January 25, 2018
Witness
WHEELS
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SA rookie driver comes out tops in what veterans call the toughest edition of the Dakar race yet. — Page 4
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Allterrain folding wheel Potholes are no problem on these bicycle rims ALWYN VILJOEN In 2013, we devoted this front page to the expanding wheel de signed by Malawian Ackeem Ngwenya, then a masters stu dent at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College in London. Ackeem had set about to rein vent the wheel by doing away with the road and called his de sign a “Roadless Wheel”. His aim was to make a wheel that could be thin to slice through mud, or thick to spread its weight over sand — all to make it easier for people in his rural village to push heavy wheelbarrow loads to their homes. German designer Andrea Mocellin had a similar altruistic motive when he decided to also reinvent the wheel by making one that can fold into a smaller shape. Three years and countless models later, he has patented a 26inch wheel that collapses to less than one third of its height into a large rugby ball that can easily be stowed. When unfolded, magnets en sure the wheel keeps its round shape, and Mocellin said he spend a lot of time to make sure the overlapping segments of the wheel run without bumps.
Ackeem Ngwenya with his expanding wheel. PHOTO: FILE He used airless tires which he said are “entirely comfortable in every condition” and added the tread pattern can be altered for different surfaces. While he is already working on a folding bike to ride on this wheel, Mocellin told New Atlas he hopes his patent will be used on wheelchairs, whose occu pants always worry about dam age to their wheels when stow ing them on a train or bus. “People with disabilities who wish to travel have no choice – they must take their wheelchair with them, and travelling with a wheelchair is very difficult, be it on an aircraft, or in a car, on the underground, anywhere. “Helping people with disabil ities to have an easier life is one of the key goals of the project, and I expect that once the in ventors of the world have seen
the components I have devel oped, there will be some ingen ious solutions developed in short order.” He said applications for his ideas also include any type of ve hicle that has to transported to its place of work, like land drones bike carts, trolley and even cool boxes that need higher wheels to move over rough surfaces, but small wheels when stowed. But a folding bicycle is the next main aim. “ At first, my goal was to devel op the wheel to the point where it worked perfectly, and now I have a final prototype that works, my next stage is to devel op the folding bicycle to work just as well as the wheel.” Mocellin himself has big plans for an ingenious bike that folds down to scooter or a trolley. “I many times got really an noyed with existing folding bikes because when they are small and light, they invariably have small wheels, and that severely limits what they can do. “In an urban environment, there are gutters and steps and cracks in the pavement and ob stacles that are a problem for small wheels ... and I also wanted the speed and practicality of a large wheel. • alwyn.viljoen@witness.co.za
German designer Andrea Mocellin plans to built a bicycle with 26inch wheels that can drop down to become a stand on scooter with the wheels collapsed into their eggshape and fitted with side wheels, or even fold up to be taken on buses or trains. PHOTO: MOCELLIN
This 26inch wheel collapses into eggshape ball that can be fitted with side wheels and used to roll other devices, like standon scooters or even a cooler box. PHOTO: ANDREA MOCELLIN
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January 25, 2018
VW chooses Rwanda to pilot ride sharing app KIGALI — Volkswagen Sub Saharan Africa has opened Volkswagen Mo bility Solutions to roll out VW’s inte grated automotive mobility solution in Rwanda. Thomas Schaefer, chairperson and MD of Volkswagen Group South Africa, said the group had in Decem ber 2016 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Rwanda De velopment Board to conduct a de tailed study to develop a business case for Volkswagen to introduce an integrated automotive mobility con cept in the country, which would be a first for Volkswagen worldwide. “Our studies are complete, we be lieve that we have a business case that will work and we are now ready to commence with the implementation of our plans for Rwanda,” Schaefer said at the media briefing. Schaefer said VW chose Rwanda as the country in Africa to study the feasibility of an integrated automo tive mobility solution because of tis political stability and zero tolerance for corruption, plus economic growth of some seven percent per an num. Volkswagen also has signed an MOU with the CFAO Group — which specialises in distribution in Francophone countries — to run the production and retail operations, which will include the importation of other Volkswagen models to be sold on the Rwandan market. Volkswagen has other successful partnerships with CFAO, including the running of the production facili ties and retail operations in Kenya. The Volkswagen product portfolio
will initially include the hatchback Polo, the Passat, a sedan and possibly the Teramont, a large SUV. The current business plan as sumes employment of between 500 and 1 000 people in Kigali in phase one for Mobility Solutions admin, production, training, sales and ser vice and the drivers. Rwandan software development startup company Awesomity Lab has been appointed to develop the mobility app. Volkswagen is also in negotiation with other potential Rwandan suppliers. The first service to be offered will be community car sharing, which will launch in April, with around 150 vehicles in service within a few months. This will be followed by a ride hail ing service with some initial 150 vehi cles planned in the medium term still in 2018. In 2019 VW plans to launch a public car sharing scheme with 250 cars, to be followed by a shuttle ser vice and lastly a peertopeer car sharing service is envisaged. Schaefer said these numbers are based on assumed market demand, as such an innovative integrated mo bility solution is a first for the auto motive industry. All the mobility services will be ac cessed by the app through which all bookings and payment will be made. Services will also be able to be booked online or via a hotline to ca ter for people who do not have a smartphone. Schaefer said some US$20 million will be spent in Rwan da by VWSA during phase one of the project. — Wheels Reporter.
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After Witness Wheels proved the little Fiat Panda Cross can do farm tracks as well as any doublecab, our pensioner correspondent Dr Rob Rathgeber took it to the beach with the KwaZuluNatal Sharks Board to help inspect the nets, and found the quirky Italian job does soft sand with equal aplomb. Selling for just under R250k, this little allwheel drive promises to gets its owner to places in comfort and en route its 66kW, 145 Nm mill will wring some 16 km from every litre of petrol. PHOTO: MIKE READE
Fiat boss warns car builders Seismic shift coming in how cars are powered and owned TOMASSO EBHARDT and CRAIG TRUDELL SERGIO Marchionne, one of the longestserving CEOs in the automotive industry, has a blunt warning: Carmakers have less than a decade to rein vent themselves or risk being commoditised amid a seismic shift in how vehicles are pow ered, driven and purchased. Developing technologies like electrification, selfdriv ing software and ridesharing will alter consumers’ carbuy ing decisions within six or sev en years, the Fiat Chrysler Au tomobiles NV chief executive officer said in an interview in Detroit, ahead of this week’s North American International Auto Show. The industry will divide in to segments, with premium brands managing to hold onto their cachet while mere peo pletransporters struggle to cope with the onslaught from disruptors like Tesla and Goo gle’s Waymo. “Auto companies need to quickly separate the stuff that will be swallowed by commod ity from the brand stuff,” Mar chionne said. Marchionne has witnessed major changes already leading Fiat for almost 14 years, over seeing the combination with Chrysler in 2014 and the 2016 spinoff of Ferrari NV. The 65yearold executive,
‘Auto companies need to quickly separate the stuff that will be swallowed by commodity from the brand stuff.’ who studied philosophy and law before finding his way into the auto business, is known as an iconoclast, trying to force mergers and backing away from massmarket sedans to focus on SUVs —a shift others are now emulating. Outside forces at work While the car industry has al ways been tough — Chrysler and GM both went bankrupt during the financial crisis — in the past the mistakes were self induced, Marchionne said. Now the tumult is being driven by outside forces, and it’s coming faster than people expect, he said — a surprising view, given that Fiat is per ceived to be behind some competitors in adapting. He said the company is po sitioned well, and rather than pour money into competing with Silicon Valley, the indus try should try to identify the best solutions coming from tech companies and reduce its exposure to products that ar en’t going to be easily defend ed. “This business has never been for the fainthearted,” Marchionne said. “The tech
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Jeep has introduced what it billed as the most capable Cherokee yet at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show. An advanced twolitre di rectinjection inline fourcyl inder engine will sound puny to Americans who think a V6 is a small engine, but Jeep said the new mill will
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nology changes that are com ing are going to make it proba bly more challenging than it’s ever been.” Marchionne reckons, for ex ample, that by 2025, fewer than half the cars sold will be be fully combustionpowered, as petrol and diesel give way to hybrid, electric and fuel cell drivetrains. Still a place for muscle cars Marchionne said there are op portunities to be had. Fiat, for example, could eventually operate a rideshar ing service that makes use of its dealer network, he said. Before he leaves, Mar chionne said he’ll continue the brandbuilding push at Jeep, aiming to more than double the number of vehicles pro duced under the offroad nameplate each year. Fiat is also on track to elimi nate its debt this year, he said. At Dodge, the focus has nar rowed to muscle cars like the Charger and the Challenger, while more runofthemill models were dropped. He is also expanding Ferra ri’s lineup with SUVs to boost
profit. (While Ferrari is inde pendent, its biggest owner re mains the Agnelli family who founded Fiat and retain the biggest stake.) The brand he oversees that’s most vulnerable to com moditisation is Fiat itself, Marchionne said. He will fo cus on the sporty 500 family, while bread and butter sedans that compete with PSA Group’s Opel and Peugeot brands face a harder road in the long run. The Jeep plans in particular have helped to boost investor confidence in Fiat. Marchionne said Fiat has also made more progress to ward the new era than the mar ketplace appreciates. He cited the recent alliance with BMW AG, Intel Corp. and others, which will yield a common platform for self driving cars. Fiat also plans to offer a hy brid version of the Jeep Wran gler in 2020, which he called part of “normal develop ment” that didn’t require a prominent proclamation. The next fiveyear plan, due to be released on June 1, his 14 year anniversary at the Fiat helm, will cover these matters. It will be up to the next CEO to carry out the plan, he said — who will be one the internal candidates who are now work ing on it, as he plans to step down by then. — Bloomberg.
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WitnessWheels MOTORING
January 25, 2018
Dakar’s fastest rookies SA duo emerge first from the dust SOUTH African duo Hennie de Klerk and Gerhard Schutte last week end gave the dreams of other aspir ing racers a boost by winning the rookie category of the 40th and toughest Dakar yet in their madein SA, Fordpowered, TreasuryOne Amarok. The Pretoria crew were ecstatic, al beit totally exhausted as they mount ed the finishing ramp in Cordoba, Ar gentina, in the incredible culmina tion of a fiveyear dream. A former track racer and now CEO of TreasuryOne, a financial services provider that has Reserve Bank au thorisation to act as a foreign ex change intermediary, De Klerk sought advice on how he should go about tackling the Dakar and was told to go and race the local cross country championship, which he did. He gained experience and last year built the TreasuryOne Amarok. The Ford V8powered machine was con ceived with one mission in mind — to finish the Dakar. Then in June last year, De Klerk won the Dakar Chal lenge award in the Toyota 1000 Desert Race in Botswana, a prize which covered Dakar’s entry fee and the cost to get the Amarok to and from South America to compete. From there it was a blur as the team prepared flat out to ready the bakkie to leave in November, before jetting into Peru for the start at La Paz. For the Dakar, De Klerk teamed up with a formidable codriver in Ger hard Schutte, popularly known as “MacGuyver” in cross country cir cles. Schutte brought the necessary Dakar experience to the team, having had a major part in getting his car to the finish the Taklimakan Rally in China — a 13day race using Dakar navigational standards last year. The TreasuryOne team’s objectives were simple — to stand on the podium at the finish at Cordoba, but little did they know that this would end up be ing recognised as one of the hardest Dakars ever — perhaps the toughest yet in the 10 years the race has run in South America. The race started well for De Klerk and Schutte and by the second day’s racing they sat 34th overall, but Da kar bared its teeth on Wednesday’s third day as the duo lost time looking for an important waypoint before they experienced brake and power steering issues that saw them spend ing nine hours in the stage. But they were not the only ones in trouble in a Dakar that this year saw more than half of the entries fall by the wayside, and when they stum bled into the camp that night, they were 32nd overall and leading a tight dice for an unexpected rookie lead in to the rest day. Saturday’s sixth and the first day
of a noservice marathon stage, how ever, proved the team’s nemesis as De Klerk struck a rock in thick dust be hind a T5 truck. That was when Schutte showed why he is called after the character that can fix anything with anything came, pulling off a minor miracle to get the TreasuryOne Amarok going again with a little help from De Klerk and an eager band of locals. They lost 10 hours and were un lucky to incur an extra fourhour pen alty for being just six minutes late in to the impound, but the Treasury One guys were still in the Dakar, in 36th overall and third, albeit well back in the rookie race. They took it easy on Sunday to make sure the roadsiderepaired Am arok finally reached service, but one of their rookie rivals retired and the other lost several hours. Monday was cancelled due to bad weather and the team had a good run on Tuesday and Wednesday, in spite of an accident with a fourwheeler hidden over a dune, causing yet an other allnighter for the crew to fix the damage. Although fighting off the challen ges of exhaustion, they enjoyed an other positive day on Thursday to re take the rookie lead as their main ri vals there had a difficult day in the dunes, before avoiding all the trouble so rife on Friday’s cruel 13th day to bring it home 28th overall, leaving only the WRC stage in to realise that dream in Cordoba on Saturday after noon. They took it easy to the finish and duly parked the TreasuryOne Ama rok with its Ford V8 engine (and a Hilux headlamp too) on the Dakar finishers’ podium to realise an in credible dream. Fortythree of the 95 cars that started finished the race and only two of the 16 rookies made it through. De Klerk and Schutte were ecstatic to deliver on their aim of finishing the Dakar on debut, but they did not expect to be a major factor of the rookie race throughout the two weeks of Dakar, let alone win the rookie race to Cordoba. “I am lost for words, an ecstatic De Klerk admitted. “We came here to finish and that’s what we did — the rookie win is a huge bonus and I’d like to dedicate it to my team and our incredible crew, our family, friends and fans who have supported us so brilliantly all the way. “The Dakar has been an astound ing experience — an absolute test of man and machine across the tough est roads and terrain in the world and we have done it. We are so proud on what is proving to be a very special day for South Africa at all levels!” — Motorsportmedia.
“We came here to finish and that’s what we did — the rookie win is a huge bonus and I’d like to dedicate it to my team and our incredible crew, our family, friends and fans ...”
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Dakar rookie winners Gerhard ‘MacGuyver’ Schutte and codriver to Hennie de Klerk on the TreasuryOne bakkie — which is an Amarok outside, a Ford V8 under the hood with a Hilux’s headlamp. PHOTO: MOTORSPORTMEDIA
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