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Transportation RSS FeedsTreasure Zest? - You may have noticed there's been quite a trade mission from the UK in the past few days to India. The new British prime minister - fresh from establishing his country as the 'junior partner' to the US in Washington - that should play well among the shires of England - has hotfooted it with an extraordinary collection of British top industry brass to India. Cameron's got a shiny British Airways 747 for his jaunt - with 60-plus top industrialists there should just be enough bizzo seats to go round - although why the British PM - as in his French and German counterparts - hasn't got his own aircraft is a mystery. The former colonial master is now very much the pupil as India starts to flex its muscles and nowhere was this better illustrated than with British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's visit to Tata Industries headquarters in Mumbai. Tata is now the UK's largest manufacturer through its purchase of British manufacturing luminaries suc...Feed Source: www.just-auto.com It ain't half hot in er, Moscow - I tend to look at the Moscow temperatures on a daily basis (I know) with a sort of grim fascination as they frequently challenge the lower end of the mercury scale.
And having endured almost unspeakable cold there several times myself - once having spent some time in a Russian hospital with my dodgy knee - I can vouch for its bone-chilling ability to freeze just about anything.
So it was with some incredulity that I have been watching the thermometer rise and rise these past few weeks.
And now comes news that GAZ Group has had to curtail production as the temperature is simply too high.
A quick call to Russia confirms the heatwave. "It's very, very hot, it's 39 degrees Celsius," an almost breathless Russian woman tells me.
There are even reports of cars spontaneously bursting into flames in Moscow after short circuiting in the unprecedented heat.
Russians are used to defrosting cars and trucks in some of the most hostile conditions on earth... Doolally to Mulally - We were reminded late last week that Ford Motor Company is still on a roll, its latest financial results confirming that it is one of the industry's better performers.
Running a car company to turn a profit is no mean feat. There are obviously plenty of plates that have to be kept spinning, but at the heart of the business is the requirement to make cars that people want to buy from a brand that has a good reputation.
If your product is marked out as relatively good, people will pay a little more for it. If the product is merely acceptable - let's say it meets minimum market requirements but is nothing special – it becomes a commodity proposition. You are then in to incentives territory to move the metal on price and the brand suffers over time from the message that the manufacturer offers big discounts to secure sales; it's a modus operandi rather than a selectively employed tool and the brand is devalued as a consequence.
Turning things around is n... Time critical shipments and supply-chain - I had a very interesting lunch with 'Evolution Time Critical' MD Brad Brennan earlier today. His business is all about providing a premium transportation service on components that can mean the difference between an automotive production line working or being idle. The parts need to be transported somewhere quick and by whatever modal means are appropriate and available. Helicopters are sometimes involved.
There were a few jokes about the mysterious man in the Cadbury's Milk Tray chocolate box ads of yesteryear. As you can probably imagine, Brad Brennan had a few good stories (his clients' names not divulged of course). It's quite a network he has built up, by the sounds of it, with local knowledge and contacts the key to being able to quickly put together a plan, or options, for a stressed out customer. He certainly seemed like a chap who enjoys the challenge. He must be getting that with some of the BRICs
But, I asked, what about the jobs that simpl... What's in a name part 2 - What's in a name part 2.
I've speaking quite a bit today (22 July) to Iran Khodro (IKCO) and a very helpful bunch they were too.
And it looks like - despite Iran's current difficulties and the the constant threat of sanctions - as if its car business is making strenuous efforts to look to its near - and not so near - neighbours for export potential.
A new family of Runna models is also being evaluated with the IKCO board meeting imminently to discuss its transition from small scale to mass production.
Its name of course has an immediate application in English, so I asked whether it meant anything in the local lingo.
The reply came: It means: "Something that can run on wheels" in Farsi.
Can't argue with that.... No change: global economy still facing uncertainties - US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has made some remarks that have scared the markets a little bit, but what he has said isn't all that surprising.
He has told the US Senate Banking Committee that record low interest rates would still be needed to support economic recovery, that the outlook for the US economy is 'unusually uncertain' and that the Fed is prepared to step in with 'further policy actions' to boost the US economy if needed.
It is hardly a surprise. The world economy is still very much in recovery phase and facing imbalances – chiefly in the form of an unprecedented debt hangover and its real-world recessionary consequences. It will take years to put right.
The economic bounce-back – such as it has been - from the depths plummed in 2009 was hugely assisted by fiscal stimulus packages across the world, record low interest rates and an inventory effect (notably strong in the auto industry where the swings in activity have been m... Only way is Up! - What's in a name?
Well, Volkswagen's new city car is to be known as Up! - and that's their exclamation mark not mine.
A VW spokesman told me today (20 July) the name "seemed to fit the vehicle" as it was "optimistic," which I suppose is right but does it fit?
When I worked in France, there was a ditty by Jazz & The Plastic Population that was number one for about a year that went "The only way is up," and I now can't get it out of my head after having successfully removed it all those years ago.
Up! is better than Down! I suppose, but really, are there just too many car names that don't relate to consumers?
Does it matter? My first car was a Triumph Dolomite, a name that seemed to be perfect for the vehicle - a combination of supreme confidence and er, some Italian mountains.
Cortina, Granada - what was it with mountain ranges that were all the rage back then - but they were solid and yet exotic names.
I'm not picking on... No, Cynthia, all Jettas will be the same length... - It looks a bit like Volkswagen's redesigned, US focused, Mexican built Jetta, recently launched in some style in the Big Apple, is getting confused in some media minds with the upcoming, larger car - designed specifically for, and to be sold only in North America - that the automaker will soon start building in its brand new Chattanooga (choo-choo!), Tennessee plant.
Yesterday, Bloomberg News reported that the US version of the Jetta would be longer than the versions sold in Europe and elsewhere; today VW's German press operation set the record straight in a press release covering the US media launch event: "The new model is 182.7 inches long in the US version and 4.64 metres long in the European version, 57.1 inches (1.45 metres) tall a... Outriders await their comeback - Having battled through a power failure of most of east London on Monday morning - it had to be a Monday - my mood not helped by commuters draped in Spanish flags (in east London?) after their World Cup win - I finally weaselled my way into Essex - my first ever visit - and Ford's Dunton R&D plant.
The occasion was to celebrate the handing over of some rather large cheques from the UK government and the European Investment Bank (EIB) to Ford for more efficient engine research among other laudable aims.
A collection of Ford's top brass - including Ford of Britain chairman Joe Greenwell, the Minister of State for Business Mark Prisk and EIB vice president Simon Brooks - assembled for the signing ceremony that saw the loan and guarantee formalised.
The lights were barely working however so Joe manfully went through his speech - a lone voice in the gloom - punctuated by the flash of a graph on the screen.
Clarity was restored for Prisk, who, it has to be s... Wider sale plans for new Ford US truck - The next-generation US/Canada Ford Ranger truck will be sold outside North America.
So says UK consumer magazine Auto Express which has got hold of some 'spy' pictures of the redesign on hot weather test. Built on Ford's T6 platform and due out next year, the new model will be sold elsewhere as part of the blue oval's new global strategy which has already seen the European Fiesta and, soon, the Focus migrate Stateside.
The new truck has a sleeker front end and chunkier rear wheel arches courtesy of the new chassis, which makes it longer and wider than the outgoing model, and will have a new range of I4 engines including 2.2 and 3.2-litre Duratorq TDCi common-rail diesels, and 2.0-litre EcoBoost and 2.5-litre Duratec petrol engines. Six-speed manual and automatic transmissions will be available with all e... VW lengthens runway to avoid China trip fuel stops -
How to improve access to your long-established Chinese unit from Germany? If you're Volkswagen, spend EUR 4.5m lengthening the runway at your private airport in Braunschweig so the corporate Airbus A319 can load enough fuel to avoid the mid-trip refuelling stop until recently required.
Fuel = weight, y'see, and the takeoff weight determines how much runway you need before getting airborne.
China is the most important market for Volkswagen with 1.4m sold cars in 2009 and 75% more growth seen by 2018.
There's a parallel between many VW cars and Airbus' A320, on which the shorter A319 is based - both are completed at plants in Germany and China.
The carmaker owns 35.6% of airport company Braunschweig-Wolfsburg, according to local media reports.
... The 'Get Carter' car park... - Are you familiar with the film 'Get Carter' which was made in 1971, starred Michael Caine and was set in the north-east of England? If yes, you may recall a scene that takes place in a concrete multi-storey car park in which Caine's character chucks the bloke who used to be in Coronation Street over the side.
It's a decent film that captures the spirit of the time; the times were a changin' and the concrete architecture springing up all over Britain was a big part of it. The 'brutalist' multi-storey car park in Get Carter symbolised the rapid changes to the built environment, attitudes of the times (there was a predilection for knocking old buildings down) and the new primacy of the automobile, even. Well, it turned out that people didn't much care for all the concrete or the blocks of flats that replaced so-called 'slums', but that's a long story
Suffice to say, big concrete multi-storey car parks are often considered a necessary evil in this country... Thoughts on Peugeots - The Peugeot RCZ 'Audi TT lookalike' does look very good in the flesh. It was pretty prominent at the Peugeot dealership I visited in London earlier this week (to hear about the 'Mu' mobility initiative). As part of the presentations we heard all about the new design direction (typified by the SR1 concept and '5 by Peugeot'), the new Lion emblem and the diesel-electric hybrids that are coming. It's all pretty stirring stuff if you're an enthusiast for a brand that maybe slightly lost its way after the drivers' cars of yesteryear. The RCZ coupe certainly seems to be off to a strong start in the UK market – Peugeot says orders for the first five weeks are already exceeding over half the 2010 production allocation.
One model that I find particularly intriguing is the electric city BB1. The car is billed as reinventing the automobile for urban use – from the ground up. It certainly looks striking. The final production version will be interesting to see in terms of how ... Tesla's big challenge - Tesla Motors' IPO may have been successful but the company is losing money hand over fist. As my colleague Graeme Roberts notes, a financial train wreck is a distinct possibility if the Model S is not successful. And some bigger industry players are sure to be watching in the wings, acquisitive antennae firmly tuned in.
A boutique electric roadster is one thing – and, let's be fair, it is a big achievement; the company must have learned a lot about manufacturing, dealing with suppliers and so on, in a very short space of time (Martin Eberhard's less than happy departure suggests that cost/time pressures inside the company have been considerable). But a higher volume 4-door luxury sedan (not contracted out to Lotus for assembly) is something else and will stretch resources and capabilities even further.
The Model S will be built on a flexible platform ... Cheer up! - A few colleagues here in England have been a bit down lately. It would seem that the disappointing performance of the national football team at the World Cup is more than a little bit responsible. I do of course sympathise. I am English, after all. But at least we can enjoy the rest of the tournament in angst-free mode. And the weather has been good lately.
And - if looking for sports solace - we did beat the Australians at cricket at the weekend.
Still looking for sunshine? Try this story in the Daily Telegraph for size. Though, arguably, it is not really all that funny that a drunk trader on a laptop can cause quite so much havoc. Something to reflect on next time you fill the tank with black gold.How a broker spent $520m in a drunken stupor and moved the glob... Crossed cables - I have to say my opinion of new business secretary Vince Cable's fulsome praise of the UK car industry was tempered somewhat when I got back to the office today to find he'd made some pretty tough comments prior to Toyota's new Auris hybrid event.
Perhaps not wishing to rain on Toyota's parade, Cable seemed to imply that state aid to the auto industry would be harder to come by in the future now that the UK sector seemed to be returning to more robust health.
It was frankly, by far the more interesting angle but I don't suppose he's reached his elevated position without knowing what to say to whom and at the right time.
Maybe he was being polite out of deference to his hosts but he certainly didn't mention any of the tougher measures at the Auris ceremony.
Politicians eh?... ASEAN attracts investment - Ford said last week that it would invest in a new Thailand plant with around 150K annual capacity; manufacture of the Ford Focus is being planned from 2012. Ford's latest investment move illustrates that emerging markets opportunities aren't just about the big markets of the BRICs.
Indeed, the ASEAN region of south-east Asia is continuing to show very positive auto industry growth prospects.
Indonesia's car market is still going strong after a surge in the first quarter. New vehicle sales in Indonesia rose by 69% in May. Our man in Jakarta (Tony Pugliese) tells me that interest rates are low and consumer confidence is relatively high. If they can maintain economic and political stability in Indonesia (and the signs have been good lately), that country's population of 250m can support a very much larger automotive market.
And despite the political unrest in Thailand that was in the news recently, the market there was up by 53% in May. Ford's announcement of a new... Bring me sunshine - Well, thanks to French air traffic controllers working to rule yesterday (24 June), I managed to see a lot more of Bilbao's airport than I was bargaining for - a further three hours in fact.
The ANE Congress over, I made my way back to the airport - replete with stunning, modernist architecture that echoes the city's extraordinary collection of new buildings highlighted of course by the mass of bent steel that is the Guggenheim Museum.
The taxi driver - who clearly thought he had a thwarted Formula 1 career - decided to play - in order - The Eagles, Smokey Robinson and Grandmaster Flash in a riot of '80s memories and deposited me in a record-breaking hotel-to-airport time.
And thanks to French ATC I had a bit of time to mull the Congress itself and an extremely useful get-together of the great and the good it was - and if Spyker and now Saab CEO Victor Muller finds himself not in the car business he'd certainly make a decent stand-up.
It constantly amaze... Volvo's search for a CEO - It is not official yet but it's a racing certainty that Stefan Jacoby will be moving from Volkswagen in the US to take up the challenging role of CEO of Volvo Cars when it changes hands from Ford to Geely.
Stephen Odell has apparently preferred to stay with Ford; that's not too surprising – he appears to be a Ford career man with some thirty years of experience amassed in a variety of posts withing the Blue Oval empire. It will be interesting to see what his next post is within Ford, but I'd guess they have had something lined up for him for a while.
It's certainly a big step up for Jacoby, but what a job. Not only will he be CEO of Volvo Cars but he will be doing that job as the company comes under the ownership of a Chinese parent. Not only does he have to ensure that the company does all the right things that any car company has to do to survive, but he also has to manage things to the satisfaction of both the Chinese owners and the Sw... Muller steals the show - Right, second ANE Congress missive of the day from inside Bilbao's cavernous splendour of the Euskaduna Conference Centre - the Basque influence is obviously everywhere here but the language is as impenetrable as Welsh or Finnish.
It's traditional for the post-lunch speakers to be fighting a losing battle against the effects of food and the audience casting sneaky glances at watches, but fair play to ANE, they lined up a pretty feisty group of speakers to keep the crowd entertained and most certainly awake.
Chief among these was Spyker CEO - and now Saab supremo to boot too - Victor Muller - who injected proceedings with a hefty dose of humour - particularly after having been delayed four hours getting to northern Spain - Bilbao is not an easy place to get to.
EVP Magna International Herbert Demel also brought the EV sector to life, while The Rolf Group CEO Nick Hawkins gave a masterclass in Russian market opportunities.
And all this permeated with the kn... Copyright © 2010, JayKay's Link Exchange. All Rights Reserved. |