Amazing car designs from the Mercedes-Benz design center in California - Carlsbad, USA.
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Sunday, 26 October 2014
(Nigeria) Innoson vehicles
The first step in realising vehicle production to interest local vehicle development through established joint ventures. Nigeria brings an answer to getting Africas mobility needs sorted.
The company, which is a proud manufacturer of made in Nigeria cars, buses, tankers and other products, would as from August 8, 2014, introduce brand new cars into the Nigerian automobile market at the cost of Nigerian Naira 1.5million equivalent to US Dollars 9000.
The chairman and chief executive of the company, Mr. Innocent Chukwuma, who announced this in Enugu yesterday, said the cars, which would be fully air conditioned with every other specification, is aimed at getting Nigerians to own brand new cars.
T
he most expensive of the cars, according to Chukwuma, would cost Nigerian Naira 3.5million equivalent to US Dollars 21,000.
IVM introduces automotive products from China, Japan and Germany. It's product line includes heavy duty vehicles, middle and high level buses, special environment friendly vehicles. The company carries out optimization design and assembly according to west african road condition so as to produce suitable products at affordable prices.
(Ghana) Kantanka suv phase 2.
It's remarkable to see Apostle Dr.Kwadwo Safo push forward to establish an African automaker on the continent. With alot of effort and time, West Africa seems to be realising that dream a day at a time. It has been a buzz on Ghanaian media and the African continent at large.
Courtesy of the Ghanaian webportal "ghanaweb.com" the enterprise is described further.
The ‘Star of Africa’ set of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and Pickups are ready for sale, according to Kwadwo Safo Jr, CEO and Executive director of the Kantanka Automobile Company Limited, which produces the Kantanka vehicles.
The company has produced commercial quantities of the two vehicle types for the Ghanaian market.
A subsidiary of the ‘Star of Africa’, an organisation well known for its inventions, the Kantanka assembling plant has been more focused on the mass production of these two vehicles for months now.
“Now we have produced the SUVs and Pickups and they are ready for sale. But we have also opened our doors to anyone who wants to do a test drive of the car any day.” Safo Jr told StarrFMonline.com.
The vehicles, Safo Jnr. said, meets international standards and will soon prove to be the most economical brand-new vehicles to acquire on the Ghanaian market.
The car parts are imported, but assembled here in Ghana by a workforce of about 200 young men between the ages of 15-25, most of whom have no formal education and training in automobile engineering.
The plant can produce eight vehicles a day. It could increase the production rate by four or more, depending on market demand.
The founder of the Kantanka Star of Africa brand, Apostle Dr. Kwadwo Safo, is the brain behind all the Kantanka inventions.
Apostle Safo's son, Safo Jr, says his father is dedicated to making the Ghanaian a little more comfortable in their daily routines.
“My dad is always thinking ‘what’s next?’ So I love engaging in conversation with him. I look up to him a lot because although he is not as educated as I am, he always has something new to share.”
“What I love most is his ability to take that which is widely used, turn it around, and make an invention that will propel that device to respond better to the needs of the Ghanaian. He knows what a machine is meant for: to make life easy, and he ensures he does so in all his inventions.”
The government of Ghana has hinted at the possibility of investing in the growth of the company by buying majority of the vehicles for state institutions.
Kwadwo Safo Jr told StarrFMonline.com that Ghanaians are warming up to the Kantanka brand since it started the awareness a month ago, and many are developing some level of confidence in the brand.
“At first people were skeptical. I remember one gentleman was asked if he would buy a Ghana-made car, and he was quick to say 'no'. After a test drive, he proclaimed he would buy a Kantanka vehicle any day.”
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
Jaguar Land Rover opens its first overseas manufacturing plant
Jaguar Land Rover has opened its first overseas manufacturing facility in China. The award-winning Range Rover Evoque will be the first model to be built in a joint venture with Chinese auto company Chery Automobile Company Ltd worth RMB 10.9 billion. This is in fact the first Chinese-British automotive joint venture.
The 400,000 square-metres plant, is located in the Changshu Economic Development Zone north of Shanghai.
They expect to build three Jaguar Land Rover models with total production capacity of 130,000 units a year by 2016 (for the Chinese market only). The facility features highly-automated press shops – including cutting-edge aluminium and steel technologies – along with a steel body shop comprising 306 robots, an energy-efficient paint shop and an ergonomically-friendly final assembly line.
Some interesting information:
The 400,000 square-metres plant, is located in the Changshu Economic Development Zone north of Shanghai.
They expect to build three Jaguar Land Rover models with total production capacity of 130,000 units a year by 2016 (for the Chinese market only). The facility features highly-automated press shops – including cutting-edge aluminium and steel technologies – along with a steel body shop comprising 306 robots, an energy-efficient paint shop and an ergonomically-friendly final assembly line.
Some interesting information:
- Jaguar Land Rover first established a presence in China just over a decade ago.
- China is Jaguar Land Rover’s single largest market with over 100,000 vehicles sold in the last fiscal year
- In addition to China, Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed plans to create a local manufacturing facility in Brazil and has a local assembly facility in Pune, India.
Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Buying a car with a budget of only RM65000 ++ in Malaysia
I was thankful that once we came back to Malaysia, a lot of people have been helping us out, especially our parents. Initially, we used my mother-in-law's old Proton Wira and later on was my dad's old Wira, which I am still using. Since both my wife and I are working and not at the same place, we needed to have two cars as I could not send and pick here up from her office. We start looking around for cars here and we decided to live within our means and set out a budget of RM 65000 for the new car. My wife also had one condition - that the car must be automatic as she was still recovering from her leg fracture. We also did not want a small Perodua car and we came up with a list of cars (in the so called popular B-segment) which we could buy with our limited budget, namely:
1. Honda City (starting at RM75800)
2. Toyota Vios (starting at RM73213)
3. Nissan Almera (starting at RM66827)and
4. Proton Preve (Starting RM61471)
Looking at the list, we realised that we could only afford the Proton and if we wanted a better car, we would have to increase our budget.
After driving a Volvo S40 in the UK for several years, we were not really looking forward to driving a Proton. However, the more research I did about the Proton Preve, the more impressed I was with the model. We went to see it at the Proton showroom near our house in Taman Megah, PJ and we decided that the Proton Preve Premium version was what we wanted. However, it was still beyond our budget at around RM72K (approx. £13650).
We were very fortunate because Proton suddenly announced a Merdeka/ Hari Raya discount of 5% across their complete range of models. This suddenly brought the Proton Preve Premium version within our range at around RM68,000 (solid colours) and really great value as it has loads of features not present in the basic Honda, Toyota and Nissan models. This includes a Turbo engine, touch screen with built-in sat-nav, 6 air bags, push button start, automatic lights and wipers, etc.. The offer also included 3 years free service and range of gifts including free in-car wifi hub with access for a year, free SmartTAG, full tank fuel, etc.
So that's the story in brief about how my wife ended up with a Proton Preve 1.6 CFE CVT Premium car powered by the Campro CFE 1561cc turbo engine with 7 speed ProTronic transmission and mounted on great looking 17" alloy wheels with 215/45 R17 tyres.
Watch out for a more detailed review of the car later.
(updated 22 October 2014).
1. Honda City (starting at RM75800)
2. Toyota Vios (starting at RM73213)
3. Nissan Almera (starting at RM66827)and
4. Proton Preve (Starting RM61471)
Looking at the list, we realised that we could only afford the Proton and if we wanted a better car, we would have to increase our budget.
After driving a Volvo S40 in the UK for several years, we were not really looking forward to driving a Proton. However, the more research I did about the Proton Preve, the more impressed I was with the model. We went to see it at the Proton showroom near our house in Taman Megah, PJ and we decided that the Proton Preve Premium version was what we wanted. However, it was still beyond our budget at around RM72K (approx. £13650).
We were very fortunate because Proton suddenly announced a Merdeka/ Hari Raya discount of 5% across their complete range of models. This suddenly brought the Proton Preve Premium version within our range at around RM68,000 (solid colours) and really great value as it has loads of features not present in the basic Honda, Toyota and Nissan models. This includes a Turbo engine, touch screen with built-in sat-nav, 6 air bags, push button start, automatic lights and wipers, etc.. The offer also included 3 years free service and range of gifts including free in-car wifi hub with access for a year, free SmartTAG, full tank fuel, etc.
So that's the story in brief about how my wife ended up with a Proton Preve 1.6 CFE CVT Premium car powered by the Campro CFE 1561cc turbo engine with 7 speed ProTronic transmission and mounted on great looking 17" alloy wheels with 215/45 R17 tyres.
Watch out for a more detailed review of the car later.
(updated 22 October 2014).
Friday, 17 October 2014
Snippets of a Study on the Future of Mobility
According to a recent Auto Study on the future of mobility conducted by New York based company MRY, via Whitman Insight Strategies, owning a car is still an important part of our day-to-day life.
This study surveyed 1,000 smartphone owners – 500 Millennials, 500 35+) and cover everything from consumers’ thoughts on the “connected car,” to which automakers are perceived to be the most innovative (and how that translates to sales).
The findings reveals that unsurprisingly that mobile phones matter a lot more to people, slightly less than cars. Among adults 35+: 94% say their cars are important vs 82% phones. But for Millennials, it’s 87% cars, 86% phones. Overall, SMS comes in at 72%, high def TV 55%, Facebook 47%, newspaper subscription 32%, and Twitter and Instagram around 20%.
Across ages, access to a car (90%) trumps helping others (77%), raising a family (73%), voting (68%), and being wealthy (43%). However, the youth just want to get rich as being wealthy is a FAR bigger deal for Millennials (53%) vs adults 35+ (33%) - one of the biggest value gaps MRY found in the study.
As for car ownership, 96% of surveyed individuals own or lease a vehicle, and 91% think that owning a car is still an important part of their day-to-day. Even 87% of the Millennial population, which is more aware of car-sharing services and other transportation options, agrees that owning a car is essential. This means that auto manufacturers need to keep people happy, because at least 40% of surveyed individuals are likely to use car-sharing services if offered in their communities.
To put things into perspective: new vehicle sales are around the 16 million mark, with the average sticker price north of $30,000 (See link). That’s $480 billion. A shift in attitude leads to changes in purchase behavior and even a 1% change could mean a $5 billion impact on sales.
However, car-sharing still has a long way to go. Even though Uber ranks above all of the major auto brands when measured against the intersection of innovation and personal connection, it is still a relatively unknown entity. Only 22% of surveyed individuals were familiar with Uber, falling behind Zip Car (33% familiar) and just ahead of Lyft (18% familiar).
This study surveyed 1,000 smartphone owners – 500 Millennials, 500 35+) and cover everything from consumers’ thoughts on the “connected car,” to which automakers are perceived to be the most innovative (and how that translates to sales).
The findings reveals that unsurprisingly that mobile phones matter a lot more to people, slightly less than cars. Among adults 35+: 94% say their cars are important vs 82% phones. But for Millennials, it’s 87% cars, 86% phones. Overall, SMS comes in at 72%, high def TV 55%, Facebook 47%, newspaper subscription 32%, and Twitter and Instagram around 20%.
Across ages, access to a car (90%) trumps helping others (77%), raising a family (73%), voting (68%), and being wealthy (43%). However, the youth just want to get rich as being wealthy is a FAR bigger deal for Millennials (53%) vs adults 35+ (33%) - one of the biggest value gaps MRY found in the study.
As for car ownership, 96% of surveyed individuals own or lease a vehicle, and 91% think that owning a car is still an important part of their day-to-day. Even 87% of the Millennial population, which is more aware of car-sharing services and other transportation options, agrees that owning a car is essential. This means that auto manufacturers need to keep people happy, because at least 40% of surveyed individuals are likely to use car-sharing services if offered in their communities.
To put things into perspective: new vehicle sales are around the 16 million mark, with the average sticker price north of $30,000 (See link). That’s $480 billion. A shift in attitude leads to changes in purchase behavior and even a 1% change could mean a $5 billion impact on sales.
However, car-sharing still has a long way to go. Even though Uber ranks above all of the major auto brands when measured against the intersection of innovation and personal connection, it is still a relatively unknown entity. Only 22% of surveyed individuals were familiar with Uber, falling behind Zip Car (33% familiar) and just ahead of Lyft (18% familiar).
Wednesday, 15 October 2014
The Proton Iriz - pictures
Had the chance to try out the new Proton Iriz a few days after it was launched. There were three variants at the showroom at Taman Megah, PJ, near my house in Malaysia.
Quite impressed - Proton has indeed come a long way.
The green one is the manual variant.
There was an automatic white car outside (for test drive). Loved the sound of the exhaust. They have tuned it to sound like a much more powerful sports car.
The grey one is the premium variant with six air bags, rear cameras, touch screen GPS, turbo engine and loads of other extras.
Quite impressed - Proton has indeed come a long way.
The green one is the manual variant.
There was an automatic white car outside (for test drive). Loved the sound of the exhaust. They have tuned it to sound like a much more powerful sports car.
The grey one is the premium variant with six air bags, rear cameras, touch screen GPS, turbo engine and loads of other extras.