August 17, 2017
August 17, 2017
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Prototype 9 an instant classic A passionate and enterprising team of employees from across the Nissan Motor Corporation reimagined a forties race car and then built it with old production techniques. The Prototype 9 is the first Infiniti to be powered by a new EV powertrain — a 30 kWh highvoltage battery paired with a prototype electric motor, one not yet seen on a production vehicle. The motor produces 120 kW (148 hp) and 320 Nm of torque, sent to the rear wheels via singlespeed transmission to give the electric oneseater a top speed of 170 km/h and a 0to100 km/h sprint in 5,5 seconds. However, after 20 minutes of heavy track use, the batteries are empty. The Prototype 9 was unveiled at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. PHOTO: INFINITY
All hail the driverless taxi
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Huskies ahead at Harding, KTM king in cross country PEPSON Plastics Husqvarna Motorcy cles South Africa OffRoad duo Brett Swanepoel and Henco Botha did the team proud with a pair of great performances in the Harding Liquorland SA National Championship Enduro over the weekend, while Husqvarnasupported 125 High School rider Matt Green also delivered another brilliant result. KZN rider Swanepoel had a great race to end up second overall and second in the highly competitive E2 open class. “I was delighted with my pace today,” he beamed after accepting the silver med al. “I won a good few stages this weekend and my pace is as good as anyone’s now.” Botha meanwhile bounced back from his tick bite fever scare last time out to end up seventh overall and fourth in the hotly contested E1 250cc class. “That was a far better weekend for me, and almost a podium too,” he said. Green won his third race in a row as he took a clean sweep to win every special stage on the day when rode his Husqvarna TE 125 home to an emphatic Junior victo ry. “Harding was a weekend of high expec tations met with the delivery of great re sults,” Husqvarna Motorcycles South Af rica brand manager Fred Fensham said. In the SA Cross Country Moto, Ross Branch (Brother Leader Tread KTM) has secured the 2017 overall ti tle and the pressure will be on the rest to fight for the remaining podium positions and the final standings. Looking at the current overall standings in the motorcycle champion ship, Branch leads the overall and OR1 winner of the Harrismith 400, Ken neth Gilbert (Liqui Moly Racing Husqvarna), who did not score any points at the opening round, by 35 points. Swanepoel of Pepson Plastics Husqvarna missed the Harrismith 400 due to international racing commit ments, and is currently third — five points behind Gilbert, followed by Louwrens Mahoney (Brother Leader Tread KTM) — a mere four points behind Swanepoel. Tristan Purdon (Bidvest Blu Cru Yamaha Racing) rounds off the top five and is eight points behind the former multiple champion Mahoney. One has to keep
Brett Swanepoel at Harding. PHOTO: MOTORSPORT MEDIA in mind at the end of the season, only the points of the best five of the six events will count towards the final standings, meaning that riders who have completed and scored points at each of the six races, will have to drop their least amount of points. This means that behind Branch, the final podium standings and even the top five and the order further down as well as the standings in the various championships can still change de pending on the results of the sixth and final round of the season. Branch also leads the OR1 (Open) championship with Purdon some 30 points behind in second place, but Gilbert trails the motocross champion by a single point and this podium bat tle could still get very interesting. Ruan Potgieter (KTM) is fourth, 19 points behind Gilbert with Tim Young (Sherco Liqui Moly Racing) still fifth, only three points behind Potgieter. Mahoney claimed his first class vic tory of the season when he won OR2 (250cc) at the Harrismith 400. He now leads the OR2 championship and is six points ahead of Swanepoel, but the Drop Points system could play an important role towards the end of the season. Ruan Smith (KTM Centurion Liqui Moly Racing) kept his third place and is 17 points behind Swanepoel and 14 points ahead of Gareth Cole (KTM). — WRMotorsport Media.
BMWled alliance to develop selfdriving cars for ride hailing services gains momentum THE BMW alliance that is developing selfdriving cars was boosted twice yes terday. In San Francisco, Fiat Chrysler will join the alliance led by BMW to develop selfdriving cars, intensifying a race by carmakers and technology companies to develop “robotaxis” that can be called up via smartphone and paid for by the minute. In Beijing, Future Mobility Corp, a Chinese electric car venture that was cofounded by former BMW and Nis san Motor executives, has raised $200 million (R2,6 billion) from in vestors including China’s Suning and Fullshare Holdings in its latest round of financing. Auto suppliers Delphi Automotive and Continental have also joined the BMWIntel alliance. The alliance said it was on track to put 40 selfdriving test vehicles on the road by the end of 2017, and would learn from the 100 test vehicles to be deployed by Mobileye in the U.S. later this year. In China, most of Future Mobility’s funds will be used for product develop ment, said Daniel Kirchert, Future Mo bility’s president. He has previously worked at Infiniti China, Nissan’s luxury vehicle division,
SERVICE PLAN FOR ALL NEW SES’FIKILE TAXIS TOYOTA South Africa Motors (TSAM) will increase its support to the taxi industry with the introduc tion of a complimentary three year/60 000 km service plan for all new Ses’fikile taxis that are sold from August 1. With the service plan, taxi own ers and operators are assured of free safety inspections and com prehensive services with genuine Toyota parts for the taxi’s first 60 000 km. The service plan is in tended to support the industry’s viability and ensure the safety of taxi commuters. Andrew Kirby, president and CEO of TSAM, said the complimentary service plan will give all taxi own ers and operators the opportunity to keep their vehicles in perfect running condition for longer, and will support their efforts to oper ate profitable and sustainable busi nesses. As the largest supplier of taxis to the industry, Toyota has taken a number of steps to contain the price inflation of the Ses’fikile, giv en the deteriorating value of the rand and high local inflation rate. Toyota has also upgraded the vehicle seating; introduced more costeffective, locally sourced com ponents; kept the vehicle compli ant to all regulatory requirements and subsidised Ses’fikile service/re pair parts to the value of R5 mil lion per year. In addition, Toyota has invested more than R550 mil lion to date in the Quantum plant at its production facility in Durban, where production of the Quantum was localised in 2012.
Chances are no selfdriving BMWFiats robot taxi will ever park like this. The Fiat Panda 4x4 was launched in Durban on Monday. The Panda 4x4 sells for about R230k and the Cross for some R250k. PHOTO: QUICKPIC and BMW Brilliance Automotive. Future Mobility, which plans to launch three vehicles by 2022, has a pre mium midsize crossover SUV ready to go into the next “serious” phase of de velopment — that is preparing for pro
duction and sale in the world’s top two auto markets, China and the U.S., as well as in Europe, Kirchert added. In San Francisco, Fiat Chrysler (FCA) said it plans to put autonomous car technology into production by
2021, matching a timeframe shared by rival companies who are also develop ing selfdriving cars. BMW and its part ners, Intel and Mobileye, said FCA would bring engineering and other ex pertise to the deal, paving the way to
creating an industrywide autonomous car platform that other carmakers could adopt. FCA chief executive Sergio Mar chionne cited the “synergies and econ omies of scale” possible in joining the alliance. Marchionne has long argued that automakers must merge in order to survive the prohibitively high costs of making more technologically ad vanced vehicles. FCA is also part of a separate alliance with Alphabet Inc’s selfdriving unit Waymo to develop selfdriving cars based on Chrysler Pacifica hybrid mini vans. According to consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, selfdriving cars will make up about 10 to 15% of vehicles in Europe by 2030. Autonomous cars will allow carmak ers to disrupt the taxi market, which is run by fleet operators and ridehail ing firms. Without having to pay driv ers, ridehailing could become more cost effective and compete against oth er forms of transport including buses. Ridehailing services, which make up around 33% of the global taxi market, could grow eightfold to $285 billion by 2030, once autonomous robotaxis are in operation, according to Goldman Sachs. — Reuters,
Chinese investors back electric van for U.S. market CALIFORNIABASED electric vehicle company Chanje is the latest U.S.based start up to be backed by Chinese investors. Hong Kongbased FDG Electric Ve hicles and partners have invested $1 bil lion in developing and bringing the Chanje electric truck to market. Chan je’s first model, the V8070 electric de livery truck, already has volume orders and will be delivered later this year. “We really see this potential in the middle ground where everything you move in the city can be cleaner and qui eter, and we think Chanje has offered that solution,” CEO Bryan Hansel said. The Chanje (pronounced “change”) electric van, uses unibody architecture, making for a more comfortable ride than bodyonframe delivery trucks. Dual rear wheels help support its 2,7 ton payload, and each rear wheel is
The Chinese Chanje electric van is aimed at cities that have announced plans to ban diesel engines. PHOTO: SUPPLIED driven by a hub motor. Down the centre of the Chanje van
sits a 70 kilowatthour lithiumion bat tery pack. The dual motor system deliv
ers a peak 148 kW and 764 Nm. The Chanje vehicles have demon strated the equivalent of over 20 km/l in city and highway driving when tested by independent third parties. The battery pack only gives it 160 km of range, but according to Chanje that is well within the typical daily driving miles of urban delivery ve hicles. While the price of the allelectric commercial van has not yet been an nounced, Chanje is aims to make its first deliveries for this year, targeting corporations with truck fleets in big cities that want a more environmental ly friendly option. Hansel said if the cost of fuel and maintenance is factored in, the Chanje truck will compete with petrolpow ered delivery trucks, as well as Light speed’s turbineelectric trucks. — WR.
Electric bike aims for 350 km/h Makers of the world’s fastest allelectric motorbike, Lightning, this week aim to show how fast their latest LS218 hyperbike with full carbon fibre body work (shown) can go at the annual SpeedWeek hosted on the salt flats near Bonneville in the U.S. The company said in a statement Lightning’s new design has the potential to smash its own production bike world speed record of 350 km/h. PHOTO: LIGHTNING
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New wheel concepts blow off air, change braking TWO tyre manufacturers are quietly changing the wheel as we know it. Earlier this month, South Korean tyre manufacturer Kumho Tyre won a design award for its airless tyre con cept. Next month, German tyre maker Continental plans to launch its new brakepad system, especially designed for electric cars, at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Kumho’s airless tyre won the top award in the automotive and transport category of America’s International Design Excellence Awards (Idea). Called the “Birth On Nature” (Bon) tyre, the structure uses Voronoi pat terns — such as the shapes of leaf cells and honeycombs — instead of air to maintain structural stability.
with the tyre. The brake engages the disk from the inside to increase the contact surface area and braking per formance. Because electric vehicles do not use their brake pads often, relying on regen braking to slow down, the new pads are also rustfree and only the pads wear down, making replacing them cheaper. — WR.
Continental will show its New Wheel Concept during the Frankfurt Motor Show in midSeptember. The company said the concept brake pads are designed to capture the most
braking energy possible in medium and compactclass vehicles. The rim consists of two aluminum (Al) parts, the inner Al carrier star with the Al brake disk and the outer Al rim well
Kumho Tyre’s new tyre uses Voronoi patterns instead of air. PHOTO: KUMHO
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