With the signing of a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) on August 9, 2023, Public Bank Berhad formally joined forces with Proton New Energy Technology Sdn Bhd (Pro-Net) to offer financing options for wholesome financial products and services and to start the digitalisation process by integrating with smart Malaysia and its authorised dealers.
Through this partnership, Public Bank will be able to connect with and assist digitalisation through online hire purchase, end-financing application submission, floor stocking through smart client apps, and their authorised dealers, increasing market shares in the EV vehicle sector.
The Bank had mobilized over RM30 billion in domestic NEV financing by the end of 2022, representing approximately 52% of the Bank’s total domestic Hire Purchase financing portfolio. To signify the Bank’s commitment, the NEV lending target had now been increased to RM33 billion by 2025.
We recently got to take a second test drive in the Dolphin but from the perspective of someone who has only driven a handful of EVs. This time the drive was from Desa Park City to Elmina, roughly around 30km and with clear roads. However, our drive began at 3:30pm on a Friday, so there was no such thing as clear roads.
The one exterior feature that caught my eye is the design of the taillights. According to BYD, the inspiration for the design was taken from a Chinese lantern that has similar twirling lines.
Another interesting feature is that, on the premium extended range, the rims come in three colours. You have your standard dual-tone silver and black, but in addition to that, a third colour (depending on the body colour of the car you choose) is applied. But on the standard range, you only get the dual-tone rims.
During the launch of the new facelifted Honda City, one of the messages that Honda was keen to talk about is the new and improved Honda Connect App. It has been around for a while already, but it is not at its most matured form.
You may or may not have heard of the Honda Connect App, but either way, it is one of those applications that is worth having for your Honda these days.
It if offered as standard on selected Honda models, but for those who want to purchase it, it costs RM1,500. But before you dismiss it as exorbitant, it is an application that is worth considering.
The Honda Connect App predominantly focuses on three areas:
Safety
Security
Convenience
Safety
Under the safety part, the application is designed to be able to alert you or a loved in the event of a collision. This is important especially if the driver is unconscious. The app will detect that a collision has happened and a call centre will be alerted. The operators from the call centre will first try to reach out to the driver of the vehicle, and if the person does not answer, the call centre will then try to reach out to a second number provided.
In the event that the second person too does not answer, the call centre will immediately dispatch emergency services to the last known location. This is especially helpful when driving in a remote area.
The app is also able to inform the driver in the event that the alarm goes off. Alarms are great theft deterrents, but chances are the owner of a car will not be able to hear the alarm if the car is parked in a basement car park or somewhere far off. This is where the Honda Connect App is quite good because it alerts the driver when the alarm goes off, giving the owner precious minutes to rush to the car to see why the alarm went off.
Besides that, the owner of the Honda is also able to set a speed limit of the car, and will be alerted if the car goes beyond the set threshold. Perfect for parents who do not want their children or loved ones to be speeding, or even companies who need to implement health and safety policies, thus assisting to promote safety.
Security
Ever wondered around a car park wondering where you parked your car? We have all been there. This is where the Honda Connect App is especially handy because it has a “Find My Car” feature that is able to assist you to find your parked car. This is also great if your child has taken your car without informing you. If you are a parent, you’re welcome on the tip, if you’re a child, you may not like this feature.
One of our favourite features is something called Geo Fencing Alert. This allows you to set a paremeter of a few hundred meters or a maximum of 160km. And if the car goes beyond the set parameter, the application will alert you. This is especially handy for companies that need to keep track on where their cars are going.
But on a personal level, there’s a feature called Emergency Call. This feature connects the phone to the national emergency number – 999 – and when pressed, will immediately call the emergency number. This is great in parking lots, shopping malls or even in dark alleys at night. You don’t even need to be walking to your car but can use it anytime you feel threatened.
Convenience
So the app is more than just safety, security and controlling measures, it also allows incredible ownership convenience. It allows the owner to check on the car’s status, such as fuel level, battery level and everything about the car that an owner needs to know.
One interesting feature though is the Remote Vehicle Control. This allows the owner to remote start or stop a car, which is great if you need to be away for a few weeks and don’t want the battery of your car going flat. Yes, you can start the car and warm it up even if you are in a different country.
Does your wife need to get something from the car, but you accidentally took the keys with you and the spare key is dead? Yes, you can remotely unlock your car and no this does not mean she can start the car and drive away.
These are just some of the many features that the app has to offer, and some of the more notable ones include being able to locate the closet petrol station, ATM and even book a service appointment.
with all of the features on offer, the RM1,500 asking price suddenly seems like a good deal as it is not just an application, but consider it an automotive personal assistant.
There is no other car in the world that is so closely associated with a profession than a Volvo is with a doctor.
For some reason, Volvo’s have been as closely related to doctors as a mechanic is to his tools. Perhaps it is because doctors are always on the road, tending to clinics or hospitals and need to get somewhere fast and safe.
This association has somewhat dwindled now, but it was quite a thing back in the 80s and 90s, in Malaysia at least.
Having grown up in the tin mining town of Kampar, Perak, this writer vividly recalls a family of doctors who drove nothing else but Volvos, except for the odd Nissan or so which served as the second or third car.
The father of the family had clinics in different towns and spent a lot of time on the country roads that connected the towns of Temoh, Kampar and Malim Nawar. Back in the 80s and 90s, the roads were unsafe with very little in terms of safety awareness.
And the doctor was well known for being a fast driver; many used to share harrowing tales of having to be a passenger with him.
Perhaps he drove that way because he had three clinics to tend to in a day. All located about 30-40 kilometers apart. So, it was quite common to hear about him getting into accidents every once in a while, and nasty ones too.
But he always walked away unscathed. His Volvos though, rarely fared well.
That doctor is still with us today, well into his 70s and perhaps reading these pages as he is sometimes known to do. And he still drives a Volvo. An XC40 Recharge that he loves for its performance, efficiency, and handling.
While there is no doubt that Volvos are still incredibly safe cars, these days, a Volvo is much more than just that. The cars are good-looking and attract a much wider, younger audience thanks to a stunning design language and an abundance of power.
The XC90 that you see here is one such example, beginning life in 2002 as the first ever Volvo SUV and currently in its second generation that was introduced in 2015.
The model seen here is the 2023 Volvo XC90 T8 Recharge, a plug-in hybrid that is meant to be efficient and comfortable. But it also has a dark side to it too – an abundance of power.
Placed underneath that beautiful design wrapped in crystal white, is a powertrain that is made up of a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine that sends power to the front wheels through an 8-speed gearbox. Power from the engine is rated at 317PS and 400Nm of torque which is available from as low as 3000rpm.
But that’s not all, complementing the engine is an electric motor placed at the rear axle. This motor is powered by an 18.8kWh battery pack and has an output of 145PS and 309Nm of torque.
The engine and motor are capable of operating independently of each other. When the electric motor is working by itself, it has a electric range of 70km on the WLTP cycle, though we saw a range of about 60km in real world driving conditions around Kuala Lumpur.
When depleted, the battery can be recharged using regenerative braking as you go about your regular driving. Though this only works best when driving long distance such as to Ipoh or Penang.
Alternatively, you can simply plug in the charging cables into a regular three-pin home socket which will charge the car up in a claimed 13 hours, though we somehow managed to do it in under nine hours. A faster 3.7kW AC charger will charge the battery to 100% in just five hours.
The real magic here though is when both the engine and the electric motor work in unison. This gives you a very impressive combined system output of 462PS and 709Nm of torque; a figure which was once associated with supercars.
This amount of power can slingshot the 2.7-ton behemoth to 100km/h in just 5.3 seconds. Or if you feather the throttle, it can return a consumption rate of just 1.8-litres per 100km, which is equally as impressive as the performance it offers on tap. This seemingly contrasting character of the XC90 is what makes the SUV such a charming machine to own, because it seemingly understands all your needs.
But don’t mistake it for a performance SUV though, it is far from that. This Volvo rides on air suspension, and this gives it a comfortable ride quality that is quite like that of luxury cars such as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class or a BMW 7-Series. And comfort is what it does better than pure driving performance.
When pushed hard on the highway, the SUV tends to dive under hard braking and squats under acceleration. When the roads present fun corners, the body roll of the XC90 is quite noticeable and this forces you to slow down.
Dive deeper into the performance aspect of the car and you will notice that the brakes are not confidence inspiring either, and tend to feel mushy at first bite. This brake feel is a typical character of a car with a regenerative braking system.
Even the top speed of the XC90 is electronically-limited to 180kmh. In fact, as of 2020, all new Volvos have their top speed limited to 180kmh. Though the XC90 does feel like it could do 290kmh all day long.
So, the Volvo XC90 T8 Recharge may have the performance numbers that could put some sports cars to shame, but it is not built for that. It does however excel at comfort. That air suspension offers an incredibly plush ride that soaks up everything the road throws at it. The windows too are double-layered and this result in a cabin so quiet that you can almost hear your own thoughts.
Long distance drives are easily managed, and that is not just testament to the incredible power and comfort it offers, but also the interior features. The ventilated seats with heating and cooling are some of the most supportive in the industry.
The 19-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system too deserves a special mention as it is quite possibly the best in its segment. As far as interior features go, the only complaint is that the gloss black panels tend to get inundated with fingerprints and dust after just a day or two of use.
The nine-inch portrait style screen houses all the essential controls for the interior, such as the air-conditioning controls and even the drive mode selection. This does free up the dashboard of all the clutter from the buttons and knobs, but this also means that you need to take your eyes of the road to see controls on the screen.
This does mean that simple functions like selecting the drive mode is now a three-step process when it could be achieved by a simple press of a button. Perhaps Volvo could take a card of the Lexus way of designing a dashboard since taking your eyes off the road does not seem like something Volvo would want you to do.
Besides that though the XC90 is brilliant for a family of four or five. It is also an incredibly comfortable car to be driven in as well with its air suspension, acres of interior space and a sound system that could make some sound studios rethink their purpose in life. What more could you want in an SUV?
Specifications
Engine: 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, turbocharged with electric motor
Power: 462PS (Combined with electric motor)
Torque: 709 Nm (Combined with electric motor)
Transmission: 8-speed automatic with Geartronic
Suspension: Active Chassis with Four-Corner Air Suspension
Through the Bugatti Sur Mesure programme, which boldly touts “near-infinite” options for customisation, Bugatti purchasers may customise their cars in any way they choose.
The beautiful Bugatti you see in the photos here, the Chiron Super Sport Golden Era, was the result of a buyer who really pushed that assertion to its absolute limit. The Golden Era took two years to create and 400 hours were devoted to the artwork you see on either side of the car. It was commissioned by an unidentified Bugatti collector who had a profound love for the automaker’s more than 100-year history.
The new, fifth-generation Santa Fe was unveiled by Hyundai last month, but no specifications were provided. With the model’s complete unveiling in Korea today, some of those missing particulars are now known.
With this model, Hyundai used a unique design approach by starting with the expanded tailgate space before creating the overall look. For the benefit of passengers, the new, fifth-generation Santa Fe is bigger than the model it replaces and has grown in every way.
