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Ford elects Jim Hackett as new president and CEO

There has been a major shake up at Ford Motor Company. Rumours of President and CEO of the Blue Oval, Mark Fields, being fired was rife these past few days. Many speculated that Ford’s global performance shortcomings played a part in him being axed from his post.

Ford however, released a press release stating that Mark Fields, after a 28-year career at the company has elected to retire and vacate his position as the top man of the American based automaker, which will be filled by his successor, Jim Hackett.

Hackett, 62 was the former CEO of Steelcase, Interim Athletic Director at the University of Michigan and until June 1st, executive chairman of Ford Smart Mobility LLC. Reporting directly to Executive Chairman Bill Ford, he will lead the automaker’s worldwide operations and 202,000 workforce for the foreseeable future.

“We’re moving from a position of strength to transform Ford for the future. Jim Hackett is the right CEO to lead Ford during this transformative period for the auto industry and the broader mobility space. He’s a true visionary who brings a unique, human-centered leadership approach to our culture, products and services that will unlock the potential of our people and our business,” Bill Ford said.

Hackett and Bill will place a lot of emphasis on three priorities at the company, which are sharpening operational execution across the global business, modernising Ford’s global business and transforming the company to meet future challenges.

Speaking of the contribution of Mark Fields, Bill said, “Mark Fields has been an outstanding leader and deserves a lot of credit for all he has accomplished in his many roles around the globe at Ford,” Bill Ford said. “His strong leadership was critical to our North American restructuring, our turnaround at the end of the last decade, and our record profits in the past two years.”

Other shake ups at the company include Jim Farley being appointed as executive vice president and president of Global Markets, Joe Hinrichs as executive vice president and president of Global Operations, Marcy Klevorn as executive vice president and president of Mobility, Mark Truby as vice president of Communications and Paul Ballew as Global Chief Data and Analytics Officer.

These new appointments will be made effective on 1st June 2017 and with these major changes Ford hopes to strengthen its position as a key player in the global automotive market.

Nicky Hayden succumbs to injuries from bicycle accident

It has been announced that Red Bull Honda’s WSBK rider, Nicky Hayden has past away. The 35-year-old American succumbed to injuries suffered after an accident while riding his bicycle in Italy last Wednesday.

Hayden was admitted at Maurizio Bufalini Hospital in Cesena, Italy after the incident. Unfortunately, he succumbed to his injuries on 22nd May 2017, his fiancee Jackie, mother Rose and brother Tommy were at his side at the time.

Nicky Hayden was a beloved character in bike racing due to his tenacious fighting spirit, professionalism and all around good nature. Since an early age, he dreamed of being a pro rider and in 2006 achieved that dream by being crowned MotoGP World Champion with Honda.

Nicknamed the Kentucky Kid, he was a true champion and a fan favourite due to his kind nature, relaxed demeanor and his signature wide smile. The out-pour of prays and support from fellow racers and his legions of fans are a testament to his character and the impact he had on the racing world.

Speaking of this, Tommy Hayden, Nicky’s brother said, “On behalf of the whole Hayden family and Nicky’s fiancée Jackie I would like to thank everyone for their messages of support – it has been a great comfort to us all knowing that Nicky has touched so many people’s lives in such a positive way. Although this is obviously a sad time, we would like everyone to remember Nicky at his happiest – riding a motorcycle. Apart from these ‘public’ memories, we will also have many great and happy memories of Nicky at home in Kentucky, in the heart of the family. We will all miss him terribly.”

Today, the racing world has lost one of its best talents, rest in peace Nicky Hayden.

Perodua close to making one millionth Myvi

Perodua’s stalwart breadwinner, the Mvyi is about to reach a new milestone. The nameplate will see the one millionth Myvi rolling off the production line very soon. It’s a remarkable feat for any automaker but for Perodua, its a testament to the hard work and dedication of its employees, dealer network and parts distributors.

The first generation Myvi was launched in May 2005 and remained Malaysia’s best-selling car till the end of 2014. Despite this, it continues to be a very popular model in our country and a favourite of those looking for a B-segment city car that’s light on their wallets.

“So far, we have produced nearly one million Myvis since 2005 and this milestone will be reached somewhere this month,” Perodua President and Chief Executive Officer, Datuk (Dr) Aminar Rashid Salleh said.

Besides Malaysia, the Myvi has been sold under the Perodua brand in 7 different countries which include Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Brunei, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Fiji and Nepal. The Myvi is actually based on the Daihatsu Sirion but Perodua makes certain design tweaks of their own to differentiate the Malaysian car from its Japanese counterpart.

Perodua’s biggest export market is Indonesia. It has sold 31,000 Myvi cars under the Sirion brand since 2007. Locally however, the Malaysian automaker has managed to sell 64,700 vehicles in the past four months, which is a 4.1% increase compared to the same period last year. Based on its estimates, Perodua says it should be able to capture 35.4% of the local market share, making it the most popular car brand in the country.

In order to keep the current momentum going, Perodua will focus on delivering its vehicles to customers in a timely manner to further improve customer satisfaction and after sales capabilities. There are currently 184 sales and 182 service centres in the country. So, if you own a Perodua, you can rest easy knowing that you have a legion of service centres that are able to tend to any issues you might be facing.

FCA seeks emissions software approval from US regulatory agencies

FCA or Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, has announced that it has formally filed an application for diesel emission certification with the US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB) for its emission software calibrations. Vehicles like the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 will feature such a system, which will govern emissions of the various diesel engines. This is an attempt by FCA to clarify issues related to the company’s emissions control technology that are incorporated in its software.

FCA is trying to avoid the diesel gate scandal that has plagued Volkswagen these past few years by coming clean regarding it’s software’s inner workings and the resultant emissions from the diesel engines that use it. The company says that by doing this, it should put to rest the EPA’s concerns regarding the hotly discussed topic of emissions software.

Besides the new vehicles, FCA plans on installing said software in 2014-2016 model year Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 diesel variants, provided that it receives the green light from the EPA and CARB. Owners of said vehicles will be able to have the software updated at their nearest FCA dealerships. Once done, owners could expect better emissions performance that should not impact performance or fuel efficiency in any way.

Ford to invest $350 million in USA transmission plant

Ford has been investing huge sums of money to bolster its production in the USA with the latest being $350 million (RM1.5 billion) in its Livonia Transmission Plant. Doing so, will allow the automaker to offer a new transmission to expand its lineup of fuel-efficient powertrains.

The impact of this will include creating or retaining 800 hourly jobs to support production of the new transmission. Though the some of these jobs will be filled this year, most of them are expected to be filled sometime in the next two years.

The money that will be poured into the Livonia Transmission Plant is in addition to the $1.4 billion (RM 6.1 billion) and 500 created or retained hourly jobs announced for the plant in 2016 to support production of a new 10-speed transmission for the 2017 F-150 Raptor as well as other F-150 trucks.

“We remain committed to American manufacturing and investing in our people and facilities,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president, The Americas. “Even as the industry’s largest employer of hourly workers in the United States and biggest producer of American-made vehicles, we believe it is important to continue investing right here in our home market.”

Since the beginning of this year, Ford has allocated $2.25 billion (RM 9.73 billion) in new investments for its facility in Michigan. The blue oval has spent $12 billion (RM 51.9 billion) in its US based plants and created 28,000 jobs in the last five years.

This pattern proves that Ford’s fortifying its home base to ensure that production stays constant and to cement its commitment in boosting the US economy and workforce.

Volkswagen up! GTI to debut at Wörthersee

Volkswagen will be debuting the new up! GTI at this year’s GTI Meet at Lake Wörthersee, which will take place from 24th to 27th May 2017. The performance up! builds upon the the small and cheerful city car making it into an improved performance car with decent handling characteristics. Whether or not the market is ready for such a performance city car remains to be seen, but based on past history, VW has been known for disrupting trends and generating an interest in a whole new genre of vehicles that people didn’t know they wanted.

The GTI moniker was first introduced in the 1970s when the German automaker decided to make a performance version of its standard family hatchback, the Golf. Back in the day, only big sedans and expensive sports cars had the performance to offer heart-racing driving action. Their big displacement engines and raw power made the vehicles very expensive and out of the reach of the common man. Well, Volkswagen was having none of that, and set out to create car that offered sports car-like performance but on a shoestring budget.

Their efforts eventually came to fruition with the introduction of the first generation GTI. There were very few subtle cues that set the car apart from the average run of the mill Golf. It had a thin red stripe stretching across the entire length of the front grille, black double stripes across the side sills, black stripe on the tailgate and of course, several GTI badges. The car had a near 110bhp engine and weighed just 810kg, which meant 0-100km/h sprints could be accomplished in just 9.0 seconds and the car had a stop speed of 182km/h.

Over the years, the GTI has grown in size and weight to comply with safety regulations as well as the needs and wants of the modern consumer. Due to this fact, The present day GTI hasn’t retained much of the original’s DNA. But with the up! GTI, things are a lot more similar. It weighs 997kg and under the hood is a turbocharged 113bhp TSI engine, which allows the car to accelerate from 0-100km/h in just 8.8 seconds. In essence, the up! GTI can be considered as the modern day equivalent of the first generation GTI.

It comes with with the usual GTI striping on the bodywork, 17-inch alloy wheels, a spoiler for better downforce, leather-trimmed sport steering wheel, GTI gear knob and the iconic “clark” seat pattern.

One can be so bold as to call the up! GTI a direct descendant of the iconic car that started the hot hatch revolution and hopefully, paves the way for the development of many more performance-based small city sized hatchbacks.