra, now called off, would have ended most of Ford’s independent operations in India but allowed it to launch new vehicles faster, at a reduced cost, and with lower investment.

    The two companies planned to develop at least three new SUVs and share powertrains.

    Ford will now need to pick vehicles from its global portfolio to sell in India, or develop new ones, a source said.

    The joint venture would have also helped Ford tackle low plant utilization in the country, which remains one of its biggest problems, the person added.

    Two years ago Ford used only around 60% of its total annual production capacity of 440,000 units across two Indian plants, with the pandemic reducing it to as little as 20% last fiscal year.

  • Elon Musk Says Next Self Driving Beta Update Will Blow Minds

    Elon Musk Says Next Self Driving Beta Update Will Blow Minds

    Elon Musk is well known for his hyperbole, especially when it comes down to Tesla and its AutoPilot technology. For the last couple of months, Tesla has been beta testing a fully self-driving feature that is available to just a few 1,000 customers as a part of its early access program. Now, the world’s second-richest man says, an incoming update to the full self-driving beta will “blow your mind”. Musk in his typical style dropped nuggets of information while replying to tweets. He said the update will come in two weeks and he said the safety would also be higher with pure vision.

    “Gating factor in achieving & proving higher safety with pure vision than with vision+radar. We are almost there. FSD Beta V9.0 will blow your mind,” Musk tweeted to a Twitter handle called @teslaownersSV.

    To another user, he even said that the feature was also coming to the Canadian market in a couple of months. He cited the delay due to the differences in driving conditions between the US and Canada.

    The incoming update called version 9 will remove reliance on radars and instead will be fully dependent on cameras that are installed in the cars. Musk for the longest time has been against radars and LiDARs stating that they are too expensive and not required.

    Tesla has been often criticised for its AutoPilot technology as experts believe that it is not fully self-driving tech. For this Tesla has also developed its chipset based on the ARM architecture and trained algorithms on the DOJO supercomputer. Musk is optimistic that he has the holy grail of self-driving, but he often overestimates things especially when commenting on Twitter.

    Recently, Tesla has also been in the news for all the wrong reasons as a Model S crashed with two fatalities while it was on AutoPilot.

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  • Uber App In U.S. To Enable Users To Book COVID-19 Vaccines And Rental cars

    Uber App In U.S. To Enable Users To Book COVID-19 Vaccines And Rental cars

    Uber Technologies Inc said on Wednesday it was launching new features in its app to allow U.S. customers to book COVID-19 vaccine appointments and reserve rental cars. Customers would be able book an appointment at a Walgreens pharmacy to receive a vaccine and an Uber ride to travel there, the company said in a product presentation.

    The feature, which expands an Uber and Walgreens partnership announced in February, reflects the wider availability of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, where every state has opened up vaccinations to all adults.

    For Uber, more vaccinations mean a quicker return to pre-pandemic travel and higher revenue, which has tumbled during the health crisis. Business has already begun to improve with March the best month since the pandemic’s full force was felt.

    Sundeep Jain, Uber’s chief product officer, said the company was “evaluating opportunities” to expand the vaccine program to other countries.

    The company also announced partnerships with Avis Budget Group Inc, Hertz and other vehicle rental agencies.

    From Wednesday, U.S. customers can book rental cars through the Uber app, with Uber offering up to 10% of the rental cost as a credit to the user to spend on other Uber services.

    In May, users in Washington D.C. can have their rental car delivered to and collected from their home, after paying a fee to Uber, which will rollout the service nationwide this year.

    Jain said users will be able to handle most rental car paperwork digitally, but declined to comment on the financial details of the partnerships.

    Uber’s smaller rival Lyft Inc already offers car rentals in partnership with Sixt SE.

    Uber also said it would expand an option to reserve rides in advance to more U.S. and European cities and allow customers to book and collect food delivery orders during a ride-hail trip.

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