Wheels12October2017

UNW’s Naledi solar car is South Africa’s only hope in the biennial solar car challenge currently underway in Australia.

October 12, 2017

Witness

WHEELS

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MOTORING ACROSS KZN SINCE 1904 ADVERTISING: AVIR THULSIRAM ON 084 278 3447

Call to ban energy drinks for truck and taxi drivers, just like alcohol ALWYN VILJOEN AS part of its activities during transport month, Mercedes­ Benz SA hosted fleet operators from KwaZulu­Natal at a Truck­ ing Wellness presentation in Durban.

Themba Mthombeni, opera­ tions director at Trucking Well­ ness, told the truck operators the wellness programme has guided over 20 000 drivers to take con­ trol of their physical and mental health.

He said Mercedes­Benz com­ mercial vehicles is a principal partner of the nationwide pro­ gramme and to date they have es­ tablished 22 clinics on SA’s major routes, backed by 15 mobile clin­ ics serving truck stops and fleet businesses on secondary routes.

Judith Bester of Trucking Wellness said medical checkups by experienced nurses and coun­ sellors are available gratis at all

these stops, from 6 pm to mid­ night.

She said the programme has since 2000 evolved from just fo­ cusing on combating aids to now providing drivers with 14 basic building blocks to maintain healthy lifestyles and relation­ ships.

Nutrition is one of these blocks and Bester said the data from the 37 wellness clinics show drivers consume too much sugar and do not drink enough water, while many rely on the slow poi­ son of sodas and energy drinks to stay awake behind the wheel.

She explained to the assem­ bled fleet operators how sugary drinks spike their energy levels for a few minutes, only to then drop these levels into a lethargic state, which can lead to crashes.

“In my opinion, fleet opera­ tors should have a policy of no energy drinks, just as they have for alcohol,” said Bester.

Jenny Russell of Diabetes SA in Durban echoed Bester’s warn­ ings on the slow toxin that is sug­ ar and added starch to the list.

She said every overweight per­ son who gets little exercise and eats mostly starchy food — in other words most drivers — were at risk of developing diabetes.

Russel warned this chronic disease is already the number two killer in KwaZulu­Natal, where on average six amputa­ tions a day are done because of diabetic complications.

She called on fleet operators to equip their drivers to check their glucose levels daily and their eye­ sight annually.

“Diabetes is very dangerous and a chronic condition, but the symptoms can be greatly reduced by eating a lot less starch and no sugar, and monitoring your glu­ cose levels,” Russel said.

Spokesperson for Mercedes­ Benz commercial vehicles, Sibu­

Caring for the health of SA’s drivers, (back, from left) Thuthuka Xulu from the National Bargaining Council; Ravesh Sunthkamar, City Logistics; Feizal Kolia, Unitrans Durban; Dave Govender, Crossmoor Transport; Selby Siyaya, Freightmax; Ryah Pokhun and Shaylen Padayachee, Crossmoor Transport; Umesh Sewsunker, Unitrans Durban (front) Sanele Zumani, Barloworld Transport; Mandisa Zondi, National Bargaining Council; Joseph Zondi, Garden City Commercials; Caiphus Manetshana, Unitrans Durban, Themba Mthombeni, Trucking Wellness.

PHOTO: LOUISE SCRAZZOLO siso Mkwanaze, invited fleet and taxi operators in KwaZulu­Natal to send their drivers to the Truck­ ing Wellness clinics, or arrange for a clinic to come to them.

“We often hear the adage, ‘without trucks, the economy

stops’, but it should be without healthy drivers, the economy stops. We invite all fleet opera­ tors, from taxis to trucks, to check on our web and then send their drivers for a medical check­ up. It is free and the drivers can

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WitnessWheels INDUSTRY MOTORING

2

October 12, 2017

NEW BIDDING APP ENABLES DEALERS

KZN PUPILS IN PICKET FOR SCHOOL BUSES

ONLY five months after its start­ up in Cape Town, Beat the Price looks set to disrupt the way peo­ ple buy and sell new cars.

“Where you can’t compare like­for­like with used cars, you certainly can with new cars,” said Marius du Toit, MD of Beat the Price.

The platform has an alliance with dealers, allowing them to bid on a deal, ensuring that the customer gets the best possible price. “It’s simple — you tell us which car you want, where you want it delivered and we find you the best price. No fees and no commitments,” said Du Toit.

With 26 years in the industry, Du Toit has worked for and start­ ed many dealerships. He recog­ nised that it was becoming in­ creasingly difficult to buy new cars for a good price and that buy­ ers were completely at the mercy of dealership prices.

Beat the Price collects requests for new vehicles from buyers and sends these requests through to dealerships, allowing them to bid for the sale with their best price.

“By opening an inquiry to the whole country, you could get a dealer in Bedfordview that has a stock unit that is priced lower than the same vehicle in Sand­ ton,” says Du Toit.

Beat the Price significantly streamlines the normal negotia­ tion process, for both buyers and dealers.

“Rather than forcing people to phone around and get dealers to manually bid for a sale, our plat­ form automates the bidding process. This saves both buyers and dealers time and money,” says Du Toit.

“By keeping the process confi­ dential, Beat the Price ensures that buyers are not bothered by multiple dealers phoning them directly.”

This is ideal for more inexperi­ enced buyers who don’t like hav­ ing to negotiate in person. “With buyers, we have established a very personal process, ensuring that we completely understand their needs,” explains Du Toit.

At the end of each bidding process, Beat the Price puts the winning dealer in contact with the buyer. “Our buyers sign all the normal contracts with the winning dealer, so they are cov­ ered and supported by the dealer as per normal.”

The platform is already sav­ ing customers thousands on new vehicles. “Our best deal, so far, had 27 bids on a single vehicle,” says Du Toit. “Very few buyers would have the confidence or the patience to manually negotiate 27 times on a single vehicle.”

Du Toit said dealerships re­ port that Beat the Price is giving them leads that they wouldn’t have previously been aware of. For those with ex­ cess stock this really is a win­ win situation. He said new dealers throughout South Afri­ ca are signing up on a daily basis. — Wheels Reporter.

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PRETORIA — Thandeka Mdla­ lose was one of several pupils who left at 4 am so that she could make it to Pretoria in time to lend her voice to a protest for scholar transport outside the Depart­ ment of Education, GroundUp reported.

The protest was organised by activists from Equal Education.

Mdlalose was joined by some 200 other pupils from KwaZulu­ Natal as well as Gauteng. They picketed outside the main en­ trance to the Department of Edu­ cation head office.

Equal Education said Mdla­ lose, a Grade 10 pupil, is just one of thousands of South African school pupils who have to walk long distances to get to school daily. Mdlalose said that she walks about five to seven kilome­ tres to an area where she takes a skorokoro taxi to get to school, which costs her family R350 a month.

Samukelisiwe Kunene is an Equal Education activist who works with pupils in the Nquthu region in KwaZulu­Natal. Kune­ ne said almost every pupil from this area has to walk to school.

He said the picket aimed to re­ mind the minister of her commit­ ments to over one million pupils in need of transport. — WR.

MARIUS DU TOIT

‘Our best deal, so far, had 27 bids on a single vehicle.’

A van by any other name At Wheels we always say the best bakkie is a van, and Toyota designers seems to agree, as the latest new crossover genre concept vehicle is a van in all but name. Dubbed the Tj CRUISER, Toyota said the T stands for toolbox and the “j” is for joy, but the 4,3 m boxy shape, sliding doors and flat­folding seats all spell ‘van’ in our book. The TJ Cruiser will be shown at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show 2017 from October 25 through November 5.

PHOTO: TOYOTA

Stock clearance Bargains can be had as Dodge and Chrysler also close in SA ALWYN VILJOEN BUYERS who are in the market for a cheap new car now have two more bargains to choose from.

This after Fiat Chrysler SA has announced that it will no longer sell Dodge or Chrysler vehicles in South Africa, but re­ assures Jeep and Fiat will con­ tinue to be sold locally.

The announcement has been long awaited in the auto trade as demand for the last Chrysler 300C and Dodge Journeys — the models from these brands available in SA — have long been too low to support a deal­ ership.

The Dodge Chrysler dealer­ ships this week said it would continue to support and ser­ vice current Chrysler and Dodge vehicles through its franchise dealers.

General Motors said the same thing when it announced it will stop selling Chevrolet in South Africa in June.

All this means for the more daring car buyer is huge dis­ counts at both brands.

This is “all stocks must go” time, and the price on the wind­ screen is not even a guideline.

Dealers know that few peo­ ple will be willing to risk a four­ to seven­year investment in a car that may or may not have good parts support, and will do what it takes to make a sale.

That makes the big Chevro­

Remaining models of the Dodge Journey (above) and Chevrolet Trailblazer (below) can now be had for a lot less than their suggested retail prices of over half a million, if the buyers are willing to treat them as brand new used vehicles with no dealer support. PHOTOS: FILE

let Trailblazer sport utility one of the best bargains to be had in South Africa today, while the smaller Spark and attractive Cruze will come with even steeper discounts. The half­ton bakkie that started as an Opel before sporting the Chevrolet

bow tie will continue to be built at the Chev plant now under Is­ uzu. It is not yet known what badge the Opel/Chev will sport on the nose this time round.

See it as brand­new used Buying a brand new car from

an importer that has an­ nounced an end to its local business is not as risky as it seems — as long as you do not rely totally on the dealer for ser­ vices or repairs, and replace the warranty and service plan with a generic, off the shelf service from the Retail Motor Industry (RMI). You know odds are high the importer’s warranty is not going to be of any use to you once the dealer closes, no mat­ ter what promises you hear.

The good news is that there are many private mechanics and parts sellers who will be able to sell you an RMI plan, and get whatever you need when it is time to service the vehicle.

Fiat and Alfa expanding Fiat said this announcement does not affect Fiat, which re­ cently added the Tipo and Pan­ da 4x4 to showroom floors, while the Stelvio SUV from Al­ fa Romeo is due to arrive before year­end.

FCA South Africa CEO Rob­ in van Rensburg said: “The fu­ ture for FCA in South Africa is certainly an interesting one, my management team, indeed my entire staff complement, have their work cut out for them and I am confident that we will suc­ ceed.”

Van Rensburg said new FCA dealerships are planned for Durban, Pretoria, Midrand and Johannesburg.

Strange but true: Traffic cop’s car hijacked THE Limpopo Department of Transport has condemned the “pure act of criminality” after a female traffic officer was hijacked in her official vehicle outside her house in Lenye­ nye, Limpopo, last week.

Department spokesperson Joshua Kwapa said the offi­ cer was unharmed in the hi­ jacking after she stopped outside her house in her

Golf 6.

“For us, this is a pure act of criminality. Some of the officers take official vehicles home with them.

“When she stopped outside her house, she was blocked off by criminals,” Kwapa said.

“We are obviously very concerned about the safety of our traffic officers. Luckily, she was unharmed during

this incident,” he said.

After the officer was hi­ jacked, she went to the po­ lice station to report the matter. Limpopo police spokesperson Lieutenant­Col­ onel Moatshe Ngoepe con­ firmed the incident.

“She was blocked off from behind by a silver grey Ford Focus with unknown registra­ tion numbers [and] with

three occupants inside, wear­ ing balaclavas,” he said.

“Two suspects exited the car and approached her, whereby she ran away leaving the car behind.

“They entered the car and drove away,” Ngoepe said.

He said there had been no arrests and police were still investigating the matter.

— News24.

A pupil cycles on a Qhubeka bicycle sponsored by Volkswagen South Africa.

PHOTO: QUICKPIC

GIVING RURAL PUPILS TIME OVER the past three years, Volkswagen, in partnership with Qhubeka, have donated almost 3 000 Blue Bikes to children across South Africa.

VW said with 11 million of SA’s 17 million school children still walking to school, taking some of them up to four hours a day to travel to and from school, the need for transport is palpable.

Qhubeka (which means to “progress” or “move forward”) said it transforms hope in rural areas into reality with the simple gift of a blue bicycle that can cut pupils’ travel time by half a day, giving them time.

Volkswagen said in a state­ ment less time spent travelling to school means more time to learn, more time to play and more time with family.

Volkswagen and Qhubeka have committed once more to help mobilise the youth for a bet­ ter future and have committed to distributing a total of 1 100 bicy­ cles in 2017.

“Volkswagen’s vision is to pro­ vide sustainable mobility for Af­ rica by way of German engineer­ ing and this programme fits in with that philosophy and shows our human side,” said Thomas Schaefer, chairperson and man­ aging director of Volkswagen Group South Africa. — WR.

MOTORING WitnessWheels

October 12, 2017

3

Riding on sunshine in Oz North West University students compete against 50 teams for a top 10 spot in solar challenge A GROUP of engineering stu­ dents from the North­West Uni­ versity (NWU) is competing in the biennial Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in Australia.

They built Naledi on the small­ est budget in the group, but the novel design has already proven to be fast enough to aim for a top 10 among the one­seaters.

This year marks the event’s 14th crossing of Australia and the 30­year anniversary of the chal­ lenge with a record 50 teams competing. The UNW team met these teams in Darwin, Australia, where the static scrutineering tests took place before the car al­ so had to undergo dynamic scru­ tineering tests on the Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin.

NWU team captain, professor Albert Helberg, said the scruti­ neers required only one small mechanical change and a few mostly cosmetic alterations, which included moving some of the hazard lights on their chase and lead vehicles and a small change to one of the circuits in the battery box.

The car passed the dynamic scrutineering, which entailed fig­ ure­eight’s, slalom courses, emergency stops, as well as a fast lap around the racecourse at Eden Valley in Darwin, with fly­ ing colours.

The students have since Sun­ day been driving hundreds of km/

Judging by the enthusiastic Twitter responses, other engi­ neering students like Naledi for its out­of­the­box thinking.

North West University’s Naledi solar race car undergoing dynamic scrutineering at the Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin, Australia.

PHOTO: TWITTER

day in the 3 000 km race.

Proud history The North­West University has been competing in solar challen­ ges since 2012, when it made his­ tory with their debut solar car — the Batmobile — which shared the overall first place in the 2012 Sasol Solar Challenge with the

Tokai University from Japan.

Twelve teams, including teams from South Africa, Japan, India and Wales, undertook the 5 200 km journey from Pretoria, via Springbok, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Pieter­ maritzburg and Secunda, to cross the finish line in Pretoria again.

NWU took first place in the

Olympia class, but set a new in­ ternational and two national records. In 2015, the NWU be­ came the first ever African solar team to complete the gruelling journey from Darwin to Adelaide in the Australian Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. They travelled the total distance of 3 000 km within six days.

Agera sets new record for Bugatti to beat

After starting in 31st position on the first day, the NWU fin­ ished in 11th place in the world and in first place of the African teams, beating the UKZN team, who had endless tyre trouble.

The 2017 Naledi is a lot sleeker than the Batmobile and has a smaller solar array that tilts to catch the sun en route.

Technical innovations The NWU manufactured a spe­ cial cooling method for the solar array using 3D­printing technol­ ogy and computational fluid dy­ namics in the design process.

• The suspension system for the car had to fit into a very narrow strut and had to have very little play. It was designed by the Facul­ ty of Engineering’s fourth­year students.

• The car has a fitted speed­ cruise system, which is based on energy usage and not specifically speed, although it can be adjust­ ed to suit that need as well.

• The aerodynamic design of the car was based on the Jonker Sail­ plane, which gives it a very low drag resistance.

General specifications • The team targets a constant speed of 80 km/h by generating 8 kw/h throughout the day.

• The car has a battery pack that consists of 403 Li­ion cells, which weighs just under 20 kg.

• In total, the car weighs 225 kg.

• The car is just short of five me­ tres in length, with a width of 2,2 m.

• It has a four square­metre solar array. — Wheels Reporter.

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SCOTT COLLIE JUST weeks after Bugatti set a new 0­400­0 km/h world record in the Chiron, Koenig­ segg has smashed it with the Agera RS. The plucky (or mad) Swe­ des shaved almost five sec­ onds from the record, and did it without the considerable might of the VW Group for backing.

Even though the record at­ tempt was conducted on a slippery Danish airfield, paved in WW2­era concrete and covered in awkward expan­ sion joints, the Agera RS was comfortably faster than the Chiron. Where the Bugatti Veyron needed a leisurely 42 seconds to accelerate from 0­400 km/h and screech to a halt, the Swedish supercar took just 37,28 seconds. Just 26,88 seconds of that record was taken accelerating to 400 km/h, in which time the car covered 1 958 m.

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The Koenigsegg Agera RS set a new 0­400­0 km/h record PHOTO: KOENIGSEGG The RS was at a standstill 9,56 seconds after hitting that mark, having covered a fur­ ther 483 m.

The car used for the test is a 1 014­kW model destined for a customer in the U.S. The test was initially meant to be conducted in Germany, but poor weather put an end to

those plans, forcing a rapid reschedule.

The new venue, which also happens to be the biggest so­ lar farm in Scandinavia, was confirmed just 12 hours before Koenigsegg left the factory.

Driver Niklas Lilja gradual­ ly built up to the record over the course of the day.

He was busy behind the wheel, making constant cor­ rections to the wheel and fighting wheel spin on the first three gear changes. Just imagine how much faster it would’ve been on smooth, grippy tarmac.

Your move, Bugatti.

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Bio­diesel from hemp plants SCIENTISTS collaborating in bio­diesel research at univer­ sities in Pakistan, India and Italy have published a new method to convert hemp oil into bio­diesel using magnet­ ic metal oxide particles.

In a paper titled “Experi­ mental analysis of di­func­ tional magnetic oxide cata­ lyst and its performance in the hemp plant biodiesel production”, published in Ap­ plied Energy, these scientists described using nanometre­ sized, magnetic metal oxide

particles to catalyse the conversion of hemp oil into biodiesel fuel.

They report a maximum biodiesel yield of 92,16% un­ der optimal operating condi­ tions.

The scientist shared data from the Biofuel and Biodi­ versity Laboratory in the De­ partment of Plant Sciences, at the Quaid­i­Azam Univer­ sity in Pakistan, the ENEA/ ICTP Research Centre Trisaia in Italy and the School of Chemical Engineering at the

Universiti Sains Malaysia.

While it will take a few more years to scale up their experiments, their research could solve the current choice biofuel growers have to make — whether to use land to grow food for hu­ mans or fuel for vehicles.

This faster way to turn hemp oil into bio­diesel means the local hemp plan­ tation throughout Africa may yet become harvests that provide fuel for older diesel engines across the conti­

nent. An earlier study in 2010, a study published in Phys.org by Richard Parnas, a professor of chemical, ma­ terials, and biomolecular en­ gineering at the University of Connecticut, showed virgin hemp seed oil can be turned into very good biodiesel us­ ing a standardised process called transesterification.

Parras said hemp farmers could produce enough fuel to power their whole farm with the oil of hemp seeds.

— Wheels Reporter.

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WitnessWheels MOTORING TRENDS

4

October 12, 2017

Next­level transport Over a dozen companies are testing drones to deliver people ALWYN VILJOEN TWO giant drones that can carry two humans above the traffic jams were proven this week.

In Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mo­ hammed, crown prince of Dubai, flew in the maiden concept flight of the Autonomous Air Taxi (AAT), a vehi­ cle that will be used for the world’s first self­flying taxi service set to be introduced by Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority.

The two­seater, capable of trans­ porting two people without human intervention or a pilot, has been sup­ plied by Volocopter, a Germany­ based specialist manufacturer.

Volocopter introduced the 2X, its latest model, at the E­Flight Expo during the German aircraft show, Friedrichshafen Aero earlier this year.

The company said it looks forward to demonstrating its craft in regular service as part of an agreement with the Dubai’s government’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to test mode of Autonomous Air Taxis (AAT) in the Emirates from 2017 to 2022.

The 2X measures about two me­ tres in height, and the diameter of the rotor rim, including propellers, is just over seven metres.

Volocopter built in a lot of redun­ dancy, with 18 propellers and nine batteries to hold the craft aloft. It has a maximum flight time of 30 minutes at a cruise speed of 50 km/h, and a maximum airspeed of 100 km/h.

In a worst case scenario, there are two parachutes, although the drone may not always fly high enough for the chutes to deploy.

Dubai has also signed an agree­ ment with Chinese company eHang, which is making a single­seat drone called the 184. eHang said its 184 will cost be­ tween R2,7 million and R4,1 million, can carry passengers of up to about 117 kg for 23 minutes on a single charge.

Both the German X2 and Chinese 184 drones can be hailed with a smartphone app, and will fly them­ selves with no input from the passen­ gers.

Volocopter and eHang are being chased by more than a dozen well­ funded European and U.S. firms,

each with its own science fiction­in­ spired vision for creating a new form of urban transport that is a cross be­ tween a driverless electric car and a short­haul, vertical takeoff­and­ landing aircraft.

Boeing this week announced it will buy Aurora Flight Sciences, a compa­ ny recently enlisted to work on Uber’s flying taxi project.

Virginia­based Aurora was award­ ed a defence contract to help develop its electric VTOL X­Plane.

Uber had signed it up to work on its Uber Elevate Network earlier this year, a bold scheme to add VTOL fly­ ing taxis to its on­demand transport service.

Boeing hopes the acquisition will speed up its development of autono­ mous, electric flying machines. “The combined strength and innovation of our teams will advance the devel­ opment of autonomy for our com­ mercial and military systems,” said Greg Hyslop, chief technology offi­ cer and senior vice president of Boe­ ing Engineering, Test and Technolo­ gy. “Together, these talented teams will open new markets with transfor­ mational technologies.”

Apart from Uber, which is still working with partners on its own fly­ ing taxi strategy, other competitors who have made public their plans for a flight­hailing drone service are aer­ ospace giant Airbus, which aims to put a self­piloting taxi in the air by 2020; and Kitty Hawk, a company backed by Google co­founder Larry Page.

The Kitty Hawk is more flying bike than drone, and the current model looks like it will require its rider to make steering inputs, much like Rus­ sian company Hoversurf requires from riders on its Hoverbike. Both the American Kitty Hawk and Rus­ sian Hoverbike are made for areas with large bodies of water and look destined to be pleasure craft.

The people­carrying drones are designed not for play but to whisk their passengers over the traffic jams in quiet comfort. Ironically, passen­ gers in people­carrying drones may soon face their own aerial gridlock as drones will be limited to flight paths where the downdraft will not cause damage and overhead wires will not lead to crashes.

The most innovative use of the wheel has to go to the people­carrying drones being developed around the world, with Boeing this week announcing it will buy Auroro (top left) which has been developing drones for Uber, while Dubai has started five­year testing of the two­seater Volocopter from Germany (top right), Google is funding the Kitty Hawk (bottom left) and Chinese company eHang is waiting in the wings to also test its 184 single­seater as part of an agreement with Dubai’s visionary Roads and Transport Authority. PHOTOS: SUPPLIED

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Workhorse, an electric transport company based in Ohio, U.S., showed its 1 100 kg Surefly hybrid petrol­electric helicopter at this year’s Paris Air Show. The company has already proven its load­carrying Workfly and plans to license the Surefly as a self­piloting drone in 2019. The craft has eight contra­ rotating propellers and a range of 110 km at a top speed of 110 km/h. PHOTO: FILE

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