New Cars News

BMW India is all set to launch its flagship SUV, the X7 in India this year, and the carmaker has now listed the SUV on its official website. Expected to go on sale in India in the coming weeks, the BMW X7 made its global debut just a few months ago, in October 2018.

It's been over three years to the launch of the Maruti Suzuki Baleno and it was high time for a facelift considering the lifecycle of a model. The new Maruti Baleno facelift had been one of the worst-kept secrets and the latest spy pics have confirmed that a new 2019 Maruti Suzuki Baleno is in the making. The facelifted model has been spied without any camouflage and reveals the entire front profile of the 2019 Baleno. The front of the car is also the area where substantial changes will be made.

Tesla is afoot to expand its network of fast chargers (what Tesla calls superchargers) across the globe in a bid to keep up with the increasing demand. Tesla took Twitter to share that it has set-up 3100 fast chargers globally in 2018 and will continue expanding its reach in 2019. As of now, Tesla's network covers 99 per cent of the US population and 97 per cent of Europe's population. In a series of tweets, the company also informed that Tesla owner (or any electric car owner for that matter) can now drive from Miami to Vancouver; from Mexico City to Detroit and from Lisbon to Sorkjosen using Tesla's network of fast chargers.

Shell China, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell, said on Monday that its Zhejiang-based subsidiary Shell (Zhejiang) Petroleum Trading Ltd Co has received a license to trade refined oil products in China. The license will allow Shell to trade oil products in the wholesale market, according to a press release from Shell China, expanding its business beyond serving consumers at petrol stations.

Erik Prince, who founded the private security company Blackwater, is launching a fund to invest in metals used in electric vehicle batteries, he told the Financial Times. The fund aims to raise up to $500 million and will invest in deposits of metals such as cobalt, copper and lithium, largely in Africa and Asia, he told the newspaper.

Carmakers in India are still recovering from the hit which car sales took from several headwinds in 2018. Automakers have been witnessing sluggish demand for the last four months which is been due to factors like rising fuel prices, onetime payment of insurance premium and a rise in interest rates. India's largest carmaker- Maruti Suzuki has recorded a marginal volume growth of 1 per cent in December 2018 selling 119,804 units of passenger vehicles against 118,560 Units in the same month last year. The growth was largely sustained by the Utility Vehicle (UV) segment as the Vitara Brezza continued to perform well. New models- the recently launched 2018 Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and 2018 Ciaz too remained in Demand. However, the mini and compact car segment which together constitutes a huge chunk of volumes witnessed muted sales which in-turn had a significant impact on volumes.

The Mahindra XUV300 is undoubtedly the next hot SUV from the home-grown utility vehicle manufacturer. Slated to go on sale in India around mid-February, Mahindra, in its known fashion, has been revealing a bunch of details about the upcoming subcompact SUV.

Honda Cars India has announced their sales number for December 2018. The Japanese carmaker has registered a growth of 4 per cent selling 13,139 units of passenger vehicles in December 2018 against 12,642 units it sold in the same month last year. Honda has posted a cumulative growth of 3.7 per cent selling 134,797 units of passenger vehicles between April-December period in 2018 against 129,964 units it sold in the same period last year.