Tuesday 11 August 2020

Methanol fuelled cars

 There is a rumour going around that the electric car incentives in China will soon be removed which will end up driving electric car prices up beyond internal combustion engine cars. China Government's incentive was there to kick start the electric car industry to promote cleaner environment but in reality it only reduced the air pollution but the process of manufacturing the electric cars contribute more environmental pollution than regular gasoline cars. The question now is how many people will really buy electric cars once the subsidies are removed. There is a new rumour going around that the methanol fuelled cars will be the next wave in China owing to the fact that it is cheaper to make than the electric cars and methanol is cheap and produces low air pollution and the cars can be refuelled quickly just like a regular gasoline car.

The Chinese Government have been going around looking for methanol contracts to purchase and they are also trying to ramp up methanol production domestically. Methanol is cheaper than gasoline and the internal combustion engines can be adopted to run on methanol. It will be interesting to see if this will become a reality soon. If the methanol cars will be introduced the gas stations can easily be modified to offer methanol at the pumps without massive infrastructure works like electric charging stations.

It is quite obvious that there are numerous benefits of using methanol compared to electricity. If this starts in China it won't be long before other countries may follow since electricity production is some countries isn't cheap and some countries struggle with the present electricity production which will add more stress on the power grid to charge electric vehicles. The countries that will benefit from this will be India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines and Myanmar. So far there is no solid new on methanol cars being launched any where in the world but if China takes the lead things may change very quickly.

Friday 7 August 2020

BMW lost the plot with their new designs?

 In the recent years BMW launched a flurry of new models including the new 8 Series, the 1 series, the 4 series and X7. Every one had the signature double kidney front grille. Over the years the size of the kidney grille grew in size and it has been often laughed at by industry observers for growing in size. The new models designs are no longer classy or sexy as it once were. Mercedes which was traditionally more conservatively designed have since caught up and over taken BMW as the sporty brand with the current C-class and the A-class.

BMW's gradual evolution in design have become too out of date and it needs design refresh to keep up with Mercedes and Audi. BMW's X4 and X7 look strange and is not sporty nor sexy. On the other hand Mercedes' GLA and GLB have grown in appeal and is stealing more sales from BMW.

In the horsepower race BMW is also falling behind. BMW once upon a time made the best engines in the industry with its M engine but now have been over shadowed by the AMG 45 and AMG 63 engines which is full of character and are incredible power units. The M engines are no doubt still very good.

The BMW 1 series is also now front wheel drive which is the first for BMW. The design of the car is nothing spectacular and the M135i cannot compete with the AMG A45 which is over 120hp up on the M135i. BMW may need to relook at their design philosophy and inject some new design blood in order to bring the brand back to the front. Some drastic design changes will yield some excitement back into the brand if not it will gradually fall further behind Mercedes.