On April 1, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it would open a new safety defect investigation into three million Hyundai and Kia vehicles for fires not caused by crashes.
The investigation is in response to a petition by the Center for Auto Safety, which since 2007 has been investigating some Hyundai and Kia vehicles for fire risks.
The latest probes cover the 2011-2014 Hyundai Sonata and Santa Fe, 2011-2014 Kia Optima and Sorento, and 2010-2015 Kia Soul.
Engine failure and fire problems with Hyundai and Kia vehicles have affected more than 6 million vehicles since 2015, with the two companies recalling approximately 2.4 million vehicles to fix problems that can cause fires and engine failures.
One death was reported involving a Kia vehicle.
Most of the engine failure recalls involve Hyundai’s 2.4-liter and 2-liter Theta II four-cylinder engines, in which debris left from manufacturing can clog a port and cut off oil flow, causing the connecting rod bearings to fail and damaging the engine block and causing oil to leak and catch fire.
Separate from its latest announcement, on March 29 NHTSA announced a recall of approximately 20,000 Hyundai Veloster cars with 1.6-liter engines in the U.S. and Canada because fuel can prematurely ignite in the cylinders around the pistons, which can cause excessive pressure and damage the engine, causing vehicles to stall and in some cases catch fire.

(Detroit News article on April 1, 2019)

On March 28, Maruti Suzuki announced the introduction of a new 1.5-litre DDiS 225 diesel engine in new Ciaz. Developed in-house, the new powertrain delivers enhanced performance, with a peak torque of 225 Nm and maximum power of 70 kW.
The 1.5-litre DDiS 225 diesel engine comes with a high efficiency turbo charger which generates higher low-end torque through optimization. The use of a Dual Mass Flywheel (DMF) along with optimized compression ratio reduces engine fluctuations and contributes to superior NVH performance, thereby giving a comfortable driving experience.
Use of light-weight aluminium casted cylinder head and block along with optimized engine calibration contributes to improved fuel efficiency. A newly designed 6-speed transmission, mated to the DDiS 225 engine completes the powertrain package.
With the addition of this new powerful engine, the new Ciaz will now be available with 1.5-litre capacity in both petrol (K15 with Next-Gen Smart Hybrid) and diesel (DDiS 225) powertrain options.

Maruti Suzuki press release

On March 14, Toyota announced it will exceed its 2017 pledge to invest USD 10 billion over five years with USD 749 million in new targeted investment, and more, to reach USD 13 billion by 2021.
USD 288 million in new investment will be used to expand the Huntsville engine plant in Alabama for new 4- and V6 engine lines, increasing the annual engine capacity from 670,000 to 900,000 units by the end of 2021, and bringing total plant investment to USD 1.2 billion.
The Georgetown, Kentucky plant is receiving USD 238 million to begin production of the Lexus ES 300h hybrid in May 2019 with annual capacity of 12,000 units and RAV4 Hybrid production in January 2020 with an annual capacity of 100,000 units.
Overall plant investment of more than USD 7 billion enables Georgetown’s 8,000 employees to continue building Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid and Lexus ES models with an annual capacity of 550,000 vehicles.
Investment of USD 62 million in Toyota’s Bodine Aluminum plant in Troy, Missouri will provide equipment to produce an additional 864,000 cylinder heads in addition to the more than 3 million cylinder heads the plant’s 900 employees build annually, with overall plant investment of USD 455 million.
Investment of USD 50 million in Bodine’s Jackson, Tennessee plant includes a building expansion and equipment to double the capacity of hybrid transaxle cases and housings to 240,000 units annually and produce an additional 288,000 engine blocks a year.
Bodine’s Jackson plant’s 300 employees currently produce 1.7 million engine blocks and 580,000 transmission cases and housings annually, with an overall plant investment of USD 365 million.
Investment of USD 111 million in Toyota’s Buffalo plant in West Virginia includes a building expansion and equipment to double capacity of hybrid transaxles from 120,000 units (Start of Production-2020) to 240,000 units annually in 2021, with an overall plant investment of USD 1.4 billion.

(Toyota press release on March 14, 2019)