News highlights of the day include Hyundai, Mahindra, MG Motor and Volkswagen.
New Mahindra XUV500 – Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra, has revealed that the next generation XUV500 will be launched in the first quarter of the next calendar year (2021) and thus the vehicle is expected to hit the showrooms between January – March 2021.
2020 Hyundai i20 Debut – Hyundai was all set to reveal the 2020 i20 at the Geneva Motor Show on 3rd March but the show has now been cancelled because the Swiss government isn’t allowing events with more than 1000 people in attendance, till 15th March. Hyundai will reveal the vehicle at a later date now. Hyundai also halted operations at its No. 2 Ulsan plant in Korea where an employee was diagnosed with Coronavirus and now the plant is being disinfected.
2020 Volkswagen Touareg R – Volkswagen has revealed the Touareg R which comes with a petrol-electric drivetrain. It gets a 3.0-litre V6 engine churning out 340 HP while the the electric motor makes 136 HP. The combined output is 462 HP and 700 Nm. The vehicle gets an E-Mode where it can be driven for up to 48 kms at speeds up to 140 km/hr on pure electric power.
MG ZS EV Sales – The MG ZS EV was launched in India at a price of Rs. 20.88 lakhs (ex-showroom) and the vehicle has garnered 3000 bookings till now, while 150 units have been sold yet. The vehicle seems to be getting good interest from buyers and the overall sentiment towards EVs is likely to improve even more once other manufacturers also start launching their EVs. It will be interesting to see the sales of the Tata Nexon EV.
Motor Trivia – There are more cars than people in Los Angeles.
Comment of the day – CRM – “Those awful pillion areas are becoming a norm.”
