It is obvious that ever since the engine downsizing exercise started all the car companies have been going the force induction route. the slowest of the lot being the Japanese car makers like Toyota and Mazda who still stick to the natural aspirated engine route. The non Japanese however have gone crazy with the turbo charging concept and have been busy bumping horsepower up like there is no tomorrow.
Each class of car now has their own set of monsters. Monsters?! I mean power monsters that are cars with ridiculous amounts of power. The hot hatch cars like the VW Golf and the Ford Focus use to have a mild 200+ horsepower but now the R version of the Golf is pushing close to 300hp and the Ford Focus RS version has well over 300hp and of course we cannot forget the Mercedes AMG45 which pushes out 370hp. While this is all good for the people who want to buy a pocket rocket, the power that these cars push out now is more than a much larger mid size saloon used to push out 15 years ago. The Mercedes E55 AMG from 15 years ago didn't even manage 350hp!
For the mid size saloons, the Mercedes E65 AMG and the BMW M5 push well past 500hp and is in what once was considered super car territory. It wasn't very long ago that the Porsche 911 turbo only had 480hp which is consider very low these days. Even the Ferrari F430 only had 490hp while the BMW M5 of today is pushing 550hp!!
then comes the SUVs, these giants never once broke the 450hp mark and had to lug around well over 2,000kg of weight. Now, the current models can easily break the 500hp mark and AMG even offers a kit for their G class to go into the 600hp territory!!
Super cars with 600hp are no longer interesting, hyper cars are now the hot topic. The magical 1000hp developed by the Veyron is no longer a yard stick. Cars like the Koenigsegg One:1 easily beats that with their 1340hp engine. the hyper cars like the LaFerrari and Mclaren P1 is easily breathing down the necks of the Veyron. Then now come new players NextEV with 1340hp all electric power.
all this power is definitely changing the automotive industry but the question still remains, can the buyers of these cars handle it? When is it considered too much power? Bragging right aside the safety aspect is something to ponder about. the new cars no doubt have traction control and other driving aids but there is also the law of physics. It is often you see in the news that someone crashes their super car because they didn't know to drive it properly or didn't have the skill to drive it properly despite having traction control and driving aids. There is a limit on how much the computer can save the driver.
Thursday, 24 November 2016
Monday, 21 November 2016
when less is more expensive !
Car makes try to load in a lot of functions and electronic gizmos to make their cars more attractive to the buyer. Things like Sat-nav, Apple play head units, Bluetooth connectivity, blind spot indicators, lane departure warning and etc. The list goes on and on. Same goes for safety such as additional airbags, thicker pillars and thicker door structures. All this is good and in the name of safety.
Then comes the sports and super car makers who will flip it their other way and take everything out to save weight. One would think that removing these items from the car would be cheaper since you have less gadgets in the car. The answer is no! car makers like Porsche and Lamborghini charge the customer more for the light weight version with no radio, no air conditioning, no power windows, no sound insulation and not electric mirrors! Instead some of the car parts have been exchanged with carbon fibre panels to further reduce weight. The car may be 100-150kg lighter but the cost of the car goes up by at least 10-15% over a standard model.
to the average guy this is ridiculous but to the hardcore enthusiasts this is a god send. it may seem very strange that one would have to pay more to get less. I think it is all down to clever marketing by the car makers and creating the elusiveness of the model to make it special. Having the courage to charge more for it gives it the perception of being special.
These light weight models are usually sold very quickly as they are made in limited quantities and are often traded at much higher prices once the car has left the showroom. It is impressive that such a concept can work but it has been making Porsche and Lamborghini a lot of money in the last decade.
Lamborghini's SuperLeggera models and the Porsche GT3 models and the R models are highly sought after and since the production was very limited some models can transact at double the original price when it is resold in the second hand market.
Then comes the sports and super car makers who will flip it their other way and take everything out to save weight. One would think that removing these items from the car would be cheaper since you have less gadgets in the car. The answer is no! car makers like Porsche and Lamborghini charge the customer more for the light weight version with no radio, no air conditioning, no power windows, no sound insulation and not electric mirrors! Instead some of the car parts have been exchanged with carbon fibre panels to further reduce weight. The car may be 100-150kg lighter but the cost of the car goes up by at least 10-15% over a standard model.
to the average guy this is ridiculous but to the hardcore enthusiasts this is a god send. it may seem very strange that one would have to pay more to get less. I think it is all down to clever marketing by the car makers and creating the elusiveness of the model to make it special. Having the courage to charge more for it gives it the perception of being special.
These light weight models are usually sold very quickly as they are made in limited quantities and are often traded at much higher prices once the car has left the showroom. It is impressive that such a concept can work but it has been making Porsche and Lamborghini a lot of money in the last decade.
Lamborghini's SuperLeggera models and the Porsche GT3 models and the R models are highly sought after and since the production was very limited some models can transact at double the original price when it is resold in the second hand market.
NextEV NIO EP9 hypercar!
The electric revolution is here to stay and to add to that statement the up-start EV company called NextEV based in the US has just made a massive jump forward. Their NIO EP9 hyper car is able to hang with the best of the hybrids and best of the fossil fuel powered hyper cars from Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche and Koenigsegg. This electric monster pumps out an impressive 1360hp which is almost on par with the Koenigsegg One:1. Power is one thing but the handling must be there to match the performance and on a track like the Green Hell any inadequacy will show. The EP9 really made its mark that electric hyper cars can be as good as hybrids and fossil fuelled hyper cars. The EP9 lapped the Nurburgring in 7m 05 seconds.
to crack the 8 minute mark around the Nurburgring is one thing but to get close to 7 minute mark is a real feat on it is own. The car looks very futuristic and yet it is functional. The lithium-ion battery pack is good for 260 miles on a single charge and is incredibly fast. Elon Musk was right with his Tesla and NextEV just cemented that concept.
to crack the 8 minute mark around the Nurburgring is one thing but to get close to 7 minute mark is a real feat on it is own. The car looks very futuristic and yet it is functional. The lithium-ion battery pack is good for 260 miles on a single charge and is incredibly fast. Elon Musk was right with his Tesla and NextEV just cemented that concept.
this car will be the talk of the town when it is officially launched. The big boys like Ferrari, McLaren, Porsche and Mercedes will be looking closely at this specimen. It will be a tall order to beat this car. Hyper cars are a good statement to show what the company is capable of but it may not necessary make the company a lot of money. NextEv will need to plan for regular cars that the masses can buy. A sedan and a SUV will mostly likely emerge as these models will be mass sellers. Electric cars are still quite expensive in comparison with fossil fuel cars but with sufficient economies of scale for battery production the prices will start to drop making it more affordable for more people.
Friday, 18 November 2016
Want to go faster? get better tyres
The age old debate about how to go faster has been on going since people started racing their cars. Most guys would think that having more power would naturally mean the ability to go faster. there is some truth in that but there is a condition attached to that statement. If there is more power and you are able to put it all down to the road effectively then you will go faster, however if your car has much better tyres but not as much power you can still be able to keep up or be faster than a car that has much more power. Many people may beg to disagree with me on this but without the ability to effectively put the power down the extra power is wasted. the tyres are the only contact your car has with the road and if there is insufficient traction the car isn't going anywhere!
Better tyres mean faster cornering speeds which leads to higher corner exit speed and the ability to reach the top speed sooner. On a car that has inferior tyres but higher engine power the car would have lower cornering speed and corner exit speed meaning that it would have to work harder to accelerate to catch the car with the higher corner exit speed. Like in Formula One you can naturally see that the cars that just came out of a tyre change with fresh tyres, when the tyres are up to temperature the speed of the car is much greater than before it went into the pit to change tyres. The lap times were very obvious and in many cases it can be as much as 2 seconds a lap difference.
Most guys are too wrapped up about engine power and making more power. It would be highly frustrating to drive a car with a tonne of power but no grip. The car would be sliding all over the place and struggling in each turn. Watching lower powered cars passing you would be no fun! Cars like the Mazda Mx-5 is able to keep up with many more powerful cars is because it is gentle on its tyres due to its light weight body plus it is cheap to buy very good tyres for the MX-5 compared to much more powerful cars which have much larger tyres.
the moral of the story is to save up money to buy good tyres if you want to be fast. Forget about spending a lot of money for engine power.
Better tyres mean faster cornering speeds which leads to higher corner exit speed and the ability to reach the top speed sooner. On a car that has inferior tyres but higher engine power the car would have lower cornering speed and corner exit speed meaning that it would have to work harder to accelerate to catch the car with the higher corner exit speed. Like in Formula One you can naturally see that the cars that just came out of a tyre change with fresh tyres, when the tyres are up to temperature the speed of the car is much greater than before it went into the pit to change tyres. The lap times were very obvious and in many cases it can be as much as 2 seconds a lap difference.
Most guys are too wrapped up about engine power and making more power. It would be highly frustrating to drive a car with a tonne of power but no grip. The car would be sliding all over the place and struggling in each turn. Watching lower powered cars passing you would be no fun! Cars like the Mazda Mx-5 is able to keep up with many more powerful cars is because it is gentle on its tyres due to its light weight body plus it is cheap to buy very good tyres for the MX-5 compared to much more powerful cars which have much larger tyres.
the moral of the story is to save up money to buy good tyres if you want to be fast. Forget about spending a lot of money for engine power.
Wednesday, 19 October 2016
Proton Saga or Proton's Saga more like it
Proton introduced their very first model called the Saga back in the mid 1980s. the very model stayed in production for about 20 years before the next model came out, and now the 3rd generation finally came out. Spanning 30 years Proton only introduced 3 generations of the Saga. Now I know why they call it the Saga because it like a movie or story saga where it goes on and on taking a decade at least to see a new model. In this modern day all car companies are shortening their model life cycles to keep their model line up fresh and exciting. Even Porsche who previously took 9 years to introduce a new model has been shortening its model life cycle because it knows that the more new models they introduce will lead to more sales.
Proton's R&D department is taking the motto of "Don't fix whats not broken" to the extreme or they are just plain lazy! The newer iterations of the Saga seems like a minor step forward. Some may argue that it is a bare basic car and what can you really expect? That can easily be answered by the closest rival from Perodua which continuously take bigger and bigger steps ahead of Proton. Cheap doesn't mean it has to be bad! Cheap can also be decent if you do it right. Perodua is fortunate that they can draw from the massive parts bin from Daihatsu Japan and Proton is left developing engines of their own. However since Proton is better that assembling cars rather than doing its own R&D I would think that it would make better sense for them to solely focus on rebadging cars. The Proton Wira, Waja and Perdana were fine examples from Mitsubishi and they were reliable and decent value for money. If you don't have the right capacity to do R&D, stick to what you know best... rebadging cars.
the new Saga claims to be better but it is still yet to be seen. Proton claims good initial sales but this can be seen only in 6 months time when the sales figures are published rather than claimed by Proton. Making claims about the sales figures to boost confidence is one thing but the actual sales figure will speak for itself.
I wouldn't judge too quickly but there is always a market in malaysia for entry level cars. The economy is not good now and cheaper cars will be more popular since those who can't afford Japanese or Korean brands will revert to buying local cars.
Tuesday, 18 October 2016
Charging stations in Malaysia
With the introduction of more plug-in hybrid cars in Malaysia it would make sense to build more charging stations. Up till now Malaysia only has a handful of charging stations for electric vehicles most of which were built by Nissan for the Nissan Leaf electric car but now with Volvo, BMW and Mercedes introducing their own plug-in hybrids a Government initiative Greentech has announced that they will install up to 30 more charging stations across the country with most of them being located along the North-South highway.
Naturally with this expansion it will fuel further emphasis on plug-in hybrids. Malaysia has been slow to adopt electric vehicles and ever since the change in Automotive Policy by the Government the sales of electric vehicles have almost died. However with the new incentive scheme for locally assembled plug-in hybrids qualifying for the tax break the sales have started to grow again. Without the expansion of the charging station network only a small number of people would buy an electric car. Plug-in hybrids are different because it still has a gasoline or diesel engine to power the car. The expansion of the charging station network will not have a big impact on plug-in hybrids since the range offered by the electric motor and batteries barely go beyond 60km and charging time is much longer than any regular refuelling.
I would think that in urban areas more charging stations should be installed so that more electric vehicles should be used to reduce air pollution. Places like large malls, office buildings and hospitals should have charging stations.
The difficult thing about electric vehicles is that there is no one standard charging system for all cars. Some car companies use their own proprietary charging plugs while others use a different type. this makes it difficult. I would think that it will make logical sense for all car companies to band together and agree on one standard system so that they all can benefit from lower overall cost of cables and connectors and not to mention convenience of charging.
Looks like the next wave of electric or plug-in hybrids are here to stay after all. Despite being late to the game, it is still never too late. I am looking forward to see what other models will be introduced in the next few years.
Naturally with this expansion it will fuel further emphasis on plug-in hybrids. Malaysia has been slow to adopt electric vehicles and ever since the change in Automotive Policy by the Government the sales of electric vehicles have almost died. However with the new incentive scheme for locally assembled plug-in hybrids qualifying for the tax break the sales have started to grow again. Without the expansion of the charging station network only a small number of people would buy an electric car. Plug-in hybrids are different because it still has a gasoline or diesel engine to power the car. The expansion of the charging station network will not have a big impact on plug-in hybrids since the range offered by the electric motor and batteries barely go beyond 60km and charging time is much longer than any regular refuelling.
I would think that in urban areas more charging stations should be installed so that more electric vehicles should be used to reduce air pollution. Places like large malls, office buildings and hospitals should have charging stations.
The difficult thing about electric vehicles is that there is no one standard charging system for all cars. Some car companies use their own proprietary charging plugs while others use a different type. this makes it difficult. I would think that it will make logical sense for all car companies to band together and agree on one standard system so that they all can benefit from lower overall cost of cables and connectors and not to mention convenience of charging.
Looks like the next wave of electric or plug-in hybrids are here to stay after all. Despite being late to the game, it is still never too late. I am looking forward to see what other models will be introduced in the next few years.
Tuesday, 4 October 2016
Tesla vs all the car companies
Recently we see numerous car companies claiming that they will be introducing their own version of the electric sports sedan that will rival and beat Tesla. It is funny that all these companies make such claims and will only introduce their cars in 2019 or 2020. That is some 3 years away and yet they are making such claims now. Teslas model P, S or D have been around for a few years now and it takes other car companies so many more years to even catch Tesla. It is ridiculous that they can make such claims when they don't have a car capable of competing with the Tesla now!
Audi, Porsche and now Mercedes claim they will have a competitive car, all of which can charge the batteries to 80% within 30-40 minutes via a rapid charger. Seriously come 2019 or 2020, we don't know how far Tesla would have gone with their development. they could very well move the yardstick much further and the car companies will just have a bigger mountain to climb.
It is very obvious that Tesla made such a big impression that car companies have no choice but try to chase Tesla. Electric cars are definitely here to stay and with Tesla building the gigafactory which will supply more than 70% of the world's car batteries will no doubt be a defining moment in automotive history. And it will be ironic if any of these car companies will end up buying the batteries from Tesla's gigafactory.
Tesla definitely rocked the automotive industry by doing things differently and big detractors like GM and Ford we trying to find ways to destroy Tesla. Despite several crashes that resulted in the driver dying, Tesla was the first company that pioneered the self driving function. Tesla is still the only company that dares to take the first step to introduce the self driving function. It is a huge risk but someone has to do it. Like any innovation there is always the element of risk and failure. Without failure one would not learn the true problems and how to make progress and improvements. to put it simply Tesla is decades ahead of its nearest car company rival.
With every new innovation that Tesla introduces, all the car companies are watching and trying to emulate. Tesla's thinking is many years ahead and since they develop technology that is for the future all the car companies are just playing catch up. Innovation is the key to Tesla's survival and Elon Musk is one man who is willing to take the risk to make a difference.
Being a new car company is never easy but taking the automotive industry head on is another huge challenge. Tesla excelled where the others failed and made electric cars exciting again. I am very sure there will be a new innovation waiting to be introduced and everyone in the auto industry will be watching.
Audi, Porsche and now Mercedes claim they will have a competitive car, all of which can charge the batteries to 80% within 30-40 minutes via a rapid charger. Seriously come 2019 or 2020, we don't know how far Tesla would have gone with their development. they could very well move the yardstick much further and the car companies will just have a bigger mountain to climb.
It is very obvious that Tesla made such a big impression that car companies have no choice but try to chase Tesla. Electric cars are definitely here to stay and with Tesla building the gigafactory which will supply more than 70% of the world's car batteries will no doubt be a defining moment in automotive history. And it will be ironic if any of these car companies will end up buying the batteries from Tesla's gigafactory.
Tesla definitely rocked the automotive industry by doing things differently and big detractors like GM and Ford we trying to find ways to destroy Tesla. Despite several crashes that resulted in the driver dying, Tesla was the first company that pioneered the self driving function. Tesla is still the only company that dares to take the first step to introduce the self driving function. It is a huge risk but someone has to do it. Like any innovation there is always the element of risk and failure. Without failure one would not learn the true problems and how to make progress and improvements. to put it simply Tesla is decades ahead of its nearest car company rival.
With every new innovation that Tesla introduces, all the car companies are watching and trying to emulate. Tesla's thinking is many years ahead and since they develop technology that is for the future all the car companies are just playing catch up. Innovation is the key to Tesla's survival and Elon Musk is one man who is willing to take the risk to make a difference.
Being a new car company is never easy but taking the automotive industry head on is another huge challenge. Tesla excelled where the others failed and made electric cars exciting again. I am very sure there will be a new innovation waiting to be introduced and everyone in the auto industry will be watching.
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