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Along with taking the wraps off the all-new Volvo XC40, the company also introduced a first of its kind subscription service for its cars. The idea is to allow Volvo customers to subscribe to cars like how you subscribe to magazines or other services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and so on and so forth. This means that once the subscription period is over, customers can either buy the car or switch to another car.

The Volvo XC40, the most affordable compact SUV from Volvo ever, will be launched in India in the first half of 2018. At least, that is what the company says. Upon launch, the XC40 will be going up against the premium compact SUVs such as Audi Q3, BMW X1 and the Mercedes-Benz GLA.

Chinese automakers have long been looking to enter India and now with the SAIC's Indian entry imminent, other manufacturers are looking to tap the market too. One of these automakers, Chery Cars has shown recent interest to launch their cars in India through a joint venture with Tata Motors. Why Tata? Well, Chery Automobiles already has a joint venture with the Tata Group, or in particular Jaguar Land Rover in China to sell JLR vehicles through a 50-50 partnership. The partnership, which was formed in 2012 helped Jaguar Land Rover to open their first assembly facility in China in October 2014 based out of Changshu.

Pininfarina will become an OEM or manufacturer in the near future when it launches its first product in a few months time. The Italian car design house and coachbuilder - known most famously for its decades-long association with Ferrari. The company was founded in 1930 and is well known for designing some of the iconic Ferrari road models in particular. And now it is making a play for turning from a designer or body specialist to being the builder of cars. The company will launch its range of cars - likely to be exclusively all-electric only models. These will be in the premium segments only, and will essentially be a Tesla rival. And the first car is already under development. India's Mahindra Group acquired Pininfarina in 2015, and its Chairman and Managing Director shared this with me - "We are hoping to build a really high-end, crowd-pleasing Pininfarina electric - that's in the works."

Volvo's newest SUV, the XC40 is finally set to make its global debut. Globally the new Volvo XC40 is expected to go on sale towards the end of this year or early 2018. India, however, is likely to get the XC40 only in late 2018.

While VW had discontinued the sales of the Passat in India last year, the new Passat aims to redefine luxury sedan segment in India by bringing back the brand.

Mitsubishi has teased a brand new concept which it plans to display at the end of next month at the Tokyo Motor Show. This will, in all probability, be the preview to an all-new flagship for the brand. It's called the e-Evolution and has been envisioned as a real performance car with an electric powertrain and four-wheel drive.

The four-door version of the Mercedes-AMG GT sedan will be previewed at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2018 before going on sale later in the year.