From the Apex

New-car launches, buying guides and data-led analysis of the Indian car market, from the team behind the axler8 recommendation engine.

Every piece

• The Thar gets more power, six airbags and a new top trim. Mahindra kept the starting price where it was.
  Launch Mode · 2026-09-23 — A better Thar at the old price, a black Sierra and Stellantis buying out its Indian partner. Abroad, Volvo plans 13 new cars and McLaren retires most of its range.
• Kimi Antonelli can wrap up the 2026 title in three races. Or five, if Qatar and Abu Dhabi go ahead.
  Trackside · 2026-09-22 — Antonelli is 81 points clear with nine rounds to go. George Russell led after the first two races and has spent the twelve since defending second place.
• Kia has a Syros that can run on ethanol. India is still building the pumps.
  Launch Mode · 2026-09-18 — A concept, shown on 4 September with no price, date or power figures. E85 went on sale at 48 pumps in June, with 500 due by December.
• The Octavia RS is back for a second batch. The price took an extra lap.
  Launch Mode · 2026-09-17 — 50 cars at ₹56.69 lakh ex-showroom, ₹6.70 lakh more than last year's 100. Same 265 PS, same 6.4 seconds to 100 km/h.
• Audi has rebuilt the A2. A quirky, endearing shape that deserves to sell better than the original.
  Launch Mode · 2026-09-10 — Orders open today at €38,200. Audi calls it the most efficient car it has ever built. The last A2 made the same claim and lost money on every one it sold.
• The ES was always the pretty cousin. The new one has made the boring Camry the car to want.
  Axle to Grind · 2026-09-09 — The new ES 350h costs ₹66.10 lakh, hides its buttons and drops the reclining rear seat. The ₹48.69 lakh Camry, built on the same floor in Bidadi, kept all of it.
• New-gen Audi Q3 to launch with a bold new look. Enough to spoil BMW and Mercedes's party?
  Launch Mode · 2026-09-08 — Bookings open at ₹1 lakh, launch on 16 October. Audi India has confirmed a 2.0 petrol and quattro, and not much else.
• India's EV price ladder is also a battery ladder. In Indian heat, the cheaper chemistry is the better one.
  Blind Spot · 2026-09-07 — Iron phosphate below ₹40 lakh, nickel above it. Nickel buys range per kilo. Iron phosphate buys cycle life, heat tolerance and 37% off the pack. For a car that has to survive an Indian May, that is the better trade.
• Regular petrol is 95 octane now. The only thing premium has left to sell is less ethanol.
  Blind Spot · 2026-09-06 — Since April every pump in India has had to sell E20 at a minimum 95 RON. That deleted the octane argument for premium petrol overnight and left one honest reason to pay more, which in Delhi costs ₹65.23 a litre.
• Renault and Nissan are selling the same SUV for the third time. Third time lucky?
  Axle to Grind · 2026-09-05 — Duster and Terrano, then Captur and Kicks, now Duster and Tekton. Twice the Nissan twin died. This time Renault is keeping the hybrid, and the hybrid is the bit everybody wants.
• India's biggest EV quarter is about to happen, and the cars had nothing to do with it.
  Axle to Grind · 2026-09-05 — Delhi and Haryana have made road tax on electric cars disappear, and a scare at the petrol pump did the rest. Neither reason is a car.
• At the same ₹39 lakh, the Sorento is a fresh take on what this market should expect
  The Dyno · 2026-09-04 — Kia launched 32 Sorento variants on 4 September, with a choice of diesel or strong hybrid, two driven wheels or four, six seats or seven. At the same money, Toyota offers a car that has earned every bit of its reputation but is still running a 2016 spec sheet, and Skoda and Volkswagen offer one engine each.
• Tata rewrote the Curvv's price list. The diesel automatic barely made the cut.
  Launch Mode · 2026-09-03 — Six trims, 26 configurations, ₹9.99 lakh to ₹18.75 lakh, and the two-pedal diesel now lives only at the very top.
• MG has launched one new car with two completely different cars underneath it.
  Axle to Grind · 2026-08-26 — The Hector Tomahawk is an EV and a plug-in hybrid on the same floor. That is how cars will increasingly be built, and India's tax code has not noticed yet.
• BMW built an X1 for people who don't drive their X1.
  Launch Mode · 2026-08-21 — 108 mm more wheelbase, a reclining rear seat, the same 156 hp engine, ₹49.90 lakh, made in Chennai.
• The Kylaq Sportline is a costume. The good news is further down the press release.
  Launch Mode · 2026-08-20 — ₹11.32 lakh for black alloys and a sunroof, same 115 hp. Meanwhile the base car quietly got climate control.
• The most advanced thing at Monterey this year was a six-speed manual
  Axle to Grind · 2026-08-20 — Ten days, thirty-five events, three quarters of a billion dollars at auction, and nearly every car that mattered had three pedals. Car week 2026 was the analogue counter-revolution, and Gordon Murray led it.
• BYD took ₹8 lakh off the Sealion 7. The bill came to 11kWh and a head-up display.
  Launch Mode · 2026-08-20 — The Sealion 7 Dynamic opens BYD's electric SUV at ₹41.90 lakh with a 71.8kWh Blade pack, 520km and eleven airbags still in the box.
• Mahindra removed a seat from the XEV 9S and charged ₹25,000 for it. The charger is the real bill.
  Launch Mode · 2026-08-19 — Captain chairs from ₹25.25 lakh, and a ₹75,000 wall box hiding in the aggregator price grids.
• Skoda's answer to the sedan apocalypse is a gearbox. Honestly, fair.
  Launch Mode · 2026-08-18 — The updated Slavia swaps the dual-clutch on its 1.0 TSI automatic for an eight-speed torque converter, adds a 360 camera and a rear-seat massage. The 1.5 keeps its DSG. Prices later.
• Mahindra's ₹11.45 lakh BE 6 actually costs ₹19.45 lakh.
  Launch Mode · 2026-08-15 — The Sporteq update brings a third battery pack and a headline price that only exists if you rent the battery at ₹3.75 a kilometre.
• The new Hilux has no manual gearbox. Somewhere, an off-road enthusiast is writing a letter.
  Launch Mode · 2026-07-28 — Toyota's ninth-generation pickup opens at ₹31.99 lakh with 204 hp, seven airbags and a six-speed automatic in every one of its three variants. The clutch pedal did not make the trip.
• Maruti is selling the faster Brezza for less money. Thank the tax man.
  Launch Mode · 2026-07-24 — The 110 hp turbo opens at ₹7.40 lakh, the 103 hp 1.5 at ₹8.30 lakh. The gap is a GST slab, not generosity.
• The ₹13.49 lakh Syros EV does 526 km. Terms and conditions apply.
  Launch Mode · 2026-07-23 — The poster range belongs to the ₹16.99 lakh car. The poster price belongs to a different battery.
• Renault's cheapest car now has six airbags. Just not the cheapest version of it.
  Launch Mode · 2026-07-03 — The ₹4.53 lakh Kwid in the headline still has two. The six-airbag Climber is ₹62,000 up the ladder.
• Tata's Sierra EV price list is upside down. The cheap one is the fast one.
  Launch Mode · 2026-06-30 — Two batteries, eight variants, and a power ladder that runs the wrong way. Read the small print before the range figure.
• Toyota and Lewis Hamilton spent years losing. They stopped on the same weekend.
  Trackside · 2026-06-15 — Le Mans and Barcelona, 24 hours apart, ended two of motorsport's longest droughts. One of the comebacks also acquired a Kardashian. Purely for the record.
• BMW just previewed the electric M3 at Le Mans. It refuses to say "M3".
  Launch Mode · 2026-06-14 — Four motors, 800 volts, yellow eyes and a reported 1,000 horsepower: the M Concept Neue Klasse is BMW's electric M3 in everything but the name it won't say yet.
• India's cheapest EV is now a Tiago. So is the cheapest car with a 360-degree camera.
  Launch Mode · 2026-06-13 — Tata's facelifted twins bring new faces, new trim names and a ₹4.69 lakh start, but both records sit at the same ₹6.99 lakh.
• Škoda's fastest car for India is a seven-seater. Exactly 50 people can have one.
  Launch Mode · 2026-06-12 — Bookings for the 265hp Kodiaq RS open on 22 June: one loaded variant, full CBU, and a price Škoda will only reveal at launch.
• India will sell you anything for ₹30 lakh. Except a sedan.
  The Dyno · 2026-06-11 — Between ₹21 lakh and ₹41 lakh, the Indian sedan does not exist.
• The most powerful Audi ever isn't electric. It's a twin-turbo V8.
  Launch Mode · 2026-06-09 — Audi promised an all-electric future. Its new 1,001 PS halo, the Nuvolari, turned up with a twin-turbo V8.
• Toyota refreshed the Innova Crysta for 2026. It still won't sell you an automatic.
  Launch Mode · 2026-06-09 — Diesel-only, manual-only, a wireless charger as the headline upgrade, and it'll still outsell cars trying ten times harder.
• India's first flex-fuel car is here. You can't buy one yet.
  Launch Mode · 2026-06-07 — Maruti's WagonR now runs on up to 85% ethanol, but it's for fleet buyers only, reported at ₹7.24 lakh, and E85 flows from 48 pumps.
• India still trusts Honda. It just stopped buying it.
  Axle to Grind · 2026-06-06 — Honda was India's fourth-biggest carmaker, with a showroom full of cars people aspired to. In 2025 it finished ninth. The cars were never the problem.
• Every car in India should have these. Most still don't.
  Axle to Grind · 2026-06-04 — Sunroofs sell cars. They don't make them good ones.
• The Ferrari Luce problem isn't that it's ugly
  Axle to Grind · 2026-06-02 — The internet spent a week deciding it's the ugliest supercar ever made. Almost everyone is looking at the wrong part of the car.
• Tata wins the safety test. It still has to win the ownership test.
  Axle to Grind · 2026-05-30 — Tata has become desirable enough that inconsistency is now its biggest brand risk.
• AMT, DCT, CVT, torque converter, iMT: which gearbox is right for you?
  Blind Spot · 2026-05-20 — Five ways to skip the clutch pedal, five very different personalities, and the wrong one will sour your car every single day.