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JLR’s connected assistant aims to revolutionize personal transportation

Jaguar Land Rover has released information on some pretty interesting tech that it has been working on. It’s touted as an ‘intelligent and connected’ steering wheel that aims to revolutionize the future of mobility.

The device, fittingly, resembles a futuristic square-shaped steering wheel that rests on a circular stand. Similar in function to Amazon’s Echo and Google Home voice assistants, this device is home to JLR’s voice-activated AI assistant called Sayer.

According to the automaker, users will be able interact with it through voice commands, enabling Sayer to carry out hundreds of different tasks. For instance, Sayer could signal your membership of JLR’s on-demand service club.

This club allows for either sole vehicle ownership or the option of sharing your car with others in the community. Putting this into perspective, once autonomous vehicles are legalized in your country, Sayer will act as your transportation liaison officer.

If you don’t own a vehicle, Sayer can call upon the vehicle of your choosing and schedule it to show up at your doorstep at the stipulated pick-up time. This summarizes JLR’s vision of future mobility. A steering wheel could be the only part of a car that you might ever own.

Here’s a scenario that the automaker thinks will help play out Sayer’s true value:

“Need to be at a meeting two hours away from home by 8am tomorrow? Simply ask Sayer from the comfort of your living room and it will work out when you get up, when a car needs to autonomously arrive at your door and even advise which parts of the journey you might enjoy driving yourself.”

Considered a well-sculptured art piece, Jaguar Land Rover’s intelligent steering wheel of the future, is designed to blend in with the rest of your future smart home’s decor.

And the intelligent assistant that resides in it was named after Malcom Sayer, one of the automaker’s most prominent designers who worked with the British marque from 1951 to 1970.

This interesting piece of tech will be showcased at the inaugural Tech Fest at Central St Martins art, design and technology college in London, UK. It’s an event that is open to the general public from 8th to 10th September to witness innovative tech creations.

Ford introduce Ranger Black Edition for Europe

Ford unveiled an exclusive Black Edition of its ever popular Ranger at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It’s based on the European market’s Limited Series variant that comes with a unique colour scheme and a plethora of features that set it apart from the base vehicle.

This particular Ranger comes with de-chromed body in Absolute Black with a black finish for the radiator grille, alloy wheels, sports bar and exterior detailing. Adding to this level of exclusivity, only 2,500 examples of this variant will ever be produced. And all of them will be offered with the Double Cab body-style only.

Besides this, the Black Edition is fitted with satellite navigation, front parking sensors and rear view camera, Ford SYNC 3 multimedia system with 8-inch touchscreen, dual-zone electronic climate control, leather seat trim, and power-folding as well as heated door mirrors.

Speaking of the latest addition to the stable, Hans Schep, general manager, Commercial Vehicles, Ford of Europe, said, “Ranger customers appreciate the vehicle’s tough, go-anywhere capability and its rugged good looks, and we expect this attractive new limited series to be snapped up within weeks.”

In Europe, the Ford Ranger is the top selling pick-up truck as of July 2017, which also marks an increase of 12.1% in sales for the automaker. It managed to shift 23,100 compared to the same period last year.

It’s a similar story in Malaysia, despite fierce competition, the Ranger is still one of the favorites because of it what it is able to offer local customers.

BMW makes sourcing for parts a leisurely affair

A trip to the workshop has become a little less cumbersome for BMW owners in the UK. The reason for this is rather revolutionary, because BMW Group UK has launched a new digital shop, allowing customers to purchase BMW and MINI Parts, accessories and lifestyle products online.

Those wanting a certain part for their vehicle, need only select their vehicle model or enter their VIN number online, to browse the automaker’s online parts’ inventory. This can be done with any web browser on a computer or mobile device.

BMW and MINI customers with a myBMW account can access this service easily by using the same login credentials as other BMW services such as ConnectedDrive. Once the desired product/part/accessory has been selected, customers can choose their preferred collection point as well (BMW retailer).

Adding to this impressive service, customers will also be able to track their items while in transit to the desired location. Payments for items that are purchased online can be made using PayPal, 3D Secure credit and debit cards.

The BMW Group and its subsidiary brands have a slew of products on offer ranging from lifestyle apparel to Motorsport memorabilia. MINI has one of the most extensive product portfolios of the lot with a collection that spans articles of clothing to bags, cases and other items.

Unlike many automakers, BMW believes that the relationship between it and a customer doesn’t end once the keys are handed over. Instead, they believe that its a lifelong bond that is cultivated by allowing customers to own more than just a set of wheels.

As useful as this service is, it seems to only be available for customers in the UK. But we are sure that many Malaysians would appreciate having such a service in our country as well. It would require a lot less effort to source for parts if BMW Malaysia is able lend us a helping hand.

Subaru USA claims August as best sales month in company’s history

Subaru USA has reported that August 2017 has been its best sales month in the company’s history. It stated that 63,215 vehicles have been sold in that month which accounts for a 4.6% increase compared to the same period last year.

This marks the first time that the automaker has managed to shift this many vehicles in one month. The previous sales record was in December 2016, when the company sold 63,177 vehicles in total.

This has helped bolster Subaru’s sales yearly figures even further with an 8.1% percent increase with 423,728 vehicles sold, compared to the same period in 2016. This also means that August marked the 42nd consecutive month with 40,000+ vehicle sales for the company.

Demand for models like the Crosstrek, Impreza and Outback were considerably strong, Even its niche sports car, the BRZ, enjoyed a surge in sales compared with August 2016. This means that the trust of US car buyers have in the brand is growing with each passing year.

“It was our 69th consecutive month of yearly, month over month sales increases. Our retailers gave a truly exceptional effort and we are on pace for our 9th consecutive sales record,” said Jeff Walters, senior vice president of sales, Subaru of America, Inc.

“The Crosstrek easily had its best month ever and we welcome the all-new 2018 model with the introduction of its advertising and marketing campaign in September that we know will resonate with customers,” he later added.

Subaru has had a strong presence in the US car market for several decades and is considered one of the most sort after/ trusted Japanese brands. Here in Malaysia, demand for Subaru vehicles have started to increase as well, thanks to enticing new models with relatively affordable price tags.

Alcraft GT is a British EV concept car with supercar credentials

Alcraft Motor Company, a UK based electric vehicle manufacturer, has revealed details of its creation, called the Alcraft GT. It’s a shooting-brake styled sports car that is able to function as a 2+2 seater rather than just have the conventional two seats.

Design wise, it looks spectacular from the minimalist wedged shaped styling at the front to the the angular subsection of the rear. It incorporates conventional sports car dimensions that have been re-purposed to fit in with the shooting-brake style body design.

The panoramic roof does provide the cabin with an airy feeling which ties in with the all-glass design theme of the A and B pillars. This allows for a luggage capacity of 500-litres, which is quite impressive for any sports car.

The exposed carbon-fibre B-pillars and roof structure are part of the aesthetic but serve as both a safety cell and reduce overall weight. Though its yet to be proven, this should help protect occupants in a high speed collision.

Carbon-fibre has been used in the body’s construction but the exact amount or total composition has not been revealed. As such, its considered a lightweight car with that has decent weight balance thanks to a T-shaped battery pack that is mounted between and behind the driver and passenger seats.

Alcraft has given the car three electric motors that channel power to all four wheels via its 4WD system. The company’s virtual engineering tests peg total power figures to be about 600bhp and 1139Nm of torque.

Being a 100% electric car, the Alcraft GT will have a range of 483km and be able to sprint from 0-100km/h in a mere 3.5 seconds. This puts it in the same league as automakers like Tesla as well as on par with petrol powered supercars.

Alcraft Motor Company has been founded by businessman David Alcraft. The team includes Charles Morgan, previously of Morgan Motor Company, ex-Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders CEO Christopher Macgowan, designer Matt Humphries who also spent time at Morgan, and ex-Toyota, Daewoo and Michelin senior executive Mark Carbery.

The company has partnered with Delta Motorsports to help develop and builds its new vehicle. The later’s expertise in electric drivetrains and battery systems has seen it involved in projects with established vehicle manufacturers as well as Motorsports teams.

Speaking of the Alcraft GT, Alcraft Motor founder and managing director, David Alcraft said, “We want to build a British car company which brings together traditional skills and high technology for the emerging low carbon car market.”

“We’re about combining great design, outstanding dynamics and the visceral thrill of electric powertrains to create products that are high in performance and desirability but very usable. We hope this will establish a niche For Alcraft Motor in Britain’s renowned specialist low-volume car industry, ” he later added.

Alcraft will partly rely on crowdfunding for its source of income with the rest coming from equity funding. Those involved in the crowdfunding efforts, depending on the investment, will be rewarded in a unique way.

These rewards include VIP days at Silverstone with rides in a development mule for the GT, featuring similar battery, motor and torque vectoring technologies to those which will be in the GT, and exclusive electric bikes by Cyclotricity and wristwatches by Matthew Humphries Design.

There’s no news yet on when the car will be launched, but if you would like to know more, head on over to the company’s website at https://alcraftmotor.com.

Mercedes-AMG to unveil supercar at Frankfurt

Formula 1 is considered the pinnacle of competitive Motorsports and is the platform that established manufacturers use to display their engineering prowess. This isn’t its only purpose though, because technology that’s developed for F1 cars, especially those that help improve stability and driver management, eventually make their way into mainstream vehicles.

Such is the case with Mercedes-AMG. The company’s F1 team, which has proven to be an unstoppable force these past few seasons, has enjoyed a string of victories because they’ve developed a car that is blindingly fast, agile around corners and pretty reliable too.

Now, the company has decided to bring the same technology and magic of this F1 car, into a road going car. Called the Mercedes-AMG Project ONE, it’s a two-seater supersports showcar that will showcase the brands capabilities.

Slated for reveal at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, the car is said to encapsulate the very latest and efficient, fully-fledged Formula 1 hybrid technology for the road. It’s a high performance supercar that will be powered by a hybrid powertrain that is able to output more than 1000bhp.

According to the automaker, the car is expected to have a top speed exceeding 350km/h and will offer the best of both worlds. Meaning, it will combine exceptional racetrack performance with sensible day-to-day practicality.

Little else is known at the moment, and the only proof we have of the car’s existence is a rather vague image of it’s front end. Based on what we have gathered, it draws quite a bit of design inspiration from the brand’s past race cars, which is a good thing. Stay tuned and will let you know more about the car as soon as we find out.

Owner of E36 M3 goes to great lengths to protect his ride from hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey has caused serious problems in Texas. The Category 3 hurricane, which made landfall about two weeks ago, has laid ruin to homes, vehicles and other property caused by its strong winds and heavy flooding.

Some experts estimate that the damage left in Harvey’s wake may take years and considerable amount of money to undo. As bad as this sounds, things might get even worse as weather forecasts say that there’s more heavy rainfall expected in the coming days.

This is especially bad news for car owners over there because all vehicles, from the least expensive to the ultra rare collectibles, weren’t spared from hurricane Harvey’s wrath. Places like Houston have been the worst effected regions in the state, which is why we think the recent news about a certain BMW enthusiast to be of worth mentioning.

Owning an E36 M3 is a challenge, even when everything is going fine with the car. Knowing the consequences if things went south, this Texan went to great lengths to ensure that his M3 was kept out of harm’s way. The car was kept on lifts to ensure that flood waters wouldn’t be able to reach it.

It isn’t the only Bimmer in his possesion mind you, he also owns an X5 and and another E36 that is kept on a trailer. Check out his video on the TEXAS E36 Garage’s video on Youtube as he takes viewers around his home and garage to show the aftermath of the hurricane.

Detroit Electric to reveal future plans after heavy investment from joint venture

Detroit Electric, the UK-based firm that showed great promise a few years ago, will reveal its upcoming plans at the Cenex’s Low Carbon Vehicles (LCV) 2017 event held in the UK. It’s here that the company will share its strategy which includes plans of launching a range of electric vehicles in the coming years.

The company has ramped-up operations after receiving an injection of US$1.8 billion (RM7.7 billion) in capital from a joint venture agreement. This has helped the firm stabilize its financial health as well as complete a major recruitment programme, which will see it employ between 150 and 200 posts by next year.

Chief Technical Officer and Company Director Richie Frost, said, “Having secured the solid financial foundation to embark on our business plan, we’re now building up our team to enable us to deliver our ambitious vehicle engineering programmes.”

“This represents an opportunity to be a major part of an incredibly exciting, fast-moving company, as we begin the most exciting EV development projects in the UK. We’re looking forward to having a chance to meet some of UK’s most talented engineers in this field expected at Cenex and to share these exciting future plans with them,” he later added.

Detroit Electric will also be investing heavily in expanding its engineering and manufacturing centre in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, to create a state-of-the art R&D facility, alongside its engineering hub in China.

A few years ago, the EV automaker showcased some pretty exciting Lotus-based EVs that never made it onto the showroom floor. Now, with this new joint venture, the company should be able to deliver, with better reliability, on the rest of its future plans.

BMW’s i3 now offered with a sportier and more powerful variant

The ever popular small premium EV, the BMW i3, has received a mide-life facelift in the shape of some design tweaks and increased performance. As a whole, its still the cheerful car as before but now has a wider track and wheel arch molding contours that run along the body, horizontally.

New to the range is the addition of a sportier version called the i3s. Though similar in design, there are subtle hints that make it out to be the sportier variant of the lot. These features include, at the front, the bumper inlay and its U-shaped surroundings are in black finish.

The front fascia’s side sections are bordered on their lower edge by accent strips in BMW’s i Blue or Frozen Grey colours. The contrasting scheme does add a sense of sportiness to the car.

The signature kidney grille is painted in high-gloss black and consists of a more prominent design. Such is the case for the the rear apron which has a black surround frame that is extra wide and comes with body coloured inlay.

Underneath the new exterior, the i3s is fitted with a sports suspension, which drops the ride height about 10mm compared to the base car. Exclusive 20-inch lightweight alloy rims are standard for the variant too, which are slightly wider than before.

Overall the i3 now has an improved Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) system and a faster responsing Traction Control System. This means that drivers can now have a bit more fun before the safety net cuts in and spoils their fun.

BMW’s standard i3 is powered by a 170bhp synchronous electric motor but the i3s comes with a slightly more powerful 184bhp one. Due to the increase in power, the latter is also about 0.4 seconds faster from 0-100km/h at 6.8 seconds.

The new i3 is also available as a range extender version that features a two-cylinder petrol engine, which generates electricity to the electric motor once the car’s battery pack has depleted.

Speaking of power, BMW is now offering an electric charger called TurboCord that has the ability to charge the i3 three times faster than what the standard charger is capable of.

There are a number of driver assistance systems that are availble with the car aside from the latest iDrive 6 interface, which include Active Driving Assistant and Active Cruise Control with Stop & Go.

Other than that, there’s also Advanced Real-Time Traffic Information and ConnectedDrive Services and a navigation system. When equipped with the Technology and Driving Assistance Package, Apple CarPlay can be enabled and the i3 also gets a useful system called Park Distance Control.

This 2018 i3 will debut at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt in September 2017. Check out the the picture gallery below and let us know whether the i3 is more appealing than the vehicle it replaces.

Denmark to reduce import taxes of vehicles from 180% to a more ‘reasonable’ 100%

Denmark, unlike many other countries in Europe, isn’t particularly welcoming of car enthusiasts. According to Bloomberg, the reason for this is that the Danish government imposes hefty registration taxes on new vehicles. Initially the tax was pegged at 180% but was recently reduced to a more moderate 100%.

This makes it considerably more expensive for someone to own a car in Denmark than in a country like Germany or Poland. Putting that into perspective, A base model Volkswagen Golf 1.0L Trendline costs about $34,000 in Denmark compared to $21,500 if it was purchased in Germany.

This difference becomes far more apparent for more expensive vehicles. A base model Porsche 911 Carrera costs about $306,600 in Denmark but only a mere $117,900 in Germany. As ridiculous as this may sound, the country began imposing these taxes at the start of the 20th century and has hiked it even further on several occasions.

The country has resorted to this as a means to increase its income, but has now decided that it wasn’t the best of strategies. Despite being one of the wealthier countries in Europe, car buyers in Denmark do not have the financial freedom to pick and choose the vehicle of their liking. However, that should soon change with this new tax revision.

Most Danish commuters get around town either by using public transport or resorting to pedal power with a bicycle. The exorbitant sums required for the purchase of a basic vehicle, have made the idea of owning a vehicle less desirable.

Source: Bloomberg

Piston.my

English

JLR’s connected assistant aims to revolutionize personal transportation

Ford introduce Ranger Black Edition for Europe

BMW makes sourcing for parts a leisurely affair

Subaru USA claims August as best sales month in company’s history

Alcraft GT is a British EV concept car with supercar credentials

Mercedes-AMG to unveil supercar at Frankfurt

Owner of E36 M3 goes to great lengths to protect his ride from hurricane Harvey

Detroit Electric to reveal future plans after heavy investment from joint venture

BMW’s i3 now offered with a sportier and more powerful variant

Denmark to reduce import taxes of vehicles from 180% to a more ‘reasonable’ 100%

Authorities Urged to Adhere to SOPs for Timely Road Repairs

Innovation Recognised: Berjaya Sompo Triumphs at Global Brand and Economics Awards

Proton S70 R3 Makes Racing Debut with Fifth-Place Finish at 2024 Sepang 1000KM

Hyundai Plans RM 2.2 Billion Investment in Malaysia to Boost Local Vehicle Production

JPJ Confirms No New Conditions for Senior Drivers to Renew Licenses

BMW Group Revolutionises Production with Automated Driving In-Plant Technology

JLR Malaysia Triumphs Again with Fifth ‘Retailer of the Year’ Title

MLFF Toll System Faces Resistance: 13 Highway Concessionaires Yet to Agree

Isuzu Unveils New D-MAX and MU-X Models with Enhanced Engine and Performance Features in Thailand

Manthey Unveils High-Performance Kit for Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Archive

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