The Nation Newspaper

Category: Motoring

  • Nissan unveils self-driving car with 500km Range

    Nissan unveils self-driving car with 500km Range

    Nissan has unveiled its vision for the future: the autonomous, zero-emissions IDS Concept car. Presented at last week’s Tokyo Motor Show, the vehicle integrates control and safety technologies with artificial intelligence for the next generation of self-driving cars, writes TAJUDEEN ADEBANJO with agency addition.

    The 2015 Tokyo Motor Show is bursting with much of the excitement coming from Nissan. This year, the company brought along a new-to-the-world concept — the Nissan IDS. As Nissan aspires to live in a world with zero emissions, going way back to when it first introduced the LEAF, you can imagine this hot ride is electric — and it is. The IDS is the next iteraction of the mainstream consumer vehicle.

    It is the first of what Nissan hopes would be many vehicles equipped with new technology by the year 2020.

    Presenting at the show, Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn shared an excerpt about the company’s vision for the future of personal mobility.

    Ghosn boasted that Nissan’s forthcoming technologies will revolutionise the relationship between car and driver, and future mobility.

    “A key point behind the Nissan IDS Concept is communication,” design director Mitsunori Morita said in a statement.

    “For autonomous drive to become reality, as a society we have to consider not only communication between car and driver, but also between cars and people,” Morita said.

    The electric vehicle is fitted with a 60 kWh battery, and sports a low stance for better aerodynamics, allowing it to drive long distances on a single charge. Plus, sync the car with your smartphone to take advantage of Piloted Park and wireless charging technologies.

    The sleek automobile comes in two modes: Manual Drive or Piloted Drive (PD).

    This allows one to choose whether or not they feel like driving, are able to drive, or just want to relax… as needed. While PD is fully automated, safety features while in manual mode were also highlighted, indicating that the car maintains awareness and the ability to intervene even when in manual mode. This continues an exciting trend of leveraging autopilot features to improve safety. The more manufacturers start integrating these intelligent driving features into their cars, the better, as that will drive faster improvements in the technology, lower costs, and ultimately, safer roads for all.

    Another feature that is more on the fun side of things is that the car appears to have a personality that it uses to relate to the driver, passengers, and even pedestrians on the street, sending messages via its dash-mounted, scrolling, LED screen.

    This car really wants to be your friend and could most accurately be described as the personality of Jarvis from Iron Man, Siri on those i-devices, or Cortana (for the four people out there with windows phones).

    Manual puts the driver in control of what looks like a game console accessory. But one is not alone: the car’s sensors continually monitor conditions, and offer assistance if necessary. The IDS Concept’s built-in also communicates with the motorist, highlighting traffic conditions and the day’s schedule.

    Push the glowing blue Nissan button in the middle of the wheel to switch into Piloted Drive, relinquishing responsibility to the smart vehicle, which imitates the driver’s style and preferences.

    The result of the automation and technology that is been rolled into the IDS is a seamless, quiet experience that makes life better. Feel like driving? Go ahead! Want to take a nap? Drop your seat back for a quick power nap — I ‘ll drive! Want to get some work done? Feel free to use the huge dash display to get it on! Want to talk and actually look at the person next to you? Done.

    The concept video is chalk full of features and even seems to have a super-splendulous windscreen and very thin a-pillars to further accentuate the viewing angles and maximise the panoramic views for the driver. Further accentuating the different driving modes, the car’s interior physically adapts to changes with the steering wheel moving in and out of the way, the centre console moving around, and the seats being released to swivel a little when in autopilot/PD mode. It seems like this would make driving more social, though the majority of driving in the United States takes place with only one person in the car, making it difficult to be social regardless of the context.

    All of this cool tech is wrapped in a very sporty exterior that looks like a cross between the diminutive Lexus CT200h with it’s short but sporty stance and the Chevy Bolt concept with it’s full glass ceiling and futuristic lighting enclosures.

    A similar car is in the works at Mercedes. But Nissan also just showed off its Teatro for Dayz concept, a pint-sized electric car with an interior that can project different scenes based on mood, weather, or “vibe of the day.” When parked, the Teatro’s seats, headrests, door trim, and instrument panel can be turned into a moving screen.

  • Oshodi roads get facelift 15 years after

    Oshodi roads get facelift 15 years after

    Residents of Oshodi/Isolo Local Government have heaved a sigh of relief following the construction of Okunade and Okeleye roads.

    The roads, according to them, had been in deplorable condition for over 15 years.

    The road, which was in state of disrepair due to flooding during raining season, had caused the residents sleepless night and prevented them from driving their vehicles into their compounds. The extreme end of Okeleye road was unfortunately taken over by Indian hemp (marijuana) smokers.

    They thanked the Executive Secretary, Dawood Adeola Olajobi, for coming to their rescue.

    During the inspection, Olajobi said the gesture was in fulfilment of one of the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s cardinal programmes.

    “This government is people-driven; therefore, we have to construct as many roads as we can. We learnt that Okunade and Okeleye areas have been marginalised for so long, which necessitated these constructions,” he said.

    A resident, Ibrahim Adeyanju, confirmed that the road has been in a deplorable condition for the past 15 years.

    The Nation learnt some other roads such as Ogunyinka, Ogunbiyi, Boye and Omilade Streets were graded.

    Olajobi urged residents to imbibe maintenance culture and desist from turning them to market place.

  • Hyundai partners bank on credit facility

    Hyundai partners bank on credit facility

    Hyundai Motors Nigeria in partnership with Diamond Bank Plc have inaugurated another vehicle finance initiative tagged: ‘Hyundai-Diamond Dream Deal: It’s time to own a brand new Hyundai’.

    The credit initiative is aimed at helping desiring patrons and fleet managers to access low interest bank credit for the procurement of discounted Hyundai vehicles without necessarily paying commitment and management fees.

    Both corporations brokered this agreement in Lagos at the launch of the scheme designed to ease challenges associated with accessing bank credit to procure choice cars.

    Hyundai Motors Head of Sales and Marketing, Jatin Nadkarni said: “The credit scheme is in line with Hyundai strategy and direction of making vehicle acquisition a seamless experience.”

    According to him, “Successful customers would, aside these seamless benefits, enjoy series of other offers including free six months service including labour and consumables; interest rate as low as 14 per cent; discounted prices; five-year or 100, 000Km warranty and free Samsung Galaxy tab for every car purchased.”

    He said the Hyundai Motors’ goal is to encourage more prospective customers to buy new Hyundai vehicles, particularly now that the Federal Government is committed to the National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP).

    “What we are simply doing in collaboration with Diamond Bank is to help prospective buyers starve-off the burden of sourcing funds in one fell-swoop to buy a new car. Now, you can simply source credit to buy your choice car and thereafter pay at your convenience,” Nadkarni explained.

  • Coscharis thrills customers with ride and drive

    Coscharis thrills customers with ride and drive

    Coscharis Motors, sole marketer of the Jaguar Landrover (JLR) in Nigeria in partnership with MTN Nigeria created an experiential platform for their customers through a Ride and Drive event in Lagos.

    The event offered existing and potential Jaguar Landrover customers a unique driving experience on the untapped capabilities and luxury features of the JLR brands.

    Land Rover experienced instructors from South Africa and United Kingdom (UK) were on ground for the event.

    According to the General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Services, Coscharis Motors, Abiona Babarinde, some of the owners of the JLR variants are underutilising their vehicles, given what they actually offered in terms of on-road and off-road capabilities and luxuries.

    “The lack of expert knowledge in handling these vehicles sometimes results in mechanical and electrical challenges,” Abiona said.

    Speaking on the partnership, MTN General Manager, Consumer Marketing, Richard Iweanoge, said, “MTN is delighted to partner with Coscharis Motors to provide this automobile experiential platform for our customers. This is in line with our commitment to be an enabler to our customers in the fulfilment of their aspirations in life.”

    There was an exhibition of all the latest JLR models within the Coscharis dealership at the event. Existing and prospective customers, who made purchases or financial commitment, were given reasonable discounts on most of the vehicles.

    Other partners on ground during the event were Stanbic IBTC Bank and Access Bank, to facilitate the finance options available for interested clients.

    According to the banks’ representatives, the objective of partnering with Coscharis Motors was to create a platform where buyers don’t have to commit their limited funds to purchase the vehicles, but rather spread the payment through instalments.

    This activation is a second in a series of Ride and Drive events organised by Coscharis and Jaguar Landrover in Nigeria.

  • Guinness donates breathalyzers to FRSC

    Guinness donates breathalyzers to FRSC

    Do not drink and drive. Indeed, if you are a member of a group involved in some social activity that may involve drinking, nominate a member of that group, who must not drink and who will be responsible for driving others home.”

    These were the words of the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr Peter Ndegwa, to motorists.

    Ndegwa said this while handing over alcohol test machines to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Lagos Sector Commander, Hyginus Omeje, during the Guinness Nigeria/FRSC Ember month campaign at Ikeja, Lagos.

    Ndegwa was joined by the company’s Corporate Relations Director, Mr Sesan Sobowale and Policy and Public Affairs Head, Michael Onuoha.

    According to him, the months, leading to the festive end of the year, popularly referred to as “ember months” have historically recorded a disproportionately high rate of road traffic accidents in Nigeria, making the campaign particularly imperative at this period”.

    This year’s awareness campaign, he said, will see the introduction of various novel and innovative strategies geared towards raising public awareness on the benefits of responsible alcohol consumption.

    He said:“At Guinness Nigeria, we believe that our position as a market leader places a significant responsibility on us to raise awareness about the importance of consuming alcohol responsibly.  We are committed to responsible drinking and enlightening the public about the values of responsible alcohol consumption, especially during the festive period.

    “We are eager to increase awareness to ensure that Nigerians have an incident-free experience. Working in tandem with our various stakeholders on our responsible drinking initiatives, we have found a worthy partner in the FRSC, with whom on an annual basis, we have carried out this Ember Months campaign.”

    Ndegwa reiterated that drinking and driving do not mix, saying: “When you drink, don’t drive. When you go out in a group to have fun, designate someone to drive and that person should not drink. If you are going out alone, arrange for taxi to take you home after you have had some drink. Whatever you do this season, don’t drink and drive”.

    Activities to mark this year’s programme include: joint road shows to create awareness of drink-driving, radio and TV talk shows and for the first time, random testing of motorists with breathalyzer to check their blood alcohol concentration levels.

    Omeje urged motorists to obey traffic laws, avoid overloading and avoid driving under the influence of alcohol.

    “Before now, all we had done in terms of enforcement have been based on sobriety tests, which can’t be used to prosecute offenders successfully. However, with the kind donation of breathalyzers by Guinness Nigeria, we would be able to prosecute drivers successfully. And when we prosecute, one, two, five, 10 drivers successfully, you discover that the news will spread very fast and produce the behavioural change which this awareness campaign is expected to usher in,” he said.

     

  • PAN targets low income earners

    PAN targets low income earners

    Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) is targeting low and medium income earners with loans to enable them purchase Peugeot cars and repay in instalments.

    To solidify the move, PAN, which is a leading automobile company in Nigeria, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on auto loan alliance with the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) in Abuja last week.

    The loan alliance will enable Nigerians who wish to buy Peugeot cars to do so on loan and repay monthly for the maximum of 60 months.

    PAN Managing Director Ibrahim Boyi, told his audience that Peugeot cars are a heritage of Nigerians as some of the cars purchased 30 years ago still ply the roads.

    “You can’t take Peugeot off the roads. Some cars produced 30 years ago still ply the roads in Nigeria. This is the quality; this is the heritage we are preaching,” he said.

    Stressing comfort, safety, quality and reliability of the cars as attested to by users over the years, he said the auto loan scheme was designed in partnership with the FCMB to give low income and medium income earners the opportunity to own brand new cars.

    “We offer yet another opportunity with the FCMB for our prospective customers to relive the legacy, heritage and experience of Peugeot cars,” Boyi said.

    He revealed that the loan facility is accessible at any FCMB branch or any accredited PAN dealer upon meeting the required criteria.

    “Our cars today are better. They are modern to meet the developments in the markets,” he told the gathering.

    The representative of the Group Managing Director of the FCMB, who is also the Regional Director, Abuja and North, Olajire Awofisibe, said the loan is an opportunity for Nigerians to own brand new cars instead of buying ‘tokumbo’ cars.

    He said the bank has so far granted over 400,000 Nigerians loans to empower themselves.

    He said the partnership with PAN is another move from the bank to better the lives of Nigerians who are yearning to own cars of their own.

    Encouraging Nigerians to key into the arrangement, he added that there are other repayment plans depending on the model of the vehicle desired and the cash flow of the customer.

    He revealed that the offer includes free vehicle registration, free tracking, three years free maintenance service and discounted free insurance premium.

    “Instead of buying fairly used motor vehicles, why don’t you go for new ones at even a better price?’’ he asked.

  • Volkswagen to recall 8.5 million cars

    Volkswagen to recall 8.5 million cars

    Apparently frustrated with Volkswagen’s slow responses to diesel-gate, German officials are demanding a recall.

    Starting in January, 8.5 million Volkswagen Group diesel-powered cars will be called back to dealers across Europe to receive fixes to their emissions systems that were fitted with emissions test-cheating software.

    According to a Bloomberg report, the decision comes after the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) rejected the VW Group’s proposal for owners to bring their cars into dealers for repairs on a voluntary basis.

    A VW spokesperson told Reuters that it was recalling 500,000 of those 8.5 million “voluntarily” — it had previously stated that eight million cars in Europe had the faulty software.

    Surely, VW would have preferred to handle repairs as customers chose to have them fixed, rather than in a recall. That’s because, even in recall scenarios, customers are slow to respond to repair notices issues by dealers. So, on a voluntary basis, it’s likely that pace would have been even slower, with some VW diesel owners might not have returned for a fix at all. This would likely have saved VW lots of time and money.So the KBA appears to have decided to force the hand of the world’s largest carmaker.

    The recall constitutes just shy of one-third of the carmaker’s total car sales between the affected 2009 to 2015 model years. Included in that recall are 2.4 million VW diesels in Germany alone. The recall — now the largest in German history — will surely be a huge undertaking and will affect a large swath of the car-owning population. Unlike in the U.S., where diesel cars represent a small fraction of car sales, diesel comprises around half of new car sales in Europe.

    How Volkswagen will fix the affected cars in the now-demanded recall is unclear. The world’s largest carmaker has previously stated it would present a plan to fix the cars in October.

    However, that plan has yet to have been announced. California recently demanded that VW must present to the state a plan of attack by November 20. What will happen if the carmaker misses that deadline remains unclear.

  • Nissan offers discounts on Altima, Sentra Sedans

    Nissan offers discounts on Altima, Sentra Sedans

    Stallion NMN Limited, the Nissan Sales Company has markdown prices of Nissan Altima and Sentra sedans in a special season sales to induce prospective buyers and admirers to buy choice Nissan cars in a limited offer that terminates as stocks last.

    Stallion NMN Managing Director Parvir Singh made this pronouncement in Lagos last week when he unveiled the offer titled: ‘Enjoy the most affordable opportunity on Nissan sedans.’

    “Starting from as low as N5.99million for Nissan Altima and N3.99million for the Sentra sedans, prospective customers can now walk into any Stallion NMN accredited dealerships to purchase one of Japan most precision engineered cars,” Mr. Singh affirmed.

    He said: “The evolving needs and preferences of prospective vehicle buyers prompted this markdown, which aims to lessen the burden of owning a serviceable car such as Altima and Sentra.”

    Singh: “We will as part of our philosophy continue to provide the best products and services to our customers to enable them to enjoy value-added experience.”

    Nissan Altima is a favourite choice among family sedans, delivering excellent fuel economy and a rare blend of comfort and exceptional capacity that compares to most premium sedans, Edmunds.com, a foremost American online journal for automotive information was recently quoted.

    Singh said: “Altima is distinctively tailored for stylish and confident individuals as well as responsible adults seeking personal and professional fulfilment on their terms.This class of people want more out of life and do not want a conservative or dull midsize sedan.”

    On the other hand, the Sentra is a mid-to-up-class sedan that unlike competitions has distinguishing features with approximately 15.2-foot-long, ample rear-seat legroom, measuring 37.4 inches, which is more than the back-seat legroom of a typical mid-to-up-scale car.

  • Road safety education in secondary schools

    Road safety education in secondary schools

    Some years ago, road safety education was incorporated into the curriculum of secondary schools through the efforts of the Federal Road Safety Commission and some stakeholders. This is a good step in the right direction as it obtains in several countries. Be that as it may, why has it taken so long to implement this curriculum fully in schools?

    I want to use this forum to challenge the new Honourable Minister of Education to organise a stakeholders meeting involving all the state commissioners of education and other stakeholders to use the deep-dive prototyping approach to set the ball rolling for immediate result – oriented implementation of the road safety curriculum in all the public and private secondary schools in Nigeria.

    The Federal Road Safety Commission should package a training manual and a refresher training for the secondary school teachers (particularly the Physical and Health Education Teachers).

    Nigerian Students must start learning about Road Safety from JSS 1 and by the time they get to SSS 3, they already have the knowledge of the A – Z of road safety (all the topics contained in the curriculum). This will greatly help them as pedestrians, cyclists, vehicle occupants and as drivers later in the future. This is what obtains in UK and several other countries. Hence their low single digit between 3.2 – (3.6 per cent) of road accident rating in the face of Nigeria is high 2digit rating (33.7 per cent).

    The earlier the implementation of the secondary school road safety Curriculum commences, the better for the reduction of the rate of road accidents and fatalities in Nigeria both now and in the future.

    In the same vein, the Federal Road Safety Commission should liaise with the National Universities Commission, National Board for Technical Education and the National Commission for colleges of education to work out the modality for the incorporation of Road Safety Education into the Curriculum of the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

    When I was in the University of Lagos, we were compelled to study General African Studies Course as well as French (These Courses were mandatory for all students irrespective of your course of study in the university). Truly, these courses helped quite a number of students to know several things they wouldn’t have known.

    I am of the opinion that if road safety education is made a compulsory course in the first year of all students in the tertiary institutions, it will further instill the road safety culture in them and for onward transmission to others. We need to go beyond talking into proactive and result – oriented actions.

    A stitch in time saves nine.

     

  • Toyota plans 90 per cent CO2 cuts from cars

    Toyota plans 90 per cent CO2 cuts from cars

    Toyota has revealed the Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050—an initiative that is aiming for 90 per cent cuts in average vehicle CO2 emissions, and 100 per cent emission cuts from the company’s factories.

    Along the way, Toyota is also planning to sell 30,000 fuel cell vehicles and seven million more hybrids by 2020. And the company is also arguing that electrified drivetrains will become a much bigger deal in the future too.

    Much like the G7’s promise of eventual decarbonisation, these types of announcements will—simply by virtue of the message they send to markets—shift investment patterns and help make a low/zero emissions future happen.

    Given that Volkswagen (ranked the world’s third largest automaker by volume) is responding to the diesel scandal by promising a major ramp up of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, and that the automotive establishment is being given a serious run for its money by zero emissions upstarts like Tesla (and, in the not-too-distant future, some obscure company called Apple), there is very good reason for the oil industry to be worried. And given that Toyota is by no means the only corporation aiming for 100 per cent renewable energy in its manufacturing operations, the coal giants are likely fretting too.