EU plans to put tracking devices in new vehicles
April 16th, 2009
Paul Lewis on EU plans to put tracking devices in new vehicles
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Posts Tagged ‘guardian.co.uk’
Video: Test driving the Tata Nano
April 15th, 2009
It is nippy, has a small turning circle and the horn works. After taking the Tata Nano for a spin, Randeep Ramesh says he would buy the world's cheapest car
Jonathan Watts on the impact of China’s E6 electric car
April 2nd, 2009
Its release imminent, BYD Auto's revolutionary E6 electric car is integral to China's plan to dominate the global market for 'clean-transport'. Jonathan Watts reports
When BYD Auto launches one of China's first mass produced fully electric sedans later this year, it will be trying to conquer the world rather than save it. But such is the explosive growth of China's car market and thirst for petrol that the two goals are likely to become ever more synonymous.
The E6 plug-in is currently under wraps at the company's sprawling industrial complex in Shenzhen, but it will soon be at the vanguard of a company's – and a nation's – plans to dominate the global market for "clean-transport".
Senior government leaders have initiated a major push for hybrid and electric vehicles in a bid to bypass car makers overseas and avoid an environmental meltdown at home.
The consultancy McKinsey estimates that China's car market will grow tenfold between 2005 and 2030, which will drive up demand for diesel and petrol from 110 million tonnes to 500 million tonnes. That will mean a sharp rise in carbon emissions from a country that has already overtaken the US as the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases.
Hybrid, electric and fuel cell vehicles could ease the burden, but they will not solve the problem because at the moment more than 70% of China's electricity is powered by coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Even if there is a large scale take up of the new technologies, which could cut emissions by 19%, McKinsey estimates that the combined emissions from road transport would still increase more than fourfold within the next two decades.
Faced by this nightmare, the authorities recently announced plans for 50,000 yuan rebates for electric and hybrid cars, encouraged city taxi fleets to buy vehicles with the new technology, and prompted state and regional grids to set up charging stations.
BYD is likely to be a major beneficiary. The initials stand for Build Your Dreams, which prompted snickers when the company debuted in US car shows last year, as did the soaring ambitions of the founder Wang Chuanfu, who has stated that BYD will be the biggest carmaker in China by 2015 and the biggest in the world by 2025.
Despite it making a third of the world's mobile phone batteries, until recently few people outside of China had heard of BYD. But the company exploded into the international consciousness late last year by beating Toyota and General Motors to launch the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid.
At the company's sprawling headquarters in Guangdong province, there is little outward sign that BYD is a world beater. Apart from the golden pillars at the entrance, the company's offices are as grimly utilitarian as any other factory in the workshop of the world.
But style is not the point. The company has built an empire by offering cheap, high-quality batteries and now it aims to do the same for cars.
In February, just six years after its was formed, the firm sold 28,000 gasoline and diesel cars in China, more than any foreign or domestic rival. Its 10,000 research engineers have also designed the ferrous battery technology of the E6, which will be released before mass-produced electric cars from Honda and Nissan.
The plug-in five-seater will reportedly be able to travel 400km on a single charge and reach a top speed of 160km/h. "We are trying to make an electric car that people can use like a normal car," says Henry Li, the head of BYD Auto's export and trade division, as we drive around the company's car park in the BYD's other new breakthrough vehicle, the F3DM.
Like the company, the hybrid starts out so quietly you barely notice it moving. At low speeds, the battery-powered engine makes only a fraction more noise than the tyres on the road. But put your foot on the pedal and the vehicle roars to life as the gas kicks in.
Acceleration from 0-60km/h in 10.5 seconds will not win any Formula One races. Neither will the hybrid's current sales scare
rivals. The company says orders are only in the "several hundred" range, mostly from the Shenzhen local governments and BYD's main bank.
Analysts are withholding judgment on whether BYD can achieves its ambitious targets. "BYD's battery technology is good and that is important, but cars are more complicated than that," says Zhao Junhua of CSM Worldwide in Shanghai. "BYD will need more experience. Chinese firms are still behind Japanese rivals like Toyota, Honda and Nissan."
There are also many questions about the environmental benefits of electric cars, given China's reliance on coal.Electric vehicles drive down carbon emissions best if they are charged at night with wind or other forms of renewable energy, but this is not currently possible in China.
But they do use energy more efficiently than both petrol and diesel driven cars, and environment groups says electric vehicles can at least reduce the huge negative impact from the spread of car culture in China.
"Electric cars would be a big step forward," said Greenpeace executive director Gerd Leipold on a visit to Beijing this week. "Hybrid cars have a better reputation than their ecological performance merits."
BYD may lead the pack in China, but the government is encouraging others to move into clean transport manufacturing – an area where it hopes domestic companies can overtake bigger foreign rivals.
At an exhibition of clean energy technology in Beijing last week, the science and technology minister, Wan Gang, said the country aimed to come out of the economic downturn greener and more advanced than it went in. "Accompanying every financial crisis is a revolution in technology that serves as an engine for economic development. This time, new energy technology will probably be the new driving force."
Every few weeks there is fresh news that China is upgrading its transport and energy infrastructure. Last month, Chery Auto unveiled a battery electric vehicle – the S18EV – that it says has a range of 150km on a single charge. Shortly before that, Xinri Electric Vehicle started building an industrial park capable of producing five million electric scooters and bicycles per year. And Tianjin-Qingyuan has recently announced that it may precede BYD with the autumn release of a fully battery-powered Saibao sedan.
More than a dozen other firms have begun manufacturing electric buses. However, the gusto with which many Chinese people have embraced the idea of clean energy was most evident however in a display of a sanlunche – the boxed three-wheel scooters that are a familiar sight in Beijing's alleyways – fitted with wing-like solar panels.
But, so far, none have gone as far as BYD. Li says it is simply a matter of business. "We are not trying to save the world, we are making money. Our strategy aims to give value to shareholders. If we can help the planet at the same time, all the better."
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Leo Hickman on a new car from Ikea – or is it?
March 31st, 2009
... or is the Leko flatpack car just an intricate April Fool's joke?
Allen keys at the ready: it seems Ikea is about to launch its very own car called the Leko. Well, that's the first impression you get if you head over to the rather cryptic French website Roulez-Leko.com, which shows a car covered in a white sheet with the words "Leko – la voiture selon Ikea".
The internet is currently abuzz with talk about the Leko website, with most of the chatter focusing on the site's large clock which is currently counting down to 1 April. Surely, this is just a rather lame April Fool's viral?
However, there are some aspects of the site which suggest there could be something of interest here. The site's Flash video carries a message from the car's "designer", Christophe Grozs, who says the car will be environmentally friendly. The site also carries the official panda logo of the conservation charity WWF, which is known to work with IKEA, suggesting it must be either in on the joke, or is genuinely involved in the project. (Fast Company notes that 1-7 April is France's Sustainable Development Week.) Over at Fark.com one commenter called "TheYeti" – who admits they've been watching too much Lost – has been analysing the name "Christophe Grozs":
"Anagrams for Christophe Grozs contain the word scherzo and scherzi. Wiki: Scherzo (plural scherzi) is a piece of music or a movement, in a certain style, that forms part of a larger piece such as a symphony. The word "scherzo" means "joke" in Italian. Sometimes the word scherzando (joking) is used in musical notation to indicate that a passage should be executed in a playful manner."
It has also been noted that there is a rather handy Hungarian chess grandmaster called Peter Leko, although what this alludes to – other than game playing – I'm not too sure. My French and Swedish are both admittedly woeful, but maybe the car's name is internationalised shorthand for "L'Eko" ("Eko" being Swedish for "eco")? Or maybe it refers to Mr Eko, one of the many mysterious characters in Lost? (OK, I have to admit I've also been watching too much Lost.)
Elsewhere, some people have been scrutinising the website's HTML code for clues. At Digg a commenter called "tavallai" has spotted probably the most revealing clue of all:
It's a carshare scheme. Until they changed the HTML code and Flash filename, it referred to the movie as "covoiturage.swf" which is French for carpooling.
Indeed, the Flash filename does now read as "siteEKO.swf". Is IKEA going to launch a carpooling initiative at its French stores on 1 April? Interesting, but not exactly up there with the launch of its very own (flat-packed?) car. There's only one way to nip all this speculation in the bud and that's to put in a call to Ikea. A few hours later I receive an email from Isabelle Crémoux-Mirgalet, Ikea France's PR manager:
What I can confirm is that Ikea France has decided to support a new car system in line with its positioning: cheaper and more responsible than any other; allowing a dramatic reduction in your gas spending; built so it can adapt to the products you want to carry. But, no complementary information is supposed to be released before the launch, on 31 March. Some more days to wait.
Full marks to her skills as a PR manager, as she's ably performed the first part of her brief, namely, create a buzz. I just hope whatever is announced lives up to the hype.
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Why NCP is making a stink over car parks’ smelly stairwells
March 27th, 2009
NCP has announced its intention to 'snuff out' smelly stairwells for good. So, what would you like to get a whiff of after you've parked?
Picture the scene: you have parked your vehicle in a multi-storey car park ready to go shopping, but as you head down the stairs you are hit not by the usual pungent whiff of urine, but the delectable scent of baking bread or cut flowers. This is the latest wheeze by NCP, the UK's largest car parking company, which has today announced its intention to "snuff out" smelly stairwells for good.
The move, it claims, has been prompted by an online poll of 2,000 people last month that revealed that as many as a third of car park customers are unlikely to use a car park again if it smells particularly bad. How many local car parks do these people have to choose from?
Not surprisingly, two-thirds of those surveyed said stairwells were the worst-smelling areas of a car park – a third identifying the unpleasantness as the smell of urine.
NCP clearly feels it is a nationwide problem and is going to be using "new technology" to pump pleasant fragrances into its London, Birmingham, Leeds and Cardiff car parks. But before it does it is asking you, the public, to vote on your favourite fragrance via its online poll at www.ncp.co.uk/stairwellsmells.
Its initial research has revealed that the nation's favourite aromatic smells are classic – flowers (17%), mint (13%), cut grass (11%), freshly baked bread (11%) and fresh fruit (8%). Londoners, in contrast, are a bit odd: one-third favour disinfectant. What does this say about inhabitants of the capital?
A quick straw poll of the Guardian and the Observer's consumer affairs team revealed favourite smells to be: dying lilies, cut grass, brand new children's books, new plimsolls, inside new cars, babies (heads not bums), lemon and grapefruit, toast, vanilla and coconut, sweaty pony's neck, boiling apples with cinnamon, eucalyptus, tarmac, freshly printed bank notes, and "the smell of success". The production editor muttered darkly about "napalm in the morning".
NCP has, however, gone a bit scientific and put a psychologist on the case. Prof Tim Jacobs, an expert in the psychology of smell at Cardiff University, says: "It has been reported that citrus fragrances have an antidepressant effect," (always useful in a recession) while "rosemary and peppermint have been shown to increase alertness while driving". NCP might also be pleased to know that urine was not mentioned in our subsequent worst smells poll. Instead, "my children's bedroom in the morning", kippers, feet, decaying flesh, and London underground trains in the rush hour were mentioned.
So, what would you like to get a whiff of after you've parked your car and are heading down the stairs? And where else do you think could do with a hit from NCP's "new technology"? Someone in the office mentioned the stairwell at Oxford street's John Lewis. Perhaps you know of somewhere equally pungent?
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