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China’s search engine giant Baidu Inc said on Monday it will set up a company to partner with car maker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to make smart electric vehicles (EV), the latest move by a tech company in the fast-evolving sector. Baidu, which has been developing autonomous driving technology and Internet connectivity infrastructure, said the new EV company will count on Baidu’s intelligent driving capabilities and Geely’s car manufacturing expertise. Geely will also be a strategic investor in the new company, which will be an independent subsidiary of Baidu, Baidu said in the statement. Reuters reported Baidu’s plan to form a smart EV company with the help of Geely last week. Sources told Reuters Baidu would hold a majority stake and absolute voting power in the new firm and that Geely would have a minority stake. Geely said in a separate statement on Monday the collaboration will be based on Geely’s EV-focused platform, Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA). Baidu’s move comes

MG Motor India had received 80,000 cumulative bookings for the Hector SUVs, Gloster and ZS EV in 2020. According to a report from ETAuto, the British marquee is now ramping up the capacity for its SUVs to meet the rising demand. The Chinese carmaker managed to achieve these numbers despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic situation and disrupted supply chain. The Gloster flagship SUV has recorded around 3,500 bookings in less than three months since its launch in the Indian market. The report also mentioned that the carmaker manufactured around 30,000 to 31,000 vehicles in 2020 at its Halol plant. However, the facility is capable of producing 80,000 units annually. Last year, MG Motor sold 28,162 units compared to 15,930 units in 2019 recording a growth of 77 per cent. The growth was majorly driven by the Hector SUV contributing over 92 per cent growth at 25,935 units. Notably, the Hector was the only SUV in the segment to record 63 per cent growth when the overall space saw a d

Indian Railways has extended the time limit beyond six months and up to nine months from the date of the journey for cancellation of passenger reservation system (PRS) counter tickets and for claiming refund of fare across reservation counters. According to a statement released by the Railway Ministry, the time limit is extended for the tickets between the journey period – March 21, 2020 to July 31, 2020. The relaxation has been given for the submission of PRS counter tickets up to six months from the date of the journey. This relaxation is applicable only for the regular timetabled trains cancelled by Indian Railways. In case of those train tickets cancelled through 139 or through the official e-ticketing IRCTC website, the time limit for surrendering of such tickets for the above-mentioned journey period, across reservation counter, is upto nine months from the date of journey. After the lapse of six months from the date of the journey, many railway passengers may have deposited the

The country’s first regional rapid rail coming up in the national capital region (NCR), being implemented on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut route will have a modern and indigenous track, according to the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC). The 82 km long Delhi-Meerut rapid rail corridor, which aims to reduce the travel time between Delhi and Meerut to just 55 minutes, will consist of a unique and indigenous ballastless track, suitable for supporting a high design speed of 180 km per hour. RRTS has a design speed of 180 km per hour and an operational speed of 160 km per hour. According to NCRTC, so far, a ballastless track that is capable of supporting such high operational speed is not available across the country. The rapid rail’s ballastless tracks will reduce the life-cycle cost as it will support high-performance and will require low maintenance. This production and execution of indigenous track is also in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat p

Indian Railways freight loading in December 2020 registered an 8.56 per cent growth as compared to figures recorded in the same month of 2019. According to a statement released by the Railway Ministry, Indian Railways freight loading was 118.13 million tonnes last month, which is 8.54 per cent higher as compared to 108.84 million tonnes loaded in 2019 for the same month. Indian Railways authorities earned Rs 11788.11 crores from the freight loading which is also ₹ 757.74 crores, almost 6.87 per cent higher as compared to earnings in the same month of 2019, which was reported at ₹ 11030.37 crore. With these figures, Indian Railways freight loading for the month of December 2020 breached the loading figures and earnings registered during the same month in 2019. The total freight loading of 118.13 million tonnes registered last month, included 50.67 million tonnes of coal, 6.13 million tonnes of foodgrains, 15.31 million tonnes of iron ore, 4.3 million tonnes of mineral oil, 5.23 million

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd will focus on developing its core portfolio of sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) and their electric version, a senior executive said on Friday after the company ended joint venture talks with Ford Motor Co. Anish Shah, the deputy managing director, said Mahindra will focus mainly on large SUVs for its core India market in the short term and move to electric in the medium term, as it charts a new strategy for its automotive business. “We are going back to our core,” Shah, who will take over as managing director from April, told Reuters. “We are going to look ahead at how we can accelerate our investment in electric and really start moving to the new age. We clearly hold the ambition to be a global brand and there again the electric journey is an important one,” Shah said. Mahindra’s high-end electric vehicle Pininfarina Battista is a starting point, Shah said, adding that the automaker would look at developing more electric platforms in India to build SUVs for th

The country’s first high-speed bullet train project may get entirely commissioned for operations at once. Recently, Vinod Kumar Yadav, Chairman of Railway Board, while addressing media via video-conferencing said that Indian Railways is making efforts that the entire bullet train project is commissioned end-to-end, at once. He added that railway authorities want to commission the bullet train project together in both Gujarat and Maharashtra and have planned accordingly. Additionally, the Maharashtra government has assured to make more than 80 per cent of land available for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project in the next four months. The Railway Board Chairman stated that the authorities are also preparing if they can run the bullet train till Vapi (Gujarat) in the first phase if there is a delay in land acquisition in Maharashtra. Once operational, the 508-km long Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed bullet train will operate at speed of 320 km per hour, passing through Gujarat, Maharasht

Famed Apple watcher Ming Chi-Kuo of TF Securities has written a note to investors stating that the Apple Car may not come to life till 2027. Kuo who is world-renowned as one of the foremost analysts in the world focussed on Apple’s launches wrote the note in wake of a dubious report that stated that the Apple Car could come as soon as 2021. His report also comes at a time when Reuters has claimed that the Project Titan based vehicle could come by 2024 and will be based on a mono-cell battery architecture.  According to Kuo, the report by the DigiTimes which claims a 2021 launch is utterly false while even the Reuters report is highly optimistic as he believes that the launch will not happen before 2025.  He has told investors to not invest in Apple stock in a knee-jerk reaction to these reports. He cites that the lack of supplier or specification and uncertainty around Apple’s competitiveness for EV and self-driving vehicles could be a major pain point in an early launch. 

German luxury carmaker BMW is planning to step up its production of electric vehicles, Chief Executive Oliver Zipse told German daily Augsburger Allgemeine. “We are significantly increasing the number of electric vehicles. Between 2021 and 2023, we will build a quarter of a million more electric cars than originally planned,” Zipse told the newspaper’s Monday edition according to a pre-released version. BMW wants roughly every fifth car it sells to be powered by an electric engine by 2023, Zipse said, compared to about 8 per cent this year. The manager also reiterated his call to speed up the expansion of charging infrastructure.

The Central government has once again extended the validity of all vehicle-related documents in order to avoid crowding and the possible spread of COVID-19. All those driving licences, registration certificates, and permits which were set to expire may now be used till March 31, 2021, according to a directory issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to various State and Union Territory administrations.   “Taking into consideration the need to prevent the spread of Covid-19, it is further advised that the validity of all of the above referred documents may be treated to be valid till 31st March 2021. This covers all documents whose validity has expired since 1st Feb, 2020 or would expire by 31st March 2021,” the directory says. “This will help out citizens in availing transport related services, while maintaining social distancing,” it says.

A US regulator ruled on Wednesday that Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd’s new design for its Roxor off-road utility vehicle did not infringe the intellectual property rights of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ Jeep brand, six months after barring the sale of older models. The International Trade Commission (ITC) said the post-2020 Roxor model did not violate the “trade dress” of FCA’s Jeep Wrangler SUV, accepting an administrative law judge’s October recommendation that design changes made by Mahindra meant an earlier cease-and-desist order should not apply to newer models. “The ruling validates Mahindra’s redesign of the highly popular Roxor off-road vehicle,” Mahindra said in a statement. “Mahindra is now permitted to manufacture and distribute the redesigned 2021 Roxor.” “While FCA is disappointed with the commission’s decision regarding the redesign, we believe we will be successful in appealing this decision,” FCA said in a statement. Trade dress consists of the unique characteristics that m

Automakers in India are bracing for a parts shortage and possible production losses over the next three to four months due to a global shortage of available shipping containers said a trade body in the world’s fifth-biggest auto market. Shipping freight rates have surged since July and companies are now finding it “almost impossible to sustain normal trade operations”, said Rajesh Menon, director general at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). That is a cause for concern just as India’s auto industry has started showing signs of recovery after coronavirus lockdowns eased. SIAM represents major domestic companies such as Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors as well as global manufacturers including Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor which are major exporters. A global surge in demand for certain goods during the pandemic has upended normal trade flows, stranding empty cargo containers and leading to bottlenecks.

9 years ago when most people in India didn’t know who Elon Musk or Tesla were, there came a startup which wanted to kickstart the electric car trend in India – its name was Pravaig. But in the last 9 years, the company has been barely visible, that is up until now. Pravaig has shared a concept render of its upcoming vehicle called the Extinction MKII which will also have features that are relevant to the Indian audience.  One of the tentpoles of this new vehicle is a massive battery – 155 kWh which will deploy superb performance but more importantly good range for the mileage crazy Indian customer. Pravaig says this car will provide a range of 504 kilometres and will achieve 300 kilometres of charge in 30 minutes. That’s impressive! More so, it will be able to go from 0-100 kmph in just 5.4 seconds with a top speed of 196 kmph.  The most interesting thing about this vehicle is that it isn’t being pitched as something that the average consumer will be able to buy. It has been purpose-bu

The Mumbai-based commercial and passenger vehicle maker – Tata Motors will hike prices of commercial vehicles across categories starting January 2021, the Mumbai-based vehicle manufacturer said in a press release post market hours on Monday, i.e. December 21. The price increase has been undertaken by the company owing to steady rise in material and other input costs. Price hike by Tata Motors comes days after country’s leading auto manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra announced price hikes citing rise in input costs. However, the quantum of likely price hikes across categories of commercial vehicles was not indicated by Tata Motors. “The steady rise in material and other input costs, impact of forex and transition to BS6 norms, have cumulatively escalated the cost of manufacturing vehicles. The company had thus far been absorbing the addition in costs but with their steady rise in line with market trend, it has become imperative to pass at least some portion of

Volvo Cars will assemble electric motors at its powertrain plant in Skovde, Sweden, and plans to establish complete in-house e-motor production by 2025. It will invest 700 million SEK to this end in coming years. The company is committed to becoming a premium electric car company and aims for its global sales to consist of 50 per cent fully electric cars by 2025, with the rest being hybrids. Volvo Cars announced earlier this year that it is investing significantly in the in-house design and development of e-motors for the next generation of Volvo cars. With the planned investments in Skovde, it now takes the first steps towards in-house e-motor assembly and manufacturing. In a first stage, the Skovdefacility will assemble e-motors. At a later stage, the company intends to bring the full manufacturing process for e-motors in-house into a facility in Skovde.

Tata Motors has announced entering into a share purchase agreement with Marcopolo S.A. to buy the remaining 49 per cent shareholding in their Joint Venture (JV) Tata Marcopolo Motors Limited (TMML). The homegrown carmaker has said that it will procure the remaining shares for a cash consideration of ₹ 99.96 crore, post which, TMML will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors. The two companies entered this 51:49 JV in 2006 to form one of the largest bus and coach manufacturers globally, however, the Brazilian bus and coach manufacturer has now decided to exit from the JV. In its official statement, Tata Motors said, “All technologies pertaining to existing bus body products manufactured will continue to vest with TMML. In addition, as part of the transition, Marcopolo S.A. will continue to license the “Marcopolo” trademarks to TMML for a minimum of 3 years with a non-compete provision in India for a corresponding period. The transaction will not result in any impact on TMML’s

Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra’s South Korean unit Ssangyong Motor Co has defaulted on loan repayment of about 60 billion won ($55 million), the company said in a statement to the stock exchange on Tuesday. Of the total payment that was due on December 14, about 30 billion won was owed to Bank of America, 20 billion won to JP Morgan Chase and 10 billion won to BNP Paribas, Mahindra said. Shares of the automaker fell as much as 1.5 per cent on Tuesday to their lowest since November 23, while those of Ssangyong fell up to 7.72 per cent. Mahindra has since June been looking for a buyer for all or most of its 75 per cent stake in the South Korean sport-utility vehicle (SUV) maker, which it bought from near-insolvency in 2010 but has struggled to turnaround.

Indian ride-hailing firm Ola, backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group, said Monday it planned to invest ₹ 24 billion ($326 million) to set up a factory in Tamil Nadu to produce electric scooters. The plant will have an initial annual capacity to produce two million scooters and will create nearly 10,000 jobs, Ola said in a statement, as it gears up to launch electric scooters over the coming months. The Indian government has been pushing automakers to move to cleaner fuel technology, especially electric, in an effort to reduce its oil import bill and curb pollution in major cities. While carmakers have been slow to launch electric vehicles (EVs), mainly due to the expensive batteries and weak demand from buyers, sales of electric scooters and rickshaws have picked up pace and are leading India’s electrification drive. The country needs an investment of over $180 billion in vehicle production and charging infrastructure until 2030 to meet its EV ambition, according to the CEEW Centre for Energ

Tesla, the U.S. automaker, will send delegations to Indonesia next month to discuss potential investment in a supply chain for its electric vehicles, the government said on Saturday in a statement. President Joko Widodo has touted Indonesia’s nickel reserves on a number of occasions, telling Reuters last month that “it’s very important because we have a great plan to make Indonesia the biggest producer of lithium batteries and we have the biggest nickel (reserves).” The president and Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime and investment, were on a call with Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday to discuss “investment opportunities from electric vehicles company Tesla in Indonesia,” the ministry said. Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Luhut told Reuters last month that “there is a really good chance” that companies will want to invest in Indonesian nickel processing to cut costs.

Passenger vehicles in the domestic market rose 12.73 per cent to 2,85,367 units last month, industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Friday. Total sales across segments — including passenger and commercial vehicles — came in at 19,09,372 units in November, marking a growth of 11.02 per cent compared with the corresponding period a year ago. The latest data shows a rebound in the auto sector following months of weak demand on account of the coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions. The rise in sales was primarily on account of the festive season, SIAM said in a statement. Two-wheeler sales also increased, marking a growth of 13.43 per cent to 16,00,379 vehicles in November.