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Tag: car

  • Lexus Sets Up Its Brand Experience Centre In Coimbatore

    Lexus Sets Up Its Brand Experience Centre In Coimbatore

    Lexus India opened its one-of-a-kind, Meraki-inspired brand experience centre in Coimbatore. The company says the design of the new experience centre takes inspiration from the city’s trade legacy, which is an amalgamation of its textile industry and a long-lived passion for motorsport combined with the Japanese spirit of precision, perfection, and subtle luxury. The new experience centre features several design elements inspired by Lexus cars such as the distinctive spindle design among others.

    Naveen Soni, President – Lexus India said, “We have always believed in establishing stronger ties with our guests, and we are delighted to announce the inauguration of our new brand space in Coimbatore, just a few months after the introduction of our brand space in Gurugram. With the opening of numerous facilities across the country, this innovative concept gets us one step closer to welcoming many more of our guests on a journey of luxury, uniqueness, and amazing experiences with Lexus.”

    The pièce-de-résistance is the mural in the Zen court that represents a deconstructed portrayal of the famous bull race tradition of southern India with specially designed carts, drawing parallels to the Lexus engine that is energy efficient and has a low carbon footprint while enhancing the rider’s excitement and experience. In line with the brand’s ethos of creating a better tomorrow through sustainable design, the use of “soot” powdered in the cast in-situ concrete floor and the Zen court wall add to energy efficient, sustainable, and eco-friendly structure. This also contributes to reduced carbon footprint in a small way.

    The Lexus Meraki – Coimbatore joins the current network of Lexus Brand Spaces in Gurugram and the Lexus Guest Experience Centres in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Chennai, and an upcoming one in Kochi, along with the Lexus virtual guest experience centre that will soon be hosted on the Lexus India website bringing the Lexus brand and its offering closer to the discerning luxury consumer located across India. With the opening of the Lexus Meraki in Coimbatore, Lexus India establishes its footprint in 13 cities with 15 guest touchpoints across India.

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  • November auto sales dip after four months of growth

    November auto sales dip after four months of growth

    November auto sales posted a decline from October after four consecutive months of growth, but sales for the year so far still achieved double-digit growth.

    It was reported that 36,371 units were sold among members of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) last month, down 0.51% from the previous month.

    In the first 11 months, sales climbed 43% year-on-year to 369,334 units.

    Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco) led with 123,140 units sold, up 38% year-on-year.

    The company was followed by Toyota, with 81,491 units, and Mitsubishi, 36,805 units.

    Honda and Ford rounded off the top five.

    Last month automaker VinFast shipped its first batch of 999 electric cars to the U.S.

    The company expects to sell 750,000 electric vehicles annually by 2026.

  • Tesla Launches EVs In Thailand Amid Competition From Cheaper Brands

    Tesla Inc launched two electric vehicle (EV) models in Thailand on Wednesday, marking its first foray into the regional autos hub that has long been dominated by Japanese manufacturers.

    The launch of two EVs with prices ranging between 1.7 million baht to 2.5 million baht (($48,447 to $71,205) comes as Thailand makes a push for EV adoption and production by offering tax cuts and subsidies.

    The U.S. automaker plans to start selling its EVs in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy via online channels, with deliveries set to start early next year. But it faces stiff competition from Chinese brands like BYD and Great Wall Motors, which have set up showrooms and distribution partners in recent years to reach customers and offer EVs with prices starting at 800,000 baht.

    Tesla did not provide details on sales targets.

    Thailand is Asia’s fourth-largest auto assembly and export hub for companies like Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co Ltd. It produces about 1.5 million to 2 million vehicles annually, of which about half are exported.

    Fuel-based vehicles, especially made by Japanese brands, still dominate the market and uptake of EVs has gradually gained momentum, with about 7,000 new battery EVs registered in the first ten months of 2022, according to the Thailand Automotive Institute, up from 2,000 last year.

    Customers who showed up to Tesla’s launch in a luxury mall in central Bangkok said they were interested in the new cars being offered.

    “I’m excited. The price differences aren’t significant (from other EV brands),” said office worker Thitipun Paisirikul, 36, adding he expected the re-sale value of the car would be high.

    The government wants at least 30% of vehicles produced in the country to be electric by 2030.

    State-owned energy firm PTT Group this year announced a $1 billion joint venture with Taiwan’s Foxconn to produce EVs in Thailand.

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  • Volvo Cars India To Expand Benguluru-Based Digital Technology Hub

    Volvo Cars India To Expand Benguluru-Based Digital Technology Hub

    Volvo Cars India is set to expand its Bengaluru-based Digital Technology Hub in the coming months. The company’s India Tech Hub recently moved to a larger office space in Bengaluru. The company plans to hire new employees from the India IT sector to employ 240 people by the end of 2023.

    “Volvo recognizes the vast pool of talent in the country and our Digital Technology Hub leverages the best available, we expect this to be 240 strong in a year’s time. While this hub strengthens our presence in India with the opening of new office space in Bengaluru, it will also contribute to the ever-growing digital needs of Volvo globally more so as Volvo readies itself to showcase and launch cars of the future that have digital technology as their integral part” said Jonas Olsson, Head, Digital Technology Hub.

    Volvo says the Digital Technology Hub is an integrated part of its global delivery setup and aims to leverage the Indian IT industry talent to meet the growing digital needs of the company.

    “The Digital Hub is designed to promote a flexible style of working while encouraging collaboration & innovation.  It can host up to 500 colleagues working in a hybrid work model,” Volvo says.

    The Bengaluru hub will boost the company’s capabilities in software engineering, data science and analytics, product management and user experience. Volvo says that future models from the company will also benefit from the developments from the hub.

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  • Vietnam’s EV maker Vinfast files for US IPO to fuel global expansio

    Vietnam’s EV maker Vinfast files for US IPO to fuel global expansio

    Vietnam’s electric-vehicle maker VinFast said on Tuesday it has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States to list on the Nasdaq under ticker symbol “VFS” to fund its expansion with a planned plant in North Carolina.

    VinFast, which began operations in 2019, is gearing up to expand in the U.S. market, where it hopes to compete with legacy automakers and startups with its two all-electric SUVs, the VF8 and VF9, including battery leasing to reduce the purchase price.

    For the IPO, the company said it will convert to a Singapore public limited company and will be known as VinFast Auto Ltd, while the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.

    Tuesday’s filing follows VinFast’s confidential submission to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April, a month after it said it would build a production plant in North Carolina with an initial projected capacity of 150,000 EVs a year.

    A unit of Vietnam’s biggest conglomerate Vingroup, VinFast first flagged its U.S. IPO in April last year, eyeing to raise $2 billion with valuation of about $60 billion.

    The market valuation for EV startups has drastically cooled for the past year after some companies with sky-high valuation face scrutiny, together with the current gloomy global economy.

    “Valuation or the size of our IPO will be subject, in part, to market conditions,” VinFast Chief Executive Le Thi Thu Thuy said in a separate statement released on Wednesday.

    “VinFast will continue to monitor opportunities for future fundraises, as the market becomes more familiar with the VinFast brand and story,” she said.

    The company had said IPO was just one of the options to raise fund. In July it tapped banks to raise at least $4 billion to fuel its aggressive expansion.

    No time frame was specified for the offering on Tuesday although the company had said it aimed for an IPO in the fourth quarter of this year.

    But in May, its parent company Vingroup warned the IPO may be delayed to 2023 due to market uncertainty.

    “VinFast intends to conduct an IPO after the SEC declares the registration statement effective, market conditions permitting,” Thuy said on Wednesday, noting the company’s primary objective was to successfully list VinFast on a U.S. stock exchange.

    The EV maker in late November shipped its first batch of 999 vehicles to the United States, capping a five-year bid to develop an auto production hub in Vietnam for markets in North America and Europe.

    VinFast has said it has almost 65,000 orders globally in total and expects to sell 750,000 EVs annually by 2026.

  • Tata Motors Take A Dig At Mahindra As Nexon EV Crosses 35,000 Unit Sales

    Tata Motors Take A Dig At Mahindra As Nexon EV Crosses 35,000 Unit Sales

    Tata Motors recently announced that its popular Nexon EV has crossed the 35,000 unit sales mark. Tata Motors posted the achievement on its social media channels, while also taking a dig at the upcoming Mahindra XUV400. Tata Motors posted an image that read 35,000 is greater than OO, where the OO was written in the same font that Mahindra uses for the XUV400.

    The soon-to-be-launched Mahindra XUV400 one-ups the Nexon EV in almost all the fields, except on the feature front. Its longer, and has better specs than the Nexon EV, but it is not as feature packed as the Nexon EV.

    The Nexon EV has been the bestseller EV in India for a while, Mahindra aims to dethrone the SUV once the XUV400 is launched early next year.

  • Mercedes recalls nearly 1,000 vehicles in Vietnam over fire risk

    Mercedes recalls nearly 1,000 vehicles in Vietnam over fire risk

    Mercedes is recalling 966 cars in Vietnam due to fire risks related to electrical short circuits in the trunk control modules and faulty trim bars on rear doors.

    The recall covers three models – C300, GLE and GLS imported via official channels in Vietnam. Of these, 126 recalled Mercedes C300 cars were made between May 2021 and May 2022.

    The remaining 840 units – GLE 450 4Matic, GLS 450 4Matic, GLS Maybach 480 4Matic and GLS Maybach 600 4Matic – were made between July 2019 and January 2022.

    With the C300 model (W206 generation), there is a risk of rain water ingress at the rear trunk. Moisture can thus seep into the signal acquisition and actuation module (SAM module) inside the trunk, the carmaker said.

    In this case, short circuits may occur in the control modules and fire risks cannot be completely eliminated. In addition, short circuiting can lead to various other problems, for instance, damage to the taillights. The company has recalled vehicles to fit a waterproof cover over the module that receives the signal and activates it to prevent problems.

    The GLE and GLS models are being recalled to repair the trim bar in the triangular window (rear door) because they may not meet specifications due to deviations in the assembly process. As a result, the decorative bars may detach from the vehicle while it is in motion, potentially causing accidents or injuries to other road users.

    The recall of the above models is being carried out at Mercedes Vietnam’s authorized dealers system nationwide and repairs are done free of charge. Fixing the error on the C300 takes about 60 minutes and procedures for the remaining lines about half that time. The recall program will run from November 10, 2022 to December 31, 2027.

    Mercedes Vietnam has said that it will also provide free error correction support for C300, GLE and GLS models not imported via official channels that are on the global recall list of Mercedes AG.

  • Tesla Reports Two New Fatal Crashes Involving Driver Assistance Systems

    Tesla Reports Two New Fatal Crashes Involving Driver Assistance Systems

    Tesla told U.S. auto safety regulators it has reports of two new crash fatalities in Model 3 cars tied to advanced driver assistance systems in the month ending October 15, data released Tuesday by the government shows.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in June began releasing data provided by automakers on reports of crashes tied to driver assistance systems like Tesla’s Autopilot.

    “NHTSA has reviewed these crashes and is conducting appropriate follow-up. NHTSA uses many data sources in its enforcement processes,” the agency said Tuesday.    NHTSA issued an order in June 2021 requiring automakers and tech companies to immediately report all crashes involving advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and vehicles equipped with automated driving systems tested on public roads. The safety regulator said Tuesday it uses data submitted by automakers under its 2021 order as part of its investigations.

    Nearly all of the 18 fatal crashes reported since July 2021 that had to do with driver assistance systems involved Tesla vehicles.

    The agency has emphasized crashes are tracked by individual automakers in different ways and discouraged comparisons of performance among automakers partly due to lack of comprehensive metrics to track how widely each system is used or how crashes are reported.

    Separately, since 2016, NHTSA has opened 38 special investigations of crashes involving Tesla vehicles where advanced driver assistance systems such as Autopilot were suspected of being used. Overall, 19 crash deaths have been reported in those Tesla-related investigations.

    Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

    It has said Autopilot allows vehicles to brake and steer automatically within their lanes but does not make them capable of driving themselves.    In June, NHTSA upgraded its defect investigation into 830,000 Tesla vehicles with Autopilot, a required step before it could seek a recall.

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  • Hyundai inaugurates 100,000-car plant in Vietnam

    Hyundai inaugurates 100,000-car plant in Vietnam

    Hyundai Motor has inaugurated its second plant in Vietnam with a capacity of 100,000 automobiles per year.

    Covering an area of over 50 hectares in the northern Ninh Binh Province, the new plant will turn out eco-friendly and fuel-saving vehicles, said Thanh Cong chairman Nguyen Anh Tuan.

    Hyundai entered the Vietnamese market in 2009 through a joint venture with local conglomerate Thanh Cong Group. It imports parts for local assembly in what are known as knock-down kits.

    The plant will increase Hyundai’s Vietnamese production capacity to 170,000 vehicles a year when it becomes fully operational, likely in 2025.

    The South Korean automaker has invested nearly VND12.3 trillion (roughly $496 million) in Ninh Binh province.

    In the first 10 months, 397,457 cars were sold and auto sales could exceed 400,000 for the first time in eight years, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

  • Slovakia’s Inobat Eyes Electric Vehicle Battery Plant In Serbia

    Slovakia’s Inobat Eyes Electric Vehicle Battery Plant In Serbia

    Slovakian battery maker InoBat said on Monday it has signed declarations of intent with the Serbian government to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery factory in the Balkan country with a capacity of up to 32 gigawatt hours (GWh).

    The plant would open with an initial capacity of 4 GWh in 2025.

    The Serbian government has agreed to provide funding of up to 419 million euros ($431 million) including grants and tax incentives to support the project, InoBat said.

    Although the agreement is not final, a source familiar with the matter said it is close to being so.

    InoBat has said it wants to build a gigafactory in western Europe and one in eastern Europe.

    Last month InoBat said it had signed a declaration of intent with Spain’s government to build a gigafactory in Valladolid. The declaration is not a finalised agreement and other locations, including the United Kingdom, remain under consideration for InoBat’s western European factory.

    Some European battery startups have struggled to raise billions for huge gigafactories, while others like InoBat are focused on expanding slowly as they land customers contracts.

    InoBat will open a 45 megawatt-hour (MWh) pilot line in Bratislava early next year to produce high-performance batteries for customers to test and says it has signed customer agreements, including with German air taxi developer Lilium worth 500 million euros by 2030.

    The company aims to build battery production capacity in 4 GWh increments starting in 2025 – costing around 350 million euros each – as contracts are signed.

    InoBat also plans a research & development facility in Indiana, which could expand into a gigafactory, in a joint venture with fintech company Ideanomics.

    Ideanomics is an investor in InoBat, as is mining group Rio Tinto.

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  • Indonesia To Set Up $2 Billion EV Fund With China’s CATL, CMB International

    Indonesia To Set Up $2 Billion EV Fund With China’s CATL, CMB International

    The Indonesia Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is to set up a green electric vehicle (EV) fund of at least $2 billion with China’s battery maker CATL and CMB International, the fund’s CEO said on Monday.

    The announcement was made in a live-streamed business conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

    INA CEO Ridha Wirakusumah then signed an agreement for the partnership with company executives from CATL and CMB International.

    The fund will invest in the EV value chain to capture a market that is expected to grow fast globally, driven by countries’ pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Ridha said.

    “With CATL and CMB International as the main partners, we are looking for limited partners to invest in the green EV fund, to seize this EV value chain opportunity primarily in Indonesia,” Ridha said.

    Indonesia’s own EV market is on track to grow, with 2.1 million electric motorcycle and 400,000 electric cars expected to be sold by 2025, Ridha said.

    Indonesia is keen to develop its own EV and battery industries at home, after banning exports of nickel ore to ensure supply for investors since 2020.

    Earlier this year, CATL announced a $6 billion power battery project in Indonesia, in partnership with Indonesian companies.

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  • Elon Musk Says ‘I Have Too Much Work On My Plate’

    Elon Musk Says ‘I Have Too Much Work On My Plate’

    Billionaire Elon Musk said on Monday he was working “at the absolute most amount…from morning til night, seven days a week” when asked about his recent acquisition of Twitter and his leadership of automaker Tesla Inc.

    “I have too much work on my plate that is for sure,” Musk said by videolink to a business conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali.

    Musk is chief executive of both companies and also runs rocket firm SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunneling firm the Boring Company. Wearing a batik shirt sent by the organizers, he appeared on screen lit by candles, explaining that he was speaking from a place that had just lost power.

    Tesla investors worry that Musk, a self-confessed “nanomanager” who has been personally involved in working-level decisions from car styling to supply chain issues, is distracted at a critical time for the world’s largest electric vehicle maker.

    Tesla’s shares have halved in value since early April, when he disclosed he had taken a stake in Twitter. His Tesla share sales, including another $4 billion last week to bring his Twitter-related sales to $20 billion, have added to the pressure.

    When asked about the complexity of industrial supply chains “decoupling” from China and the risks from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Musk returned to how busy he was.

    Responding to an observation that many business leaders in Asia wanted to be the “Elon Musk of the East,” Musk said: “I’d be careful what you wish for. I’m not sure how many people would actually like to be me. They would like to be what they imagine being me, which is not the same thing as actually being me. The amount that I torture myself is next level, frankly.”

    Musk also said he wanted to see Twitter support more video and longer-form video so that content creators could make a living on the platform, but did not provide details. His remarks were streamed live on Alphabet Inc’s YouTube.

    Indonesia has been trying to secure a deal with Tesla on battery investment and potentially one for SpaceX to develop a rocket launch site.

    Musk made no commitment to either of those but said Indonesia had a large role to play in the electric vehicle supply chain and that it would make sense “long term” for SpaceX to have multiple launch points around the globe.

    It was not clear where Musk was during the Bali event. His personal jet has remained in Austin, Texas, Tesla’s headquarters since the weekend, according to @ElonJet, a Twitter account that tracks Musk’s Gulfstream G650.

    “I’m just looking at this video and it’s so bizarre,” Musk said. “I’m sitting here in the dark surrounded by candles.”

    Musk added he believed that the economy would make the transition to sustainable energy, adding it was “just a question of how long it takes.” He said space exploration should remain a priority “so we can understand the nature of the universe and our place in it.”

    “Maybe we’ll find alien civilization or discover civilizations that existed millions of years ago, but we see the ruins of ancient civilizations. I think that would be incredibly interesting,” he said.

  • Toyota’s Upcoming Hybrid Sedan Teased Ahead Of Global Debut

    Toyota’s Upcoming Hybrid Sedan Teased Ahead Of Global Debut

    Electrification has been one of the key focus areas for Toyota in the global markets. Earlier this year Toyota showcased its all-electric range and now it has released a teaser image of its upcoming hybrid sedan, which is likely to be the successor of the Prius hybrid. In fact, it’s most likely the same mysterious model that it teased alongside the bZ4x crossover. The model is expected to share its underpinnings and powertrain with the bZ3 sedan which is sold in China and will make its debut on November 16.

    The teasers were released on the company’s Japanese social media handles, however, the brand is refraining from sharing any further details as yet. In fact, the company hasn’t even revealed its name yet, while we expect it use the venerable Prius moniker for this hybrid model. Both teasers show “Hybrid Reborn” lettering while the tapering roofline silhouette will remind you of the Prius sedan. Moreover, the word “reborn” itself hints at Toyota going with the Prius name for this new model rather than coming up with a new branding

    The fourth-gen Prius has been around since 2015, and it’s high time for a generation update. The previously teased bZ had a similar profile, but that was a different car since bZ brand is reserved for pure electric models. Toyota had earlier said that the Prius will remain one of the front-runners in its electrified range and we expect the next-gen model to be a plug-in-hybrid, followed by a hydrogen fuel-cell iteration.

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  • Canoo To Build Battery Manufacturing Facility In Oklahoma

    Canoo To Build Battery Manufacturing Facility In Oklahoma

    Electric vehicle startup Canoo Inc said on Wednesday it would build a battery manufacturing facility at Pryor in Oklahoma with a capacity of 3,200 Megawatt hours production.

    The company’s Pryor facility will make proprietary battery modules, energy management system and thermal control technology, CEO and Chairman Tony Aquila said.

    Canoo added it will be the first electric vehicle company to produce battery modules using hydro-power from the Grand River Dam Authority.

    The company’s new battery manufacturing facility will be in the same industrial park as its future “MegaMicro” factory, Canoo said.

    Canoo last year announced Panasonic Holdings Corp, which also supplies battery cells to Tesla Inc, will be its provider for manufacturing battery packs.

    The EV startup, which is set to report third-quarter results on Nov. 9, had access to about $250 million in capital at the end of the second quarter.

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  • Tesla closes its first showroom in China in retail strategy shift

    Tesla closes its first showroom in China in retail strategy shift

    Electric vehicle giant Tesla has closed what had been its flagship showroom in China as the company adjusts its sales and service strategy in its second-largest market, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

    Tesla shut the showroom in Beijing’s Parkview Green, an upscale downtown shopping centre late last week, according to the people, who spoke on condition they not be named because they were not authorised to discuss the closure.

    A member of the mall’s staff confirmed to Reuters during a visit to the site on Wednesday that Tesla had shut the showroom, whose windows are now plastered with posters belonging to the next tenant, a streetwear brand.

    “Their contract with us expired and Tesla decided not to extend it,” the mall staff member said.

    A call to the store earlier in the day was redirected to another Tesla showroom nearby. Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

    The Beijing store, opened in 2013, was Tesla’s first in China. It was renovated in 2018 and expanded to occupy two floors of the mall.

    Tesla owns and runs over 200 outlets across the country that display models and arrange test drives for potential buyers.

    Reuters reported in September that Tesla was considering closing some showrooms in flashy malls in cities like Beijing after traffic plunged during Covid restrictions.

    It also plans to put more emphasis on stores in less-costly suburban locations that can also provide repairs as the company works to meet Chief Executive Elon Musk’s goal of improving service for customers.

    As part of that effort, Tesla has been hiring technicians and other staff for service jobs in China. The company’s China recruitment website showed 305 openings for service jobs as of Wednesday, little changed from September.

    More than half of Tesla’s China stores do not offer repair or maintenance services and are in high-rent locations where space is limited. That included the now-closed Parkview Green Tesla store.

    Tesla owns all of its own stores rather than relying on dealers. It also sells its cars online. That has allowed it more leeway to adjust a retail strategy that had been initially modeled on Apple’s glossy stores in high-rent locations.

    Tesla has cut starter prices for its Model 3 and Model Y cars by as much as 9 per cent in China, reversing a trend of price increases across the industry amid signs of softening demand in the world’s largest auto market.

    Tesla sold 318,151 vehicles in China in the first nine months of 2022, up 55 per cent from a year earlier, according the China Passenger Car Association. By comparison, overall sales of electric vehicles and hybrids increased 113.2 per cent.

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