Maruti Suzuki remains top seller in April

NEW DELHI, May 1: Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car maker, recorded sales of 137,151 units during April. The company had clocked sales of 146,203 units in March 2021.

Hyundai Motor India, the country’s second biggest carmaker, clocked sales of 49,002 units in the domestic market in April 2021. In March 2021 the company had sold 52,600 units.

Tata Motors, India’s third biggest carmaker, recorded sales of 25,095 during April 2021. In March 2021 Tata Motors had clocked 29,654 units in sales.

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), the SUV specialist, closed April 2021 with sales of 18,285 units. The company had sold 16,643 units during March 2021.

Korean car brand Kia Motors logged domestic sales of 16,111 in April 2021 while its March 2021 sales stood at 19,100 units.

Toyota Kirloskar Motors sold 9622 units domestically in April 2021. The company had sold 15,001 units in March 2021.

SAIC-owned MG Motor reported 2,565 units in sales during April 2021. The company witnessed sales of 5,528 units in March 2021.

Mercedes unveils electric compact SUV in bid to outdo Tesla

BONN, Jan 20: Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz on Wednesday unveiled the EQA, a new electric compact SUV as part of plans to take on rival Tesla Inc and offer more emission-free vehicles to consumers to meet targets in Europe and China.

The EQA, the first of several electric models Mercedes-Benz plans to launch this year, will initially have a range of 426 kilometres (265 miles), with a 500 km model coming later, the premium brand carmaker said in a video presentation.

The SUV will go on sale in Europe on Feb 4 at what board of management Britta Seeger described as "very attractive price points".

Electric vehicle (EV) sales took off in Europe last year as carmakers scrambled to meet European Union CO2 emissions targets. Sales received a boost from subsidies included in economic stimulus measures rolled out in France and Germany, in particular.

Sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid models rose 122% across the EU through the first three quarters of 2020.

Mercedes-Benz describes the EQA as an "urban entry model" and board member Seeger touted its "sustainability, versatility and fresh look".

Electric carmaker Tesla got a head start on traditional carmakers with their vast investments in fossil-fuel vehicles and has dominated global sales. The mass-market Tesla Model 3 is the world's best-selling EV, followed in distant second place by Renault's Zoe.

As well as emissions targets, carmakers face bans on fossil-fuel vehicles that come into effect as early as 2030 in some markets.

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Mercedes-Benz launches 2021 edition of SUV GLC at Rs 57.40 lakh onwards

NEW DELHI, Jan 20: German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz on Wednesday launched the 2021 edition of its popular SUV GLC in India with price starting at Rs 57.40 lakh (ex-showroom).

The 2021 GLC is available in GLC 200 petrol and GLC 220d diesel variants, priced at Rs 57.40 lakh and Rs 63.15 lakh (ex-showroom, India), Mercedes-Benz India said in a statement.

The newly launched vehicle features the latest connected car technology - 2021 'Mercedes me connect', integrating Alexa Home, Google Home and parking locations on navigation system and App.

It is also equipped with remote engine start allowing starting the car remotely for pre entry air-conditioning besides front seats with massage function, introduced for the first time in Mercedes-Benz India product line-up, the company added.

Commenting on the launch, Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and CEO Martin Schwenk said,'The GLC has remained a key pillar of our SUV offense and has been the single highest selling SUV in our portfolio last year. With the 2021 GLC, we now offer a technology superior, feature enriched fully loaded mid-size SUV, which has raised the benchmark for tech, comfort and convenience in the segment significantly.'

The company is confident that with the technology and feature enrichment, the GLC will continue its customer preference and extend its lead in the premium mid-size SUV segment, he added.

The GLC was the highest selling SUV in Mercedes-Benz India portfolio in 2020. The company sold more than 8,400 units of GLC till date since it was launched in India in 2016. It is assembled from imported completely knocked down units at the company's Chakan plant.

Elon Musk's Tesla opens India entity

BENGALURU/ NEW DELHI, Jan 12: Billionaire Elon Musk-led Tesla has registered a subsidiary company in India, as the Cupertino-headquartered electric vehicle (EV) maker eyes a slice of the largely untapped domestic sustainable automobile market.

According to a Registrar of Companies (RoC) filing, the new entity Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Limited is registered in Bengaluru, Karnataka and is classified as a subsidiary of a foreign company. It has also registered its office in Lavelle Road, a business district in the southern city, with paid-up capital of ₹1 lakh and an authorised capital of ₹15 lakh, according to the filing.

Tesla has named Vaibhav Taneja, Venkatrangam Sreeram and David Jon Feinstein as the three directors in the newly formed entity in the country.

“We have been interacting with Tesla for the last few months and it is happy news that they have decided to incorporate their company here. We have impressed upon them that Bengaluru is not only the technology capital but also the aerospace and space capital. For any kind of technology collaboration, it has the right kind of talent pool," Gaurav Gupta, principal secretary, commerce & industries of Karnataka said.

“How they want to enter and take it forward is left to their judgment. Hopefully, this will lead to sales office, research and further developments as necessary," he added.

The state government had earlier said that Tesla would open a research and development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru but that it had offered space for any other plans the company may have including a manufacturing plant.

Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said in late December that Tesla will begin its operations in India early this year, with sales and then venture into assembly and manufacturing of electric cars.

Tesla did not respond to an email seeking more information.

Tesla’s likely entry into India comes at a time when the union and state governments have been encouraging higher adoption of green vehicle technologies to help bring down the carbon footprint.

Mobility startups like Ola, Uber, Bounce and Vogo among others have made targets to include more EVs into their respective fleets. Ola, the Bengaluru-headquartered company has also forayed into manufacturing as it has set up a two-million two-wheeler EV plant in Tamil Nadu at a cost of ₹2400 crore.

Other big companies like Mahindra, Hero and Hyundai and startups like Ather are surging ahead with its respective plans to capture a higher share of India’s nascent EV market that accounts for less than 1% of the entire automobile market in the country.

Elon Musk, who recently became the wealthiest individual in the world overtaking Amazon Inc. founder Jeff Bezos, also enjoys a cult-figure like status in India as he does abroad which has added to the growing demand for Tesla and its products.

"Tesla is considered one of the most aspirational brands across the globe and the formation of its subsidiary is quite significant for India's economy and its nascent EV industry. This can be an inflection point for electric mobility in India and might convince many prospective customers to consider buying an EV in the future. Also, an investment from Tesla might convince other leading vehicle manufacturers and their component suppliers to invest in India for development of EV and related parts," said Puneet Gupta, director, IHS Markit, a data analytics firm.

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