In this program we have:
- Vfacts: Australian vehicle sales figures – The total market is down 8.4% (1:28)
- Iacocca, the last of the supreme auto bosses, defined his generation (2:23)
- Hyundai Motor Group Unveils World First CVVD Engine Technology (3:43)
- Bubbles, bleeps and Linkin Park: electric cars now have to make strange noises by law (4:54)
- Ford tackles last-mile delivery challenge with pedestrian couriers, algorithms (6:02)
- We discuss the passing of Norma Dewis who worked for Jaguar for many years and was said to be Britain’s greatest test driver (9:12)
- We have a chat to a bloke who owns a 1962 Holden utility while we were sitting in a 2019 Mitsubishi Triton. We couldn’t use his car because he wouldn’t take it out in the rain. (19:33)
- There are five motoring minutes
- Ford Ranger (7:10)
- Honda CRV (8:00)
- Subaru Eyesight technology (18:32)
- Local pollution (17:39)
- Genesis (26:12)
Car Sale Figures
Of the top 20 brands, only 3 have improved sales and only marginally – Kia by nearly 3% and Mitsubishi and Lexus by less than one percent
Toyota remains number 1 followed by Mazda and Hyundai. Ford is 5th – Holden is down to 10th total sales –
Luxury brands, in general, are struggling Audi in particular declined the most
Surprise package is MG (now owned by a Chinese company). Their sales are not huge, they are in 22nd place but only just below Volvo
Even SUVs and Utes are down although sales of electric, plug in electric and hybrid SUVs are through the roof.
Iacocca, the last of the supreme auto bosses, defined his generation
It is a measure of his impact that while he was the executive who brought in the first Mustang most of his obituaries give this only one paragraph.
He was the head of Ford but was sacked by Henry Ford II who gave his reasons as “sometimes you just don’t like someone.” Iacocca then went to Chrysler that was on the edge of bankruptcy. He negotiated a guarantee from the US government to last 7 years but he had it paid back well ahead of schedule.
At Chrysler he pioneered the mini van that become such a successful family car and he fronted the cameras in the company’s ads with expressions such as “If you can find a better car buy it”. This was at the time when there were many cars, especially from Europe that were better.
In his final year as CEO, Chrysler launched the Jeep Grand Cherokee, still a cornerstone of the brand.
Confident to the point of being arrogant, hard working, and dedicated Lee Iacocca died at the age of 94 from complications with Parkinson’s disease.
Hyundai Motor Group Unveils World First CVVD Engine Technology
Modern digital technology might have changed this, but small steps continue to happen in traditional technologies.
Hyundai has just announced a tweak to the internal combustion engine that , they claim, will give a 4% boost in performance, a 5% improvement in fuel efficiency and cut emissions by 12%.
At the top of the engine valves are opened and shut to let the fuel in and then the exhaust out. Variable valve timing has allowed cars to adjust when this happens to be suit the conditions such as gentle driving or strong acceleration.
Now Hyundai have worked out how to vary the duration of opening the valves.
They unveiled the new Continuously Variable Valve Duration (CVVD) technology as part of a new Smartstream G1 Engine, a 1.6 litre V4 turbo petrol motor.
Bubbles, bleeps and Linkin Park: electric cars now have to make strange noises by law
New legislation in the EU now requires that all hybrid and electric vehicles sold in the Union must be fitted with an acoustic vehicle alert system, which makes sound so pedestrians and cyclists aren’t caught unawares.
It is only for four wheeled vehicles so motor bikes and scooters are not requires to make an additional noise.
A vehicle only needs to make a noise if it is traveling under 12mph (just over 19 kilometres per hour or when reversing.
There are no specifications on what the sound should be,
Citroen’s stubby, cube like concept the Ami-One plays a cheery tune to announce its arrival, whereas Mercedes-Benz have commissioned the American Rock band Linkin Park to give its EVs a dose of rock. LInkin Park apparently adapte nu metal and rap metal to a radio-friendly yet densely layered style in its first two albums, but the band then explored other genres.
I could tolerate many sounds but anything other than Greensleeves.
Ford tackles last-mile delivery challenge with pedestrian couriers, algorithms
Having delivery vans doing a series of deliveries creates, congestion, pollution and takes up a lot of on-street parking spaces.
To address these challenges, Ford developed cloud-based multimodal routing and logistics software called MoDe:Link, which, in the London pilot, routed delivery vans to central collection points. From there, the so-called ‘last mile’ of the delivery process was handled by pedestrian couriers transporting parcels in trolley bags.
Parcel deliveries in London currently require around 300,000 van trips each day. Those vans spend 9m hours a year clogging up roads in the city. And parcel deliveries are set to double in the next decade as more customers order online and expect to get their packages quickly.
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Originally broadcast June 22 across Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) and Torque Radio affiliated commercial radio channels.