Hyundai Gets A Double At Nigeria Auto Awards

Stylishly crafted Hyundai ix35 crossover and its acquaintance Veloster sport sedan were at the just ended 9th Nigeria Auto Awards honoured with the ‘Most preferred executive SUV’ and ‘Best in design’ awards of the year respectively.
Whilst the ix35 outclassed rival Toyota RAV4, Kia Sportage and Ford Escape in the category, the Veloster had beaten BMW X6 to emerge winner of the coveted honour. The Hyundai ix35 is the Korean company’s rival of crossovers like the Nissan Qashqai, Kia Sportage, Ford Escape, Mazda CX-5, Nissan Qahquai, Renault Captur, Peugeot 3008 and Skoda Yeti.

Hyundai Veloster

Among some distinguishing qualities of the Hyundai ix35 is the interior quality which the panel of adjudicators described as comfortable fit and finish, with robust switches and blue backlighting that gives the interior a classy feel. Coupled with this is the car’s suspension which is designed to order and set-up to provide soft ride and absorb all but the biggest of potholes and bumps that onemay encounter on the roads.

The ix35 interior is adequately insulated and does a great job of filtering out tyre, road and wind noise, while the engines are reasonably powerful, smooth and quiet. Currently adjudged one of the best SUVs in the market, the ix35 comes with the most affordable price tags and some of the best equipment levels around.
Mr. Jatin Nadkarni, Head, Sales and Marketing, Hyundai Motors Nigeria, exclusive distributors of the brand said: “ix35 is one of the most stylish in its class with sleek, sporty look that turns heads in a way you wouldn’t expect from a car with a Hyundai badge.

Nigeria’s automobile sector to export locally manufactured cars

President Goodluck Jonathan said on Thursday that the vision of his administration to revamp the capability of Nigeria’s automobile sector to export locally manufactured cars is near realisation.

Jonathan stated this at the 2014 Democracy Day celebration held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja.

Jonathan, who inspected locally assembled Nissan Saloon cars, Pick-Up Van and SUV at the venue of the programme, said the administration had proved doubting Thomas wrong.
The President explained that when he made the disclosure in 2013 that made-in Nigeria cars would be rolled out in the country in April and that Nigeria would soon be exporting cars, he was lampooned on the pages of newspapers.

He commended Nissan Group for keying into the new automotive policy of the federal government and urged other multinational auto companies to take a cue from Nissan.

The President also used the occasion to present his administration’s third anniversary report of the transformation agenda.

The report gave the accounts of the administration’s stewardship in every sector of the economy in the last one year.

Jonathan said the report, which was also rendered in multimedia video clip to the audience, authenticated that things are working in the country inspite of security challenges.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the administration’s mid-year score card was presented by the President during the 2013 Democracy Day celebration.

NAN reports the 2014 Democracy Day celebration was dedicated to the Nigeria Youth.

The event was attended by Vice President Namadi Sambo, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Maryam Aloma Mukhtar, Ministers and members of Diomatic Corps.

The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, former Head of Interim National Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan, former Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme and former Chief of General Staff, Gen. Oladipo Diya also attended the event. (NAN)

 

Mitsubishi offers to buy 10% stake in Alstom

Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is offering to buy a 10 percent stake in Alstom, a report said Sunday, as it seeks to sweeten a joint bid with Siemens to acquire some of the French firm’s energy assets.

Mitsubishi’s offer comes as it tries to convince the French government to choose the German-Japanese bid for Alstom’s assets over a rival offer from General Electric, the Nikkei business daily said, without citing sources.

Mitsubishi and Siemens are reportedly offering $10 billion for Alstom’s gas and steam turbine business, while the United States’ GE has offered $17 billion for the French conglomerate’s wider energy group.

A source told AFP on Thursday that Mitsubishi is now eyeing a minority stake in Alstom as it looks to reassure the French government of its intentions by forging a broader industrial alliance with the French “national jewel”.

Mitsubishi’s planned capital injection marks an attempt to sweeten its offer to ensure its joint bid with the German giant is accepted, the Nikkei said.

The French government views Alstom as a firm of national strategic importance and is concerned about safeguarding jobs at the company — one of France’s biggest private sector employers, with about 18,000 staff nationwide — as it battles record unemployment and declining industrial competitiveness.

The German-Japanese joint offer could scupper GE’s bid, which has already run into political opposition in France.

France is worried that Alstom’s business base may weaken should its energy assets be bought by foreign firms.

A Mitsubishi spokesman could not immediately confirm the Nikkei report. “We cannot comment on it as we are still in negotiations,” he said.

“Green car’ splits global automakers”

Global automakers are locked in a showdown evoking the video format wars of the 1980s, as they bet on what eco-friendly vehicles will prevail in the battle for dominance of the burgeoning low-emissions sector.
In a contest reminiscent of the scrap for pre-eminence in the home video market, which pitched Betamax against VHS, huge auto firms are going all out for very different technologies.
Toyota, which is ending a battery deal with US electric car leader Tesla, is concentrating on mass-producing a fuel-cell vehicle, along with smaller rival Honda.
Nissan, by contrast, has bet the farm on all-electrics, unveiling its second model this month — despite weak sales of its flagship Leaf — and is pushing the technology in China, where officials are scrambling to contain an air pollution crisis.
Japan’s number-two automaker is also reportedly in talks with Germany’s BMW and Tesla about standardising re-charging systems, after the US company took the rare step of agreeing to share its patents with competitors to boost lacklustre electric vehicle production.
“Nissan and Tesla… came out with very ambitious goals for the technology but had to backtrack, partly because demand… wasn’t strong enough,” said Stefan Bratzel, director of Germany’s Center of Automotive Management.
“Daimler, Toyota and General Motors are the most advanced in fuel cells, but the problem is the high cost of the technology and necessary infrastructure.”
Analysts say very low or zero-emission vehicles will dominate the next phase of independent travel, with governments everywhere rolling out stricter emissions standards.
This near-certainty is sparking massive investment, with Japan’s seven major car manufacturers expected to spend a record $24 billion on green car research and development this year, according to the Nikkei business daily.
Detractors says electric vehicles simply shift emissions to the fossil-fuel burning power plants that provide the energy to recharge their batteries. They are also hampered by a short driving range.
Fuel cell cars, on the other hand, are seen as the Holy Grail of green cars as they’re powered by a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, which produces nothing more harmful than water.
Still largely experimental, fuel-cell vehicles could get a boost as various jurisdictions, including the US state of California, launch new hydrogen refuelling stations.
Toyota is eyeing a 500-kilometre (300-mile) range for its fuel-cell car — more than twice the Leaf’s current range — and much faster re-juicing.
The company, while not abandoning electric altogether, sees the fuel cell as the next logical step after its big early success with the Prius gas-electric hybrid, which has sold about 3.7 million units since its launch in the late 1990s.
“Electric vehicles are still so limited by the cruising range,” Nobuyori Kodaira, Toyota’s executive vice president said in a recent interview.
“Hydrogen can be recharged in three minutes… Quick-charging an electric vehicle still takes about half an hour.”
Cleaner power generation, however, may boost the appeal of electric cars, said Jos Dings, director of Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment.
“If… we manage to make electricity in a much cleaner way — there is a lot of investment in renewable energy — then it can definitely be a sustainable way forward,” he said.
Still, Nissan’s Leaf has shifted about 120,000 units since its launch nearly four years ago, way below expectations.
But its chief executive Carlos Ghosn — a steadfast cheerleader of electric cars who has scoffed at rivals’ ambitious plans for a commercialised fuel-cell vehicle — said new re-charging stations will be crucial to demand.
“All of it is very closely linked to the development of infrastructure, but we are seeing more and more competitors coming onto the scene which is always a tell-tale sign,” he told AFP earlier this year.
Ghosn was speaking in Bhutan, where Nissan sealed a deal to supply the tiny Himalayan kingdom’s government with a fleet of its green vehicles as it eyes an all-electric transport policy.
Governments throwing their weight behind strict roadside pollution standards and other environmentally-minded policies is crucial, analysts said.
“I don’t think GM, Ford and Chrysler look at green cars as a profit opportunity or big growth opportunity in which they are sensing a lot of consumer demand or growth — their goal is to meet what the government requires from them,” said US-based auto analyst Jack Nerad.
Whether one technology ultimately reigns supreme, or they co-exist with a patchwork of refuelling stations, may not matter much, added the environment group’s Dings.
“All carmakers are now seriously investing in developing these technologies, seeing how customers react to them, seeing how they work on the road and how much they cost,” he said.
“They all chose different paths and that’s fine, as long as the solutions deliver.”

Ford Drops Microsoft, Will Build Next Infotainment Systems Using Blackberry. Wait, What?

Detroit News, Ford may soon ditch the Microsoft platform that underlies Sync and migrate to a new, more stable system.

SYNC: THEN AND NOW

When Microsoft first partnered with Ford to build infotainment systems for cars, Bill Gates was still a full-time employee, and Microsoft was a proverbial 800-pound gorilla in the tech industry. Now, not so much.

Over the past several years, Microsoft has lost much of its edge, thanks to (a) mass migration to cloud-based software, (b) renewed popularity of Apple computers (not to mention Chromebooks and other alternatives), (c) Microsoft’s deeply despised Windows 8 operating system, and (d) its deeply disappointing Surface tablets. Heck, even Nokia — which will soon be partly owned by Microsoft — is trying to back away from the Windows Mobile operating system. At this point, the only area in which Microsoft remains a bona fide leader is in console gaming, and with the release of the Sony PS4, even that’s in jeopardy.

Given Microsoft’s growing obsolescence, it’s no surprise that one of its best-known offerings for cars — Ford Sync — has been a dismal failure. (Popular, yes, but a failure.) Paired with MyFord Touch, Sync is largely responsible for Ford’s steep decline in initial quality rankings.

And so, Ford appears to be drafting a “Dear John” letter, addressed to Redmond. Detroit News cites someone with “knowledge” of Ford’s tech plans, who says that in the near future, Ford will kick Microsoft to the curb and build its next-gen infotainment systems with younger, nimbler company: Blackberry.

Wait, what?

Yes, Blackberry. (It exists. Who knew?) If the rumors are true, Ford will rebuild Sync on the QNX platform, which is owned by Blackberry. The source suggests that an update to Sync could migrate existing models from Microsoft to QNX very quickly and easily.

QNX is popular with developers and handset makers because of the way it’s designed. While most operating systems work as one big program, QNX simultaneously runs a range of parallel processes. In layman’s terms, that means that if QNX encounters a problem, it only has to shut down one app or program, rather than the entire operating system. As a result, it’s faster than many operating systems, and its more stable and lightweight, too.

Neither Ford nor Blackberry would deny the rumor, which would seem to give it some substance. If accurate, the changeover could happen this year or next.

Video: How touch screen controls in cars should work

If you have a (relatively) new car, the center stack is probably flawed. You’d hoped for something sleek and intuitive, and instead, you wound up with Lieutenant Uhura’s computer from Star Trek: lots of bells and whistles that don’t seem to do much of anything.

This is a major problem, and solving it ranks among the biggest challenges facing today’s car companies. Our vehicles themselves may be better built than they once were, but as systems like Ford’s popular but much-loathed MyFord Touch demonstrate, our infotainment features are ready for the scrap heap.

Enter designer Matthaeus Krenn, who bemoans the fact that automakers “merely replicate old button layouts and shapes on these new, flat, glowing surfaces” littering today’s dashboards. In his notes for the video embedded above, Krenn says:

I propose a new mode that can be invoked at any time: It clears the entire screen of those tiny, intangible control elements and makes way for big, forgiving gestures that can be performed anywhere. In place of the lost tactile feedback, the interface leverages the driver’s muscle memory to ensure their ability to control crucial features without taking their eyes off the road.

Which sounds great, until you see what he’s actually proposed.

Is Krenn’s prototype beautiful? Absolutely. It looks like something out of Logan’s Run or Tron (high praise, back in the day). It would make a fantastic control panel for your in-home thermostat, lighting, and stereo.

Could it work in a car? Yes, but it would probably kill you.

We understand how Krenn’s interface works. We appreciate the way that it’s designed to be adaptive, so that it works no matter where you first touch it. Eventually, we could get used to its one-, two-, three-, four-, and five-finger controls.

But learning the system would take time, and we could envision many occasions when we meant to turn up the a/c but instead cranked up the Def Leppard. Also, we think he’s being far too optimistic when he suggest that a user could flip through her entire song catalog without glancing over at the screen.

And heaven forbid one of your parents should get a car with Krenn’s interface. You thought teaching them AOL was hard?

How Good is Your Country in this: The 10 Best & Worst Countries For Drivers

There are lots ways to die. There are also lots of people on Planet Earth tracking when and how people die. Two of those people — Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle — have compiled much of that data to show us where folks are most prone to die on the road.

The study is called Mortality from Road Crashes in 193 Countries: A Comparison with Other Leading Causes of Death (PDF). The title’s a little somber for our tastes, but in fairness, the report deals with a very somber subject, so we’ll it slide.

To compile their report, Sivak and Schoettle, who head up the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, pored over fatality statistics published by the World Health Organization in 2008. Though the two were keenly interested in traffic-related deaths, they also took note of fatalities from three other causes: heart disease, malignant neoplasms (shorthand: cancer), and cerebrovascular disease (shorthand: strokes). Then, they mapped that data, calculating the highest and lowest fatality rates associated with each illness, the fatality rates associated with auto accidents, and how the former and latter overlapped.

The good news is that, on average, strokes, heart disease, and cancer are much bigger threats to human beings than car accidents. The bad news is that in some countries, that’s not entirely true. In Namibia, for example, you’re 53 percent more likely to die in automobile collision than from cancer. And in Qatar, you’re more than five times as likely to die in a car accident than from a stroke. You’ve been warned.

Here are the ten deadliest countries for all four measured causes, with the number of deaths per 100,000 residents in parentheses. Not surprisingly, many of these countries are in the developing world and/or in regions experiencing significant civil conflict.

1. Chad (1717)
2. Guinea-Bissau (1675)
3. Central African Republic (1671)
4. Ukraine (1638)
5. Malawi (1627)
6. Afghanistan (1612)
7. Democratic Republic of the Congo (1607)
8. Somalia (1560)
9. Lesotho (1559)
10. Mozambique (1559)

And here are the deadliest countries with regard to just automobile accidents, along with the number of fatalities per 100,000 residents. Note that there’s only one overlapping country, Malawi. (“Congo” refers to the Republic of the Congo, not the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is a completely separate country.)

1. Namibia (45)
2. Thailand (44)
3. Iran (38)
4. Sudan (36)
5. Swaziland (36)
6. Venezuela (35)
7. Congo (34)
8. Malawi (32)
9. Dominican Republic (32)
10. Iraq (32)

And now, to the other end of the chart: the lowest fatality rates from all four causes of death…

183. Nicaragua (439)
184. Costa Rica (434)
185. Saudi Arabia (404)
186. Maldives (380)
187. Syria (364)
188. Oman (331)
189. Brunei Darussalam (310)
190. Bahrain (296)
191. Kuwait (175)
192. United Arab Emirates (155)
193. Qatar (141)

And the lowest fatality rates from auto accidents. Again, there’s little overlap, other than Maldives:

184. Switzerland (5)
185. Netherlands (4)
186. Antigua and Barbuda (4)
187. Tonga (4)
188. Israel (4)
189. Marshall Islands (4)
190. Fiji (4)
191. Malta (3)
192. Tajikistan (3)
193. Maldives (2)

For reference, the U.S. had 817 deaths per 100,000 residents from all four causes, which is slightly better than the average global fatality rate of 844.  In terms of auto fatalities, the U.S. had 14 deaths per 100,000, placing it above the global average of 18.

We should point out that the report leaves out a few countries that might’ve made the “ten safest” lists, but weren’t included — countries like Greenland and Vatican City. It also overlooks some troubled areas that could’ve ended up on the bottom, like South Sudan and Palestine. Just so you know.

SO, WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

Maybe we’re Type-A personalities, but when we read a report, we expect to walk away with a few bullet points. Sivak and Schoettle’s findings, however, are a bit subtle for that. True, their per-country comparisons of various causes of death are interesting (e.g. the overwhelming likelihood that Qataris will die in auto accidents rather than from strokes), but the authors don’t draw any conclusions from those stats or offer any suggestions to explain them.

Perhaps Sivak and Schoettle began their work assuming/hoping that they’d find some overlap between the various causes of death. Unfortunately, they were comparing apples to apples, and such Freakonomic-style linkages occur more often when comparing apples to oranges — in this case, for example, looking for parallels between education rates or GDP and auto fatalities.

And so, we’re left with three major takeaways:

1. The knowledge that auto fatalities constitute a mere sliver of the world’s deaths: “For the world, fatalities from road crashes represented 2.1% of fatalities from all causes…. The highest percentage by country (15.9% in the United Arab Emirates) was 53 times the lowest percentage (0.3% in the Marshall Islands).”

2. Math still works: “For a country to have fatalities from road crashes corresponding to a high percentage of fatalities from another cause requires either a high fatality rate per population from road crashes, or a low fatality rate from the other cause, or both. The converse applies to a low percentage.” Which is a complicated sentence, but also duh.

3. Decent, if grisly fodder for cocktail party conversations.

If you’re intrigued by this kind of data, you should really check out a similar study published by the Pulitzer Center based on WHO data from 2010. Though many of the best and worst performers are the same as in Sivak and Schoettle’s report, the findings are far more nuanced.

The Pulitzer Center looked only at auto fatalities, taking into account the number of people killed as auto passengers as well as those killed while riding motorcycles, bicycles, and while walking. It also provided data on legal efforts to curb auto fatalities in each country, which was immensely interesting to data hounds like us.

Granted, the folks at Pulitzer didn’t draw many telling conclusions, either, but at least their data’s pretty.

Ford Motor Co. Planning to Pick BlackBerry in Its Car Technology System

Ford Motor Co. (F), struggling with in-car technology flaws, will base the next-generation Sync system on BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY)’s QNX and no longer use Microsoft (MSFT) Corp.’s Windows, according to people briefed on the matter.

Using QNX will be less expensive than licensing Microsoft technology and will improve the flexibility and speed of the next Sync system, the people, who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been made public, said Feb. 22. Ford has more than 7 million vehicles on the road with Sync using Microsoft voice-activated software to make mobile-phone calls and play music.

The switch may help Ford, the second-largest U.S. automaker, address customer complaints about malfunctioning technology systems and touch screens that have hurt it in surveys by J.D. Power & Associates and Consumer Reports. For BlackBerry, it’s a vote of support for a company that lost 95 percent of its value from mid-2008 to November and saw the collapse of a proposed $4.7 billion buyout.

“This would be a huge infusion of trust and confidence to have BlackBerry and QNX expanding into a Ford,” Thilo Koslowski, auto analyst for researcher Gartner Inc. in Santa Clara, California, said yesterday. “This is really the crown jewel in BlackBerry’s crown and could make the rest of the company shine as well.”

Shares Climb

BlackBerry rose 6.6 percent to $9.74 at 9:55 a.m. in New York. Microsoft fell less than 1 percent to $37.85. Ford gained less than 1 percent to $15.20.

Since becoming BlackBerry’s CEO on Nov. 4, John Chen cited software such as QNX and the BlackBerry Messenger service as assets he will look to capitalize on. Predecessor Thorsten Heins spoke often during his tenure for the potential of QNX to play a role in machine-to-machine settings such as cars interacting with parking meters.

Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford has said the quality of its vehicles has been “mixed” each of the past three years and fell short of its plan to improve those results in 2013. CEO Alan Mulally was said to be a candidate to become Microsoft’s chief until early this year,

Improving Sync is crucial for Ford to draw car shoppers who are increasingly looking to be connected at all times. In-vehicle technology is the top selling point for 39 percent of auto buyers, more than twice the 14 percent who say their first consideration is traditional performance measures such as power and speed, according to a study by the consulting firm Accenture released in December.
Customer Surveys

“We do not discuss details of our work with others or speculate on future products for competitive reasons,” Susannah Wesley, a Ford spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail.

Peter Wootton, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft who works for Waggener Edstrom, declined to comment. Paul Leroux, a spokesman for QNX, declined to comment.

Ford and Lincoln ranked Nos. 26 and 27 out of 28 brands in Consumer Reports’ annual auto-reliability survey released in October. While the Lincoln luxury line matched the industry average in J.D. Power’s Initial Quality study in June, the namesake finished 27th out of 33 brands.

Technology companies are competing to win business from automakers as in-car technology becomes an increasingly important selling point. Google Inc. announced an alliance with General Motors Co., Honda Motor Co., Hyundai Motor Co. and chipmaker Nvidia Corp. in January to bring the Android operating system to cars. Apple Inc. is working with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz, Nissan Motor Co. and others to introduce its iOS operating system to cars with devices such as the iPhone.
QNX Users

BlackBerry’s QNX Software Systems can be found in cars made made by Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit and BMW, according to its website. QNX and Microsoft are the main suppliers of automotive operating system software, according to researcher IHS iSuppli.

BlackBerry, at the time named Research in Motion Ltd. (BB), bought QNX Software Systems for $200 million in 2010. In addition to its presence in cars, QNX technology is used to manage nuclear-power plants and by the U.S. military for unmanned aerial drones. Its customers include Cisco Systems Inc., General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc.

The switch would be a significant blow to Microsoft’s automotive software business because Ford is by far its biggest customer, said Gartner’s Koslowski. Microsoft also has software in Kia Motors Corp., Fiat SpA models, Nissan and BMW models, according to its website. Getting into the Ford system will expand QNX’s industry leading position for automotive entertainment operating systems, which Koslowski said he estimates is as high as 70 percent.
Integrating Systems

The operating system in the car entertainment system has become more of a commodity and now added functions are more important, he said. QNX has done a better job of integrating compatibility with other operating systems such as those from Apple, Google and included emerging Internet standards, he said.

“You have to look at it more from a perspective of how much functionality do I get for what price and really move your investment budgets to other areas that become much more strategic for creating differentiation,” Koslowski said. “The industry is realizing it has to do a better job to create a unique experience for its customers.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Craig Trudell in Tokyo at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net; Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan at jgreen16@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net; Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net

Have you heard?

Today, Australia’s auto industry was dealt a death blow. In a press release, Toyota Australia revealed “that it will stop building cars in Australia by the end of 2017 and become a national sales and distribution company.”

Toyota Australia’s president and CEO, Max Yasuda, and Toyota Motor Corporation president and CEO, Akio Toyoda, delivered the bad news in person at a press conference. Mr. Yasuda called it “one of the saddest days in Toyota’s history”.

Making the situation worse is the fact that Toyota was the last major automaker building cars in the country. With Toyota out of the picture, Australia’s auto industry is dead.