Car 01 (May 08 - Dec 12)

[winston]

It's Good to Know: 3 Ways to Prevent Static Fires at the Gas Pump

You probably know not to light up a cigarette when refueling your car. But there's another fire danger at the gas pump you may not be aware of: static electricity.

According to a survey from the Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI), most static fires occur when people return to their cars during the refueling process. You can pick up an electrical charge when sliding in or out of your car. Then, when you touch a metal surface - like the gas cap or the fuel nozzle - you can create a spark. The spark, in turn, ignites the fumes from the gasoline.

Approximately 100 static-related gas station fires occur each year, according to the research firm Fowler Associates - so your chances of being involved in one are slim. However, to keep yourself - and those around you - safe while filling your tank, the PEI suggests taking these three precautions:

1. Turn off your engine.
2. Don't smoke.
3. Never re-enter your vehicle while refueling.

[winston]

A little cayenne pepper sprinkled around your car's engine might keep it running smoothly this winter.

In previous e-Alerts I've told you about the healthy benefits of cayenne. Turns out, cayenne might help automotive health as well, according to a New York Times article about a fairly common car problem: rats.

For rodents, car engines provide a perfect refuge from the season's harsh elements. And this is no surprise to Gotham mechanics who frequently find that engine problems can be traced back to unwanted visitors. Rats must wear down their incisors by constantly chewing, and the plastic wires and tubing in car engines apparently provide the perfect chew toys.

But rats don't care for cayenne, so a little sprinkled in the right spots may send them in search of another car.

Of course, not every town has the rat problem of New York City, where some estimates place the rat population as high as 12 rats per human. But rats and other small animals that live in the desert have been known to cool off in the shady confines under the hood of a parked car. Many farmers and maple syrup producers are also familiar with the auto- rodent phenomenon.

A Manhattan mechanic told the Times that an old farmer's trick sometimes works to keep rats away: Hang a sock with mothballs under the hood (making sure the sock is placed well away from engine parts that move or become heated). The downside to mothballs is that the odor may find its way into the car.

[winston]

It's Fun to Know: The Presidential Limo

Barack Obama, like past U.S. presidents, will travel with airtight security. And that includes the heavily armored presidential limo. The exact details of the latest edition are classified, but here are some of the specs we know:

A Cadillac body built around a truck frame (Buy American!)
5-inch thick armor
Bulletproof windows
Chemical weapons protection
A 10-CD changer (you know, for road trips)
(Source: Wired)

[kennynah]

complete with showers for quickies on those long trips...

[winston]

Electric Vehicles

Several all-electric vehicles were on display in Detroit [in January], both from well known makers such as Mercedes-Benz, with its Blue Zero E-Cell concept car, and also from ambitious newcomers such as Tesla Motors, based in Silicon Valley, and BYD, a Chinese battery-maker that has branched out into electric cars in recent years.

Most makers talk of battery packs that take up to eight hours to charge and provide a range of around 100 miles, but BYD claims its "lithium ferrous phosphate" battery technology can provide a range of 250 miles with as little as three hours of charging.

Furthermore, BYD says its batteries cost roughly half as much as rival lithium-based designs. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, is sceptical: "No bloody way," he says.

But BYD is enticing enough for Warren Buffett to have invested $230m for a 10% stake in the Chinese firm. The legendary investor, at least, is convinced.

– The Economist

[winston]

The Only Roadblock to Plug-in-Vehicles by David Fessler

In this issue:
Obama's recent gas gauntlet throw down.
What's fueling the move to plug-in-vehicles.
The best battery technology, and who's making them.

Several weeks ago, I wrote here about how I believe natural gas makes sense as a bridging strategy to get us from oil over to electric as a source of energy to move us around. You can read my article on "The Gas Price Rollercoaster."

Of course, the most vocal proponent of this has been T. Boone Pickens, with his "Pickens Plan." Many have argued Pickens is only pushing the plan as a means for personal gain. I don't believe it, for several reasons:

First, Pickens isn't hurting financially. Quite the opposite: He has made a fortune in the oil business, and his personal net worth is estimated at around $3 billion. He's donated over $400 million to Oklahoma State University where he is an alumnus.

Second, I think he's one of those rare American business owners who truly wants what's best for America.

And now, Pickens is likely dancing in the streets: This week President Obama turned the EPA on its ear and told its new head, Lisa Jackson, to review and (likely approve) California's request for stricter tailpipe emissions than what's currently mandated under Federal law. This essentially reverses the roadblock/stalling techniques employed by the Bush administration, and opens the door for more strict emissions rules moving forward.

Obama made his position refreshingly clear after issuing the order: "Year after year, decade after decade, we've chosen delay over decisive action... rigid ideology has overruled sound science... and special interests have overshadowed common sense... My administration will not deny facts. We will be guided by them."

Obama also plans to raise miles per gallon targets to 35 MPG by 2020. Not particularly aggressive, but the carmakers will have trouble meeting it without major design changes to many of their models. True to form, U.S. auto companies are screaming like stuck pigs... faced with the grave reality of their situation.

Once the air clears (pun intended) and the whining ends, what you're likely to hear is how the big three automakers are rapidly ramping up their Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) research and development.

Make no mistake: The biggest roadblock for PHEVs is battery technology that can provide enough energy for 100 to 200 miles of driving before recharging is necessary. Everything else to make the car currently exists: efficient, high-torque motors; variable ratio transmissions; and strong, lightweight composite materials for the body and frame.

Benefits of PHEVs are blatently obvious:

Reduce - and in fact nearly eliminate - our dependence on foreign oil.

Greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Revitalize the American automobile industry (and companies that support it) when we need it most.

Provide thousands of jobs constructing the charging station infrastructure that will be required to support a national PHEV fleet of cars and trucks.

The creation of even more jobs to upgrade and expand our nation's power grid to get all the additional power that will be required to where it's needed.

Employ still more workers to construct solar and wind farms to generate the additional power required.
The PHEV Waiting Game

Clearly, the American automobile manufacturers have their work cut out for them with regards to PHEVs. Had they taken the long view three or four years ago on PHEVs instead of the short-sighted profit view of selling SUVs, we might already be there.

Now they find themselves in the difficult position of trying to survive the current credit freeze and consumer-spending shutdown that could easily last another 12 months. It's not clear at this point which - if any of them - will last long enough to be able to bring a viable PHEV design to market, although all three have announced they'll be introducing electric production vehicles in the next two years.

General Motors, with its Chevy Volt, appears to be the closest with an actual production model. But it is probably in the worst financial condition of the three. So we'll have to toss GM, Ford and Chrysler on the "don't" pile for now.

The real winners in the PHEV game will be the battery companies. They'll be tasked with supplying the high-power batteries necessary to get a decent size fleet of PHEVs rolling down the nation's highways.

Right now, the most promising technology that seems like it can provide the power densities required for the 100 to 200 mile target commuting range is Lithium-Ion. Car companies are already running test vehicles using lithium batteries, but cost is still an issue, and they're coming up a little short on the range.

But they'll get there: I believe that the power density issue will be solved within the next 12 to 18 months and manufacturing costs will be driven down by advanced yet-to-be-developed mass-production techniques.

So who's in the battery business? EnerSys (Nasdaq:ENS) is one of the largest manufacturers, marketers and distributors of industrial batteries. From submarines to spaceships - and everything in between - EnerSys has a battery technology to fit the application. It also makes the charging and power equipment as well.

Last Fall, the company launched its EcoSafe line of batteries designed for renewable energy storage applications. Targeted towards the wind and solar energy generation markets, this product line should see significant growth under President Obama's energy initiatives.

It's also working with a number of niche players to develop a Lithium-Ion line of batteries specifically targeted to the PHEV transportation market.

Based on comments he made this past Monday, Obama seems completely tuned in to our energy issues: "At a time of such great challenge for America, no single issue is as fundamental to our future as energy. It falls on us to choose whether to risk the peril that comes with our current course or to seize the promise of energy independence. And for the sake of our security, our economy and our planet, we must have the courage and commitment to change. I cannot promise a quick fix."

I agree. But if we don't get started, we'll never get there. We'll be watching.

[Musicwhiz]

I'm surprised that there are still people out there (man on the street types) who can afford to buy a car after the worst recession in 70 years..... I personally know a few.

Jan 10, 2010
Buyers cool to hot deals on wheels
Firms slash prices but many cars on the road are new and owners are hobbled by loans
By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent

A huge poster promoting discounts at Borneo Motors' Toyota showroom in Leng Kee Road. The company explains that the promotion is in response to heightened competition from Korean and European car brands, as well as a weak car market caused by the recession. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM

A movie screen-sized poster outside Borneo Motors' Toyota showroom advertising a $6,000 discount on the Corolla seems, at first glance, nothing out of the ordinary.

Just another sales promotion car companies are known to launch every now and again.

But it is actually quite telling of the unusual times the motor industry is facing.

In percentage terms, the $6,000 discount works out to be 9 per cent to 11 per cent off each car, effectively shaving profit margins to the bone. It is also Borneo's fiercest price slashing since the Asian financial crisis in 1998.

Toyota is Singapore's top-selling brand, and the Corolla is a best-selling model which is still relatively new.

That Borneo Motors deems it necessary to sacrifice a sizeable slice of its profit to fuel sales of this car - and at the start of the year - is a reflection of the duck in the pond syndrome: Calm and serene on the surface but paddling frantically underneath.

Borneo explains that the promotion - which is extended to the Vios and, in varying degrees, to other models - is in response to heightened competition from the Korean and European brands, as well as a weak market.

There is more to the second reason that meets the eye.

The weakness of the market is pandemic. Worldwide demand for cars took a steep dive last year because of the recession.

Even if it appears now that the economic storm has blown its worst, car markets are not quite where they used to be. The so-called 'cash for clunkers' schemes initiated by governments in several countries to fuel demand for new cars were effective only up to a point. Buyers attracted by the schemes tend to buy smaller, cheaper models.

Toyota Motor, forecasting an operating loss of 350 billion yen (S$5.3 billion) for the year ending March 2010 (its first loss in more than 50 years), has to move cars and move them fast.

In Singapore, the brand still has a standing undiminished by recent recalls in America and Japan. Despite the tough conditions, Toyota maintained its pole position in the sales race for the seventh year running last year.

But going by its aggressive sales blitz, even this market leader is finding it harder these days to sell.

Borneo's campaign, launched on Christmas Eve, has gone largely unchallenged simply because of its sheer audaciousness - until this weekend.

Companies which have joined the fray include Mazda Singapore, which cut prices by between $4,500 and $6,000. Volkswagen Centre Singapore took $4,000 off the Golf 1.4 TSI, selling it for $86,800; and $8,000 off the Beetle, offering it at $73,300.

Will consumers bite? Going by the initial response to Borneo's bait, yes - but with nibbles rather than gulps.

The Sunday Times understands that as sizeable as its discounts were, Borneo experienced a mere 20 per cent increase in orders in the first week of the campaign.

With widespread discounts now making news headlines, sales will cruise along - but at no small cost to profitability of companies offering them.

Like consumers in most other markets, motorists in Singapore have put the brakes on car buying. That is clearly reflected in COE prices. Despite a 27 per cent reduction in supply of certificates last year, premiums have not soared but risen in small measured steps.

The latest tender which ended last Wednesday actually attracted fewer bids than the one on Dec 23, when many Singaporeans were out of town.

Is Singapore's long love affair with the car finally over? It would seem so at this point, at least temporarily. If so, there are two underlying reasons for the doused passion.

One, the massive supply of COEs in the last few years has created a market that is 'oversold'. The cohort of first-time owners has soared. And existing vehicle owners who wanted a new ride had already bought one.

As a result, about 80 per cent of cars here are below four years old, making Singapore's car population possibly the youngest in the world. Hence, replacement demand has fizzled.

Two, many of those who bought in the last two to three years have taken bigger car loans than before. According to industry sources, a sizeable number of these loans will break even only from the seventh year onwards.

That means if the borrower sells his car any earlier, what he owes the bank will likely be more than what his car can fetch - despite slightly better resale values on the back of creeping COE prices.

Citigroup economist Kit Wei Zheng pointed out that while the overall consumer sentiment should improve this year on the back of a better job market, there are other factors that might offset the demand for cars.

'Home prices have been rising faster than income, so people will have less to spend on other big- ticket items,' he said.

And that explains why Borneo Motors is paddling harder than usual, right before the start of a new year. Its $6,000 discount was supposed to have ended last Wednesday, but it has decided to extend it, at least till Jan 20.

[email protected]

Lacklustre sales

Will consumers bite? Going by the initial response to Borneo's bait, yes - but with nibbles rather than gulps... As sizeable as its discounts were, Borneo experienced a mere 20 per cent increase in orders in the first week of the campaign.

[millionairemind]

haha... if you have a job that pays well (at least 6K a month), Y not??

[winston]

I'm surprised that there are still people out there (man on the street types) who can afford to buy a car after the worst recession in 70 years..... I personally know a few.

They were smart enough to buy Equities, Commodities and Properties in March 2009

[millionairemind]

Jan 16, 2010
Car population up
Squeeze on COE supply pulls sales down by 30% but fewer cars scrapped or exported

NEW car sales slowed by nearly 30 per cent last year on the back of a big cut in COE supply. According to Land Transport Authority data, 68,862 new cars rolled off showroom floors last year, 29.3 per cent fewer than in 2008 and the lowest number in seven years.

But because far fewer cars were scrapped or exported, the car population grew despite the drop in sales. Car numbers rose by 4.8 per cent to 566,608 by end-December, busting the Government's 1.5 per cent growth cap.

Overall, the vehicle population inched upwards by 3.4 per cent to 925,518.

Car owners have put the brakes on buying - choosing to hold on to their current vehicles - in recent years. Reasons include the financial turmoil that gripped the world from the second half of 2008 to late last year, as well as the huge loans that many had incurred on cars between 2003 and 2008.

As 80 per cent of cars here are below four years old, dealers said there is naturally a lower demand for replacements, which in turn reduced the supply of certificates of entitlement (COEs).

This contrasts with sales only 10 years ago when Singapore motorists were trading in their vehicles which were as new as two years old.