International Fleet World June 2014

New Vivaro

Designed to get work done. opel.com

Hyundai i40

A winning combination.

The inspired i40 does not stop at premium comfort, smart technology and stand-out style. With its unmatched 5 Year Unlimited Mileage Warranty and impressively low maintenance costs, the i40 is a car that just keeps on delivering. For more, visit www.hyundai.com/eu

Hyundai Leasing Combined Fuel Consumption for i40 Wagon: 4.3 - 7.7 l/100 km, Combined CO2 Emissions 113 - 179 g/km. The 5-year unlimited mileage warranty is valid in all EU member states + EFTA. Warranty is subject to local terms and conditions. For taxi or rental usage model specific restrictions apply. For more, visit www.hyundai.com/eu

contents NEW VIVARO

DESIGNED TO GET WORK DONE. opel.com

Managing Editor Ross Durkin ross@fleetworldgroup.co.uk

14 The connected car is here...

18 Martin Jahn of Volkswagen Group.

40 Volvo’s fleet proposition.

45 Toyota’s revised Verso put to the test.

Publisher Jerry Ramsdale jerry@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Editor Steve Moody steve@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Deputy Editor Alex Grant alex@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Business Editor Natalie Middleton natalie@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Features Editor Katie Beck katie@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Sales Director Anne Dopson anne@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Sales Executives Darren Brett darren@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Claire Lake claire@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Circulation Manager Tracy Howell tracy@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Head of Production Luke Wikner luke@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Designers Tina Ries tina@fleetworldgroup.co.uk Samantha Hargreaves sam@fleetworldgroup.co.uk

INTERNATIONAL

04 Fleet Review Editor John Kendall champions the connected car.

06 News The biggest stories from a month in the international fleet world.

14 Technology Examining the potential market for app-enabled cars.

16 RVs Analysing contract hire rates in the Eurozone and beyond.

18 Interview Martin Jahn on how Volkswagen’s fleet strategy is evolving.

20 Motor Shows Shining the spotlight on Beijing and the UK’s CV Show.

24 Feature How new technologies can help reduce on-road risk.

28 Feature Exploring how autonomous driving could benefit fleets.

FLEETW RLD

30 Feature Assessing the viability of alternative fuels around Europe.

Published by

32 Feature Considering the case for mid-sized Japanese manufacturers.

Stag Publications Ltd, 18 Alban Park, Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts, AL4 0JJ tel +44 (0)1727 739160 fax +44 (0)1727 739169 email ifw@fleetworldgroup.co.uk web internationalfleetworld.com

34 Industry New Zealand’s buoyant new and used car market.

36 Interview Derek Bryan demonstrates Fleetmatics’ telematics portfolio.

38 International Fleet Academy The challenges of operating a global fleet.

40 Profile Volvo’s move towards parts independence from Ford.

46 Launch Report TESTED: Kia Soul, Toyota Verso & Volvo V60.

STAG Publications

®

To subscribe to Interational Fleet World visit: www.fleetworldsubscriptions.co.uk

48 Global Fleet Forum A round-up of activity on the popular fleet forum.

50 Fleet in figures Breaking down the global vehicle sales by region. internationalfleetworld.com / 03

fleet review

This month, editor John Kendall praises the latest European ruling on truck cabs whilst championing the connected car.

Safety first...

I thought the news that the European parliament will back longer truck cabs in the interests of safety and improved aerodynamics was a particularly good bit of recent news.

There are some drawbacks but these are far outweighed by the possibility to make reductions in fuel consumption and emissions from some of the biggest consumers of fuel on our roads. Better safety for vulnerable road users is even more important.

The issue of when the new ruling should be implemented is likely to be more contentious in the eyes of truck makers. I haven’t heard one truck manufacturer who objects to the new rules, but the cab remains the most expensive part of a new truck.

Production volumes ensure that a truck cab has a production life of around 20 years to recoup the initial investment. The timing could be right for MAN, Scania, and DAF in Europe, companies that have ageing cab designs. Replacements cannot be too far away. It’s not such good news for MercedesBenz, Volvo and Renault Trucks, which have all brought new trucks to market with new cabs in the past two to three years.

2022 is a date suggested for mandatory introduction of new cabs, enough time to design new vehicles, but tough on manufacturers who will have had new cabs in production for less than 10 years at the time. They have also been obliged to invest heavily in emissions technology in recent years, which has carried a high cost. Some pressure groups think that the European Parliament should press ahead and implement the new rules straightaway and anything less is giving in to lobbying from the truck makers. Cost cannot be ignored just the same.

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Appropriate journeys

I was interested to read IHS Consulting’s view, made in a new report that the market for appenabled cars will expand hugely by 2020. It’s not particularly surprising. We live in a world where there is an ‘app’ for everything. Why should cars and drivers be excluded from that process, particularly if they can be designed to be less distracting for drivers?

From a fleet perspective it offers the possibility of further integration of fleet software and telematics. There should be no more going through diaries and mapping websites to work out your business mileage. Before you drive away, an app will ask you if you want to record the journey as business mileage and will then itemise the journey and automatically download it via a back office system. There will be a self-diagnosis app for the car which will be able to run critical checks of the vehicle and resolve software related problems without booking into a garage. When your car needs a service, it will probably book itself in automatically, tell you when and remind you on the day.

There will need to be safeguards too to ensure that drivers are not distracted. But there will probably be an app for that too that makes sure that you cannot send text messages while driving or do other things that will compromise safety.

visit internationalfleetworld.com

manufacturer news

ACEA appoints Carlos Ghosn as new president

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arlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of Renault, has been appointed as the new president of the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) by the board of directors, effective immediately.

Mr Ghosn takes over from Philippe Varin, former chairman of the Board of Management of PSA Peugeot Citroën.

Nissan reveals new Pulsar hatchback issan has revealed its Pulsar five-door hatchback, which goes N on sale from the autumn bringing new technologies including the Around View Monitor and CO outputs below 95g/km.

in brief Enterprise enhances corporate network Corporate travel buyers in Europe can now bene it from increased choice from Enterprise Rent-A-Car in all major European markets following the signing of new partnerships with a number of leading top travel management operators, including American Express Travel and BCD Travel.

The firm said that partnering so closely with the travel management industry in Europe is an important step in its ambitious growth plans.

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Designed and engineered for Europe, the model will be built at Nissan’s Barcelona plant and marks the carmaker’s return to the C-segment and the revival of the Pulsar name.

At 4,385mm the Pulsar is slightly longer than the Golf but is said to offer “considerably more rear legroom and shoulder room than its sector rivals.”

The all-turbo engine line-up is focused on efficient and powerful drivetrains, including a 110bhp 1.5-litre dCi with CO2 emissions below 95g/km.

Advanced technologies are a key focus and include Nissan's Safety Shield features, such as Forward Emergency Braking, Moving Object Detection, Lane Departure Warning and Blind Spot Warning.

Global NCAP urges fleets to opt for five-star safety rated cars

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lobal fleets are being urged to only opt for cars that have gained ‘five-star’ safety ratings in new car assessment (NCAP) programmes.

The call comes from Global NCAP, which has published a new guide that also recommends fleet managers confirm that the cars they purchase meet the most important minimum United Nations vehicle safety standards.

The organisation says that of the record level of 65 million new passenger cars built last year, as many as a third would fail to pass the UN’s front and side crash tests, and do not have air bags, antilock brake systems (ABS) or electronic stability control (ESC).

Global NCAP secretary general, David Ward, said: “By following Global NCAP’s new guidelines, it will be easier for organisations to ensure that the safety of their vehicle fleet provides acceptable levels of protection to their employees.”

A growing number of organisations are introducing fleet safety policies and selecting only five-star cars for their employees, including BHP Billiton, the world’s largest resource extraction company, with the governments of Australia and Sweden have already adopted this policy.

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New car emissions fall 4% in 2013, says EEA Average CO2 emissions of new cars sold in the EU fell 4% last year, putting them below 2015 targets but still above the 2021 figure.

According to provisional data from the European Environment Agency (EEA), new car emissions last year averaged 127g/km, signi icantly below the 2015 target of 130g. However, manufacturers will have to keep reducing emissions levels to meet the target of 95g CO2/km by 2021.

Ford launches Fleet Purchase Planner to cut fleet costs & CO2 Ford has launched a new tool in the US, intended to help fleets choose leaner, cleaner vehicles.

Dubbed the Ford Fleet Purchase Planner, the tool enables customers to build a fleet of Ford vehicles, factoring in environmental concerns, individual driving habits of employees and terrain travelled. The planner then calculates the fleet’s environmental impact and cost, with buyers able to change the line-up until the mix meets their goals.

Conception : Chaïkana - Crédits photos : Thinkstock

37 COUNTRIES 1 GLOBAL COMMITMENT 1 million thanks!

www.aldautomotive.com

business news

IRU launches new Crash Prevention training for professional drivers he International Road Transport Union (IRU) AcadT emy has launched new Crash Prevention Programme to increase risk awareness and encourage road safety best practices among professional drivers to reduce the number of accidents and ultimately save lives.

The programme aims to reduce the number and severity of accidents by addressing general road safety issues through highly interactive training that focuses on the consequences of unsafe driving behaviours.

Commenting on the new programme, head of the IRU Academy, Patrick Philipp, said, ‘Human error is the main cause of nine out of ten heavy vehicle crashes.

That’s why we are tackling this issue directly at the source of the problem – the human factor.’

ETSC opens 2014 PRAISE Awards for road safety at work

he European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has opened its 2014 PRAISE awards, which recognise T road safety at work.

The competition is divided into three separate categories according to the size and type of the applicant organisations: SME (Small-Medium Enterprise), large company and public authority. The winners will be chosen by an independent panel of experts appointed by ETSC. Participating organisations should complete the questionnaire which can be downloaded from the ETSC website.

The deadline for applications is 1st September 2014.

The awards will be presented at the ETSC’s annual PRAISE conference in Brussels in October 2014.

NAFA announces fourth International Fleet Academy AFA has announced details of its fourth Annual NTaking International Fleet Academy (IFA). place 14-16 July in Orlando, Florida, the event features global fleet experts and panel discussions that will offer strategic overviews on the differences among countries and cultures, and present valuable lessons on how to work with multiple regions simultaneously. In addition to a full agenda of educational sessions, the IFA offers networking opportunities each day throughout the conference.

‘As industries continue to grow beyond their borders, and merge with other companies around the globe, fleet professionals can quickly find they need specialised training,’ said NAFA’s CEO, Phillip E Russo.

UK firms struggling with highest pump price worldwide ritish companies are struggling with fuel costs B amongst the highest for the world’s major economies, according to new research.

The study by UHY Hacker Young chartered accountants found that that the UK levies taxes of 59% on diesel, which is the highest in any major economy, and 60% on petrol – the third highest. This is considerably more than other major developed economies such as the United States, Canada and Australia.

In comparison, both of the world’s largest economies, the United States and China, have extremely low fuel taxes. The United States levies just 13% on petrol and 12% on diesel, whereas China levies no taxes at all on these fuels.

Driver safety is top concern for fleets

Risk Technology & R-Telematica team up

ver a third (35%) of fleet managers say driver safety is their main concern, outpacing costO savings goals and workforce productivity (27% and

isk Technology and R-Telematica have announced R a partnership agreement that will see the launch of a new product for both “Smart” insurance telematics

22%, respectively) for the second year in a row.

That’s the finding of a survey conducted at the 2014 NAFA Institute and Expo in the US by GE Capital Fleet Services.

In addition, 62% of survey respondents said that the main focus of their company’s executive leadership is achieving cost savings. A total of 43% of respondents cited vehicle purchasing decisions as the greatest opportunity for savings, followed by managing maintenance expenses (32%) and activating telematics and analytics solutions (22%).

and fleet management services to the Russian market.

The insurance offering is a self-installed, plug-andplay device that can be fitted in minutes by any driver. When fitted, it offers a wealth of diagnostic, maintenance and driving performance information.

Additionally, for fleet management, the technology provides a raft of benefits including vehicle theft tracking and breakdowns as well as LBS and POI geofencing and vehicle diagnostics. The device can also accurately detect and analyse any impact to the vehicle.

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For the latest news, visit internationalfleetworld.com

Northgate & TomTom team up for Spanish fleet management service orthgate Flexible Renting has partnered with TomTom TelematN ics to launch a new fleet management service in Spain intended to help customers cut fleet running costs.

The new service, NorthgateData powered by TomTom, will use TomTom Telematics’ track and trace technology. The service is intended to enable firms to boost productivity, cut fuel and maintenance costs, and respond faster to customers by giving them quick access to vehicle data.

Northgate’s lease customers will now be able to locate their vehicles in real-time, assign the nearest vehicles for jobs, and access mileage and historic vehicle-usage reports. This will help them plan better routes and optimise drivers’ working time.

fleetweet a few soundbites from a month in fleet

@TeslaMotors Official Twitter account for Tesla Motors

Tesla plans to install 200 more Superchargers globally this year. Three solar powered Superchargers sites are now open in China. #WattsUp

@HenryJFoy Automotive correspondent, Financial Times

Business Lease Group revamps services

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usiness Lease Group has rolled out its new online service for European fleet operators, underpinned by a new website to help customers maintain better and easier control of their fleet online.

Covering five countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Netherlands – the new website provides a uniform approach to the firm’s services, which have already been internationally standardised.

Robbert van Muyden, director of international sales, marketing & operations at the Business Lease Group, explained: ‘Mobility is important to our customers and an essential part of their day, both professionally and privately. That is why we aim to serve them 24 hours a day. The new website meets this goal and relieves some of the burden on our customers.’

Mr Van Muyden continued: ‘We’re now more easily reachable online, but, naturally, continue to facilitate physical accessibility; both are essential for our services.’

European Road Transport Guide for 2014 now available aid to offer vital information for anyone involved in international road freight operations, the 19th annual S edition of the Freight Transport Association’s (FTA) European Road Transport Guide has been published.

The 444-page publication covers 58 countries in the EU and beyond, including updated driving restrictions and public holidays, country details, customs and ferries information, and much more.

To order the guide, visit www.shop.fta.co.uk

Carlos Ghosn, @Renault_Live & @Nissan CEO, and the man with the most titles in the car industry, gets another one: President of @ACEA_eu.

@Owenmildenehall Owen Mildenhall, journalist, Auto Express

Lots of camouflaged AMG GT test cars heading out on the roads nearby. Can't wait to see that car in the flesh. They sound great.

@davidshepardson David Shepardson, Bureau Chief, Detroit News DC

In 2008, entire auto industry in US recalled 10.2 million vehicles; @GM alone has recalled 11.2 million through mid-May.

@MotorTraderMag Official Twitter account for Motor Trader magazine

European new car registrations rise 4.6% in April. Most major markets up but sales in Germany down.

@PhillTromans Phill Tromans, automotive journalist

Weird thing about the Pacific Northwest – it’s absolutely full of old car from @Volvo.

I’ve seen at least 15 running 240s in a week.

internationalfleetworld.com / 09

With CO2 emissions of just 103 g/km, the C 220 BlueTEC is an easy choice.

A Daimler Brand

Less is more: with its lightweight construction, state-of-the–art materials and super-efficient engine, the new C-Class is the best in its segment. You get everything you could ever need from a car of this class, without the big fuel bills. www.mercedes-benz.com/fleet

Fuel consumption urban/extra-urban/combined: 5.5–4.8/3.9–3.4/4.5–4.0 l/100 km; combined CO₂ emissions: 117–103 g/km.

Provider: Daimler AG, Mercedesstraße 137, 70327 Stuttgart, Germany

Efficiency class: A+.

environmental news UK government backs electromobility as demand grows

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he UK deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, has launched a £500m (€407m) scheme to further the electric and hybrid sector in the UK, following record first quarter sales.

Most of the investment (£200m/€163m) will be used to extend the plug-in car and van grants from the original 2015 end date to 2020, offering up to 25% off the purchase price of an eligible plug-in hybrid or electric model.

Data from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), which administers the scheme, shows 2,025 applications for the Plug-in Car Grant as of the end of March, or 23% of the 8,724 made since the scheme launched in January 2011. The Plug-in Van Grant, launched in February 2012, has attracted 441 applications to date, of which 37 were made in the first quarter.

A further £32m (€26.1m) will be used to develop the country’s charging infrastructure by 2020, including installing rapid charge points at every motorway

service station by the end of 2014, and a network of 500 rapid chargers across the country by March 2015.

Local authorities will be able to bid for a share of an extra £35m (€28.5m) for innovative charging plans, with the example cited of incentivising drivers of green cars by letting them use bus lanes or allowing them to park for free. Additional funding of £50m (€40.1m) will also be available for local areas to invest in cleaner taxis and buses, while £100m (€81.5m) will be invested in research and development, creating expertise in the UK. Nick Clegg said: “This major investment is there to make driving an electric car affordable, convenient, and free from anxiety about the battery running out.

But it’s also about creating a culture change in our towns and cities so that driving a greener vehicle is a no-brainer for most drivers.”

Full details of each scheme will be published by Autumn 2014, with some of the schemes opening for applications shortly afterwards.

EV project to call on pan-European fleets

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an-European fleets are to play a leading role in a new project to drive electric vehicle take-up in urban areas.

The Incentives for Cleaner Vehicles in Urban Europe (I-CVUE) project will target reductions in CO2 emissions in urban areas by increasing electric vehicle uptake in large city and town-based fleets operated by panEuropean companies.

Participants will be mentored throughout the project, receiving free usage analysis aimed at creating a framework for tailored incentive programmes for different regions and cities. This will also allow web-based tools to

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be developed to allow policymakers to evaluate the effectiveness of these incentives for their region.

Firms taking part will include rental and leasing, logistics and corporate fleets to cover a broad base of fleet types. The plan is to work with 10 large urban fleets within the lifetime of the project (and more beyond) with a combined reach of over 100,000 vehicles across Europe.

Data such as best practice will be shared across EU Member States to develop an incentive framework to support uptake across Europe, and enable local partners to mentor large urban fleets after the project has ended.

For the latest EV news, visit evfleetworld.com

No danger from magnetic fields in electric cars, finds new report

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new seven-country study has found that electric cars pose no danger to people from magnetic fields, countering the popular myth.

Norwegian firm SINTEF, in partnership with nine other European companies and research institutes, analysed the magnetic fields electric, hydrogen, petrol and diesel cars in a laboratory and on the road.

The results showed none of them exposed passengers to higher electromagnetic fields than those recommended in international standards.

Even during startup and measured near the battery, electric vehicles were shown to be 20% of the limiting value recommended by the ICNIRP. SINTEF said this offers a good safety margin, adding that there is little difference between electric cars and conventionally-powered models.

Kari Schjølberg-Henriksen, a physicist at SINTEF, said: “There is a good deal of public concern about exposure to magnetic fields. The subject crops up regularly in the media. With the number of electric-powered vehicles increasing, this project is very relevant. There is absolutely no cause for concern.”

Manufacturers back 400-strong German electric vehicle charging network

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ermany is to gain a nationwide network of 400 electric vehicle charging points by 2017, under a new collaborative project between car manufacturers, universities and the government.

Named Projekt SLAM, an acronym for Schnellladenetz für Achsen und Metropolen (Quick Chargers for Axes and Cities), is backed by BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen and will deploy the country's largest electric vehicle infrastructure with the Combined Charging System (CCS) connector.

This combines the Type 2 AC connector with a two-pin DC rapid charging plug, capable of charging vehicles to 80% capacity within half an hour. The BMW i3 and Volkswagen e-up! and e-Golf already feature a CCS connection.

Other partners include publishing house Deutsche Genossenschaftsverlag, utility company EnBW, the University of Stuttgart and Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH), who will work together to produce business models, choose suitable sites and research the usage of the network.

EV 62miles in numbers

The range of the electric UPS P80 delivery truck, four of which were recently deployed in Rotterdam.

SOURCE: UPS

in brief Saab begins 9-3 EV production Small-scale production of the electric Saab 9-3 has begun in Trollhattan, Sweden, with the irst cars destined for Swedish and Chinese customers. The carmaker’s new owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden, expects full-scale production to take place on a new line later this year, launching in several European markets in 2015.

Volvo shows four-cylinder Plug-in Hybrid Volvo has paired the V60’s Plug-in Hybrid system with a four-cylinder petrol engine from its new Drive-E range. The S60L Petrol Plug-in Hybrid emits 50g/km CO2 and will only be sold in China, but shows that the V60’s technology could be paired with one of the carmaker’s new diesel engines.

Hella and Vahle to develop wireless chargers Component manufacturer Hella has partnered with wireless energy transfer specialist Paul Vahle GmbH to develop an inductive charging system for plug-in vehicles. The companies will investigate wireless charging not only in parking spaces, but at traf ic lights and under roads.

EVtweet of the month @JATO_Dynamics Official Twitter account of analysts JATO Dynamics

#FactFriday There were 11,581 electric vehicles sold in Europe in the first quarter of 2014.

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The fleet of Nissan e-NV200 electric vans recently ordered

by British Gas, following a six-month pilot.

SOURCE: Nissan

internationalfleetworld.com / 13

TECHNOLOGY Connected Cars

Apps for autos The market for app-enabled cars could reach 55 million in the EMEA region by 2020, reckons IHS Automotive.

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urope, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) represents a significant growth market for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Apple, Google, and for app developers. In 2014, IHS Automotive forecasts that Google Projected Mode and Apple’s CarPlay will only be available in 7,000 and 52,000 cars sold, respectively. But by 2020, Google Projected Mode software will be sold in more than 28 million cars, and Apple’s CarPlay software in more than 27 million cars. These cumulative sales will be greater than sales in China during the same period.

“Apps for autos are growing rapidly and will have a profound impact on auto infotainment and connectivity in the next decade,” said Egil Juliussen, research director at IHS Automotive. “Auto apps will influence the competitive landscape among auto OEMs and will even change the brand market share between them. OEM’s will have to keep up to remain competitive.”

“The in-car app market is a new frontier for Apple and Google’s mobile competition,” said Jack Kent, mobile analyst at IHS Technology. “Each is aiming to use their established expertise to develop mobile apps and content into the new realm of automotive entertainment and services.”

Currently, Western Europe leads the entire EMEA region in smartphone apps integration software due to its lead in automotive sales and smartphone app sales. But by 2020, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa will see spikes of growth of their own. By 2020, cumulative car-enabled

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sales of Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Projected Mode in the Middle East and Africa will top sales in Korea and sales in Eastern Europe will top sales in Japan.

While Apple is the current leader in announced OEM design wins for smartphone apps integration in EMEA and worldwide, Google could take the number one place in EMEA and worldwide sales by 2020. IHS forecasts that Google Projected Mode software will be enabled in nearly 100 million cars. Apple’s CarPlay will be a close second place with 92 million cars sold with CarPlay software. Many cars sold will have both Apple CarPlay and Google Projected Mode, as the OEM does not know which smartphone their buyers will use.

World consumer spend on mobile apps is set to grow from $24 billion (€17bn) in 2014, to more than $40 billion (€30bn) by 2020. “While games will dominate, other services such as Music, Location and Navigation will contribute to revenue growth,” Kent said.

IHS research shows that apps are the fastest growing digital content category. The rise of devices that connect to smartphones and tablets, including cars and also wearable and other smart devices, will further increase mobile app downloads and revenues.

App stores will be the key distribution channel for auto apps. “App stores have revolutionised how consumers access digital content and services, providing a global distribution, discovery and billing platform that will reach well beyond smartphones and tablets,” Kent said.

SEAT BOASTS THE

LARGEST SOLAR PLANT

IN THE CAR INDUSTRY WORLDWIDE Af ter reaching the end of its third installation phase, the “SEAT al Sol” project was inaugurated by Jorge Fernández Díaz,

THE FACILITY

the Spanish Minister of the Interior, and Jürgen Stackmann, Chairman of the SEAT Executive Committee, who declared that “respect for the environment is one of our priorities. “SEAT al Sol” shows that our commitment is genuine”. The Martorell factory, close to Barcelona in sunny Spain now boasts the largest solar plant in the car industry worldwide, and is yet more proof of SEAT’s commitment to the environment and to efficiency.

“SEAT al Sol” confirms the brand as one of the most sustainable and environmentally-responsible industrial companies, and places Martorell, one of Europe’s most modern factories in a privileged position.

The figures speak for themselves: nearly 53,000 panels with 10.6 MW of power, capable of generating 15 million kWh a year,

CAPACITY

which is equivalent to 25% of the energy required for the annual production of the new SEAT Leon, and a saving of 7,000 tons of CO2 a year. In addition to this, 100% of the energy consumed by the Martorell factory stems from renewable sources. However the most important aspect is that “SEAT al Sol” symbolises the company’s environmental commitment and helps to progress the Ecomotive Factor y project, which aims to reduce the environmental impact of all production processes.

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

From the client’s perspective, SEAT’s customers now are assured not only of extremely low emissions during the use of the vehicle, but also during the production of models such as the SEAT Ibiza, Leon and Altea range.

From left to right, Javier Bigas, Jorge Fernández Díaz and Jürgen Stackmann.

Plants in vehicle stock areas The panels also protect the new vehicles that are about to be delivered to customers.

Roof-top plants More solar plants are installed on the roofs of various workshops in the factory.

internationalfleetworld.com / 15

RVs

Analysing leasing and residual value confidence in the Eurozone and beyond...

Contract hire rates fall Contract hire rates fall across Europe, but are up in the UK, reports Experteye.

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verage contract hire rates have fallen across mainland Europe while UK lease costs are rising.

In Portugal, rental rates came down -5.3% in the last twelve months and France -5.1%, with other countries also seeing a reduction in costs to fleet operators. In Spain average lease rates are down by -1.3%, Germany -1.2% and in Italy -0.1%.

Yet with prices rising by +3.7% since May 2013, the UK is bucking a European trend.

The igures come from the latest Experteye European Leasing index survey which tracks forecasted residual values (RV), servicing, maintenance and repair (SMR) costs and rental rates in six European countries using data supplied by major leasing companies.

Of all the nations surveyed by Experteye, the UK is by far the most positive about its future used vehicle market. Forecasted residual values have gone up by +6.1% in the last year, whereas the only other nations to report improving RVs are France with a smaller +1.4% increase and Germany, +0.2%. Spain has shown a -0.1% fall, followed by Italy (-0.3%) and Portugal (-1.2%).

Differences also exist across the SMR budgets incorporated into monthly rentals with France increasing their costs by +2.2%, the UK by +0.7% and Spain bringing budgets down by -2.4%, Germany by -3.4%, Portugal -3.5% and Italy -4.3%.

Market summaries – 3 and 12 months to April 2014 FRANCE: French fleet operators have enjoyed some of the largest reductions in their monthly rentals with a -5.1% fall in the last year and a -3.0% reduction since February 2014. SMR budgets have risen by +2.2% in France since May 2013, the highest annual rise of all nations surveyed. In the latest quarter they have settled with only a +0.2% increase. Forecasted residual values improved by +1.4% during the course of the year and +0.5% in the last quarter.

GERMANY: Rental rates have fallen by -1.2% in Germany in the past year, and by -0.3% in the last three months. SMR budgets went down by -3.4% since May 2013, but remained unchanged in the last quarter. Forecasted RVs have seen little shift with a +0.2% rise in the last twelve months and a 0.3% drop for the quarter.

ITALY: Italian leet customers have seen the maintenance portion of their rentals come down by -4.3% in the last year, the largest annual reduction of all nations surveyed. In the last quarter they have reduced by a lesser -0.6%. Forecasted residual values have been relatively stable with a -0.3% fall for the year and +0.5% rise for the quarter. Italian leet operators have seen a -1.1% fall in rental rates since February 2014 after a year that saw only a -0.1% change in prices.

PORTUGAL: Rental rates fall by -5.3% in Portugal in the last twelve months, the largest reduction of all nations surveyed. Since February 2014 they have gone down by -0.9%. SMR budgets are down, with a -3.5% fall for the year and -2.1% in the last quarter. Forecasted RVS are up +1.3% this quarter after a year in which they fell by -1.2%.

SPAIN: Spanish forecasted RVs hardly moved last year with only a -0.1% annual change. In the last quarter they have gone up by +0.2%. SMR budgets are up by +0.8% for the quarter but came down by -2.4% in the last twelve months. Rental rates dropped by -1.3% last year and -1.6% since February 2014.

UK: The UK’s optimism in the future used vehicle market remains strong with a +6.1% improvement in forecasted RVs since May 2013, and a +4.8% rise in the last quarter. SMR budgets are also up by +0.7% for both the year and the quarter. After a year that saw rentals rise by +3.7% they remain unchanged in the last three months.

CHANGES IN RV FORECASTS, SMR COST FORECASTS AND LEASE RENTALS Forecast Service, Maintenance Current Rental Rates and Repair Costs 3-month change 12-month change 3-month change 12-month change 3-month change 12-month change +0.5% +1.4% +0.2% +2.2% -3.0% -5.1% -0.3% +0.2% +0.0% -3.4% -0.3% -1.2% +0.5% -0.3% -0.6% -4.3% -1.1% -0.1% +1.3% -1.2% -2.1% -3.5% -0.9% -5.3% +0.2% -0.1% +0.8% -2.4% -1.6% -1.3% +4.8% +6.1% +0.7% +0.7% +0.0% +3.7% Forecast Residual Values

France Germany Italy Portugal Spain UK

Notes: • The comparisons are for vehicles with a contract duration of 36 months/90,000km.

• Twelve-month comparisons show change since May 2013.

• Three-month comparisons show change since February 2014.

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• Rental rate changes compare the rates in effect at the time of the survey with those in effect three or twelve months ago.

• RV and SMR changes show the change in participating leasing companies’ forecasts of residual values and maintenance costs over the period.

INTERVIEW Martin Jahn, Volkswagen Group

Europe remains core for Volkswagen Group fleet Almost 30% of Volkswagen Group sales in Europe are to fleets, while Brazil is also a strong fleet market, with others offering growth potential, reports John Kendall.

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he Volkswagen Group had plenty of new product and concept cars to show at the Geneva Show from the new Audi TT, Porsche Macan diesel, SEAT Leon Cupra, Skoda VisionC, VW Golf GTE and T-ROC concept. Collectively, the individual brands have their own fleet operations, but one man has the job of co-ordinating Volkswagen fleet activities across the Group.

20% of the total market. “In Brazil, we are number two behind Fiat, which is a bit unusual,” observes Mr Jahn. This business is mostly with private companies.

“Government business plays a very small role in most of the countries, apart from China. And out of total sales in China, fleet business is responsible for only 11% of the market. But of this 11% some 70% to 80% is Government business.”

Centralised global fleet management Martin Jahn is a Czech national who began his career with the Czech government agency CzechInvest, charged with supporting foreign companies wishing to invest in the Czech Republic. He rose to become the organisation’s CEO before being appointed as Czech vice prime minister for economic policy, before joining Skoda in 2006. Two years later he moved to Moscow as CEO of Volkswagen Russia and moved to VW in Wolfsburg in 2010. His current job is to co-ordinate fleet sales of the Volkswagen Group on a European and ultimately global level.

“We see increasing need for centralised global fleet management, so basically our job is to support the top clients who are buying from the whole group, to support tender co-ordination and also to support the brands, with best practice all around the world. Basically our job is to make sure that we keep our number one position in fleet sales,” he said.

For Volkswagen Group purposes, fleet does not include rental business, so in Western European fleet terms, the company is looking at around 30% of total sales as fleet business. “We are number one with close to 30%,” says Mr Jahn. In Brazil, the fleet market is also quite big for the VW Group at around

China This is made up of Government cars and also the Chinese taxi business, which is run by the Government, and the police.

“In this segment we are also very strong, with 30% market share, making the Volkswagen Group number one,” says Mr Hahn. “The remaining 10% of fleet business in China is private,” he continues, “It’s supposed to grow and everybody expects that in two or three years it will grow, but it is growing very slowly.

“First of all companies do not see the need to provide a company car as a benefit in China. It will change, but not yet.

Then there is the problem of the licence plates, because most of the need for fleet cars is in big cities and in big cities it’s impossible to get new licence plates, so that’s another hurdle. Then another hurdle is leasing. It is not developed in China, although it is being developed now, called long-term rental.

“We all have high hopes for China, but I have to say from the current development in fleet business, we are a bit disappointed.”

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South America an important market Looking elsewhere around the world, fleet business is small in India and in the

US it is does not play a big role. “It’s also very limited if you do not count cash allowance, which is sort of fleet but not really. So the US is also not a big market,” says Mr Jahn.

“Then we have some other markets like South Africa and Argentina where fleet business also plays a significant role, around 20% of the market and Mexico is also an important player. In Russia, the fleet business is about 12% of total, but we will see how the situation in Russia develops.

“So in terms of importance for us, Europe is number one, Brazil is number two and then on the third level we have countries like Mexico, Argentina, China and South Africa.”

In Europe the UK has become Volkswagen Group’s top fleet market, having overtaken Germany, says Mr Jahn. Then he places Sweden, Germany and France in the middle, where the markets have become relatively stable although growth is currently quite low. Behind these he places the more volatile markets such as Spain and Italy, where business is now picking up. “Then we have countries where the business actually died, like Greece, so there’s a wide spectrum of market developments.”

VW takes a positive view of fleet business this year because many fleets will need to renew their vehicle stock, so Mr Jahn expects to see European fleet business grow by around 1% to 2%.

Volkswagen Group Finance VW also has a group wide finance division with Volkswagen Group Finance. “Volkswagen Group Finance is the biggest car leasing company in Europe,” says Mr Jahn, “The centre of gravity is Germany where

“People just need cars in Europe and they want them for status.

There will be changes. We will sell more electric cars in fleet.”

the company has 60% market share and in the rest of Europe they are picking up and building up the network, so I think the company is ready to grow in most of the countries and I think that in a short period of time we will have excellent coverage of captive services in all fleet relevant European countries.”

Alternative fuels?

The Volkswagen Group has been charting the trends in fleet business over the past few years, from electrification of the fleet, with electric cars, plug-in hybrids, corporate car sharing and concepts such as payper- use or pay-per-km. “But we have realised that fleet business is relatively traditional and conservative,” says Mr Jahn.

“Even recently we talked to our clients and asked if they wanted car sharing or electric cars? The answer was ‘yes we do want electric cars’, but fleets tend to want one or two. Similarly the need for car sharing is quite limited. Everybody wants it because its sexy, it’s kind of window dressing,” he continues, “But there is no really significant business case, because a car remains an important employee benefit, in Europe at least.

There are still significant tax advantages, so I don’t think this model will change.

The car is not becoming a commodity and there are still strong differentiations – design and technical features – between the brands.

“People just need cars in Europe and they want them for status. There will be changes. We will sell more electric cars in fleet. We will have the models and plug-in hybrids, but I do not expect any major change. Maybe more use of telematics, more connectivity, lower CO2.

Those are the main trends.”

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MOTOR SHOW Beijing

Stars of the Shows Lexus NX debuts at the Beijing Show, while Euro 6 emisisons drives new vans unveiled at the UK Commercial Vehicle Show. John Kendall reports.

Bentley hybrid concept Based on the Mulsanne, the Bentley Hybrid concept, unveiled at the recent Beijing Show is designed to demonstrate that even a large powerful car can show greater respect for the environment. According to Bentley, by the end of the decade at least 90% of the company’s models will be available as a plug-in hybrid. The company claims that the plug-in hybrid system for the concept gives a 50km electrically powered range and reduces emissions by up to 70%. The company will introduce a plug-in hybrid SUV in 2017.

Hyundai ix25 Concept This small SUV concept, unveiled at Beijing is due to form the basis of a production ix25 model for the Chinese market later this year. Target customers will be young drivers.

Power comes from a Hyundai ‘Nu’ 2.0-litre engine – Hyundai has given no further details.

“Hyundai Motor is now poised for a new challenge to become the most-loved brand by Chinese customers, with high-quality models such as the ix25 SUV, which is strategically-developed for China,” commented Hyundai Motor president Sung Kee Choi at the unveiling.

Citroën C-XR Citroën unveiled an SUV concept – the C-XR at the Beijing Show. It is the first SUV developed jointly by Citroën and Dongfeng. The 4,260mm long concept has a 2,650mm long wheelbase, designed to maximise interior space. The C-XR features the PSA Grip Control system to provide a degree of off-road and poor weather traction without the cost and weight of a four-wheel drive system.

Power comes from the PSA THP 160 petrol engine.

Engine Stop/Start is part of the specification as well as a latest generation automatic transmission designed to minimise fuel consumption.

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MINI Paceman

Lexus NX

MINI launched a revised Paceman at the Beijing Show, with Euro 6 compliant engines and claimed lower fuel consumption and emissions. MINI also claims fresh design details and a sportier interior finish. Instruments are finished in an anthracite colour on all Paceman models now, similar to John Cooper Works models.

Like the revised MINI Countryman launched at the New York Show, the Cooper S Paceman now develops 190hp, while the range topping John Cooper Works model delivers 218bhp and is equipped with four-wheel drive as standard. Many other details are shared with the revised Countryman including the new paint colours and LED fog lamps.

Lexus’ premium compact crossover NX was given its global debut at the Beijing Show. Three powertrain options will be available according to market. The NX 300h offers a hybrid option, the NX 200t will feature Lexus’ new 2.0-litre petrol turbo engine and there will be a naturally aspirated engine in the NX200.

Both front and four-wheel drive options will be available as well as Lexus’ Stop/Start system. Innovative technology includes a wireless charging tray for mobile electronic devices, a remote touchpad control, head up display, blind spot monitor and a panoramic view monitor. The range will include an F Sport version.

Peugeot EXALT

Volkswagen Touareg

Peugeot claims inspiration from its ONYX concept for a new concept at Beijing, the EXALT. It featured hand beaten bare steel bodywork, in homage to French cars from the 1920s and 1930s. Shark Skin – a red material is used to cover the rear end of the car.

The four-door four seater uses decorated wood in the interior. Macassar Ebony is used for the door cappings, worked by two Chinese artists, using a lion with bamboo stems and leaves motif.

The concept is powered by a plug-in HYBRID4 drive train producing 340hp from the 270hp 1.6-litre THP engine, with automatic gearbox and a 50kW motor driving the rear axle.

Volkswagen brought the revised Touareg to the Beijing Show. Revisions include new larger bi-Xenon headlamps, now standard across the range. The front grille is larger and the front bumper has been re-profiled. The rear bumper has also been re-profiled and there’s a new rear diffuser between the tailpipes and LED rear fog lamps. Inside, the leather upholstery is available in new colours. Technology revisions include automatic post collision braking and a coasting function for the eightspeed automatic gearbox. Reduced fuel consumption and emissions from the 3.0-litre V6 TDI engines are also part of the changes. The higher-powered variant now produces 258hp in place of 245hp.

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MOTOR SHOW CV Show

Renault Trafic and Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro Citroën Relay/Jumper The revised Citroën Relay/Jumper was shown at the recent UK CV Show, introducing a range of revisions to the model, which shares its structure with the Peugeot Boxer and Fiat Ducato. Ownership costs have been reduced with extended service intervals – up to two years/50,000km.

Fuel consumption has also been reduced by up to a claimed 15%. A more rigid body structure is said to improve durability and reduce noise levels. New cab trim and a revised dashboard layout complete the changes.

Renault and Opel/Vauxhall unveiled their long-awaited replacement for the Trafic and Vivaro vans at the UK CV Show. Like the outgoing model, the two are built under a joint venture between Renault and GM. The new vans offer more load space than before, a new cab and new engines based on Renault’s 1.6-litre common-rail diesel, with four power options between 90hp and 140hp.

The revised load space means the shortest models are longer than the outgoing model and feature through storage for piping or ladders with an opening flap in the front bulkhead. The cabin features new storage spaces including space under the dual passenger seat. There is a cradle mount on the dashboard to hold tablet computers and a space designed to hold a laptop computer on a fold down table top in the central passenger seat.

Renault Master Renault and GM’s other joint venture van, the Opel/VauxhMovano and Renault Master has been revised ahead of the Euro 6 emissions limits and Renault launched the new Master, based on the current Master, at the CV Show.

The new van will get revised engines, with power outputs of 110hp, 125hp, 135hp and 165hp. The 135hp and 165hp variants will feature twin turbocharging. Although the 165hp engine provides 15hp more than the current 150hp engine, Renault claims that fuel consumption will be reduced, offering 6.9lit/100km combined. ESC will become standard equipment and will incorporate Hill Start Assist and Grip Xtend to improve traction in difficult conditions such as mud and snow. Among other options will be Wide View Mirror designed to reduce the blind spot on the passenger side. New Master will go on sale this summer.

Opel/Vauxhall Combo Opel/Vauxhall launched a second new model at the CV Show and added a new model to the Combo van range, based on the Fiat Doblo. The Combo L2H2 brings the high roof option to the long wheelbase L2 Combo model.

Previously, the H2 high roof has only been available with the short wheelbase L1 model. The Combo L2H2 offers a 5.0m3 load volume with a 1,000kg payload, the highest in its class. Power will come from the 1.6-litre diesel in the Combo range available with either 90hp or 105hp and engine Start/Stop as standard. The 90hp engine is equipped with an automated transmission.

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FEATURE Risk Management

On the road to reducing risk New technologies can help fleets and drivers to reduce on-road risk. Steve Banner sees how.

Eyes on the road Telematics and in-car cameras can help improve fleet efficiency and driver behaviour 24 / internationalfleetworld.com

“Fewer bumps and bangs mean fewer insurance claims, less expenditure for under-writers and hopefully lower premiums for clients.”

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onitoring driver behaviour using an in-vehicle unit that lashes green, amber or red depending on how sensibly - or otherwise - the individual concerned is driving is becoming an increasingly popular policy among leet operators. That is especially the case if such a system is combined with a tracking package and enables data on the driver’s behaviour to be downloaded for a subsequent discussion with the leet manager.

Maybe the driver is risking a collision by, say, accelerating too fast, or braking too late - both faults that can be addressed through training.

If a van is involved however, then maybe the employer concerned needs to re-visit the driver’s delivery schedule. Perhaps as things stand he or she has no choice but to speed to complete the delivery round on time.

Based in South Africa, MiX Telematics provides this type of on-board package.

There is little doubt that it works contends Alan Hall, managing director of the company’s Middle East and Australasia operation.

“Recently we saw a leet in the Middle East reduce its road accidents from 215 annually to just 6 within three years by using our system,” he says.

“Another Middle Eastern business saw a 72% sustained improvement in driver behaviour only six weeks after installing one of our solutions,” Hall continues. “The same customer achieved a 15% reduction in fuel costs within 12 months.”

MiX”s Middle Eastern clients include Qatar Shell and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration.

Underwriter support Fewer bumps and bangs mean fewer insurance claims, less expenditure for underwriters and hopefully lower premiums for clients. Not surprisingly therefore insurers are taking notice and offering their support for what could be cost-cutting technology.

In the USA, insurer CNA has admitted GreenRoad, another supplier of in-vehicle driver monitoring and management systems, to its ‘Allied Vendor programme’, which embraces over 12 companies providing risk management services. It is offering selected clients GreenRoad’s services for a four-month introductory period for up to 50 vehicles in the hope that they will be so

impressed with the results that they will keep using what GreenRoad has to offer.

“Driver safety remains a top priority and we are constantly looking for ways to help our customers mitigate their risk,” says CNA senior vice-president of risk control, William Boyd.

“GreenRoad helps drivers identify how to self-improve, and better drivers use less fuel, crash less frequently and reduce vehicle emissions,” he continues. “It combines a sophisticated driver behaviour solution with powerful telematics to track vehicles and manage the leet.”

The data generated can be used to create a leet league table with the most-frugal and least-accident-prone drivers at the top.

Their performance can be rewarded by cash bonuses, which should help encourage other leet drivers to raise their game.

Again, targeted training can help, and leet driver training is becoming a big global business.

Earlier this year the UK’s AA acquired VVCR of Rijssen in the Netherlands for an undisclosed sum.

As well as providing leets with consultancy services, including driver pro iling, it delivers driver training, including e-learning in multiple languages for 25 different jurisdictions and has close ties with CITO, the Dutch Central Institute for Test Development.

Interest in on-board monitoring packages is increasing among leets worldwide says MiX chief executive of icer, Stefan Joselowitz.

“So far as we are concerned North, Central and South America are the really exciting markets for us right now,” he says.

“In fact I relocated to the USA along with my family ive years ago so I could lead our expansion in these regions from the front.”

A number of suppliers of vehicle tracking systems in South America have been talking to MiX about what it has to offer with an eye to expanding their portfolio of products and services, says Ken Creager, president and chief executive of icer of MiX Telematics North America. “Representatives from Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico among others have shared with us their concerns about having a limited product line-up,” he observes.

Global expansion requires a multi-lingual capability, and MiX has developed new and improved French and Spanish websites.

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¡

FEATURE Risk Management

On the road to reducing risk ¡

Smile, you’re on camera Suppliers of driver behaviour monitoring equipment are continuing to widen their product offer.

“We recently added MiX Vision to our portfolio,” says Joselowitz. “It’s an in-cab camera that integrates with our on-board computer system.”

In-vehicle cameras can be used to monitor the road ahead and the driver’s reactions to what is happening. The camera may be triggered to record what is going on if the driver suddenly brakes heavily, as if to avoid hitting something, or abruptly changes speed or direction.

The footage recorded can be used to help provide a defence against so-called ‘crashfor-cash’ frauds, where a vehicle deliberately swerves in front of an innocent driver, causing a collision. The vehicle’s occupants will then claim the smash was the innocent driver”s fault and demand compensation for their supposed injuries.

Again the insurers are well to the fore in advocating the use of cameras.

In the USA, ARI Insurance is offering to pay 50% of the monthly cost of using Lytx’s DriveCam safety management system. It gives drivers instant feedback on their performance and captures data on driver behaviour as well as video footage.

DriveCam users include the city of Mobile, Alabama’s vehicle leet, which has seen a 62% decrease in incidents since initially deploying it in 2009.

“We’ve signi icantly reduced risky driving behaviours such as distracted and drowsy driving as well as following too closely,” says city safety manager, Gary Gamble. Compliance with its seatbelt and mobile phone usage policies has improved too.

“DriveCam also allows us to protect and exonerate our drivers through the use of video,” he adds. In other words, employees are less likely to be blamed for incidents that were clearly not their fault.

DriveCam can protect drivers in other ways says Lytx, citing as evidence the experience of B&L Yellow Cab of Broward County, Florida.

Having seen a >70% reduction in insurance claims after itting DriveCam to 110 of its vehicles, Yellow Cab decided to roll it out to all 600.

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“Recently a driver who was being robbed was able to turn DriveCam on manually, creating video that helped law enforcement officers locate the suspect,” says Yellow Cab president, John Camillo. “It’s a win-win for everyone involved,” he added; though presumably not for the alleged perpetrator.

Private function Despite the fact that some US states – Nevada for example – have made CCTV cameras in taxis compulsory, equipment that tracks vehicles and keeps drivers and passengers under observation can fall foul of national and local privacy legislation in other countries.

The state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia for example has its own Workplace Surveillance Act. “Every employer in NSW needs to comply with laws restricting workplace surveillance,” says Manly, NSW-based consultancy Salinger Privacy. “That’s the case whether you use email or Internet monitoring, CCTV cameras, GPS-enabled vehicles or any other type of camera, computer monitoring or location-tracking device.

“Not getting the details right means you can’t use the results of any monitoring to investigate or discipline staff and your organisation may face ines.”

Getting it right in NSW means for example that if tracking equipment is to be installed in company vehicles then the drivers must be given 14 days notice in writing and a notice must be placed in the vehicle stating that equipment has been itted.

Furthermore, it must be switched off by the employer if the employee has private use of the car or van concerned and it is being driven outside normal working hours.

Breaches of the law are prosecuted as criminal rather than civil offences.

Concern over the number of accidents involving fleet vehicles in Australia has prompted the Accident Research Centre at Melbourne’s Monash University to embark on a three-year research programme to determine which strategies are the most effective when it comes to creating a safe driving culture. It will examine 300 organisations in Victoria and NSW with fleets of

“Equipment that tracks vehicles and keeps drivers and passengers under observation can fall foul of privacy legislation.”

different sizes and interview some 1,200 senior managers, fleet supervisors and drivers.

“Many managers are unaware of the factors within their organisations that are likely to lead to reductions in workrelated road traf ic injuries and deaths,” says Dr Sharon Newnam, the study’s chief investigator.

Road traf ic injuries are the leading cause of work-related deaths in Australia. Fleets that participate in the survey will be given access to its early indings, which they can then weave into their risk management plans.

Leave that phone alone Legislation that penalises risky behaviour at the wheel has gone beyond cracking down on speeding and driving while intoxicated. It is now tackling areas that leet risk managers need to address too, such as the use of handheld mobile phones while trying to control a vehicle.

In the Republic of Ireland the Garda Siochana (Police) has been cracking down on this practice following almost 10,000 drivers being discovered using their hand-helds during the irst three months of this year.

The police action has occurred in advance of new, tougher, legislation being introduced which means that anyone caught sending SMS messages or otherwise employing their phones while driving will face a mandatory court summons and a maximum €1,000 ine on conviction for a irst offence. This will rise to a maximum €2,000 for a second offence, increasing to a €2,000 ine plus a possible three-month jail sentence for three offences or more within a 12month period.

“The risk of being in a crash that causes injury is increased four-fold if a driver is on the phone,” says general manager, Neil McDonnell. “We’re in full agreement with anything that improves road safety.”

Of equal concern to the law – and to responsible leet risk managers – is anything that falls under the heading of distracted driving. That is anything that takes the driver’s attention away from the road.

A former sergeant in the Western Australia Police, Chris L’Ecluse, a master driver trainer with MiX Telematics North America, recalls seeing an insurance company representative driving at 70mph while using a laptop and intermittently sipping a cup of take-away coffee while chatting on a hand-held mobile. Clearly the individual concerned was not in proper control of the car.

“Vehicle manufacturers are not helping much though,” he muses. “They’re increasingly adding more distractions, from multiple cup-holders to multimedia systems with a plethora of buttons.”

He agrees that they are not deliberately trying to distract drivers; what they are simply doing is adding more features to their products in order to keep up with market demand and stay ahead of the competition.

“But if manufacturers focused more on what is safe, rather than on what sells, then there would be fewer crashes,” he contends.

Unfair, perhaps, given the number of safety features that are now being built into vehicles; but he may have a point.

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FEATURE Autonomous Driving

Sit back and relax Are you ready to let your car drive you? Tony Lewis looks at autonomous driving.

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he road to fully autonomous – or robot – driving is going to be a long one, despite the amount of time and money car companies, infrastructure specialists and legislators are spending on it.

At least a generation away – so some 20 years or so – is the industry consensus despite recent announcements on both sides of the Atlantic that governments want more research to help cut road deaths, serious injury and congestion. Nissan’s view that we could have autonomous driving by the end of this decade is probably optimistic.

Although nearly all the on-board vehicle technology exists today, and most of it will be mandatory on cars over the next couple of years, there are some serious obstacles to overcome including legal issues and concerns about driver behaviour; how do you get a driver to ‘switch back on’ after what could have been some hours on autopilot is how one industry executive explained the concern.

Automatic parking

Autonomous lanes for motorways Autonomous lanes will be introduced on motorways as part of the route to robot driving. GPS and collision avoidance systems, even in their most basic forms, are already very good so the only driver input would be when they need to leave the lane.

These autonomous lanes will probably run at a fuel efficient 60mph with cars travelling close together, perhaps two car lengths apart, to avoid nonautonomous cars cutting in.

Driver Assist Systems The technology needed for robot driving takes another step forward next year when every car maker will have to fit lane departure warning systems to 50% of each model line. Emergency braking systems will also be mandatory on all vehicles from 2018.

There’s a big prize at stake apart from the human cost in terms of preventing death and serious injury if the car industry and legislators get it right. Morgan Stanley estimates €4.3 trillion could be saved globally each year through preventing accidents. The bank adds in a note: “There will undoubtedly be bumps in the road as well, including the issues of liability, infrastructure, and consumer acceptance. However, none of these issues appear insurmountable.”

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Those bumps will be smoothed out and the irst step will be semi-autonomous driving which will also come in stages. The irst stage will be parking – pull up outside the supermarket, get out and the car will park itself. When you are ready to go home, you summon the car from an app on your smartphone and the car will come to pick you up, recognising that it is you.

Doors and boot will open to allow you to load up your shopping and drive away.

Similarly, at the office cars will park themselves and if you have to go out on a call, you will be able to summon it.

This will be very useful at park and ride stations where cars can park themselves while you are getting on the bus into the city and be summoned as you return.

Safety One of the aims of autonomous driving is, of course, to make travelling by road safer, not just less stressful. Volvo is arguably leading the way with its Vision2020 programme which has a target of no one being killed or seriously injured in a Volvo by 2020.

The company is confident it will get there, noting that no one has been killed in an accident when travelling in an XC90 for the past 11 years in Sweden.

Autonomous driving is a special area of active safety, says Volvo’s head of safety Magnus Olsson, and an extension of what is already available. Aides likes automatic cruise control that keeps you a set distance from the car in front and lane departure warnings already keep drivers away from critical situations, says Olsson.

By 2017, Volvo will have 100 fully autonomous cars travelling on controlled roads in Sweden.

Driver behaviour is one major stumbling block to overcome.

How do you get drivers back into the loop if they have been, literally, on cruise control for any length of time?

‘Smart’ roads The infrastructure is also a major problem because roads will have to be built to a certain standard, but developments are showing promise. Volvo has just completed a research project using magnets in the roadway to help the car determine its position.

The research has been inanced in co-operation with the Swedish Transport Administration (Tra ikverket). While established positioning technologies such as GPS and cameras have limitations in certain conditions, road-integrated magnets remain unaffected by physical obstacles and poor weather conditions.

“The magnets create an invisible ‘railway’ that literally paves the way for a positioning inaccuracy of less than one decimetre. We have tested the technology at a variety of speeds and the results so far

are promising,” says Jonas Ekmark, preventive safety leader at Volvo.

“Accurate, reliable positioning is a necessary prerequisite for a self-driving car,” explains Ekmark. He adds: “It is fully possible to implement autonomous vehicles without changes to the present infrastructure. However, this technology adds interesting possibilities, such as complementing road markings with magnets.”

Volvo highlights several benefits of using magnets, including making better use of road space because accurate vehicle positioning could allow lanes to be narrower.

In Volvo’s test, a pattern of round ferrite magnets (measuring 40x15mm) was located 200 mm below the road surface. The test car was equipped with

several magnetic field sensors. The research programme was designed to evaluate crucial issues, such as detection range, reliability, durability, cost and the impact on road maintenance.

The next stage will be tests in real-life traf ic, which is where the major hurdle still lies. In the same way that the technology exists for hydrogen fuel cells but there are very few refuelling places, all the technology exists for autonomous driving but creating the infrastructure will take time.

Fitting the technology to vehicles is something the industry can do fairly easily; it already has a proven track record of software collaboration through the Autosar development partnership. But getting cross-border agreement in, say, Europe on how to build smart roads is going to be a lot tougher.

Legal issues The other lengthy process will be deciding the legal issues should an accident happen. Opinion is divided over interpretation of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic which says, basically, that a driver must always be in control of a vehicle.

One argument is that the driver doesn’t have to be a person but could be a robot.

But if that’s the case, who is responsible for the robot? The leasing or fleet company which owns the car or the manufacturer or systems supplier of the vehicle? It is going to be a long debate, which may well have to be tested in the courts.

One idea being loated is to establish a trust fund similar to that which helps protect suppliers of childhood vaccines. Vaccines help reduce injury and death – just as autonomous driving should do – but can make people ill – just as there could still be accidents and injury on the roads. In the US a trust fund compensates people who fall ill due to vaccines and at the same time protects the industry from lawsuits.

And when utopia arrives, what happens to the insurance industry? The view is their business model is hardly likely to be affected since accident insurance of some kind will always be needed.

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FEATURE Alternative Fuels

Fuelling the alternatives

Just how viable are alternative fuels around Europe? Dave Moss assesses the different possibilities.

T

hough petrol and diesel have long been the most popular motor fuels worldwide, alternatives have been available for many years. Convenience, taxation or distribution shortcomings have often restricted their use, but times are changing, and new, advanced hybrid and electric vehicles are now available. Today's choice of alternatively fuelled vehicles is wide and growing – but there are still some key concerns, amongst them depreciation, operating costs, practicality, emissions performance and fuel consumption.

The familiar alternatives Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) is a long established alternative fuel, though suitably equipped new vehicles remain less common than aftermarket ‘dual-fuel’ conversions of petrol-engined vehicles. A separate additional LPG tank is added, with the original petrol tank remaining.

Easy switching between them allows much increased vehicle range, and CO2

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emissions are typically 15-20% lower, with other emissions much reduced - especially compared to diesel. Aftermarket conversions are available for new and existing vehicles, priced from €1,500 upwards, though fuel costs less in most European countries. In January, the highest LPG price on the website www.fuel-prices-europe.info was €1.203 per litre in Denmark, where petrol was €1.687, and diesel €1.542. LPG consumption is slightly higher than petrol, offsetting the lower price, and conversion or purchase costs must also be recovered against fuel prices within planned vehicle lifetimes. Easy fuelling access is vital: the same website indicates over 6,000 stations in Turkey and Poland, and 5,900 in Germany. Italy, the Netherlands and France have many stations, but Sweden has just 16, Denmark 34, and Spain 40.

The Spanish-based Natural Gas Vehicle Association (NGVA) estimates that some two million vehicles worldwide were using compressed natural gas (CNG) in 2003, of which 500,000 were in Europe. By 2011

there were 13m CNG powered vehicles, with 1.4m in Europe. The Association's latest data, for June 2013, ranks Italy as Europe’s top CNG market, with 846,000 suitably-equipped vehicles, mostly cars and light vans, serviced by over 900 public refuelling points, and 47 privately owned stations. Germany had 96,000 CNGpowered vehicles, with 844 public and 71 private stations. Russia, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Austria each had over 100 outlets.

Some European countries have few public stations, amongst them Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Since CNG is a gas, pricing comparisons with conventional fuels are dif icult, but an extensive NGVA comparative study in December 2011 showed an EU average CNG price of €0.78 per cubic metre.

Related to actual energy purchased, this was 54% of the equivalent average petrol price, 53% that of diesel, and 63% that of LPG. Private fuelling facilities can be installed for better fuel pricing where

large leets operate from central bases.

CNG vehicles require an extra highpressure tank, taking much more space than the LPG equivalent, ensuring popularity in goods vehicle fleets where large tanks are easily fitted. The fuel is largely comprised of methane gas, and contains less energy than LPG petrol or diesel, so consumption is noticeably higher, but dual-fuel systems are usual, and usefully extend operating range. CO2 emissions are 20% lower than petrol, with zero particulates, reduced sulphur and much lower nitrogen oxide levels than diesel.

Bio-methane is a relative of CNG, and widely used in Sweden. It’s produced from renewable sources, and as a sustainable fuel is gaining increased acceptance worldwide.

Electromobility gathers pace Lengthy recharge times and 150km maximum range are usually seen as principal drawbacks of all-electric vehicles (EVs).

According to Nissan, in Europe fast charging point numbers have grown from just 16 in 2010 to around 1,000 today, aiding longer distance driving – though EV’s naturally remain particularly suited to intensive urban use. Negligible emissions and very low running costs are notable advantages, but a recent CAP consulting study found steep depreciation and particularly low residual values in countries with generous sales subsidies.

Mark Norman of CAP Consulting says: “The Nissan LEAF is approaching three years old, and originally cost around €34,000 in some subsidised markets.

Today, it retains just 23% of that value, double the depreciation of conventional cars – with direct correlation between stronger values in Germany and Italy, which lack subsidies, and weaker values in France and the UK.” Led by Scandinavia, several countries prefer local bene its and incentives over initial subsidies, but for leet operators, limited range, high purchase prices and very rapid depreciation are likely to be the overriding factors for some time to come.

Residual values vary by market In European markets with suf icient demand, Opel, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, SEAT, Volkswagen and Fiat are amongst several major manufacturers offering new CNGadapted cars and light vans, with most also providing LPG alternatives. With both fuels, servicing, insurance, new vehicle warranty and possible usage restrictions need consideration, but depreciation and vehicle disposal values are key aspects.

Here, Mark Norman of CAP Consulting reports LPG-equipped vehicle depreciation higher than similar conventionally powered cars, with residual values perhaps 5% lower over three years. “The quality of the conversion is important,” he says. “In many countries LPG is usually seen as an aftermarket accessory, though new car LPG options are growing.

Sometimes, whatever the original cost, three year old dual-fuel cars achieve only €500 to €1,000 over equivalent petrol cars.” The CNG situation is quite similar, though numbers of new original-equipment cars are fast increasing, and residuals are highest in countries with a developed market like Italy. Some industry observers predict that success for the latest Audi A3 g-tron in Europe could stimulate CNG vehicle sales.

In general, now-familiar cars with petrol or diesel hybrid drivetrains return competitive residual values resulting from familiarity, well-known brands, wide public acceptance and no unusual fuelling arrangements. ‘Plug-in’ hybrids are a further development of such cars, providing extended zeroemission range useful in low-emission zones. Both types offer reduced emissions and potential for improved fuel economy over conventional cars.

So-called ‘range-extender’ hybrids are still rare, with the Opel Ampera offering up to 40km electric-only capability, and including a small petrol engine for battery charging – removing the ‘range anxiety’ associated with electric-only vehicles. Analysts at German-based BF Forecasts believe this sector will grow strongly in coming years.

US perspective

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he US Department of Energy’s (DoE) latest figures (for 2010) show almost 950,000 alternative-fuelled vehicles on US roads, though gasoline remains preferred for all but the largest vehicles. LPG is long established, and declining but still quite widely used. CNG is also established, and the ‘fracking’ boom has brought rapidly falling prices.

With gasoline around $3.50 per US gallon, equivalent CNG prices are now around $1.20. This financial advantage is driving demand amongst commercial fleets, with Ford, Chrysler and GM offering CNG-fuelled commercial vehicles – though aftermarket conversion costs can run beyond $5,000. Rapid growth in CNG vehicle numbers is expected from the DoE 2010 figure of 115,000, though limited fuelling facilities are a constraint. The US has around 170,000 gas stations – but DoE figures indicate just 660 public CNG outlets.

One dual-fuel passenger car is currently available, the Honda Civic Natural Gas, to be joined in 2015 by a bi-fuel Chevrolet Impala, also to be sold in Canada.

The pure electric vehicle market is small, but grew from 8,200 vehicles in 2010 to 34,000 in 2012 according to the DoE - helped by over 7,000 charging points across the US. Tesla, Fiat and Chevrolet are amongst those listing all-electric passenger cars. Petrolelectric hybrids are becoming popular, with 38 car models on sale in 2013, led by vehicles from MercedesBenz, Buick, Lexus, Toyota, Hyundai and others. A handful of hydrogenpowered cars remain from successful trials begun in 2003: the DoE anticipates commercially available examples could follow in 2015.

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INDUSTRY Japanese market

Japan’s midsized makers B

ig is beautiful is a long time adage of the car industry. The giants of the business have all the advantages: size, power and economies of scale that the lesser players will never be able to match.

Ultimately, only four or ive mega groups of makers will be able to survive and stay the distance. Or so the theory goes….

The big three If we look across the world stage, however, there are three manufacturers that have consistently mounted their own kind of challenge to that particular scenario and co-incidentally, they are all based in Japan. They are: Mazda, Subaru and Mitsubishi.

All three are midsize makers, living and working in the shadow of Japan’s ‘Big Three’ (Toyota, Nissan and Honda), to say nothing of the GMs, Fords and Volkswagens of this world.

But how about this: Subaru is now regularly outselling Volkswagen in North America. Mazda has just announced the biggest operating profits in its 94-year history. And Mitsubishi, big in trucks and SE Asia, is also profitable, expanding and still very much a player.

Each has found its own way to reform and survive in the tough, post-Lehmann world, whether it’s through skilful collaboration (Subaru with Toyota; Mitsubishi with PSA and Nissan) or simply by developing its own new technology and going it alone (Mazda).

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Are our small but plucky Japanese trio major players in the European fleet sector? The answer this time would have to be no, although with the Mazda6 SKYACTIV diesel 2.2, Mazda does have a genuine competitor to challenge the likes of the Mondeo and Insignia.

Mitsubishi, too, deserves acclaim for its ground-breaking 44g/km Outlander Plug-In Hybrid, a new model that co-incidentally it also developed all on its own.

Subaru? Right now, it simply cannot produce enough cars to meet demand in key markets such as Japan, the US and Australia. Its brand value has rocketed 70% on the year to $1.16 billion, according to a recent Interbrand Japan survey.

So Mazda, Subaru and Mitsubishi continue to confound those who maintain that one or all of them will never last and their only hope is to merge or be taken over by one of the big guys. Around 10 years ago, the figure of ‘four-million’ also appeared: as in, as a manufacturer, you had to be building and selling four million units a year or face oblivion.

It wasn’t long before that pet theory was discredited. Honda, for one, was building around 2.2 million a year at that time and generating huge profits while doing so. Honda’s top brass publicly poured scorn on the ‘four-million’ figure and soon it faded away.

More recently, Fiat CEO, Sergio Marchionne, remarked that in the future, the industry would consolidate into ive

Is size important in the motor industry? Peter Nunn considers the case for three smaller Japanese producers.

large makers, each producing around ive or six-million units a year. In a post Lehmann world where premium makers keep expanding and volume builders are pressurised as never before, you can follow the logic. So how is it that Mazda, Subaru and Mitsubishi are still able to stay on the pace?

Mazda's ace in the pack Let’s start with Mazda. Although linked with – and in recent years virtually controlled by – Ford USA, Mazda still has its own spirit and culture burning strongly in Hiroshima. Its product development capability remains outstanding and its ace in the pack is its lightweight SKYACTIV technology: developed all inhouse and, at heart, an ingenious evolution/development of existing technology.

So no big need for heavy capital investment or reliance on risky new hardware.

Instead, in the latest generation SKYACTIV models, particularly the Mazda3, Mazda6 and CX-5, Mazda has succeeded in building a series of appealing new cars that are as good to the eye as they are to drive, with class competitive ‘green’ numbers also a key part of the package.

Again, what’s truly remarkable is that Mazda put this all together independently, in ‘high yen Japan,’ at a time when its finances were under severe strain and Ford, its long time partner, was about to cut off life support, post Lehmann.

The new Mazda2 is also in the wings and at its new Mexican plant, Mazda will

Mazda, Mitsubishi and Subaru show how midsize makers can still have their place at the big table.

build a Mazda2-derived supermini for Toyota to sell in the US. The fact that a Toyota will have a Mazda engine under the bonnet will be a stunning world first and shows how far Mazda has come and the industry respect its SKYACTIV engineering is getting.

It’s true that the weakening yen has had a big hand in boosting Mazda’s recent profits, up to a record ¥1.82 billion (€1.36 billion) in operating profit in the latest financial year. While Mazda still has nothing like the clout of the top players, if you want to see how a midsize maker can challenge the system on its own merits, just look at Mazda.

Mitsubishi's new-found competitiveness Mitsubishi is a long time member of Japan’s ‘Big Five’ manufacturers (Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mitsubishi and Mazda, in that order). But the past decade has been tough for the builder of the classic Lancer Evolution and Shogun off-roader.

An on-going row about recalls has severely dented its reputation in Japan, Mercedes has come and gone as major shareholder. Mitsubishi has shut down production in Europe and Australia and its key US arm is still hanging on by a thread.

But Mitsubishi is still big in South East Asia, with trucks and SUVs and has key

production co-op deals with PSA and Nissan in place. The clever Outlander PHEV has received rave reviews and together with attractive recent show models such as the Concept XR-PHEV, illustrate Mitsubishi’s newfound competitiveness. Ultimately, the company also has the backing of Japan’s giant Mitsubishi Corporation and that’s some backstop.

Subaru's cult status Subaru might seem to have a limited presence in Europe but it has a strong cult following in Japan and in the US, Subaru is simply on fire. Sales just keep on rising, and in 2013 for the sixth year in succession.

Last year, Subaru sold a record 423,683 US units, Volkswagen (which still has trouble ‘understanding’ the US market) came in with 407,704 units. Subaru, with its unique boxer engine/4WD format, has found its own premium niche in the market and appeals to free thinkers in a kind of left field Apple vs Windows kind of way.

Subaru is still a small operator, building some 800,000 units a year to Mazda’s 1.26m and Mitsubishi’s 1.24m units, but is nicely profitable (as are MazdaMitsubishi). One key is the link with Toyota, which owns a 16.5% share in Fuji

Heavy, Subaru’s parent company. Subaru and Toyota have collaborated in production and product sharing, most visibly in the cracking BRZ/GT86 sports coupe.

But at the end of the day, Subaru is still Subaru. Meantime, as a sign to the future, Toyota has also helped Subaru (and Mazda) with its first hybrids in Japan.

Surviving the downturn As ever, the car industry remains a fast moving place but while commentators, analysts and even CEOs such as Fiat’s Marchionne continue to talk about mega groups of companies and, by extension, smaller/middle rank makers being absorbed or taken over, it just hasn’t happened, despite this kind of doomsday analysis being regularly aired over the past 20-something years.

Time and again, Japanese makers have shown this extraordinary ability to survive downturns, crises and competition of the severest kind, which is not to say another global financial meltdown wouldn’t throw everything off course.

But in today’s world, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Subaru show how midsize makers can still have their place at the big table with the right vision, set up and of course, the right product. Proof that you don’t always have to be ‘big’ to be ‘beautiful.’

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INDUSTRY New Zealand

Strong recovery in vehicle sales New Zealand’s new car market is matched by a strong market for imported used cars. Business car taxes are levied on employers, as John Kendall finds out.

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ew Zealand is located in the far southern hemisphere – Wellington is the southern most capital city in the world and the country is one of the most remote. Australia is some 1,500km to the west, while the paci ic islands of New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga are some 1,000km to the north. The country mostly consists of the North and South Islands with other smaller islands around them. In total, the population is around 4.4 million and like many other developed countries it has an ageing population.

Even so, there is a comparatively high proportion of young New Zealanders in relation to other industrialised countries.

The majority of the population lives in urban areas, with over half living in the four largest cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton.

New Zealand is an English-speaking country. This is largely the result of colonisation by the British following the treaty of Waitangi, signed with the Maori people in 1840. The UK’s entry to the European Union in the 1970s has resulted in a decline of British in luence and greater economic independence. The country now has a market economy and trades globally. New Zealand’s dependence on international trade makes it vulnerable to the variations in the global economy. The country was severely affected by the 2008 global inancial crisis, leading to the longest recession in over 30 years.

Dairy products are now the country’s largest export. New Zealand’s dominant trading partners are Australia and China.

New Zealand has never had a domestic volume motor manufacturer. Instead, the country relied on kit assembly from a

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variety of manufacturers, but this came to an end by the end of the 20th century and all motor vehicles are now imported. In New Zealand’s British colonial days, British manufacturers were well represented in the country. Now geographical proximity to Japan and the Asia Paci ic region means that Japanese manufacturers dominate and Korean manufacturers have gained a share of the market.

With a total car parc of 2,482,513 at the end of 2013, new car sales are small compared with Western European countries, although with a population of 4.4 million, per capita ownership of vehicles is comparatively high. According to the Motor Industry Association (MIA) of New Zealand, 82,433 passenger cars were registered in 2013. Toyota was the best selling manufacturer with 16,182 registrations during the year, followed by Holden with 9,081, Hyundai with 7,186, Ford with 7,140 and Mazda with 5,830.

According to LeasePlan, Toyota has been the best selling manufacturer in New Zealand for the past 26 years. A similar pattern is repeated where business cars is concerned. The top ive manufacturer choices are Toyota, Holden, Ford, VW and Hyundai. Favoured vehicle types are generally mid range four-door saloons or ive-door hatchbacks.

Besides new car sales, New Zealand also has a strong used car import market.

LeasePlan says this igure reached 105,000 in 2013. This compares with a igure of 113,117 that the company quotes for 2013 new car registrations, which includes 30,861 light commercial vehicles. Most of these used vehicles are sourced from Japan and it is clearly a thriving sector for car sales. The market

“New Zealand’s dependence on international trade makes it vulnerable to variations in the global economy.”

is no doubt assisted by the dominance of right-hand-drive countries in the region.

New Zealand, along with Australia, Japan and Korea are all right-hand-drive markets, which makes it easier to trade vehicles in the region.

New Zealand’s new car market is currently thriving. Data from the country’s Motor Trade Association shows that sales have grown in 2013 and so far this year in 2014. The MIA estimates that New Zealand’s car leet grew by more than 57,000 units in 2013, the strongest growth since 2005. MIA data shows that new car sales rose 7.0% in 2013, while sales of used imported cars grew by 26%. So far in 2014, the MIA estimates that new car sales have risen by 14%, while used imports have risen by 31%.

MIA data shows that new car registrations stood at 29,007 at the end of April 2014, compared with 25,891 in the same

period in 2013, an increase of 12%. Data shows that overall April 2014 registrations were up 7% on April 2013 at 8,729.

The MIA says that this was the strongest April since 1982. Of these 6,151 were passenger vehicles and registrations were up 4% on April 2013. YtD data suggests that passenger vehicle registrations were 12% higher than the same period in 2013.

SUVs accounted for 30% of sales in April.

Toyota is the passenger car market leader for April, followed by Holden and Hyundai. The best selling car for April was the Toyota Corolla, followed by the Nissan X-Trail and Holden Commodore.

New Zealand’s light CV sector is dominated by pick up trucks (utes) and panel vans, according to LeasePlan, which reports that Toyota has traditionally been the market leader with the Hilux. MIA data shows that for the January to April period, Ford has taken the top slot with

1,684 registrations and a 16% share of the market. Toyota has a 14% share with 1,503 registrations for the Hilux.

Business car drivers could be the envy of those in other parts of the world, where taxation is concerned. The only business car speci ic tax, according to LeasePlan is Fringe Bene it Tax, levied on the private use of company passenger vehicles. That said, it is the employer, not the employee who is liable for the tax.

Where inance is concerned, LeasePlan reckons that operating leases account for some 25% of the business car market. This inance method is dominated by independent lease companies rather than captives.

Looking ahead, LeasePlan does not expect much change in the make up of the business car market. New Zealand might be home to research into wireless EV charging, but so far, take up for hybrid, plug-in hybrid and EVs has been very low.

Best-seller Toyota tops the sales charts in New Zealand for cars and vans

Beaut of a Ute The LCV sector in NZ is dominated by pickups

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INTERVIEW Derek Bryan, Fleetmatics

Fleetmatics launches new telematics platform A Telematics platform centred on drivers, not vehicles, could be the answer for fleet operators. John Kendall reports.

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elematics provider Fleetmatics has launched a new system platform and at the same time launched three new products: Fleetmatics REVEAL, Fleetmatics REVEAL+ and Fleetmatics WORK. REVEAL is described as a business-intelligence-based fleet management solution for small and medium sized businesses. REVEAL+ is designed for larger enterprises and WORK is a field service management system. The company will provide free training and on-going support for customers, helping them to get the best out of the new systems.

“Fleetmatics’ new platform helps businesses to be smarter about their mobile workforces and turn them into true engines for growth, cost savings and differentiating customer service,” says Fleetmatics CEO Jim Travers. “As part of that equation, we’re providing customers intelligence about their business, such as how the fleet has performed operationally in the past and how their performance compares with similar businesses. This capability is powered by tens of billions of data points gathered through the system over the past several years. This incredibly rich data set has also helped us generate the new concepts and features in our products.”

Fleetmatics new systems are all made available as Software as a Service (SaaS) web-based technologies. REVEAL is a GPS tracking system and features include apps for iPhone and Android devices, enabling data to be analysed on a range of devices away from an office base. REVEAL+ is designed for large fleets and managing complex organizational structures and large user numbers. The system can be easily integrated into existing back-office systems.

WORK is designed for the management of customers, jobs, schedules invoices and field workers. The system integrates with REVEAL.

New features The systems introduce new features. These include ‘Places’.

Fleetmatics research shows that many customers either do not create ‘geofences’ for places regularly visited by their vehicles or draw them incorrectly so vehicle data is missed. The new systems will automatically create and categorise geofences and also modify them, suggesting corrections based on where the customer’s vehicles actually go.

‘Timeline View’ presents an interactive display of vehicle activity, providing information in an easily consumed format. This enables customers to quickly highlight excep-

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tions such as late starts, early finishes, long idling time, or long stops and analyse the data around the events.

The system is designed to be driver centred, rather than centred on vehicles. This should help ensure that reporting is not interrupted by a driver changing vehicles. Money-based metrics are designed to ensure that data shown on the Fleetmatics dashboard translates vehicle performance into operational cost. Live alerts are designed to be easily set up to help users configure alerts on information that is relevant to them and see the problems that are affecting their business more easily. The system can present a wide range of data including idling vs fuel purchased. The whole fleet can be analysed, or by groups of drivers. Regularly used report summaries can be run without setting them up each time.

Around the world Fleetmatics currently operates in the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Australia. The company has 22,000 revenue-generating customers and 445,000 subscribers. According to Fleetmatics European sales director, Derek Bryan, a sizeable percentage of these subscribers are based in Europe. Most of the company’s sales are made on-line, with 60% of business in Q4 2013 and Q1 2014 sold in this way.

“I’m continually amazed by the fact that even in a mature telematics market such as the UK, there’s still great scope for growth,” says Derek Bryan. “We’re still winning very large contracts. Virgin Media was a very big win for us last year, with several thousand vehicles. People often talk about the market penetration of telematics and where it goes from here. It goes the same way as other technologies, whether that be broadband or mobile phones. It’s just a different way of acquiring customers and there isn’t as much green field out there, but we’re not fazed by that, we see that as an opportunity.

“We’re winning more customers from our competitors than ever before,” continues Bryan; “That does not necessarily mean our competitors are doing anything wrong.

We’ve got some good competitors out there. The key thing is what we do differently. When you have a business and you’re pinned to your collar with fuel bills, overtime costs and you ask a company to come in and put in a technology to help you save money and improve efficiencies, you need their help beyond the implementation of the technology and that is key to what we do.”

Targeting the market

“We’ve got some good competitors out there.

The key thing is what we do differently.”

The company describes its target customers as van users, mostly local fleets within 100 miles of their base and not particularly knowledgeable about technology. Fleetmatics own research has shown that customers are concerned about the lack of visibility of their vehicles. European product marketing director, Guy Fletcher, says that the new software systems are the result of a two-year project. Over 1,000 customer suggestions are said to have been incorporated in the new products.

“A very large percentage of our business is not in the haulage industry, it’s in light commercial vehicles”, says Derek Bryan. “The type of technology and the way we have developed it has been taken up a lot more in the service industry. We measure harsh braking, hard cornering, harsh acceleration and we connect to the CAN Bus of the vehicle in the same way that we would for an HGV. “We’ve also developed a lot or really useful reporting around time card management and payroll. Businesses who are trying to do more with less have got multiple drivers for the same vehicle.

Once the driver fobs into a vehicle, we can then follow him historically and follow him throughout the entire fleet. Everything from payroll, driving, fuel usage. In that way we can create a footprint for an individual as well as a vehicle.

“We’ve seen companies who might have had 50 vehicles at the height of the boom. Now through re-structuring and trying to save money, they might have maybe 25 or 30 vehicles. But they will still have a higher number of drivers because the vehicles will be operating double shifts and two drivers to get the work done and that poses a problem. How do you follow that driver throughout the system?”

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NAFA International Fleet Academy

Understanding international markets Reproduced with the kind permission of NAFA Fleet Management Association, this is the latest in a series of extracts from the International Fleet Academy Global Fleet Guide.

CHAPTER 2

Regional differences This chapter will provide an overview of the key regions of the globe. It is intended to offer a perspective that will help in an initial approach and highlights some of the key areas to examine. While generalisations can be made about different business regions, leet managers must gain intimate knowledge of the leet regulations and practices in the areas in which they are conducting business.

NORTH AMERICA Canada Currency: Canadian dollar Languages: English, French Unlike in the US, Canadian leet management companies do not act as dealers. Similarly to Mexico and Europe, dealers order and deliver the vehicles, and operate within the contractual franchise arrangement.

Canada is comprised of different provinces that have different legislation that must be considered.

For example, snow tires are mandatory in the winter in Quebec. Also, French translations are required in many cases by law.

Mexico Currency: Peso Language: Spanish Product line-ups are a mixture of US products as well as the European or South American models, particularly those manufactured locally. Local vehicle maintenance shops are often unregulated and offer services of varying quality, so it is important to build a reliable service network.

The fuel card market is underdeveloped, and paying by cash is still common at Mexican gas stations. Gasoline (Petrol) is the fuel of choice and diesel is not used in Mexico for passenger vehicles.

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ASIA PACIFIC The Asia Paci ic region contains many countries and is normally split into Australia and New Zealand; Japan; India; China; and South East Asia.

Pan-Asian leet management is common where there is a single point of contact for the region in one market, but the distances between countries are sizeable, and the region is not uniform in terms of market characteristics.

Australia & New Zealand Currency: Australian/New Zealand Dollar Language: English The market in Australia and New Zealand has changed as fuel prices have increased and there is now a greater focus on sustainability and the environment. As a result, vehicle choices have moved more toward fourcylinder engines and smaller size. Toyota is a key player in this market along with Ford and Holden.

Japan Currency: Yen Language: Japanese As a broad generalisation, Japanese companies tend to prefer to deal with other Japanese companies.

Japanese vehicles tend to be much smaller than those operated in the US or European markets due to the population density and congestion. It is also much more common for vehicles to be leased for an initial period and then re-leased resulting in a longer leet lifecycle.

“The vehicle market in India is growing at a rapid pace due to the introduction of inexpensive vehicles.”

India Currency: Rupee Language: Hindu/English The vehicle market in India is growing at a rapid pace due to the introduction of inexpensive vehicles, such as the Nano, and the fact that manufacturers are focusing on this market as the next growth area after China.

India has seen signi icant expansion of the corporate sector where the offer of company vehicles is used as an incentive to attract and retain staff.

China Currency: Renminbi Language: Mandarin Despite a recent boom in the Chinese automotive market, the leet sector is still immature and leet inancing and management for non-Chinese companies can be problematic.

The Chinese government controls availability of inance, and a Chinese JV partner is required for an international company to enter the market. As legislation changes and the economy matures further, however, China is likely to be a more viable and attractive market for leet inancing.

SOUTH AMERICA Most global manufacturers are present in local markets in South America where there is a high cost of capital and a high residual value for vehicles.

In terms of the location of company leets, Brazil ranks irst in South America, followed by Argentina, Colombia, and Chile. Chile is a very stable country full of opportunities for most companies, but due to its geography, any kind of business is challenging and dif icult to develop.

Brazil Currency: Real Language: Portuguese For vehicles manufactured in Brazil, the taxes are around 40%, and for imported vehicles, the taxes are close to 100%. In-house leasing is dominant in the market, and long-term renting is also well established as an alternate method of acquisition.

The fuel of choice in Brazil is ethanol. While most vehicles are designed to run on this fuel, 85% of the Brazilian leet is actually lex-fuel. Liquid Propane Gas (LPG) is another well-developed fuel type in the market.

Readers can review the full article – and much more – by purchasing the Global Guide through the NAFA website: www.nafa.org/

Argentina Currency: Argentinean Pesos Language: Spanish The immature Argentine market suffers from a lack of legislation in areas such as leasing, long-term renting, and other services crucial to leet management.

Last year, the government approved a law allowing companies to partner with local banks to provide funding for vehicle leasing. This arrangement is known as ‘renting’ locally. Alternatively, there is a signi icant tax advantage to purchasing outright.

Colombia Currency: Colombian Pesos Language: Spanish There are several leet management company providers active in Colombia, including leasing and renting companies. These same companies can potentially operate in other South American countries due to the open nature of the market in this region of the world.

The downside of these services is the increased cost compared to outright acquisition in this non-client driven service culture.

AFRICA In most of the countries that were former European colonies, such as South Africa and Nigeria, there are local regulations that allow leasing services to be provided by local companies, with good service levels for drivers.

It is essential to be completely familiar with local markets and alternatives when developing leet strategies here, and to be aware of the risks involved with operating in the more unstable regions.

South Africa Currency: Rand Language: English/Afrikaans South Africa has a modern infrastructure supporting an ef icient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region.

Most major manufacturers are present in this market and clear laws about leasing make the market relatively mature. The most common leet services include local banks providing operational leasing service, and local renting companies.

Next month... we will explore the challenges of operating a Europe-wide fleet.

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PROFILE Volvo

Free at last With a new range of engines, a full platform refresh and a flagship model poised for launch, Volvo hopes to achieve parts independence from former owner Ford and capture sales with a strengthened product line...

“China remains a key market for Volvo in 2014, where it will continue to implement its China Growth Plan.�

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view

Manufacturer Volvo Total sales 2013 427,840 Headquarters Gothenburg, Sweden Global market share 2.0% No. of models 9

from the top

Alain Visser, senior vice

Capturing Chinese sales...

V

olvo recorded a 17.9% sales uplift over March 2013 in the irst quarter of the year, achieving 47,850 global sales. This is indicative of a positive upward sales trend for the company, despite a turbulent four years of restructuring following the sale of Volvo Cars by Ford to Geely Automobile (Zhejiang Geely Holding Group) in August 2010.

Under Geely’s ownership, Volvo has been ideally placed to exploit the inancial and legislative advantages of being a subsidiary of a Chinese brand. The region was Volvo’s largest retail market in March 2014 with 7,043 vehicles sold - up 39% versus the same month last year. The XC60 crossover was the best-selling model in China, while the S60L (a long-wheelbase version of the S60 designed exclusively to appeal to Chinese customers) and the V40 hatchback continued to achieve strong sales, in second and third place respectively.

China remains a key market for Volvo in 2014, where it will continue to implement its China Growth Plan and work towards the launch its irst jointly-developed car with Geely Automobile as early as 2015.

Volvo showed signs of recovery in the United States after its -10.1% sales downturn last year, boosted by the strong performance of the S60 and XC60 models in Q1 2014. US deliveries of the V60 have now begun in earnest, helping to account for some of the 600 extra sales in March 2014 over the same period last year.

In Europe, Volvo reported positive sales trend in several key markets, with the UK, Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands all recording solid growth. The UK became Volvo’s second largest market in March 2014, with 6,810 cars sold for the month. Overall, sales in Western Europe were up by 20.6% compared to March 2013, while the irst quarter growth amounted to 9%. Growth was also recorded in other important international markets, such as Russia (+12%) and Japan (+8%).

Volvo also reported a strong start-of year result in home-market Sweden, with four models on the top-10 list of best-selling cars and Q1 sales increasing by 14.2% compared to Q1 2013.

Looking at Volvo’s full year 2013 sales, the XC60 recorded its best year ever, achieving 114,010 total sales (2012: 106,203) to become the best-selling Volvo model. V40 came in second with 78,307 sales (rising to 99,911 units with the V40 Cross Country included), while the S60 inished in third place, with 61,579 total sales.

Volvo has also enjoyed success with the V60 Plug-in Hybrid, which captured 7,378 sales during 2013. Combining a powerful ive-cylinder diesel engine with an electric rear axle, the initial batch of 1,000 sold out before reaching showrooms in 2012.

Exemption from the registration fee in the Netherlands, which ended on the 1st January, helped drive particularly strong demand during 2013, with 70% of V60 Plugin Hybrids sold to Dutch customers. Volvo is planning to extend production to 10,000 units this year, spread over a wider customer base but with 50% still to be sold in the Netherlands. New entry-level and sporty R-Design versions, depending on the market, are aimed at broadening its appeal from the single-model range offered to date.

VOLVO

Global sales, by territory 2013 China USA Europe (EU20) of which Sweden Rest of the world Total

2013 61,146 61,233 226,095 52,260 79,366 427,840

2012 41,989 68,079 227,027 51,832 84,856 421,951

% change + 45.6% -10.1% -0.4% +0.8% -6.5% +1.4%

president of marketing, sales and customer service, explains how the V40 and a new diesel engine are helping Volvo soar...

How has Volvo performed in the global market so far in 2014?

We have analysed the irst quarter of 2014, and leet volumes are up around 22% quarter-over-quarter for deliveries. Our total sales igure (which may include vehicles that haven’t been delivered yet) is also up 29% and that for us shows that our models are really taking up and being accepted into the leet market, particularly the V40 and the V40 Cross Country. There is very much an upward trend from our point of view, which goes way beyond the positive industry trends.

The V40 has been particularly popular with your international buyers, why do you think this is?

Well of course, because it is such a great car! We have had very good reactions from both press and consumers, both in terms of design and the overall quality of the car, even compared to tough competitors like the A3, 1-Series and E-Class.

We are extremely happy with its performance - V40 accounted for 29% of our total deliveries in its irst year and it has become a very popular car line with our major accounts.

We think its popularity is driven by the fact that it has become a true, clever alternative to the German premium brands.

What impact has the new diesel engine had?

We’re very happy with the new engine, only very shortly after launch the D4 is already represented in 20% of our sales in the leet market and quickly growing.

Overall, both our new petrol and diesel engines are selling signi icantly beyond both volume and market share of what we had anticipated.

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internationalfleetworld.com / 41

PROFILE Volvo

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Where are they made?

1 2

5 4

3

Manufacturing plant locations

FIN fleet in numbers

3 in 10 The share of 2014 model year V60 plug-in hybrids destined for Scandinavia.

40% Percentage of components that can be shared across the range using Scalable Product Architecture.

99g/km

Emissions produced by S60 & V60 models fitted with D4 engine.

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1

Volvo Cars Torslanda, Torslanda, Sweden – V70, XC70, S80, V60, XC90

2

Volvo Cars Ghent, Ghent, Belgium – V40, S60, XC60

3

Chang’an Volvo, Chongqing, China – S80L

4

Zhejiang Geely Volvo, Chengdu, China – S60L

5

Zhejiang Geely Volvo, Daqing, China – late 2014

Working toward parts independence

V

olvo has spent the last four years working towards independence from former owner Ford’s parts bin, and the irst signs of this step away from Detroit are now showing in the range.

The carmaker’s new four-cylinder Drive-E engines debuted in the 60 and 70 clusters at the start of the year, and will be available in the V40 shortly.

By the end of 2015, all of Volvo’s familiar engine denominations will be replaced with four-cylinder turbocharged petrol or diesel units, equipped with variants of the same automatic or manual gearbox.

Not only does this give the carmaker a much-needed cut in running costs, but it has a number of advantages. Despite a compact model range, Volvo had eight engines and eight transmissions to contend with, each mounted differently and sharing almost no parts. All Drive-E engines and gearboxes have standardised mounting points, and the number of unique parts are reduced by 60%.

This new engine family is also compatible with all levels of electri ication, from Stop-Start systems with energy recuperation to plug-in hybrids, and there is the opportunity to downsize to three-cylinder units in future. Power output is varied by turbocharging and can be supplemented by an electric motor.

At the end of the year, the XC90 will debut Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA), which separates the vehicle into shared modules, and allows 40% of components to be shared throughout the range. Designed to accommodate electri ication, SPA also reduces weight by 100-150kg compared to current generation cars and allows Volvo to it new driver assistance and safety systems.

Speaking about the launch of the all-new XC90, Alain Visser, senior vice president, marketing, sales and customer service at Volvo Cars, told International Fleet World: “For us, it is our lagship – our premium car. It is replacing an iconic car so there is a lot of expectation. We are almost seeing it as a re-launch of the Volvo brand, which it will be in a lot of the markets, so we are very ambitious about it. We think the car both from a design and a quality and innovation point of view sets quite a new standard.”

Volvo continues to innovate in the area of safety, with an end goal that nobody will be killed or seriously injured in one of its new cars from 2020 onwards. Autonomous driving capability is also a key research area for Volvo, with the aim to add fully commercialised products with autonomous capability to the range by 2019.

VOLVO fleet model range

V40

V40 Cross Country

Variants: 5dr hatchback Markets: Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 3.3-8.1l/100km CO2: 88-189g/km

Variants: Crossover Markets: Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 3.8-8.3l/100km CO2: 99-194g/km

S60

V60

Variants: 4dr saloon Markets: Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 4.1-9.9l/100km CO2: 97-231g/km

Variants: : Estate Markets: Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 1.8-10.2l/100km CO2: 48-237g/km

V70

S80

Variants: Estate Markets: Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 4.3-10.2l/100km CO2: 113-237g/km

Variants: : 4dr saloon Markets: Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 3.9-9.9l/100km CO2: 102-231g/km

XC60

XC70

XC90

Variants: Crossover Markets: Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 4.5-10.7l/100km CO2: 117-249g/km

Variants: : Crossover Markets: Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 4.5-10.6l/100km CO2: 117-248g/km

Variants: SUV Markets: Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia Fuel: 8.1-11.5l/100km CO2: 212-269g/km

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Kia Soul Part SUV, part MPV, Alex Grant reckons the Soul has never had the recognition it deserves.

SECTOR Crossover PRICE €16,990–€26,490 FUEL 5.0–7.3l/100km CO2 132–170g/km

T

he second generation of the Kia Soul has big shoes out losing the Soul’s unique sense of interior style. to fill. While the original didn’t carve out a huge That generational step forward also brings Kia’s latest sales footprint in Europe, it’s been a backbone of driving experience to the Soul. Ride quality is firm but the brand’s style-focused reinvention globally with comfortable, it feels more sure-footed than before and numerous design awards and a large fanbase to its name. there’s been a noticeable improvement in high speed Particularly in the United States, where the Soul has a refinement, though this is blunted slightly by the choice natural place in the market competing against Toyota’s of optional wheel upgrades. boxy Scion xB and the Nissan Cube, and its vibrant adverBoxiness has its benefits, too. The tall cabin gives plentiful tising campaign featuring dancing shellsuit-wearing hamheadroom for front and rear seat passengers, and the tailgate sters has helped make this a fashionable car for young offers a wide, square opening into a boot space which now buyers and one of the most popular models Kia sells. drops into an additional compartment under an optional So there’s been little effort made to false floor. With the rear bench folded, the soften the boxy, boar-like styling in its Soul offers an almost class-leading 1,367 second generation. Instead, Kia has litres of capacity when stacked to its pigeonholed the new Soul more logically square roofline, and the backrest folds in Europe, positioning it as a B-segment flush with the floor of the boot. crossover and a competitor for the everThe sticking point is running costs. popular Nissan Juke, among others.

Kia’s entry-level engine is a 128hp 1.6But this is a big step forwards in all litre GDI petrol, which lacks the sparkiother areas. There are no body panels ness of new downsized turbocharged shared with its predecessor, and the units and, at 158g/km, their economy Soul has become a much sportier-looktoo. The 132hp 1.6-litre CRDi diesel is a ing car under the influence of design much better choice – it’s more fun to chief Peter Schreyer. It’s also now possidrive too, but lacks the carmaker’s Ecoble to add gloss black SUV-style body Dynamics fuel-saving technology and mouldings on the wheel arches and a falls far behind the segment benchImproved in all areas colour-contrasted roof, to enhance its marks with economy at 5.0l/100km and without losing the crossover appeal.

132g/km CO2 emissions. Numbers like practicality or style of that won’t help broaden its appeal, even Under the new bodywork, the platwith large improvements elsewhere. form is shared with the cee’d rather than the old car, it’s only CO2 But in Europe perhaps there’s no need the Venga, and the cabin now matches emissions which blunt to. The original Soul found a niche with the same soft-touch quality of the rest of the potential of Kia’s drivers who wanted something unusual the range. Fit and finish is much better quirky crossover in fleet. to look at and practical to live with, and than before, as is the excellent new its replacement ticks the same boxes. thick-rimmed steering wheel, but with-

what we think

44 / internationalfleetworld.com

Toyota Verso 1.6 D-4D Alex Grant tries Toyota’s new BMW-powered Verso MPV. SECTOR MPV PRICE €23,550–€26,990 FUEL 4.5l/100km CO2 119g/km

W

fallen 10g/km to a new low of 119g/km. hen Toyota updated the European version of its While these aren’t the lowest figures in the segment – Verso MPV last year, the end result was so radRenault, Opel and Citroën are edging ever closer to 100g/km ically different to its predecessor that it could with their equivalent diesel engines – it’s a useful step downalmost have been sold as an entirely new car. wards. Shedding capacity doesn’t cost it much in on-road The new design, penned at the carmaker’s studio in France, performance, either, offering a good spread of torque and gained a GT86-style front end and comprehensive package impressive high-speed refinement despite its small size. of chassis stiffening with reduced NVH, and improvements Otherwise, the Verso is as good an MPV as it always has to the chassis and steering for added driver appeal. been. The cabin is bright, still featuring Toyota’s central Cosmetically at least, the end result has transformed instrument cluster and now including the latest Touch 2 the Verso from an anonymous load-carrier to a genuinely infotainment system with optional TomTom satellite navgood-looking compact MPV, in line with a segment which igation and MirrorLink smartphone has become considerably more stylish controls. in Europe recently.

Five and seven-seat versions offer a But the final piece of the transformawide load area with the seats up and a tion has only just arrived. Through an completely flat floor from the tailgate ongoing partnership with BMW, which across the folded backrests of the second will share knowledge of hybrid and row. Occupants get the ability to move diesel drivetrains and co-develop a the seats forwards and backwards indesports car platform, the Verso now feapendently for extra legroom, or to extend tures a version of the 1.6-litre diesel the space in the third row or boot. engine in the MINI Cooper D. As a sign that someone’s actually sat It’s the first time Toyota has made down and thought about how the car will serious inroads into the part of the combe used, the tonneau cover fixes in four pact MPV sector which is now using positions to create a boot space to suit two downsized diesel engines, and slots in or three rows, or under the boot floor underneath (or replaces altogether) the A great MPV, made betwhen it’s not in use. A small detail, but 2.0 D-4D engine which had previously ter with refreshed styling useful for impromptu load carrying with offered the range’s best economy. and a solid new diesel the second and third rows folded flat.

Shifting down to the 1.6 D-4D brings Add in Toyota’s renowned reliability, a small sacrifice in power – from 126 engine, but even lower a record which the BMW-sourced to 112hp – but through Stop/Start CO2 would have been engine shouldn’t blunt, and fleettechnology, a drop in capacity and helpful to compete focused trim levels in selected markets reduction in weight, the pay-off is a with the best in its class. and the Verso has plenty to offer drivfuel consumption drop from 4.9 to ers with a growing family.

4.5l/100km, while CO2 emissions have

what we think

internationalfleetworld.com / 45

Volvo V60 D4 SE What difference does the new D4 engine make to the V60, asks John Kendall?

SECTOR Estate PRICE €23,000–€33,000 (approx.) FUEL 3.8-4.3l/100km CO2 99–112g/km

F

shift is responsive and the high top gear ratio helps to our-cylinders better than five? It depends how you ensure that fuel consumption is kept to a minimum. look at it. Volvo launched its Drive-E engine family Traditional Volvo drivers may feel that the V60 is not a at the Frankfurt Show last September, offering some proper Volvo estate car. The squared off lines of tradiimpressively low CO2 emissions figures in the company’s tional Volvo models have been gradually eroded over the 60-series models. With a manual transmission, both years and while this may not result in the load-carrying saloon and estate could deliver 99g/km in CO2 emissions, capacity of earlier Volvo estates, it makes for a fine lookthe equivalent of 3.8l/100km – impressive figures in any ing modern estate with good aerodynamic qualities. circumstances. The D4 seems likely to edge out the D5 as The engine may not have the pleasing note of the D5’s Volvo’s five-cylinder engine family, launched back in the five cylinders or the power output – 181hp instead of 1990s, gives way to the pressures of downsizing.

215hp. In practice it makes very little difference to the Volvo announced that it would be producing a new published performance figures. The D4 range of engines a year or two back and gives away about 0.1 sec reaching seems to have brought them to produc100km/h from rest. The improvements tion in a relatively short space of time. in tax-friendliness alone will probably To assess what we thought of the be enough to offset any performance brand new engine, we tried out a UK loss for most drivers. specification D4 SE Nav model, with But there’s more to it than that. If you Volvo’s eight-speed geartronic autohaven’t driven a modern Volvo or think matic transmission. Even with this there is no alternative to a premium gearbox, CO2 emissions remain an German model, you could be in for a impressively low 109g/km and EU surprise. Most drivers would probably combined fuel consumption is quoted as 4.2l/100km, figures that would have associate comfort with a Volvo, but they may not expect an agile chassis and taut been inconceivable for a diesel autohandling to go with it. But that’s what matic a few years ago. the V60 offers. The driving experience Our test car came with a long list of A premium car with is as good as some German rivals, but at options fitted, from the Geartronic impressively low fuel the same time offers something slightly transmission to a power driver’s seat, consumption that doesn’t park assist pilot to a heated steering different, in terms of Swedish design and engineering. wheel. Most of these added to the give much else away Then there are the things that you enjoyment of the car. The Geartronic sounds like a good idea. eight-speed transmission makes a good might expect of a Volvo, such as a long It’s not just good on paper list of standard safety equipment. Then case for itself. How many of us would either. Well worth trying. there’s a generous list of standard remember which gear we had selected equipment. It’s an attractive package. with this many to choose from? The

what we think

46 / internationalfleetworld.com

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Alex Grant, Deputy Editor, International Fleet World

Global Fleet Forum is International Fleet World’s new international network and digital forum, launched in March 2014.

At the heart of the Global Fleet Forum is a team of fleet professionals who play a key role in the industry, either as fleet managers, consultants or fleet suppliers. These fleet experts provide a regular feed of information that is posted on the website forum in the form of discussion topics.

Typical areas of interest include, but are not limited to: taxation, finance and accounting, legislation, environmental issues, fleet safety, insurance, fleet management, supply issues and security.

Fleet suppliers are permitted to respond to queries if it is felt that their response represents honest and impartial advice. This aspect of the service is strictly moderated in order to ensure that the quality of information provided remains of the highest standard.

We have already attracted a strong network of international fleet professionals, and our expert contributors have submitted a number of thought provoking discussion topics, a few of which are previewed to the right.

We hope you will consider joining us in this exciting new venture into the world of fleet.

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The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pointed out in a recent report that CO 2 emissions grew more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in any of the previous decades. It’s also warned that, without regulation for heavy goods vehicles, the transport sector will become the world’s biggest producer of CO 2 despite improvements in passenger cars.

This is a hard problem to solve. To limit the global mean temperature rise to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the IPCC says CO2 output needs to come down between 40% and 70% for all sectors between 2010 and 2050. Yet transport is a rapidly expanding area, and the vehicle parc is predicted to triple in that time. That's a big problem.

My concern is that it’s a little limited to look just at tailpipe CO2 emissions. The rapid rise in popularity of carbon-cutting diesel engines has increased inner-city smog levels to the extent that London, for example, will take until 2025 to reach the EU’s 2010 limits according to a recent report. Electric vehicles solve some of this problem but, without investment in renewable sources, some of the gains are offset by moving the pollution out of town centres and into the areas around coal-fired power stations.

Cost savings aside, surely the most effective way to curb climate change is to come up with effective alternatives to roadgoing transport, rather than struggling to offset exponential growth by improving old engine technology.

But perhaps the best electrically-powered technology for reducing CO2 emissions and pollution is the familiar internet conference call.

Dennis Dugen, Car Fleet Manager replied...

I believe the key point is that the major contributor to CO2 emissions over the period of concern was the high use of dirty coal. I suspect this was generated from the massive growth in China’s output, although the report did not point the finger in this way.

I do agree that we should all take sensible measures to

in association with

debate...

Meet the experts... reduce our CO2 emissions and that it is right that this is a key focus for the transport industry. But there is a limit on what the transport sector alone can achieve, and I do feel it is wrong to overload them with the costs when efforts elsewhere would arguably be much easier to implement and would reap greater improvements.

So yes, let us continue taking the lead, but let it be a balanced response that we pursue, and not one that will become so cost laden that it proves counter-productive.

An ‘era of big recalls’ Ross Durkin, Managing Editor, International Fleet World Media reports of recalls have increased sharply of late, with GM amongst the latest to make headlines. But this could just be the tip of the iceberg, according to reports that say we could be facing an ‘era of big recalls’.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 22 million cars were recalled in the United States alone last year, an increase on the 16m in 2012 and 15m in 2011.

Financial advisory firm Stout Risius Ross Inc studied 2013’s NHTSA figures, saying that a surge in new models, increasingly complex technology and heightened regulatory scrutiny are behind the increase. But, it added, a rise in car sales and higher standards was contributing.

The 2011 earthquake and Tsunami in Japan also presents a warning, highlighting how individual components are shared lower down the supply chain. Manufacturers are sharing platforms and drivetrains at the top end, but faults with the smallest of components could affect an unprecedented cross-section of the vehicle parc.

Whether it’s increased complexity or the widespread sharing of parts, striving for quality and safety, and pressure from government means it looks like fleets are going to be increasingly impacted by recalls in the coming months and years.

With the reasons for the recalls and the accidents caused by the problems getting more serious, so are the ramifications of not making sure these are taken care of promptly.

Paul Verkinderen, Sales Director EMEA, Chevin Fleet Solutions Paul has a track record in the automotive sector for more than 20 years. He was MD director of a midsized leasing company for more than 20 years. After his career in leasing, Paul worked in the remarketing and outsourced fleet management business.

Since May 2011, he’s been sales director in the EMEA for Chevin, a leading global fleet management software supplier. Chevin has completed some large deals in Europe in recent months and there are more to come that it hopes to announce soon.

Andrew Houston, Head of ICT & Fleet, Altro Limited Andrew worked in manufacturing supply chain roles in planning, purchasing, warehousing and transport for 25 years before moving onto business transformation project management and then into IT and fleet, a role he now holds in the Altro Group of companies.

Aside from a lifelong passion for all things automotive, and a dally into motorsport in his early years, Andrew retains a keen interest in motoring and all that it encompasses.

Natalie Middleton, Business Editor, Fleet World Natalie has worked as a fleet journalist for 12 years, previously as Assistant Editor on the former Company Car magazine before joining Fleet World in 2006. Prior to this, she worked on a range of B2B titles, including Insurance Age and Insurance Day.

internationalfleetworld.com / 49

fleet in figures

Russia under pressure Light vehicle sales are advancing around the world but Eastern Europe and South America are feeling the heat, reports John Kendall.

Nissan Nissan have seen sales rise in Russia to 57,579 – up 30% YtD compared to 2013.

Global new vehicle sales continued to grow in most regions in April, according to data from LMC Automotive. Year-todate sales to the end of April reached a total of 28,971,950 – a 4.2% increase on the same period in 2013. The only two regions that LMC reports as declining are Eastern Europe and Brazil/Argentina.

Eastern Europe – hit by instability?

LMC expects the instability in Ukraine to bring a setback in vehicle sales there in 2014. The company also reports that Russian light vehicle sales have not yet been reported, but suggests that a significant slowdown may set in this year.

50 / internationalfleetworld.com

IHS automotive analyst, Tim Urquhart, puts some more detail on the Russian story, indicating that the Russian light vehicle market in April has declined at the highest rate so far in 2014 with an 8% year-on-year fall to 226,526 units.

He attributes this to the continued weakness of the Russian Rouble; “Which forced up the prices of imported cars and models built in Russia with high levels of foreign content, while the general state of the Russian economy is also eroding consumer confidence.”

He does not expect the current weak performance to change much throughout 2014. Data from the Association of European Businesses (AEB) on Russia

shows that YtD figures for April were down year-on-year by 4% to 829,406 sales. Lada leads the Russian market, but with sales down 15% YtD for April to 128,633 compared with 2013. Second placed Renault has seen sales slip by 5% YtD to 63,647, while alliance partner Nissan has seen sales rise 30% in the same period to 57,579.

High inflation affects South America Sales in Brazil are reported to have rebounded well after a weak March performance. Even so, LMC reports that sales remain weak with higher interest rates and rising household debt the culprits. Inflation is

already high in the country and is expected to rise further. A severe drought and planned rise in utility tariffs as well as a weakening job market are singled out as the causes.

Rampant inflation and falling wages have contributed to a year-on-year fall of 35% for the second month in April and there’s no sign of improvement on the horizon, reckons LMC.

US sales push ahead Looking around the world, LMC highlights that the selling rate in the US has reached a level not seen since mid-2007. Light vehicle sales were up 8% year-on-year to 1,388,167, while light truck sales rose by almost 13%. For April YtD this gives a total of 5,124,825 light vehicle sales up 3.0% on 2013. Scotiabank reported that passenger vehicle sales in the US reached an annualised selling rate of 15.7m vehicles in April and forecasts that total year sales will reach 16.0m.

Western European optimism LMC is optimistic about Western European sales with a selling rate level with that in early 2012 at 13.6m units/year. LMC expects further steady gains this year.

Data from the European Automotive Manufacturers Association for April YtD figures show that registrations are 7.4% up on the same period in 2013 at 4,336,013. Looking at the data for April, JATO Dynamics notes strong growth compared with April 2013 in Spain, up 28.7% to 80,174. Germany was the only one of the five leading European markets to record a decline, with the April market down 3.6% compared with 2013 to 274,097. JATO attributes this to the number of bank holidays in April,

reducing the selling days during the month, rather than to any underlying weakening in demand. YtD, the German market is up 2.9% to 985,850.

Commenting on the year-to-date in Europe, JATO says; “Year-to-date performance across Europe was even more impressive, with 25 out of 30 markets growing over the first four months of 2014 compared to the same period last year. Of these countries, 14 have seen double-digit growth in sales so far this year. With close to flat growth recorded in Austria and Belgium, only three countries have seen a significant reduction in year-to-date sales compared with 2013. One of those countries, The Netherlands, has been affected by a tax change at the start of the year that shifted sales to late 2013. With this taken into account, Serbia and Switzerland are the only markets where underlying demand has fallen so far this year.”

China growth continues LMC indicates that the April selling rate reached 23.2m units per year, up 1.2% from 23.0m in March.

Major Chinese cities are announcing restrictions on vehicle buying to combat air pollution, which LMC observes has been causing buyers to panic and may well boost short term sales. But LMC points to uncertainty in the medium term because of the pull effect of this buying and a slowing Chinese economy.

Japan buys ahead of tax changes The expected sharp decline in April car sales has made its presence felt in Japan, following the rise in Japanese consumption tax. Even so, LMC reports that the selling rate of 5.1m units per year was much stronger

than expected, helped by mini passenger car sales. The consumption tax rise was to an extent offset by a reduction in vehicle acquisition tax and strong dealer incentives. The result was a 5.2% fall in car sales to 338,321 in Japan in April, while the April YtD figures show that the market overall is up 16.2%, helped by forward buying ahead of the consumption tax changes.

Europe to outpace North America?

IHS Automotive forecasts that by 2018/19, Europe will overtake North America to be the second largest global light vehicle sales market. IHS believes that sales will reach 21m in the region, second only to China. In concert with this, IHS forecasts that European production volumes will grow by 21% by 2020, close to the 19% increase in European exports.

“Despite increasing competitiveness in the global marketplace, Germany will be the biggest light vehicle market in Europe until the end of the decade,” said Carlos DaSilva, manager at IHS Automotive.

“By 2020, Germany will have increased its light vehicle production output by 17%, approximately 840,000 units, while other major European markets, like France, UK, Italy and Spain will see their output decrease or remain flat,” he said.

Mario Franjicevic, a senior analyst at IHS Automotive, added; “By 2020, German OEMs are anticipated to be responsible for 70% of the global production output of premium brands. We also anticipate that by 2020 German OEMs will have an estimated global plant capacity utilization of about 88% compared to an 80% global industry average estimate.”

internationalfleetworld.com / 51

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