Mercedes-Benz will introduce a new 4.0-cylinder, 2.2-litre diesel engine in the third generation M-Class making it best in its SUV segment for fuel economy and emissions.

The ML250, which will be launched to the public at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, has CO2 emissions of 158g/km and Mercedes said that it will do 17 more miles to the gallon than the best Land Rover Discovery.

The model is equipped with Mercedes’s ‘Bluetech’ technology and includes a stop-start system, electronic steering and seven-speed automatic transmission.

Beaulieu is world famous as a motoring museum, and it is also a fantastic venue for holding other events.

One of which is the annual ‘Trucks ‘n’ Troops’ show that attracts some superb vehicles every year and is organised in conjunction with The South Hampshire Area of the Military Vehicle Trust. The show celebrates the development of military transport, combat vehicles and soldiering through the ages.

This year’s show paid particular attention to celebrating the Home Front, ie those civilians left in Blighty supporting the war effort. One lovely touch was a recreation of a village Parish hall with wartime cookery demos and decorated how it all would have been in the 1940s.

Ahead of Dacia’s UK launch at the end of next year, right-hand drive production of the Duster SUV has been confirmed, thanks to its imminent arrival in India.

Renault has announced the production and sale of Duster under its French marque in India. The SUV is part of a range designed to cover a broad portion of the local market segments.

Last month, Volkswagen signed a deal with Russian manufacturer GAZ to assemble VW and Škoda models in its Russian Nizhny Novorod plant. This is a significant deal, in that the planned production is to rise to 110,000 vehicles per year, and the agreement runs until 2019. GAZ is to build the Volkswagen Jetta, Škoda Octavia and Škoda Yeti models for the Russian market and the first models are due to roll off the GAZ production line in 2012.

We reported on the Russian market in last month’s issue, with our St Petersburg correspondent (!) Robb Pritchard driving the awesome Kombat T98. In the same feature, Robb described the popular Lada/Chevrolet Niva 4×4 – a cheap and cheerful Russian-built off-roader. It will be intriguing to see how the very successful Škoda Yeti fits into this market. To that end, it is interesting to note that part of the memorandum agreement between VW and GAZ also includes ‘a comprehensive training programme for employees in Nizhny Novorod’. Škoda now has a very good reputation in Europe and obviously the company does not expect that to drop in Russia.

Nissan has announced that Britain will design, engineer and build the next version of the best-selling Nissan Qashqai. A massive £192 million investment was announced this month that is claimed will safeguard 6000 jobs. The announcement comes after the independent report from industry expert Professor Garel Rhys reported that the recent natural disasters in Japan would lead to Japanese companies looking to invest in further European bases (4×4, News, June 1’1). Given the difficulties that UK manufacturing is experiencing, this is indeed good news for Nissan.

The automotive sector is the UK’s number one manufactured export – in 2010 the UK auto sector exported over £27 billion-worth of vehicles and parts; 75 per cent of cars, 73 per cent of commercial vehicles and 72 per cent of UK engine production in 2010. Automotive exports from the UK are apparently close to being at an all-time high – approaching record pre-recession levels. You don’t read that on the front page of the tabloids very often do you?