Darab Mansoor Ali

The mighty Defender from Jaguar Land Rover has gotten one of the most substantial updates since the modernisation of the Defender nameplate. The new Defender, updated for 2026 and 2027, comes with a new urban-focused variant, a fresh engine option, more colour and personalisation choices, and a first-ever 6-seat layout for the Defender 110 shape. The updated Land Rover Defender is now available for pre-orders globally, with deliveries starting in autumn. An India launch has not been announced yet.

The Tata Punch has pulled off a genuine surprise in June 2026, ending the month as India's best-selling car and pushing the long-dominant Maruti Suzuki Dzire down to third place. It's a moment worth pausing on, a sub-4-metre micro-SUV outselling every sedan and hatchback in the country, including cars that have anchored the sales charts for years.

Being both a tech and automotive reviewer has led me to become a bit of an infotainment expert. Infotainment systems are now one of the center points in your car's interior. From your car settings to in-car entertainment, almost everything inside is centered around the infotainment display. Over the past few months, I have reviewed a few cars: cheap cars, expensive cars, mid-range cars. The most popular being the mid-range segment in India. In the mid-range around ₹20 lakh segment, compact SUVs or the C-segment SUVs, as we call them, are the most popular currently and I have tested five of the latest generation cars recently. With that, I have also got the chance to use my tech experience to review the infotainment systems of each of them separately.

Xiaomi has taken its next big step in the car business, and this time it isn't another electric car. The Chinese technology giant has unveiled the SkyNomad N90, a full-size plug-in hybrid SUV that marks the debut of SkyNomad, a new sub-brand under the Xiaomi umbrella. After the SU7 electric sedan and the YU7 electric SUV, this is Xiaomi's first vehicle with a petrol engine on board, though notably, that engine never actually drives the wheels.

Kia has finally launched the new Syros EV. After months of speculations, Kia India's second mass-market EV for the country is now available for pre-bookings at just ₹25,000 through the Kia India website and dealerships nationwide. Beyond just adding another EV to its line-up, Kia is positioning the Syros EV around a broader ownership package designed to tackle the anxieties that typically hold Indian buyers back from going electric.

There is a lot of noise around the whole E20 petrol and ethanol blending issue in India. With most cars on our roads being older than April 2023, E20 has become a major pain point for commuters across the country. Around the whole fiasco, however, there is a slew of information going on around. Some pure facts, some noise, and a lot of unanswered questions.

There's no shortage of accessory and small-appliance brands jostling for shelf space in India right now, so when a new name enters the ring, the first question is always the same: what's actually different here?

BYD cars have been one of the most tech-heavy EVs in recent times in our market. The BYD Sealion 7 is one of those cars which has gained a lot of attention, mainly for the kind of tech that the premium electric SUV offers. The highlight? A 15.6-inch infotainment display which also rotates to change orientation into vertical or horizontal.

India's passenger vehicle market delivered a strong showing in July 2026, with most manufacturers posting healthy month-on-month gains across the board. Maruti Suzuki extended its commanding lead at the top of the charts, inching close to the 2 lakh-unit mark for the month, while Tata Motors held on to second place by a slim margin over Mahindra. Hyundai staged a sharp comeback after a supplier fire disrupted its June output, reclaiming fourth spot, with Toyota completing the top five. Further down the order, Kia, MG and Nissan all posted double- and triple-digit percentage growth over last year, pointing to broad-based momentum across the industry heading into the festive season.

Mahindra has turned Independence Day into a sort of an unofficial product showcase over the past few years, using August 15 to unveil concepts and confirm key updates rather than sticking to the usual launch calendar. The tradition goes back to 2021, when the brand used the occasion to launch the XUV700, a model that pushed Mahindra firmly into the modern SUV space and reset expectations from a brand that builds only rugged off-roaders, to a brand that can also make really good modern cars. Ever since, August 15 has become something of a circle on the calendar, and this year is shaping up to be no different.