Monthly Archives: February 2016

issan shows Gripz crossover concept

4rAfter a run of success with unorthodox SUV styling, especially in the Juke subcompact crossover SUV, Nissan has apparently decided to mine this vein as the company’s new signature.

The result, shown at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show, is the Gripz Concept, a sleek crossover SUV that seeks to chisel another niche into the Nissan’s already-packed line of SUVs. “We want to redefine the crossover segment,” explained Giovanny Arroba, Creative Design Manager for Nissan Design Europe, the London studio responsible for the concept.

Citing the Juke as a prior success in this this effort, he said, “This is a very important segment for us, and we wanted to see how far we could push it.”

Far enough to ruffle enthusiasts’ feathers, who fear that the Gripz could be approved for production at a time when the 370Z may be dropped from the line, prompting them to view the Gripz as the Z-car’s replacement. Arroba insists that the Gripz stands on its own and is unrelated to other product decisions, but the company made enough attempts to link the Gripz to the Z that suspicions remain that Nissan views it as a next-generation Z.

Aside from the “z” at the end of its name, the Gripz Concept also wears a matte black hood with orange-red paint as a tribute to the Safari Rally Z, an off-road racing version of the early 240Z. Nissan won the Safari Rally with the car.

Aside from the nod to the off-road sports cars of 40 years ago, the main inspiration for the Gripz Concept was road bicycles, reported Arroba. The car features a carbon frame, with body panels mounted over it. Exposed carbon elements such as the boomerang-shaped door structure underscore its construction.

“The interior guys brought in the road-bike inspiration, and it spread to the exterior because it struck a chord with us,” said Arroba. The idea was to leave frame materials and vehicle componentry exposed as they are on bicycles, he said. “We’re not padding and insulating and hiding that,” he said.

Beyond the openings for the scissor front and rear-hinged rear doors, sharp angles abound in the Gripz Concept, from its V-shaped grille to its indented triangular sills. Even the exhaust pipe tips are trapezoidal.

It does have exhaust because there is an internal combustion under the hood, though the concept’s powertrain is a series hybrid, so the gasoline engine’s power spins a generator that powers an electric motor borrowed from the Leaf EV.

Nissan provided no additional technical details, just saying that the electric drive system lends the concept a smooth, refined, and exhilarating driving experience with outstanding fuel efficiency.

GM dangles special pricing to families of dealership staffers

1eGeneral Motors is looking to boost sales by offering steep discounts to a vast new buying pool: families of U.S. dealership employees.

The one-month offer allows anyone who shares an address with an employee of one of GM’s roughly 4,200 dealerships to qualify for the Dealership Employee discount, which knocks off about 8 to 10 percent from the sticker price on most models.

The promotion covers nearly all models across the lineups of Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. The employee price can be combined with other incentive offers too, in most cases.

For example, a GMC Acadia SLT with a sticker price of $41,745 can be had for the dealership-employee price of about $38,350, according to a GM website detailing the program. Applying current incentives gets the price down to $35,602.84.

Buyers have until Nov. 2 — the last day of the industry’s sales-reporting cycle for October — to obtain discount certificates. They have up to six months to redeem them.

It’s the first time in about a decade that GM had extended the dealership-employee deal to family members.

In a note sent to dealers last week, GM U.S. sales chief Steve Hill called it “a great opportunity to help someone at home enjoy significant savings on a new GM vehicle.”

The offer comes amid rising incentive activity industrywide. Incentive spending through September this year equaled 10.5 percent of average transaction prices, up from 10.0 percent a year earlier, according to J.D. Power data cited by GM. The automaker’s spending also rose 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier, to 11.2 percent.

Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, said GM’s incentive spending has been restrained even as competition heats up.

“In past years, you’d typically expect them to be among the first ones to resort to bad behavior,” he said. “But they’ve stayed relatively disciplined.”

GM historically has leveraged employee-discount programs for a short-term sales boost.

In 2013, it expanded its U.S. employee discount program to workers’ aunts, uncles and other extended family. In the summer of 2005, GM ran an employee-price-for-everyone promotion that sparked a big sales spike.

GM’s U.S. sales rose 4.2 percent this year through September to 2,299,847 vehicles, just off the industry’s 5 percent growth rate. Its retail sales rose 7.2 percent, the largest increase of the top seven automakers.

Toyota at Tokyo show sporty green retro and sci fi concepts

21 Toyota Motor Corp. is going big at the Tokyo Motor Show this month, with an eclectic display parading everything from a snappy compact sports car and futuristic hydrogen vehicle to a whacked-out retro concept and pocket-sized humanoid robot.

The array reflects the automaker’s desire to build a reputation for style and excitement on top of its status as a master of utilitarian, if ho-hum, rides.

Compact, sporty

Take the S-FR concept, a two-door sporty coupe with a long hood, rear-slung cabin and gaping front air intake. The sporty runabout is no bigger than the company’s Yaris subcompact, yet seats four. Designers gave it a low and wide stance and tried to create a driver-focused experience with a front mid-engine layout.

Toyota bills the concept, which looks remarkably production-ready, as a lightweight, entry-level sporty car with optimal weight distribution and independent suspension for superb cornering. It did not give engine details, but said the car has a six-speed manual tranny.

Toyota says the car would slot below the Toyota 86 sporty coupe. That car, sold as the Scion FR-S in the U.S., was developed with Subaru, which sells its own version as the BRZ.

Miata ties?

The S-FR bears a passing similarity to the Mazda MX-5 Miata. That dangles the possibility of a tempting tie-in, given Toyota’s new alliance with Mazda Motor Corp. But the S-FR’s designer, Koichi Matsumoto, says the concept was done completely in-house with no plans for future collaboration with the smaller Japanese partner.

Indeed, the S-FR is shorter, narrower and taller than the MX-5, though it seats two more people than the Miata.

Matsumoto said he gave it a massive grille to express a sense of sportiness. He described the S-FR’s face as friendly, without digressing into cute.

Its compact, supple look was inspired by a weatherworn round rock, Toyota said. The idea is to express a warm, simple structure that embodies a latent sense of movement.

Green, futuristic

Toyota turns futuristic with its FCV Plus Concept, a vision of a possible successor to the company’s Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that went on sale in Japan last year and in the U.S. this year.

The idea: An evolution from eco-car to “energy car,” or one that can serve as a power source for everything from other vehicles to people’s homes when it is not being driven, by harnessing the electricity created by the car’s hydrogen fuel cell stack.

In the FCV Plus Concept, the fuel stack is downsized and packed between the front wheels, while the hydrogen tank and battery sits between the rear wheels. Four in-wheel motors propel the car, optimizing passenger space for four occupants.

A space-age exterior caps the cabin in a bubble of blue glass and wraps the rear wheels in aerodynamic cladding. The bottom of the vehicle is sculpted to channel air out between the rear wheels through a trapezoidal arch as a sort of jumbo diffuser.

“Toyota’s aim is to add an all-new sense of purpose to the automobile by turning fuel cell vehicles from eco-cars into energy cars,” Toyota said in a statement. “The vehicle can thus be transformed into a stable source of electric power for use at home or away.”

Retro, handcrafted

Another Toyota concept, the Kikai, salutes the company’s roots in monozukuri, the Japanese term for the art and craft of manufacturing. Looking like a Mad Max throwback jalopy with its engine, suspension, frame and wiring exposed, the Kikai revels in the engineering of the automobile much the way a glass-backed Swiss watch shows off its gears.

Kikai means “machine” in Japanese.

“Machines should be objects of admiration,” Toyota said. “The Kikai is a concept designed to explore and emphasize the fundamental appeal of machines: their fine craftsmanship, their beauty, their simplicity and their fascinating motion.”

Every detail, from the exhaust pipe to the fuel tank, is lovingly rendered with exquisite detail to showcase the inner beauty normally hidden from view by sheet metal.

To heighten the sense of connection with the road, small windows near the driver’s feet offer a view of the rushing pavement and the bouncing front suspension.

It’s a funky driver-centered car, in the strictest sense. The driver sits alone, centered up front, while two passengers sit behind in a triangular layout.

Cute, chatty

Finally, Toyota offers the Kirobo Mini, a miniaturized version of its Kirobo partner robot.

The larger forerunner of this owl-eyed humanoid automaton holds two Guinness world records, after spending 18 months orbiting Earth in the International Space Station.

One record is for being the first “companion robot” in space. The other is in recognition of the highest altitude at which a robot has ever had a conversation.

Kirobo’s shtick is keeping people company by “conversing” with them — that is, responding to casual chitchat through its voice recognition and language processing software. It’s a technology that has captured the public’s imagination in Japan, where a rapidly graying society is generating legions of isolated elderly who might benefit from such companionship.

Still, Toyota thought the grown-up Kirobo’s 34-cm (13-inch) stature was too cumbersome to accompany an on-the-go human. Hence, a 4-inch Kirobo Mini.

The palm-sized co-pilot is just small enough to perch in your car’s cup holder. But don’t expect riveting discourse if you’re driving U.S. highways. Kirobo Mini speaks only Japanese.

Millbrooks latest sound advice to the auto industry

22UK independent vehicle test, validation, and engineering services provider, Millbrook, is considering introducing acoustic holography as the next step in the further development of its new noise-measurement systems.

“Able to support the latest automotive technologies including electric and hybrid vehicles, our newly commissioned system provides a great opportunity to introduce more advanced test methods to reduce NVH, test to regulatory requirements, and facilitate investigation and development into improvements in vehicle refinement,” said Millbrook’s Principal Engineer, Ravi Bal.

He explains that the new system is ideal for (but not limited to) sound source localization and contribution analysis. Engineers will be able to measure acoustics and vibration inside a vehicle and sync it with data recorded outside, conducting a variety of objective measurements in a repeatable test environment.

The system that it replaces had been in service for 20 years, stated Bal: “Although everything was digital, there were limitations for efficient and thorough data analysis. So we have made a substantial investment in new equipment—both hardware and software—to expand on our test capability and to introduce more advanced test methods.”

The update has seen an advance from a two-channel setup to a 16 channel: “So we are looking at the introduction of acoustic holography, essentially an acoustic camera that can visually indicate sound sources and highlight potential problem areas. This requires multiple microphones built as an array, so our 16-channel capability allows us to do exactly that, with potential scope to improve spatial resolution by increasing the number of microphones used.”

Together with other upgrades, including Millbrook’s dynamometers, investment in its Portable Emissions Measurement System (PEMS), and increased capability within its test department, the new noise system provides the opportunity to test, investigate, and develop “way beyond” basic regulatory requirements, stressed Bal.

Millbrook’s work on noise was enhanced in 2012 with the introduction of an ISO 10844:2011 specification noise test surface, providing an advanced facility for investigating and understanding vehicle noise: “Whilst the anticipated update to European legislative type approval requirements did not go ahead as predicted in 2014, Millbrook remains at the forefront of the latest technology for test and development of noise solutions.”

Global noise test level

Efforts to introduce a global regulated legislative level are still under discussion, but it is difficult to say when the next legislative date will be.

Bal regards European pass-by limits on noise as being “fairly stringent.” They apply to all vehicles, including high-performance cars that are applicable to the European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval (ECWVTA) framework directive. There is a fixed test procedure—ISO 362—first established in 1981, which was revised this year. Currently, though, the European regulatory standards use a 1998 version.

He explained: “With regard to high-performance cars, the market requires they have the ‘right’ exhaust note for their type—we all do! The current Type Approval test method varies according to the power output of the vehicle category and transmission type of the vehicle.

“As an example, a car with power output of 100 kW and manual transmission (categorized M1 by Millbrook), is tested in second and third gears at an entry speed of 50 km/h. At a specific point, designated Line AA, the car is accelerated on a “wide open” throttle for 20 m and then the accelerator is lifted. In second and third gears, a mathematical average is applied to the results and that must be below the limit applied to that particular class of vehicle. It should be considered for the majority of modern vehicles, that with electronic throttles, when a driver presses the accelerator pedal he is not making the vehicle’s speed increase but merely requesting that it should go faster. The limit is 74 dB(A).”

However, for test vehicles with a power output greater than 140 kW (and other stipulations), it is required to enter the test zone with only third gear selected, which typically tends to be quieter (lower engine speed than in second) but is given a 1 dB provision for its class, consequently raising the limit to 75 dB(A), which is a challenge.

The market emergence of electric and hybrid vehicles has brought a new dimension to noise testing. Bal explained: “We regard dB figures of mid to high 60s as the norm for these vehicle types based on our experience, and we attribute most of this to tire noise, with tire manufacturers required to declare the sound pressure generated by the tire—although this is tested via a different methodology to the whole vehicle.”

Reducing tire noise in electric vehicles increases the need to consider an artificial approach-warning systems for pedestrians. This is another aspect of noise testing. Bal wants to see limits that require minimum sound pressure levels at key frequencies: “These key frequencies should be established using data relating to a person’s perception of sound, i.e., can they hear it over a typical background noise? Therefore, creating a noise that is more than a constant drone, and distinguishable as an electric vehicle.” With a typical ambient noise level of around 46 dB, the situation of Millbrook’s noise site is conducive to achieving accurate measurement data.

Surface test

Although Millbrook has a control surface test area (ISO 10844), coupled with measurement equipment applicable to ISO 362 that can be used as a point of reference, tire test noise per se is not part of Millbrook’s work, but Bal says the possibility is under discussion. Potentially, it would involve a large investment and, again, varying standards across the world would present complications: “The European tire regulation R 117 has four elements: wet grip, rolling resistance, snow performance, and noise. We can assess noise by using a test trailer but it is quite an involved program. The tires have to be loaded to a set percentage of their maximum permissible load carrying capacity.”

If Millbrook did move into tire noise testing, it would also want to enter the other three categories, too. Bal added: “Rolling resistance is relatively straightforward, but wet grip would require further investment. We work in collaboration with Test World, the winter vehicle and tire test facility in Finland.” It facilitates access to snow all year round.

Bal hopes Millbrook will eventually test whole vehicle noise levels, embracing vehicle body structure, contact patch, aerodynamics, and powertrain contributions.

But he wants to see any new test regulations created via a different procedure: “At present, the perception is that legislators decide what is going to be required, but if a more pragmatic approach could be agreed, taking into consideration OEM and suppliers’ views at the earliest stage of decision making, a more appropriate conclusion for the industry could be reached.”