Automobile
Tesla to setup its plant in Gujrat? State government offers 1,000 acres land in the state
With Elon Musk’s electric vehicle-making company Tesla gearing up to enter the Indian market, several states are competing to offer them lucrative deals to get the premium company to set up their base in that state. The latest to join that race is Gujarat, which has offered nearly 1,000 acres of land in Mundra on the Kutch coast to the premium company, The Indian Express reported. Other states that are vying to win the American company over are Maharashtra and Karnataka, all on India’s west coast.
Being coastal states, all three states offer Tesla an easy link to West Asian and African markets, but the company has made no announcement so far where it is going to base itself in India. However, the latest offer by the Gujarat government has come months after the carmaker set up its India office by registering the firm in Bengaluru.
Shortly after that, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said Tesla would set up an R&D unit in Karnataka. He later deleted the tweet. In February, Yediyurappa again said that Tesla would open a manufacturing unit in Karnataka.
“There is little or no social life in Gujarat, while it is not so in Bengaluru,” the official said.
P Anbalagan, the chief executive officer of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, told the daily that Tesla officials have had four rounds of negotiations with the state government; the last one around 8 months ago and since then there has been no further development there as well.
Tesla officials sought a big web of charging stations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and also near the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, the port where the cars would land following imports, he said.
Automobile
Improved version of Hyundai Creta launched in Indian market: Check it out here
Hyundai India launched the much-awaited Creta Knight Edition in the country at a starting price of Rs 13.51 lakh (ex-showroom, all-India). This new variant is available in both petrol and diesel engine options and can be had either with a manual or an automatic transmission unit. To read more about the Creta Knight Edition, click here. In addition to this, the company has also introduced a model-year update for the Hyundai Creta with new feature additions.
The 2022 Hyundai Creta is now available in a new Denim Blue colour option and the Highline TPMS is now standard across all variants. The SX (O) trim now also gets a glossy black centre console. Furthermore, the company will offer the iMT option on the 1.5-litre petrol ‘S’ variant to further expand choices for the customers. The new S+ variant powered by a 1.4-litre T-GDi petrol engine with 7DCT now gets an additional set of features, such as –
– Smart panoramic sunroof
– 16-inch black alloy wheels
– Smartphone wireless charger
– Rear Disc Brakes
– Electronic Stability Control (ESC)
– Vehicle Stability Management (VSM)
– Hill start assist control (HAC)
– Paddle shifters
– Metal pedals
– Electric and auto-folding ORVMs
– Power window auto up/down
Mechanically, the SUV continues to be powered by the existing petrol and diesel engine options.