New Delhi:

Ian Cameron, former Rolls-Royce head designer and vintage car expert, was killed at his $3 million mansion in Germany after getting stabbed by a man during a robbery attempt.

The 74-year-old British national was living with his wife Verena Kloos in Germany’s Herrsching at Lake Ammersee during the incident. Ms Kloos escaped the attack by scaling a wall and landing in her neighbour’s house, from where she informed the cops.

The power cables to the garage of Ian Cameron’s house, where valuables were kept, had been purposefully cut off, according to CCTV evidence.

“The investigation suggests that this was a violent crime,” said police officials.

Ian Cameron played a “significant” role in the designing of iconic Rolls-Royce vehicles like the Ghost, Phantom, and 3 Series. 

Ian Cameron undertook the role of leading the Rolls-Royce design team after BMW acquired Rolls-Royce’s automotive business in 1998.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the news about our former Rolls-Royce designer. Our thoughts are with his family and friends during these difficult hours,” said BMW in a statement to Automotive News.  

“Ian played a significant role in shaping Rolls-Royce from when it was first acquired by BMW Group and moved to its home at Goodwood, West Sussex. During Ian’s tenure, he led the design team for all Phantom family and Ghost models, creating thoroughly contemporary motor cars that remained sympathetic to the marque’s design lineage,” the automaker added.

The suspect’s height is estimated to be between 180 and 190 cm (5 ft 9 in to 6 ft 2 in). He is wearing light-colored pants, a dark-blue sweatshirt, yellow-green gloves, and a red backpack, according to a description by police officials.

A manhunt has been launched to locate the suspect who is currently on the run. Dogs and a helicopter are helping search teams thoroughly examine the area to catch the murderer.

In Chandigarh and Puducherry, the proportion of luxury cars to non-luxury cars was higher
| Photo Credit: RAVINDRAN R

The number of luxury cars in India recorded a sharp increase in the last five years, an analysis of vehicle registration data shows. Nearly 5 lakh luxury cars have been registered till date in India across various Regional Transport Offices, according to the Vahan portal. Of them, close to 30% were registered in the 2020-2024 period. This number is significantly high considering that the first two years in this period coincided with the pandemic and various sections of the economy were still in the recovery phase in the following two years.

For this analysis, certain manufacturers were termed luxury brands based on reports published in various credible news portals. The selection includes the following manufacturers: Lamborghini, BMW India, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Bentley Motors, Lexus Motors, Rolls Royce, Ferrari India, Audi AG, Aston Martin, Maserati, Acura Legend and Alfa Romeo. In some cases, the price of cars was also considered.

Table 1 | The table lists the luxury brand-wise number of cars registered in India till date (A), the number of cars registered between 2020 and 2024 (B), and the share (B as a % of A). 

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As stated earlier, the registrations of 30% of all luxury cars were done between 2020 and 2024. However, while some brands have gained popularity, others have not. For instance, over 40% of all the BMWs registered till date were purchased in 2020-2024; in contrast, the corresponding share for Audis was 7%. Similarly, 52% of Lamborghinis, 33% of Porsches, 30% of Jaguar Land Rovers, and 29% of Mercedes-Benz cars registered till today were purchased in 2020-2024. In contrast, the corresponding numbers were 10% for Rolls Royce cars, 13% for Bentleys, 8% for Ferraris, and 4% for Aston Martins. This shows that preferences have gone through a significant change in the past four years.

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Chart 2 | The chart shows the number of luxury cars registered till date across various States along the horizontal axis. The farther to the right, the higher the number of luxury cars registered in the State. 

There were also significant variations among States. Maharashtra leads the list by a wide margin with more than 94,000 such cars registered in the State till date. This is followed by Karnataka (56,396 cars), Delhi (49,971), Gujarat (42,101), and Tamil Nadu (40,423).

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While absolute numbers are important, a comparison with non-luxury cars registered in the States provides a better picture. For this purpose, one luxury car registered in a State for every 1 lakh non-luxury cars is plotted on the vertical axis of Chart 2. The higher the State in the chart, the higher the luxury car concentration. Cars manufactured by Maruti Suzuki, Tata, Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota were considered non-luxury. For instance, in Maharashtra, for every 1 lakh non-luxury cars registered, there are 1,200 luxury cars. Notably, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and Goa had a similar concentration of luxury cars. In the Union Territories of Chandigarh and Puducherry, the concentration was much higher. This was due to lower road tax and other fees, which significantly reduced the prices of such cars.

Table 3 | The table shows the same information as in Table 1 for States with a high number of luxury cars. Luxury brand-wise number of cars registered in India till date (A), the number of cars registered between 2020 and 2024 (B), and the share (B as a % of A). 

Of the 154 Maseratis registered in India, 78 are in Tamil Nadu. Of the 723 Aston Martins registered in the country, 618 are in Karnataka. Maharashtra leads in registrations of Rolls Royce cars and Delhi leads in registrations of Alfa Romeo and Acura Legend.

Source: Vaahan Dashboard

rebecca.varghese@thehindu.co.in and vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in

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London, United Kingdom:

Rolls-Royce, the British manufacturer of aircraft engines, said Tuesday it plans to axe up to 2,500 jobs worldwide, or about six percent of its staff.

“It is estimated that 2,000-2,500 roles will be removed globally” under “plans for a simpler, more streamlined, organisation”, the group said in a statement.

Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, who began restructuring the group on taking the helm at the start of the year, said the company was “building a Rolls-Royce that is fit for the future.

“That means a more… efficient organisation that will deliver for our customers, partners and shareholders.”

The statement said the latest restructuring would “help Rolls-Royce build enhanced capabilities in key areas such as procurement and supply chain management, ensuring they are as strong as the company’s engineering and technical excellence”.

Previous CEO Warren East had axed more than 9,000 jobs and launched a major divestment programme in 2020 to navigate damaging pandemic fallout across the aviation industry.

In a quick turnaround under its new boss, Rolls in August posted first-half net profit totalling £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion), compared with a loss after tax of £1.6 billion a year earlier.

Erginbilgic, a dual UK and Turkish national, worked for more than 20 years at energy major BP.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A teenager in Kerala transformed a Maruti 800 car into a mini Rolls Royce lookalike using his customisation skills. An automobile enthusiast named Hadif said the entire modification cost him Rs 45,000.

In a YouTube video, uploaded by channel ‘Tricks Tube’, the 18-year-old said that he is passionate about cars and likes to make replicas of luxurious cars. He also mentioned that he created the Rolls Royce-inspired logo for his car by himself.

The video has amassed more than 3 lakh views on YouTube. The boy spent several months on the project and has completely redesigned the Maruti 800 with a new body kit. He has tweaked the interiors, changed the front end of the car and replaced it with a new panel featuring a bold, bulkier design, with Rolls Royce-inspired grille and headlights.

Hadif had previously worked on a Jeep project, using a motorcycle engine.

To transform the car, he used metal sheets, welding work, and components from other used cars.

Earlier, a video of a BMW car changing into a ‘Transformer’, just like alien robots from the iconic science fiction Hollywood movie also went viral. It also caught the attention of industrialist Anand Mahindra, taking to X (formerly known as Twitter), the Chairman of Mahindra Group informed that the modified vehicle was created in 2016 by a Turkish company named Letvision.