MAM
Autocar India sets Guinness World Record for longest EV journey in India
Mumbai: Autocar India and Mercedes-Benz India set a Guinness World Record title for the longest journey by an electric car on a single charge, covering 949 km in the Mercedes EQS 580 from Bengaluru to Navi Mumbai. This surpasses the previous record of 916.74 km set by a Ford Mustang Mach E in the UK.
The journey took place in monsoon conditions, with heavy rain and road detours adding to the challenge. Despite these obstacles, the Mercedes EQS 580, with its 107.8kWh battery and industry-leading aerodynamic design, managed to exceed its certified range of 857 km by more than 10 per cent.
Autocar India’s Rahul Kakar, who drove the record-setting car, shared, “I’ve hypermiled in a lot of vehicles before, both internal combustion and EVs, but this was my first time hypermiling a luxury EV. It’s by far the most challenging test I have undertaken, as in the past I never chased to break an existing record. A lot of factors made it all the more challenging like heavy rainfall, traffic, broken roads and worst of all, getting a flat tyre. With a target to achieve, it was equal hypertension as it was hypermile as the entire time I made calculations of the remaining range of the EQS with each percentage drop in the battery. In retrospect though, all the effort and stress was well worth claiming a Guinness World Record title.”
Autocar India celebrated this achievement as part of its 25 anniversary. Editor Hormazd Sorabjee remarked, “We are delighted to celebrate our 25 anniversary with a Guinness World Record title. This record of 949.0km on a single charge in adverse conditions is easily the most challenging drive we have ever undertaken. You can never be prepared enough for what Indian roads throw at you but some incredibly disciplined driving in a car like the EQS which has the best range and an efficient aerodynamic shape, helped us overcome all obstacles to achieve this amazing distance without plugging in”
Mercedes-Benz India’s managing director & CEO, Santosh Iyer said, “I thank all the early adopters of BEVs and every EQS customer for their trust in Mercedes-Benz, for creating a greener planet, by leading this BEV transition from the front. Congratulations to the Autocar India team for accomplishing the Guinness World Record title, driving a ‘Made in India’ EQS sedan, under real and arduous driving conditions from Bengaluru to Navi Mumbai during the monsoon.”
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
