Category: Industry News

From the March, 2012 issue of Motor Trend

By Todd Lassa

Yes, you should be worried about Google testing autonomous cars. It has been testing driverless Toyota Priuses and other models since competing with General Motors and other teams in the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s autonomous vehicle demonstrations of the late 2000s. The ubiquitous computer search engine company has been reticent in talking about its project toMotor Trend, though The New York Times’ November 13, 2011, expose on Google X, the company’s research lab, reported that the autonomy project is part of a secretive effort to open and establish new markets and technologies.

“Unimpressed by the innovative spirit of Detroit automakers,” The Times reported, “Google is now considering manufacturing them in the United States, said a person briefed on the effort.”

One non-innovative Detroit automaker is experimenting with driverless cars too, though its efforts are more practical and palatable to those of us who don’t want to give up the wheel, throttle, and brakes, much less the gearbox. GM’s futurist, Chris Borroni-Bird, director of Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts, says some form of autonomy will be on the road before the end of the decade.

“You can address some of the aging population trends by keeping a vehicle almost the way it is and making it autonomous,” Borroni-Bird says, “but in an urban context, you almost need to rethink what the automobile does, in terms of range and speed and key performance requirements, and what it looks like.”

The result so far is GM’s Segway-based EN-V bubblecar concepts, last year renamed as part of the Chevrolet brand. When such vehicles hit the road some time in the future, Borroni-Bird says, they’ll likely look much different, but they’ll work much the same. The Chevy EN-V is designed to be a small, electric car that could have one, two, three, or four wheels, one or more seats, and be part of a megacity’s car-sharing program.

EN-Vs will have top speeds in the 25-mph range to coexist safely with pedestrians, bicycle messengers, and other vehicles, and can get a quick recharge during the day, between ride-share customers.

“It does things a bicycle and walking can’t do, and it does things a bus or train can’t do,” Borroni-Bird adds. “It’s kind of swimming upstream against what people want. But we recognize that we can’t keep selling just the same type of vehicle we make today, that goes wherever you want to go, 70 or 80 mph for 300 miles, and carry five people.”

The technology involves global positioning systems and short-range communications antennas, necessary because the tall buildings that make up urban canyons can hamper GPS. Often, the cars will run in tandem like schools of fish. Because autonomously operated cars in theory won’t have accidents, they won’t have to carry heavy safety features like airbags and 5-mph bumpers.

GM has a memorandum of understanding to study incorporating Chevy EN-V tech into the Tianjin Ecocity, a joint development between Singapore and Tianjin, a megacity of 12.3 million people, and a 73-mile high-speed rail ride from Beijing. The Ecocity just outside Tianjin accommodates 350,000 people, Birroni-Bird says. “If we can make it work in that size city, it’s definitely scalable.”

That means dedicated EN-V lanes and roads, Borroni-Bird continues. “We’re looking at how to integrate the next-generation of EN-V, not this one, but the next generation, into that city. The core of EN-V is really a small-footprint vehicle that’s highly maneuverable, that’s battery-powered and has network and sensing capability, to allow manual and autonomous operation.”

I briefly drove one inside a GM garage, limited to no more than 5 mph. The bubble car is incredibly easy to use, fun to drive, and finally makes good use of the Segway technology Dean Kamen oversold a decade ago. Buckle up, start it, and the “car” rises up and balances on its two wheels. Pull the yoke to go forward, and pull on bars on the back of the yoke to brake. It has a 0-foot turning radius, of course.

“We know we’re not going to solve congestion,” Borroni-Bird says, “but if you can make the travel time more productive and more predictable, it’ll reduce the stresses associated with congestion.”

Automakers vying for top honors at Detroit auto show

January 5, 2012

vandeveremarketing

Industry News No Comments

By Paul A. Eisenstein, msnbc.com contributor

It’s automotive award season, so expect to see a lot of commercials touting cars, trucks and crossovers that are “best” in one category or another.

But few trophies carry the heft and credibility of the one that will be handed out following the opening ceremony of next week’s 2012 Detroit auto show.

Unlike most automotive awards, the winners of the North American Car and Truck of the Year (“NACTOY”) are decided by a panel of 50 U.S. and Canadian journalists. The methodology is designed to make sure that no single media outlet’s editorial — or advertising — policies influence the verdict.

The widely regarded, and oft-quoted, NACTOY is something most manufacturers actively and aggressively seek, so even landing among the finalists is considered a major victory — or a serious setback if you’re left off the list.

And, for the first time in quite a while, there are no Japanese autos among the finalists for North American Car of the Year — a potentially significant development when the major Asian carmakers seem more vulnerable than they have been in decades.

The car-of-the-year finalists — the Ford Focus, the Hyundai Elantra and the Volkswagen Passat — are nonetheless an international bunch. But surprisingly absent are two particular models that would, in years past, have been absolute shoe-ins, at least for inclusion among the finalists: the 2012 remakes of the Honda Civic and the Toyota Camry.

The choice of an American, Korean and a German car “reflects the fact that every manufacturer is getting better these days,” suggested Joe Phillippi, chief analyst with AutoTrends Consulting. At the same time the Civic and Camry “certainly don’t break new ground,” he said.

They’ve both taken a fair share of criticism in recent months. Honda’s CEO Takanobu Ito has promised to rush a major update of the new Civic to market as soon as possible. This will likely happen sometime in 2013, years before a replacement or even a mid-cycle freshening would normally be expected. The latest Civic came to market only last spring.

It’s difficult to say exactly how important winning a NACTOY trophy is beyond the bragging rights, though Ford President of the Americas Mark Fields described it as “a huge marketing opportunity for us and [one] we [would] definitely use to our advantage.”

It would also serve as “significant validation,” he added, for the carmaker’s One Ford strategy, which has seen a shift away from developing separate products for individual regions of the world in favor of a single product, like the Focus, that can be tweaked slightly to meet the needs of specific markets.

Since about 80 percent of the components on a Focus are shared in all regions, that means much greater economies of scale. In turn, explained Fields, the strategy allows Ford to come up with a compact model that is not just more attractive, but also more lavishly equipped than past small car offerings.

That has proved particularly critical considering the growth of the compact segment. It’s one of the largest niches worldwide and among the fastest-growing in the U.S. as American buyers downsize to reduce their fuel bills.

In decades past, the compact segment was filled with boring and sparsely equipped “econoboxes.” Hyundai pitched its offerings by focusing on rock-bottom pricing. No longer. The Hyundai Elantra that is the second of the three NACTOY Car-of-the-Year finalists is a strikingly attractive and well-equipped offering that is helping the Korean carmaker transform its once-stodgy image.

No wonder, according to Dave Sullivan of AutoPacific: “The Koreans have clearly gained the respect of the Japanese as worthy competitors.”

If the Elantra were to win, it would be just the second NACTOY victory for the Koreans. The original Hyundai Genesis, the carmaker’s first foray into the luxury market, won four years ago.

The third contender for North American Car of the Year is perhaps the most “plain vanilla” when it comes to design, suggests long-time automotive author and analyst Mike Davis.

But it is no less significant. The 2012 Volkswagen Passat is the centerpiece of the German automaker’s plan to more than double its U.S. sales by 2018 — and to become the world’s largest automaker by that date.

Significantly, the American Passat is bigger than the European version of the sedan — so large is its interior tha it actually slips into the full-size category, with enough room for a squad of NBA players front and back. While it may not boast the edgy styling of the Focus or Elantra, the new midsize Passat is equally well-equipped and, perhaps most significant for buyers, it comes at a price tag thousands less than the model it replaced.

It’s also the first new product to roll out of VW’s new assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tenn.

A quick survey of the 50 NACTOY jurors suggests it will be a close race, with the Passat given an ever-so-slight edge.

As for the truck side of the NACTOY balloting, there’s another big surprise, with not a single American offering in the mix. But that is more a reflection of the unusually small number of light truck models introduced over the last 12 months.

Ironically, then, Honda has landed a spot among the three finalists with its newly-updated CR-V crossover, with the other spots filled by the redesigned BMW X3 and Land Rover’s first-ever car-based crossover, the Range Rover Evoq.

The winners of the North American Car and Truck of the Year will be announced following the ribbon cutting at Detroit’s Cobo Center next Monday.

Are Low-Cost Winter Tires Worth the Bother?

January 3, 2012

vandeveremarketing

Industry News No Comments

Written by: Joe DeMatio on December 19 2011 11:11 AM

We received our first serious snow dump in Ann Arbor last week, but the Automobile Magazine fleet of Four Seasons test vehicles was ready for the cold, since we had fitted each car with a set of winter tires from various manufacturers well before Thanksgiving with the assistance of the Tire Rack, our official wheel and tire partner. We’ve been big proponents of winter tires at Automobile Magazine for more than two decades, and although I notice more and more vehicles here in Michigan are wearing them in the cold months, those cars are still definitely in the minority. I personally have counselled many friends, relatives, and acquaintances to use winter tires, preferably on a second set of dedicated wheels, but often the reason they don’t is due to the extra cost. When it’s December and the snow starts flying, a lot of people would rather buy a couple of plane tickets to Florida than invest $800 in a set of winter tires, which doesn’t seem nearly as exciting.

Last winter, I attended a media event in Quebec City at the invitation of John Taylor, whom I knew years ago during his tenure as head of product PR for Bridgestone. Taylor is now working for a tire company I’d never heard of and one I’d wager most Americans haven’t heard of, either, GT Radial. The company is a division of GiTi tire, which was founded in 1951 in Indonesia to make bicycle tires and only started making passenger-car tires in 1996. Although we’ve never heard of them, GiTi and GT Radial are huge, making millions of tires a year in factories in both Indonesia and China, supplying everyone in the Chinese market, from BMW to General Motors, and selling tires in some 100 countries worldwide. They also own Seyen, which makes wheels. The company’s international logo is an elephant, harking back to the original name of the firm in Indonesia, Gajah Tunggal, or “Supreme Elephant.” GT Radial is expanding in the North American market with a line of value-priced tires, including the IcePro and WinterPro winter tires. To give you an idea of the pricing, the IcePro ranges from $95 to $105 per tire in the common 195/65/R15 size for cars and $125 to $145 for the common 215/70R16 size for many SUVs and light trucks.

Up in Quebec, GT Radial had us drive front-wheel-drive cars shod with IcePro tires through a short slalom course on an indoor hockey rink, back-to-back with Firestone WinterForce tires under the same conditions. The GT Radials seemed to provide similar braking and turning capability as the more expensive Firestones. Then we stepped outside to a circular track set up on an adjacent athletic field. The sun was shining brilliantly but it was about 0 degrees Fahrenheit and the track was covered with several inches of snow. Here, we got to have some fun power-sliding rear-wheel-drive BMW 3-series sedans shod with both GT Radial WinterPro rubber and a comparable Firestone model. Again, the GT Radials seemed to acquit themselves pretty well, although these tests were purely seat-of-the-pants impressions, and we had no on-road driving at all.

This fall, I had a conversation with Woody Rogers, a product information specialist at the Tire Rack, about low-cost winter tires, GT Radials in particular. “I don’t have firsthand knowledge of the brand,” he admitted, “but with any third-tier brand, everything comes with a price. Their tires might be heavier than [more expensive tires], you probably have a faster wear rate on clear roads, and you probably don’t have ultimate ice traction, like in a packed-down, glazed-over intersection….that might be where they give up [some advantage] versus a more expensive tire. In deep snow, it’s the tread depth and the tread design more than the compound that are important.

“It takes effort and cost to make the tire relatively quiet on clear roads,” Rogers continued. “To handle well and wear well on clear roads, to stop the car well on clear roads. Just working in the snow is not the whole story with a winter tire, because it’s not just a snow tire. Most of the time, in most climates, the roads are clear to drive on, and it’s once or twice a week you might get a snowfall that you have to drive home in. 70% of the time the roads are wet, maybe slushy, and the tire has to work in that condition as well.”

I asked Rogers what the least expensive brand of winter tires is that the Tire Rack carries: “Well, across the board it’s probably the Firestone Winter Force or the General Ultimax Arctic, which will probably last 2 years, 2 seasons.”

“It’s better to have some winter tire than no winter tire, isn’t it?” I asked. “Indeed,” Woody confirmed. “I would put those [Firestone and General] up against any all-season tire for snow and ice traction, and it’s an incremental step. You put a better winter tire on and it’s [even better]. At some point you’re certainly better off having something than nothing. A new set of cheap winter tires is better than a 2-year-old set of all-season tires. I guarantee that’s the case.”

If you have a new car that you intend to keep for four, five, or six years, the best plan of action is to buy a set of high-quality winter tires from the outset, Rogers advises. That way, both the original-equipment all-season tires and the winter tires will have plenty of useful life for as long as you own the car. “Often when people keep a car for five years,” says our man at the Tire Rack, “that last winter on the original all-season tires is really a stretch,” as the winter performance can be quite compromised.

If, on the other hand, you have an older car that you don’t plan to keep much longer, a set of less expensive winter tires–whether Firestone, General, or GT Radial–might make sense. The Tire Rack doesn’t currently carry GT Radial.

In any case, I’ll say the same thing now that I say every year in December: winter tires are a very smart thing to put under the Christmas tree of someone you love. True, they’re not as glamorous as an iPad or a diamond necklace, but they’re more important. Start your shopping at www.tirerack.com. You can have a set of winter tires on your car before you ring in the New Year.

The Case for the Autonomous Car

Automakers vying for top honors at Detroit auto show

Are Low-Cost Winter Tires Worth the Bother?

Navigation