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Thu, 04 Apr 2019 13:40:28 +0000

Welcome to wiki This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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Volkswagen advert unbuttons exciting hybrid image

Fri, 30 Jun 2017 16:34:24 +0000

Volkswagen is tomorrow (1 July) airing a new UK-created television campaign designed to bust one of the myths around the appeal of some hybrid-engined cars.

The brand’s new ‘button’ ad, which champions the responsible use of power available in the sporty Golf GTE, makes its UK television debut tonight during the prime time ITV show The Voice Kids.

The humorous, tongue-in-cheek advert created by global agency Adam&Eve/DDB in co-operation with the Volkswagen UK Marketing team, is designed to show how a “responsible use of power” in the potent Golf GTE makes hybrid motoring as enjoyable as it is environmentally acceptable.

The brand’s latest advertising campaign has been created, in part, to address consumer attitudes highlighted in a recent extensive piece of research by global market intelligence agency Mintel.

The authoritative Mintel data, generated as a result of a major study into attitudes around electric and hybrid vehicles*, clearly shows that many drivers who say they would consider a hybrid/electric car are ultimately concerned by factors including running costs, the availability of hybrid and electric cars, and supposed performance compromises. Mintel’s figures show 38% of drivers in their survey said they would consider buying a hybrid/electric car, yet only 4% actually did so.

Volkswagen National Communications Manager Glyn Butterworth explained: “The ‘button’ advert is our light-hearted way of addressing a serious point. Today’s updated Golf GTE – with its 204 PS combined power output and 7.6-second 0-62 mph time – is the antithesis of the ‘worthy but dull’ hybrid image.

“Pressing the Golf’s centre console-mounted ‘GTE’ button allows the combined 1.4 TSI 150 PS petrol engine and 75 Kw (102 PS) electric motor to operate together, unlocking a lively turn of pace in this car.

“Clearly we are not encouraging people to drive irresponsibly – indeed the idea behind the Golf’s advanced hybrid GTE powertrain is to maximise range – but the Golf’s petrol+electric potential is something we are rightly proud of.”

Glyn added: “We hope the gentle nod to various movie genres in the new TV campaign will make people smile, while also making them reappraise their views on hybrids.”

Driving even greater value for money into a growing area of the UK market, today’s petrol-electric hybrid Golf GTE offers a compelling mix of engaging GTI-style dynamics, responsible e-Golf-style sustainability and generous GTD-style range.

The updated Golf GTE is available with a choice of two trim levels. The entry-level Golf GTE is joined by the new GTE Advance in a range line-up that mirrors that of the award-winning Passat GTE.

The hybrid powered five-door Golf, with both a 150 PS 1.4-litre TSI petrol engine and a 102 PS (75 Kw) electric motor for a system power output of 204 PS, unites economy and performance in a flexible and appealing package.

The total potential range of the Golf GTE is 514 miles and the GTE’s battery gives an all-electric range of up to 31 miles. This opens up the possibility of driving significant distances cross-country using the TSI petrol engine and then completing the journey into a town or city under zero emission full electric power.

Official performance figures for the 204 PS Golf GTE show it capable of covering the 0-62 mph sprint in 7.6 seconds with a top speed, where legal, of 138 mph. CO2 emissions are 38g/km for the GTE and 40g/km for the GTE Advance, while combined fuel economy is 166 mpg for the GTE and 157 mpg for the GTE Advance.

Sitting alongside the range of the Golf GTE is its ability to offer high performance driving when required. A press of the centre console-mounted GTE button delivers the potential for spirited acceleration that comes via the instant torque of the electric motor working alongside the broad power of the turbocharged petrol engine.

Both the updated Golf GTE and Golf GTE Advance are equipped with a host of premium features such as full LED front and rear lights with sweeping indicators, Active Info Display, and Volkswagen Car-Net App Connect functionality.

The updated Golf GTE offers five operating modes: ‘E-mode’, ‘GTE mode’, ‘Battery Hold’, ‘Battery Charge’ and ‘Hybrid Auto’. In pure electric mode (activated at the press of a button), the Golf GTE can travel up to 31 miles emissions free. Electric power can also be saved – for example when driving to a zero-emissions zone. In electric mode, the GTE is capable of speeds of up to 81 mph.

The 8.7 kWh lithium-ion battery can be charged in 3.45 hours from a domestic mains outlet, or 2.15 hours from a domestic wallbox.

We are now also operating in Kerry: http://cork.cashforcarsireland.com/kerry/

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McLaren Automotive sees more growth ahead after record 2016

Fri, 30 Jun 2017 16:28:13 +0000

Luxury sports carmaker McLaren Automotive said on Thursday it expected to post another record performance this year after reporting a 70 percent increase in pre-tax profits in 2016 off the back of an all-time high in sales.

Founded in 1963 by Bruce McLaren and known for winning Formula 1 titles with drivers such as Lewis Hamilton, McLaren set up a separate sports car maker known as McLaren Automotive in 2010 to rival the likes of Ferrari and Aston Martin.

Since then the firm has grown rapidly, with sales doubling to 3,286 vehicles in 2016 and profit rising by 70 percent to 9.2 million pounds ($12 million).

The carmaker said earlier this year it would create 200 jobs as part of a 50 million pounds investment to build carbon-fibre chassis in northern England, its first purpose-built site away from its headquarters in the southern English town of Woking.

With a range of new models expected to drive further growth, the firm’s director for sales and marketing said he expected another all-time high this year.

“Having the new, second-generation Super Series and the first-ever Sports Series convertible in showrooms will give every one of the 80 McLaren retailers worldwide the opportunity to contribute strongly to another record year,” said Jolyon Nash.

The firm expects to reach sales of 4,500 vehicles by the end of 2022, with at least half equipped with hybrid powertrains.

We are now operating in Kerry: http://limerick.cashforcarsireland.com/kerry/

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Amazon plans to sell cars in Europe

Sun, 18 Jun 2017 11:39:53 +0000

MUNICH — Amazon plans a digital assault on the retail automotive sector and is sounding the attack in Europe first, sources have told Automobilwoche, an affiliate of Automotive News.

The Internet giant has recruited Christoph Moeller, a partner at the Oliver Wyman consultancy for the effort. He was responsible for the auto industry at the firm up until last February.

“At Amazon, I am overseeing the OEM business in the European market,” Moeller told Automobilwoche.

Amazon is spending large sums to build up its new unit, which will be run from Luxembourg and will start by selling cars in the U.K. “It has been luring experts with fat pay packages for some time,” an automotive consultant said.

“I know that Amazon is planning something in this area,” a spokesman for Fiat Chrysler said. Like Hyundai and Opel, Fiat has already sold cars over Amazon.

Amazon is exerting “massive pressure to add yet another supporting pillar to the market in the form of test drives,” said an executive at one manufacturer. In scattered instances, it is already possible to get test drives of Mercedes models at Amazon.

A spokesman for Amazon declined to comment on European plans and it’s not clear whether new or used cars will be offered. The company last year announced a deal to sell three Fiat cars, including the 500 and Panda, on its Italian website. The program was extended in March and now also includes long-term leases.

Amazon is seeking to fill a gap as traditional dealerships lose appeal.

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A New Way of Thinking About the Automotive Industry

Sun, 18 Jun 2017 11:38:11 +0000

Over the last couple of decades, Silicon Valley has been responsible for inventing and reinventing all kinds of gadgets and technologies: the music player, the phone, the watch, the TV and the computer itself. Recent trends suggest that the automotive industry might be next on Silicon Valley’s disruption list.

Besides a surge of auto tech startups and Tesla’s success, Silicon Valley’s new affair with the automotive industry is heightened by chatter about a secret car project by the most prominent disruptor of them all: Apple. Dan Akerson, retired CEO of General Motors, recently commented on Apple’s alleged entrance into the automotive market with the following remarks:

“We take steel, raw steel, and turn it into a car. They have no idea what they’re getting into if they get into that.”

But is this really true? Does Silicon Valley really have no idea what they are getting into? Or might the Valley just have a drastically different idea of the future of the automotive industry?

Are We Reaching Peak Driving?

One reason for Silicon Valley’s interest in the automotive industry is the theory of “peak driving”. In the U.S. and Europe, people are buying fewer cars, driving less and getting less driver’s licenses, suggesting a major cultural shift away from individual car ownership. This is especially true when one looks at the behavior of 16-30-year-olds living in urban areas.

While car sales in other markets, such as China, are still growing, a look at cities, here too, signals that this trend won’t hold for long. For example, in Beijing, a driver wishing to purchase a vehicle with an internal-combustion engine must first enter a lottery and then wait up to 2 years before receiving a license plate.

Consulting firm McKinsey expects such vehicle use restrictions to grow even more stringent in emerging countries as the level of urbanization and air pollution increases. Globally air pollution already accounts for 6.5 million deaths annually. It is such developments, among others, that attract Silicon Valley disruptors to enter and redefine the industry.

Changing the Worldview About Cars

The purpose-driven Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and executives, following their “change-the-world-mantra”, are viewing the shortcomings of internal combustion engine cars as global challenges, solvable by innovative technologies and business models.

In their view, cars are an old, inconvenient technology, destroying lives, polluting the air, and contributing to global warming. For executives like Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google’s parent company Alphabet, the argument for disrupting the automotive industry is obvious. Referring to the over 1 million deaths and 15 million injuries caused by car accidents globally each year, Schmidt speaking to shareholders in 2016 bemoaned: “How could you accept that? Why is this not a national crisis?”

Furthermore, from the perspective of Silicon Valley, cars are not only destroying lives and the environment, they are also extremely narrow “computers on wheels“. While cars have become increasingly more computerized, they are still relatively unintelligent, inefficient, and rarely connected to the Internet with no unifying platform that allows third party software to be run. This is where Silicon Valley steps in: The smarter the car gets, the more it becomes obvious that the automobile is but one element of a complex mobility system – a system due for digital disruption.

The individual components which come together to form a car are obviously not all made by the same supplier, in fact there are thousands of satellite companies withint the automotive industry which support manufacturers at various stages in the supply chain. These smaller companies are often responsible for the innovations which have huge impact to the industry as a whole:

CAN (Controller Area Network) Bus – the system which allows microcontrollers and devices to communicate together
Tires – Optimizing performance is crucial not just for efficiency but also safety
ECU (Engine Control Unit) – the processor which manages operation of the engine
Windows – innovations in this department can lead to aesthetic design innovation
Seatbelts & airbags – innovation with regard to safety features of any car is essential, and new methods are constantly under development
Lighting – Whether it’s innovation in luxury class vehicles with the intention to impress, or functionality-focused for headlights and break lights
Fasteners – ensuring that all elements are securely attached is crucial when traveling at high speeds

From Selling Cars to Selling Experiences

A recently published report by independent think tank RethinkX suggests that by 2030, 95% of U.S. passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand autonomous electric vehicles, owned by fleets, not individuals. In such a future, the key customer question that the automotive industry has to answer with innovative products and services is not: “What car should I buy?”, but rather “How do I get from A to B?”.

image: http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Automotive_Blog_2.jpg

This dramatic shift from individual car ownership to Transport as a Service (TaaS) is the vision followed by Silicon Valley. Tech companies are racing to deploy the first TaaS solutions to leapfrog traditional car manufacturers and to gain first-mover advantages. Not only would such a shift dramatically shrink the automotive market (unit sales and margins), it would also mean that platform providers, companies developing autonomous vehicle operating systems, and computing platforms would win over traditional car manufacturers. Furthermore, as one billion people get in and out of cars every single day, McKinsey forecasts that aggregating and selling data from these vehicles could grow into a $450 to 750 billion market by 2030.

So, while executives of the automotive industry were still laughing at Google when it unveiled its fleet of little pod-cars without steering wheels in 2014, some traditional car manufacturers like General Motors have now at least begun calling themselves mobility companies instead of car manufacturers.

Key Challenge: Self-Disruption

In this coming mobility revolution, the predominant challenge for traditional players in the automotive industry is self-disruption. These companies have to redefine who they are and what they stand for. Changing the worldview about cars is the best way to start. As Vijay Govindarajan, a world leading expert on innovation and New York Times bestselling author, explains in his book The Three Box Solution: In order to create the future, one must forget the past. Govindarajan explains how older organizations often fall into the complacency and legacy trap, i.e. focusing too much on their past successes and existing structures and cultures. He argues that organizations must establish formal regimes of planned opportunism (i.e. gathering and analyzing weak signals and trends) and thus challenge their internal beliefs and values.

This means that incumbent players in the automotive industry are well advised to continuously irritate themselves and to create a new understanding and vision of the future of their industry. This requires open innovation solutions in order for employees and other stakeholders to first and foremost develop a collective intelligence about disruptive trends, but also to express new ideas that challenge the status quo.

Some of the biggest automotive companies are now taking notice and beginning to utilize this methodology. For example, in 2016 Ford began working with award-winning innovation management software vendor, Qmarkets, to engage their workforce and overcome their business challenges. Idea & Innovation Management software can help organizations shift their perspectives and jumpstart a conversation about new business opportunities which could prove invaluable to the success of the organization.

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The speed limits in these parts of Dublin will be reduced from this week onwards

Sat, 10 Jun 2017 14:25:40 +0000

New speed limits will come into effect in a number of areas across the city from midnight on Tuesday onwards.

A 30 km/h speed limit will be enforced in certain urban areas and residential estates throughout Dublin from midnight on Tuesday, May 30, as part of the expansion of 30 km/h speed limits throughout the city.

The new speed limit will come into effect in parts of Sandymount, Crumlin, Drimnagh, Raheny, Artane, Donaghmede, Drumcondra and Phibsborough; a detailed map of the zones where the expansion of the 30km/hr limit will come into effect can be viewed here.

The introduction of the 30 km/h speed limit in those areas comes after it was initially introduced in a number of areas in Dublin city centre in March.

Dublin City Council says that the expansion of the 30km/hr speed limit zones will generally not affect the arterial roads in and out of the city but rather the residential areas of the city.

New signage will be revealed in housing estates and locations where the 30km/hr speed limit is being applied and a Slow Zone will be created.

Bye-laws for the 30km/hr expansion were adopted by Dublin City councillors in December 2016 following a period of public consultation; you can see all the areas of Dublin where it is in effect on the Dublin City Council website.

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Belfast Mechanical expands in Quinte West

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:45:35 +0000

Suzanne Andrews, general manager of the Quinte West chamber of commerce, congratulated David Cowan on the expansion of Belfast Mechanical on Wednesday June 7. – Erin Stewart/Metroland

Trenton — Belfast Mechanical Services Inc. auto repair shop has expanded services and is now open to the public, located in Quinte West.

Owner David Cowan, licensed technician in automotive, truck and car repair, has been a mechanic since high school and has worked in the Quinte area for the last 20 years.

For the past 17 years Cowan has solely repaired Quinte Paramedics Services EMS vehicles but since opening Belfast Mechanical in April 2016, Cowan said he has been able to expand his shop and hire another mechanic, enabling him to service the general public.

“It’s been a special relationship with EMS but working with other customers’ vehicles will be quite natural, we will be doing both,” he said.

“We’re going to be working on everything from passenger vehicles right through to medium duty size vehicles that would need annual safety inspections,” said Cowan.

“We do all repairs on all makes and models of vehicles, everything from tune-ups, to breaks, whatever a vehicle would need for repairs.”

Opening shop in Quinte West is a dream come true, said Cowan.

“I emigrated from Northern Ireland to Canada with my family in the mid 1970s,” he said.

“My grandfather came to Canada at age 55 and I grew up in his shop, learning from him became the foundation for many things and ultimately led me to wanting to become an entrepreneur myself.”

Quinte West Mayor Jim Harrison congratulated Cowan on his new expansion, along with Suzanne Andrews, general manager of the Quinte West chamber of commerce, on Wednesday June 7.

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How Most Insurance Companies Strangle Automotive Enthusiasm

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:43:28 +0000

Quick, now: Will you send your children to STEM or to FIRE? It sounds like a question that might be asked as part of the “Hunger Games” but it’s far more important than that. The media continually tells us that not enough young Americans are getting degrees in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Instead, they’re choosing careers in FIRE — finance, insurance, and real estate. Why is this happening?

The cynic in me has all sorts of unpleasant answers to that question, mostly having to do with the fact that you never see a Wall Street bank outsource its trading operations to Asia, but here’s another good, solid answer to the question: One of the major insurance agencies just announced that they were going to raise premiums on the Tesla Model S about thirty percent. They are doing this because they aren’t making enough money on Tesla policies.

Never mind the fact that American insurance companies, as a whole, earned almost half a trillion dollars in net profit over the past decade. There’s always room for a couple more dollars in the hopper. So the premiums on Teslas will rise by a third.

Consider, if you will, how much engineering effort, how much financial risk, and how much sheer willpower went into the creation of the Tesla Model S. Contrast that with the relatively prosaic and uninteresting task of insuring the Tesla Model S. Now consider that nobody is under any legal obligation whatsoever to purchase a new Tesla, but the moment you buy one anyway you will be under a legal obligation to purchase insurance for it.

DOESN’T SEEM FAIR, DOES IT?

Doesn’t seem fair, does it? The STEM guys bust their humps to create a technological masterpiece and they have to shave the cost down to the last penny just to survive in the marketplace. Meanwhile, the FIRE crowd gets to shoot fish in a barrel courtesy of mandatory-insurance laws plus they can raise the premiums any time they feel like it. One side does all the work and takes all the risk, while the other side has a government-guaranteed customer base and the ability to raise prices whenever they like. And you wonder why the Millennials decided to eschew burning the midnight engineering oil in favor of partying their way through a middling business degree before going to work on Wall Street or in the insurance business. Turns out it’s because they’re smart.

Those of us who are a bit older than the Millennials can recall that this isn’t the first time the auto insurance industry has reached down from its profitable perch and put the screws to a particular type of automobile. Consider the following: Thirty years ago, the market was chock-full of two-seater sporting cars. Some of them were pretty tame, like the Escort EXP, and some were absolute corkers, like the 300ZX Turbo. It didn’t matter. The insurance companies decided that two-seat cars should be charged higher premiums–and poof, they just disappeared.

Take a look at the list of the cheapest and most expensive vehicles to insure. The insurance companies love dog-slow tippy-toe misery-mobiles. I guess maybe rollover accidents aren’t such a big deal after all, because every single vehicle on the low-cost list has a hip point well above that of a Honda Accord.

The list of the most expensive-to-insure vehicles, on the other hand, reads like a dream garage, chock-full of desirable stuff like the last-generation Viper, the Nismo GT-R, and the Audi RS7. But it’s the rankings in-between that truly rankle. Did you know that the Lexus IS350 is about ten percent more expensive to insure than the ES350? Why would that be, other than the fact that the IS350 is a delight to drive compared to its staid front-wheel-drive showroom compatriot? The Mercedes C400 costs more to insure than the E400. Why? Again, other than being more fun to drive, what sin has the smaller, cheaper sedan committed?

THE INSURANCE COMPANIES HAVE ALL BUT KILLED THE SPORTBIKE MARKET.

It’s not just cars. The insurance companies have all but killed the sportbike market. It’s prohibitively expensive to insure anything but an “adventure bike.” I decided not to insure my ZX-14R for collision because the tab for doing so was one-third of the price of the motorcycle per year. Mind you, I have never had a motorcycle insurance claim of any kind. It’s literally cheaper to put a motorcycle on a credit card and pay that interest rate than it is to finance a bike with a reputable bank and meet their standards for collision and comprehensive insurance. Surely that’s an indicator of a broken market.

None of this would truly matter if we had a genuine free market when it came to auto insurance–but we don’t. You’re required to purchase it, by the state and by your financial institution. The rates are difficult to compare and subject to change with little notice after you start your policy. Virtually anything you do, from getting a ticket to getting divorced, will raise your rates. Some insurance agencies actually pay the quick-lube oil-change places to send them your odometer readings so they can raise your rates for “excessive driving.” It happened to my wife; they looked at the monthly mileage she put on her Tahoe during the winter and extrapolated that out to the whole year. Oddly enough, they didn’t extend the equal and opposite favor to her regarding the Corvette that doesn’t leave the garage in January. Strange how that works.

Against the above list of sins–killing the two-seater market, forcing young people into high-riding, rollover-prone mommy-wagons, and making motorcycle ownership just slightly less expensive than owning a Gulfstream–the defenders of the auto-insurance game have nothing to say other than the fact that auto underwriting is occasionally unprofitable for the insurance companies. Mind you, it’s not so unprofitable that anybody is quitting the business. The past four decades have seen the auto industry lose dozens of independent manufacturers as diverse as AMC and Lamborghini in a vicious downward spiral of rising costs and increasing regulations. Have you seen any insurance companies go out of business during that time? I rest my case.

What’s the fix for this state of affairs? I can’t tell you. I don’t have the education to know. I didn’t major in STEM or FIRE. (I majored in SCREW–Sleeping, Cycling, Racing, English, and Working a second job while I was in school.) But given that we live in an era where a lot of attention is being paid to how “fair” and “equal” everything is, at some point there is going to have to be a national conversation about the fact that our regulations are written to benefit the FIRE folks at the expense of the STEM people. It shouldn’t be less risky to insure a car than it is to design, engineer, build, market, distribute, and warranty it.

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3 Automotive Brands Dominated Spending on New Creative Last Week

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:40:35 +0000

Need a new car this summer?

Three automotive brands populated Kantar Media’s list of last week’s top spenders on national broadcast placement for new campaigns. Spending on new creative increased last week, with 594 advertisers devoting around $95 million on placement for new campaigns, an increase of nearly a third over the previous week’s total of roughly $72 million, although well short of the $122 million mark set the week before that. Of that, advertisers devoted nearly $8.7 million on placement during the first two games of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers last week.

Total spending on broadcast placement was down, however, with advertisers spending around $746 million last week, compared to $828 million the week prior.

While three automotive brands made Kantar Media’s list, Toyota lapped the competition, spending some $9 million on broadcast placement, 81 percent of its $11.1 million budget, for a pair of spots promoting its 2018 CH-R cross-over vehicle. Of that, $5.3 million was dedicated to prime-time programming, spread out between a variety of shows including Mom and Life in Pieces. Lethal Weapon received $400,000, which was the most spending on new creative of any show.

The ads feature the 2018 CH-R, not a fantasy prince, saving modern-day depictions of Cinderella and Rapunzel. Both spots made their debut on May 29, running in both English and Spanish. As of the compiling of Kantar Media’s report, the “Cinderella” spot had run a total of 1,142 times with an expenditure of $5.6 million, while “Rapunzel” had run 1,216 times for a total expenditure of $3.5 million.

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$20 Million Hypercar Gathering Is a Symphony of Automotive Music

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:38:22 +0000

CARSPOTTER JEROEN/YOUTUBE

When any automotive enthusiasts sees more than three supercars (or hypercars) together, their skips a beat. When an automotive enthusiast hears more than three supercars start up and drive around, their heart just stops. But when hundreds of supercars get together—like the gaggle that recently gathered at TT Circuit Assen in the Netherlands—well, it can even cause cardiac events among gearheads who are just watching on YouTube. So you’d better be sure you’re sitting down for this.

In the video shot by Carspotter Jeroen, we can see some truly amazing cars. Between the McLaren P1s and a Koenigsegg Agera RS and Agera RS ML, this event isn’t falling short of truly insane cars. Put it this way: The Bugatti Veyrons look like regular cars compared to some of the insanely rare vehicles darting down the front straight.

As the video continues, we get to see and hear some high-speed passes as these rolling works of art blast past Jeroen and his camera. A fun math exercise would be to estimate the cost of all the cars on the truck, but since we aren’t mathematicians, we’ll just play it safe and say north of $20 million. Other cars that can be seen are Ferrari LaFerraris, Lamborghini Huracans, Nissan GT-Rs, Mercedes-AMG GT S, Aston Martins, and much more.

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Karma Automotive cranks out $130,000 cars in Moreno Valley

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:35:12 +0000

The employees of Karma Automotive cheer as Krishnan Menon, of Los Angeles, drives away as the first customer to take delivery of the new Revero built at their Moreno Valley factory on Monday, June 5, 2017. (Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Karma Automotive aspires to “take customers to a place they didn’t expect,” according to president and CEO Dennis Dougherty.

It got a little closer to that goal Monday when it delivered its first commercial car to its first customer.

Karma was once Fisker Automotive, which went bankrupt in 2013 after several years of missteps in bringing its luxury hybrid EVs to market. It was revived in 2014 and now has headquarters in Costa Mesa and a factory in Moreno Valley as well as a presence in Detroit.

Moreno Valley was the scene of Monday’s ceremony as company executives gathered to hand Los Angeles businessman Krishnan Menon the keys to its only model, the 2018 Revero, priced at around $130,000.

Applauding employees made way as Menon got behind the wheel and rolled out of the 550,000-square-foot facility.

“Watch your knees, boys,” chief revenue officer Jim Taylor told factory workers. “He might make that circle a little wide.”

The Moreno Valley factory, which doubles as a warehouse, has 198 employees in an industry that has been absent in Southern California for 25 years. Once, 15,000 workers turned out half a million cars a year in places like South Gate, Maywood, Pico Rivera and Long Beach. That era ended with the closure of General Motors’ Van Nuys facility in 1992.

The Bay Area’s Tesla Motors, a key competitor in the luxury market, has headquarters in Palo Alto and a factory in Fremont. In 2016, Fortune and Bloomberg News reported its Model S was the best-selling luxury sedan in the nation, followed by Mercedes-Benz.

But the market for electric cars is not large, less than 1 percent, according to Kelley Blue Book analyst Tim Fleming.

“People right now want SUVs,” he said. “They aren’t thinking about fuel efficiency.”

Dougherty said for now Karma is building one car a day.

“From the get-go, they’ve been straightforward. They’re not trying to be a volume manufacturer,” said Akshay Anand, also with Kelley Blue Book.

“There are inevitable comparisons to Tesla. They’ve already told people they’re not trying to be Tesla. Karma has described the brand as ultra luxury. They’re going for a certain brand image and not volume or a sales quota.”

Menon had two specifications for his Revero: that it be Borrego Black, one of Karma’s eight colors, and that it be numbered 007.

“This car actually makes me feel like James Bond,” he said. “This is something I’m going to be able to tell my friends and kids, when I have them – if I have them. Right now my cars and my puppies are my kids, so this is amazing.”

Menon is founder and CEO of a marketing company called Phenomenon and an enthusiast of Tesla Motors.

Menon entered what Taylor called Karma’s “very elite space” several months ago when the Costa Mesa company was looking for ways to promote Revero.

“Krish had a lot of great ideas how we ought to take our vehicle to market and specifically how we should be selling them to customers like him,” Taylor said in the key hand-off ceremony. “He’s now rapidly changing from Tesla to Karma.”

Menon’s drive from the factory floor to the front parking lot was his first time behind the wheel of a Revero.

“It was incredible,” he said. “It felt sturdy and solid, just substantial, but so quiet, which is exactly what you want in an electric vehicle.”

Menon said the Revero is going to become his daily drive for awhile.

“If you’re in the car business, this is one of the days you wait for. It’s kind of like having your first child or grandchild,” Taylor said. “Especially when you’re a startup company because the car business is a tough business to be in and to get all the moving parts that have to come together to actually deliver a car is huge.”

In mid-day, Karma sent two demo cars each to 10 dealerships. Taylor said interest in the demos has been high. Karma’s immediate goal is to translate that interest into more sales.

“Like golf, you can’t just hit the ball once. You have to hit it again and again and again. … The next is actually the hard part about the business, keeping everybody happy.”

Hannah Madans and Richard K. DeAtley contributed to this report.

KARMA TIMELINE

2008: Fisker Automotive’s Karma four-door luxury plug-in hybrid sedan is unveiled.

2009: The U.S. Energy Department agrees to lend Fisker $528.7 million.

2011: The first Karmas are delivered, two years behind schedule. In December, Fisker recalls 239 of them.

2012: Fisker discloses that the Energy Department cut off $336 million of its loan after the company missed key sales and development milestones. A $107,850 Karma breaks down during a driving test by Consumer Reports.

2013: Fisker lays off workers and goes into bankruptcy.

2014: Wanxiang Group buys Fisker.

June 2015: Fisker announces Moreno Valley plant. It holds a job fair in July.

October 2015: Fisker changes its name to Karma Automotive.

September 2016: Karma unveils Revero at a Laguna Beach launch party.

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Check out the rare sports cars of the Marconi Automotive Museum

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 17:32:08 +0000

As you enter you’re greeted by two rows of motorcycles, racing and sports bikes from different eras. Enter the main space and the drool really begins. Red and yellow Ferraris are right by the entrance. There are no ropes, you can walk right up to each car.

As amazing as it is getting up close to some of these legends, there are a few lesser-known cars here that might even be more impressive. The aforementioned Cizeta-Moroder V16T for example, one of the only modern cars with a V16 (technically two V8s that share a gearbox). This car is wide, 81-inches, which is about as wide as a modern Chevy Suburban.

So many cars!

Geoffrey Morrison/CNET

Then there’s the Ferrari FX, the only one you’ll likely ever see. Made special-order for the Sultan of Brunei, only six were made, and this is the only one not still in Brunei. Slightly less rare, though the first I’ve seen in a museum, is a Lamborghini Espada, looking long, wide and gorgeous. Somewhere between those two is a Jaguar/TWR XJ220-S (1 of 5), an Aston Martin DB AR1 (1 of 99), a Lambo Jarama (1 of 328), and one of my favorites, a BMW M1 (1 of 457). Dozens of other amazing cars sit side-by-side vying for attention. All are drool worthy.

The left and right walls of the museum have race cars, including a Ferrari driven by Michael Schumacher and a Honda driven by Ayrton Senna.

Perhaps the best part of the Marconi is the price: a $5 suggested donation. For any car fan this is an easy price to pay given all the wonderful cars within. Sure the Petersen is bigger and better known, but for fans of sports cars, the Marconi is a great way to spend an afternoon.

If you can’t make it in person (they’re only open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and not at all on weekends), check out the photos above.

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740 jobs secured as Liberty House buys automotive supplier CovPress

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 14:02:45 +0000

Hundreds of jobs have been saved after an engineering company which went into administration last year was bought.

The deal with administrators Grant Thornton secures the jobs of 740 skilled workers at the firm’s plant in Canley, Coventry.

Liberty Industries Group, part of Liberty House Group, which already has 17 engineering businesses employing more than 1,000 people across the West Midlands, said it regarded the CovPress acquisition as a strong strategic fit with its expanding presence in the automotive supply chain.

The group completed the purchase of the UK’s only aluminium smelter at Fort William three weeks ago and announced plans for auto-component manufacturing there as part of a £450 million industrial and energy investment in the Scottish Highlands.

Liberty and sister company SIMEC aim to reduce reliance on imports and supply the country’s vehicle manufacturers with more components made locally from British aluminium and steel using renewable energy and recycled metal.

CovPress, a metal stamping and robotic assembly specialist, supplies Jaguar Land Rover, Renault and General Motors.

The business, which will be renamed Liberty Pressing Solutions, has existed on the Canley site for 120 years.

Douglas Dawson, chief executive of Liberty Industries Group, said: “We are very familiar with the high quality of the operation at CovPress and the skills and equipment in the business.

“As such we are extremely pleased they are becoming part of the Liberty Industries Group.

“We have drawn up a detailed plan to ensure the future sustainability and profitability of the business. That will include ongoing capital investment, strengthened financial management and the benefits that will come from joint purchasing and marketing with our other operations in the UK.”

Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the Liberty House Group, said: “There exists a huge opportunity for Britain’s industrial supply chain to achieve dynamic growth through becoming more innovative and competitive.

“By adding quality operations like CovPress to Liberty’s already thriving network, we aim to play a leading part in this landmark economic shift.”

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I Can Pinpoint The Moment I Fell In Love With The Mazda RX-7

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 13:59:49 +0000

Have you ever had a moment with a car? Just a brief couple of minutes in which you fell positively, uncontrollably head over heals for an automobile? I did one night in Hong Kong a while back, and now I can’t stop thinking about first-generation Mazda RX-7s.

Last Christmas, I flew to Hong Kong to visit my brother Mike, a geologist working in the rocky Special Administrative Region of China. On the flight over, and throughout the trip, I learned a lot about Japanese car culture by reading Ben Hsu’s book Classic Japanese Performance Cars.

One of my favorite chapters talked about how 47 engineers at a little former-cork company in Japan turned the quirky and troublesome rotary engine into something truly majestic. I am, of course, talking about Mazda, and one of the cars that brought the company into the hallowed halls of true automotive giants was the original RX-7.

Reading about the incredible history of the Japanese auto scene while simultaneously walking through Hong Kong and witnessing some of the most priceless gems I was reading about was a life-changing experience. I was seeing Mitsubishi Pajero Evolutions, Nissan Fairlady Zs, Skyline GT-Rs, classic Toyota Celicas, Nissan Pulsar GTI-Rs and a whole lot of other things that really enhanced my appreciation for Japanese car culture.

But it was on the final night of my trip, as my brother and I headed towards the river to go fishing, that we spotted something that truly moved me. It was a first-gen RX-7 idling in front of a gas station.

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Michigan ponders its automotive future in the connected age

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 13:56:23 +0000

Few people take cars more seriously than Michiganders. I’ve been to the home of BMW in Germany. I’ve been to Kia’s HQ in Korea. I’ve seen Honda’s goods in Japan. No one, from the factory worker to the executive in her pinstriped suit, is more obsessed with cars than Michigan Inc. That’s why it was interesting this week to see the state have a moment of introspection four hours north of the Motor City on a scenic island called Mackinac.

Ironically, cars are not allowed here. Normally a tourist trap, it played placed host to the Mackinac Public Policy conference this week. While politics took center stage (I may be the only person here not considering a run for governor) the evolution of the industry through connectivity and data was a theme of the conference.

If you’re reading this in New York, Silicon Valley, or one of the automotive heartlands listed above, you do care about this. If Michigan rethinks its approach to the car business – and makes moves to become more competitive – that affects you the consumer and enthusiast. It’s jobs. It’s technology, and it’s a competition to see who’s going to be the leader. More than a century after Henry Ford made mass production a thing, more than 70 years after Detroit’s Arsenal of Democracy helped win World War II, and nearly a decade after the historic bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler, the car business is on solid footing again and looking to the future.

What’s next? Michigan is still home to thousands of auto workers, tech centers (including gleaming facilities built by Toyota and Hyundai), and the headquarters of the three American carmakers. Just because the economy is good doesn’t mean it’s a given connected cars and mobility advancements are going to come from this state. A lot of it’s not. Tesla, Uber, Lyft, Faraday Future, and other transportation mediums have spouted up other places.

Michigan leaders and Detroit’s carmakers understand this reality. Reflecting on the past means admitting the future is not a given, a key undertone this week in Mackinac. It’s about using existing resources, like skilled labor, to move forward. “We do have the number of technicians and technical expertise here in this state,” says Stephen Polk,” conference chair and former CEO of auto data firm R.L. Polk & Co.

To that end, Ford is placing increased emphasis on a division called Smart Mobility, which is an in-house unit focusing on autonomy, connectivity, and forward-looking ideas. It’s “evolution of the transportation system as a shared services model,” says John Kwant, Smart Mobility vice president. The division was unveiled in March 2016. In May, Ford tapped Smart Mobility’s head, Jim Hackett, to be its new CEO.

Michigan also recently announced plans to install infrastructure on a busy part of Interstate 75 north of Detroit to test car-to-grid technologies in partnership with auto supplier 3M. As part of a longer play, Dassault vice president Ingeborg Rocker suggested Detroit, which has struggled for decades with developing a mass transportation system, could skip more conventional means and go straight to a larger scale autonomous-vehicle test.

It’s not about being parochial. The guy in San Francisco or Atlanta might not care where his car his made and doesn’t care about jobs in Michigan. But if that car, or thinking more broadly – mobility solution – offers him something compelling, something different, he might start to think about Michigan’s signature industry in a positive way that affects his life. Like past generations did.

Nationally, many might not know GM has an alliance with Lyft, or Ford has plans to produce an autonomous vehicle for ride sharing in 2021. FCA has the industry’s only plug-in electric minivan, the Chrysler Pacifica. Explaining these advancements is crucial. “We are still the head of the auto industry,” Polks says. “At the end of the day, the products are going to prove the message.”

Perhaps it’s working. Ride-sharing startup SPLT moved its headquarters from New York to Detroit to be a part of the Techstars new business incubator. A key reason for the move: The region’s knowledge base in connectivity. “What we see is a new shift in mobility, where access and automation is as important as how you get there,” SPLT co-founder and CEO Anya Babbitt says.

Who embraces this shift fastest and in the most compelling manner will prove to be the winner. The competitors from Europe, Asia, and Silicon Valley are formidable, and clearly, Michigan is still in the fight, too.

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Companies urged to address trust concerns over driverless cars

Tue, 30 May 2017 12:37:03 +0000

Fewer than one in five UK motorists would trust driverless cars built by technology giants, according to new research.

Google has built cars to test self-driving software and there is growing speculation that Apple is to enter the automotive industry.

But a study by analysts Inrix found that just 18% of UK motorists would trust technology firms to build autonomous vehicles and to secure connected car data.

Many drivers say they do not trust the technology. (Philip Toscano/PA)

The report found that drivers have more faith in established car manufacturers, with 27% trusting them with their personal information.

Inrix chief economist Dr Graham Cookson said: “The UK is charging towards a transport revolution and time is ticking for Silicon Valley’s tech giants to address data security and privacy concerns.

“Consumers are more aware than ever of keeping their data safe, and the fact that they trust traditional car-makers over tech giants with their in-car data sends a powerful message.

A prototype Nissan Leaf driverless car. (Philip Toscano/PA)

“While UK drivers are more sceptical of today’s tech titans, traditional car-makers still need to do more to show consumers the benefits of their connected and, in the future, autonomous vehicles to secure a concrete foothold in this highly lucrative market.

“As connected and autonomous vehicles become an essential part of brands’ business model, the stakes have never been higher.”

Over half (53%) of UK drivers believe autonomous vehicles will be widely available within a decade, but just 17% say they would be likely to buy one.

Driverless cars will be on UK motorways in the next three years. (Rui Vieira/PA)

Some 5,054 drivers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and the US were surveyed for the study.

Driverless cars will be deployed on UK motorways in the next three years.

The Driven consortium of technology firms said the project – described as the most complex autonomous vehicle trial anywhere in the world – will culminate in driverless cars travelling from London to Oxford by 2019.

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Ford to replace CEO Mark Fields with James Hackett

Tue, 30 May 2017 12:28:02 +0000

Ford has replaced its chief executive Mark Fields, shaking up its key executive posts amid investor concerns the car company has failed to expand its core automotive business while falling behind rivals in developing autonomous and electric vehicles.

The US carmaker said Mr Fields (56) is being replaced by Jim Hackett (62), who looks after Ford’s subsidiary that works on autonomous vehicles.

Mr Hackett was a long-serving chief executive of Steelcase, the office furniture company, and joined Ford last year as head of its smart mobility unit which includes driverless technology.

“Jim Hackett is the right CEO to lead Ford during this transformative period for the auto industry and the broader mobility space.,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman.

Other changes will see Jim Farley, the Europe, Middle East and Africa president, and Joe Hinrichs, Americas director, assume larger roles.

Mr Farley has turned round Ford’s European business, bringing it back to profit at a time when General Motors has been pulling out of the market, while Mr Hinrichs has overseen strong sales of Ford’s F-150 series of pick-up trucks.

The move to replace Mr Fields, which was first reported by Forbes, comes two weeks after he was criticised during the annual shareholders meeting for Ford’s worsening financial results.

During his three years at the helm, Mr Fields has seen Ford shares drop by 40 per cent.

Last week he announced the company was cutting 1,400 jobs, partly in response to mounting concerns from investors and directors over the company’s share price.

But analysts say that on his watch the company has failed to cut costs at its units making trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Ford’s profits for the first quarter fell $1.5 billion to $2 billion in its automotive segment, while it lost market share in the US. In contrast, Ford’s rival GM posted rising profits that beat expectations, with profits rising $700 million to $3.4 billion.

There were also concerns over Ford’s approach to the long-term trends that are sweeping the car industry. Under Mr Fields’ leadership, Ford has taken starkly different approaches to the future of the industry when compared with other carmakers.

Car companies are investing in electric and driverless technology and businesses that allow consumers to share or book car rides. While GM has already released a mass-market electric car, the Chevrolet Bolt, and will begin testing fleets of autonomous vehicles later this year, Ford is perceived as lagging behind in both technologies. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2017

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Is that convertible a Spider or a Spyder?

Tue, 30 May 2017 12:20:54 +0000

Quick — off the top of your head, what makes an open-top two-door a Spider? And why is it sometimes spelled “Spyder?” And while we’re on the subject, how did the term come to be attached to cars in the first place?

We’ve got the answer to that last question, and we’ll get to that in a moment. If you want to finally settle the contentious Y vs. I debate, though, bad news: As far as we can tell, there’s no definitive answer to why some automakers say spyder, others use spider and why a few have gone with both — sometimes at the same time.

Historical consistency is no sure guide here. Ferrari has used “Spyder” in the past; see the 250 GT California Spyder for one prominent megabucks example. Maserati used to build a Spyder, but it now calls its convertible the GranCabrio. Weirdly enough, the Italian alphabet lacks the letter “Y,” which might explain why Ferrari uses “Spider” these days … but not why Lancia, which introduced the B24 Aurelia Spider in 1954, released the Beta Spyder (aka the Zagato) decades later — right around the time it sold a sunroof-equipped “Spider” variant of its wedge-shaped Montecarlo.

In any case, Spider is what Alfa has gone with in the past — stretching all the way back to the prewar Alfa Romeo 8C Spiders, among the first cars to use the term that we could find — and Spider is what it calls its open-topped 4C variant (which is more of a targa, but that’s another discussion for another day).

Fiat, for its part, has stuck with Spider for both old and new 124s.

At the same time, Lamborghini has no problem defying Italian orthography with its Gallardo and Huracan Spyders. Or does it only do so because it’s a part of the Volkswagen Group, which uses the Y-spelling for its Audi R8 Spyder, plus open-topped Porsches like the 918 Spyder and the wonderful Boxster Spyder (to say nothing of the 917 Spyder variants and the 550 Spyder)? BMW is set to call its convertible i8 a Spyder; perhaps it’s a German thing.

Further, and probably because of the grabby unconventional spelling, “Spyder” seems to be the preferred spelling attached to truly exotic cars — and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, aspirational vehicles from normcore marques. On the one hand, you have the Spyker C8 Preliator Spyder and the Panoz Esperante Spyder GT; on the other, you have the Toyota MR2 Spyder, Mitsubishi’s Eclipse and 3000GT Spyders and the Chevrolet Corvair Monza Spyder (which, of course, could be had as both a convertible or a coupe).

If there’s a point here, it’s that there’s really no particular justification for either spelling of the word that we can identify. At this point, we’d guess that any automaker that has picked one will stick with it.

RM Sotheby’s sold this 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Lungo Spider by Touring last year for nearly $20 million. It has a disappearing top.

What is easy enough to prove is that the word itself is, as are many other automotive terms, a relic from a horse-drawn world.

A spider — or more accurately, a spider phaeton — is a type of lightweight horse-drawn carriage. As a variant of the phaeton, also a name coachbuilders carried over to their automotive works, the spider phaeton was meant for sport and show, not cross-country touring; typically, any top it had provided only basic protection from the elements, and unlike some true “convertible” carriages, it lacked permanent side windows.

The exact origin of the spider name is somewhat murky. Some sources say the spider was developed by a certain Archibald Holmes of Dublin around 1860; others suggest that the variant arrived in Europe via America. Parallel evolution occurring on both sides of the Atlantic can’t be discounted.

In any event, with sparse bodies riding on tall, spindly wheels, these things do come off as spidery. Take a look at this baby, a drilled disc brake-equipped (!) model offered by WCC Carriages:

The original spyder.

Spidery, right?

As to why the term made the jump to sports cars, we have our suspicions. Early automobiles at all price points tended to be roofless or convertible. As the car developed and closed body styles grew in popularity, open cars became discretionary purchases (much like the original spider phaetons, which were meant for speed and sport). To help define their offerings in a crowded field, automakers borrowed names from the past or invented new ones.

Hence, the roadster (named after the roadworthy horse), barchettas (ultra-focused performance cars so named for their resemblance to “little boats”), speedsters (self-explanatory) and, of course, spiders. A few spiders emerged before WWII, but the name really seemed to take off with the explosion of sports cars that accompanied the postwar economic boom. For whatever reason, carrozzerias latched onto the word. Later, automakers from Chevrolet to Mitsubishi stuck it on their cars to cash in on that Italian glamor.

Over the years, the word has been attached to so many cars of so many varying degrees of hardcore-ness that to try to rigidly define “spider” is an exercise in futility. The meaning of automotive descriptors evolves over time, and marketing departments tend to speed up the process exponentially. Generally, though, we’d say that — in contrast to a convertible — a spider is a car that is designed to be driven open to the sky. If there’s a top in the picture, it’s meant as backup, not something meant to enable all-weather, all-season use.

With its sporting aims and somewhat impractical roof, the Porsche Boxster Spyder gets closer to the original intent of the term than probably any other recent mainstream offering; if you go a little further off the beaten path, there are niche offerings like the Drakan Spyder that more or less fit the bill, too.

But if you want the authentic spider experience with absolutely no doubt as to the appropriateness of the nomenclature, you’re gonna end up with something pulled by a team of fine horses. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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Nissan signal blocker to help motorists driven to distraction by mobile phones

Sun, 28 May 2017 12:36:50 +0000

The Nissan Juke feature can eliminate distractions caused by incoming calls, messages and social media notifications

A car manufacturer has developed a compartment that blocks mobile phone signals.

The box works on the principle of the Faraday cage – invented in the 1830s – which uses material such as a wire mesh to shield its contents from electromagnetic fields.

All mobile, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi signals are prevented from reaching inside the compartment once the lid is closed.

Penalties and fines for illegal phone use by drivers doubled to six points and £200 on March 1 following a series of high-profile cases and research suggesting the practice is widespread.

Nissan Motor GB managing director Alex Smith said: “Mobile phone use at the wheel is a growing concern across the automotive industry, and indeed society, particularly with the high number of pushed communications such as texts, social media notifications and app alerts that tempt drivers to reach for their devices.

“Some drivers are immune to the activity of their smartphone, but for those who struggle to ignore the beeps and pings, this concept provides a simple solution in this very connected world we live in.”

An RAC survey of more than 1,700 UK motorists found that the proportion who admit to using a hand-held phone behind the wheel increased from 8% in 2014 to 31% last year.

In October, lorry driver Tomasz Kroker was jailed for 10 years after killing a woman and three children by ploughing into their stationary car while distracted by his phone on the A34 near Newbury, Berkshire.

Twenty-two people were killed and 99 seriously injured in accidents on Britain’s roads in 2015 where a motorist using a mobile was a contributory factor, Department for Transport figures show.

RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: “Our research shows that hand-held phone use by drivers has reached epidemic proportions.

“As mobile phone technology has advanced significantly, many people have become addicted to them. However, the use of a hand-held phone when driving represents both a physical and mental distraction and it has been illegal since 2003.

“The Nissan Signal Shield is a good example of a technology that can help drivers be phone smart.

“For those who can’t avoid the temptation, this simple but pretty clever tech gives them a valuable mobile-free zone.”

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Nissan develops signal blocker for mobile phones

Sun, 28 May 2017 12:34:20 +0000

Victorian engineering solution to modern problem?

Victorian invention, 21st century application. Nissan has adopted a technology that’s almost 200 years old to create a concept solution for reducing smartphone distraction at the wheel.The beauty of the design is its simplicity. The Nissan Signal Shield is a prototype compartment within the arm rest of a Nissan Juke that is lined with a Faraday cage, an invention dating back to the 1830s. Once a mobile device is placed in the compartment and the lid closed, the Nissan Signal Shield creates a ‘silent zone’, blocking all of the phone’s incoming and outgoing cellular, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections.

The concept is designed to give drivers a choice about whether to eliminate the distractions caused by the millions of text messages, social media notifications and app alerts that are ‘pushed’ to smartphones each day. A growing problem, the number of drivers admitting to handling their phone in the car has increased from 8% in 2014 to 31% in 2016, according to the RAC.

Users are becoming habitually more tempted to check text messages and notifications as they appear on their phone’s screen, even if they are driving. Nissan’s own research found almost one in five drivers (18%) admitted to having texted behind the wheel.

All Nissan crossovers are available with Bluetooth connectivity to allow drivers to make and receive hands-free phone calls when it is safe to do so.

NissanConnect, or Apple CarPlay on the all-new Nissan Micra, enable further integration with a phone’s apps.

The Nissan Signal Shield concept provides optional connectivity, giving drivers the choice between being able to contact and be contacted from the road, or creating a ‘phone-free’ space and time. It means a digital detox and a drive that’s free of incoming distractions. If drivers want to listen to music or podcasts stored on their smartphone, they can still connect to the car’s entertainment system via the USB or auxiliary ports. The device will maintain wired connectivity even when in the Nissan Signal Shield compartment.

To restore the phone’s wireless connections, drivers just need to open the arm rest to reveal the compartment – which can be done without taking eyes off the road or touching the phone itself – and the phone can reconnect with the mobile network and the car’s Bluetooth system. The innovation works on the principle of the Faraday cage, an enclosure made of a conductive material, such as wire mesh, which blocks electromagnetic fields. It is named after the pioneering English scientist Michael Faraday, who invented it in the 1830s.

When an electronic device, like a smartphone, is placed inside, any incoming electromagnetic signals – such as cellular or Bluetooth data – are distributed across the cage’s external conducting material and so prevented from reaching the device. Alex Smith of Nissan said; “Nissan produces some of the safest cars on the road today, but we are always looking at new ways to improve the wellbeing of our customers. Mobile phone use at the wheel is a growing concern across the automotive industry, and indeed society, particularly with the high number of ‘pushed’ communications, such as texts, social media notifications and app alerts that tempt drivers to reach for their devices.

“The Nissan Signal Shield concept presents one possible solution for giving drivers the choice to remove all smartphone distractions while driving. This is about delivering more control at the wheel, not less. Some drivers are immune to the activity of their smartphone, but for those who struggle to ignore the beeps and pings, this concept provides a simple solution in this very ‘connected’ world we live in.”

RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: “Our research shows that handheld phone use by drivers has reached epidemic proportions. As mobile phone technology has advanced significantly many people have become addicted to them. However, the use of a handheld phone when driving represents both a physical and mental distraction and it has been illegal since 2003.

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Nissan kicks off new UEFA Champions League campaign

Sun, 28 May 2017 12:31:59 +0000

Nissan has kicked off a new campaign that offers UK fans the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend the UEFA Champions League Final on 3rd June 2017 with football legend David Ginola. The #GetThereWithGinola campaign aims to create a unique experience that extends the reach of Nissan’s partnership of the UEFA Champions League beyond traditional ticket give-aways.

The new campaign challenges entrants to submit the most original and ambitious entries with suggestions including baking a football stadium cake, wearing a football kit to a work meeting or penning a football limerick about the UEFA Champions League. Submissions can be made through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the #GetThereWithGinola hashtag.

With a number of global brands sponsoring this year’s UEFA Champions League, Nissan was keen to standout by offering a money-can’t-buy experience that creates deeper engagement with football-mad consumers. To help drive exposure and engagement among the target audience, the campaign brings on board the former French international midfielder, David Ginola. Despite reaching the semi-finals with Paris St-Germain in 1995, Ginola, named ‘el Magnifico’ by the Spanish media, never played in a UEFA Champions League Final, and the competition enables entrants to join him in finally experiencing the pinnacle of European club football.

Chris Marsh, Marketing Director Nissan Motor GB comments: “We wanted to use our sponsorship of the UEFA Champions League in a different and creative way that would excite UK football fans ahead of this year’s final in Cardiff. By offering a truly unique prize – winning the chance to go to the Final with the football legend Ginola, we’re able to give our fans unexpected access to Nissan’s UCL sponsorship.”

Nissan has created a short video featuring David Ginola to mark the opening of the competition that will be shared through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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€15 million allocated by Government for Cork docklands development

Sun, 28 May 2017 12:27:17 +0000

Major investment in Cork’s docks are needed, not only by that city, but by Ireland too, writes Seán Kearns.

As Port of Cork sets off in the sunset, new dawns await for the city’s quays.

As part of a concerted effort by the Government to tackle the housing crisis, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Simon Coveney TD, has announced the details for a special housing infrastructure fund.

The Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund (LIHAF) provides funding for local authorities in the sum of €224 million to be financed on a 75%/25% basis between the exchequer and local authorities.

The fund is intended to unlock zoned lands for housing that are currently held up by infrastructural deficits such as lack of suitable road access, high voltage lines, drainage and transport links.

It is noteworthy but not unexpected that the majority of the funding (€112m) is targeted at the Dublin local authorities where the greatest need for housing is identified.

The second level of funding goes to Cork City Council and Cork County Council which is allocated €46m.

The remainder is allocated to Limerick, Waterford and the Dublin region commuter counties.

I believe that this funding approach is an example of how the Government can go some of the way to establishing a national regional balance in recognition of Corks importance in the future planning development of the country.

We have had previous attempts at regional planning that were highly politicised such as Charlie McCreevy’s decentralisation plans and the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) 2020 which took the Late Late Show approach to planning with a plethora of “gateways” and “hubs” that delivered one for everyone in the audience.

These approaches were scattered, unfocussed and were based on constituency rather than planning needs. This NSS plan was published in 2002 and since then Dublin has grown enormously and the regional towns and cities have declined.

In February this year, the Minister launched a consultation paper for a new national planning framework, ‘Ireland 2040 — Our Plan’.

The document lays out the current status quo whereby the Dublin City Region accounts for 40% of the population and 49% of economic output.

By comparison, The London metropolitan area, a global city of 14 million people, contains 22% of the UK’s population and accounts for 32% of its GDP.

Other countries of similar population size and economic profile to Ireland (Denmark, New Zealand, Scotland, and Finland) also have large city regions that dominate their population and economic output.

However, Ireland, by comparison, has become effectively a single city state depending on the capital to drive economic growth.

The growth of Dublin has been phenomenal over the last 30 years, and is most welcome as it is necessary to have a city with a large enough population to drive economic activity with a diverse population and a concentration of physical and human infrastructure.

However, Dublin has effectively sprawled into the neighbouring counties creating dormitory towns throughout Leinster, and is facing housing and infrastructural bottlenecks to such an extent that the 2040 plan consultation document raises concerns about the future competitiveness of the Dublin region.

Cork city, the second largest city in the state, has had growth levels consistently below the national average and, according to the 2016 census, now has a population of 125,000 people within the city boundaries.

This compares not too favourably to a 1967 population of 122,000.

When compared to the national growth rate over the last 50 years, Cork has effectively reduced significantly in size and is only a competitor to Dublin, a city over 10 times its size, in imagination rather than reality.

By comparison, the population of Cork County has grown significantly to 417,000. While the population of Cork city has declined in recent years, the population of the commuter towns surrounding the city have boomed in population.

Essentially, Cork County Council has been drawing people, investment, and government infrastructural spending away from the city centre, and the proposed amalgamation of Cork City and County Council as outlined in the 2016 Smiddy Report will, I believe, exacerbate this urban decline.

Due to vociferous opposition by senior politicians in Cork, the Smiddy Report has been directed by the Minister to be examined by an expert advisory group, chaired by the former chief planner for the Scottish Government, Jim McKinnon.

We await the result of this deliberation with bated breath as the future of Cork city will be decided here.

The future of Cork city is of national as well as regional importance. It has been a regional centre for centuries for the agricultural and maritime industry.

From 1917 to the mid-1980s, it was the centre of Ireland’s automotive industries based around the Ford and Dunlop factories in the Cork Docklands.

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1917 – 2017: Ford celebrates 100 years in Ireland

Sun, 28 May 2017 12:25:13 +0000

Actor Aidan Quinn in the advertisement for Ford

It is exactly 100 years since Henry Ford established the Ford factory on the Marina in Cork city, and Ford Ireland plans to mark the centenary through a number of exciting initiatives in 2017.

Ford has launched an extensive and impactful new marketing campaign based around the company’s Irish centenary. Irish-American actor Aidan Quinn features in a campaign which is already becoming familiar to Irish motorists.

Continue reading below…

There are many activities, promotions and events planned throughout the year, with one of the highlights being a Gala Dinner Event at City Hall on April 21 to mark the actual centenary.

Commenting on the centenary, Ciarán McMahon, Chairman and Managing Director of Ford Ireland, said: “Ford has a unique heritage in Ireland, not only through the company’s close family links with Cork but also through the Cork Ford factory and of course many decades of much-loved Ford cars and vans on Irish roads. And we are still to the forefront in the automotive sector in Ireland with the widest network of dealers, providing employment, directly and indirectly, to some 1,000 people across the country”.

“Ford vehicles were and still are an ubiquitous sight on the streets and roads of Ireland all through the 20th century and right up to the present day,” Mr. McMahon went on. “The brand’s constant popularity meant that almost every Irish person grew up with a Ford car in the family or had aunts, uncles and neighbours who drove a Ford.”

“The factory is sadly no more, but Ford remains one of the best-selling brands in both the car and van market in Ireland,” he added. “Several of our models including the Fiesta, Focus and Transit are segment leaders while the all new Mustang is in a class of its own.

“The company is also looking to the future as we plan for the next century of business in Ireland,” said the Ford Ireland chief. “Ford is the company with the largest test fleet of autonomous driving vehicles in the world, and in 2017 we will start testing autonomous vehicles across Europe. The company is moving from traditional vehicle manufacture to being a smart mobility solutions provider as we tackle the global mobility challenges of the 21st century.”

Ford Family Roots in Cork

The Ford Motor Company was set up in Michigan by Henry Ford in 1903. True to his roots, just 14 years later Henry opened the first purpose-built Ford factory to be located outside of North America at the Marina in Cork.

Henry’s father, William Ford, emigrated from Ballinascarty in Co. Cork (50km from Cork City) with his parents and siblings in 1847 during the Famine; Henry was born in Michigan in 1863. Growing up on the family farm, Henry developed a strong interest in mechanics. At first, he concentrated his efforts on making work easier for farmers but he soon came to realise the potential of the motor car as a force for good for the development of societies across the globe. Although he cannot be credited with inventing the motor car, Henry Ford was the man who brought motoring to the masses: the affordable yet rugged vehicles he was producing through his newly invented production-line manufacturing technique – which has since been copied by practically every vehicle and machinery manufacturer across the globe.

‘Bringing it all back home’ – Ford factory established in Cork 1917

When it came time to expand the business to Europe, there is no doubt that Henry’s Cork roots played an important part in his decision to open a plant in Cork. In his own words, he hoped that the new Ford plant ‘would start Ireland along the road to industry’. The setting up of the Ford plant in Cork was the first example of foreign direct investment in Ireland, many decades before the term was even coined.

The company that he legally established was entitled Henry Ford & Son Ltd. and that continues to be the legal name of Ford in Ireland to this day – the only Ford entity in the world to include the full name of the company’s founder in its title.

When the Cork Ford plant became fully operational, Europe was just emerging from a catastrophic World War and Communist Russia was in the midst of a huge modernisation programme so tractors were the vehicles that were most urgently needed. The Fordson tractor was the main product produced by the Cork plant, which in 1929 became the largest tractor factory in the world. However, the factory also produced passenger models, including the iconic Model T. Indeed, the last Model T ever produced by Ford anywhere in the world rolled off the Cork factory production line in December 1928.

In addition to the Model T, the Cork factory also produced all the other main Ford vehicles that were sold in Europe from the 30s right up to the 70s and 80s including the Model A, Model BF and Model Y; Prefect; Anglia; Escort; Cortina; and Sierra.

With Ireland’s accession to the EEC in 1973, Ireland had to comply with new rules that lifted the previous restrictions on imports of fully built motor vehicles into the country; this, combined with a depressed car market in the late 1970s and early 1980s meant that the plant became no longer viable and, regrettably, it closed its doors in 1984.

In the intervening years, Ford has continued to be a strong player on the automotive scene in Ireland and the company has the widest network of dealers in the country with 52 dealerships.

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Berlin’s Frontier Car Group lands $22M to disrupt emerging markets car sales

Sun, 28 May 2017 12:20:31 +0000

European founders, adept at launching startups which cross many international borders are fast ganging a reputation for launching in emerging markets. In countries where markets are often still very chaotic, there remains a host of opportunities.

That’s evidenced by the news today that the Frontier Car Group, which builds and runs marketplaces for used cars in emerging markets, has closed a $22 million investment, which was co-led by Balderton Capital, EchoVC+ and TPG/Satya. Also included was NEA, Partech Ventures and “a few large global family offices” according to their statement.

Frontier now has operations in Chile, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey but operates out of Berlin, with 200 employees. It’s going to use the cash to expand into Chile, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

In a statement Sujay Tyle, co-founder and CEO of Frontier said: “The automotive sales sector is fundamentally broken in top-tier emerging markets around the world. Despite massive consumer demand, there is no good way for people to sell their cars efficiently for a fair price. Our vision is to reinvent how the used automotive sales sector works in global emerging markets through technology and infrastructure creation.”

Daniel Waterhouse, general partner at Balderton Capital said: “The cofounders have a clear vision for the future of automotive sales and are leading a Berlin-based team who have developed a technical solution and operational model that allows the company to scale effectively at great speed.”

Waterhouse met Tyle at a tech conference in Dublin when he was 17 and had already graduated from Harvard at 15 and built an enterprise that helped children with curable blindness to see again. Tyle was on the founding team and COO of Hired.com, based in the USA.

Founded by Tyle, Peter Lindholm and Andre Hussman. Lindholm was an investment manager at Millicom and helped Rocket Internet globally in operations and strategy. Hussman was director of engineering at Auto1 in Berlin.

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Infiniti arrives in Northern Ireland as new outlet opens in Belfast

Sat, 06 May 2017 13:29:08 +0000

INFINITI opened its first retail store in Northern Ireland today.

The opening of the new centre – in Belfast – demonstrates the continuous growth of the brand in the UK and across Europe.

The introduction of Infiniti Centre Belfast brings with it a new partner to the brand: Mervyn Stewart Ltd, which is investing in an all-new site in Boucher Crescent.

Stephen Stewart

The family-run business, which has been operating in Northern Ireland for more than 50 years, will design the premises to tie in with Infiniti’s customer experience standards known as IREDI – Infiniti’s Retail Environment Design Initiative.

The new site is expected to be completed in early 2017 but will initially operate from one of Infiniti’s unique temporary retail sales environments, specifically designed to accommodate a development phase.

Managing director Stephen Stewart from Mervyn Stewart Limited said: ‘We are very pleased to introduce the premium brand of Infiniti to Northern Ireland.

‘I am sure our customers will enjoy not only the exciting range of products on offer but also the environment and experience we will provide.’

Since the introduction of the British-built Q30 earlier this year and the more recent QX30, Infiniti’s new car registrations in the UK have been dramatically increasing month-on-month. Sales so far in 2016 have increased by nearly 150 per cent.

Barry Beeston, regional director for Infiniti in the UK, said: ‘Infiniti is now well on its way to establishing itself within the UK automotive industry as a challenger brand.

‘Increased sales have placed the company as one of the fastest growing automotive brands in the UK. Expansion of the centre network is an important part of our growth strategy and the opening of Infiniti Centre Belfast allows our brand reach to go further than ever before.’

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Galway researchers in push to make autonomous cars safer

Sat, 06 May 2017 13:27:17 +0000

Researchers at NUI Galway have teamed up with motor parts group Valeo Vision Systems to develop technology to make self-driving vehicles safer.

The Connaught Automotive Research (CAR) Group, which is based on the university’s campus, is researching the development of intelligent signal processing algorithms to aid the automatic detection of pedestrians and other vehicles using cameras and other sensors.

The objective is to provide advance warning of hazards on the road and give vehicles more time to avoid a collision. Technology like this is already making its way into production and is expected to be an important feature of self-driving vehicles in the future.

Dr Edward Jones and Dr Martin Glavin, joint directors of the CAR Group recently presented their work in this area to the European Road Transport Research Advisory Committee, which is seeking to develop a common Europe-wide technology transportation platform.

The team has been collaborating with Valeo, which is one of the world’s biggest motor parts suppliers for the last 17 years. The Tuam-based firm started life as Connaught Electronics before being bought by the French-owned vision systems multinational Valeo in 2007. The company, which employs 1,200 people in Ireland, is a specialist in automotive multi-camera systems that offer advanced monitoring options for motorists such as surround view.

“A particular strength of the CAR Group is signal and image processing for a range of applications. Automotive systems is one area of focus and with the work we’re doing with Valeo we are taking information from cameras and extracting useful data from them, such as information relating to other vehicles and pedestrians,” said Dr Jones.

“The benefit of doing this is to give advance warning to drivers of hazards that they might not spot themselves or potentially in the future to allow vehicles to behave more autonomously,” he added.

Dr Jones said it was “inevitable” that such technology would make its way into vehicles and was already on its way to becoming commonplace.

“Once upon a time it was only so-called high-end vehicles that would have advanced system driving technology but it is now more available generally. The technology is becoming increasingly popular and will, over time, also become more autonomous,” he said.

“There are still a lot of things to be done before such systems are in every vehicle because the technology aspect is only one element of it all. There are wider issues to contend with such as social acceptance of autonomous vehicles as well as issues surrounding insurance, infrastructure and so on, but we’re definitely moving in that direction,” he added.

His colleague, Dr Glavin said the group has jointly filed a number of patents with Valeo arising from the collaboration over the last few years.

“Our work is being translated into real products and it is being seen to be of value to the automotive industry,” he said.

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Automotive retail is simple: go digital or go bust

Sat, 06 May 2017 13:22:54 +0000

It’s time for OEMs to catch up with the financial services and retail sectors, and make online channels work harder – for themselves and their customers, writes Foolproof’s Executive Director, Peter Ballard

The automotive industry has finally embraced the digital experience, and most brands have either launched, or are about to announce, the ability to buy new cars online. But in the race to attract online buyers, it’s crucial to not leave customers out in the cold.

The problem for consumers is that although OEMs may have ‘gone digital’, few have re-engineered the shopping journey to address the many pain points customers encounter when trying to make purchase decisions about their next car.

The issues for consumers do not relate to showroom stock, or fulfilment of online orders; they lie in the lack of support during the buying decision itself, when the majority of customers still do not feel sufficiently in control of the choices and options that manufacturers present in the car buying process.

A recent survey by Auto Trader, a UK-based digital automotive marketplace, found that the majority of consumers, 99% in fact, said they were unhappy with the current car buying process.

Clearly, consumers are more than ready for a change in approach.

Last year’s JD Power survey revealed that millennials accounted for over a quarter of new car buyers in 2015, and this number is set to rise dramatically over the coming years. Millennial buyers have grown up with digital, and bring with them the highest level of expectations for the digital experience, and a preference for subscription-based ownership models.

The automotive industry must take note of established digital practices that are now mature and commonplace in the financial services and retail sectors

Manufacturers that aim to get channels right for this user group will have the best chance of future-proofing their platforms for customers going forward.

Insight generated by Foolproof observing car buyers has highlighted that browsing online and visiting a dealer are not binary choices – consumers expect to do both during their decision-making process. Many even look forward to a trip to the dealer, and make an occasion of it, because they enjoy getting an up close, physical experience of the cars, before making a final choice.

Crucially, what most manufacturers continue to miss is the joining up of the online and offline experiences. Today, too much responsibility for that falls on the customer, asking them to bridge the gap between a website and the dealer.

Customers want to feel in control of the car buying process, and it is here that manufacturers should help them with their research online, empowering them to feel more confident when interacting with a dealer.

A case in point here is Suzuki, a vehicle manufacturer which has taken this knowledge to the heart of its digital strategy. The brand has recently re-launched its UK website to improve the experience customers have with the brand online, and in the transition from digital to the dealership. The OEM understood that customers needed an online experience that would help them make better decisions about the type and grade of car that they wanted to buy, before reaching out to a dealer.

Browsing online and visiting a dealer are not binary choices – consumers expect to do both during their decision-making process

The new Suzuki website works for multiple users, supporting the varying needs of three different potential customer profiles. The first is the buyer who relies primarily on the dealership experience, and appreciates seeing and touching the car, and talking to someone about it; the second, the online shopper, believes the Internet, not the dealer, should provide all of the information to keep them in control of the decision-making process; the third is the multi-focused shopper who likes to mix dealers’ views with independent sources.

Make better decisions faster

Better decision-making for each of these groups lies at the heart of the relaunched Suzuki website. The newly designed site helps customers narrow down their choices to find the car that is right for their needs more quickly, and with more confidence, than before.

During research, customers told Foolproof researchers that they found it difficult to understand the value of buying a more expensive version of their chosen car, when online. Most car websites provide this information over multiple pages, or long feature lists, complicating what should be a clear and easy comparison process. Suzuki has cleverly implemented a side-by-side comparison feature that visually differentiates which key features become available, as the price increases.

It has become clear that overly-complicated car configurators are a major turn off-for many customers. For this reason, the decision to simplify this function was the first part of the design challenge. Suzuki’s new ‘Send to Dealer’ button enables customers to easily send their choices to a local dealer, prior to booking a meeting or a test drive.

Manufacturers that aim to get channels right for millennials will have the best chance of future-proofing their platforms for customers going forward

Not only does this feature bridge the gap between customer and dealer, but it has also improved one of the more arduous tasks in buying a car, namely the test drive booking.

Many commentators have questioned whether the new showrooming approach, trialled by some manufactures in retail outlets, will be the death of the test drive. Auto Trader’s study, however, suggests that test-drives will continue to play an important role in the car buying process: “88% of consumers said they would not purchase a car without test-driving it first.”

However, 80% of consumers also said they would welcome a different test-drive experience from the traditional accompanied test-drive model that predominantly exists today.

In the future, we can expect the booking of a test drive to be as easy as making a restaurant reservation. Customers will be able to book a test drive through their chosen dealer, selecting date, time and model from an online diary.

The future of ownership

Automated scheduling and booking of test drives is one development that will hugely benefit dealers by reducing the amount of time it takes to make booking arrangements with customers. Piloting this new functionality, in addition to continually learning from this initial implementation, will allow manufacturers to pave the way for other future innovation that could use digital channels to streamline the online vehicle buying experience.

For example, car manufacturers are expected to develop more subscription models to help consumers ‘rent’ rather than ‘own’ their car. This will go beyond the traditional personal contract purchase and hire purchase arrangements, and could include monthly subscription fees giving access to a range of cars that customers can book in advance. Date night on Friday? Book the two-door sports model. Carpool to football training every other Wednesday? Book the spacious minivan. Planning a drive on country roads? Book the SUV.

And the winner is…

The automotive industry must take note of established digital practices that are now mature and commonplace in the financial services and retail sectors. These industries have long since discovered the value and importance of experience design, product design, and service design methodologies to help create frictionless, elegant, and truly engaging digital experiences for their customers. The top brands in these sectors understand that customer experience is the best way to differentiate and create a lasting competitive advantage.

Those automotive players that adopt the same principles, as they move in to this improved digital phase, are the ones that will take the lead over their competitors.

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Karma airs first TV commercial for Revero plug-in hybrid

Sat, 06 May 2017 13:19:37 +0000

Karma Automotive, of Costa Mesa, Calif., is owned by Chinese automotive supplier Wanxiang Group.

Karma Automotive aired its first TV commercial on Sunday, ahead of the start of deliveries of the Chinese-owned automaker’s $130,000 Revero car this month.

A Karma spokeswoman said she didn’t have a definitive date on when deliveries of the plug-in hybrid Revero will begin, but she said it “most likely” will be the second half of May. She couldn’t specify how many vehicles will be delivered, only that a “very low volume” will be sold in 2017, so “not many” will be delivered this month.

Karma, formerly known as Fisker Automotive Inc., previously said it will sell through independent dealerships and company-owned “brand-experience centers.” Karma has eight U.S. sales and service dealerships: one each in Illinois, Texas, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and California and two in Florida.

The 30-second TV spot, called “Delivery,” aired on CBS during the 2017 U.S. Open Polo Championship, for which Karma is a sponsor. The commercial featured Revero deliveries to waterfront mansions in Florida and California.

“The spot marks the rebirth of one of the most honored silhouettes in automotive history,” Karma Chief Revenue Officer Jim Taylor said in a statement. “We felt this moment in time deserved to be recognized.”

The Revero is Karma’s first model. It is priced at $130,000.

Karma Automotive, of Costa Mesa, Calif., is owned by Chinese automotive supplier Wanxiang Group.

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Small Sports Cars Will Save The Automotive Industry

Sat, 06 May 2017 13:15:01 +0000

Image: Mazda

Good morning! Welcome to The Morning Shift, your roundup of the auto news you crave, all in one place every weekday morning. Here are the important stories you need to know.

1st Gear: Entry-Level Sports Cars Are Hanging On In A Gloomy Car Market

April sales numbers aren’t looking good, causing the automotive press to officially declared the honeymoon (i.e. two years of record car sales) over. Let the The Detroit Free Press hit you with the doom-and-gloom you need early each morning:

It’s official. The red hot auto industry is finally cooling off after two consecutive years of record industry sales and seven consecutive years of annual sales increases.

You’ll find similar bleak sentiments on pretty much every car news website. But there is good news in all of this talk of the coming end-times, and that news comes from Automotive News, who managed to find a tiny silver lining: small sports cars are actually selling well:

According to the Automotive News Data Center, U.S. sales of compact sports cars are up 3.4 percent in 2017, while overall car demand is off 12 percent, including an 11 percent slump in April.

The report goes on, saying the Mazda Miata is killing it right now, with sales up 35 percent this year. Even the Miata’s sister, the Fiat 124, is “selling in steady volume,” and the BMW Z4 and Toyota 86 have seen their volumes jump a bit for 2017, too.

Granted, these are all relatively low volume vehicles, and the Miata is only seeing its second full year of sales in the U.S., but it’s encouraging when you consider that mid-size sports cars—like the Mustang, Challenger and Camaro—are down 16 percent this year as they head into prime sales season. Heck, according to Automotive News, even Corvette sales are down 10 percent.

So even if vehicle sales are down, at least sports car sales aren’t; that’s at least something, right? Hang in there little Miata; if this “plateauing” auto market takes a few new Camrys (Camries?) and Accords with it, so be it.

But America cannot withstand a Miata shortage—we’re just not strong enough.

2nd Gear: Car Sales Slowdown May Not Be As Bad As We Think

So the honeymoon is over, but that doesn’t mean the sky is falling, even if it’s hard to forget that the last time the auto industry fell into a “trough,” it nearly wiped out half the American auto industry.

The Detroit Free Press says new car and truck sales are down 4.7 percent this month (the fourth straight monthly decline), and the sales rate of 16.92 million fell nearly 200,000 short of the 17.1 million forecast. But as dark as that all sounds, multiple automotive experts told the news site they don’t think this is going to be anywhere near as bad as we all remember from the late 2000s.

In fact, Ford’s vice president of sales and marketing, Mark LaNeve, really doesn’t consider this the beginning of a “trough,” but rather a “plateau,” saying:

We have to let the year play out…I am not discouraged by the numbers. I view it as within some kind of normal range in a plateauing industry.

And indeed, GM’s chief economist Mustafa Mohatarem agrees, telling The Detroit News that strong sales have every reason to continue on in the coming months:

When you look at the broader economy, including a strong job market, rising wages, low inflation and low interest rates, and couple them to low fuel prices and strong consumer confidence, you have everything you need for auto sales to … remain at or near historic highs.

Karl Brauer, executive publisher for Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, also chimed in, saying the transition into “negative territory” should be “much smoother” than the last time, which was part of an enormous economic downturn.

So for all of you about to sell your stocks in the auto industry, just try to hold back those flashbacks from 2008—this time won’t be like that, hopefully.

3rd Gear: Volkswagen Is Killing It Thanks To Smart Cost Cutting

Volkswagen, the disgraced automaker whose name for the past two years has been accompanied by “diesel crisis” and also “can kiss my ass” by diesel buyers, is actually doing quite well financially thanks to strategic cost cutting, Reuters reports:

Structural changes since the scandal broke in Sept. 2015 include streamlining vehicle development, cutting material costs by reducing complexity in parts, dropping unprofitable models and shifting more power to brands and regions to respond more quickly to market needs.

The news wire says VW’s primary aim is to increase its profit margins, and not necessarily to focus on winning the sales volume war. It’s been working, too, as Reuters says VW’s operating margin is up to 4.6 percent this year, compared to 0.3 percent from January to March of 2016:

Group operating profit jumped 40 percent to 4.37 billion euros in the three months to the end of March, one of the carmaker’s highest-ever quarterly results, even as vehicle sales at the 12-brand group declined.

Reuters goes on, saying first quarter operating profits of the company’s largest division went up to 869 million euros compared to 73 million the previous year, despite sales dropping 1.3 percent.

This is all great news, and CEO Matthias Mueller attributes it to improvements in efficiency, saying: “Our efforts to improve efficiency and productivity across all areas of the company are also paying off,” a statement backed by his CFO, who says the sales results are the “first tangible results” of cost savings that went into place months ago.

It looks like, out of necessity, VW has streamlined its business—maybe something good has come of the whole Dieselgate crisis?

4th Gear: Why Can’t Dealership Ravaged By Tornado Contact FCA?

Yesterday we showed you the Fiat Chrysler dealer near Dallas whose property was decimated by a powerful tornado. The owner of that dealership, Randall Noe, thinks he’s lost $10 million in buildings and equipment as well as five to 6 million in cars, Automotive News reports. So it’s not too surprising that he was none too thrilled when Fiat Chrysler allegedly wouldn’t pick up the phone, saying:

We’re all supposed to be partners — you make them, we sell them, all that stuff. It’s just very strange not to have heard from someone…I’m very disappointed that our manufacturer hasn’t even contacted us. I am very disappointed they haven’t done anything at all.

After the news site published a story about how the dealer wasn’t able to get into contact with the automaker, finally—three days after the devastation—Fiat Chrysler contact him.

Three days may not seem like a long time, but when your dealership looks like a pile of rubble, I can see how that might seem like an eternity.

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Automotive Infotainment Systems Aren’t Going Anywhere

Sat, 06 May 2017 13:11:46 +0000

Acccording to London-based IHS Markit, an information and analysis firm, there’s big growth in the near future for automotive display systems. The firm is predicting a 17 percent jump in such systems in 2017 alone.

In the aptly titled report “Automotive Display Systems Forecast”, IHS Markit is guessing that revenue for center stacks, instrument clusters, and head-up displays will be more than $20.8 billion in 2022. For reference, it was only $9.2 billion five years ago.

Heads-up displays are a fairly small part of that whole segment, but it’s the segment that is expected to have the most growth. What was once a gimmick may become the mainstream as the technology is fine-tuned and perfected. The world’s drivers are going to need head-up displays to keep their eyes on the road…and off of the huge screens in our center stacks.

Automotive technology analyst Brian Rhodes says this predicted growth comes from two main factors. “First are simple volume increases, with more vehicles adding new displays to the instrument cluster and center stack, along with head-up display deployments becoming more common,” he said. “The second area of growth is in the technology value itself, as these displays are becoming larger and more capable—and therefore more expensive.”

So, not only will screens in car interiors become more common, but they’re going to get bigger and fancier than they are now. Some see these infotainment systems as gimmicks or fads, but the market is showing otherwise. We might be able to expect big, Internet-connected screens to come standard on most base-model, entry-level cars in just a few years.

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The autonomous car is approaching but Irish traffic legislation needs to be brought up to speed

Thu, 30 Mar 2017 15:50:07 +0000

It seems like the autonomous car has been approaching for years now with constant speculation as to what the self-driving car will look like and how it will behave. With automakers committed to a ‘driverless’ future it seems like the age of autonomy is finally here.

That is, the technology is capable, however, people and drivers still have a long way to go when it comes to entrusting their safety and ceding control to a driverless car. Many car makers have nailed their colours to the mast in respect of autonomous driving and there are today many cars that already contain a large amount of self-driving technology.

Swedish car manufacturer Volvo currently offers a semi-autonomous functionality called Pilot Assist on its 90 series cars. Pilot Assist gives gentle steering inputs to keep the car properly aligned within lane markings up to 130 km/h without the need to follow another car.

There are many other manufacturers who are looking to integrate the kind of intelligent driving capability into their cars but Volvo as a leader in automotive safety can lay claim to one of the most advanced programmes of this kind.

This summer Volvo launched ambitious and wide-reaching testing programmes for their AD cars in the Drive Me programme successfully carried out in Gothenburg and London. They are also in the process of setting up a programme with a number of cities in China. These programmes are designed to collect valuable information in a real world environment in what is virgin testing ground.

The automaker has also signed up with Autoliv Inc a worldwide leader in automotive safety systems, to set up a new jointly-owned company to develop next generation autonomous driving software.

Those in favour of AD cars predict that the self-driving car can impact on our roads in four positive ways: – safety, congestion, pollution and time saving.

Independent research has revealed that AD has the potential to reduce the number of car accidents significantly, in some cases by up to 30 per cent. Up to 90 per cent of all accidents are presently caused by driver error or distraction, something that could be reduced greatly with AD cars.

“Vehicle manufacturers are predicting that highly autonomous vehicles, capable of allowing the driver to drop ‘out of the loop’ for certain sections of their journey, will be available from around 2021. Without doubt, crash frequency will also dramatically reduce. We’ve already seen this with the adoption of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) on many new cars. Research in the US by NHTSA predicts that by 2035, as a result of autonomous and connected cars, crashes will be reduced by 80%. Additionally, if a crash unfortunately can’t be avoided, then the impact speed will also drop as a result of the system’s performance – reducing the severity of the crash,” said Peter Shaw, chief executive at Thatcham Research.

In terms of congestion, AD cars allow traffic to move more smoothly, reducing traffic jams and by extension cutting dangerous emissions and associated pollution. Lastly, reduced congestion saves drivers valuable time.

While companies like Volvo are more than ready to start testing on our roads, in many cases legislation and regulations are not up to speed with the advancing tech. Many governments are adopting a ‘wait and see’ approach to how they will deal with the coming wave of AD cars and that is probably not good enough.

The AD car is coming, that much we know for sure, but are Irish roads ready for them? The law in Ireland currently takes no provision for the presence of AD cars on Irish roads. The area is apparently covered in most countries by the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic of 1968. It was signed by 72 countries in ’68 but not all have ratified it. The Convention covers a wide range of subjects including vehicle registration display and signage. However, in respect to AD cars, Article 8 VC stipulates the requirement that a vehicle must have a driver, while Article 13 states that a driver must be in control of his or her vehicle in all circumstances.

The USA and China are the two most notable non-signatories and both are forging ahead with their own adaptive strategy to the advent of autonomous driving car technology on their roads.

While this looks set to change in the near future, the fact that Ireland never signed up to the agreement in the first place means it won’t affect autonomous driving in Ireland. Ireland has no evident plan to deal with AD cars when they arrive. It will most likely depend on consumer demand to tip the legislative bodies in to action.

The other major factor affecting AD cars here is the insurance industry and whether they embrace mass adoption of the tech. Significantly safer roads would make for lower premiums and a cleaner and more stable operating environment for them. The insurance industry could well hold enough sway to influence legislation in favour of AD cars in Ireland.

Ireland is not the only country with a piecemeal attitude to paving the legislative way for AD cars. The UK is in a very similar position.

“The US risks losing its leading position due to the lack of Federal guidelines for the testing and certification of autonomous vehicles,” explains Mr. Samuelsson.

Technology advances at a very fast rate and if there is a far reaching benefit for having AD cars on the roads then it is best that all invested parties work together on the issue.

Mr Samuelsson will welcome moves by regulators and car makers in the US and Europe to develop AD cars and infrastructure, but he will also encourage all the parties involved to work more constructively together to avoid patchwork global regulations, technological duplication and needless expense.

“AD is not just about car technology. We need the right rules and the right laws,” says Samuelsson.

“It is natural for us to work together. Our starting point is that both the public and private sectors stand to benefit from new technologies and industries, so it is better to build bridges and work together than to all go in different directions.”

“There are multiple benefits to AD cars,” continues Samuelsson. “That is why governments need to put in place the legislation to allow AD cars onto the streets as soon as possible. The car industry cannot do it all by itself. We need governmental help.”

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Diesel’s demise poses dilemma for Irish drivers

Thu, 30 Mar 2017 15:35:58 +0000

The tsunami of criticism that has pounded at the shores of diesel-powered motoring is looking ever more likely to wet the feet of the Irish motorist.

As daily revelations regarding air pollution, car manufacturers cheating on their emissions tests and even national governments conniving to protect their home-grown industry grind away at our motoring consciousness, the fact is that diesel power is almost inevitably now going to be officially penalised.

Growing concerns over the effects of diesel exhaust fumes on public health will almost certainly mean that motorists will have to bear the brunt of extra costs, possibly in the form of increased motor tax charges, or possibly in other “stealthier” ways if diesel use is to be curbed.

While plans are yet far from formed, the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment confirmed to The Irish Times that it is working on a consultation paper for a new clean air strategy which “will seek to bring about improved health outcomes and the wider environmental benefits that will accrue from improved air quality.

“The strategy will target priority air pollutants in an integrated manner and will seek initiatives across the relevant sectors including transport with the aim of identifying cost-effective short, medium and long-term goals and action for reducing air pollutant levels” said a spokesperson for the department.

Extra charges

It’s not known yet known what form any extra charges or penalties could take nor whether they might be phased in for older, more polluting vehicles first.

When pressed on what is to be done with the thousands of Irish car buyers who, at the behest of government, bought into diesel since 2008, the department said that our queries would be best directed to Dublin City Council.

The council said that we should talk to the department, which presumably means that as with almost all in Irish politics, the final say rests with the Department of Finance.

Since the introduction of the CO2-based motor taxation system in 2008, Irish drivers have been effectively incentivised into buying diesel-engined cars, as until more recent technological developments in petrol and hybrid power, no other form of propulsion could guarantee a low enough emissions rating to qualify for cheaper tax.

In the wake of the Volkswagen “dieselgate” scandal, however, there are greater and greater concerns over the effect of diesel exhaust fumes on city centre air quality, not least because the most polluted air tends to become trapped by tall buildings and held close to the pavement, where it can do the most damage to the respiratory systems of passers-by.

Legislators around the world are moving to take action on perceived diesel problems, however. The city authorities in Paris, Madrid, Mexico City and Athens last year confirmed that they would totally ban diesel car use by 2025.

Closer to home, diesel car drivers wishing to enter the city of London, and park there, will have to pay more from the April 3rd this year under plans being trialled by the City of Westminster Council.

The charges amount to an additional £2.45 (€2.88) per hour of parking, on top of the existing £4.90 (€5.78) per hour charge. The system, which applies to such high-density areas as the Marylebone Road, Baker Street and Westminster University, has been introduced following concerns that the concentration of nitrogen oxides (NOx, gases which are harmful to the lungs and which are produced in large quantities by diesel engines) and particulate matter have reached harmful levels, above the recommended healthy level.

Pollution concerns

It will use number-plate recognition systems to ensure that the appropriate parking charge is being paid.

However, Edmund King of the UK Automobile Association (AA) said that pollution concerns shouldn’t be used as a stick with which to beat drivers who thought they were doing the right thing.

“Like any new tax regime which makes money for local councils, this scheme is likely to spread like wildfire,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“However it will hit many drivers who bought diesel cars in good faith, with many of them encouraged to buy diesel cars by previous government incentives which promoted them. Frankly, they would do better to reduce air quality by getting rid of older diesel trucks, busses and taxis which cause most of the pollution.”

That is certainly a major issue, and asking the Irish motorist to carry the fiduciary can for diesel’s ills may well be politically untenable. Indeed, one senior Irish motoring industry executive averred, on condition of anonymity, to The Irish Times that the Government “is running scared from the idea”.

Presumably, officials are wary of triggering the sort of melt-down in second-hand values that occurred when the motor tax and vehicle registration tax regime was changed in 2008.

Values of petrol-engined cars, and cars with high CO2 emissions, melted down virtually overnight, leaving both individual owners and car dealers with cars that had suddenly, in some cases, become unsellable.

The notion that, forgiving the pun, bad news is in the air for diesel power is having a slight but noticeable effect on the Irish car market.

Diesel sales fell in January, by a not-insignificant 7.2 per cent, bringing total diesel demand to 65 per cent of all cars sold, much lower than the average since 2008. Demand for petrol cars rose by 3.55 per cent, but perhaps more significant was the sharp spike in sales of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars.

Hybrid sales rose 117 per cent compared with January 2016, while pure electric sales rose by a massive 242 per cent (from a staggeringly low base, it must be said). Plug-in hybrid sales were up by 6.8 per cent.

Hybrid power

One company benefiting most from this slow switch away from diesel is Toyota. The Japanese giant’s devotion to hybrid power is starting to pay off and Toyota Ireland’s chief executive Steve Tormey told The Irish Times that demand for the hybrid version of its new C-HR crossover is above 70 per cent of models sold.

Mr Tormey also dropped a hint about one route that the Government might take to rebalance petrol and diesel sales without dramatically affecting existing residual values – attack the corporate and fleet market.

“The softening of diesel demand is something that commenced prior to ‘dieselgate’. Since then, the EU Commission seems to have taken a dim view on diesel and in the future the manufacturing costs of diesel engines will rise in order to meet stricter future regulations with a consequent reduction in the offer of diesel powertrains from the industry, especially in the smaller vehicle segments,” he said.

In relation to hybrid, as a significant and environmentally effective powertrain option we have had ongoing discussions with Government and have provided compelling evidence on how hybrid vehicles assist in the reduction of CO2 emissions and improve air quality,” said Mr Tormey.

“If the current grants for hybrid vehicles are continued to 2020 for all manufactures then these benefits will continue to support Government in its drive to reduce CO2 emissions, reduce the level of fines Ireland will be exposed to from the EU for failing to achieve agreed targets and critically improve public health.

“In addition, there is a request to Government to allow companies reclaim VAT on petrol fuel for hybrid vehicles similar to the existing scheme for diesel.

“Given the level of pent-up demand we are experiencing from companies and fleet buyers for hybrid, this remains one of the biggest impediments to transforming the Irish car market away from diesel. However, while companies can continue to reclaim VAT on diesel but not on petrol there is no incentive for them to make that change.”

Such a background tax change could have a profound effect, given time to propagate through the market, but Ireland is caught between a pollution rock and an emissions hard place – diesel power.

Car ownership grows

Nissan Ireland’s managing director James McCarthy says the Government’s vacillating on its electric car strategy could be plunging us into as much as a €6 billion fine from the EU.

“Ireland is failing utterly in its EV [electric vehicle] strategy and CO2 emissions continue to increase as the population and car ownership grows.

20,000 EVs by 2020 is achievable if the Government gets serious, takes action and stops making grand statements of intent,” said Mr McCarthy at the Transport and Climate Summit in Dublin.

“The initial target set in 2010 was to have 230,000 electric vehicles on our roads by 2020. It was reset to 50,000 EVs in 2014 and a new target of 20,000 EVs is now proposed. How do you hit a moving target? The delivery of an electro mobility strategy is central to Ireland meeting its commitments to reduce CO2 emissions. The combined 2020 and 2030 costs to the State of failing to meet those commitments is estimated at between €3 billion and €6 billion.

He proposed the introduction of policy requiring 20 per cent of the car fleets purchased by the State, public bodies and local authorities to be EVs, levying fines against local authorities who fail to achieve EV targets and a benefit-in-kind exemption for those driving EVs for business.

“Local authorities have no skin in the game. Dublin, with about 40 per cent of the national car fleet should have a minimum of 8,000 EVs registered by 2020.

The Dublin taxi fleet should be mandated to go EV from 2018 with the support of a scrappage scheme,” said Mr McCarthy.

“Currently, there are around 2,000 EV drivers in Ireland. The population and demographics of Ireland and Norway are quite similar and the same EV cars are available in both countries. Norway has succeeded in changing the dial on EVs because it took action to encourage and reward EV driving.”

Scrappage scheme

Such a scrappage scheme has been mooted and rumours are that it will form part of the Government’s consultation paper. But where will customers then turn, if they have to hand in their diesels?

Hyundai’s Tucson is the best-selling car in Ireland at the moment, and while all of the Tucsons sold so far have used the 1.7 CRDI diesel engine, there is a 1.6-litre petrol option.

Switching from the cheapest diesel to the cheapest petrol would save a buyer a potential €1,750 on the purchase cost. Their annual motor tax cost would go up by €190 a year (an extra €570 over three years).

The cost of fuel, at today’s prices, would go up by about €470 annually (to €1,494 in total), assuming an average annual mileage of 17,500km (splitting the difference between petrol and diesel mileage averages, according to the CSO), or €1,410 over three years of ownership.

Taking the Tucson as a test case, the cost of running a diesel would have to rise by about €300-€400 over three years to make it more costly than running a petrol model, although those figures would be considerably different depending on the make and model in question.

It might be best for the Government to sit tight and wait a while before it begins to penalise diesel. According to the vast Schaeffler Group, which owns vehicle and tyre technology company Continental, the cost of “mild hybrids” for petrol cars is coming down fast, and in the very near future the new technology of 48-volt hybrids will be able to reduce emissions from an average petrol-engined family car to as little as 85g/km of CO2.

Schaeffler chief technology officer Peter Gutzmer told Automotive News that “in our view, the future of the combustion-engine powertrain is 48-volt electrification combined with plug-in hybrid high-voltage solutions.

“The majority of automakers have to think about installing 48-volt hybrid drives. I think that in the next 10 years 48-volt systems will account for the majority of hybrids. I even think 48-volt systems will have the potential to extend or even replace what Toyota is very successfully doing.

“There’s only one question that needs to be answered: can we finally reach our cost targets? We are not there yet. We are close but not there.”

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‘Futuristic’ cars powered by voice controls steal the show at CES in Las Vegas

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:48:42 +0000

Futuristic cars powered by voice controls that can read passenger emotions and drive themselves drew the biggest crowds on the first day of CES.

The technology trade show in Las Vegas opened its doors for the first time on Thursday, with around 170,000 visitors expected across four days.

Many flocked to car giant Toyota’s booth to see the firm’s Concept-i car, which instead of buttons and screens is interacted with using voice. The built-in virtual assistant Yui uses artificial intelligence to measure emotions based on passenger responses and alters the car’s settings according, Toyota says.

Start-up Faraday Future also publicly showcased their first production car, an electric vehicle it says is capable of reaching 60mph in less than 2.4 seconds.

Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations at Toyota unveils the new Toyota Concept-i concept car, designed to learn about its driver is unveiled during the Toyota press conference at CES in Las Vegas, January 4, 2017. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

The car also has autonomous features and can park itself.

However only 300 of the FF91, which the firm says will challenge Tesla, have so far been announced as going into production.

There were also concept cars on show from less traditional sources, as appliance firm Bosch presented a car it says could become the “third living space” alongside home and work.

The concept includes voice and facial recognition software to personalise the car, as well as driverless capabilities and an internet connection to enable passengers to carry out other tasks safely.

Corning, a company that specialises in glass production – notably the Gorilla Glass used on some smartphones – also had a concept car on display.

The car had been fitted with Gorilla Glass windows and sunroof and windscreen, which Corning says reduces the car’s weight by up to 30%, improving braking and fuel efficiency.

The windscreen also had augmented reality capabilities and could be used to display relevant information.

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Sorting out World Car vote, electric chat, Octavia surge, opening windows, Haiti rally

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:34:44 +0000

Bentley Bentayga

I’m in the middle of voting for the World Car of the Year awards and I’m struggling a bit with the overall winner.

The finalists for that overall title are the Audi A5, Q2 and Q5 – yes three from the German maker, Fiat 124 Spyder, Honda Civic, Jaguar F-PACE, Mazda CX-9, Skoda Kodiaq, Toyota C-HR and Volkswagen Tiguan.

The World Luxury car is easier but I’m not saying a word yet: Bentley Bentayga, BMW 5-Series, Genesis G90, Mercedes E-Class and Volvo S90/V90.

The World Performance car will come from the Aston Martin DB11, Audi R8 Spyder, Honda/Acura NSX, McLaren 570s and Porsche Boxster Cayman.

The new Urban Car category includes the BMW i3 (94 Ah), Citroen C3, Ford KA+, Smart Cabriolet and Suzuki Ignis.

And the World Green Car will emerge from the Hyundai Ioniq, Tesla Model X, Toyota Prius Prime, Chevrolet Bolt and Honda Clarity Fuel-Cell.

Finally there is the World Design Car of the Year: The Audi A5, Mercedes S-Class Cabriolet, Mazda CX-9, Jaguar F-PACE, Toyota C-HR.

I’ll let you know how I voted as soon as the winners are announced but I’d love a bit of feedback on what single car you would pick for the overall award (ecunningham@independent.ie).

* Fair dues to Alan Nolan of the SIMI. We were talking about electric cars last week at the SIMI quarterly review. I think he summed up our current predicament in a couple of sentences: “The only place where you will get a big take-up of electric cars is Dublin. But as long as Dublin County Council stays ‘negative’ there will be the current haphazard system.”

* Volkswagen are being sued by the first major German customer over the diesel scandal. The fish distributor company Deutsche See claims its fleet of Volkswagens were bought on the promise they were the most environmentally friendly option.

* BMW Motorrad is to introduce its new 2017 models to the Irish public for the first time at the Carole Nash Irish Motorbike and Scooter Show at the RDS (from March 3-5). There will be three new versions of the hugely popular GS.

* SsangYong says it has designed the world’s first touch-window system. It would allow you to open and close windows simply by touching them.

Expect to see the technology before the end of the year.

It’s not the first time this technology has been mooted but SsangYong seem nearer to market with theirs.

* Skoda are pushing hard. They have increased peak power and torque on their rebadged Octavia vRS 245 (245bhp) which replaces the 230 (and before that the 220). It will come in hatch and estate. Look forward to that.

* Toyota and Suzuki have agreed to start serious discussions about collaborating in environmentally friendly technologies, safety systems, information etc.

* Best of luck to former championship rally driver Ronnie Foreman as he plans a ‘Rally for Haiti’ fund-raiser for Haven around Ireland (April 3-7).

Ronnie is coming out of retirement to do so.

He will start in Lisburn, take in Belfast, Derry, Donegal, Sligo, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Kilkenny, Swords, Dublin and finish back in Belfast.

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Safety first with Volvo

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:18:59 +0000

Volvo Cars has cemented its position amongst the leaders of automotive safety innovation with its new S90 sedan and V90 wagon by being the first car maker to score a full six points in the Autonomous Emergency Braking for Pedestrians (AEB Pedestrian) test procedure and an overall five-star rating for both cars.

The Volvo S90: Scored a full six points in the Autonomous Emergency Braking for Pedestrians test procedure and an overall five star rating.

The S90 and V90 results surpass the best overall score of any model tested last year and now make Euro NCAP’s top-3 best performing cars ever all Volvos.

“The result follows in the footsteps of the XC90, which was the first car from any manufacturer to score full points in the Euro NCAP Autonomous Emergency Braking Car to Car rear-end tests (AEB City and AEB Interurban),” the company commented.

It further boasted that the S90 and V90 performed “as expected” in the 2017 testing cycle, achieving a full 5 stars, thanks in large part to the high level of standard safety equipment in the new cars.

“We work hard to ensure that our cars fulfil all safety requirements and pass all testing procedures that the ratings agencies develop.

“Our main focus is, and always has been, real-life safety.

“Autonomous Emergency Braking systems, such as our City Safety offer, also represent a clear step forwards on our journey toward fully autonomous cars, which we see as a key element to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries,” said Malin Ekholm, director of the Volvo Car Safety Centre at Volvo Cars Group.

Volvo Cars has a long held vision that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car by the year 2020.

The S90 and V90 are further proof of Volvo’s continuing investment in and commitment to automotive safety leadership.

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Iconic Ioniq has all the fruit

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:09:27 +0000

The Ioniq comes with a choice of three drivelines overseas.

Although it’s a spin-off from the i30 range, Hyundai’s Ioniq family of maximum economy flagbearers is a completely different engineering proposition to the popular hatchback.

Designed from the ground-up to accommodate three different drivelines, the Ioniq allows Hyundai engineers to demonstrate readily accessible technology, hopefully ahead of its major competition.

The Ioniq concept is to engineer a lightweight and efficient automotive template that has nimble suspension, a high level of driving dynamics, plenty of people and luggage room and a cabin fit-out that matches some premium cars.

The difference is you then plug-in one of three optional drivelines to deliver the blend of electrons that is your preference.

On the outside, the car still displays an echo of Toyota’s well-established Prius, with a sloping rear roof line and a tall impression from the front.

It’s for aerodynamics, but most hybrids spend their lives in cities and suburbs where aerodynamics plays little part in the fuel statistics.

The Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid’s set-up.Picture: Supplied

Connectivity is of course critical, and the Ioniq inherits the new i30’s crammed-full package of features that turns the car into an adept extension of home or office. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto deliver what is becoming a standard in cars, and wireless conductive charging in a small compartment forward of the centre console is standard for compatible devices.

Tom Tom LIVE services are also on board to deliver the information owners are starting to consider essential.

Vehicle systems are optimised for energy efficiency. The Ioniq’s climate control has an efficiency mode and the dual-zone system can be set to a driver-only mode to reduce the load on the energy package.

Batteries are all lithium-ion polymer and vary in size between the three, but despite the big difference between the hybrid pack and the all-electric’s resource, the car’s basic architecture doesn’t change.

Weight savings have been high on the list of must-dos for the engineers, who selected aluminium for the hood and tailgate, the biggest slabs of sheet metal. The hybrid and plug-in share a multi-link rear suspension system with dual lower arms, and also includes a healthy dose of aluminium that chops around 10kg from the suspension.

On the all-electric version, space requirements means a torsion beam rear axle is used to fit the 28kWh battery pack, which extends into the spare wheel well.

All the cars use a new-generation permanent magnet electric motor with reduced thickness of core components and rectangular section copper wire to decrease core and copper loss.

In detail the differences between the three cars are significant.

The Ioniq inherits the i30’s bells and whistles.

Hybrid

The new Kappa 1.6-litre GDI petrol engine is an Atkinson cycle unit with a healthy thermal efficiency of 40 per cent. It produces 77kW and 147Nm of torque. The control unit combines this with the 32kW and 170Nm electric motor to produce a total output of 103.6kW and 265Nm. A top speed of 185km/h serves to illustrate potential and the all-important fuel figure is drilled down to as low as 3.4L/100kms.

A six-speed dual clutch transmission gives the drivelines an edge missing in the competitive hybrids, and the software manages to keep an unbroken stream of torque available at any speed. Multi-link rear suspension and a tight front suspension helps the Ioniq hybrid to stick to the line you select and reward a driver looking for something more stimulating than just getting there.

The petrol engine is small and develops its power over a wide range. But the instant torque boost from the electric package keeps the front wheels dragging the car around bends without interruption.

A high-resolution instrument cluster is in fact a digital display that presents requested information in a different hue, depending on the drive mode selected. A revolving speedo surrounded by a tacho appears in SPORT mode.

Plug-In Hybrid

I didn’t get to drive the plug-in as its release date is still a few months away from its hybrid and all-electric brothers, which are already on sale in South Korea and the US.

But in essence, the major difference is, recharging the battery pack doesn’t depend entirely on the engine driving the electric motor in regenerative mode. That’s there as well, but you can plug your car in when you’re stopped to provide you with a healthy 50km of pure electric range before the engine will cut in to top up the charge.

The plug-in’s electric motor is rated at 45kW, 13kW more than the hybrid.

The Ioniq looks similar to the Toyota Prius from the rear.Picture: Supplied

Electric

You don’t start an electric car. You turn it on. One press of the “Power” button, which replaces the “Start/Stop” button in the i30, and the systems engage. The dash lights up telling you some things you need to know, like battery state, range and distance to a recharge location, and a lot of stuff you don’t.

A fan under the bonnet cranks up to cool the inverter stack sitting across the top of the electric motor unit, but apart from that it’s silent.

Foot on the brake pedal, press “D” and off we go.

I had the new Ioniq EV five-door around the environs of Incheon, a satellite city to Seoul, to see how Hyundai’s electric experience shaped up.

Two conclusions were immediately apparent. Firstly, it’s no Tesla-beater, but secondly, it’s a better drive than most other electric vehicles short of top-end premium technological explosions like the BMW i8.

Thankfully, the car is completely free of any electric “whine.” Silent progress is as good as any other small car, while Sport mode opens the electron’s pipe for a liveliness that starts with a punch on the back on take-off and a fair amount of wheel spin if you’re not careful.

A surprise is the paddles on the steering wheel. They’re not for gears, but to control the three levels of regenerative braking, with level three making the brake pedal unnecessary except in coming to a complete stop.

VERDICT

As a price indicator, in the US the three cars start at $US22,200 ($28,850) for the hybrid, with the all-electric on sale from $US29,500. The plug-in hybrid hasn’t been released yet but is likely to be priced somewhere between its brothers. Hyundai can look to a procession of environmentally conscious buyers — and lookers — heading to Australian showrooms when the cars arrive soon. Putting an electric small car on the road in Perth is a move guaranteed to stimulate much more discussion on issues such as range anxiety and noiseless motoring.

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GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Velar hints at Range Rover luxury car

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 15:05:22 +0000

Premium luxury brand considers move into passenger vehicles as Range Rover stretches boundaries

The new Range Rover Velar could be a significant step toward the British SUV brand building luxury passenger cars for the first time.

That’s the possibility aired by Land Rover’s chief design officer Gerry McGovern, the man ultimately responsible for shaping the most road-oriented vehicle to ever come from the now Indian-owned SUV company.

The existence of the five-door, five-seat Velar SUV coupe was confirmed today, with full details set to be revealed on March 1 ahead of a motor show reveal the following week in Geneva.

The Velar shares its core IQ architecture with the Jaguar F-PACE crossover and eschews the hard-core off-roading capability of fellow Land Rover models such as the Range Rover and Discovery.

The fourth model in the Range Rover line-up, it sits between the entry-level Evoque and Range Rover Sport.

“If you look at other [passenger] brands they have come into the SUV territory and why couldn’t Land Rover-Range Rover go into that [passenger] territory,” McGovern said.

“The thing about Range Rover as a brand is it has massive equity. It has equity comparable to certain fashion brands … I’d argue Range Rover as a brand is peerless, there is nothing else like it.

“We have proven with things like the Evoque and we will prove with the Velar we have the ability to stretch and give much greater resonance in the marketplace.

“So I think there are lots of opportunities. But we still have to keep people guessing — otherwise we give the game away.”

Speaking to Australian media at the global launch of the new Land Rover Discovery in Utah, McGovern was clearly enthused by what his design team has achieved with the Velar.

It has been generically described as an SUV coupe, a much-maligned form of automotive design, intended to take on the likes of the BMW X6, Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe and Porsche Macan.

But McGovern rejected any pigeon-holing of his new vehicle.

“It is not a coupe,” he insisted.

“What I would say about the Velar is it is a new type of Range Rover for a new type of customer and I think it will really change the perceptions of what the brand is about.

“And it has been done in a very unique way. There might be things that are comparable in terms of its overall size, but there is nothing like it in terms of what it is.

“This will blow the spots off the lot. Wait till you see it, I am telling you, wait till you see it,” he added

“People can criticise the hell out of me, but I am telling you the brand is on fire and what will be the proof in the pudding is the way these vehicles sell.

“And when you see Velar – because some people have seen it and have been quite surprised by it — I think … it really is a master class in a modern less-is-more approach.”

McGovern also made it clear Velar would retain Land Rover’s commitment to off-road capability, even if it is shaping as the most road-oriented Range Rover yet.

“Every Land Rover we do has to be incredible, has to be the best in terms of its ability and it (Velar) will be,” McGovern promised.

Ahead of any possible expansion into passenger cars, McGovern made it clear there was expansion of the Discovery and Range Rover families to be catered for as well as the return of the Defender as a family of vehicles.

“If you look at where we currently are and where we could be in six or seven years’ time, it is a massive shift,” he said.

McGovern hinted that another future direction was an SUV smaller than the Evoque.

“You think about small cars,” he said. “You think about how small can you go with an SUV and do it creditably.”

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Jeep defends conservative Compass design

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 14:57:00 +0000

Jeep exterior designed says scaled-down Grand Cherokee styling is a purposeful push for segment sales

Jeep’s new Compass small SUV might eschew the polarising styling of its larger brother, the mid-size Cherokee, but at a glance it could easily be mistaken for its two-segment-up sibling, the Grand Cherokee.

But according to the US off-road brand’s head of exterior design, Vince Galante, the model’s traditionalist, mini-Grand Cherokee design is no coincidence.

Speaking to motoring.com.au at the international launch of the Compass this week, Galante said it was important for the brand’s five SUVs to offer different styling, noting that C-segment (small) SUV segment buyers are more conservative than those elsewhere.

“We tried to capture the essence of that car [the Grand Cherokee],” Galante explained.

“It’s muscular and at the same time athletic, and there’s something about its body that looks protective or indestructible. We tried to keep that in mind.

“With the Cherokee it was different. We intentionally wanted to do something adventurous, because we felt that segment was pretty established,” he added. “While with the Renegade we also wanted to do something adventurous, to appeal to the younger, funky buyer.

“But with the Compass we knew right away that this is the biggest SUV market – the C-SUV segment is the most popular globally – and we knew that we’d have to really appeal to a wide range of people. So, we did, on purpose, make it more of a simpler, more conservative design,” he admitted.

Globally, the Compass will sell into a market segment expected to reach 7.5 million sales by 2020; and while Jeep was keen to retain its stand-out four-wheel drive ability, it was equally aware of the need to remain mainstream stylistically.

Galante said the brand had originally considered a more avant-garde design, but that the broad appeal and solid sales of the Grand Cherokee had an affect on toning things down.

“We always start out trying to scare ourselves, but then we reel it back,” he laughed.

“We tried lots of different things, but as we learn more about the markets the Compass will sell in – and seeing how widespread the appeal for this model would be – we chose to embrace a style similar to the Grand Cherokee, which is universally loved.”

We questioned Galante about the difference in styling between its SUV models, and asked whether the lack of similarly had worked for or against drawing buyers up through the line-up. He defended the design differentiation between the Jeep range, saying it was important that each model stood strong on its own merits.

“There’s a really broad range in personality in what Jeep can be,” he explained. “Every Jeep looks like a family, but they’re all different. We have a spread of personality with our models — each is like its own person,” he enthused.

“If you look at a lot of the car companies, and the German car companies are particularly well known for it, each of the models looks like a scaled version of the next. Ours are all related in a different way.”

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New car sales accelerate to record high for second year

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 15:46:26 +0000

Annual new car sales have reached an all-time high for a second consecutive year

Annual new car sales have reached an all-time high for a second consecutive year – but are expected to fall in 2017, according to an industry trade association.

Some 2.69 million cars were registered in the UK last year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said.

This is up by 2.3% on 2015.

The organisation’s chief executive, Mike Hawes, said growth was due to “very strong” consumer confidence, low interest finance packages and a raft of new models.

“P eople are obviously driven by new technologies,” he told reporters at a briefing in central London.

“Increasingly people do want to see connectivity. People are wedded to mobile phones. They expect equally to have that connectivity on the move.”

Mr Hawes predicted that registrations would decline by “between 5% or 6%” in 2017, but said this was still ” historically an incredibly high level” and insisted it would not represent “a collapse in the market”.

He said five consecutive years of increased sales has been fuelled by latent demand built up during the recession.

“We have to recognise that growth can’t be inexorable,” he said. “There is undoubtedly a levelling off.”

More than 85% of new cars bought in the UK are imported and their cost is “gradually going up” due to the reduction in the value of the pound, Mr Hawes said.

Although manufacturers hedge against currency risk and absorb some of the additional costs, there have been price rises of “2% or 3%”, he added.

Mr Hawes expects 2017 car sales to be “lumpy”, adding that, although the triggering of Article 50 for the UK to leave the EU would “probably not immediately” have an impact on purchasing patterns, he acknowledged that “we have not seen the full effects of Brexit”.

Jim Holder, editorial director of magazines Autocar and What Car?, described the 2016 figures as “very positive”, saying “the expected Brexit bump was mostly negated”.

He told the Press Association that some people within the automotive industry are warning that sales could drop by 10%-15% this year, so manufacturers would be “very pleased” if the SMMT’s prediction of a 5% or 6% drop-off proved accurate.

He added: “When you’re at record levels and you bounce down, I think that’s reasonable.”

:: These are the UK’s new car registration figures for recent years:

2012: 2,044,609

2013: 2,264,737

2014: 2,476,435

2015: 2,633,503

2016: 2,692,786

December was the second month of 2016 when sales decreased, down 1.1% on the same month in 2015.

Fleets were responsible for most of the annual growth, with demand up 4.8% to 1.38 million.

Private registrations were down 0.2% to 1.21 million.

The market share of petrol cars rose from 48.8% to 49%, while alternatively fuelled vehicles such as hybrids and pure electric cars went from 2.8% to 3.3%.

Diesel cars were down from 48.5% to 47.7%.

In September 2015 US regulators told Volkswagen to recall 482,000 diesel cars after discovering they contained illegal defeat devices.

The Environmental Protection Agency said the software allowed cars to release fewer smog-causing pollutants during tests than in real-world driving conditions.

It then emerged that about 11 million cars worldwide were fitted with the software, including 1.2 million in the UK.

SMMT figures show that sales of Volkswagen cars in the UK suffered their first year-on-year fall this decade in 2016, down by 7.5% on the previous year.

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Insurance body in liability call for driverless vehicle manufacturers

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 15:44:56 +0000

Insurance firms are worried about claims relating to driverless vehicles

Insurance firms should have a legal right to recover costs from manufacturers when a defect in a driverless car causes a crash, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said.

But insurers should then be able to recover the cost of the payouts from manufacturers, according to a joint paper published by the ABI and industry body Thatcham Research.

There is currently no automatic right for insurance companies to obtain compensation from car makers when their vehicles are found to be at fault for a crash which results in a claim.

Insurers are concerned that with the development of driverless technology, product liability insurance cannot be relied on as it is not compulsory and can be subject to limits – whereas motor insurance cover for personal injury is required to be unlimited.

Also, product liability does not cover damage to the product by the product, making it ineffective if an automated vehicle drives itself into an object and the owner wants to cover the cost of replacing the vehicle.

The ABI and Thatcham Research called for drivers to continue to require just a single insurance policy to cover both manual and automated driving, to avoid complications and ensure accident victims have enough cover.

They stressed the importance of agreeing good procedures for collecting and sharing data so those involved in claims get compensation without delay and warned that drivers should not be misled into thinking “their car can drive itself when it cannot”.

The paper was issued in response to a Department for Transport consultation into driverless cars, which closed on Friday.

ABI director James Dalton said: “With these proposals, insurers are showing their commitment to the new technology, and to ensuring that anyone injured in a road accident continues to get quick and easy access to help and support, as they do at the moment.

“Motor manufacturers share our goal of reducing deaths and injuries on the roads.

“When an automated vehicle or piece of software causes an accident it is important insurers can recover costs from the companies involved so that vehicle owners are protected from any upward pressure on the cost of motor premiums.”

Peter Shaw, chief executive of Thatcham Research, commented: ” Building driver confidence is at the heart of this consultation paper, so keeping things simple and clear is paramount.

“Similarly, there is still much work to be done by legislators and the automotive industry to give drivers absolute clarity and confidence around what automated driving systems are capable of doing and under what circumstances they can be used.”

Driver assistance systems are already in use in some cars, including control of speed and lane changing. But fully automated driving technology is not yet commercially available.

US manufacturer Ford announced last month that it intends to have completely driverless vehicles with no steering wheel or pedals on the road within five years.

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Renault eyes return to its heyday with new Megane Hatchback

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 15:17:58 +0000

The company, which likes to think of itself as the automotive equivalent of the Marseillaise — ie that Renault is to French car-making what l’Hymne National is to patriotism — has hit various purple patches down the years, but the 1980s and ’90s was a particularly potent time for the company.

During those heady years Renault consolidated its position as one of Europe’s leading manufacturers with a series of cars which were not only innovative, but breaking completely new ground. The Regie National des Usines Renault, as the company had become after de Gaulle nationalised it out from under the Renault family, became a powerhouse of design ingenuity and sales success.

Unfortunately, a golden era featuring the likes of the Espace, Clio, Twingo, Scenic, turbocharging, and Megane, died away and while the originals of those cars and technologies were classics of their time, what followed was not.

Despite being privatised once more in 1996, poor product quality dogged the brand and even killed off several models — remember the Renault 14? — but thanks to a very productive alliance with Nissan (which it purchased in 1999) and the firm hand of boss Carlos Ghosn on the corporate tiller, the company has once more turned a corner.

With such SUV hits as the Captur and the Kadjar, as well as revitalised stock models such as the Clio, Twingo, Scenic, and so forth, Renault is now, it would appear, well into another golden era and the test car we’re trying this week would tend to suggest this epoch might be with us for a while.

Now the Megane has always competed gamely with the likes of Ford Focus and VW Golf without ever replicating the vast sales numbers achieved by those behemoths of the family car genre, but it sold well in the various guises afforded it down the years while not really troubling the big boys.

It might have been snazzy (one of the first cars to have keyless operation), good looking, and techie (it had satnav before most of us plebs knew what that was), but there was always the impression — misguided or otherwise — that it was not the same build quality league as its main rivals and did not have the same clout in terms of residual values either.

And, as any self-respecting driver will tell you, it did not have the same appeal as an on-road experience as the VW or the Ford. Well, let me tell you now, you can forget the old misgivings you had about the Megane because a new one is here and it is damn good.

But let us not lose the run of ourselves here, because by comparison with previous Meganes, the new car is better looking, better built, and nicer to drive.

But — and it’s a big but — has it gotten any closer to the top dogs in the segment?

I believe it has — quite a deal closer in fact — but there is still something of a gap between the new Renault and its primary targets and this may well be due to a critical element of its DNA. French cars have traditionally preferred comfort over driver engagement and the new Megane, unsurprisingly, follows this well-trodden path.

If you want something with bags of grip and body control, you’ll have to look elsewhere because, even in GT Line trim as tested, the Megane does not come close to the class leaders.

It handles quite well, but the ride is very mushy and you feel, as so often is the case with Gallic machinery, that the focus during the design process was to end up with a car which glided rather than gripped.

This is fine for a lot of family requirements on great surfaces where Aunty Mabel would adore the tremendously comfortable rear seats on a balmy Sunday afternoon trip; but her cucumber sambos might not be resting as easy when she’s getting bounced around in the back on ragged Irish by-roads where the set-up’s flaws become quickly obvious.

Engaging ‘sport’ mode does tighten things up a little bit, but cannot overcome what appears to me to be a basic design flaw.

And, I do have to say that the Megane’s mega-sensitive lane-change warning system was a real pain in the ass. The Renault is not alone in this regard as all too many such systems — a complete waste of time, in my view, and an excellent example of safety consciousness gone mad — are too intrusive and annoying.

I also had a minor quibble with the automatic low/high beam lights which I felt were not quite intuitive enough for my liking and in the end I turned off the ‘auto’ function and did it manually.

Auto lights, lane-changing warning, and ride and handling aside, then, what was good about the car? Well, aside from the excellent exterior looks, Renault has made big strides on the quality of the interior. Gone are those awful scratchy, plastic surfaces and instead you’re presented with chic, tactile, and pleasing surroundings.

The seating too is excellent and the engine — the very familiar 1.5 DCi unit with 1120 bhp, which is almost ubiquitous across the Renault and Nissan ranges at this stage — is very easy to live with and, let’s not be shy about it, extract the most from.

It is a very willing partner and while performance is not too far removed from pedestrian (11.2 seconds 0-100km/h and top speed of 188) it is still a smooth and relatively entertaining package.

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Sales of SUVs overtake passenger cars for the first time in Australia

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 15:08:17 +0000

SALES of SUVs — also known as “faux-wheel-drives” and “soft-roaders” because they’re more suited to sealed roads despite their rugged looks — have overtaken passenger cars for the first time in Australian automotive history.

According to official sales figures in February, 35,497 SUVs were reported as sold versus 34,740 passenger cars.

However, year-to-date, passenger cars remain narrowly ahead of SUVs: just 36 sales apart, 69,660 compared to 69,624.

Our changing taste in vehicles comes as more drivers favour the high driving position and better cargo flexibility of SUVs over traditional sedans and hatches.

The arrival of more “pint-sized” but high-riding hatchbacks — categorised as SUVs — is also behind the surge.

The Mazda CX-5 (left), Toyota RAV4 (centre) and Subaru Forester (right) are becoming commonplace. Picture: Joshua DowlingSource:Supplied

“This one monthly outcome doesn’t signal a landslide but clearly Australian buyers are attracted by the features and capabilities of new generation SUVs, and how these types of vehicles suit their needs and lifestyles,” said the chief executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Tony Weber.

The February figures also revealed the biggest new-car sales slowdown since the Global Financial Crisis.

Sales of all new vehicles were down 7.7 per cent in February: 89,025 deliveries versus 96,443 in the same month last year.

“It’s important to look at sales results in the proper context because February 2016 was an unusually strong month,” said Mr Weber. “It included one extra selling day and saw a lot of activity in the market. This resulted in a 6.7 per cent surge over February 2015.”

Nevertheless, the sudden drop in new-car deliveries means dealers will be more desperate to move metal in the coming months as they clear last year’s stock, sparking further discounts.

Toyota continued to lead the market ahead of Mazda and Hyundai, but Holden had a shocker, down 22 per cent to fifth place and was overtaken by Mitsubishi. The Commodore only just stayed inside the Top 10.

Commodore sales took a hit in February but will bounce back when final editions arrive in showrooms midyear, Holden claim. Picture: Supplied.Source:Supplied

Holden’s sales and marketing chief Peter Keley said sales were slow because the full Astra line-up was yet to arrive in showrooms and many customers placed forward orders for limited edition Commodores.

“We actually grew our order bank for the Commodore but that’s not reflected in the February figures,” said Mr Keley. “As those cars are built you will see Commodore sales pick up in the coming months.”

Ford posted first decline after 14 months of growth (down 15 per cent), its sales dented after Territory and Falcon reach the end of the line.

Despite the popularity of SUVs, only three are in the Top 10 — the Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV4 and Hyundai Tucson — because the market is so fragmented.

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Autonomous city driving on a rainy night now a reality

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 15:03:57 +0000

Silicon Valley start-up demonstrates its self-driving technology in sketchy conditions

Can an autonomous, driverless vehicle drive safely through busy city traffic on a dark, rainy night? You bet it can, if this new video from Silicon Valley-based start-up Drive.ai is any indication.

Indeed, as you can see from this 3:46 time-lapse film shot in a car as it navigates the dim, wet urban streets of Mountain View, California with no human intervention whatsoever, it can even handle a heavy downpour, narrow streets littered with parked cars, glare from oncoming traffic, a busy four-way stop sign, a car possibly illegally cutting in front of it, a broken red light and confusing reflections from a dark, wet road.

Drive.ai says it’s devoted to developing the software of self-driving vehicles to create a safer, more productive future on our roads. Most of its staff have made their way from Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab and the company is one of around 20 now with a license to drive autonomously in the state of California.

Carol Reiley, co-founder and president of Drive.ai, explained in an interview with TechCrunch how deep the team is going with the artificial part of the intelligence algorithms in autonomous vehicle software.

“We are using deep learning for more of an end-to-end approach. We’re using it not just for object detection but for making decisions, and for really asking the question ‘Is this safe or not given this sensor input on the road?,” she explained.

“A rule-based approach for something like a human on a bicycle will probably break if you see different scenarios or different viewpoints. We think that deep learning is the definitely the key to driving because there are so many different edge cases.”

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) uses a scale of six levels to define different levels of automation. Those in the field of building AI for cars have adopted both the definitions and the challenges they entail.

For example, current driver-assist systems like radar-based automatic cruise control and camera-based lane-keeping — which can accelerate, stop and steer a car without driver input for short periods — are classed as Level 1 autonomy, while Tesla’s fully autonomous – and controversial — Autopilot system is rated as Level 2.

A wide range of car-makers – as well as the likes of Uber, Google and Apple — are aiming to deliver Level 4 production cars by early next decade. Drive.ai is already showcasing this technology and is already working on Level 5, in which there should be no need for a ‘driver’ at all.

Tesla claims its vehicles are already fitted with the hardware to support Level 5 autonomy, but hands-free driving remains illegal in most jurisdictions, including all Australian states.

Since human error is the cause of 90 per cent of collisions, autonomous vehicles have been hailed as the cure for road deaths and have even been predicted to kill the car insurance industry, while Nissan promises that even car enthusiast will love self-driving cars.

Car-makers are investing billions in automotive AI and a driverless vehicles have already been approved for roads in the US, Europe, UK and Australia, where the government commenced autonomous motoring hearings this week and Victoria’s first self-driving vehicle trials start on Melbourne’s CityLink within months.

But despite assurances from companies like Audi and Volvo, which have vowed to take responsibility for any damage, injuries and deaths caused by their autonomous vehicles, most Americans doubt they’ll be more productive in an autonomous cars, there are fears of an increased risk of cyber attack from hackers and many remain sceptical of claims that self-driving vehicles will reduce traffic congestion.

Furthermore, going beyond Level 5 autonomy requires not just vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication – which would require all vehicles to be fitted with a transponder — but expensive vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2X), as well as a high level of AI, raising serious ethical issues like ‘who should be killed if a fatal collision is unavoidable?’ and ‘will your car decide to kill you?’.

What this video doesn’t show is Drive.ai’s other areas of interest — tracking pedestrians and giving vehicles the ability to emote their intentions to pedestrians and other drivers — but it does demonstrate that groups like Drive.ai are hard at work to make the transition to a driverless future as seamless as possible.

Now let’s see the Drive.ai crew survive the swagger of an oncoming B-triple on the Nullarbor, and emerge unscathed from the gibbers, washouts and errant ‘roos of the Birdsville track.

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Alfa Romeo confirms Supercars interest

Mon, 20 Mar 2017 14:55:37 +0000

Italian car-maker could return to Aussie touring car racing, says local brand boss

Alfa Romeo will enter the nation’s premier motorsport category, the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship (VASC), if it can justify the investment.

That’s the official word from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Australia (FCAA) boss, Steve Zanlunghi, who told motoring.com.au that Aussie touring car racing could be a good way to promote Alfa’s blistering new 375kW Giulia QV sports sedan.

However, he cautioned that the business case for a V8SC program, which could cost up to $10 million, would have to be approved and funded by FCA HQ in Turin, and it’s unlikely that Alfa would enter the VASC within two years.

“We will do what it takes. If there’s a good return on investment we will do it, if it helps the brand and is brand-specific,” said Zanlunghi.

Alfa is one of two brands currently considering a Supercars assault, with Kia a potential starter as early as 2018 with its all-new rear-drive twin-turbo V6-powered Stinger sports sedan, which will be launched as a direct rival to the Holden Commodore by October this year.

FCAA had early discussions with VASC organisers, who presented their case for this year’s new Gen2 rules (that allow body styles other than sedans and engines other than V8s) to a number of brands as part of a ‘road show’ last year, about the potential for a Giulia safety car, but that role has now been filled by Porsche’s Cayenne.

Zanlunghi said discussions are no longer active and a business case to take the Giulia racing Down Under is not being actively pursued as FCAA instead focuses on launching the Giulia QV and mainstream members of the mid-size sedan family, which he says is squarely “aimed at the BMW 3 Series space”.

But he also points to the illustrious motorsport history of the 106-year-old Italian brand, its current ties with Formula 1 and the Giulia QV’s suitability to Supercar racing, which Alfa could also choose to enter with its upcoming Giulia Sprint coupe as soon as 2019.

“It depends if it fits the Alfa Romeo space,” he said. “If you look at the Alfa brand, it’s one that is very rich in racing heritage. And if you look at some of our global sponsorships we do sponsor the Ferrari team – we have a logo on their F1 car.

“We want to get the car into market first before we think about ancillary spaces that we could play in to build on the brand. The key is getting the car to market and letting people know it’s about there before we go into specific niche places.”

These comments follow similar statements made by Zanlunghi last year: “We are looking at all the available opportunities for Alfa Romeo that would fit the brand DNA, so obviously it is a racing brand and it’s a got a racing heritage.

“No news to report but we are looking at a lot of different things.”

Alfa Romeo’s current global motorsport activities are not big, but there are rumours it will contest TCR series in Europe and possibly Le Mans in the US.

As evidenced by these computer renderings by RC Workchop and LP Design, there has also been ongoing speculation that Alfa could enter Europe’s dying WTCC or Germany’s closed-shop DTM touring car categories, but both of these scenarios seem unlikely.

Nevertheless, motoring.com.au was told by a senior Supercars team engineer that the Giulia’s aerodynamic shape would be well suited to the category, and we presume the coupe version will be even more so.

Mercedes-Benz and Volvo contested the VASC until last year, but the only brands confirmed for the 2017 season, which kicks off this weekend, are Holden, Ford and Nissan.

Zanlunghi didn’t rule out a Giulia coupe tilt at Australia’s burgeoning GT4 racing scene, which this year sees BMW (M4) join Porsche (Cayman), Aston Martin (Vantage) and KTM (X-Bow), but he indicated his preference for Supercars.

“If you’re asking me if I’m looking at proposals the answer is no, I’m not,” he said.

“But at the same time we’re looking to see what space Alfa Romeo could fit in and play in.

“Would an Italian race car work in V8 Supercars? We will look at anything that will help advance the brand and has a good return on investment.

“We would have to put a business case together because it would have to provide a return on the investment. If it brings sales, we’ll do it.”

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Wood you believe it? Bentley to install hi-tech OLED visual displays inside timber dashboard veneers

Thu, 16 Mar 2017 15:43:10 +0000

Future Bentleys could have the new dashboard installed (Photo: Bentley)

Bentley is incorporating new luxury technology into its vehicles which it claims will help to pave the way for the future of motoring.

The car manufacturer has released their vision of what their future fleets will look like after the introduction of OLED tech.

OLED – or organic light emitting diodes – are the latest in digital displays and are being used in TVs, computers and other devices.

Now, Bentley has found a way to install the technology into their dashboards – finished with a wood veneer.

Bentley claims this retains the luxury style while also keeping their motors current.

An artist’s impression of what the hi-tech dash could look like (Photo: Bentley)

It released a mock-up of what the new dashboards will look like in future cars to hit the market.

Chairman and CEO, Mr Wolfgang Dürheimer, told Automotive News World Congress in Detroit, USA: “We will certainly use new technology to enhance traditional and authentic materials in new and contemporary ways.

“One possible example of this could be to overlay OLED screens across wood veneers.

“These ultra-thin screens would be invisible except when in use, for example, to control the audio or HVAC systems.”

The company is planning to fit the latest OLED tech in the cars (Photo: 2012 Bloomberg)

He added: “Our belief is that technology on its own is not enough. Technology in isolation is cold and can never be truly luxurious.

“We must never lose the human touch.”

The new advancement in technology for the brand comes after it announced one of its cars will include a virtual butler.

The EXP10 Speed 6 has already won multiple awards as one of the company’s most successful concept cars.

The futuristic virtual personal assistant

And the designers have gone one step further to realise its future with a mock-up of a holographic assistant in the back seats.

It was created to show how the British company will keep up with modern technological advances.

Unfortunately, the virtual personal assistant isn’t yet available to buy.

The Bentley Flying Spur is more of an accessible model at the moment (Photo: Bentley)

But Director of Design Stefan Sielaff claims that these kind of technologies will be ingrained into car interiors in years to come.

He said: “In the future our cars will of course feature yet-to-be-invented connectivity and technologies – perhaps a virtual butler, for example – that enhance the lives of our luxury millennial customers, and I strongly believe that how these technologies are integrated into the cabin will become ever more important.”

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Skoda has a year to remember as Mercedes and Ford cement legacies

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 15:16:28 +0000

Car of the year: Skoda Kodiaq

It is quite ironic in a way that, given the general antipathy in this quarter for all things SUV, we now have a second year in a row where one of these things gets the top gong in the Examiner Motoring Car Of The Year Awards.

Last year we had the brilliant Volvo XC90 and this year we have a car which, I confidently predict, will propel Skoda sales to stratospheres previously untouched by the brand. This car is going to be massive for the Czech company, part of the greater Volkswagen empire.

Coming as it does at a time when VW is in all sorts of trouble thanks to its ‘dieselgate’ emissions scandal, this Skoda will be expected to turn the sort of profits that the German giant is used to seeing from its own products.

It will do just that because not only is it an unbelievably good car to drive, it is also good looking, remarkably practical, loaded with kit, and endowed with the sort of clever design touches which are fast becoming Skoda’s hallmark.

We will not see the Kodiaq coming here in big numbers until March or thereabouts, and we have not yet had the pricing confirmed — although Skoda says the cost will be in line with Superb pricing — but this thing is going to be a sales sensation.

I gave this car a good going over at its European launch in Spain towards the end of the year and I simply could not fully comprehend what a good job the engineering and design teams have done here and what they have achieved.

The arrival of the Kodiaq is the beginning of a new era for the company and it is a product that is going to be in demand from the get-go. And when you think that they have an all-new Yeti coming along to further bolster sales, the future seems very bright indeed for a very bright company.

Supercar of the year: Audi R8+

Some might blanche at the use of the word ‘supercar’ here, but the R8+ is every inch a great example of the genre — and if the design and construction don’t convince some people, then the €300,000-plus price tag certainly should.

The fastest production Audi has ever made, the two-seater mid-engined R8+ has a lightweight aluminium/carbon fibre chassis and a V10 engine which outputs in excess of 600 brake horsepower.

The addition of stuff like carbon ceramic brakes might seem a bit excessive, but believe me you need them, such is the visceral power of this mighty machine.

The top speed of 330km/h and the 3.2-second 0-100km/h capability are mere indicators of what is on offer here. You have to experience the sheer, naked aggression of the R8 to appreciate what a tour de force this thing is.

And the odd thing is that, for all its potency, it is also a pussycat to drive around in places where you cannot max it out, which is just as well because you’d be spending time behind bars if you did try an exploit the mammoth potential of the car in an urban setting.

Hot hatch of the year: Ford Focus RS

The malevolent look of the RS is matched by the shattering performance of this latest RS from Ford. With full-time four-wheel drive and a 2.3-litre turbocharged four pot (a slightly up-tuned version of the same engine as powers the lesser of the two Mustang options) outputting 350 bhp, this RS will only add to the legend of the badge it carries.

An unbelievably well-sorted car, the RS has all sorts of tricks up its sleeve and while you can ignore stuff like its ‘drift’ function or the launch control system as mere fripperies, the essence of this beast as a performer ‘sans pareil’ remains defiantly intact.

A driver’s car of the undiluted kind, this Focus RS is a gem of wilful overkill while also having a practical five-door demeanour, so it is even possible to make a reasonable case for it as a family car.

Of course, not many family cars have a €53,000 price tag, a top speed in excess of 260km/h and a 0-100km/h capability of under five seconds, but this one does and it is worth every last penny.

Small car of the year: Suzuki Baleno

A deserved prize-winner in many COTY awards this year, the new small Suzuki is fiendishly practical and comfortable, mirroring the ‘more for less’ ethos the Japanese company displayed with last year’s excellent revival of the Vitara SUV.

The Baleno is another nameplate Suzuki is breathing new life into. Not only is it a fine, sturdy, and small family hatchback, but it is powered by a brilliant new three cylinder turbocharged petrol engine which has remarkable output and consumption characteristics. This one is a hidden gem.

Seek it out and you will be rewarded by a bombproof paragon of reliability and as eager and joyous a small capacity petrol engine as is available anywhere. And it is not just a town car either; it has proved itself to a worthy companion over long distances as well.

Its styling might be a little on the bland side, but underneath lies a little gem that represents serious value for money.

Executive car of the the year: Mercedes E-Class

Mercedes really upped the ante with this one and re-wrote the rulebook for the mid-range executive segment. With intensified competition coming from the new BMW 5 Series, the Merc will have to be good to cope — and it is.

Everything else in the class now has a very definite target to aim at and will have to be truly stunning to make up the gap the E-Class has established between itself and everything else.

Although some of the claims about it being the forerunner for truly autonomous motoring are a tad overblown, the Merc is still the car to beat in its class. Its comfort levels, elegance, and range of new petrol and diesel engines mean it is clearly the benchmark car in the segment.

Icon of the year: Ford Mustang

Introducing a right-hooker Mustang for the first time was probably a culture shock for Ford, but it was an exercise which has proven to be worth the effort for the blue oval.

Irish drivers have been queuing up to get their hands on the iconic American muscle car — in either of its two guises, the allegedly milk-and-water four cylinder 2.3 EcoBoost or the full-fat five litre V8. Those that opt for the former will be pleasantly surprised by the abilities of this ‘lesser’ model

in the range, while those that choose the hairy-chested version will not at all be surprised by booming tones and wide power spectrum on offer there. You might quibble about some of the styling touches or even some of the interior décor, but you will not quibble with this car’s sheer presence and the fact it is not just another Neanderthal yankee offering.

Ford has done a great engineering job here, making an old recipe fresh and vibrant. Either of the Mustangs on offer are a credit to Ford and it is fantastic to see how many new tricks they have taught this particular old dog. Wonderful.

Luxobarge of the year: BMW 740X

It might have a price tag well north of €100,000 and a four-wheel drive system which might seem a bit unnecessary, but the whole thing about this car is that it aims to be the biggest and the best in class.

It is a technological tour de force and it would appear the BWM engineers and designers have left no stone unturned in their quest to incorporate as much detail as possible in this amazing car.

The endless splendour of the interior is matched by the sophistication of the drive-train, while the air suspension provides the sort of magic carpet ride that has to be experienced to be believed. As an exercise in how to get things right, it does not get much better than this. Truly exceptional.

Roadster of the year: Mazda MX-5

The original and the best — still. Since Mazda reinvented the classic British two-seat roadster concept (Triumph Spitfire, MGB, Austin Healey) with the original MX-5, the company has managed to maintain the moral high ground with every successive version.

This latest one may well be the best of the lot. It’s a sheer joy to drive: Impeccable handling, a great engine, and a fantastic short-throw gearbox. The newest MX-5 is the essence of fun on wheels.

Very nearly executive car of the year: Volvo S90

The revival of Volvo is a hugely welcome thing in a world where so many car makers are struggling and some have even gone by the wayside. The company may now be Chinese-owned but it is intrinsically Swedish and that means the brand has an individualistic take on design and engineering.

It was no fluke that the excellent XC90 was our COTY in 2015 and the S90 has very nearly repeated the dose in the executive class. While not quite up to the standards of such as the Mercedes E-Class, it comes damn close and is clear evidence that with the help of extensive investment from China, the Volvo brand is in very good hands.

Executive SUV of the year: Jaguar F-Pace

This is the car which will springboard the Jaguar brand to the sort of sales success it has craved for so long. The company’s first SUV is brilliant and with this market segment now holding such sway over the buying public, Jaguar is in a position to capitalise.

The likes of the XE, XF, and XJ, not to mention the excellent F-Type coupe, have re-established the brand as a class act, but they have not propelled the company to the sort of sales performance it desired.

The F-Pace will end all that — particularly so in the critical American and Chinese markets. Although it might be treading on sister company Land Rover’s toes in some respects, the F-Pace is individual enough to overcome any perceived problems with regard to cross-fertilisation.

Beautiful and beautifully put together, this is a car with a massive future — expect to see a lot more of them on our roads in the not too distant future.

Nearly hot hatch of the year: Peugeot 308GTi

Going up against the likes of the Focus RS is a big ask for any car, but the Peugeot 308 GTi very nearly pulled it off. This is the first seriously worthy hot hatch from Peugeot for many years and it restored a reputation the French manufacturer had established in this segment a long time ago with the 205 GTi.

With a trick differential allowing the 308 to successfully lay down each and every one of the 270 horses on offer here, this is a seriously capable performer and one which has put the French manufacturer right back where it belongs in the performance segment.

Aside from its on-road capabilities, the five-door layout provides decent practicality and the pricing of the car also places it bang in contention with the class leaders. An excellent return to form from Peugeot and one which has been a long time coming. Long overdue, but worth waiting for.

Ragtop of the year: Mini Convertible

I hate convertibles – they’re normally terrible to drive with jelly-like chassis and all-over-the-place handling characteristics. The new Mini convertible set a new benchmark for the genre with a fantastically solid chassis and handling worthy of the brand.

I don’t generally enjoy driving these things because the design compromises pretty much everything about such cars, but this one was an absolute hoot to drive and displayed none of the characteristic flaws of a ragtop.

Not cheap, certainly, but when you think that this is a car which will outperform anything similar, then it is very definitely worth the expense.

While some of the performance versions might be very expensive indeed, you can have almost as much fun with the excellent 1.5 litre turbo three cylinder engine is actually quite a blast to drive, so you don’t have to break the bank to get a lot of fun motoring. Pity we don’t have the weather.

The post Skoda has a year to remember as Mercedes and Ford cement legacies appeared first on http://kildare.cashforcarsireland.com/

GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Alpina creates more powerful B3 and B4 Biturbos

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 14:54:07 +0000

New ‘S’ version boosts power of sports sedan, coupe, wagon and convertible to 324kW

Legendary BMW tuner, Alpina, has announced it will launch a more powerful S version of its 3 Series-based twin-turbo B3 and B4 at the Geneva motor show.

Available on the B3 sedan, wagon and B4 coupe and convertible, the new S model is said to raise the power of both car’s standard twin-turbo 3.0-litre straight-six from 301kW/600Nm to a more muscular 324kW/660Nm.

The bump in power has a dramatic effect on performance. Against the clock, the B4 Biturbo S is now capable of hitting 100km/h, from standstill, in just 4.2 seconds – 0.4 seconds quicker than the standard car.

The all-wheel drive B4 S, meanwhile, is faster still and can now reach 100km/h in an incredible 3.9 seconds.

Top speed has also risen from 278km/h (for the coupe) to a supercar-bothering 306km/h.

Alpina hasn’t revealed how exactly it’s extracted the extra power and torque but says the new S model is identified over the standard car thanks to a tweaked front and rear bumpers, new LED head- and fog lamps and redesigned LED rear tail lamps.

Inside, the B3 and B4S is said to come with higher-grade materials and, curiously, split folding rear seats.

Alpina was only launched late last year in Australia with the first batch of cars arriving in customer’s hands last month.

It’s likely we’ll get the option of the power upgrade on the cars we get although it’s not known how much of a premium Alpina will levy over the $155,900 it charges for the standard B3 and the $160,900 it currently costs for a B4 Coupe.

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Why these are the perfect vans for our businesses

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 14:54:04 +0000

Richard Phelan

Cathal Doyle talks to four owners and reports on what persuaded them to choose the brands and vehicles for their companies.

CITROEN / CITYLITES GALWAY

As chief buyer for Citylites, Galway, Anne Cummins spends a lot of her time travelling the world, sourcing fine lighting products. Citylites is the retail lighting offshoot of Peter Curran Electrical, Galway’s largest electrical wholesaler. Situated in the Glenrock Business Park, Ballybane, it offers a huge selection of lighting.

When not travelling overseas, Anne spends a lot of her time visiting customers around the west of Ireland bringing product samples with her, and offering professional advice on all aspects of lighting.

Visiting customers at their homes or businesses requires a spacious van to transport her fragile goods and for Anne there’s only one vehicle for the job – her new Citroen Dispatch. Practical reasons are behind why she chose the French product which was purchased from Kenny Motors in Galway.

“One reason is that the side opening door is on the driver’s side of the vehicle which I find very handy as I am constantly in and out of the van,” she explains. “On many vans it is fitted on the other side.” Ergonomics were also a consideration. “I find the seat is a perfect height for me. It’s comfortable and provides good visibility.”

To safely carry her valuable merchandise, the Dispatch is fitted out with a wooden floor as well as hooks in the roof for hanging chandeliers and other fragile items

As she tends to run her vans for a number of years, Anne has made a couple of modifications to the Dispatch to meet her specific needs, including installing shelving to hold her books and brochures. The other one is more personal, a place to store her lipstick.

Perhaps that’s a modification she should suggest to Citroen for the next generation of their popular panel van. “Now there’s a thought!” she agrees.

RENAULT/DYNAMIC EVENTS WICKLOW

Twenty-one years ago Richard Phelan identified a gap in the market for corporate sector team-building activities. The result was Dynamic Events, now established as one of Ireland’s leading event-management providers.

“We offer the opportunity for corporates to outsource their team building activities,” explains Richard. The Blessington-based business runs a broad range of indoor and outdoor activity functions ranging from team building events to product launches, conferences and corporate entertainment. Last year alone, the team of 12 ran more than 450 events all over Ireland.

Clients include some of the country’s leading companies, including many blue-chip financial and IT businesses.

The service means hauling a lot of equipment around the place, so when it comes to choosing vans, capacity is key. That’s one of the reasons why Richard recently purchased two Renault Master LHL 35 Energy panel vans. The rear-wheel drive vans are the largest Renault offers, boasting 17 cubic metres of load space.

“We need to be able to transport everything from team building equipment and audio-visual gear to Santa thrones and picket fencing,” says Richard.

Another reason was projecting the right image. “Everything that we do, drive, even wear, needs to say quality. We need to back up what we do with the right products and vehicles. The Renaults fit the bill perfectly,” he says of the stylish black and silver liveried vans.

Purchased from Belgard Motors, Dublin, Richard is delighted with his Master vans since acquiring them last autumn. “They look great, have huge capacity and are very competitively priced. I certainly see us buying them again.”

OPEL/APEX FIRE CAVAN

When dealing with fire protection and detection is your everyday job, you expect and demand the best equipment as a matter of course. When it comes to vans, Declan Kelly, managing director of Apex Fire, puts his trust in Opel.

Apex Fire Ltd, whose HQ is at Moynehall, Cavan, is a one-stop shop for all protection/detection and certified training needs. As part of the Moyne Roberts Group, one of Europe’s largest producers of fire extinguishers and hose reels, it has depots in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, with representatives in every county.

Currently operating more than 60 vans, the company added 28 Opel Vivaros and Combos to its fleet in August 2016. That link will be strengthened further as it has placed an order for an additional 23 Opel vans through HB Dennis Leasing.

Declan says the Opels make sense on a number of fronts. “We’ve noticed a significant improvement in fuel efficiency compared with some of the vans we were using previously.”

Having to carry lots of heavy equipment, payload capacity is always a concern; here again Declan says the Vivaros come up trumps, being able to carry around 200kg more than similar-sized vans.

Fitted with satnavs, and bearing the new company logo, the vans are fitted with parking sensors which Declan describes as being a big benefit in aiding safer driving. “Feedback from the drivers was very important in our decision to continue using Opel.”

In September last year, Apex Fire achieved accreditation against the prestigious Investors in People standard which recognises the role of an excellent employer and place to work among other key attributes. Apex Fire is currently recruiting, with vacancies for fire safety trainers, and fire alarm and fire extinguisher technicians (info@apexfire.ie).

NISSAN/J&S AUTOMOTIVE DUBLIN

With Nissan’s Irish headquarters barely a stone’s throw away, it’s not surprising that J&S Automotive features the manufacturer’s products exclusively in its fleet. But according to Gareth Fitzpatrick, Warehouse and Logistics Manager for the leading automotive parts distributor, proximity isn’t the reason; rather the vehicles’ toughness, reliability and value for money. “Basically we find Nissan’s vans to be very good,” says Gareth. “Our vehicles have to do heavy mileage, to all corners of Ireland. We need them to be reliable as they work day and night”.

From a small shop set up by Joe Gaynor at the Five Lamps on Amiens Street, Dublin 40 years ago, J&S Automotive has grown into a major car-parts distributor with hubs all over Ireland. It supplies parts, tools and training to the independent aftermarket using its own fleet. It has grown a lot and will employ more than 180 by 2018.

Of the fleet of 24 Nissans, the majority are the larger capacity NV400s, but there are a number of compact NV200s. With the mid-sized NV300 recently on sale, one was added in November, with a further five arriving next month. J&S is keen to add the ENV200 when the infrastructure supports it.

Windsor Dundrum Nissan supplies the vehicles. There is a strong relationship with salesman Niall O’Kelly; it moved its business to the Dundrum dealership when Niall transferred from Windsor Liffey Valley. That the vans work hard is highlighted by the fact there are already almost 50,000km on that three-month old NV300.

The post Why these are the perfect vans for our businesses appeared first on http://limerick.cashforcarsireland.com/

World Car of the Year 2017 finalists revealed

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 14:54:00 +0000

The World Car Awards is the largest automotive awards programme on the planet. Winning World Car of the Year is a big deal for auto manufacturers – so all eyes will be on the just-released list of finalists for the 2017 prize. Here, we’re revealing which 10 cars are in the running to be World Car of the Year 2017.

It’s not just the overall World Car of the Year finalists that we’re revealing here, either. The awards scheme, that’s been established for more than a decade, also includes prizes for World Luxury Car, World Performance Car, World Green Car and World Urban Car. There’s also a World Car Design of the Year prize.

Here, we’re running through the cars in the running for each award. And so without further ado…

2017 World Car of the Year finalists

Last year, the Mazda MX-5 was awarded the overall World Car of the Year prize. This year, 75 judges from around the world have whittled the longlist down to 10 finalists. In alphabetical order, they are…

Audi A5 / S5 Coupe

The sleek new Audi A5 Coupe has been a bit of a slow-burner, but its elegant, curvaceous lines are now starting to find favour. The high-tech new chassis is excellent and shows off its high-performance side in the 354-horsepower S5.

Audi Q2

This is a new entrant for Audi – a small crossover SUV designed to compete with other tiddler machines such as the Renault Captur and Nissan Juke. Styling is a break from the Audi Q norm, and being based on the A3 hatch means it drives tidily.

Audi Q5

The new Q5 is another Audi that’s had a bit of a slow start. Again though, the stylish look is now winning friends, and the on-road drive is excellent. It makes it three Audis in the running for the World Car of the Year award – and remember, Audi is no stranger to this prize…

Fiat / Abarth 124 Spider

Last year, the Mazda MX-5 roadster won the overall World Car of the Year award. Can the Fiat/Abarth 124 Spider, which is based on the Mazda, do it again? It would cause quite a stir if it could…

Honda Civic

Honda’s 10^th generation new Civic has recently been rolled out in hatchback guise, joining the sedan and coupe models already on sale. It’s a big step on from its predecessor – is it enough to earn it a World Car Award gong?

Jaguar F-Pace

The Jaguar F-Pace was a radical new model for the British sports car company – its first-ever SUV. The Ian Callum-designed lines have been very well received and the Jag also drives extremely well. Will you be placing a bet on it winning the World Car of the Year prize?

Mazda CX-9

Last year, Mazda won the World Car of the Year award. For 2017, it returns as a finalist, with the CX-9 large crossover SUV. Testing in LA last year proved its on-road abilities: now it’s up to the judges to decide…

Skoda Kodiaq

It’s safe to say the Skoda Kodiaq seven-seat SUV has been exceptionally well received in Europe. There’s even talk of it now going on sale in the United States. A landmark car from the Czech brand, it would be a very deserving victor.

Toyota C-HR

The most radical Toyota in years, there’s no missing the C-HR on the road. There’s a good car beneath the stylish lines as well – but will its weak engines let it down?

Volkswagen Tiguan

The old Tiguan twisted logic by selling in greater numbers the more it aged. Buyers love it – and they’ll find lots to like with this one, which cures all the grumbles with the old one and more. This could be a stealthy front-runner for the overall World Car of the Year prize…

2017 World Luxury Car

And now to the individual categories for the World Car Awards 2017. The World Luxury Car prize features the best of the best luxo-machines. Last year’s winner was the BMW 7 Series: this year’s shortlist of five features some significant all-new models…

Bentley Bentayga

The first-ever Bentley SUV, the Bentayga remains controversial for some, but initial sales suggest rich buyers can’t get enough of it. Impeccably finished inside and supremely refined, it’s expensive, but you certainly get what you pay for.

BMW 5 Series

Is this the best new BMW there’s been in years? A brilliantly well-conceived machine, the latest 5 is peerless in almost every respect. The fact it’s a relatively attainable luxury car will also find favour with the judges. Certainly, one to watch.

Genesis G90

Hyundai has made its first-ever luxury car, and the Genesis G90 is as significant today as the launch of the original Lexus LS was back in 1989. Thoroughly convincing, it’s a superb luxury car with quality, refinement and the feel-good factor in abundance. This or a Mercedes-Benz S-Class? That’s a serious question.

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Like BMW, Mercedes-Benz pushed the boat out in developing the new E-Class. It looks svelte, it’s good to drive and the high-tech interior impresses. Safety standards are also world-class: it’s truly the S-Class of executive cars.

Volvo S90 / V90

Volvo’s transformation continues. First the XC90 SUV, now the S90 sedan and V90 wagon. Both are wholly convincing luxury cars that can finally go eye-to-eye with BMW and Mercedes-Benz. But are they good enough to scoop the World Luxury Car gong?

2017 World Performance Car

The World Performance Car category is always an exciting one. Needless to say, this year’s list of five finalists contains some thrillers – one of them will follow on from last year’s winner, the Audi R8.

Aston Martin DB11

Aston Martin has been reborn and the DB11 is the sports car that will take it into its ‘second century’. All-new from the ground up, it’s an outstanding performer, while Mercedes-Benz-sourced electronics bring the interior bang up to date as well.

Audi R8 Spyder

Can the open-top R8 Spyder follow on from last year’s victor, the Audi R8 coupe? It’s in a strong group of cars but the Spyder is an able machine in its own right. It also looks a million dollars…

Honda / Acura NSX

A long time in development, the Honda / Acura NSX is at last now available. And what a car it is, all high-tech thrills and super-clever abilities. It may not move things on in quite the same way as the original, but it’s nevertheless a significant achievement from Honda.

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Last weekend shows we need more anti-drink driving checkpoints in Kildare

Thu, 09 Mar 2017 13:49:37 +0000

Kildare Gardai staged a massive swoop on road traffic offenders last Saturday night.

Four drivers were arrested on suspicion of drink driving. Two cars were impounded as their drivers didn’t have insurance. More were done on road traffic law breaches,

It was a ‘high visibility’ checkpoint operation, with squad cars on the road and the gardai busting out everyone from the traffic corps to the Armed Response Unit around Monasterevin, Rathangan, Kilcullen and Newbridge. The garda chopper was even thundering across the Curragh at one stage like something out of Black Hawk Down, and social media commentary
suspected that the cops were ‘looking for someone’.

Now, there’s nothing that gets the blood boiling than being caught at a garda ‘flash for cash’ — a speed camera checkpoint that results in a fine and some penalty points dropping on the doormat a few days later.

It’s especially frustrating if you’ve been caught nudging just above the speed limit — and I say that as someone who was pinged twice within a matter of weeks at the notorious camera point beside Brennan’s garage on the road out of Newbridge — a deceptively slow 50km/h limit applies on this good, straight road and, as far as I’m concerned, spots like that are just a licence for the traffic corps to print money.

In fact, cheating them has become a national sport, with many drivers checking on Twitter or on Facebook sites such as ‘Leinster Garda Checkpoints and Speed Van Locations’ before they set off on a journey to see if any traps are lying in wait for them.

Now, of course it’s acknowledged that excessive motoring speed on our road is very dangerous and can result in damage and destruction and, in the worst case scenario, deaths.

Some commonsense must be applied, however. The public feels that gardai are lying in wait for them at speed traps, catching out otherwise safe drivers that are doing just a few kilometres above the speed limit, and imposing both financial penalties and penalty points that could get them into difficulties with their insurance companies.

The gardai, goes much popular sentiment, would be better off trying to catch real dangers to society.

Which is, perhaps, what they did try and do last Saturday night with the spectacular show of strength on Kildare roads.

Without pre-judging any of the arrests made, it seems that the main point of the mandatory alcohol tests carried out at these checkpoints was to catch those driving with alcohol in their systems.

Drink driving is now widely seen — particularly among the younger generation — as a totally unacceptable thing to do.

A few less drink drivers on the roads on Saturday night might have meant an unsuspecting family could blithely go about their business on Sunday morning, oblivious to a fate their loved one could have met had they been hit by a drunk behind the wheel.

Try doing the maths, though, on how many are still out there.

If four suspected drink drivers were taken off Kildare roads last Saturday at checkpoints in just four towns, imagine how many were out on Friday or Sunday or during the week? Imagine how many didn’t get stopped.

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