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Land Public Transport Commision – making public transport a desirable option for you and me

Danny Tan — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 09:20:06 +0000

Did you watch Episode 7 of Driven, where our Harvinder used public transport to race from one point of town to another with Sharizan and Alis? Actually, race isn’t the right word, as the man and his umbrella was nowhere as quick as the the bike and car of his co-hosts in completing the route. He lost of course, and didn’t save that much money compared to Sharizan’s Kawasaki. Click here to view the “race”.

I myself am no stranger to the KTM Komuter, which surely is the worse rail line in the Klang Valley. You look at the timing board and it reads “Rawang 1730″ but when the countdown to 5:30 stops, the train doesn’t appear and the board recalculates, adding another 20 minutes to the waiting time. And when it finally arrives, getting into the coach is like going to war. If you prevail, pray hard that the four persons glued to you don’t have body odour. Had a bad day at work? Rest assured that the journey home will do its best to add to your misery.

I’m sure that many of you have similarly bad experiences or even endure it everyday. Some have it better than others, depending on the location of your workplace and home, and which rail line/bus you depend on, but I’m sure everyone will agree that Klang Valley’s public transport system is nowhere near world-class and desperately needs an overhaul. The Government knows this for a fact too, which is the reason Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (SPAD) or the Land Public Transport Commission came into existence.

Headed by former Home Minister Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar as Chairman and special adviser to the Transport Ministry Mohd Nur Ismail Mohamed Kamal as CEO, SPAD will draw up policies, plan, regulate and enforce regulations concerning public transport. To do this, the commission will absorb existing bodies such as the Railway Department and the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board.

Currently, there are 15 government agencies and departments with a say in how public transport is run. SPAD will solve this overlapping objectives and powers and introduce integrated policies and regulations. “We want to get away from the ad hoc-ish style of solving problems and want to have a holistic view of the matter,” Mohd Nur Ismail said. SPAD, which will “champion the public transport cause” and try to get us out of our cars and bikes, will assume powers in September 2010, when the Road Transport Amendment Act is gazetted.

Click to enlarge

SPAD, which reports directly to the Prime Minister, will carry out initiatives for the National Key Result Area (NKRA) focusing on the Klang Valley. Their goals appear highly ambitious: SPAD aims to raise Klang Valley’s public transport usage from the current 12% to 25% in 2012 ad 30% by 2015 (for comparison, cities such as Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Paris have a figure of up to 70%). How are they going to achieve this will be of interest to stakeholders such as you and me.

Continue reading after the jump.

Remember the days of the Bas Mini? I remember taking No.32 to school; they were driven like hot hatches by hooligans, but at least they were frequent, fast and dependable. Do you know that public transport usage then was three times higher than the current figure? One of SPAD’s big tasks is to transform bus services, and Mohd Nur Ismail says that it’s vital to “rethink the economies of the bus industry” as some routes are overlooked by operators because they are unprofitable, which leads to zero bus service for that unfortunate area.

There’s also a possibility of Bas Mini style transport making a comeback, but only as shuttles within residential areas and to train stations, not to the city. It’s still early days of course, and we hope to hear more from SPAD when their bus plans are fleshed out.

Click to enlarge

Bus is the short term solution. Rail is the future, and increasing ridership for the existing rail lines is the first on the plate for SPAD. The Kelana Jaya LRT line (formerly PUTRA LRT) has seen the introduction of newly delivered four-coach trains. 35 of these driverless sets have been purchased from Canadian company Bombardier for RM1.5bil. Both Kelana Jaya and Ampang lines will be extended by 17km and 17.7km respectively, with 13 new stations added to each line. Work is expected to start in November and will go on for three years. There’s also a proposed MRT system under the 10th Malaysia Plan.

Fortunately, the KTM Komuter is not left out. The much criticised rail line does not have enough train sets at the moment, but has placed an order for 38 new six-car sets that are expected to arrive in 2012 (current EMUs are are three-car sets). This will triple the line’s capacity from the current 100,000 per day.

Many of these plans are already in place and it’s SPAD’s job to be the captain of the ship, so to speak, steering the various plans and initiatives in one integrated direction. For sure, many will sneer at it (indeed, journos at the briefing gave the panel a tough time), but it’s only fair to give SPAD some time to prove itself. “Public confidence is low, to put it very mildly,” Syed Hamid Albar said, adding that one of SPAD’s biggest challenges will be to deal with other government agencies and departments.

More information as it comes our way, but for the meantime, share your experiences and suggestions, have your say or rant away (you never know, someone might be taking notes), but keep vulgarities for private teh tarik sessions!

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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What do you think of the new layout?

Paul Tan — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:43:18 +0000

We’re trying out a new look over here and since this site would be nothing without you readers, we’d like to ask for some feedback. What do you think of the new design? We went for a 3 column layout to allow us to highlight certain content like the test drive reviews better while minimize scrolling.

There’s also a new comment feature where you can reply to a particular comment. No more copying and pasting the comment that you want to reply to. Hopefully this will result in cleaner and more meaningful conversations.

Most importantly, the new theme structure fixes a problem that the old theme had with WebKit browsers like Safari and Chrome. Please share what you think of the new layout – your feedback is very important to us!

UPDATE: OK, I’ve switched to a 2 column layout and tried my best to make it look like the old layout. Any feedback on this? I feel like a certain government, flip flop here and there!

I personally prefer 3 column but it seems I have overestimated the average monitor resolution of some readers, 3 column made the site too wide and caused left and right scrolling. How about this, is it better? Exactly the same 900 pixel width as the old layout, but with the Chrome and Safari fixes.

Take Our Poll

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Austin Texas Formula 1 circuit layout revealed!

VIDEO: Embrace life – always wear your seat belt!

Paul Tan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:02:47 +0000

We hanker on and on about wanting at least dual airbags to be standard in our cars but yet a lot of us (not everyone of course) sometimes forget to wear our seatbelts. I’ve observed many times where people usually drive around without their seatbelts and only put them on when they reach a main road or a highway.

I suppose the logic going through their heads subconsciously is that the slow speeds going through residential roads doesn’t require the use of a seatbelt in the case of an accident, but as proven in the recent MIROS crash test video even at a low speed of under 30km/h there can be some serious damage. So please, always buckle up when you are in a car, including those rear seat passengers!

Watch this really good seat belt advocacy video shown above by the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership to burn the message in your head!

Source

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Import of used parts to end June 2011

Paul Tan — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:27:51 +0000

The hot topic for last week was the new National Automotive Policy Review, a so-called ‘facelift’ for the National Automotive Policy that was first born on the 22nd of March 2006.

The NAP review is a disappointing one, with the prices of cars to be pretty much the status quo for a long time to come. In fact, the prices of hybrid cars are sure to go up once the 50% excise duty rebate ends. But there are parts of the NAP that have significant negative impact on us as motorists, one of which is the announcement that the import of used parts will be prohibited from June 2011 onwards.

Car companies and parts manufacturers do not survive on just selling you your car, which is a sum of parts from various OEMs. They also earn a significant portion from the sale of replacement parts, which you will inevitably need as parts are not designed to last forever. Not sure if the word greedy is justifiable but sometimes these new parts can be priced quite exhorbitantly. Which means used parts are very popular and are pretty much key to the sustainability and/or viability of keeping an old car running.

Banning the imports of used parts and the halfcuts which contain them would mean if your City’s CVT transmission dies, you are unable to source a good condition used one from a Honda Fit Aria halfcut that had been scrapped in Japan due to the country’s scrap policies. It means that when my Proton Perdana transmission finally dies and is beyond a refurbishment, a used one sourced from a Mitsubishi Eterna will not be an option – I will have to buy a 2nd hand Proton one or a NEW one, which I probably will not be able to afford as I am not the Perak or Terengganu Mentri Besar(s).

Of course, these situations will not happen right after June 2011 as there is bound to be existing stock in the country, but that will run out sooner or later. And then what? We cannibalise each other’s cars for used parts, whether willingly (scrap) or not (theft)?

And then there is the total disregard for the livelihoods of the chop shop businesses which have been run for decades and suddenly have their main source of income taken away from them. I visited a few chop shops and interviewed their owners over the weekend, curious to see how they were reacting to this piece of bad news.

One chop shop did not even know that such an announcement had been made. Danny of Soon Loi Sdn Bhd in Batu 11 1/2 Cheras said that he had been unaware that the government was planning such a thing and he and his wife was clearly in shock. I felt really bad watching their reaction. At first they were talking normally and keeping their cool but after awhile you could see they were quite emotional about it.

Their chop shop is a family business and has been running since the 70s. Danny is now the 2nd generation, taking over from his parents. He said chop shops have been around since before he was born and did not understand why the government suddenly wanted to stop the import of used parts.

The government’s justifications for this move are ‘safety and environmental’ concerns. From my view I see it more as yet another way to discourage us from using our old and hardy classics, instead driving us to buy new budget cars instead of that RM20k Toyota Corolla AE101 which alot of people are much more comfortable driving as a daily driver than a new car. The common sentiment is that old cars tend to last longer and have better plastics than new cars today and in many cases I find that to be true.

According to Danny, the parts in his stock consist of over 80% overseas imports and only about 20% local parts. I asked him what was he going to do when the new rule is implemented. He said he could not do anything but to look for local cars to ‘cut’ instead of getting halfcuts from overseas.

From a consumer perspective this means certain ‘upgrades’ such as fitting a Cortina 4-speed with a 5-speed manual from a Ford Sierra would be impossible as the Sierra was never really sold here. From the chop shop owner’s perspective, business will be A LOT tougher than usual. To quote his wife’s exact words, “Mati loh!”

I tried looking for a more premium chop shop and found Happy Auto Parts in Sungai Besi which specialises in continental parts. This is near the Auto Bavaria Sungai Besi showroom. There were plenty of BMW E34 front clips there, and there was even an E39 pre-facelift front clip. The owner CM Tan also operates a workshop in the same premise so at least he has something to fall back on when his chop shop business runs dry. Being a specialist BMW used parts center, 100% of his inventory are from overseas.

CM Tan says that the business of a chop shop is not easy to do. You have to build your relationship with your overseas suppliers over a long time – this can be years and years. According to Tan, sometimes even when you find some good cars to be clipped, it doesn’t mean the overseas supplier will sell them to you. There are so many chop shops from so many countries fighting for these cars.

You also need to have a trained sharp eye to judge what cars are suitable to be clipped and he claims that with the 1 week warranty that most used parts have, the return rate for a lemon clip can be so high that you can potentially even lose money on it, or just break even.

He likened the government’s new rule to telling medical students that have given their life to training to be a doctor for many many years that they suddenly are banned from practicing medicine. He has been in this business all his life, what else can he do?

It’s really quite unfair, when you consider that in another segment of the industry, Open AP holders have gotten hints of the system being scrapped for many years now. Only when this NAP review was released have the government somewhat put their foot down and said the system will be terminated by 31st December 2015.

That’s over 5 years of lead time for them on top of the many ‘hints’ that they’ve been getting for quite sometime now, and the RM10k per AP to be charged from 2010 onwards was to go to a special Entrepreneurship Fund that will help these ex-Open AP holders diversify into other businesses.

So much lead time for these Open AP holders to move on to other things, and so much help for them to start new businesses (on top of the money they’ve been earning from the APs so far), but on the other side of the spectrum, used parts dealers only get less than 2 years! I asked both CM Tan and Danny what they would be doing now that they’ve learned about the news – would they bring in more inventory so that stocks would last longer while they figure out what to do with their lives?

They feel it is hard for them to make a decision like that as the government and/or relevant ministry has not released any hard details on how and when exactly this used parts import ban would take place.

It remains a small paragraph in a long document for now, but one that will cause them sleepless nights until the picture is made clearer for them.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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NAP Review’s Hybrid Car Incentives

Paul Tan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 03:55:34 +0000

Now that most of the regional automotive manufacturing and assembly has gone to Thailand, the biggest buzzword that had been uttered repeatedly during the period where the NAP review was being formulated was hybrid cars and green technology.

So we had to shift focus. The government was quite bent on trying to get a piece of the green pie instead. Or so it seemed, there was plenty of talk in the papers. And you know what they say, supposedly in ASEAN you build your pick-ups in Thailand, your MPVs and vans in Indonesia and your passenger cars in Malaysia. That’s supposedly what kept Volkswagen interested despite flip-flop partnership decisions in the first place.

The new National Automotive Policy review offers a cocktail of R&D grants, duty exemptions, fiscal incentives to whoever invests in the assembly or manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles. For automakers, you’ll get 100% Pioneer Status/Investment Tax Allowance for 10 years, training and R&D grants in addition to existing grants, 50% exemption on excise duty on CKD/manufactured vehicles from the IAF.

For hybrid parts suppliers such as electric motors, batteries, Battery Management System, inverters, electric-powered air conditioning, and air compressors, you will get 100% Pioneer Status for 10 years and 100% Investment Tax Allowance for 5 years.

Even before the NAP review was announced, there was one measure that was announced leading up to these new hybrid/EV car incentives announced during the Budget 2009 last year. Imports of CBU hybrid vehicles were given an exemption on import duty and a 50% excise duty exemption. These exemptions will end on the 31st of December 2010 and the NAP review mentions no intention to extend this deadline. If you want to grab a Prius or a Civic Hybrid, you’d better do so before the end of next year, as prices on these cars are sure to go up.

The biggest blow to the government’s green dreams was the announcement that Toyota was going to setup a hybrid manufacturing facility in Thailand. One of the cars that were to be assembled is the Toyota Camry Hybrid. Toyota sells the most hybrid vehicles among all automakers and they are probably the first to setup a hybrid plant outside of their ‘home ground’. Because of their best-seller status, they are able to get the volumes to justify new investments not only in Thailand, but in Australia and soon the UK.

Even with the new lower price of RM129,980 (RM1,180 higher than the Civic 2.0S), Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd only managed to register a total of 100 units of the new Honda Civic Hybrid in Malaysia as of July 2009, and this is the total amount registered since its introduction in our market. The numbers for the much more expensive Toyota Prius certainly will not do any better.

It looks like hybrid cars remain a niche product here despite reduced pricing and there is simply no volume for any car manufacturer to even think of setting up Malaysian assembly facilities, let alone manufacturing facilities. Unless of course you are talking about the ‘SKD’ trickery that some car companies are successfully pulling off. All Honda hybrids are so far assembled at its Suzuka plant.

The government has failed to understand that the production of hybrid vehicles cannot be simply placed anywhere a car company likes – there has to be an ecosystem of hybrid component suppliers as well. It’s a completely different chicken and egg scenario than the one the government thought was most important – pricing and acceptance of hybrid cars which they attempted to solve with the CBU hybrid car incentives that managed to bring the prices of the Civic Hybrid and the Prius down in Malaysia.

And now that Toyota – the largest seller of hybrid vehicles in the world – has placed a hybrid production center in Thailand, guess where the hybrid supplier eco-system is going to be?

The only thing we can do now is sit and wait for hybrid vehicles to take off in terms of acceptance and sales internationally. Then maybe some will come here. But that’s a big maybe. We can look at companies like Ford and GM. GM has a big base in Thailand but they’ve shown some interest in facilities here in the past. We’ve already covered how the Chevrolet Volt is simply too expensive a vehicle to make for what it is, but perhaps the next generation of GM hybrids.

Ford has also shown some improvement in its hybrid car sales – it’s hot on Honda’s heels to take the position of the #2 hybrid seller in the US from the Japanese company. But still, all of these hybrid cars from non-Japanese manufacturers are very US-centric – all medium to large SUVs pretending to be green by adding a motor-assist system in order to comply with weird CAFE systems. They won’t sell in any kind of decent numbers here, not in Malaysia, not in this region, so no reason to assemble them here. Ford Europe is relying more on diesel but the Ford Kuga will be the first European hybrid for the company.

But seriously, for any of that to happen, there will be a gap of years and years in between the end of the CBU import incentives and the introduction of the first locally assembled/produced hybrid car. Prices will shoot up skywards all over again. Hybrid cars will once again become unaffordable. When the cars are not on the road, people will be less exposed to them. Whatever low level of acceptance that hybrid cars currently have will once again go down the drain. And then the first CKD hybrid car will roll out with a decent price, with everyone being afraid to actually buy it.

Do you see what’s wrong with the picture?

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Proton and the Indian automotive industry

Paul Tan — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:18:41 +0000

While reading the NST sometime last week, I spotted this column by Rehman Rashid, on the breakdown of the Proton and Volkswagen talks. It was a very pro-Proton column, but there was this one paragraph…

And then there’s India, home of Mahindra, Maruti, Bajaj and the Ambassador – and a 300 million-strong middle class with fewer than 15 cars per 1,000 people and 10,000km of new toll roads being built. It’s easy to imagine rebadged Perdanas, Gen.2s and Personas in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. Volkswagen or GM can’t build a car for under RM20,000 to match any of them.

Sadly, neither can Proton… not in it’s current state and not for a long time. And neither can many Indian manufacturers! While it’s true that Volkswagen and GM are having troubles building a cheap car at those kind of prices (perhaps why Volkswagen was interested in any kind of tie-up with us at all to begin with, some say Volkswagen wanted the upcoming New Proton Saga to be its new cheapest car positioned under the Volkswagen Fox), I don’t think the Perdana, the GEN2 and the Persona can be produced and sold in India for under RM20,000 either. One only needs to look at the prices of those cars in our local market to know.

So let’s jump back to reality abit shall we? Everyone who cares about the automotive industry, or has a responsibility to say something about the national concern of the week has commented on the Proton-Volkswagen talks, and all of them – including the big man Syed Zainal himself – have been saying China and India are integral parts of Proton’s turn-around plans.

Proton has already made some in-roads in the Chinese market – a rebadging deal with Jinhua Youngman. An interview with Syed Zainal in StarBiz reveals how that deal came about – Jinhua Youngman (a Chinese coach and truck maker) originally went to Lotus and asked them to design a car for them. It was suggested that Jinhua do a badge engineering deal with Proton instead, since the cars were already there. It seems Jinhua Youngman has already managed 1,500 bookings before the car is launched.

But India is a market in which Proton does not have a presence in yet. Is India a perfect match for Proton and the models it has? Rather than just imagine… let’s take an analytical look at the situation in the Indian market.

INDIA: Current Industry Sales Figures and Growth Potential

India has only 12 motor vehicles per 1000 persons, whereas China has 10 and Malaysia has a staggering 641! That makes us the 3rd most saturated country in the world behind the United States (765) and Luxembourg (686). In comparison, Japan has 543 and the United Kingdom has 426. [1]

Admittedly, the term “motor vehicles” also include two wheelers and not just passenger cars, but this is also the case for India. For Financial Year 06-07, 77% of India’s total industry volume comprised of two-wheelers. The remaining comprised of 1,076,408 passenger cars (14%), 220,199 utility vehicles and 83,091 MPVs. This is a huge amount of vehicles, and the 14% figure only stands to grow as many Indians slowly graduate from two wheelers to cars.

The potential is huge considering as India’s GDP goes up, the market for motor vehicles will increase tremendously. According to Global Economics Paper No. 99 by Goldman Sachs [4], China’s GDP would be exceeded Germany by this year, and Japan by 2015 while India would do the same by 2020 and 2030 respectively. Emerging markets that are considered “old news” in the automotive industry include Brazil, Russia and China. These markets are expected to decline in growth from 2015 onwards, while India is expected to continue showing stable growth. [Source]

INDIA: Penetration Potential and Government Policies

The Indian automotive industry is seen to be “friendlier” as compared to the China. According to a Japanese analyst source, many Japanese vendors are now looking for an “India Plan”. More and more are turning away from China because of cases like the much publicized GM vs SAIC legal case over the Chery QQ, allegedly a clone of the Chevrolet Spark.

The Indian government also has initiatives like the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), and has committed RM 274 billion to the NHDP under the 11th Five-Year Plan. Malaysian companies like UEM and IJM are already in India, working on these highways, roads and flyovers. A clear sign that India is serious about improving its country’s transportation.

Of course, the highways are no use without motor vehicles, and for that India has a clear “Automotive Mission Plan” that covers the years 2006 to 2016. This plan was prepared by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises of the Government of India and outlines automotive industry investments of up to US$40 billion (RM 135 bilion) over the 10 years. The plan also focuses on exprts, with a 25-point plan. While obviously requiring more consistency and notice period before changes are made (manufacturers are asking for a minimum of 2 years before and major alterations are made), the plan gives investors a lot of confidence. There will not likely be any sudden random changes in policies, something that are unfortunately getting familiar with.

From a Malaysian perspective, the legal system could possibly be easier to understand as Malaysia and India were both former British colonies and are still Commonwealth members. Communication would also be easier, in English if the Malaysian/Indian accents dont distort discussions and negotiations. Lastly, as is Japan, Australia and New Zealand, India is a right-hand-drive country whereas China is LHD. This means less re-engineering cost for the new market.

INDIA: The Big Players

Sales Matrix – Indian Passenger Cars for August 2007

No	Model	Sales	Delhi Price (lakh)	Length
1	Suzuki Alto	17,816	2.59~3.13	3495
2	Suzuki Wagon R	11,748	3.56~4.04	3520
3	Hyundai Santro	11,699	2.94~4.59	3565
4	Tata Indica	11,396	2.75~4.58	3675
5	Suzuki Omni	7,793	2.45~2.47	3370
6	Suzuki Swift	7,576	4.36~5.56	3695
7	Suzuki M800	5,480	2.16~2.38	3335
8	Suzuki Zen Estilo	4,596	3.52~4.07	3495
9	Toyota Innova	3,910	8.16~11.35	4555
10	Mahindra Scorpio	3,418	8.07~9.54	4325

Source: Autocar India, October 2007

Above are the sales charts for the Indian passenger car market in August 2007 alone. As you can see, Maruti Suzuki India dominates the Indian market with their Suzuki-badged cars, and the Maruti-Suzuki M800 is just about the only car that is priced under RM20,000 (Rs 2.16 lakh is about RM18,500). Yet it is not the top selling model, which shows that the Indian market is maturing – the 1983 Suzuki M800 is OLD and no one wants to be stuck with a stone age car. They want something fairly modern, and stylish even, but being economical in terms of both fuel consumption and initial purchase cost plays a huge factor.

What Is The Ideal Indian Car?

Like I said, fuel economy and initial purchase cost are huge factors for the current Indian car buyer. Petrol in India costs 49.49 rupees (RM4.07) per litre, and diesel costs 32.45 rupees (RM2.78) per litre. As evident from the top 10 sales list, except for number 9 and 10 which is an MPV and a 4X4 respectively, India needs small cars. It would also be ideal if the car had a diesel powertrain, especially if you want to introduce a larger sedan-bodied model. A diesel variant is a must have if Proton were to enter the Indian market, and from what I hear there are certain Proton prototypes with third party-sourced turbodiesel units already. Manual transmission is a must as Indian motorists seem to want to save every single drop of fuel they can.

The Best Way To Enter India

The obvious way is to tie-up with a company that already has a nationwide sales and service network in India, and a gap in the company’s product line-up which allows Proton models to be slotted in. This will provide Proton a quick entry into India.

Maruti Suzuki is out as they have their own brand to run. Tata may be a good choice, but their mainstay is commercial vehicles, although their Tata 1-lakh car and 2008 Indicar/Indigo plans are interesting, as is their relationship with Fiat. Backtracking to the bit about car prices, 1-lakh rupees is about RM8,563.00, but now it seems the car might end up being 1.25 lakh instead (RM10,700). Both Hyundai and Suzuki are also working on similiar projects. Anyway, Tata has 11 variants of the Tata Indica alone, not including the Indigo, so there is definitely no room for Proton in the Tata stable.

Mahindra looks to be a perfect choice. Yes, they have a relationship with Renault to sell the Renault Logan in India, but many who’ve seen the vehicle says it feels too cheap and is put together too cheaply – this is not really in tune with maturing Indian customer tastes. The Logan’s launch in India also did not go as well as expected – not enough ready stock at launch, too high of a booking deposit, slow production, expensive diesel option, and limited variants. [Source]

Business Times reported back in April 2006 that Proton was in talks with Mahindra. In more recent news, Syed Zainal reveals in the StarBiz centerspread interview that Proton is now talking with a company that is currently in the tractors and 4X4 segment but wants to get into passenger cars. I strongly believe this could be Mahindra. Syed Zainal says the deal will be similiar to the Jinhua/Europestar deal – this could mean rebadging instead of the Proton brand being introduced there.

Where Will The Cars Come From?

CKD assembly in India is the best way to go about it because of tax/duty concerns, and the Indian partner would have a manufacturing, logistics, vendor network and system already in place. A combination of various duties – Excise, Customs, and VAT – could hike up the price of a CBU car imported into India by 60% to 100%, but for CKD pack imports it is generally about 10% only. [Source] But it’s worthwhile to note that India is currently on observer status in ASEAN [Source] – there could be a possibility of India moving to establish Free Trade Agreements with key ASEAN countries in the next few years – it already has an FTA with Thailand.

India has had an installed manufacturing capacity of 1.75 million cars annually since the year 2005, but the Total Industry Volume has not reached that amount yet, so there is plenty of capacity to locally assemble Proton cars there.

The Perfect Proton for India

Syed Zainal mentions in the StarBiz interview that Proton will be offering the BLM, the GEN.2 and the Savvy to the Indian partner. He says with the right product offerings, a car company in the Indian market could snag an estimated combined sales volume of about 200,000 units a year for 2 to 3 cars, which should be possible if one of cars gets onto the top 10 list (refer August 2007 sales table above).

India divides passenger cars into different segments, from A1 to A6. There are four Lower A2 segment cars on the top 10 list – the Suzuki Zen Estilo, the Suzuki Alto, the Suzuki Wagon R and the Hyundai Santro. India defines a Lower A2 segment car as a car between 3490mm and 3650mm in length. Then there is the Upper A2 segment which measures between 3650mm to 4000mm long – represented on the top 10 list by the Tata Indica and the Suzuki Swift. Longer than the Upper A2 segment is the Lower A3 segment, which measures between 4000mm to 4200mm and includes cars like the Ford Ikon and the Tata Indigo, but none of them are on the top 10 best seller list.

By just looking at the types of cars that are on the list, you know you need an excellent Lower A2 or Upper A2 segment contender. Proton has two cars that could fit into what India considers an A2 segment car – the Proton Savvy (3710mm) and the upcoming Proton BLM, which could fall in either the Upper A2 or Lower A3 segments.

If the BLM follows the Persona’s foot steps, it will end up being a rather decent car. I believe if the kinks are ironed out of the Campro’s strange torque curve (through the variable intake module perhaps?), the BLM and a Campro-equipped Savvy could be better cars than cars like the Hyundai Santro (we know this car as the Atos here in Malaysia). Proton has cars with modern styling and up to date interiors. What we don’t have right now is a diesel – one of the lasts bit of the ideal recipe.

Small hatchbacks in India are preferred and retain value better compared to three-box sedan cars. One reason could be because sedans in India are more expensive compared to hatchbacks on initial cost – the opposite of what’s happening in Malaysia and around the world where hatchbacks are seen as a sporty lifestyle choice and command a higher price – just look at the Honda City vs the Honda Jazz here in Malaysia. The other factor is the fact that a smaller hatchback is simply preferred in the very busy streets of Indian towns. A hatch simply takes up less street real estate and parking space.

But this doesn’t mean a small sedan will not work in India. For a case study, we can have a look at the Suzuki Esteem 1.3L, which is about 4095mm x 1575mm x 1395mm in dimension. According to the little guesswork I did which I demonstrated below, the Proton BLM should be nearly equal to the Suzuki Esteem in length – an estimated 3975mm to 4050mm length – (to make up for the angle in the photo) so it could either be an Upper A2 car or a Lower A3 car.

You can try doing your own guess-timation calculation on how long the BLM is – the pixel values above will not tally if you measure the image because I did it with a larger image then resized it down to fit this site. Plus the image is actually taken at an angle so it would not be accurate. I assumed the BLM would use the Savvy’s platform and not an extended one, so the same wheelbase would apply.

It could be that the Suzuki Esteem is not doing that well in India because it appears to be an old workhorse, and is not so palatable compared to the newer Wagon R, Zen Estilo and other “newer” models. The BLM will offer a “fresher” Lower A3 sedan choice.

So to answer the question – what is the perfect Proton for India? In this case, the answer would be the Savvy and the BLM, and priority should be to get the cars locally assembled in India as fast as possible.

But the danger with this could be having the Proton or Proton-badged marque be associated with cheap cars forever – a problem that Maruti Suzuki is facing right now. Competitors like Honda and Toyota took a different approach – enter with the more expensive models to build the brand, then move downmarket with cheaper offerings.

Price point is also something to ponder about – assuming the BLM is RM32,000 here in Malaysia, that would translate to about 3.7 lakh rupees. Seems pricey considering most of the models on the top 10 list start from under 3.0 lakh rupees. But then again as I’ve mentioned before it is normal for sedans to have a premium over hatches in India.

Last but not least, with the possibility of India-ASEAN FTA’s being put into place in the not-too-distant future, it would be very good if Proton develops vendors for specific items in India, to cater to regional or global (if I could be so bold as to use that word) Proton production. It would meet the spirit of the CEPT where countries agree to lower import duties while exchanging a roughly equal value volume of components. An added bonus, to take a page from what the Japanese manufacturers like Toyota and Honda are doing, is to use these ‘roots’ in each country to show evidence to the government that the manufacturer is not just there to make a quick buck but has developed local vendors and is serious in creating export opportunities for the host country and/or state.

A wishlist for India-bound Protons: models must have retractable electric wing mirrors because of the danger of two wheelers accidentally clipping the wing mirrors off. The wing mirror mount should also allow for the mirror to detach easily when forced to break without damaging the car body. Ideally the car body could employ a similiar material to the Nissan X-Trail’s fenders which are dent-proof when it comes to little bumps and knocks. This material could be used in key body parts like fenders, like on the X-Trail. Again, something to cope with the huge amount of two-wheelers there. That way Proton (or Mahindra perhaps, if a rebadging deal is done) can claim the new car is designed for Indian roads.

And of course most importantly, a diesel engine.

SOURCES:
[1]: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/tra_mot_veh-transportation-motor-vehicles
[2]: http://www.cybersteering.com
[3]: http://www.siamindia.com/scripts/custom-duty.aspx
[4]: http://www2.goldmansachs.com/insight/research/reports/report6.html
[5] http://www.indiaenews.com/business/20060706/13939.htm / Wikipedia: NHDP
[6]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5049398.stm

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Random thoughts on policies

Paul Tan — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:00:01 +0000

Some of you may have noticed there has been some kind of shift in the prices of import marques in Malaysia, and also the way they are brought in – whether CKD or CBU. We now have CBU Japan imports at never before seen prices: the Mitsubishi Lancer GT and the Suzuki Vitara comes to mind.

Something that’s quite the opposite has been happening with the Korean makes here in Malaysia. Kia cars in Malaysia have classically been CBU models with only the Kia Spectra being a CKD model. Let’s not count the Naza-badged CKD models. Recently for the first time in a very long time, two new Kia models never seen before in the Malaysian market have been launched as a locally assembled CKD models.

Things are definitely changing somewhere in the tax department when it comes to cars. Excise exemptions? Free trade agreements? Industrial adjustment fund? These are the few possibilities that could be the catalysts for these changes with how import marques are sold here in Malaysia.

Back in July 2007, we also saw MITI take a step which many saw as a step backwards in the Malaysian automotive industry – allowing Open AP holders to import any car they want. Previously, Open AP holders could import any cars they wanted except for models that have been assigned to the franchise AP holders. Now you can see grey importers like Naza World bringing in the Honda Stream.

How has this affected Honda Malaysia’s own marketing plans in Malaysia in regards to the Honda Stream? I am sure they have planned to introduce it sooner or later. Honda Malaysia has invested so much here in Malaysia – an assembly plant in Malacca which even does some good for the economy by bringing in some money into the country by exporting CV joints.

To see it in a positive light, perhaps it is good that this grey import Stream has been given such a ridiculously high price tag – it could increase market perception of the Stream’s value and if Honda Malaysia gets around to introducing it with a lower price tag, it could have a positive effect.

Despite used car imports now being limited to 3% of the total market volume, grey importers can definitely damage the hard work that principals have been putting into their product plans. I cannot figure out these strange policies set by MITI which seemingly punish foreign investors who have poured money into our automotive industry. We are already losing out on so much to our neighbours.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Letter: Proton in the UK

Paul Tan — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:42:17 +0000

Here is a letter sent in by Kumaresan Balakrishnan, a student from Johor Bahru currently studying in the UK. He shares with us a little about Proton cars in the UK.

I am a student originally from Johor Bahru, now at the Hull University Business School, doing Marketing and Logistics.

I have pictures of UK police Waja fleet. The Humberside Police in Yorkshire have a fleet 90% comprising of Wiras, and Wajas, and their plainclothes police drive GEN2′s.

Protons are extremely popular in Hull. I see many of them while walking to University from my house. Also, 50% of the taxis in Hull are Protons. Hull is the 7th largest city in England.

I have spoken to Proton owners here and they have nothing but praise for the vehicle, which I found unbelievable judging by the amount of problems my mum’s Waja has been giving her.

While taking a picture of the front of a police Waja, I was caught by the policeman who was using the vehicle. He had just returned from buying a sandwich at Subway.

After explaining to him why I was doing it he kindly allowed me to open the door and take a picture of the dashboard, but he was a bit shy and declined to let me take a picture of the car with him in it.

Everybody I ask seems to love their Protons here. Very, very, very strange for a person like me to hear such comments. I wonder if the quality control of export-bound Protons really are that much better.

More photos after the jump.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Mercedes Benz Inline-4 engines: M266 vs M271

Paul Tan — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:56:35 +0000

I’ve been wondering about one thing for quite sometime now. Why isn’t Mercedes Benz putting the M266 into more of it’s cars? Where does the engine come from? Is it a Mercedes Benz development used solely in vehicles like the A-class and B-class or is it shared with other cars like Chryslers? As far as I know, Chrysler inline-4 engines use the GEMA engine (4B11) found in Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Chrysler cars.

The M266 comes in a few displacements, but one of the most notable ones is the M266 Turbo (M266.980), found in the Mercedes Benz B200 Turbo. Unlike Mercedes Benz’s other inline-4, the M271 Kompressor which uses a supercharger, the M266 Turbo uses a turbocharger. It is mounted transversely and is mated to either a 6-speed manual or an AUTOTRONIC CVT gearbox, sending power to the front wheels. It uses a BorgWarner K03 turbocharger. The M271 is a longitudinal rear wheel drive design.

Here is a comparison table between the M266 and the M271. The M271 specs used in this comparison is of the W204 C200K specifications. The M271 comes in different specs like different boost levels, which result in different performance statistics. Note that the W204 C200K’s M271 is not the most powerful M271 around, with factory tuning of course – the W203′s C230K has a slightly higher power output (192hp).

	M266	M271
Capacity	2034cc	1796cc
Cylinders	Inline-4	Inline-4
Valvetrain	8 valve SOHC	16 valve DOHC
Configuration	FF	FR
Head	Aluminium alloy	Aluminium alloy
Block	Aluminium alloy	Aluminium alloy
Bore x Stroke	83 x 94	82 x 85
Power	193 @ 5,000	184 @ 5,800
Torque	280Nm @ 1800-4850rpm	250Nm @ 2800-5000rpm
Induction	Turbocharged	Supercharged

Based on the comparison table above, which engine looks like the better performer to you? I’m not sure why Mercedes Benz has two inline-4 engines. It should just pick one and stick to it, economies of scale are better that way.

Maybe the M266 could be adapted to rear wheel drive, or the M271 could be adapted to front wheel drive, though I think the former is easier, plus the M266 is a newer engine anyway and its performance looks better to me. However some might be turned off by the 8-valve SOHC valvetrain design, but then again what does that matter when the performance results are there? Power peaks earlier in the rev range, and torque has a wider spread and kicks in lower and stronger.

DaimlerChrysler is currently using three different inline-4 engines in it’s cars, the GEMA 4B11 engine, the M266 and M271. There is no place in the world’s automotive industry for inefficiency. Everyone is sharing components – a recent example would be BMW and Peugeot sharing a common engine with different configurations for the MINI Cooper and a few Peugeot models.

These are just my thoughts – if anyone knows these two engines in further technical depth and know why both need to exist, please do share in the comments for the benefit of all motorheads!

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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50 Posts to Independence No.24

Paul Tan — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:37:35 +0000

Having been tagged by the country’s number one cyber-patriot, the ever-entertaining but often-misunderstood Daft Oi to post up entry No.24 in Nizam Bashir’s 50 Posts to Independence project, I have decided to allow Shannon Teoh, a journalist from NST and part-time contributor to this site, to tell his rather interesting tale of two cars. Coincidentally, his first two cars were the same as mine. Full story after the jump!

Number 24

I remember my first car. Well, it wasn’t my car. It was my dad’s. But then Papa had gotten himself a Merc, so the 1988 1.3l Nissan Sunny was for the most part, all mine. Except that I didn’t really have to take care of it since it wasn’t actually mine. I just drove it, put in some petrol – basically, that only happened when I was using it and it was empty, if not I just conveniently hoped someone else would do it. What, like you didn’t do the same? – and hoped I didn’t crash it.

Well, hope is never enough is it? By the time I was fully responsible for the car – well, at least its petrol tank since I was taking it to campus with me – I was already a bit of a maniac on the road, driving just inside the limits of the car.

As it happens, driving down Jalan Gasing in Petaling Jaya one day, a florist van going in the other direction decides to take a U-turn – meaning upon completion of his insane manoeuvre, he’d be going in the same direction as me – right in front of me without looking. He didn’t complete his U-turn but instead completed several flips and my Nissan Sunny never completed another trip. That was the last time anyone drove it. And the florist’s insurer only gave us RM3,000 for it. The front of the car was completely smashed in and in fact, had crumpled to just outside the passenger cell. Meaning, I could get out of the car fine, after forcing the door open, but basically, there wasn’t much of a car in front of where my feet were.

As I was about to start my life as a fulltime journalist soon, I needed a new set of wheels and for a bachelor with a bit of a taste for wheels, a 1.3l Proton Satria was a fun but economical choice. Of course, it wasn’t long before i nicked a bit of the bumper on my car. There was hardly any contact with the car in front of me, ironically, a Nissan Sentra which escaped scott-free but I did have a visible indentation on mine. This was the first time the ol’ ‘Proton Tin Can’ thing struck me.

Imagine if I had been driving the Satria instead of the Sunny when I exuberantly said hello to Flower-boy. I’d probably be writing this from a wheelchair now. Not only is the Satria more attuned to origami, I would also have been going faster in it.

That really sums up being Malaysian for me. The difference between a Satria and a Sunny. The Satria is a newer, flashier, funner car. It may not be much more luxurious than the Sunny, but it is still with me now and I still enjoy driving it.

In the same way, I enjoy this country. It’s fun being in a multi-cultural society. At the same time, this country is also flashy, with its Twin Towers, Putrajaya, etc.

But when an emergency happens, you sometimes wish you were Japanese. The Sunny possibly saved my legs, if not my life. Japan’s gone through earthquakes, terrorist cults, Hiroshima, but they’ve always come out of it stronger – albeit, stranger as well.

We’ve had the tsunami, the floods in Johor, but none of it seems to have been handled especially well. Remember the idiots who video-d the waves in Penang? Once again, fun over function.

Sometimes, I wish we could be as tough, as efficient as the Sunny, not just fun like the Satria – which admittedly, is Japanese as well, since it’s a Mitsubishi Colt. But for the sake of this analogy, Proton copied the Colt, not the Sunny, so there.

Curiously, now there’s a Satria Neo, but there was also a Sunny Neo. The Sunny Neo was basically a Pulsar/Sentra that was marketed in Thailand whilst the Satria Neo is basically the replacement model for the Satria

I’d say the improvements made by the Satria Neo is far more significant since the Sunny Neo is just a name invented by some marketing hacks. So, this is cause for optimism, isn’t it? The Neo has a stronger body and with the CamPro engine and better handling, it both retains its fun drive but adds on safety as well. But the high seats and low roof makes it tough for taller people to drive it.

This sort of fundamental flaw is what deeply frustrates many Malaysians today. That we can come up with good ideas but somehow, somewhere, our incompetence shows up.

Maybe it’s because only half of us are trying to make things better. Only half actually believe in this country.

And frankly, after 50 years, aren’t we tired of saying “it’s better than nothing”?

And so, the next in line, is Suanie. Tag, you’re it.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Analyzing fuel quality in Malaysia – 3 out of 6 already Euro II compliant for petrol!

Paul Tan — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 19:44:56 +0000

First of all, thanks to Mat Kamil Awang for the pointer to these documents. The source for the data I am going to use in this article is from a Japanese site hosting presentations from the 4th Asian Petroleum Technology Symposium. This particular presentation is entitled “Clean Fuels for A Clean Malaysian Environment”, by Harlina Firdaus Marzuki and Fazil Mat Isa of PETRONAS Research & Scientific Services.

This is heavy reading but insightful, so bewarned! Continued after the jump…

First of all, it is very important to note how much emission control technology has evolved over the past years, now it takes 33 Euro II cars to equal the pollution produced by one 1970 car – those old cars running around sure are causing much more damage to the environment than the rest of us.

Next, let’s look at what exactly Euro II means, and the status of the fuel sold in our country compared to the Euro II and Euro IV standards. Note that these are figures back in 2004, so quality of fuel should have improved or stayed stagnant, let’s just assume they did not become worse! We begin with petrol…

Click table above for full specs.

And the following is a table with the specs of the fuel in our country. We have 6 fuels here in Malaysia, from Shell, Petronas, BHP (known as BP back in 2004), Esso-Mobil, Caltex, as well as ProJet. The following table lists the fuel as letters from A to E, and I do not know which alphabet represents which fuel.

As you can see, for our local petrol, it appears that 2 out of 6 already complies to the Euro II specifications: Fuel B and D. It’s just too bad we have no idea which petrol is which, as it’s not revealed in the presentation. The presentation also noted that actually 3 out of 6 fuels are Euro II compliant, so I assume Fuel E’s slightly higher than 5% spec Benzene content is excusable – Fuel E’s Benzene content is 5.07%. Does that 0.07% matter? I’m not an oil and gas person, I don’t know.

Fuel C and F are up to standards except for Reid Vapour Pressure which has a max threshold of 65 kPa for Euro II. Fuel A fails both the Reid Vapour Pressure and Benzene Content requirement. And check this out – all petrols have sulphur content way below the Euro II requirements.

Something else interesting to note – all of the fuel’s octane rating varies and Fuel D’s octane is the highest and closest to RON98 at 97.7 octane. Fuel E has the lowest octane rating, at 96.4 it is even lower than the RON97 it advertises! Once again, I just wish I knew which fuel comes from which company.

Now we have a look at diesel. Here is the Euro II and Euro IV specifications for diesel. The information is somewhat incomplete, missing specification requirements for Distillation T90 as well as density in kg/L.

Click table above for full specs.

And here is our local diesel quality. Due to the missing info in the specs table, we cannot see if the diesel sold here on Malaysian shores comply with density and Distillation T90.

It seems all of the diesel sold locally here in Malaysia fail the Euro II Distillation T95 requirements which calls for a maximum temperature of 370 degrees celcius. The lowest would be Fuel D at 370.9 degrees Celcius. 5 out of 6 of the diesel fuel here complies with Euro II’s sulphur ppm rating of a maximum of 500ppm, except for Fuel A which is an astronomical 2800ppm, only complying with the current MS123 diesel standard which calls for maximum sulphur of 3000ppm.

Fuel A seems to be the worst diesel around, and it also failed the Euro II standards for petrol! Fuel D seems to have the best fuel around, good diesel fuel with the lowest sulphur content, having the closest Distillation T95 rating to compliance for diesel, as well as petrol that complies with Euro II standards and also having the highest octane number! So yeah, I would advise you to avoid Fuel A and go with Fuel D all the time, but once again, we don’t know which fuel belongs to which company!

This data was based on the quality of fuel back in 2004, and it’s been 3 years now. Optimistically, fuel standards could have already been raised progressively since then – otherwise we assume it’s still the same. Realistically, standards could not have dropped. It looks like diesel seems to need the most work to comply with Euro II standards here in Malaysia. The presentation says the fuel refineries would need the installation of hardware called a Distillate HydroTreater unit, which I don’t know what it is, but it sounds expensive.

Coming March 31st 2007 where Euro II standards-compliant fuel have to be sold at all pumps – assuming it is not delayed – I do not see much reason to warrant an increase in petrol price, perhaps diesel. It is reported that the extra refinery for the Euro II fuel would cost between 3-4 sen per litre. But let’s wait and see.

For the moment, now we have the answers to that age-old question – are all petrols the same? No, they most definitely are not the same, and this isn’t even considering the additives yet.

Last but not least, here is a link to the source document. I also have it mirrored here.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Happy CNY to all: Firecracker Worries

Paul Tan — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:55:59 +0000

Happy Chinese New Year of the Boar to everyone. Hope you had a good time. Me? For personal reasons, there’s not much celebrations going on except for the exchanging of ang pows, plus my internet chose to be down the entire festive season. The last time my internet died was during Hari Raya. I see a pattern here.

Every Chinese New Year, I am unable to rest without fidgeting around and worrying about my cars. You see, I happen to live in a neighbourhood where most of my neighbours are young parents with little kids. They play lots of firecrackers. While I am not against this, there has been an occasion in the past where fire crackers hit my Nissan Sunny. No compensation was given, and when advised to go play their fire crackers in a playground just down the road, the advice was ignored. Now I am constantly reparking my Proton Perdana and a press car BMW 130i M Sport, especially the latter, further down the road and inside my house whenever I hear firecrackers.

Has any of you had this problem? Has fireworks and firecrackers damaged your car? Do you have the same fears that I do, or am I just weird? I think my paranoia is justified, as it HAS happened before. What do you do with these kind of neighbours?

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Johor Motor Sales

Paul Tan — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 05:27:56 +0000

With the recent floods in Johor, you can safely say that many people are picking up the pieces and putting their lives back on track. Buying a new car might be the last thing on the minds of Johoreans who probably need to refurbish their homes, buy new clothes, furniture and other necessities.

More after the jump…

One question that remains, however is what’s going to happen in the motoring world? One thing for sure, is that quite a few motor vehicles could have been submerged underwater. Proton even came out with an offer to help owners of flooded cars & Honda followed suite, offering discounts on spare parts for Johor customers. This also begs the question, will used car prices for J-plate cars drop relatively more than cars from other states?

On the sales front, the Johor is the 2nd largest automobile purchasing state, making up about 12% of the total malaysian car sales market, with about 4000 vehicles sold there per month, according to a local sales manager. KL & Selangor combined, is the biggest contributer with about 43%, followed by Johor (12%), Penang (9%), Sarawak (7%), Perak (6%), Sabah (5%). Other states contribute less than 4% respectively.

The top three selling makes in Johor are Perodua, Proton and Toyota who command 33%, 29% and 19% of the market share respectively. The top selling models in that state alone are the Perodua Myvi 1.3L (Over 800 units per month), Toyota Avanza and the Proton Wira 1.5 (Just about 300 units per month each). How will the car companies cope with the loss of customers? Sales & marketing managers across the country have been cracking their heads to come up with innovative solutions to counter the sudden change of circumstances in the second largest automobile purchasing state in Malaysia.

Compared to the cost of repairing a flooded vehicle, if a Johorean could drive a car away with zero downpayment, and low monthly payment, car sales could actually be brisk, providing its a model you don’t need to trade in a used car to buy (flooded used cars may not be worth much anyway). The glass could be half empty, or half full for car sales in Johor, depending on how you look at it. Kapchai makers might be stepping up their efforts there already.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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E-plate to be available at JPJ-appointed dealers

Paul Tan — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 05:01:42 +0000

There has been some followup news on the e-plate system, basically a wireless RFID MyKad-like system for cars announced in mid-December 2006. The e-plate system is part of the government’s Automated Enforcement System to be implemented by 2010, which will also include 700 new surveillance cameras at strategic locations nationwide. It is assumed that these surveillance cameras will be equipped with e-plate readers, helping enforcement offices detect drivers who break traffic rules such as red lights and double lines.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy reveals more details:

Tamper-proof e-plates will be sealed into the body of vehicles.
Will contain information on driver, chassis and engine number, and model.
E-plates are only available at authorised e-plate makers appointed by JPJ.
Enforcement officers will be equipped with hand-held scanners.

The supplier of the e-plate technology has not been decided yet though, the government is still deciding between 13 proposals from various parties. It is hoped that implementation can be done within this year.

Related Posts:
E-plates: RFID number plate for cars

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Valeo has customers for half camless engine

Paul Tan — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:20:43 +0000

French automotive engineering company Valeo says that it’s camless engine development project will likely be ready by 2010 or 2011, and it already has a few customers working together with them, though Valeo board member Martin Haub declined to name who the customers are.

Valeo’s camless engine is not a full camless engine, but rather half camless, where only the intake valves are electronically actuated with a camshaft. The exhaust valves are actuated using the traditional camshaft method. Valeo says it took the half camless approach because this gives the Valeo half camless engine 80 percent of the performance of a fully camless engine while keeping costs down by half as much – as it is, a four-cylinder half camless engine is about 300 euros more than a normal camshaft engine. As for benefits over a normal engine, Valeo says the engine has 15% to 20% better fuel economy, as well as 15 to 20% better torque at the low end of rev ranges.

Mercedes Benz already has it’s own camless engine project called KDI EVT, with the resulting cam-less valvetrain engine expected to be supercharged with direct injection. BMW is also researching the technology, but is concerned with cost and durability, says BMW general manager for calibration V8 engines Christian Bock. Bock says the technical barrier to camless engines are not the valve actuators themselves but rather the sensors to make it all work with precision. Currently sensors are no accurate enough and have engine-life durability and reliability issues.

Look after the jump for a diagram from Valeo explaining how their electronic valve actuators work.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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LMG Tourer with Hydroxene technology

Paul Tan — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 06:44:55 +0000

Some of you may remember a piece of news in July where a team of Universiti Sains Malaysia researches led by Dr Syamsul Rizal Abd Shukor came up with a way to produce hydrogen in a system compact enough to be fitted into a car. The system involved using waste aluminium metal and sodium hydroxide to separate water into it’s components – hydrogen and oxygen.

While I’m not sure if the new Hydroxene system in LMG’s new pick-ups and SUVs are based on the results of this USM research, it works very similiarly.

Click the image above for a larger diagram from LMG explaining how the Hydroxene technology works. Hydrogen fuel has been researched extensively by both Mazda with their Hydrogen Renesis engine as well as BMW with their hydrogen powered V12 7-series, but these technologies never made it into the production line because of trouble separating hydrogen from water.

Any of you remember the Mercedes Benz F600 Hygenius Concept I posted a long time ago? That car ran on hydrogen as well. Where to get this hydrogen has always been a problem. LMG’s on-board electrolysis device could be the catalyst to a new generation of fuel saving hybrids. For now, LMG’s system runs on a mix of both petrol and hydrogen, but a pure hydrogen system would definitely be possible. The mixture of petrol and water results in an effective reduction in fuel consumption of up to 50%. These systems have been available as a bolt on device before, but this is likely the first system that comes with a production car.

Read more about the new LMG vehicles:
LMG Trekker Details
LMG Tourer Details

Related Readings:
HFT Sdn Bhd’s hydrogen fuel system

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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A question for car owners

Paul Tan — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 14:50:31 +0000

I would like to pose a question to any of you who purchased a car recently. The government is unhappy that car prices have not been reduced much, only in the tune of 2-5% or at most 5-10%.

If you purchased a Toyota Camry (used as an example) last year, and Toyota cuts the price of the Toyota Camry by 15-20%, how would you feel? Would your car’s value drop in the second hand market? And if yes, would you be angry? Would your brand loyalty to Toyota be affected if Toyota was the only one who gave a big price cut for their cars? Would your brand loyalty to Toyota be affected if all car manufacturers did similiar price cuts? Or would you be okay with it, considering it is an effect of the National Automotive Policy?

There are no right or wrong answers. It’s a matter of your own opinion, and I hope everyone will agree to disagree in case differences of opinions occur in the discussion. Also feel free to give your thoughts on what you think of the NAP in general, and the after-effects so far. The prices of cars in Malaysia is truly a complicated thing. Such a delicate balance must be kept.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Happy New Year 2006

Paul Tan — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 12:35:09 +0000

I’d like to wish all my readers a happy new year. 2005 has been an interesting year for the automotive industry. Pretty exciting. We had new launches from both our largest national car manufacturers, the Perodua Myvi and the Proton Savvy. We had the controversial AP Saga involving Rafidah Aziz, Tun Dr. M and the AP Kings. A new National Automotive Policy. We saw Proton undergo a major management change, and the possibility of a take-over by Volkswagen AG.

Let’s hope 2006 will bring us more exciting developments. I’m sure everyone is eagerly awaiting the new Proton Satria Replacement Model. Sightings of a K-car being test driven which might be a Perodua have also been spotted, though these are all just speculations.

Petrol prices have gone up multiple times this year and currently stands at 1.62 a litre for RON97. There are speculations of another hike REAL soon, so be sure to adjust your finances in preparation for it.

As for imported makes, I think a replacement for the current Honda Civic is also due very soon since if I recall correctly, they’ve stopped production of the older 1.7 VTEC and 2.0 i-VTEC models to clear out the stock. No immediate indications of an update for the Altis or Camry yet. The Accord has been facelifted in Japan and the US but not in Malaysia, fine by me as I don’t like the new facelift anyway. The Sentra has been facelifted again. Nissan has to do alot better than this for their sedans. They seem to be focusing on the X-Trail and the Frontier for the moment. They still don’t have a proper competitor for the City and the Vios. Both the City and Vios have been facelifted in 2005.

Happy trails and enjoy 2005′s last night, wherever you may be spending it. I’m likely going to spend it at home. Already partied enough last night at the Malaysian Press Club’s pre-New Year party. Remember, don’t drink and drive. I’ve had my fair share of that experience.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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National Automotive Policy draft tomorrow

Paul Tan — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:02:06 +0000

There are a lot of people who feel that we just shouldn’t have had an automotive industry in the first place. Since Proton’s birth in 1983, the normal rakyat with average income have been forced to buy Protons. This is because of government protection in the form of high taxes on foreign makes.

Proton cars are perceived to be of inferior quality compared to foreign competitors. Many people say that when you buy a Proton, you need Lady Luck by your side. Sometimes you get a really good car, sometimes you get a lemon which spends more time in the service centre than being driven by you on the road.

Despite government protection, Proton’s market share has gone down from 57% in 1993 to 30% in June 2005.

On Monday, our ex-PM, the man whose Proton is his brainchild, made a somewhat sarcastic remark on these people who suggest that Proton should be closed down. Standard issue from Dr. M to make this type of statement. A quote from him:

If some feel one way to overcome the many problems we hear today is that we don’t have the automotive industry in Malaysia, we just close down.

Minister in the PM department, Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said that this is definitely not the solution. Closing down Proton would make 300,000 workers jobless. He says that it also affects the country’s dignity, and that Proton has also made many contributions to Malaysia’s automotive industry in the past 20 years since it’s inception.

However AFTA is coming soon, and Proton cannot be protected forever. We have already postponed the new tax structures in compliance with AFTA before. We cannot postpone forever.

Malaysians are sick of inferior cars at ridiculous prices. Some have suggested that one solution would be to source components from overseas so that Proton would be more competitive. This suggests that our local components are more expensive than what we could get overseas. How true this is, I don’t know.

But I wonder, the amount purchased by Proton would be the same as what they are currently getting from local manufacturers. Business is business. Even though the overseas component suppliers have the necessary economies of scale to be competitive in component prices, what reason do they have to offer Proton the same lower prices? The order amount is still much less compared to other huge auto manufacturers who sell many more cars than Proton per year. This is why a partnership has been suggested, such as the possible Volkwagen-Proton stake exchange currently being discussed.

These decisions are all made by the big boys up there, and what most of us care about is just getting a decent vehicle to drive around.

The Cabinet will discuss the draft National Automotive Policy tomorrow at it’s weekly Wednesday meeting. We all eagerly anticipate what’s in store for us car purchasers after AFTA is implemented.

But lately, all that has resulted from the noise about APs that directly affect us as car purchasers are Korean cars being made more expensive now because of the PGE tax.

Sources: Bernama, BusinessWeek, Bernama

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Google Wifi

Paul Tan — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 08:24:16 +0000

Google has launched a free Wi-Fi service in San Fransisco. Together with it’s Wi-Fi service, it has also launched a free VPN service so that Wi-Fi users can encrypt their over-the-air data.

Since their e-mail service is called Gmail, I wonder why they didn’t name their Wi-Fi hotspot G-Spot.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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The Korean Advantage

Paul Tan — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 21:50:36 +0000

Hyundai builds 4 million vehicles annually today. By 2007, output is expected to be 5.5 million vehicles.

Proton? Production is now shy of 200,000 cars a year. 178,431 sounds about right. Perodua? 113,431 vehicles.

This is why Proton has no chance to give us good cars at fair prices. There is no economies of scale. How did Hyundai do it? They’ve been around since 1967. That’s 38 years. Proton? About 20 years. It was born in 1983. The first Proton Saga rolled off production lines in September 1985.

Even the local market share that Proton holds is dropping, can it compete internationally?

Let’s all face it. If Proton made cars that did not fall apart once it rolled off the production line, people would not turn to Korean makes.

If Proton’s quality was comparable to Korean Makes like Hyundai, would any of my blog readers still choose a Korean make? Can they voice out? Any particular reason?

Right now Proton is still in the middle of controversy and without a CEO, while Hyundai is gunning for Volkswagen AG and DaimlerChrysler AG, aiming to pass them and be ranked 5th in the charts as part of the world’s five largest automobile makers.

This vision is despite it’s income dropping and prices rising because of the rise in the Korean Won versus the US dollar which made Hyundai cars more expensive. But it’s time for Hyundai to ditch the price advantage if it really wants to move forward and improve its brand.

These are words from a Hyundai supplier Kazuo Ishikawa:

In Japan and the U.S., when people get to a certain level, when they get rich, they start getting lazy. The Koreans and the Chinese, they’re still hungry.

Ishikawa supplies wheels for Hyundai and Toyota in the USA.

With the protection given to Proton here, even before Proton is successful they have gotten lazy. They simply DO NOT LISTEN to consumers! The opposite is with Hyundai, where it’s chairman pastes the advice that J.D Powers III himself had given him in 1998. One of the points Powers had mentioned was that Hyundai was not listening enough to customers, and quality levels were an issue. Hyundai Chairman Chung swore that the 6 foot board with the advice plastered on it would not come down until Hyundai surpassed Toyota in quality control.

Is he working at it? Yes. Hyundai defects rates have dropped from 272 problems per 100 vehicles in 1998 to just 117 per 100 vehicles in 2004.

Hyundai has even penetrated the China market successfully, despite strong competition from the local car manufacturers. Residents in the capital, Beijing are seen ignoring China-made Charade taxis manufactured locally by the Tianjin FAQ Xiali Automobile Co, where instead they rather wait for a Hyundai Elantra taxi to pass by.

Hyundai is in Japan, selling it’s cars via Mitsubishi dealerships. Hyundai is in India, where it is the third largest automobile maker there. A 1.1 billion euro factory is being built in Slovakia for Kia, while in Malaysia we still talk about how Proton managed to build a 1.8 billion ringgit factory without getting help from the government.

Chung is known as the “Tiger” among Hyundai employees personally inspects Hyundai assembly lines every morning and scolds workers personally when he finds defects on cars being assembled. In Malaysia we only have a Thundercat Tiger on the Proton badge.

So what happens when Proton drivers send their cars back when they find defects? They hear “Biasalah, Proton” from the service centers.

You can see the huge difference in attitude between Hyundai and Proton’s attitude.

Hyundai’s manufacturing methods have top-down control of the corpoerate ladder exercised through personal relationships instead of formal bureaucracy.

Hyundai’s struggle is not over yet. It’s survival in the international market depends on how it positions itself despite the strengthening Korean won which are driving up the prices of it’s cars.

So really… what is the Korean advantage? I’d say it all boils down to attitude.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Proton vs. MITI, Round 3

Paul Tan — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 16:25:11 +0000

Jeff Ooi already has a very detailed coverage on the latest updates on the Proton vs. MITI saga, so I’m not going to talk much about it. More time for me to write more howtos and more about nice shiny automobiles! But I’m sure all of you would want to know the latest in this Proton/AP controversy.

Basically, Dr. M reveals some basic statistics on the distribution of APs in Malaysia, of which a majority of 54400 went to 20 particular companies, out of 67,000. The remainder 12600 went to the remaining 82 AP awardees.

Let’s do some basic math here.

54400 / 20 = 2720

This is an average of 2720 APs per company. Based on the market rate of RM35,000 per AP, this is an instant profit of 95.2 million ringgit a year on top of everything else. In Singapore, COEs are sold instead of given away, and the money goes to the government. Here, it goes into the bumiputra businessman’s pocket. I want to be bumiputra too.

Next, Dr. M responds to Rafidah saying that it was his administration which decided the ruling on 40% local content to qualify as national car. He says it did not fall under his control/decision, etc etc, haih. The same with the Naza Ria’s status as a national car.

Details here at Screenshots.

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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Petrol Price Hike a Hoax, but Inevitable?

Paul Tan — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 16:55:14 +0000

Went to survey the new petrol prices at Petronas ten minutes ago, at 12:40AM. Wanted to pump my car’s tank to a full tank with the new price as I was lazy to queue up with everyone else before midnight.

When I reached the Petronas near my place, I found that the prices was still the old prices. So I asked the petrol station attendants and they said that the price would only take effect at 7AM tomorrow. And they told me the hike is only 5 cents instead of the 20 cents which was rumoured.

When I got home, I discovered from SK that TV news reports had reported that it’s just a hoax. But I didn’t watch the TV reports myself so I can’t be 100% sure myself.

I’ll wait till tomorrow morning to confirm.

Anyway a petrol price hike is inevitable. Everyone better be prepared. Time to get a motorcycle!

This story originally appeared on Paul Tan's Automotive News on Sun, 12 Feb 12 01:36:43 +0000.

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