Top Automatic SUVs Perfect for Stylish Women in 2025
What Makes an SUV Perfect for Women? A great SUV for women in 2025 should tick these boxes: • Automatic transmission – no clutch hassle in traffic • Compact size – easy to park and zip through city roads • High seating – better visibility and confidence while driving • Stylish design – because who says practicality can't be pretty? • Safety and tech – peace of mind on every drive Luckily, both the MG Astor and Skoda Kushaq check these boxes in their own unique way.
MG Astor If you like your car to feel as stylish as your wardrobe, the MG Astor might just be the one. It's sleek, smart, and comes loaded with features that make every drive feel special.
Why You'll Love the MG Astor: • Bold look: Chrome touches, LED lights, and a sporty face • Digital dash: Feels futuristic and premium • AI assistant: How about a mini secretary on the go? • Compact yet spacious: Easy to handle but roomy inside • Light steering: Makes city driving effortless • Multiple interior colour option: Choose from beige, black and red interior options to suit your taste The Astor is perfect if you want something modern and feminine but without compromising on performance or tech.
Skoda Kushaq If you lean more towards understated elegance and love a clean European design, the Skoda Kushaq is the one for you. It's sharp, solid, and very confidence-inspiring behind the wheel.
Why You'll Love the Skoda Kushaq: • Timeless design: Typical Tuetonic design • Turbo automatic: Fast and fun to drive • Great visibility: High seating helps you feel in control • Safety focus: 5-star Global NCAP rating • Comfortable ride: Glides over potholes with ease The Kushaq doesn't scream for attention. Instead, it looks sophisticated due to its clean lines and timeless design.
MG Astor vs Skoda Kushaq Even though both these vehicles are the top automatic SUVs perfect for stylish women in 2025, here's what separates them from each other: Feature MG Astor Skoda Kushaq Styling Bold and modern Clean and classy Ease of Driving Light steering, smooth CVT Sharp handling, puncy turbo Tech Appeal AI assistant, digital cluster Digital dash, crisp infotainment Interior Feel Plush and funky Neat and European Road Presence Urban-friendly More rugged and planted • Pick the MG Astor if you love modern design, voice assistants, and a city-friendly feel.
• Choose the Skoda Kushaq if you want a stronger highway feel, sharp handling, and a mature, timeless style.
(Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with NRDPL and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.).
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
MediaTek sees big opportunity as Indian EV makers embrace AI, high-performance computing
Vast AI talent pool and electric vehicle makers' attitude to adopt artificial intelligence and powerful computing offer a big opportunity in India for MediaTek, a senior company official said. MediaTek Director for Product Marketing — Automotive Platform — Rita Wu told PTI the semiconductor company is looking to penetrate deeper in India's automotive sector with a strategic focus on AI, scalable system-on-chips (SoCs), and next-gen connectivity solutions. "I think the Indian market has a lot of talent in AI. The second thing is OEMs' (Original Equipment Manufacturers) attitude. They are very interested in AI and want to try their best to adapt to the offloads in their vehicles. It's not only AI, but they are also looking for powerful computing to support more high-end solutions. That very important and very good for India market," Wu said. Wu outlined three major industry shifts shaping their roadmap agentic — AI adoption, increasing demand for high-performance compute capabilities (CPU, GPU, NPU), and enhanced power efficiency tailored for electric vehicles (EVs). She said that demand for energy efficiency technology will be high in EVs because power is very crucial for the segment. From making chips for mobile phones, MediaTek has diversified offerings to providing technology for the automobile sector, to satellite communications. MediaTek Automotive Platform Director for Europe Product Marketing Sharique Khan said that even EV two-wheeler makers in India have started using the company's AI-enabled chips for infotainment systems. "We see that in the next three to four years, there will be adoption of AI and high computing, depending on the cost segment in India, from premium and scale down to the entry segment," Khan said. He said the rising demand for AI-powered cockpit infotainment across segments in India is one of the key aspects that makes it strategically important for MediaTek. When asked about volumes for semiconductors, Khan said volumes typically start with premium segments and eventually cascade down. He said customised solutions will also play an important role in the Indian EV market .
Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Economic Times
Tariff engineering: How companies are outsmarting Trump
Delta Air Lines pulled off an age-old trick on US President Donald Trump who has imposed steep tariffs on imports which are pinching American companies. Delta took brand-new Airbus jets sitting in Europe, yanked out their US-made engines, shipped those engines back to the States, and left the rest of the aircraft To avoid Trump's to a July 11 report by Bloomberg, Delta has been cannibalising new A321neo aircraft, assembled in Europe and fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines, for parts to keep its grounded US fleet flying. By removing the engines, which are manufactured in the US, and shipping them home separately, Delta avoids the 10% import duty levied on European-made aircraft under Trump-era trade policies. The planes themselves remain parked in Europe. They can't fly in the US yet anyway, their seats haven't cleared US regulatory certification. So instead of paying duties on entire aircraft, Delta is importing only the parts it needs, duty-free. CEO Ed Bastian was frank about the tactic. 'We are not planning to pay tariffs on aircraft deliveries,' he said during the company's latest earnings call, adding that Delta will continue using the workaround. Earlier this year, Delta routed new Airbus long-haul jets through Japan before bringing them into the US, another move to dodge import in 2020, the airline used similar tactics, redirecting deliveries through places like Amsterdam, Tokyo, and El Salvador to avoid tariffs during peak trade isn't a one-off. It's a workaround might look extreme, but it's hardly unusual. US companies across industries, from sneaker makers to car manufacturers, have been using similar strategies to avoid rising import duties. Call it tariff engineering or just smart loophole hunting. The goal is simple: cut import costs without breaking the law. And this is entirely Foote, a customs lawyer at Kelley Drye & Warren in Washington D.C., sees no issue with the practice. 'There is nothing inherently illegal or even untoward about leveraging strategic design choices that result in creating different products that are subject to different tariff classifications and duty rates,' he told CNBC. 'Tariff engineering is one of the few things you can do to try to get it right and reduce your duty liability.' What is tariff engineering? Tariff engineering is the art of designing or altering a product, legally, to qualify for a lower import tax. It doesn't mean cheating the system. It just means working within the rules and playing them to your advantage. Merritt v. Welsh (1882) Tariff engineering isn't new. One of the earliest examples dates back to the 1881 US Supreme Court case Merritt v. Welsh, when a sugar importer found that coating lighter sugar with molasses helped avoid higher tariffs. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that as long as the goods were honestly declared and inspected, there was nothing illegal about gaming the system. At the time, the US taxed sugar based on its colour, using something called the Dutch standard. Darker sugar = lower quality = lower what did the importer do? He took highly refined (white) sugar and added molasses to darken it. That way, it looked like low-grade sugar and qualified for a lower should've worked, until the Port of New York stepped customs office didn't buy it. They ran chemical tests, found the sugar had been intentionally darkened, and slapped on the higher tariff anyway. But the case reached the Supreme Court, and the justices sided with the importer. Why? Because the law at the time said tariffs had to be based only on colour, not chemical analysis or Matthews was of the opinion that even if the sugar was darkened on purpose, that wasn't illegal. 'Great stress is laid on the charge that sugars are manufactured in dark colors on purpose to evade our duties. Suppose this is true; has not a manufacturer a right to make his goods as he pleases?... If the duties are affected, there is a plain remedy. Congress can always adopt such laws and regulations as it may deem expedient for protecting the interests of the government.' Fast-forward to today, and tariff engineering is practically a full-time job for trade compliance teams across corporate America. Take Columbia Sportswear. They've been upfront about it. 'I have a whole team of people that work … with the designers and developers and merchandisers and with customs,' said Jeff Tooze, the company's VP of global customs and trade, in a 2019 interview with Marketplace. Their mission: bake tariff classification into the product design process. For instance, CNN reported that adding small zippered pockets below the waist on shirts is a simple tweak that can shift the product into a lower-duty category. That's how you end up with shirts sporting oddly placed zippers, designed not for fashion or function, but for tariff relief. Footwear brands play the same game. Converse, for instance, has been known to put felt soles on some All Star sneakers. The reason? Classification. Felt soles can move the shoes into the 'house slipper' category instead of 'athletic footwear', and house slippers come with significantly lower around the world use a system of more than 5,000 product classification codes to determine how much tariff to apply to imports, according to manufacturing the shoes overseas with felt soles, Converse can make a case to US customs that they qualify for the lower-duty category. It's not about aesthetics but a strategic design decision aimed at cutting costs. The loophole economy isn't just about design Sometimes, companies don't bother changing the product. They change the route. Or the label. Or where the product waits. Delta's stripped-down aircraft are one version of this. Another is the bonded of it as international limbo. Goods can enter the US and sit inside a government-regulated storage facility, as long as they remain locked up in a customs-regulated warehouse, for up to five years, duty-free, until the importer decides the timing is right to clear them through only pay the current tariff rate when they take goods out of storage. It's a bet that tariff rates will go down in the short or medium Hartry, who runs Howard Hartry, a customs brokerage by the Port of Los Angeles, says the demand for bonded warehouses has exploded since Trump's tariffs took hold. She told CNN that 95% of inquiries she receives now involve goods from no cap on the value a company can store in a bonded warehouse, the only real limit is physical to Hartry, her clients are stashing everything from lithium batteries and metal rods to TVs and treadmills. The value of these goods ranges between $37,000 and $500,000. She's well aware of how hard tariffs have hit her clients. But for her business, they've been a lifeline. 'It's saving our business, which we're grateful for,' she told CNN's Julia Vargas. Why all of this still works Despite the Trump administration's aggressive tariff hikes, loopholes remain. Sometimes products are explicitly exempt. Sometimes a lower rate applies if you swap a fabric or a metal. Other times, it's about knowing the right Harmonised Tariff Schedule (HTS) code, a system with over 5,000 lawyers are seeing a boom in business. Erik Smithweiss, a partner at GDLSK, said that companies come to his firm asking whether tweaks to their products might qualify them for a more favourable code.'We are working with companies who say, 'Gee, I really want to be on this list, look at my tariff codes,'' he told CNN. If the product can be modified, legally and substantially enough, his team will help make it tariff engineering has its limits, and pushing too far can backfire. Customs officials have the authority to test materials, scrutinise designs, and if they suspect deception, they can impose steep fines. Ford learned that the hard way The automaker was accused of sidestepping a steep 25% tariff, known as the 'chicken tax', by disguising cargo vans as passenger vehicles. The 'chicken tax' dates back to 1964, when the US imposed a 25% tariff on imported light trucks in retaliation for European restrictions on American workaround? Ford shipped Turkey-assembled Transit Connect vans to the US with temporary rear seats and minor interior tweaks, just enough to classify them as passenger vehicles and qualify for a much lower 2.5% import duty. Once the vans cleared customs, the seats were removed, and the vehicles were sold as cargo and Border Protection and the Department of Justice called it a clear attempt to dodge higher tariffs, saying the rear seats were never meant to carry passengers and were simply 'an artifice or disguise.'The case spanned years and involved hundreds of thousands of vans imported between 2009 and 2013. Courts consistently ruled in the government's favour. The Supreme Court refused to hear Ford's appeal in March 2024, Ford agreed to pay $365 million, roughly half in back duties, the rest in penalties. The company said it 'strongly disagreed with many of the characterisations' but chose to settle and end the legal battle. It did not admit fine is one of the largest customs penalty settlements in recent history. The risky business of skating the line Not all industries can play this game equally. Apparel and footwear can get by with easy tweaks and quick wins, but for aerospace, electronics, and medical devices, it's a completely different ballgame.'You might be looking at another 12 to 24 months of testing, certification, and validation in order to get that done,' said Andrew Wilson, a supply chain strategist at Supplino, to CNBC. That's time, money, and regulatory for many companies, the savings are worth it. Izzy Rosenzweig, CEO of logistics firm Portless, told CNBC that one of his clients switched hoodie production from synthetic to cotton to save 15% in duties. That's a serious margin in Industries, the RV giant, said earlier this year that it's actively working with trade experts to explore mitigation strategies, tariff engineering and deferrals it's not just the goods themselves. Even small tweaks to product add-ons can lead to big savings. Customs lawyer John Foote described to CNBC a lapel pin that was redesigned to include small pieces of cubic zirconia. That change moved it out of the 'festive article' category (14% tariff) into the 'jewellery' category (lower tariff). A small shift with a big game has rules. You just have to learn them. Tariff engineering is not fraud. But it is a tightrope walk. There's a fine line between clever strategy and misclassification. Companies can request a binding ruling from US Customs and Border Protection to confirm whether a classification will hold. But that comes with a risk: once you ask, you can't walk it back. If Customs disagrees, you're is why many firms prefer to stay just under the radar. Quietly adapting. Carefully designing. Relentlessly optimising.
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Chinese car giants rush into Brazil with dreams of dominating a continent
A two-hour drive beyond the traffic jams of São Paulo, past the vast valleys of sugar cane, one of the first Chinese battery-powered car factories in the Americas is getting ready to open. Its goal is to reinvent the way Brazil drives, and ultimately, the rest of Latin America, much as Chinese automakers have already done across much of Asia and want to do in Europe. Until recently, this factory was run by Mercedes-Benz, the German giant of 20th century automotive innovation that churned out cars powered by gasoline. Today, it's owned by Great Wall Motor, a company that is now one of China's leading exporters of stylish, affordable electric vehicles. The change in hands reflects a profound disruption for one of the world's most vital industries. If American and European gas-guzzling cars once dominated global tastes and trends, that era appears to be fast turning to China's favor. Today, not only does China make and export more cars of all types than any other country in the world, Chinese firms dominate the global manufacture of battery-powered vehicles of the future. They also control the supply chain for virtually everything that goes into those cars. China's EV s are among the most advanced in the world. Some today go as far on a single charge as top-of-the-line Teslas, at lower prices. One Chinese carmaker, BYD, short for Build Your Dreams, has developed technology that can deliver a full charge in just five minutes. Little wonder that Tesla sales in China are lagging, and that the United States, under both Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump , have essentially banned Chinese car imports. For China, that leaves the rest of the world. Its electric and hybrid manufacturers have set up, or are in the process of setting up, factories in Hungary, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and Turkey. These efforts, including Great Wall's Brazilian factory, are part of a globe-spanning campaign by China to seize a major share of the world's auto industry, a powerful source of revenues, jobs and also national prestige. Western auto giants are alarmed. "We are in a global competition with China," Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford Motor Co., said at the Aspen Ideas conference in June. "It's not just EVs. And if we lose this, we do not have a future at Ford." Great Wall Motor took over the Mercedes plant in the industrial town of Iracemápolis, near São Paulo, after the German carmaker closed shop in 2021, blaming a slump in luxury car sales. BYD took over a Ford factory after years of poor sales and steep losses forced the U.S. car giant to end its long history of manufacturing in Brazil. Farley at the time called the closures "difficult but necessary actions." Ford had assembled cars in Brazil for a century, starting with the Model T. "For the first time in decades, we're seeing a real challenge to the dominance of American and European brands, not just in terms of market share, but in shaping the future of mobility," said Natalie Unterstell , president of a climate research and advocacy organization called Talanoa Institute, based in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil, the world's sixth largest car market, is trying to take advantage of it, instead of being steamrolled. It's prodding companies, no matter where they're from, to make cars on Brazilian soil, the less polluting the better, while also imposing steadily rising tariffs on imports. It hasn't all been smooth sailing. There have been union clashes over Chinese labor practices. But the government's overall message: If you want access to our car buyers, then come and create factories and factory jobs here. "We don't want to be an importer of technologies produced in other countries only," said Rafael Dubeux , special adviser to the Finance Ministry, in an interview in Brazil's capital, Brasília. "We also want to take advantage of this profound change in the world, in manufacturing facilities, so that Brazil also has a part in the value chains that we think are the ones that will prevail." At least three Chinese firms are opening assembly plants in Brazil. In addition to Great Wall Motor and BYD, another Chinese automaker, Chery, has teamed up with a Brazilian company, Caoa, to produce cars in central Goias state. Nevertheless, Marcio Lima Leite, head of the Brazil automaker association, remains worried. The new Chinese auto plants are mainly assembling cars with components imported from China, including the most valuable component, batteries. That, he said, will not advance the industry in Brazil. "It's very important to have competitiveness in Brazil, to produce the new technology in Brazil," he said. Chinese carmakers have had to bend to local needs in important ways. In Brazil, that means the needs of the powerful ethanol industry. Ethanol is produced from the country's huge sugar cane crop, and Brazilian law requires every liter of gasoline to be a little more than 25% ethanol. So the auto companies aren't just making fully electric cars in Brazil. They are also having to make hybrids that run partly on the gas-ethanol blend and partly on batteries. "We need to produce what customers are looking for," said Marcio Renato Alfonso , a Brazilian who worked for an American carmaker for many years and is now Great Wall's director of research and development for Brazil. "High technology with an affordable price." Along Henry Ford Avenue in the industrial city of Camaçari, what was once a Ford factory is now becoming a BYD factory. This had been Ford's newest plant. Every day, starting in 2001, it churned out hundreds of gas-powered cars. It employed some 5,000 workers. It also lost huge amounts of money. In 2021, the Ford plant shut down. "It was a shock," said Júlio Bonfim, who was president of the metal workers union at the factory. "I imagined my son would also work at the plant. It didn't happen." The state government offered BYD a basket of incentives to take over the plant. But almost as soon as the Chinese company arrived, it got enmeshed in a labor scandal. In December, Brazilian officials accused BYD's contractor, Jinjiang Construction Group, with keeping 163 Chinese workers in "conditions akin to slavery" and in violation of Brazilian labor laws. It embodied the reckoning that Chinese companies face as they seek to expand in Brazil, which has robust unions. The workers were sent back home. Construction slowed down. Company officials said they expect to start production later this year. When it does, Bonfim's union insists that Brazilians must be hired to work the line. It has threatened to strike if Chinese workers are brought in. BYD's top executive for Brazil, Alexandre Baldy , said the firm had taken steps to address the violations. In May the labor prosecutor's office filed charges against the carmaker and its contractors for human trafficking. The company said it plans to challenge the charges. In the meantime, the Great Wall factory in Iracemápolis will almost assuredly already be fully operational. An opening ceremony is planned for August. Cars are due to roll off the factory floor soon after. The factory first plans to produce one hybrid model and three plug-in hybrids.
