June 11, 2010
Government applauded for £20 million grant
Nissan supply chain bosses have welcomed the Treasury’s decision to honour a £20m grant for the car maker to produce its Leaf electric car in Sunderland.
The decision has been welcomed by many suppliers. Kevin Heyhurst, Finance Director at Newton Aycliffe company ThyssenKrupp Tallent, which supplies internal bodywork parts for Nissan and a range of other leading automotive manufacturers, said: “This is great news for both Nissan and the North-east, as it strives to become a centre of excellence for electric vehicles.
“There were concerns last week that the Government might have either stopped or deferred the grant but, from its perspective, it’s a good investment for both the North-east and the country.
“It was the right decision, it’s further support for the region and all the things we’re trying to do.”
The move, he said, was the latest boost to the car market, which has seen a marked improvement this year following the government scrappage scheme. He added “Things are significantly better than they were in the early part of 2009 when the market was very depressed.”
Alan Hall, region director for manufacturer’s body EEF, said: “There was a real concern the new coalition Government would not fulfil its promise on this.
“The fact they have is not only brilliant news for Nissan but for North-east manufacturing.
“There is an extensive supply chain on Teesside and the good effects of this will filter down through it.
Hydrogen car to be tested on roads
It has been announced today that hydrogen fuel-cell powered car are to be tested on British roads by the public for the first time.
Thirty of the cars, which have a top speed of 50mph and can go 200 miles on one tank of hydrogen, will be leased to motorists in Leicester from spring 2012.
The two-seater car has been developed by Riversimple, a small British manufacturer based in Ludlow, Shropshire. The prototype was built at Silverstone, Northamptonshire.
If the trials are successful, the company will consider building a factory in Leicester which would employ 250 people and manufacture 5,000 of the cars each year.
The cars would not be sold but instead leased out to drivers for about £200 a month plus mileage.
So far the company has spent around £3 million developing the technology and the car, which goes from 0-30mph in 5.5 seconds and does the petrol-equivalent of 300 miles per gallon.
It has now signed a deal with Leicester City Council for a 12-month pilot which will see 30 of the cars rented out to private customers, businesses, car-share schemes and local government officials in the city.
Part of the project involves identifying suitable places for hydrogen pumps where drivers can refuel.
Hugo Spowers, the founder of Riversimple, said: “The age of fossil-fuelled cars may not be over yet but it is surely dying.
“Contrary to what we usually hear, sustainable, near pollution-free transport is possible, here and now, using existing technology.”
June 9, 2010
Revealed: the hydrogen-powered taxi
With the average London cabby racking 35,000 miles in our cities they account for a fifth of the particulate emission from ground-bssed public transport.
And pressure to make the black cab the greenest taxi in world may have become a possibility with the revealling of a hydrogen-powered taxi.
Based on the familiar LTI TX4, the new fuel cell taxi ditches the smelly diesel engine and replaces it with an electric motor, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and meaning the only emissions it makes are water vapour.
Developed by a conglomerate of LTI, fuel cell specialists Intelligent Energy, Lotus and others, the fuel cell taxi has a range of 250 miles and accelerates faster than the conventional TX4 while demanding no compromises in carrying capacity.
Unveiling the prototype cab outside London’s city hall, London’s deputy mayor Kit Malthouse praised the ingenuity of the cab’s development team, saying it answered those who thought the only answer to our eco woes is “eating lentils and padding about in sandals.”
PM approves £20m electric car grant
A £20 million grant to Nissan to support the production of electric cars in the UK has been approved by Prime Minister David Cameron.
The funding, originally put in place under Labour, was among a series of financial support packages being reviewed by Mr Cameron’s Government.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, he said the investment in the Japanese car giant’s Sunderland factory would be going ahead.
Nissan said in March it would begin building the Leaf electric compact car at its Sunderland plant in northeast England from early 2013, making Britain its third global production site for the zero-emission vehicle.
June 8, 2010
BMW ponders new ways to sell cars
BMW is looking at how it can sell cars in future to counter the increasing diversity and complexity of its latest models.
The new 5 Series is a classic example of how the character of the car can be changed, depending on the options fitted to it. Things such as electronic chassis and steering control systems can make a big difference to how the car drives – and that is before buyers start looking at the vast range of comfort and luxury features also offered.
‘How do we satisfy the need to ensure our customers are able to buy the right car? There is no way that can be done out of a set of demonstrators at one point,’ admitted Ian Robertson, the board member for sales and marketing.
‘No single dealership will be able to have all vehicles present, so an electronic display of vehicles is becoming increasingly important. We have to find other solutions.
‘There is a massive list of options. It is too complicated,’ he said. ‘One way might be to follow the German example and group various options together. For instance, if a customer buys one option it might illustrate that he is clearly interested in safety, so we package related items with it.
‘What is certain is that we need to find different ways of handling it.’
The Aussie police suffer with the Mito
Australian law enforcement officers have taken delivery of their latest crime fighting tool and it’s an Alfa Romeo Mito – not the most impressive police car, but certainly the coolest police car, better than our Astra Diesels.
The broad-shouldered law enforcement community in Sydney has just acquired a beige Mito. A fine car, undoubtedly, but one we fear will not strike sufficient fear into the hearts of hardened Aussies crim-types.
The New South Wales police say the Mito will be used in ‘community outreach and safety awareness programs’, sadly denying locals the arresting spectacle of seeing the little Italian in hot pursuit of a joyridin’ ute.
So, to our question of the day: what’s the most unimposing police car you’ve seen round your way? Yeah, we’re talking less scary than an Astra diesel, kids.
June 7, 2010
Video: Why you should always stop at Toll booths
A suspected drunk driver has been caught on video taking a rather unusual route at a US toll booth – going over rather than through.
The Dukes of Hazzard-style jump was caught on camera at the north toll plaza on the way out of Dallas Fort Worth airport last week.
The driver caught the concrete divider that separates one toll booth from another, which launched the Chevrolet Impala into a barrel-roll jump. The car then clipped the top of the toll booth before landing on the other side as a fiery wreck.
Fortunately the toll booth operator wasn’t hurt at all, while the driver – Yasmine Villisana – amazingly suffered only minor injuries.
We suppose the moral of the story is that you’d better be careful about the in-flight movies you watch – it might give you strange ideas. Although Dukes of Hazzard was probably a better choice than Die Hard would have been…*
*we joke – we have no idea whether Ms Villisana had even been on a flight, let alone her choice of in-flight entertainment…
Video: Venom GT destroys ears
We featured the Hennessey Venom GT a few weeks back and were perplexed at the thought of a 1,000hp Elise with two turbos attached to a fire breathing V8.
So what does this sort of engineering produce noise-wise ? Well it sounds like something forged in mountains of mount doom.
The Venom is putting out 933bhp and 874lb of torque at the rear wheels. Factor in drivetrain losses and it’ll be be making well in excess of 1,000bhp at the crank.
Now that’s running on semi-skimmed 93 octane fuel, which is basically water – get some V-Power,Ultimate,OtherPremiumBrandsAreAvailble in the the tank and you can add a few more horses to that figure.
So sit back, crank the volume and get ready for the oracular spectacular . Two things to look out for are the poor bloke in the car clutching his ears for dear life, and the suspicious amount of smoke around 30-secod mark. Not sure if that is meant to happen.
June 4, 2010
Lexus’s monster LFA breaks Champagne bottle with exhaust sound alone
It would seem Lexus are quite pleased with their new sporty number, so much so, they have commissioned a new advert which shows the white monster smashing the delicate flute of a very expensive champagne glass.
They courted the scientific community to help them in pursiut of this goal, even getting a unnamed physicist to calculate which flavour of glass would be best.
We’ve been racking our brains to figure out what all this means – and all we can come up with is; don’t invite a Lexus LFA to a posh garden party. Perhaps.
May car registrations exceed market expectations
More encouraging statistics from the Retail Motor Industry federation which shows a 13% increase on car sales from May 2009. Although this is encouraging and is the eleventh consecutive monthly increase – despite the fact that we are still 26,177 units off the 2008 figures.
This growth highlights the weakness of 2009, but shows we are well on the way to recovery, but the question remains will see a fall again once all scrappage cars have been delivered.
“2.7% of the car registrations can be attributed to the scrappage scheme, with the final few scrappage registrations feeding into the May market.
“The scheme has had a long lasting effect, with an average of 17% of monthly new car registrations since it began in May 2009.
“The importance for the remainder of the year will be consumer confidence, it is vital that in the forth coming budget on the 22 June that the chancellor recognises the importance of consumer spending to the economy.” Commented RMI Director, Sue Robinson
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