Industry News
News for 18th April 2007
RMIF meets DfT to discuss national road pricing impacts
“The logistical implications of enacting a national road pricing scheme need to be fully considered before any action is taken,” said Alec Murray non-executive chairman of the Retail Motor Industry Federation, commenting on a meeting between the RMIF and the Department for Transport (DfT) held on 16 April to discuss the impact of the Government’s plans for cutting road congestion on the retail motor sector.
While no decision has yet been made on the tracking technology to support a national scheme, and none is unlikely to be implemented before 2015, in the short term, a number of different schemes may be implemented by local authorities interested in congestion control. There are 12 registered so far.
Murray continues: “Road pricing may seem like a good idea in theory, but if it were to be rolled out, how would vehicles be tracked? Would motor retailers and repairers be fitting aftermarket vehicle tracking equipment onto existing vehicles? Would manufacturers begin to include tracking devices in new vehicles? Who pays for fitting and maintenance? There is a potential role for the MOT testing network, but the industry needs more information than it has at present.”
- Speaking at the British Chambers of Commerce Annual Conference in London on Monday, Edmund King, Executive Director of the RAC Foundation, said the Government must start marketing road pricing as a solution to real problems, not just as another way of raising revenue from the road user.
King said no-one would buy “road pricing” – but they might be interested in subscribing to "UK DriveTime" as a package of solutions that motorists actually want. Motorists who opted into a "UK DriveTime" scheme could benefit from reduced fuel duty, congestion avoidance systems, up-to-date parking information, cheaper insurance and e-call technology, which pinpoints the car and calls the emergency services in the event of an accident. The technology to run such a scheme already exists and is being piloted in Oregon, USA.
Swiss team wins European business schools case study competition on DTI-aided OSCar FCEV project
In a two-day case study competition for European MBA students on the UK-based OSCar automotive project, organised by the Cranfield University-based European Case Clearing House last weekend, a team from Lausanne’s IMD business school emerged top among fourteen European business schools competing for the David Hall Trophy, followed by teams from UCD Michael Smurfit School of Business, Ireland in second place and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany in third.
Seventy MBA students from 24 countries descended on INSEAD’s Europe campus in Fontainebleau, France last Thursday evening to tackle a previously unpublished case study, based on the real-life OSCar hydrogen fuel-cell car development project, initiated by Briton Hugo Spowers, with DTI funding, and now in progress in collaboration with Morgan, Linde, Qinetic, and Cranfield and Oxford universities. The project features unconventional approaches to company structure and financing, ownership, investment, vehicle lifecycle and ownership plus open-source technology development, a first in the automotive sector.
Each team had to assess these diverse issues and devise appropriate investment strategies in a 2,500 word report. The case study was written by Dr John Constable, ex-Director of the Cranfield School of Management, who also chaired the panel of judges for the competition, which was sponsored by the Paris office of The Boston Consulting Group Europe.
Hugo Spowers, the originator of the OSCar project, said: “Some very experienced professionals have helped us get where we are, yet the insights of these business leaders of tomorrow was an amazing experience and will help us in the future.”
The European Case Clearing House (ecch) is the world’s largest single source of management case studies; run by academics for academics, ecch supports the development of case writing and teaching with workshops at institutions worldwide.
The case study in summary
The case describes the development of two hydrogen fuel-cell (HFC) powered car projects, LIFEcar and Hyrban, created by a former motor sports engineer, Hugo Spowers. The former project is developing a modified Morgan Aero 8, the latter is two-seater city car, whose initial series production units may be supplied to Chinese authorities in support of the Beijing Olympics.
The two projects are inter-linked in that the technology developments for the electric motors and control software and the hydrogen storage system, initially created for the LIFEcar, are also applicable in modified form, to the Hyrban. The Morgan car company, responsible for building the LIFEcar, is central to that project but has no involvement in separate OSCar development of the Hyrban city-car.
Spowers believes the Hyrban city-car has the potential to transform the industry. He has several revolutionary ideas about how a future automobile industry should operate. He believes in Open-Source design (OS) to attract the widest possible intellectual contributions to the project. The design should be freely available to any organisation wishing to build the city-car so long as it is prepared to accept the OSCar Design Foundation’s licence terms.
Cars should be leased and not sold, proposes Hugo Spowers; the ownership of the car would remain with the assembler and its suppliers, to create incentives for all parties to optimise the use of resources and to build products that had the longest possible life and the greatest possible reliability. The current economic model of the auto industry, namely to sell as many cars as possible, to persuade people to change their cars as frequently as possible and to make very high margins on spare parts sales, would be totally transformed.
Finally, Spowers wants to establish a company to build Hyrban cars that gives all participants – including investors, employees, suppliers and customers - a share in its success. Most significantly, this would remove the rights of shareholders to sell the company regardless of the interests of other stakeholders.
(www.ecch.com)
Ellesmere Port wins share of next GM compact car assembly
General Motors is to make a €3.1 billion (£2.1bn) total investment in building its next generation of compact (C segment) cars in Europe, with assembly planned in Germany, Sweden, Poland – and the UK, ending speculation about the fate of the 2,200 jobs at the Ellesmere Port assembly plant. Consultation is to begin with European and Belgian employee representatives on future production, in light of a planned reduction of current Astra production intended at Antwerp.
General Motors Europe yesterday announced its plan to allocate assembly of its next-generation compact-sized cars – Astras, under current nomenclature - to four manufacturing plants: Ellesmere Port, Bochum, Trollhättan, and Gliwice.
Production of the new vehicle, due to replace the existing Astra range in early 2010, is expected to involve a €3.1 billion investment and a 30% productivity improvement in each of the next car’s plants.
There are no plans to allocate compact car production to the Antwerp, Belgium, facility beyond 2010, though GM Europe says it is not talking about a plant closure, only that it has “to achieve the necessary improvements”. No decision has yet been taken on future production but GM says it will work on options for assembly operations at ‘fair volumes’ together with the European Employee Forum (EEF). GM’s Antwerp plant currently employs 4,500 people to produce the 3- and 5-door version, the station wagon and the convertible of the current-generation Opel Astra.
"Product allocations are extraordinarily difficult decisions to take," said Carl-Peter Forster, President of General Motors Europe. "All of our Western European plants have significantly improved over the past few years and are now very close in terms of the various measures of performance, such as cost, productivity and quality. In the end, it is a strategic decision based on a number of factors such as capacity planning, brand and market considerations, as well as ongoing restructuring activities."
Independent from future product allocations, current production at Antwerp is intended to be reduced in 2007, reflecting the normal diminution in demand over the current product’s lifecycle. GM Belgium is to begin consultations with employee representatives on staffing at Antwerp, where the elimination of the equivalent of a shift would require 1,400 fewer people.
Mr. Forster said: "I know that today’s announcements will be very difficult for our workforce in Antwerp. I want to recognize the contribution and performance of the entire team. We are committed to identifying a socially responsible approach to the intent to reduce the headcount later this summer by the reduction of production volume and to discuss alternatives for a fair transition beyond the end of the decade."
Mr. Forster added: "The automotive business remains very challenging and GM Europe must continue to focus on increasing productivity and efficiency in order to compete effectively. We plan for an annual production of 750,000 units of compact cars in Europe, which is an increase over the 535,000 produced in 2006. Even with an increase, adjusting capacity to meet demand remains a challenge for GM as it is for other automakers worldwide. We would like to start soon the preparation work with our teams in Gliwice, Bochum, Ellesmere Port and Trollhättan for the production of the next generation, which will require reduced assembly time and an increase in productivity of 30%."
Of those plants, Bochum currently employs 4,900 people, Ellesmere Port 2,200 people, Trollhättan 2,150 people and Gliwice 2,800 people.
Valeo Raytheon blind spot detection system wins 2007 PACE award
Valeo Raytheon Systems, a joint venture between Valeo and Raytheon, has received the automotive industry 2007 PACE Award in the product innovation category for its Blind Spot Detection System. The award, co-sponsored by Automotive News, Microsoft, SAP and the U.S.-based Transportation Research Center, was presented to Valeo at a ceremony at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit this week.
The system continuously monitors the rear blind spots on both sides of the vehicle. When a vehicle is present in either blind spot, the driver is alerted by a visible icon displayed in the side view mirror. By using multiple narrow radar beams to recognise objects in the blind spot, the system allows for unprecedented accuracy in determining the position and distance of the object as well as its relative speed and direction of travel. Blind spot detection sensor technology works in all weather conditions, and is invisible. Sensors are located on each side of the vehicle, behind the rear plastic bumper. The first vehicles equipped with the system will be available in North America and Europe this year.
The 2007 PACE Award is Valeo's third consecutive PACE Award – it also received PACE awards in 2006 for the StARS micro-hybrid system, and in 2005, for its lane departure warning system since installed on selected PSA Peugeot Citroën models.
Reynolds & Reynolds to repatriate offshore and outsourced projects
The U.S. automotive dealer IT systems supplier and DCS Automotive owner Reynolds and Reynolds has closed an offshore development facility in China and moved software and product development work back to the U.S. The company is also ending a number of outsourcing projects previously handled in India, and is instead recruiting programmers in its home country.
Reynolds and Reynolds merged with Universal Computer Systems (UCS) in October 2006, creating an automotive dealer services provider with more than 18,000 customers. The company provides automotive retailing solutions outside North America through its UK-based Kalamazoo and DCS Automotive operations.
(www.reyrey.com)
Electro Energy wins Frost & Sullivan Emerging Technology of the Year award
Frost & Sullivan has givenElectro Energy, Inc. its 2007 Emerging Technology of the Year Award in recognition of its bi-polar battery technology development designed to advance current nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and lithium ion (Li-ion) battery chemistries. Electro Energy's technology is distinguished by its ability to make cells significantly lighter, smaller, and more powerful than other battery constructions that use the same chemistry.
"Due to the elimination of additional components required to make the battery tabs and of the inter-cell connections typically used to connect the battery cells together, the bi-polar cell construction offers excellent cost and performance advantages," says Frost & Sullivan Director Sara Bradford.
As the current flows perpendicular to the contact surfaces in this technology, the current path is short and demonstrates exceptionally low resistance compared to traditional battery flow, which in turn, offers benefits such as simpler and lower heating during battery recharge and discharge. The travel time of the current through the cell and the subsequent battery pack or module is also much faster than in traditional battery design.
Electro Energy has launched both its small and large cells in the market for military and transport applications. In the automotive industry, Electro Energy is developing battery modules and packs for the plug-in hybrid vehicle market and as an initial step, has retrofitted a Toyota hybrid to become a true plug-in vehicle, and is looking to commercialise the technology as an aftermarket retrofit.
Electro Energy Inc., headquartered in Connecticut, was founded in 1992 to develop, manufacture and commercialise high-powered, rechargeable bipolar nickel-metal hydride batteries. Its Colorado Springs operation supplies aerospace-grade nickel cadmium batteries and components for satellites, aircraft and other specialty applications.
(www.frost.com, www.electroenergyinc.com)
