+++ European car registrations fell by 7.1% year-on-year in April, with an even sharper decline in DIESEL registrations. Registrations of new diesel engines in Europe declined by 15% last month compared with April 2016, according to research by market analysts JATO Dynamics. That suggests continuing concerns from buyers over the environmental impact of diesel engines, and the continuing fall-out from Dieselgate. The decline in diesel registrations mean that the fuel has lost its dominance of the European market, accounting for 46% of the market compared with 50% in April 2016. In total, 1.22 million cars were registered in Europe in April 2017. The 7.1% year-on-year drop was the largest monthly decline since March 2013. In contrast, overall registrations rose 10.8% year-on-year in March, totalling 1.98 million units. The fall in registrations was particularly sharp in ‘traditional’ car segments: registrations of compact cars fell 11.9% year-on-year, with MPV registrations dropping 21.3%. By contrast, the SUV sector continued to grow, with registrations rising 7.2%. Volkswagen remains the most popular car brand in Europe, with 136,475 registrations, although this was a year-on-year decline of 13.9%. The Volkswagen Golf was Europe’s best-selling car in April, regaining the spot it had held for 7 years before being overtaken by the Ford Fiesta in March. The Renault Clio was the second best-selling car, ahead of the Volkswagen Polo and Volkswagen Tiguan. The Fiesta dropped to 8th. +++
+++ Chinese company and financial backer of FARADAY Future, LeEco, has slashed 70 per cent of its workforce in the United States. The company’s current U.S. workforce once sat at about 500 staff, but 325 of those lost their jobs after widespread job cuts coming in the midst of a company-wide restructuring follow severe cash issues. LeEco’s U.S. staff first received word about potential cuts after being asked to attend meetings at the company’s locations in San Diego, Santa Monica and San Jose and were given the grim news shortly after. Under its new strategy, LeEco will shift focus to Chinese-speaking households in the U.S. and encourage them to watch its Chinese content library which has been referred to as the ‘Netflix of China’. No details have been given about whether LeEco will continue to back Faraday Future and/or push forward with its own autonomous car goals. +++
+++ Backing up a report from last month that the FORD Mustang was the best-selling sports car in 2016, Ford has released specific figures that detail how popular the car is proving to be in Europe. In 2016, a total of 15,335 Mustangs were sold across Europe in what was the first full year of local sales of the sports car. The model became the single best selling sports car in France, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Greece and the Czech Republic. In the UK, the Mustang is also very popular with 3,250 examples sold last year, placing it at the top of the sales charts for sports cars with over 250 hp. According to vice president of Marketing, Sales & Service at Ford of Europe, Roelant de Waard said “From the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, the Mustang has topped the sports car sales charts in markets across Europe. European customers continue to play a significant role in the global success of Mustang. The iconic sports car’s popularity with drivers of all ages and backgrounds shows no sign of waning: we sold 3,600 Mustangs in the region during the first 3 months of 2017”. Around the world, no less than 150,000 Mustangs were sold throughout 2016, a 6 percent increase over 2015. +++
+++ The European Commission has launched an investigation into plans by Slovakia to grant 125 million euro to JAGUAR Land Rover (JLR) to support the construction of a new plant in the country. The money from the Slovakian government had been promised to support JLR’s construction of a 1,2 billion euro factory in the city of Nitra. The plant, due to be completed in 2019, would have a production capacity of 150,000 cars per year. The 125 million euro subsidy, announced in May 2016, is the maximum aid that can be granted. EU state aid rules allow countries to support economic development and employment programmes in less developed regions, but hey must meet certain criteria to be approved. These include that state aid must promote private investment, be kept to the minimum necessary and not lure investment away from another EU member state. Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy, said: “It is a good thing if public investment fosters economic growth in Member States. However, we need to avoid harmful subsidy races between Member States. The Commission will carefully investigate if Slovakia’s planned support is really necessary for Jaguar Land Rover to locate its investment in Nitra and is kept to the minimum needed if it distorts competition or harms cohesion in the EU”. The Commission is also investigating whether other elements of the agreement are free from state aid. These include Slovakia’s transferral of land for the car plant to JLR, and exemption from a fee payable for converting agricultural land into industrial land. +++
+++ LAND ROVER has announced that a batch of new petrol and diesel engines will be added to the the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque later this year. At the same time, both cars will also receive new styling and trim options. The 2 SUVs are the latest beneficiaries of Jaguar Land Rover’s new Ingenium 4 cylinder turbo petrol engines. The base Si4 240 unit produces 240 hp and 340 Nm, replacing the similarly powered unit previously found in the Evoque. Land Rover says that the new powertrain is 15 percent more efficient than the engine it replaces. In the Evoque, it has emissions of 165 gram/km, while Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) levels are said to be improved. The flagship version of the same engine, the Si4 290, produces 290 hp and 400 Nm, enabling a 0-100 km/h time of 6,2 seconds. Both units are expected to be available solely with an automatic gearbox. There’s also a new twin-scroll turbo 240 hp SD4 diesel, which delivers up to 500 Nm. Elsewhere, the Evoque gains a revised body paint colour palette, and new sports seats with perforated leather can be specced. Finally, the Evoque Convertible can now be ordered In a cheaper SE Dynamic trim, sitting underneath HSE Dynamic. In the larger Discovery Sport, the new 240 hp petrol 2.0-litre emits 182 gram/km of CO2 while the 290 hp variant sees CO2 emissions rise to 186 gram/km. Land Rover only quotes a 0-100 km/h time for the more powerful unit, which does the sprint in 6.7 seconds. The 240 hp SD4 diesel is capable of the same sprint in 7.3 seconds, but emits 169g/km of CO2. It’s also automatic and four-wheel drive only. Customers selecting the higher-powered petrol will benefit from a Dynamic styling pack, with larger air intakes, gloss black inserts and 20-inch alloy wheels. New colour choices are also available across the range. Inside the Discovery Sport there’s new seats, redesigned to improve occupant comfort. All powered seats have also been upgraded to include four-way lumbar support. No prices have been announced for the updated models, however. +++
+++ German Chancellor Angela Merkel has broken ground on a new 500 million euro factory in Germany that is planned to assemble lithium ion battery packs for MERCEDES ’ upcoming line-up of EQ-branded electric cars as well as its Smart Electric Drive models, new electric commercial vehicles and future hybrid models. The new facility in Kamenz, Germany, is described as Europe’s first true electric car battery making ‘gigafactory’ and marks the second stage in a broader 1 billion euro investment made by Mercedes parent company Daimler in its Accumotive energy storage subsidiary as it prepares to enter the electric car ranks with its first unique styled EQ-badged model, previewed by the Generation EQ SUV, in 2019. Daimler hopes the establishment of the new plant will enable Mercedes to challenge electric car market leader Tesla, which is nearing completion of its battery Gigafactory in co-operation with Japanese electronics giant Panasonic in Nevada, USA, by providing the basis for a significant reduction in battery production costs together with increases in the energy density levels required to see the new generation of electric cars reach a promised range of 500 kilometers. “The automotive industry is facing a fundamental transformation”, said Mercedes chairman, Dieter Zetsche. “The battery factory in Kamenz is an important component in the implementation of our electric offensive. By 2022, we will have more than 10 purely electric passenger cars. We also continue to drive forward the hybridisation of our fleet. Under the EQ brand, we are creating a holistic ecosystem for e-mobility”. Accumotive produces battery modules using individual cells supplied by a number of different companies, including Samsung SDI and LG. Earlier plans by Daimler to produce its own cells were shelved when it shuttered its Litec battery development subsidiary in 2015. The new battery facility, which is located some 37 miles north of Dresden, in Eastern Germany, is scheduled to start production in mid-2018. Covering an area of around 20 hectares, it will quadruple the production and logistics of Accumotive’s current operations. As well as producing batteries for future Mercedes electric cars, Accumotive will also provide batteries for the company’s new 48-volt equipped models, starting with the facelifted S-Class this summer. Global battery production capacity is set to increase almost 3-fold by 2021, according to electric car industry analysts, reaching 278 GWh of capacity compared to some 103 GWh today. At the ceremony marking the start of construction of new Accumotive factory, Mercedes-Benz confirmed its upcoming line-up of electric cars would be produced “within the global network of Mercedes on 4 continents”. The first EQ model, the production version of the Generation EQ SUV, will roll off that line at Mercedes ’ plant in Bremen, Germany, in 2019. Additionally, the German car maker also confirmed luxury class EQ models will be produced at its plant in Sindelfingen, Germany. Mercedes-Benz expects electric cars will make up between 15% and 25% of its total sales by 2025. +++
+++ TESLA chairman Elon Musk has everything, and more. Like or loathe him, he’s smart, unpredictably brilliant, ridiculously wealthy, hard-headed, dangerously defiant and the bravest man in the motor industry. He seems a bit scary, too. And yes, this is a further compliment, as such a trait is imperative for anyone out to conquer the world. And that’s what Musk, 45, is doing. The motor industry (and the associated energy sector) needed a revolution, and it got one. Apart from the fact that no American or Asian motor industry entrepreneur is richer than him and his 14 billion dollar, Musk’s Tesla was recently declared the most valuable car maker in the States, with a market value of 50.88 billion dollar. Astonishingly, Tesla’s market capitalisation is now equivalent to 102,000 dollar for every car it plans to make next year, or 667,000 dollar per car sold in 2016. The like-for-like figure for General Motors is 5,000 dollar per car sold last year. If shareholders complain that he’s too much of a one-man band with not enough directors around him, he mockingly advises them to buy into Ford. Some financial experts insist that investing in Tesla isn’t advisable as, according to them, it’s a deck of cards waiting to collapse. Musk doesn’t lose sleep over this. His latest idea of a network of roads beneath cities is something I’ve proposed over the decades. Now he’s nicked it from me, my solicitor will be speaking with his corporate lawyers. Again, he won’t be worried. On a more serious note, America’s Consumer Reports organisation has gone from Tesla fan to doubter, after recently naming the Model X as one of the 10 least reliable vehicles. This is worrying, as is the proposal to hike Tesla production by almost 500 per cent by 2018. Impossible, I reckon. Especially after recent industrial action at the factory. Another concern is that Elon’s had no direct competition from premium brands such as Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes and Audi. That’s about to change, and remember these giants can build cars in the hundreds of thousands: Tesla hasn’t yet succeeded in making 100,000 a year. Brave souls such as Freddie Laker (cheap flights) and Eddy Shah (colour newspapers) were business pioneers, but ultimately failed and lost almost everything as rivals played a smarter, more patient game. I hope I’m wrong, but I fear Musk might go the same way, even if Tesla, under new ownership perhaps, is here to stay. Which it undoubtedly is. +++
+++ A revolutionary, British-designed digital VALVE train drive system called IVA, claimed to give petrol engines the driveability and economy of diesels but with more benign and manageable emissions, has been revealed by Leamington Spa-based technology firm Camcon Automotive. IVA, or Intelligent Valve Actuation, has been under development for the past 6 years, reaching a sufficient stage of maturity in bench tests for road trials to begin. IVA is now being offered to major manfacturers and component suppliers for development as an efficiency boost for use in both normal and hybrid cars. According to Camcon technical director Roger Stone, who has led IVA’s development from the start and describes himself as “a lifelong engine man”, the system allows valve lift, valve timing and duration to be independently and infinitely controllable. This breaks the previously unbreakable mechanical link between valve operation and the rotation of the crankshaft that has been a factor in all piston engine design for well over a century. IVA’s inventors describe it as a step-change in engine design that removes the last remaining analogue system, saying it is “probably even more important than the switch from points ignition to engine management, or carburettors to fuel injection”. With completely flexible valve actuation, there’s high potential for an engine to be configured entirely according to a driver’s needs, delivering extreme flexibility in lowspeed, low-load situations, with very high power when needed. The necessary compromises imposed by conventional camshaft timing, and by existing less advanced variable valve timing systems, are removed. IVA is especially adaptable to sophisticated cylinder deactivation; a likely further boost to efficiency. The key to IVA has been the development of a system of electromechanical actuators that sit on top of the engine, each driving a short camshaft that opens a valve or valve pair. In an experimental engine shown to Autocar, there are eight of these actuators and camshafts running across the engine, rather than along it. Valve drive is desmodromic (valves are positively closed as well as opened) and the opening/closing regimes are controlled by a management computer. This is currently housed in a large metal box atop the engine, and in production is likely to be linked to existing ECU functions. “IVA allows incredible control”, says Stone. “We can achieve full lift by rotating the camshaft through 360 degrees, or achieve any intermediate lift we like by rotating it part of the way and rotating it back again. It’s designed to fit pretty much any engine”. Camcon has already acknowledged technical help from Jaguar Land Rover, which is based nearby and is understood to be keeping tabs on developments. Camcon plans a programme of both test rig and road trials to test IVA’s durability and record real-world results, but commercial director Mark Gostick believes the system has already gone a long way to proving its durability. If adopted by a supplier in the Bosch or Valeo mould, IVA would take two to three years to reach production, Camcon believes, and has the potential to be developed in productive new directions beyond that. +++
+++ Chinese regulators have given the go-ahead for VOLKSWAGEN to form a joint venture with local company Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC Motor) to produce electric vehicles in the nation. China’s top state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, has given approval for 100,000 fully-electric vehicles to be built by VW-JAC Motor in a deal worth approximately 5.1 billion yuan (740 million dollar) annually. Volkswagen already has 2 joint ventures in China, one with FAW and another with SAIC. It says some final details need to be completed before it can sign its joint venture with JAC Motor but the latest deal forms part of the brand’s rapid push to become the market leader for electric vehicles. According to VW, it wants to sell 400,000 all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in China by 2020 in an attempt to meet strict local fuel economy and emissions regulations. +++