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2026 R&D investment Plan Prioritizes Smart Ag
Akihiro Komuro South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs 2026 research and development investment plan for the agricultural sector reveals a policy to allocate budget resources primarily to the “smart agriculture” field, centered on robots, drones, and artificial intelligence (AI).
The plan aims to address structural challenges in Korean agriculture, such as an aging population and severe labor shortages, while achieving increased productivity and labor savings.
A key feature of the plan is its emphasis on developing field-implementable technologies, such as autonomous agricultural machinery, data analysis for precision farming, and unmanned pest control drones. The plan also envisions advancing the sophistication of agricultural management through the development of standalone technologies, and by establishing data integration platforms and agricultural ecosystems.
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2025-Year Motorcycle Sales Rank 2nd in SE Asia
Akihiro Komuro In 2025, the Vietnamese motorcycle market experienced strong growth, with sales increasing by 14.9% year-on-year to approximately 3.4 million units. This made it the second-largest market in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia. Indonesia maintained its top position as the region’s largest market with 6.55 million units sold, though its growth rate was limited to 0.6%. Meanwhile, the Philippines recorded 2.37 million units (+2.8% year-over-year), Thailand recorded 1.73 million units (+9.8% year-over-year), and Malaysia recorded 613,893 units (+3.5% year-over-year).
In Vietnam, the rapid expansion of electric motorcycles is reshaping the market structure. Alongside domestic companies, Chinese firms are accelerating investment in electric motorcycles, aided by stricter environmental regulations. Hanoi’s plan to restrict internal combustion engine vehicles starting in mid-2026 is further accelerating the shift towards electric vehicles.
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India–Indonesia Auto Relationship Gains Strength
Aditya Kondejkar The evolving automotive relationship between India and Indonesia is increasingly defined by structured, government-linked procurement and industrial collaboration rather than routine export activity. Recent transactions involving Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Ashok Leyland signal a measurable expansion of India’s commercial vehicle footprint in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.
Indonesia’s infrastructure expansion, rural logistics formalization, and cooperative-based distribution programs have generated concentrated demand for light and medium commercial vehicles. Unlike fragmented retail-driven sales, these programs are characterized by bulk institutional procurement, creating predictable order pipelines and scale efficiencies for suppliers. Indian manufacturers, with established competencies in cost-optimized, durable vehicle platforms suited to emerging market operating conditions, have been able to secure sizeable allocations.
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Boot 2026 Shows Shift To Outboard Power
Natasa Mulahalilovic Boot Düsseldorf 2026 welcomed more than 200,000 visitors over nine days (Jan. 17-25) and hosted about 1,500 exhibitors from 120 countries. The show was about the same size as that of the 2025 event, but last year’s show drew exhibitors from only about 67 countries.
Boot once again confirmed its position as the world’s leading indoor boat show. The event covered the entire spectrum of the marine industry, including motorboats, yachts and superyachts, catamarans, sailing boats, outboard and electric boats, engines, power generation systems, equipment and components, as well as touristic services, charter companies, and boating clubs.
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Tesla’s 2025 Europe Data Shows Total Bloodbath
Guy Youngs The data is in for Tesla’s full year 2025 in Europe, and frankly, it’s a bloodbath across most major markets. Every market in Europe showed a substantial decline (ranging from -4.1% to -66.9%). There’s a single exception, Norway, and Tesla can’t even count on this market in 2026 because the growth in Norway was caused by changing regulations for 2026, that brought forward car purchases into the last two month of 2025.
According to registration data compiled from major European markets, Tesla saw its total volume drop from roughly 326,000 units in 2024 to just over 235,000 in 2025. That is a staggering 27.8% year-over-year decline
The truth is that this is an impressive demand cliff by any standard that points to significant brand problems, which are due to a mix of Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, becoming highly toxic, and Tesla’s EV lineup becoming stale amid tougher competition.
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2026 Growth of 4.9% Seen in Truck Production
Chris Fisher Medium and heavy truck production in North America is expected to increase by 4.9% this year compared with 2025. While class 8 truck production is expected to increase by 6.1% this year, the industry continues to be negatively impacted by the weight of the tariffs, low freight demand, excess truck capacity and relatively high finance rates which is expected to continue through at least the first half of the year.
With regard to the implementation of the phase 3 GHG emission regulations, it will be later in the spring before the EPA finalizes any revisions to the standards. Many in the industry believe the EPA will retain the 0.035 g/hp-hr standard along with the 2027 implementation date but cancel the extended warranty requirements which would have added significant up-front cost to the trucks.
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Government Program To Help Truck Industry
Fabio Ferraresi In January 2026, the Brazilian federal government launched the Move Brazil Program, a credit support initiative totaling approximately USD 2.0 billion. The program aims to support the domestic truck manufacturing industry and stimulate fleet renewal amid a sharp downturn in heavy-duty vehicle demand.
Financing will be provided through BNDES with annual interest rates between 13% and 14%, grace periods of up to six months, and repayment terms of up to five years, capped at approximately USD 10 million per beneficiary. Eligible beneficiaries include independent truck drivers, cooperatives, transport companies, and large fleet operators, with 10% of total funding reserved for independents and cooperatives.
Financing is restricted to new trucks manufactured in Brazil and compliant with Proconve P8 emission standards, as well as used trucks (model year 2012 onward) meeting Proconve P7 requirements and local content criteria. The program will be available for six months and is positioned as a short-term measure to mitigate layoffs and production cuts in the heavy truck segment.
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