Another ‘S’ brand has fallen. Following last week’s announcement by Subaru to shutdown all local assembly operations in Southeast Asia, Suzuki has now confirmed that it will cease automobile manufacturing in Thailand. Suzuki Motor Thailand (SMT) said that it will shutdown its plant in Rayong by the end of 2025. SMT’s plant in Rayong produces the Swift, Ciaz, and Celerio. “Following the announcement of the eco-car project by the Thai government in 2007, Suzuki applied for the project and establis

Hans

Jun 7, 2024

Geely will be splitting its Galaxy line up electric vehicle (including plug-in hybrid) models into a separate brand. In China, Galaxy models will be sold via a separate dealer network. The brand will still carry the Geely name (Geely Galaxy), but with a different logo. The mid-range Galaxy brand will be positioned between the premium Zeekr and entry-level Geometry. According to the company’s Q1 business update to investors, Geely Galaxy will be launching seven models in the next three years – a

Hans

Jun 7, 2024

This week, Toyota Australia announced that it has dropped all petrol-only variants of its passenger cars as it will only offer hybrid models. It isn’t the end of fossil fuel models however as diesel models including its popular Hilux and GR performance models which are petrol-only will soldier on Down Under. Hence, 5 models including the Corolla sedan, Camry, Corolla Cross, RAV4, and Kluger will only be sold in Australia as hybrid with all petrol variants removed from the website. Toyota Austral

CY Foong

Jun 7, 2024

One in every three new cars sold in China is a battery EV (BEV). Apart from small outlier markets like Norway, China has the highest density of fully electric cars on the road. Given the rapid fire of BEV launches that China is shooting at the world, you would think that the internal combustion engine (ICE) will be dead before the end of this decade, at least in China. “ICE is dying,” or so we thought, because if the numbers coming out of China - the world’s capital of BEVs – is a reliable indic

Hans

Jun 7, 2024

To celebrate the remarkable success of its locally assembled (CKD) models, BMW Malaysia has launched special variants of the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe and the BMW X3. Dubbed the Final Edition, the CKD variants are priced (on-the-road, without insurance) and listed below: BMW 218i Gran Coupe Final Edition – RM 223,800 Add-On for BMW Service & Repair Inclusive* - RM 10,600 BMW X3 sDrive20i Final Edition – RM 311,800 Add-On for BMW Service & Repair Inclusive* - RM 26,700 BMW X3 xDrive30e Final Editio

CY Foong

Jun 7, 2024