Why do French car makers struggle so badly in South East Asia?

French car makers like Peugeot, Citroen and Renault have been around for more than 60 years and collective have decent market share in European countries and South America but they struggle badly in South East Asia. Peugeot is the only car maker that performs better than the other 2 brands in Malaysia but is practically non-existent in Indonesia, Philippines and thailand. Renault struggles badly in Malaysia despite heavily promoting the Captur and Koleos models. The cars are priced competitively against German rivals VW and Japanese rivals Honda and Toyota. Combined the monthly sales volume seldom exceeds 100 cars which is not enough for a mass market brand to survive.

The struggle of the these French brands are mainly due to the lack of after sales support and poor reliability in the past. The earlier distributors did not offer good after sales service and parts support leaving many owners in a lurch when the cars had problem. It also compounded the problem when the cars were not reliable and was not topicalised to suit the humid climate. Having a bad reputation for poor reliability and bad after sales service the brand image took a big punishment making it very difficult to sell present models.

Used car dealers are reluctant to accept cars from these brands as it is slow to sell and very few customers would look to buy a French car.  All these factors make it an uphill battle to promote the brand. Renault may be actively in F1 but it does nothing for the brand in Asia. Renault tried to promote the sporty models like the Megane R.S. hot hatch but it was too niche and only enthusiasts would buy it. For the average buyer who had such a budget for a hot hatch they would either buy a VW Golf GTI or a used Mercedes A45 AMG. These two cars had much better residual values and could easily be sold in the second hand market.

Citroen recently tried to make a come back with the DS models. The cars look good but again the brand image has been damaged. The brand only appealed to the enthusiasts or the buyers who previously owned a Citroen. It was difficult to convert buyers from Honda, Toyota or Mazda to switch. Even if the buyers from the main stream Japanese brands would buy a European model it would most likely be a BMW, Mercedes or Audi.

The problem is the brand image of the French cars are stuck in limbo. It is neither low end or luxury. It is stuck in the middle to compete with the Japanese and Koreans which are often the preferred choice due to reliability and after sales support and also residual values. I believe it will take many more years before the French brands can make any head way in South East Asia unless they are willing to invest heavily in setting up production bases and reduce the prices significantly to capture market share. Renault did this in India and succeeded so this same formula is needed if it were to succeed in South East Asia.

China's new EVs will be a force to be reckoned with in the near future

I just returned from a business trip to china and all I saw was many hybrid and EVs on the roads and on display in shopping malls and in impressive car showrooms facing the main streets. What does this mean? China's foray into the EV market is growing by leaps and bounds unlike the information that is published in the western media. According to some local Chinese industry observers it is rumoured that 1 in every 3 cars sold in Shanghai alone is either a EV or a hybrid. Fuel prices in China is higher than in South East Asia but it is not as high as in Europe or Japan. The Chinese Government have been giving incentives to local car makers such as BYD, SAIC, Geely and many others to develop more EVs to help reduce air pollution. China's megacities are by far among the worst in the world in terms of quality and reducing the amount of smog by using EVs seems to be working.

The development of the EVs in China have been impressive. The Chinese car makers acknowledge that it will be a huge task for them to catch up to the Europeans or Japanese in terms of combustion engine technology so they shifted their focus to EVs which is easier to develop and also the most critical point is that all the materials needed to make the EV is readily available in China. China is the largest battery producer in the world and is the electronics manufacturing hub of the world. Accessibility for the required components is easy. Having said that many ex-Tesla engineers were also pinched by China car companies to help with the development of their EVs. This basically allows them to leapfrog the other car makers and be able to play at the front of the EV market.

Tesla is too expensive for many of the average Chinese buyers but a locally developed and produced EV with similar size and perhaps 60% of the performance capability of the Tesla at half the price would appeal to a big number of Chinese buyers. The incredible thing about the EV development in China is not just about creating the car but the infrastructure they have planned for it. For the new car company NIO that only produces EVs (and currently makes the fastest EV to lap the Nurburgring) they already have a battery swapping network in place across China. They claim that they can swap out a battery in under 5 minutes and replace it with a fully charged unit. This is as quick as refuelling at a gas station for a regular combustion engine car. This is solving a few issues that have been concerns of potential EV buyers. The range issue is solved and the battery life problem is also solved.

The design of the cars now look modern and come fully loaded with functions such as voice command, lane departure warning, traction control, blind spot warning system, interactive infotainment system and many more.

The car shown above is the Roewe Marvel-X which is owned by SAIC. this mid sized SUV comes in 2 variants, a basic 2WD and fully loaded 4WD version. On paper it claims to offer a 500km driving range when cruising at 60kph but in reality I would expect a realistic driving range of 380-400km since when you run the air conditioning and audio system and lights it will reduce the driving range. The car is capable of 0-100kph in 4.8 seconds. It is impressive to say the least and the expected selling price in China before subsidies is RMB200,000.
It claims to be able to achieve 80% charge in 40 minutes from a fast charger. This is good since many other Japanese EVs take much longer to charge.

Next comes the NIO ES8 SUV. This SUV is much larger and capable of seating 7 people. It has a driving range of 350km but the battery swap takes just 5 minutes. This car comes fully loaded is expected to cost US$60,000. The interior design is very cool and the build quality is top notch with nice materials used.

From what can be seen in China it can be said that the yardstick for the EV market just moved much further than I expected and I would also say that the Japanese car makers need to wake up and play the catch up game. The current offerings from Japan fall way short of what China has to offer. If the big guns in Japan remain asleep they will soon find themselves out of the game altogether. While the Japanese car makers still use the out of date Nickel metal hydride batteries for the EV, China is already using Lithium ion and soon lithium polymer batteries. I personally feel that the Japanese car makers have fallen far behind the EV industry. They will need something amazing to close the gap.

China and the European car makers are really pushing the development of EVs to a new level. It won't be long before China's EVs hit the world market. So far the EVs are only being sold in China but once the cars gain sufficient popularity in China the car makers will start to venture to other countries.

2018 Kuala Lumpur International motorshow

The Kuala Lumpur International motorshow 2018 (KLIMS) just opened today and it is the first time in 5 years the motorshow has been held. The motorshow had lacklustre turn out from visitors in previous years prompting the organiser to delay organising the motorshow by several years hoping that the long hiatus will create some interest from visitors to turn out in greater numbers. The fundamental part about any motorshow is the number of car companies that will participate and exhibit their new models or concept cars.

Sad to say the KLIMS 2018 is very pathetic since it could only attract less than 50% of the car companies present in Malaysia to participate. As expected the usual participating car companies would be Perodua, Proton, Kia, Hyundai, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Lexus, Peugeot, Mitsubishi and Nissan. As you can see many of the bigger names such as Mercedes, BMW, Audi, VW, Suzuki, Land Rover, Jaguar, Volvo, Mazda, Subaru, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Chevrolet, Maserati and Porsche were missing. One would accept if supercar makers such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and ultra luxury brands such as Rolls Royce and Bentley were missing. KLIMS consisted of 2 halls, one on level 1 and the second is on level 2. Level 2 housed Nissan, Petronas a several tinting brands and car care product retailers.

In short the motorshow is barely a motorshow when so many car manufacturers are not represented. A true motorshow would at least cover 75% of the brands that are currently sold in Malaysia. I can understand that brands like Alfa Romeo or Chevrolet is not represented since Alfa no longer has a distributor in Malaysia and Chevrolet's distributorship was just terminated with Naza.

Walking around Hall 2 where the back section was for accessories or automotive related products it was clear to see that the number of companies willing to exhibiting at this motorshow was very low. Many industry players such as major tyre companies, lubricant companies or mobile electronic companies were missing. Left were just a handful of window film suppliers and car care chemical suppliers. At the rate this event is going it is unlikely that there will be another KLIMS for many years to come.

Many visitors will feel that it is not worth spending RM20 to enter to see a handful of car makers exhibiting their cars. Unlike other international motor shows in other countries, the KLIMS is seriously a waste of time. The Bangkok motorshow which is held yearly has more to offer.

It was rumoured that in the past BMW and Mercedes were given false information about the competitor participating promoting BMW and Mercedes to participate but when one did not participate the car maker felt cheated and from then on they would not participate ever again. According to sources in BMW they would prefer to spend the marketing budget in smaller exhibits in major high end shopping malls which they can interact with buyer and receive immediate bookings for the cars without having to face their competitors.

Recently Hong Leong bank organised a premier banking event where they invited customers to test drive 10 different cars for free together with free lunch and drinks. The event was held over several days and received a great response from the customers which resulted in many of the car companies selling cars at the event.

I personally feel that motor shows in Malaysia is dead! The average salary earner with 2 or 3 children will not want to pay RM60 to visit a motorshow to see a handful of car companies exhibit their cars but they would pay RM30 to visit a car culture or motoring culture show like the Art of Speed. The visitors see more value when they can get up close to interestingly tuned cars or motorcycles and buy innovative bespoke merchandise.

those who still want to visit KLIMS, be warned!

making fuel from carbon dioxide and hydrogen

A company in Australia recently published a video about a technological break through that allowed them to create a carbon neutral clean burn fuel that can be used in any fossil fuel engine. This is amazing if it truly works. It basically combines the CO2 in the air and fuse it with hydrogen to make the liquid fuel that results in clean burn with zero emissions from the car's exhaust system. This is revolutionary as it will be like creating the perfect cycle in the fuel / combustion system. Whatever the car's exhaust puts out can be recycled into fuel to feed the car. This in the past is nothing but a dream but it appears that one company managed to do it.

This could mean that the electric car's future is numbered and may no longer be relevant. With this technology fossil fuel powered cars will be here to stay. This will open up further development of the combustion engine and motorsports. The electric cars will be a forgotten fad that never really took off. It will be interesting to see if any oil giant will buy up the patent for this technology or capitalise on it. So far there is no news about any investors stepping up to grab this technology. If the patent was open to all players it could very well help the motoring industry move forward.

Many electric car detractors still think that electric cars are counter productive in the carbon reducing effort which to some degree is true. The electricity used to power the electric cars are usually produced using fossil fuel or coal or nuclear power, only a tiny amount is actually from renewable energy such as hydro power, wind or solar power. This basically means that the electric car's source of power is polluting and it not much difference from a combustion engine car that produces carbon monoxide.

The CO2 to fuel concept will be way of the future if it is proven to work. According to the promotional video the cost of producing the fuel is cheaper than extracting crude oil and refining it into gasoline or diesel. This could mean cheaper fuel and cheaper transport costs which could lead to cheaper cost of food.

Driving a car using the recycled CO2 as fuel may be something in the future but it is definitely an interesting piece of technology that could alter the future of the automotive and transport industry.

Malaysia's 3rd national car

The rumours are buzzing again about the third national car and this topic does not seem to want to go away. This time round it appears that there is some sort of confirmation that it will be a private entity and the Malaysian Government will not be involved like how it was with Proton. However, the rumour is that the third national car will not be an electric car like how it was rumoured previously. It is strange that this new company would want to move into conventional cars since the future is electric with so many countries announcing that it will ban all fossil fuelled cars from a certain date in the future. Being a new entity with no prior history it should venture into electric cars as it is a fresh start and neither Proton or Perodua have any electric models.

The Government and Dr. Mahathir have been copping a lot of flack lately due to this topic as it appears to be his ego trip once again. He seems adamant to create the third national car since Proton failed and is not under Geely's control. His excuse is that it will create jobs and improve the industrialisation and engineering capability of Malaysia. He is also the one that does not want to admit that Proton is a failure.

The third national car can be introduced but not at the expense of other car makers. Dr. Mahathir in the past have allowed Proton to survive through protectionist policies which imposed heavy taxes on foreign car makers. The Malaysian public is sick of such actions and being deprived of buying foreign cars just to protect a poorly managed car company that produces substandard quality cars. The technology partner for the third national car is still unknown and if they were to introduce their first car in 2020 the company needs to be registered and the technology partner formalised. It is takes at least 24 months to develop and assemble a car from ground up. Seeing that the third national car is new it is likely that they will just do some rebadging like what Proton did in 1985!

Building a car from ground up is incredibly difficult and time consuming. It is not easy feat and to do one that the public will want to buy is a tall order. Even big companies like Toyota try not to introduce completely new models, they evolve a current model and improve it in critical areas and alter the exterior looks and call it a new model. It is rare that a large car company will create a brand new model from ground up unless it can see the business potential.

For one, I am not sure if this third national car will survive or even see the first model launch in 2020. With so little time and insufficient local engineering knowhow it looks like a long shot.

Mercedes EQC, Audi E-tron and Jaguar i-pace

The big luxury car manufacturers are now finally able to boast about their electric cars. Tesla's model S have been in the market for over 6 years now finally it faces some competition. This competition could seriously impact Tesla's business since Mercedes, Audi and Jaguar have a much larger sales network. All 3 manufacturers also have supercharging capabilities which allow faster charging than Tesla which is very important.
The biggest 2 problems with electric cars is the range and the time taken to charge the batteries. Mercedes' EQC can charge to 80% capacity in 40 minutes while the Audi can charge to 80% capacity in 30 minutes. This really helps especially when the driver needs to utilise the vehicle for long journeys.

The 3 models will take a chunk out of Tesla model X's sales since it is cheaper and more accessible. Tesla currently sells its cars on its own without appointing distributors or dealers. This basically limits its reach and coverage. In countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and many other developing countries Tesla is not present while Mercedes, Audi and Jaguar already have a dealership network.

It will be a matter of time before BMW, VW, Toyota, Honda and Nissan introduces a flurry of electric cars. The question is how much will this impact Tesla. Will Tesla be able to survive when these giants get into the game. Tesla's trump card will be the gigafactory which aims to produces majority of the batteries for electric cars. The plan for the gigafactory is good but the construction is taking far too long and now China's BYD is teaming up with several battery manufacturers to building their own gigafactory and it appears that the construction have already begun and it progressing at a very rapid pace.

Tesla may have had the edge over the major car manufacturers but it seems like the competition have stepped up a notch and it won't be easy for Tesla to compete unless it changes its strategy. Since numerous Tesla engineers left for other car manufacturers so many new players have emerged making competition very stiff all of a sudden.

The EQC, E-tron and i-Pace may not be as quick as the Model X but it is good enough to rival the Model X and it has gained significant public interest. The electric car industry is really starting to heat up and will be exciting to see how it shapes up.

Proton X70 SUV

Proton finally launched the rebadged Geely Boyue as the Proton X70 SUV. This is the first time Proton offered a SUV in its line up. The entry model price is set at RM85,000 which is affordable for a SUV of its size. It is very likely to affect the sales of Honda's HRV and BRV which are priced at RM99,000 and RM85,000. The X70 holds a big advantage since it is larger than both the HRV and BRV and comes with a 1.8 Turbo engine.

Geely put a lot of effort into launching this car in a big way to capture a large slice of the market. The car comes in 4 levels of specification ranging from the basic 2WD to the top of the range 4WD version with a long list of accessories and functionality. For a so called local car it is unheard of to have such high level of specifications. Geely went all out to impress the local buyers to gain confidence for their ability to product decent cars at affordable prices. This of course is the long term strategy to build an image and move to exporting their cars to neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. China cars struggle in Indonesia and thailand at the moment with Toyota, Honda and Daihatsu being the kings in these 2 countries. Geely through Proton wants to penetrate these markets.

Prior to the acquisition Proton was in the duldrums with its ageing models and dropping sales. The Malaysian public was sick and tired of the poor quality cars Proton produced and it was right timing that Geely came into the picture.

There is speculation that the Geely Borui sedan model could be introduced as early as mid 2019 to add to the Proton model line up. Proton desperately needs a new sedan model to boost its sales. The X70 will get the momentum going but the next sedan model will definitely boost the sales. It is rumoured that Geely already has plans to introduce 4 models over the next 2-3 years and increase their market share. The important thing now is to restructure the service centres to provide sufficient after sales support. Proton's service centres are notoriously poor in terms of service quality and it is about time that it is revamped to boost customer confidence.

In comparison to Perodua, Proton's after sales service cannot match the service quality of Perodua. the Japanese developed system of Perodua's after sales service is among the best in the industry and Proton needs to emulate this quickly. Selling many new cars is one thing but offering after sales service to meet the demand is just as critical. It will be exciting times ahead for Proton with many new models coming in.

Second Tier car rental companies vs Tier 1 car rental companies

In recent years I have rented a number of cars in various countries from major car rental companies such as Thifty, Fox, Enterprise and Sixt; and also from second tier car rental companies such as Green Motion. The biggest difference is in the way the car rental companies deal with the customers and also how they make money. The major car rental companies are more professional and their customer service team appear to have greater attention to detail and offer newer cars while the second tier car rental companies do not have such a large fleet and many are a bit older or have higher mileage. The biggest difference is actually in how they make money. I find that the major car companies do not try to scam you out of paying for damages that does not exist or damage that was already there when the car was picked up.

I had the unpleasant experience of dealing with Green Motion at Heathrow which had a sneaky strategy to milk more money from the insurance or the renter claiming there is damage to the car. Upon checking with other friends who also rented cars from the same company, they too experienced the same thing. The officer who received the cars upon return would inspect the car and try to find scratches or dents on the car body and claim the insurance or claim the access for the damage. The car I rented had no new dents nor scratches but the rental car officer claims a new scratch was on the body work and wanted to charge 400 Pounds for the repair which was ridiculous since I could take any polishing compound and rub it out with a cloth! It was clear that they had the intention of making extra money from the insurance claim or the access. they may offer the lowest rental rate for the cars but they had plans to earn more from this tactic.

Be warned when renting cars from second tier car rental companies. Take a video and photos of the entire car (covering every corner for scratches or dents or any markings) and make sure that the damages on the car prior you collecting the car is recorded so you do not fall into their trap. it is time consuming but in the end it will save you a lot of problems and save you arguing with the officer.

Review of Malaysian automotive policy

Ever since the new Pakistan Harapan government took office the gossip going around is about the potential 3rd national car project. Dr. Mahathir is undeniably sore about losing Proton to Geely and seems adamant about starting another national car maker which is not something the public is agreeable to. Proton has been proven to be a real burden to the public and since the automotive industry has been partially liberalised over the last 8 years the automotive industry has grown steadily. Foreign car makers have made significant inroads into Malaysia and gained market share through compliance with previous automotive policies that required them to increase local content for their cars.

Now that the Pakatan Government is studying the possibility of the 3rd national car there is now the possibility of imposing import restrictions for foreign brands. This has not gone down well with the public and of course this will have a direct impact on the foreign car companies who have invest millions of dollars to setup manufacturing or assembly plants in Malaysia. For the sake of one man's pride and ego, the cost to the public will be tremendous. Naturally, Dr. Mahathir will steer this idea in a different way saying that it is to improve the engineering know-how and improve the industry. Seeing the results from Proton in the past, it is unlikely that the 3rd car company will be very different so long as the management consist of the same bunch of corrupt individuals who ran Proton previously.

In fact, liberalising the automotive industry will attract far more foreign investment that is much needed at this juncture. Even the Malaysian Automotive Association is against the idea of starting the 3rd national car company. Overall the Malaysian automotive industry has improved significantly over the last 8 years and the industry is thriving. Imposing restrictions will just reverse all the work that have been done to liberalise the industry.

The 3rd national car company will not materialise considering the large number of people who are against the idea. Nobody wants another under performing Government linked company that will survive only because of protectionism. The car prices have gradually reduced over the years and it has helped many new buyers. The public wants a level playing ground and have the choice of buying a car they want.

end of the key fob?

There are rumours that some auto makers are teaming up with tech companies to do away with the traditional key fobs. The main reason for this is security. Key fobs have been known to be compromised by thieves stealing security codes or it can easily be replicated with a key fob replicator machine. The idea behind better security is definitely warranted some insurance companies lose a lot of money when cars are stolen. However do away with key fobs is a real challenge. The idea is to use the smart phone to control the locking and unlocking of the car. The big problem is the smart phone is changed or upgraded more often now than before. The average ownership duration of a smart phone is 18-24 months. If the owner of the car changes his or her phone they would have to reprogram the security into the new phone and disable the old phone's function to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. If the car owner loses or damages their smart phone (which is very common these days) it would be highly troublesome if the owner of the car cannot access the car to go buy a replacement smart phone. With the traditional key fob the owner will be given a spare key fob that they can use to access the car.

The idea of replacing the key fob with the smart phone is good but it needs some serious considerations before implementation. I think it is difficult to completely do away with the key fob. I would think it would be better if they integrated the key fob functions into a smart watch and have the smart phone as a back up.

Using the smart phone to access the car doesn't make it much more secure. Smart phones have been hacked and the hackers are getting more sophisticated with their hacking easily bypassing security on the phone. There is no fool proof way of securing a car, smart car thieves will find a way to steal the car.

Car manufacturers have to outsmart the car thieves in order to secure the car. The problem is the thieves are getting smarter and they employ all kind of technology to help.

Electric race cars vs petrol powered race cars

In the recent Pike's Peak race up the hill, the new VW electric race car destroyed the lap record set by  Sebastien Loeb by 16 seconds! this is no joke as the electric car had blistering performance that made the previous Peugeot race car look slow!
Sebastien Loeb is the 9 time WRC rally champion and is one of the best drivers in the world. To have high record broken by a margin of 16 seconds is truly impressive.

The electric hypercar from China NIO EP9 broke the Nurburgring record and no other fossil fuelled cars could come close to beating it. It is obvious that the development of the electric motor and battery is able to jump by leaps and bounds giving car companies the ability to push the overall performance of their cars.

Porsche also showed its prototype electric car in testing mode with former F1 driver Mark Webber behind the wheel. Porsche will be launching their electric sports sedan later this year calling it the Taycan.

Performance electric cars are here to stay and is definitely the way of the future. It will also show in increasing numbers how efficient it can be and will make fossil fuel cars look slow. It is difficult for fossil fuel cars to beat the electric car. The development of the fossil fuel motor is almost at its peak and there isn't much room for further development however with the electric motor and battery the development is still at its early stage and there is a lot more room for improvements.

Tesla made electric cars cool and fast. NIO made electric hypercars super impressive... what's next?

Usable EV driving range for hybrids

What would one consider to be a practical EV driving range for hybrid cars? EV meaning electric vehicle or in the case of the hybrids driving in pure electric mode. Many car makers now have hybrids but some offer EV driving range of 30km while others can go as far as 60km. What would be considered a usable electric mode driving range. The Japanese makers like Toyota who are the pioneers in this technology use it more to improve fuel efficiency but the driving range in pure electric mode rarely exceeds 40km. BMW on the other hand like to use the hybrid system as a performance boost to allow the car to accelerate faster and offer greater driving performance.

Having a longer driving range will mean a larger battery which adds a lot more weight to the car and usually results in having a small trunk since a lot of the car companies like to place the battery at the back of the car. Bigger battery also makes it harder for the designers to package the vehicle's usable interior space. In some cases the large battery pack raises the floor reducing leg room for the rear occupants and in the case of Mercedes and Ford the rear trunk ends up having a strange kink which makes it very difficult to load cargo.

Having tried several hybrid cars from different auto makers the best trade off between EV range and compromise in terms of usable interior space, the Toyota Prius is still the best. The car's battery despite being very old tech in the present era it still works very well. The old fashioned nickel metal hydride battery is not as good as the new lithium-ion batteries but it is very reliable and stable. Toyota managed to package it well that it doesn't look out of place compare to other car models. Toyota designed the car as a hybrid from day 1 compared to other car companies that design their models as a regular fossil fuel powered car and try to squeeze some space for the battery to incorporate a hybrid setup.

A purpose designed hybrid car will always work better than a car that is designed to add on a hybrid model. The new Prius is quite ugly to say the least but the interior space is well planned and the performance from the engine + electric motors work seamlessly. Unlike the system in the Mercedes E300 diesel hybrid, the Prius's transition from combustion engine to electric mode feels seamless and you often don't realise that the car is running on electric mode. The Mercedes system is quite intrusive with the car body shaking when the diesel engine or petrol engine starts. Toyota got it right and the smooth transition in modes really is impressive. Having the car shake when the engine starts up is very annoying. This is the same for BMW hybrids.

In my opinion having an electric power driving range of up to 70km will be the best. Most city driving trips often do not go beyond 30km and with a 70km range one is able to go to the destination and back on electric mode. The battery recharging during braking and off throttle cruising will of course help with the range. Using as little fossil fuel is the aim of the game here.

I believe the newer hybrid models will soon reverse the usage of fossil fuels vs electric power meaning that the main power source that drives the wheels of the car will be electric power and the fossil fuel motor is there as a range extender. BMW have already started this with the i3 model and same for the Chevy Volt which uses a petrol engine as a range extender. I think this concept is very practical and will offer much better fuel economy than the current typical hybrid setup.

Road tax or car registration charges

Every country implements a different system when it comes to charges for annual car registration or in some countries it is referred to as road tax. Some countries calculate the annual registration fees based on the vehicle's engine capacity while others are calculated based on vehicle weight. It is quite common to have the registration calculated based on vehicle engine capacity but this system is highly unfair. This system penalises anyone whose vehicle has a large engine capacity. The make matters worse the calculation is not linear meaning for every cc the rate of increase is not uniform. In Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand the calculation becomes exponential once the engine capacity exceeds 2,000cc. In Malaysia where the fuel is subsidised the Government wants to discourage people from owning vehicles with large engine capacity since it will affect the Government.

In countries like Australia, NZ and US the car registration is a flat fee regardless of engine capacity and hence it is common to see cars with 5 litre engines or larger. It is based on a user pays concept which makes more sense. The fuel is not subsidised and if you have a large engine capacity the fuel consumption will most likely be much more than a  car with 1500cc engine hence the user will end up paying more for fuel. The comparison in types of cars sold in Australia vs South East Asians countries paints a clear picture of the country's policy. In Asia the bulk of the cars sold are small cars with engine capacities not exceeding 2 litre while in Australia it is common to see cars with 3.5 litres or 5 litre engines.

some countries implement a weight penalty for heavy vehicles. This is done to penalise those heavy vehicle owners because most road surface damage are caused by heavy vehicles. Thailand has a system like this to penalise heavy vehicles. Previously in Japan the car's registration is calculated based on the width of the car. This unique because of the narrow streets in Tokyo. This is why we used to see cars with mirrors placed on the front fender in the 1980s. Japan has since stopped using this system.

In my opinion the user pays concept is the best since the buyer is free to choose how big their vehicle's engine is and they just end up paying for the fuel that they use. There will be a more diverse range of cars on the road and also people will have more freedom of choice.

All this will of course change in the not so distant future with electric cars coming in. The question is how will the Governments calculate the registration charges for electric cars? will it be a standard fixed fee or will it be based on the battery capacity?

high speed rail for Malaysia

Having a high speed rail system is definitely great for any country's infrastructure but it is expensive to build. Malaysia's previous Government signed an agreement with Singapore to build the high speed rail that connects Malaysia with singapore. The route will be from Kuala Lumpur heading southwards to Singapore.
The project was ambitious and the cost when factored in with the kick-backs to certain politicians was far too expensive at RM110 billion. It is not a project that the country can afford at this point in time. The cost outweighed the benefits and it would be a massive burden to the public. Taiwan built its high speed rail system more than 1 decade ago and despite it popularity the company managing the high speed rail system is in financial trouble.

It appears that a country would require a big population with sufficient disposable income to support a high speed rail system. Japan and France have the longest serving high speed rail system and both are part and parcel of daily life in these countries. China is the 3rd country to have the high speed rail system and has the most extensive high speed rail network in the world. These countries have the money and population size to support the high speed rail system.

For Malaysia it is a nice to have not but a necessity. The second proposal that was recently discussed about is to improve the rail network and update it to allow the trains to run at higher speeds, not quite high speed rail speed of 320km/h but at 200km/h which is sufficiently fast. An improvement in efficiency and increase in frequency could help transportation to a greater degree at a lower cost.

The debate still goes on regarding the high speed rail and the new proposal. Singapore appears to be unhappy that Malaysia has announced its cancellation of the high speed rail project. There is nothing much Singapore can do since more than 80% of the rail line is in Malaysia and the bulk of the costs will be bored by Malaysia. It is unfair for Malaysia to bear the cost of the project when it is not in the financial position to do so.

Malaysia's possible 3rd national car company

Malaysia first introduced Proton in the early 1980s followed with Perodua in the 1990s and now that Dr. Mahathir is back in power he is planning to setup the third national car company since Proton has been sold to China's Geely. Proton was a good idea at the time it was created but it was far too inefficient in its operation and management. The management was resting on its laurels for far too long and did nothing to improve the company. It was riddled with enormous corruption on all levels which crippled the company.

Perodua on the other hand did well under the guidance of Daihatsu Japan which started chipping away at Proton's market share. By 2010 Perodua was the market leader and secured its position as the top car company by a comfortable margin. No other company came close to challenging Perodua for the market leader status. It simple formula or building affordable and reliable compact cars worked well for Malaysia. Technical support from Daihatsu Japan made a difference and the models were extremely popular among the young buyers. Proton started slipping further back as its new models were not well received and the buyers would shy away from Proton due to its notorious reputation for poor quality assembly.

Now that Dr. Mahathir, the founding father of Proton is back again as the country's Prime Minister he is adamant in introducing another car company but this time it is likely to be an electric car rather than the traditional combustion engine car. Electric cars are the future with more countries announcing bans on combustion engine cars. Having the third car company as an electric car maker would be a sensible idea but saying that the Malaysian population is just too small to support another domestic car maker. The public is also tired of having to pay high prices due to high import taxes for imported cars. Local car makers have been protected for too long and it has deprived the public the possibility of buying imported cars at reasonable prices.

From what is speculated by the motoring media the third car company is likely to be used as a platform to export electric cars to South East Asian countries to capitalise on the Asean Free Trade Agreement. Building an electric car comes with its set of challenges mainly the charging points or lack of it at the moment. Malaysia's Go-green initiative have not really gained much traction and the emphasis on electric car charging has been weak. Only a dozen or so shopping malls have charging points and with only 3 to 4 charging bays which is nowhere near enough. In order to support an electric car company the country needs at least 2000 charging locations with 8 to 10 charging bays per location considering the fact that it takes at least 1 hour to get any reasonably usable charge in the battery when using a faster charger.

Companies such as Petronas need to get involved to provide support for charging bays at their gas stations since Petronas stations are scattered all over the country. There must be sufficient revenue for Petronas to justify this infrastructure investment.

Dr. Mahathir is now exploring the possibility of working with an existing electric car maker in China for technical assistance to setup the third national car but it still early days yet. It is unlikely that the first car will be sold in the next 2-3 years.

Hybrid's battery capacity

There are many hybrid cars in the market now and they all vary in types and performance levels. There are the plug-in type that has less energy recovery capacity compared to the parallel hybrid but offers the advantage of drive on pure electric power for a certain range using the power charged from a socket. The parallel hybrid on the other rely solely on recharging while the car is coasting or during deceleration. Both concepts work based on their intended design but some ideas are quite useless in my opinion.

Lets take the example of the new Nissan Serena S-hybrid. This is by far one of the most pathetic systems in the automotive market. It only offers barely 1 second of battery power boost for the car. The battery is so small that it is hardly even a hybrid. It is aimed at saving fuel but having to shift the car's mass the electric power boost is practically negligible. Even hybrids made in China offer far more battery power than the Serena. With only 1 second worth of electric power it is almost pointless to have it.

Under coasting or constant cruising the electric power will cut in to reduce fuel consumption but the battery capacity is far too small to really make a big difference. Unlike the Prius or other Toyota hybrids most of them are capable of boosting power for at least 10 to 20 seconds which is far more useful and can run on electric power mode for far longer distances. I am shocked that a reputable company like Nissan can even approve the design and manufacture of a car like the Serena. I don't like bashing cars but this model really takes the cake!

The Mercedes E300 diesel hybrid has a small battery pack for its hybrid system but it can still achieve 25km-40km on electric mode and offer good electric power boost when the car needs it. The electric power boost is useful and truly extends the range of the car making it ultra economical to drive.

I am wondering if Nissan tried to do this with the Serena because they wanted to jump on the hybrid bandwagon or they didn't have the budget to go with a bigger battery since the Serena is aimed at the entry level market. Either way it is crazy to offer something that is practically useless and call it a hybrid. Makes no sense and also makes Nissan look bad in my opinion.

revival of TVR

TVR is making a come back. The company is set to restart operations in September 2018 and likely to produce their first car in 2019. The company's directly has changed slightly to comply with strict safety regulations which were absent previously. The earlier models which were produced did not have airbags or ABS or traction control. This meant that the cars were tricky to drive and many owners crashed the cars. The simple formula of big power with a light weight body was a recipe for fun but also a recipe for disaster. In the hands of the unskilled driver the car was a handful to drive in the wet and also tested the skills of skilled drivers.

All this was possible in the past but with increasingly stringent safety requirements from Government bodies in Europe and US, TVR have no choice but to comply if it were to sell any of their cars. TVR has a strong following among previous owners and also fan boys who like the TVR concept of big engine with light weight body. The quality of the cars were questionable in the past and it is hoped that TVR is able to improve on its quality and also durability. The previous build quality meant that the cars had a tendency to break down due to part failures which were a result of inadequate durability tests. TVR did not have a big budget like the big car makers that could spend months to conduct climate / weather testing and durability tests of components used.

TVR is a niche sports car maker that will happily sit between a Lotus and an Aston Martin. The key is the fun factor and how the car makes the driver feel. Improvements in the refinement department would definitely help it open up to a wider range of buyers. Lets hope the new TVR will be able to achieve this.

TVR is an English as you can get when it comes to building cars. It is similar to Caterham, Noble and Ariel or Radical. These niche market car makers are still in demand but building the business case is not as easy since they need sufficient sales to stay afloat and they also need to develop new products to keep the customers coming back to buy their cars. Without the big budget it is a tall order. So far only a few niche market car makers are able to survive but that reason is solely down to exclusivity. Companies like Koenigsegg and Pagani are as exclusive as they come. Each car easily costing US$700,000 onwards allow these companies to have sufficient profits to stay afloat and building only a limited number of cars per year keeps them very exclusive.

TVR's model of being more affordable and less exclusive means that the profit they make from selling each car will be far less than Koenigsegg or Pagani and TVR would require to sell many more cars to survive. TVR has gone under more than once and this is the 3rd time it is starting up again. I hope that they will be able to make a serious come back and be a permanent fixture in the global automotive industry.

future of Lotus

Lotus is well known for making sports cars but the company have not made any positive impact in the automotive industry. It has not developed any new technology nor has it been a top performer. It has been stuck as a niche market car maker that seems to be unsure of its future. Under the ownership of Proton it has been a vampire so to speak, it has been sucking money out of Proton to stay alive. It's development budget was cut when Proton got into financial trouble.
Now that 49% of Proton has been sold to Geely and Lotus is also under Geely ownership no one knows where it is headed. The company has a decent R&D department capable of developing good chassis. It's engineering side have been previously contracted to help develop chassis for several car makers. Lotus is falling short of it is potential but all of this is down to the lack of funds.

Proton could have turned Lotus into another Porsche when it was cash rich but the corruption within Proton killed everything. Under the previous CEO's helm (Danny Bahar), the company displayed prototypes of luxury sedans and a SUV which could have helped the company improve its cashflow and inject some excitement into the brand. Many loyal Lotus owners would consider buying a Lotus SUV. As proven by Porsche the Cayenne was the biggest cash cow for them. this could have easily been the same for Lotus.

Lotus needs to break away from just building sports cars. It needs a cash cow model which it can benefit from. From there Lotus can grow and potentially emulate Porsche. Under the Geely ownership it is possible since Geely managed to fully turn around Volvo and made it profitable again. With Geely steering the company Lotus will have access to the lucrative China market which it can really grow. The critical issue is that the sales of sports cars is low in china. The most important model will be a SUV or a luxury sedan. The chinese buyers like luxury SUVs and they would be willing to spend to buy a SUV made by Lotus.

Lotus was literally floundering when it was under Proton. It had a dream but it was never meant to be. The name Lotus is well known but it just never grew as one expected it to. It is the same for all other British car makers which ended up in the hands of foreigners. The lucky ones made a good transition and grew like Aston Martin.

Lotus needs to seen on the world stage as a current car company, not one that is forgotten.

centre console designs

With every new premium or luxury car that is introduced the usage of large LCDs is increasing. All this started with Tesla's Model S with its huge LCD display in the middle of the dashboard. This concept took the automotive industry by storm. Volvo followed quickly with an equally large LCD display in the centre console which controls everything from navigation functions to climate control settings.

The original idea for the LCD was to display navigation system maps and radio channels with RDS systems however with the evolution of the smart phone and mobile tablets the idea to integrate a large LCD system with multiple control started to make sense. Audi went one better by using a LCD display to replace the analog speedometer and tachometer. Having this has many advantages such as giving the flexibility to the driver to toggle various menus and also access multiple functions and also change the display to suit their preference.

The Tesla LCD houses a lot of functions within the system such as suspension setting, climate control settings, performance settings, radio / audio system, navigation and many other in-vehicle controls. There are of course pros and cons of integrating so many functions into the LCD display. For one, it is cumbersome to search the functions when you are in motion and if the system crashes it can render the car not drivable. For example in the Volvo, the climate control is set via the LCD which is troublesome you are driving. You would have to take your eyes off the road to look at the LCD to adjust the climate control settings.

Car makers like BMW, Mercedes, Lexus and Porsche have opted to separate the climate control settings from the LCD which makes it safer when adjusting while in motion. Tesla's LCD display have been known to crash and require a reboot periodically.

This trend is unlikely to stop since more and more car makers are going in this direction. The size of the LCD has growing significantly from the previous norm of 7" to now 12" to 22" depending on the car. BMW and Mercedes have kept the LCD size to between 12" to 18" depending on the model with Mercedes going one better by creating a one piece design for the A, E and S class that houses the instrument display and the multi function audio, navigation and climate control in one large panel that has partition in the middle.

Soon the car audio makers such as Alpine, Pioneer, Kenwood and etc will struggle to find a place in the car industry with the car makers doing away with traditional audio systems. They could possibly just end up supplying only the radio receiver component since all the other parts has to be integrated into the vehicle's computer system. DVDs are a thing of the past since most drivers use MP3 or other forms of media for audio file storage.

This evolution is here to stay and computers taking over the vehicle controls will become more integrated as time passes.

Self Driving cars, are we ready for it?

More car companies are introducing self-driving technology into their cars. Tesla was the first to introduce it and it worked reasonably well until a spate of fatal accidents put the technology into bad light. The accidents were difficult to comprehend as the drivers were not fully in control. In the most recent case in America, the car veered into a barrier and killed the driver. During the investigation it was discovered that the low angle of the sun light gave incorrect data to the camera causing the car to interpret the signal as a potential obstacle forcing the car to veer. Had the driver placed his hands on the steering wheel during that moment he could have prevented the accident. The system is definitely not perfect and there will be many early teething problems. On the flip side Tesla has claimed and also proven on numerous occasions where the self driving system saved the driver by intervening when it predicted a potential accident. The public always remember on the accidents but do not give sufficient credit to how many times the self driving system saved drivers from accidents.

Mercedes and Lexus also introduced their self-driving technology and so did Volvo. The confidence is not quite there yet since it is likely to have many more accidents before the engineers can fix programming bugs out of the system. The only way for it to work is to have adequate field tests however it is still impossible to program out the biggest problem which is humans! So long as there are humans driving on the same roads as a self driving car the compute will not be able to predict 100% what a human will do. The human mind is an unpredictable factor which the computer cannot ever understand.

The safest way to have self driving cars is to have all the car on the road be self driving. The cars can communicate with one another on a network allowing each other to know each other's proximity, speed, direction and intended movements. With this in place the self driving cars will be far safer than humans driving the cars. I believe the accident rate will be far lower and the transport efficiency will be much greater than what it is now. The traffic problems will be reduced significantly. this kind of system will only be possible if all car companies work are willing to cooperate and work on the same network system. So far it looks like a dream because car companies have a difficulty agreeing on working same charging systems for electric cars. Working on an common network will be even more difficult since they all have their own ideas and agendas.

Self-driving cars are definitely the future, the human element must be taken out and also there must be sufficient trust in the system. I doubt this will happen in the near future since many people still enjoy driving and taking away the choice of driving will be like taking away a simple human right.

Tata EVision electric car

Tata recently displayed their concept luxury electric car. The name Tata and word luxury doesn't seem to gel because Tata traditionally have only made budget compact cars or trucks, however Tata owns Jaguar and Land Rover which they can easily borrow many technical knowledge from.

The EVision is a bold step forward and could make Tata a serious player in the electric car market. The Indian market itself is a lucrative for Tata but it could easily expand worldwide if this car is well accepted. The car looks impressive with some design cues from Jaguar and Land Rover for the car exterior as well as interior.

It cannot be said that India doesn't have the capacity to build good cars but India is not exactly at the forefront of automotive engineering. Saying this, technology can be obtained from other sources and it is highly possible for Tata to move forward with this. The EVision is undoubtedly impressive in its outlook and specifications. The car boasts a 1000km driving range on a single charge and a 10 years battery warranty which is an industry first. However, the wild claims of 1000km on a single charge is not accurate. From the marketing materials shown on several automotive websites the actual expected driving range is only 350-420km on a single charge. This is far more realistic based on current electric car technology.

It will be a good electric car for the masses considering the size of the car. It is not as small as a Nissan Leaf and is as big as a BMW 3 series. The performance is 7 seconds to 100km/h which isn't bad for this car but it is no Tesla Model S. It does look like India will be taking on China in the electric car market. With more companies entering the electric car market the consumers will soon be spoilt for choice.
Hopefully with so many new electric cars hitting the market the prices should drop making it more affordable for more people.

Struggles of the secondary car brands in Asia

In Asia the automotive market is relatively sterile with the usual few car companies dominating the top sales figures. Companies like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes, BMW and Mazda do well but secondary brands that are quite prominent in other countries such as Kia, Hyundai, Renault, Ford, Citroen, Ssangyong, Peugeot, Volvo, Alfa Romeo and Fiat all struggle in Asia.

VW was omitted from the list because at one time it managed decent sales figures in Malaysia and Singapore but due to their poor reliability record their sales have taken a big beating and the consumer confidence have really eroded.

Brands like Kia, Hyundai, Renault, Citroen and Peugeot struggle to gain consumer confidence. The reasons vary for each car company. Kia struggled due to poor marketing and insufficient after sales support, Hyundai struggle due to outdated models that need urgent replacement. Citroen and Peugeot suffered from poor reliability image and this in turn also cause their resale value to drop tremendously. The distributor often do not stock sufficient spare parts which cause frustration with customers facing problems with their cars.

Ford's problem is the poor models selection. The main selling model is the Ranger pick up truck. The other models did not appeal to buyers and seem outdated in their design compared to the Japanese rivals. The Ford models appealed more to the Americans and didn't suit Asian buyers' tastes.

all of these brands have been in Asia for decades but cannot seem to grow their presence. Mazda at one time was in this predicament but with the models and aggressive pricing strategy Mazda managed to grow significantly over the years and have now created good customer base.

In order for secondary brands to do well in Asia they need to have a very solid foundation for sales and after sales support. The distributor needs to provide sufficient spare parts and create a customer buy back program to instil confidence that the car's value will not depreciate much more than Japanese rivals. With strong after sales support it will reduce the level of value depreciation and gradually new customers will be attracted to the brand.

In recent years Volvo have managed to turn around their business in Asia with their aggressive hybrid campaign which has been paying off. The new XC90 and the S90 models are gaining popularity and this has spurred more new buyers to consider Volvo. The dealership network has also expanded which helps with customer confidence.

Turning around the brand in Asia is not impossible but the distributors need to employ the right strategy to  make it work for them. It also depends on how much the distributors are willing to invest to promote and market the brands.

Malay dealers facing problems with Proton's new management

Ever since Geely took over Proton in 2017 there has been major shake-ups in the company's operations. Many useless staff have been terminated and vendors have been forced to cut prices or face losing their business to China parts suppliers. Now the turn has come to the dealers. The new management's aim to turn the company around is nothing short of drastic but these are necessary changes for the better of the company's future. The company has been plagued with mismanagement, corruption and poor quality control for decades. The new team from China is pushing through with these changes to improve the image of Proton.

The recent fiasco is about getting dealers to commit to open up 3S centres (Sales, service and Spare parts) or close their dealership. In many ways this is a better direction for the company. Previously there were hundreds of small dealers that only focused on sales and had no service centres. These dealers opened up a small shop and placed 2 cars on display and just sold cars. Now Proton wants to ensure that the customers are able to have access to good after-sales service. Converting a normal dealership to a 3S centre is no easy feat since the investment cost is very high but the 3S centre will provide good long term business for the dealer.

The problem now comes to the small Malay owned dealerships that previously enjoyed privileges from Proton which allowed them to buy cars on credit terms and then pay when it is sold, this is like doing business without using any capital. Proton's management now wants payment upfront for cars sold to dealers and eliminate the business credit concept altogether! Naturally this will be still work out for dealerships with sufficient capital to buy cars but small dealerships will end up closing. Most of the Malay owned dealerships are very small and do not have much working capital so all these dealers have ganged up to lodge an official complain to the Government on the grounds of having a racist policy. This naturally a lame attempt to try to gain back the business advantage but it is clear to see that this new policy is not racist in any way. It is only there to improve the business of the company. It is a coincidence that the new policy affects mostly the Malay owned dealerships.

Since Proton is no longer linked to the Government it is unlikely they will step in and intervene regarding this policy. The protesting group will have to suck it up and accept the fact that it is time they learned how to do business the right way. Having enjoyed the years of benefits from Proton one would think that these business owners would have amassed enough wealth to convert themselves into a 3S centre or expand the business. The key point in this is complacency. It has always been a problem with Malay owned businesses that were given financial support from the Government. This time the support has gone and it is time to wake up!

poor battery life!

Many people who read my blog could naturally think that I am a European car fan but I would like to reinforce my points about the pros and cons of both European and Japanese cars. Japanese cars such as Toyota are known for their outstanding reliability which I believe is well deserved since it is rarely that you see a Toyota break down on the side of the road. The durability of the cars are second to none and it is also the reason why terrorists love it in the Middle East since the models such as the Hilux or the LandCruiser doesn't break down!!

Despite the amazing durability and the punishment Japanese cars can take the one thing that they fail miserably at is battery life! The average Japanese car battery life is between 12-18 months! Rarely do you find a Japanese car with a battery life that extends beyond 2 years. I know they usually fit a smaller battery to save weight and this small battery is good enough to power up the electronics in the car but it does nothing for durability. It is also very annoying to the car owner to have to change batteries every 12-18 months. In comparison the German car such as BMW, Mercedes or Porsche which have a much larger battery would easily last 5-7 years! If you work it backwards the cheaper and smaller battery in a Japanese cars that you change more often will end up costing you more than changing 1 large battery in a European car! this is not taking into account the down time you have to endure when the car's battery goes flat!

Till this day, Japanese car manufacturers have not designed a car that can have a long lasting battery or at least they need to rework the electrical system to be less battery hungry! Surely it cannot be that difficult!!

The other point I would like to bring to the readers' attention is the battery life of the second battery in any Mazda car with the Skyactiv engine. The Skyactiv models come with the engine start/stop function and the restart motor is powered by the second battery. This secondary is notoriously expensive and offer a ridiculous use life of 12-15 months! to make matters worse, if the owner of the car chooses not to replace this battery the car's start/stop (called iStop) function will not work!! the concept is so stupid because it is contradictory to Mazda's objective of saving fuel and saving cost! the cost of the replacing battery is more than the cost of fuel savings over the life of the battery. The car would be better off without the iStop function since it costs the owner more to run it than the fuel savings they can get! It defeats the purpose totally and renders the system useless. Mazda dealers have receive numerous complaints about it but nothing can be done about it. In my opinion, it is a very stupid concept. On one hand you want to promote fuel saving but on the other hand you are incurring more cost for the car owner to replace the stupid battery that costs more than the amount of money saved from fuel savings. It is obvious that not enough thought have been put into this before implementation.

Cars that are sold for more than a decade!

Every now and then a car company will decide to keep making a particular model in their line up for over 10 years! VW was famous for making the Beetle for over 10 years but that ended in the 1970s but it is less common the modern era with competition being so stiff among car makers. Replacing a model every 7 years is already considered too long and even the Germans makers like BMW who traditionally replace models every 7 years have cut it down to 6 years. VW have gone one better by cutting it down to 5 years with the Golf model.

Mercedes Benz also jumped on this bandwagon and cut the A class life cycle to 5 years. The competition among car makers force them to work faster to replace models to keep their models looking fresh and attract more buyers. Porsche also followed this route with newer models introduced every 6 years. Prior to this Porsche's 911 were built for over 10 years prior to the 993 model. After that fresh models were rolled out every 7 years.

Then there are car companies that have no clue what they are doing or have no budget to design new models and continue to build severely outdated models. Mitsubishi is one of them. The Lancer has been selling since 2008 and the same model has been face-lifted a few times but essentially it is the same car. Mitsubishi have their own set of problems and this without a doubt have affected their ability to produce new models. Seeing that the demand for the Lancer is dwindling they just focus efforts on SUVs and trucks.

In this modern era, car companies cannot afford to slack off in the new product development department. Keeping up with the other car makers will impact their survival and profitability. It is never easy to keep developing new models but it is a necessity borne out of competition and survival.

Companies like Honda have done a great job to keep their models looking fresh and in the same time appeal to the younger buyers. This strategy has paid of well seeing that Honda has overtaken Toyota in several markets.

Impact of having a well match transmission

There are lots of cars with massive engine horsepower but the experience of driving the car can sometimes feel disappointing. It is due to the power output but how the transmission affects how the power is transmitted to the road. Getting a suitable and well matched transmission can literally make a car very responsive and fun to drive or feel dull and slow.

Mercedes introduced their A45 AMG which is an absolute cracker of a car because of the amazing AMG engine with over 370hp. The problem with this car is the transmission, it feels slow to respond. Pressing the pedal shift lever one would expect near instant gear shifts but it fails miserably with an almost 1 second delay. This delay cause the car to rev higher than the driver would expect. Unlike the VW DSG which has near instant response the transmission unit in the Mercedes seems to have a mind of its own.

Lexus also seems to have a problem with their transmission but the problem is different from Mercedes. The Lexus transmission appears to have wrong ratios. the LC500 and the RC500 have 10 gears (way too many!) which is aimed at better fuel economy but having 5 cruising gears is just down right stupid! The 1st and 2nd gears are so long that you literally can hit 120km/h in 2nd gear!! The engine has 471hp and if it was geared correctly would be an absolute monster to drive. Instead with the current long gear ratios the car feel lethargic and slow.

In terms of common cars with moderate power, having well match transmission also impacts the overall driving experience. Toyota failed miserably with the 2005 Camry with pathetic 4 speed automatic when competitors were all using 6 speed automatics. The 4 speed left the car neither responsive nor economical to drive. In comparison the Honda Accord had 5 speed automatic and when driven back to back the Honda was anytime a better car. The CVT made things worse for most of the Japanese car makers. Anyone who enjoyed driving would spit at the CVT transmission. CVT transmission is by far one of the worst things created for the car. It ruined the driving experience despite it being smooth, any car fitted with a CVT was dull to drive. Flooring the accelerator did nothing for the car's acceleration, all you hear was a transmission sound with little to no difference in acceleration!

Car companies with very well matched transmissions are Porsche with its PDK, VW DSG (wet clutch) and BMW. These 3 companies do not use the retarded CVT and have properly matched ratios and have very responsive transmissions that shift very quickly with no hesitation. The engine power is well utilised and the car doesn't feel sluggish or unresponsive.

Electric cars are likely to fit multi gear transmissions soon. Currently all electric cars have only 1 gear since the electric motors have a lot of torque and the car doesn't need multiple gears for the car to accelerate to high speed, however in order to achieve a higher top speed it would make sense for an electric car to have more than 1 gear to allow the car to high a higher top speed without the motor spinning higher than it needs to. The example in Formula E race car with more than 1 gear allowed some of the teams to set the car up for higher top speed for high speed race tracks where top speed is critical.

Apart from just developing the engine car companies need to spend more time to match a suitable transmission for their cars. Slapping just any transmission will not cut it in this highly competitive industry.