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Transportation RSS FeedsSouth African electric car? - Something I came across in Paris that was a little unexpected was an electric car designed for urban use that actually looked okay in styling terms. In fact, it looked quite good. And it has come out of South Africa of all places. I had a quick chat with Diana Blake, one of the managers at Optmal Energy. There's an ex-Jaguar designer involved - Keith Helfet - and the company has been bank-rolled big-time by the South African government. Where do they see this going I wonder? They were talking about commercialisation - production for South Africa, where they see this car meeting needs in some of the big cities - being 18 months away. How cheap to build? Exports? Is a big group going to snap this minnow up? ...Feed Source: www.just-auto.com Cheer yourself up? - I know there's plenty of bad news around at the minute, but there's just a chance that the authorities are getting their act together and putting a floor under things, putting the structures in place for a slow return of confidence (or at least a belief that it won't get much worse in terms of the international financial system). Incidentally, I find BBC reporter Robert Peston's blog a useful source in trying to get my head around some of the stuff going on.
But, whatever happens, 2009 is shaping up to be another tough year simply based on what has happened so far and the effects of that on automotive markets. It's in the pipeline already. Volumes will be down again next year.
If you want a momentary diversion from the gloom that may provide a little amusement/cheer there's always sniff petrol's i... The scale of the energy problem - I cannot vouch for the validity of the numbers that this physicist has come up with concerning the energy problems we face and how we set about quantifying and examining options, but they do provide an interesting basis for discussion. It's a part of the broader picture in which transportation sits as one element.Heavyweight physics prof weighs into climate/energy scrap... Oxford - JD Power - It's dreaming spires and automotive forecasts for me today as I head to Oxford for a meeting with JD Power's Automotive Forecasting folks. There's certainly plenty to talk about. Things have changed quite a bit since I went to their forecasting conference in Frankfurt in April, but I think Bob Schnorbus was on the money with what he had to say about the US market. He was something of an outlier with a pessimistic forecast then, but not now.JD Power conference... Paris in a nutshell - I am back from Paris now. I wish I had had longer, but the simple fact that there is never enough time at shows is inescapable. I had a number of interviews scheduled yesterday (here's one with Fritz Henderson - look out for something else from my half hour with him to be published on Monday), plus there were other people to meet, stands to find and it was a case of looking at the cars while in transit from one place to another.
Wednesday night was notable for a couple of fairly lavish preview events I went to.
Toyota had a new Avensis unveiling near the Place De La Concorde. I got dust all over my shoes finding the place (as my colleague Jenny Steel remarked, 'Why are the streets of Paris lined with kitty litter?'). Sea bass with rice was good. The car looked like another very competent Toyota. They turned the handle and out it came. Toyota customers w... Paris - I'm heading to Paris tomorrow - press day at the show is on Thursday. Should be an interesting show, one or two important models on display. I'll be sure to get a look at the Chevrolet Volt (while at the GM stand, I've an interview scheduled with GM COO Fritz Henderson - Rick Wagoner's plans changed and he's not visiting Paris now; he's a busy lad I guess). Lots of seductive metal, creative solutions and clever engineering to marvel at.
Beyond the usual auto show glitz, the elephant in the front room that is now breaking some of the furniture is the general economic situation and the consequences that will have for the auto industry. Next year will be another tough one on the volume front with little prospect of volume recovery in Europe before 2010. And when that recovery to demand comes, the market will likely be shifting further towards lower margin and smaller vehicles, pa... EU muddle - The process of turning the will of the people into legislation is, for the EU, not exactly straightforward or transparent. It's little wonder that many people view the EU and its institutions as some kind of necessary evil, but with little real idea of how it functions and what it achieves - beyond popular notions of bureaucrats devising arcane standards applying to things like the length of bananas. Outside of the recent entrants who view it as some sort of right of nationhood passage or bonanza, the EU and its bloated, self-serving secretariat, the European Commission, are seen as an inevitable constant fact of life. Like death and taxes.
The row over CO2 and the auto industry is another good example of how the EU ties itself into unhelpful knots. Whatever the rights and wrongs of what is a reasonable target, the debate is reduced to what looks like a polarisation of viewpoints with national interests looming very large behind the debate, as is so o... Hurrah! We've come 72nd! - I have no doubt that Hyundai is a growing and happening brand. Hyundai Motor has done a lot of the right things with its brand over the past decade - in terms of developing the right products and entering/growing in key overseas markets.
But a little perspective is perhaps called for in its PR department in the US where this is the slightly exciteable header on a press release:
Hyundai Claims 72nd Most Valuable Brand in the World in 2008 BusinessWeek/Interbrand 'Best Global Brands' Study
Now, while Hyundai is up against some considerable competition in a list like that and 72nd place may well be a stonking performance on closer inspection, it doesn't sound intuitively like something to shout about from the rooftops. If there was an awards ceremony for this you'd have a pretty long wait before they got to Hyundai.
The release goes on to list the automotive brands where Hyundai is a creditable eighth, even finishing ab... Emerging Markets and new business opportunities - These are rather dark days in terms of the overall business climate and I don't suppose anyone reading this needs reminding of that. But there are growth opportunities for this industry out there. In simple volume terms emerging markets continue to offer good growth potential, even if the extent to which the BRICs are 'decoupled' from the grief impacting Western financial markets and economies is a point for debate. If they are not entirely immune, they do nevertheless have very positive demand prospects in the medium- and long-term.
The fundamentals of growing per capita incomes set against low motorisation rates have not changed. These countries have crossed a critical mass point at which domestic demand develops a scale and momentum of its own so that they are less dependent on than they used to be on, say, exports of goods to the US.
And if the BRICs are getting a tad crowded right now (as evidenced by ... Chrysler signs of life shocker - Chrysler has taken a battering in sales for some time now. Ford and GM at least have their considerable global engineering resources to call on when it comes to rejigging the product offering. Poor old Chrysler, people said, is just too exposed to a market reacting seismically to the twin ills of the credit crunch and high fuel prices. It is difficult for it to do much about that quickly, even if private equity owner Cerberus were inclined to spend heavy on product development, which it probably isn't.
Therefore, the beleaguered company is likely facing break-up and is pretty much all washed up; it's just a matter of time before the brown stuff really hits the fan, many said.
And that brown stuff may yet eventually hit, but the fat lady with a penchant for singing has at least been sent back into the dressing room after yesterday's ... Pickups are still with us - For all the talk of how the US light vehicle market is changing in response to the pressures wrought by the credit crunch and higher gasoline prices, it's perhaps worth noting that Ford's F-150 has just been updated and it's a reminder of how important that vehicle is to Ford in North America. Pickups aren't suddenly going to disappear - same goes for SUVs. There will likely be a consolidation in offerings as the market segments get a little smaller (trucks using less ladder chassis and becoming more car-like - Honda Pilot is a good example - has been a trend for some time now) - the manufacturers listening to market needs and developing/positioning new product accordingly.
Ford is stressing the fuel economy on the new F-150 and there's a 'Superior Fuel Economy' variant. That's a sure sign of the times we are living in.US: 2009 Ford F-150 comes with 8% fuel improvement... Tuneful road noise - Okay, it's Monday morning and we all know how that feels. Cheer yourself up by listening to this clip. A stretch of road in California has been modified with grooves so that when you drive along it, the road noise plays the William Tell Overture (AKA the theme from the Lone Ranger). Those wacky guys in the Honda marketing department dreamt this one up.
Apparently, the local residents have objected to the noise and it's therefore just a temporary thing. It does make you think though. What about livening up those mind numbing stretches of motorway/highway that traverse industrial areas and where no-one is going to be irritated by the sound? It would have to be selective, applied in just a few places and I guess the sound energy given off is a little wasteful, but this could give motorists a few laughs.Short video clip... London taxis bite back - If you are well-heeled enough to be able to afford to take a London 'black cab' perhaps try to stay a little bit more alert if you are in a TX4 (one of the more modern ones). You might have to dive out sharpish.
Five hundred black cabs have been taken off London's roads after an eighth taxi burst into flames in just three months. They're not flaring up quickly, apparently, and no-one has been injured.
TX4-type cabs with a 56 registration (relating to when it was first registered, 56 is Sept '06-March '07) must pass a safety inspection by manufacturers LTI before being allowed back on the road.
So, that's okay then.
Well, probably. But the manufacturer is still not sure what's actually causing the fires and what if some later models are capable of catching but it's yet to show up? Two expert independent fire investigators and engineering company Ricardo have been contracted to help pinpoint the cause.
I gue... Ford and cricket - Ford and the sport of cricket aren't two things you'd normally put together. But there's a nice picture today of young English cricketer Ravi Bopara with a car that Ford has provided. Ford of Britain is based at Brentwood in the county of Essex - just outside London - and Ford acts as sponsor to the Essex cricket team.
Well, as a sports sponsor, you have to take what success you can and milk it for all it's worth.
If Ford of Britain is looking for further, possibly more glamorous, sporting sponsorship opportunities, a couple of prominent football teams might be looking for new sponsors - Manchester United (current sponsor AIG - rescued perhaps, but will surely axe such discretionary spending) and West Ham United (airline/holiday firm XL.com went belly-up last week). I guess in the present climate, Ford would be wise to stick to the cricket and providing the occasional car. Don't let that Focus go to your head Ravi!
... Nissan website for kids - One of this week's more offbeat but interesting bits of news concerned Nissan Spain's educational website for kids (and teachers). A few others might want to take note of what Nissan has done in Barcelona. Okay, one can cynically say 'there's nothing like catching them young' but the initiative does appear to offer something of real value in terms of communicating what this industry is about to the wider community.SPAIN: Nissan launches educational website for kids... Stop that idling! - It's bad enough if you're stuck in a jam without being given a ticket and fine for excessive engine idling. But that's what might be happening in Britain. As ever, the suggestion grabs headlines but it's really a matter of what it means in practice and what they are really talking about. I've a vision of a traffic warden gleefully proceeding down a line of gridlocked traffic, slapping tickets on every windscreen.
I guess this might be something that say, Bosch (supplier of stop-start systems to BMW) might latch on to in order to promote its technical solution to potentially aggressive wardens?Motorists could be fined £20 for leaving engines running in jams... Volt's a looker - GM's unveiling of the Volt was quite something. Expectations were high, but the car actually looks like a creative real world car that has had some serious thought put into it. And it's stylish - inside and out. It perhaps provides some light in a week in which the economic gloom - especially in the US - has mounted
If it can really deliver as a product, then the time of the 'range-extender' may well have come and this could be a car that does GM a lot of good. If gasoline-electric hybrids are a kind of transitional solution between the fossil fuel burning ICE and the fully electric vehicle, the range extender could reasonably be said to have taken a few more steps on the linear path to fully electric. There is not the expense and weight of carrying two powertrains, but it also gets around the problem of limited range due to the battery technology. And that latter problem is taking a lot of time and expense to crack.
Proof of the pudd... Bizarre press release - How's this for a press release header: 'Hybrids and Harleys for Obama' to Roll Into Grand Rapids. Has the vote now been extended to certain vehicles? It's actually something to do with US presidential election campaigning and some anti-McCain stuff from Michigan Democrats:
In Advance of McCain Visit, Proud Owners of American-Made Motorcycles and Hybrids to Remind McCain Why Buying American Matters to Michigan Families
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Sept. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, September 16th, Barack Obama's Campaign for Change will launch "Hybrids and Harleys for Obama" at the Grand Rapids Campaign for Change office. On the 100th anniversary of General Motors and today's unveiling of the Chevy Volt, owners of Harley motorcycles and domestic hybrid automobiles will be on hand to talk about the importance of buying American and how much they love their American bikes and cars. The campaign also unveiled a new "Hybrids and Harleys" website where supp... Fiat Playa - They do things in style at Fiat, I must say. Mark Bursa recently flew to the delightul Mediterranean island of Sardinia on a Fiat press trip themed on the launch of a small utility window van. Fiat has its own beach resort there and, judging by the look of the swimming pool, it's reasonably well kitted out. Ideal for those high-level think-tanks and blue sky thinking strategy meetings (well, maybe a tad better than a meeting room in a hotel by a motorway).
The swimming pool looks pristine and inviting. Pity we can't quite see Mr Bursa just out of shot floating on a groaning inflatable, cocktail in hand.
To be serious for a moment, the 'Status Simple' slogan and possible brand repositioning for Fiat is something to ponder.
... SsangYong's Paris concept - Chinese-owned Korean vehicle maker SsangYong is best known for its SUVs and SUVs maybe are not the best place to be right now. The firm is having a tough time. Prognosis? Maybe look at doing a more compact car-like vehicle
The photo released of the concept that SsangYong will show in Paris certainly looks promising (Landy LRX-ish?) and a million miles away from the bizarrely styled land yacht that is the Rodius. Time I had a chat with the UK Koelliker MD again.
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