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Shenzhen limits car sales

January 3, 2015

Shenzhen has finally joined China’s other cities – including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou – in restricting the number of new car sales, making it the eighth Chinese city to implement such rules in an effort to alleviate the cities’ polluted air and congested roads. Announced last week and effective immediately without prior public notice, drawing the ire of its residents, the new rule only allows 100,000 new license plates a year, and the fortunate ‘few’ will be determined through auctions and lotteries. Located in southern Guangdong, the city has about 3.1 million registered private cars but only 1.04 million parking spaces, according to the city’s transport commission.

India gets creative to stop honking on its streets

December 22, 2014

You would think that the non-stop honking in major cities across India – the culprits being the thousands of rickshaws, public buses, car and motorbikes that clog the roads – would now have faded into background along with the rumbling of engines and the occasional mooing of cows; you would think it was like the score of a movie – always there, but no longer noticed. Not so. Drivers use the horn as often as the accelerator pedal and perhaps more than the brakes. Honking is done so extensively that foreign car manufacturers, like Audi and Volkswagen, actually fit their vehicles intended for the Indian market with stronger, more durable horns.

Automakers rethink Russia as ruble slides

December 22, 2014

Foreign carmakers poured billions into Russia over the past decade, expecting the emerging market to overtake Germany as the region’s biggest car market. But with the 40% decline in the Russian ruble in just six months, their dreams have been dashed and they are shifting into damage control mode as selling cars in Russia under current conditions might actually cause them to lose money instead.

Audi, VW chase electric dreams

December 15, 2014

Riding on the end of Tesla’s tailwind, Audi plans to finally introduce its first all-electric production vehicle in 2017. In an interview with Bloomberg, the German marque’s CEO, Rupert Stadler, said that the company’s engineers are working on an electric car which will meet US zero-emission regulations. “It’s probably going to be a crossover, but development work is still ongoing,” he said.

Buemi’s first Formula E win

December 15, 2014

Sébastien Buemi claimed his first victory in the Formula E series in Punta del Este, Uruguay, after holding off a worthy challenge put up by Jean-Éric Vergne. Vergne had started on pole, but made contact with a barrier early in the race, damaged his suspension, lost the lead, and spent the rest of the race trying to make up for lost time.