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August 24, 2017

Witness

WHEELS

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Operators the real terrorists ALWYN VILJOEN counts the bodies in the wake of extreme Jihadists and negligent taxi owners DRIVING with the aim to kill as many tourists as he could, Younes Abouyaaqoub killed 13 people and injured over a 100 more in Barcelona last week.

Driving an overloaded taxi down the steep hills to the Msun­ duzi Bridge near Nagle Dam near Cato Ridge with no intention to kill anyone, Lindelani Ngobane caused the deaths of 20 people on Sunday.

He survived the crash and is currently in a critical condition in hospital.

Abouyaaqoub also survived his crash, running away to hijack a car, killing its 34­year­old own­ er to make his getaway. He was shot dead on Monday after a massive five­day manhunt.

South Africa cannot look for­ ward to such a tidy solution for the criminally negligent vehicle

operators and their untrained, overworked and underpaid driv­ ers. These fleet owners are the real terrorists in our society.

Instead of bombs, they send out drivers in taxis that more of­ ten than not have brakes that are in dire need of a service.

These owners are also the ha­ bitually overloaders who are po­ litically untouchable despite ru­ ining South Africa’s road system by carrying as much as 20 tons on top of their maximum loads.

The SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) is trying hard to en­ sure that the licenced taxi opera­ tors train their drivers to be more professional through its training academy.

One of the academy’s nine strategic objectives is “to im­ prove service delivery and create a customer­orientated service

At this year’s Brake and Tyre Watch, held in conjunction with Hino at the RTI Pinetown Testing Station in KwaZulu­ Natal, officers found four of the six trucks checked were unroadworthy. Left is a typical worn tyre on a truck.

Fleetwatch publisher Patrick O’Leary said authorities need to be far more proactive in conducting brake and tyre checks.

PHOTO: ROAD SAFETY within the transport industry”.

However, Santaco operators managed to make themselves a

lot more enemies with recent go­ slows in KwaZulu­Natal and Gauteng, as well as a violent pro­

test in Pretoria. In Gauteng, the taxis that blocked highways around Johannesburg caused hundreds of people to miss their flights from O.R. Tambo, costing the public hundreds of thou­ sands in rands.

That protest was against the high finance costs operators pay on taxis — a real issue that Santa­ co can solve by buying the thou­ sands of taxis sold monthly di­ rectly from Toyota and passing the savings on to their members.

Instead, the council focuses on peacefully settling disputes over profitable routes between registered operators, who are themselves pulling no punches, nor saving any bullets in their battles for routes.

The drivers are behaving equally badly. In the recent Pre­ toria protest, taxi drivers used

bricks to smash windows of cars trapped in the traffic, terrifying motorists to the point where panicked drivers tried to bash their way out off the log jam.

Perhaps these drivers misun­ derstood the “aggressive re­ search and development into ap­ propriate programmes” which the Santaco training academy has as one of its missions, along­ side “aynamic” instead of dy­ namic modes of delivery.

The bottom line is: while oper­ ators of taxis and trucks are al­ lowed to avoid accountability — as did the owner of the truck that killed 22 people at the bottom of Field’s Hill in Pinetown in Sep­ tember 2012 — South Africa will continue to see rampant negli­ gence as small fleet owners cut costs on maintenance.

• alwyn.viljoen@witness.co.za O&M CAPE TOWN 96327/E

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WitnessWheels ELECTRIC MOTORING

2

August 24, 2017

NIKOLA ZERO RESETS UTV STANDARD The aCar (left) is an electric four­wheel drive utility vehicle with solar sheets designed for Africa by German scientists. The OX (right) is a diesel 4x2 truck made by a Durbanite who knows a bit about Africa.

PHOTO: CHAIR OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN/TOP GEAR

Trucks for Africa German all­electric aCar and British OX aim to provide rural transport ALWYN VILJOEN IT is not only Gordon Murray who has advanced plans to provide Africa with an modular, affordable truck.

While Murray’s Ford Transit­based OX uses a diesel engine that can take 500 ppm diesel, scientists at the Tech­ nical University of Munich (TUM) an­ nounced plans for a robust, all­electric medium­sized truck for Africa.

Called the aCar, the partners in the project said in a statement they have been working on the vehicle since 2013.

The project is supported by the Bavari­ an Research Foundation since 2015.

They will present their new proto­ type to the public at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt from September 12 to 15, 2017.

Professor Markus Lienkamp, head of the TUM chair of Automotive Tech­ nology, said the aCar was designed for passenger and cargo transportation and the partners hope to sell it to Afri­ ca’s farmers who live far from urban centres.

While Murray’s design just adds lightness on top of a wide footprint to enable the 4x2 OX to scamper up 4x4 routes, Lienkamp deems four­wheel drive “a must for the roads of Africa”.

The team also rather ambitiously perhaps decided on an electric power train.

“An electric drive is not only green­ er, but is also the better solution in technical terms, since it is low­mainte­ nance and can apply its full torque di­ rectly to accelerating from a stop,” said Martin Šoltés, who shares leadership of the project with Sascha Koberstaedt at the chair of Automotive Technology.

The 20 kWh battery has a range of only 80 kilometres, and but reportedly reloads within seven hours from a nor­ mal household socket.

Optional solar collector sheets can be unrolled to significantly increase the amount of solar energy produced for self­contained battery charging.

More solar modules mounted on the roof of the aCar gather energy throughout the day.

The plan is to make as many of the aCar’s components as possible on lo­

To advertise your company in

cation, in order to strengthen local economies.

In order to make the automobile af­ fordable for people on location, the price for the basic vehicle in Africa is to be kept under R155 700 (€10 000) on a long­term basis.

“Cast nodes and simple bolted con­ struction enable simple manufactur­ ing processes with very low investment costs,” says Professor Wolfram Volk, head of the chair of Metal Forming and Casting.

The scientists produced the first prototype in May 2016 and conducted initial tests in Germany.

However, to make sure the aCar also meets all the demands placed on it on location, they shipped the vehicle to Ghana, where they tested the technol­ ogy and concept under local condi­ tions in July 2017.

The aCar passed all the tests with flying colours.

“It spent six weeks in a container on its way there, we unloaded it, switched it on and it functioned per­ fectly all the way to the last day of test­ ing,” says Koberstaedt.

To make sure the aCar becomes more than just an idea and actually makes it to series production, Kober­ staedt and Šoltés have founded the company Evum Motors.

The first vehicles are to be manufac­ tured in a model factory in Europe.

“We’ll have to master all the techni­ cal procedures before the car can be made in Africa.

“Then we can train people from Af­ rica who can in turn pass on their knowledge there,” said Šoltés.

The group do not have a price yet, but Šoltés said compared to its compe­ tition, the purely electric aCar is signif­ icantly more cost­efficient and uses the most modern battery and power train technology.

There is, however, no other electric truck dedicated for rural markets Afri­ ca to compete with aCar. The closest is the OX, which is cur­ rently raising funds using crowd fund­ ing to raise £450 000 to send an #OX­ toAfrica.

• alwynviljoen@witness.co.za

The Nikola Zero UTV is an all­electric, 400­volt plug­in, off­road and potentially street ready vehicle.

PHOTO: NIKOLA SALT LAKE CITY — Nikola Power­ sports has announced the specifications and design for the four­seater UTV dubbed the “Nikola Zero”.

The Nikola Zero UTV is an all­electric, 400­volt plug­in, off­road and poten­ tially street ready vehicle.

Dealerships in the U.S. can begin re­ serving production units starting in Jan­ uary 2018. Starting at $35 000, (over R460 000) the UTV will come with two performance options; 301 kW or 414 kW, in both instances with trunk­ pulling torrque from zero rpm.

The UTV will also have three battery options: 75 kWh, 100 kWh and 125 kWh, with the largest battery option giving the Nikola Zero more battery storage than a Tesla P100D, at a fraction of the price. The 125 kWh battery pack­ age can deliver 200 miles of range in 4x4 on­road mode. “The Nikola Zero will be the first UTV to come with optional An­

ti­Lock Braking Systems (ABS), stability control, anti­roll­over, traction control and torque vectoring.

“Normally these options are reserved for high­end sports cars and not normal­ ly found in UTVs. We have worked hard to make these UTVs street legal, and in many states, you may be able to drive the Nikola Zero UTV to work,” said Trev­ or Milton, Nikola’s CEO. “Once you test drive the Nikola Zero, you will want to trade in your current UTV. No other competitor UTV can match the Nikola Zero’s performance.

“We are not talking about a few sec­ onds faster than the competition, we are talking about laps faster, with speeds up to 0­60 in 3.9 seconds with four passen­ gers inside,” added Milton.

The standard equipment package is set to include front and rear suspension with 508 mm of travel, 356 cm of ground clearance, 32­in tyres on beadlock

wheels, electric power steering and LED headlights.

Options will include 4x4 torque vec­ toring, anti­lock brakes, traction con­ trol, anti­roll protection, and front and rear 2 040 kg winches.

A standard 10­inch infotainment dis­ play will put monitoring and control at the driver’s fingertips, and an available audio system will add a soundtrack.

A 4­kW solar charging system will al­ so be offered as an option.

Optional features include; 414 kW up­ grade, street legal package (some states), 4x4 torque vectoring system, ABS, anti­roll protection, traction control, front and rear 4500 lb. winches, factory audio system, 15 kW power ex­ port at 110/220V, 4kW Solar 400­volt DC Charger, LED interior lighting, rider profiles, front windshield, mirrors, cam­ eras and a four­year extended warranty package. — WR.

Maybach’s new Vision MERCEDES­BENZ presented the 2017 Vision Mercedes­Maybach 6 Cabriolet at the recent Pebble Beach in California.

Largely the same car as the 2016 Vi­ sion, this year’s version has a soft top, to open the ambient­lit cockpit to the stars.

The company said in a statement this cabrolet defines the ultimate in luxury of the future.

The elegant cabriolet made its debut at the Monterey Car Week, which took take place on the Monterey Peninsula in California between August 15 and 20.

The Mercedes­Maybach 6 Cabriolet is designed as an electric car.

The drive system has an output of 550 kW. The shallow underfloor battery allows a range of over 500 kilometres, accord­ ing to the NEDC. The sleek proportions combine with what Mercedes­Benz termed “a luxuri­ ous haute couture interior”.

Gorden Wagener, chief design officer of Daimler AG, said the Vision measured almost six metres in length, adding its classic proportions incorporate art deco design with its extremely long bonnet and flowing lines, and at the same time

Call Avir Thulsiram on 084 278 3447 OR 033 355 1152 email: Avir@witness.co.za

The all­electric Vision Maybach 6 cabriolet aims to define the ultimate in luxury of the future. PHOTOS: MERCEDES­BENZ

completely reinterpret these aesthetic principles.

The curved basic body boasts a sporty, stretched design which is characterised by powerful structural elements in con­ junction with the sharp feature line.

This side feature line defines the up­ per vehicle body, from the radiator grille World’s fastest train restarted China’s will relaunch its high­ speed train next month to run at 350 km/h.

The relaunch follows a two­ train collision in 2011 that killed 40 people and injured 191.

PHOTO: AP FILE

across the entire length of the vehicle through to the rear.

The concept car is said to have a 0­100 km/h acceleration in under five seconds.

The price is, however, only for owners of several oil wells, in the region of R40 million. — Wheels Reporter.

MOTORING WitnessWheels

August 24, 2017

3

VW plans for far future While focus is on evees, Ducati sale can help pay for Diesel Gate WOLFSBURG — Volkswagen is more focused on its multi­billion­eu­ ro shift towards electric vehicles and transport services than any potential sale of motorcycle brand Ducati or transmissions maker Renk, its head of strategy told Reuters.

Analysts and bankers have been expecting Europe’s biggest carmaker to sell assets soon to help meet the cost of its diesel emissions test cheat­ ing scandal, which has already reached as much as $25 billion.

But Thomas Sedran said the Ger­ man company was in no hurry to make divestments, which are op­ posed by its powerful labour unions, pointing to the group’s strong finan­ cial performance despite the “diesel­ gate” scandal.

“It’s much more important to dis­ cuss which new business fields the company will enter. Divestments are less relevant,” he said in an interview.

Volkswagen has asked banks to ex­ amine options for Ducati and Renk, including selling the two divisions, sources have said, as it reviews its businesses after announcing a major push into electric cars and services such as ride­hailing a year ago.

Five bidders have been short­list­ ed for Ducati, including Italy’s Benet­ ton family, with offers ranging from €1,3­1,5 billion ($1,5­1,8 billion), a separate source said last month.

But the potential deal currently does not have the support of a major­ ity on Volkswagen’s supervisory board, with labour leaders — who oc­ cupy half the board seats — resisting a sale unless there are compelling fi­ nancial reasons.

“Top management has a clear idea of what belongs to core business and

what doesn’t,” Sedran said, without elaborating. “It is now a question of how the supervisory board will as­ sess this and what one wants to do.”

He said the range of possible changes was “far greater than just the things that are seized on in public discussion”, adding the money to pay for the emissions scandal had to be found somewhere.

“So it’s perfectly plausible that we consider whether the time may have come to find a more suitable owner for certain business areas,” said Sed­ ran, a former head of General Motors in Europe who joined Volkswagen two months after the scandal broke.

Since then, Volkswagen manage­ ment has had to deal with an ever­ growing number of “dieselgate” probes in Germany and abroad, as well as a new investigation into po­ tential collusion among German car­ makers.

On the group’s long­running ef­ fort to produce a low­cost car for emerging markets, he said Czech brand Skoda would try to develop such a vehicle for India by 2020, one year later than planned after cooper­ ation talks with Tata Motors col­ lapsed.

Skoda has developed “a series of ideas” for a cheap car for India that could then be used in other markets such as Brazil and Iran, Sedran said.

He poured cold water on union calls for production of a new model to be assigned to one of three Ger­ man auto­making sites to boost plant utilisation.

“To take cars out of one plant for the short term and give production to another plant doesn’t achieve much.” — Reuters.

Bowing to popular demand, Volkswagen confirmed it will launch the all­electric ID Buzz at dealerships in 2022, with the nostalgic remake destined for markets in North America, Europe and China. VW said the ID Buzz won’t just be a passenger vehicle, but like the classic T2 (left), the new electric vehicle will transport people or cargo. PHOTO: VW

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Skoda has developed ‘a series of ideas’ for a cheap car for India after talks with Tata.

GWM wants to buy FCA ALWYN VILJOEN GREAT Wall Motors (GWM) has al­ ways had a thing for Fiat and now China’ seventh­largest vehicle build­ er plans to “put a ring on it”.

In 2008, GWM was embroiled in a copyright issue with Fiat after shamelessly cloning the Fiat Panda.

GWM this week announced its plan to buy all, or part of Italian­ American automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA).

GWM last year sold 1,07 million vehicles, but any purchase of FCA would take the Chinese firm to an­ other level.

FCA earned a net profit of $1,9 billion for 2016 compared with just $100 million in 2015 during re­ structuring and massive recalls.

The U.S. car industry publication Automotive News reported earlier that Great Wall Motor president Wang Fengying had said in an

e­mail that her company intended to buy FCA’s Jeep brand.

Jeep, Automotive News noted, is “the jewel in FCA’s crown” as the brand’s reputation dates back from World War 2. Great Wall is known for its sport­utility vehicles, which are popular in China.

AFP speculates while sales of FCA models are ebbing in the U.S., GWM’s bid could offer a lifeline to Fiat Chrysler, in particular for its Chrysler, Dodge and Fiat brands.

FCA’s shares have soared on re­ ports of a potential deal.

In a statement on Monday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said it had not been approached by Great Wall.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Mar­ chionne said in April that Jeep and Chrysler’s Ram truck brand are strong enough to stand alone.

The company had sold Ferrari in 2015 into a separate business.

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WitnessWheels MOTORING

RACING

4

August 24, 2017

Tough WRC for Hyundai

The firth place achieved by the Bataleur Motorsport Nash MVW3 of Mike Schmidt/Bruce Avern­Taplin was all the more significant because the pit crew were all engineering students from nearby colleges — some of whom had never been to a race track before. PHOTO: COLIN WINDELL

HYUNDAI Motorsport heads into the six­week break with clear inten­ tions to refocus on its championship campaign after a tough weekend in Rallye Deutschland, the tenth round of the 2017 FIA World Rally Champi­ onship (WRC).

Despite being a home rally for the Alzenau­based squad, and a happy hunting ground for results in the past three seasons, none of the team’s three crews have had cause for cele­ bration on the past weekend at Bos­ talsee.

After suffering two punctures over the weekend, Hayden Paddon and Seb Marshall were the highest­ placed Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team pair, down in eighth place.

Dani Sordo and Marc Marti were put out of contention early on Friday morning after rolling down a bank, and forced to start again under Rally 2 on Saturday.

Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gil­ soul also had to make use of Rally 2 to re­join on Sunday morning, after they broke the left rear suspension of the Hyundai i20 WRC on Satur­ day’s opening stage.

Overall, it was an unrepresentative weekend for Hyundai Motorsport, although it ended on a positive as Sordo claimed Power Stage victory and five extra points towards his driv­ ers’ championship total.

That result gave Sordo a total of five stage wins, equal with rally win­ ner Ott Tanak.

Sordo said while the result wasn’t what they wanted, the Power Stage win shows what the pair might have achieved without our problems this weekend.

The 11th round of the 13­event WRC season is in Spain, from Octo­ ber 5 to 8, which will see the only gravel and tarmac mix of the season.

— Wheels Reporter,

Drama at Dezzi’s Baptism of fire for Bataleur team’s volunteer student crew COLIN WINDELL THE winning margin of four laps by the Greg Parton/Jaki Scheckter pairing in Drizit Lamborghini Huracan in the Mo­ par 3­Hour Endurance race at Dezzi Race­ way, Oslo Beach at the weekend, is per­ haps a touch flattering considering their prime opposition spent a long time in the pits after cooking their brakes.

The morning warm­up and qualifying pointed to a tense tussle between the Lamborghini and Franco and Silvio Scrib­ ante in their Chevron B26 — and the opening laps confirmed this with a hectic battle between the two cars with the Chevron just sneaking ahead before the brakes went.

Although they repaired the problem and both drivers threw everything they knew at the fight, the deficit was just too great and they had to settle for 10th place overall.

The opening lap sprint was brought to a 60 km/h caution halt when the Back­ draft Cobra of Mike McLoughlin/Duncan Day lost a wheel. This lasted for a couple of laps until racing got back to full speed and the initial battle for the lead en­ thralled spectators.

When the Scribantes went out, Jaki Scheckter set about building a command­ ing lead for the Lamborghini with his ma­ jor opposition now coming from the Honda­engined Ligier JS49 of Fritz Kleynhans/James Forbes, this car circulat­ ing faultlessly throughout the race to end up second overall and first sports proto­ type home.

The Backdraft Racing effort with both Cobra cars turned into a bit of a night­ mare with the red McLoughlin car return­ ing to the fray after the initial wheel loss, but then being sidelined with a loose elec­ trical connection, while the blue car was eventually taken out contention with a gear linkage problem.

Zimbabwean Darren Winterboer and Kris Budnik in the Barons BMW F30 335i were happy with the benefits provided by

Mike Schmidt had to make a quick exit from the Bataleur teams car as a split fuel line led to flames.

PHOTO: SCREEN GRAB problems ahead of them and settled into a comfortable third place they would keep to the end of the race.

They finished seven laps behind the leader to see Winterboer open up his over­ all Mopar SA Endurance Championship lead with another maximum points haul.

They were followed home by the Ar­ nold Chatz Racing Alfa Giulietta of Brad­ ley Scorer and Theo van Vuuren, which also had a trouble­free run for the dura­ tion.

With more troubles than practically ev­ eryone else combined, the fifth place achieved by the Bataleur Motorsport Nash MVW3 of Mike Schmidt/Bruce Av­ ern­Taplin was nothing short of remarka­ ble.

In practice on Friday, a severed fuel pipe caused a dramatic fire and the crew had to work late into the night to rebuild the race car. In practice and qualifying on the Saturday morning, it spent time back in the pits undergoing further repairs.

However, it ran perfectly throughout the race and weaved its way through the field from the back of the grid to finish fifth. This is all the more significant be­ cause the pit crew were all young engi­ neering students from nearby colleges — some of whom had never been to a race track before. In conjunction with spon­ sors Gedore and the Merseta, Mike Schmidt runs a programme at each circuit

where an initial batch of around 20 stu­ dents is whittled down to a five­person race pit crew. Former racer Alan Kernick runs a technical briefing on the Thursday prior to the race along with a “classroom” session on what the sport is all about.

“The programme is really working well,” said Schmidt, “and it is bringing new youngsters to the sport — some al­ ready having found places in teams racing in their area.”

Sixth place overall on the day went to Stuart Konig and Johnathan Konig in their Volkswagen Golf 2 GTi — three laps clear of Andy Gossman and Mike Bar­ baglia’s Volkswagen Scirocco, with Eric Salomon and Dave Sinclair (ELF S 06) a further lap adrift in eighth, ahead of the Scribantes, who deposed the Mike Alto­ na/Steve Pickering Porsche 910 to 10th on the final tour. Mike Verrier and Wayne Jardine (Shelby­Nissan), and Dewald Brummer/Bevan Williams (Volkswagen Golf 1 GTi) both limped home to score vital points in their respective competi­ tive championship chases.

On the Index of Performance, which measures the lap time consistency of competitors, the Budnik/Winterboer BMW triumphed over the Konig Golf and the Alfa of Scorer/Van Vuuren. The Schmidt/Avern­Taplin Nash was fourth ahead of Andy Gossman and Mike Bar­ baglia in a Volkswagen Scirocco.

The other left! Hyundai’s Dani Sordo and Marc Marti were put out of contention of the WRC Germany after rolling in a race that had few positives for the team. PHOTO: QUICKPIC

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Poulter on rest and recovery DEFENDING South African National Rally and Cross­Country champion Leeroy Poulter has decided to step away from motorsport for the remainder of the 2017 season.

The talented motor sportsman made the decision to fully recover from the brain surgery he underwent in 2016, to remove an anomalous growth.

While the surgery itself was a great success, Poulter has found the recovery more demanding than expected, and

Leeroy Poulter.

PHOTO: QUICKPIC has decided to focus on his health for the foreseeable future. “The team and I have discussed the matter in detail,

and while I’m certainly able to race, I realised that my body needs more time to fully re­ cover,” said Poulter.

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