MotorBeam Daily News Roundup – 22nd January

Citroen – The French carmaker has launched their first “La Maison Citroën” showroom in Ahmedabad ahead of Citroen C5 Aircross SUV launch in Q1 2021. It is a 4000 sq ft showroom with a workshop. “La Maison Citroën” means “The Home of Citroën”. The carmaker will introduce more such showrooms across the country. It will commence its operations with 10 dealerships in India.

Renault – Ahead of the new Renault Kiger compact SUV launch, Renault India has added 40 new touch points to improve their presence in India. Now they have a total of 500 sales and 475 service centres in the country. In 2020, they added a total of 120 touch points. They are betting big on their latest product, the Renault Kiger. They expect the new compact SUV to bring in huge volumes with an aggressive price tag.

Tata – The Indian carmaker has announced a price hike of up to Rs. 26,000/- today, which depends on model to model. According to Tata Motors, rising input costs and material costs of steel, precious metals and semi-conductors have compelled the company to pass on a part of the cost to customers. Those who have booked their cars on or before 21st January are protected from this price hike.

Ford – The American carmaker has issued a massive recall of around 30 lakh vehicles globally over faulty airbags. The total cost of this recall is expected to be around 610 million US dollars. The airbag inflators in the affected cars could rupture and send metal fragments flying which could cause injury and could be potentially deadly as well. The affected models include Ranger, Fusion, Edge, Lincoln Zephyr / MKZ, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKX manufactured between 2006 and 2012.

Motor Trivia – Did you know, Tata Sumo was the first MUV from the Indian carmaker.

Comment of the day – Sriram Mithra – “We should really be proud of the fact that world’s largest 2 wheeler company is Indian.”