Europe


Coronavirus and the three points of no return for the automotive

One of the fields, which will be more affected from the Coronavirus, is, with any doubt, the heavy industry and, among them, in Europe the automotive. The whole supply chain is suffering the consequences of a sudden collapse in the final demand; the recovery won’t be immediate at all simply because the EU market is a substitutional one and therefore the demand curve is very elastic to negative...

JIT and JIS, how the Covid is changing the Automotive Industry

factory
It has been talking a lot (specially on every social Network) about the COVID-19 impact on everyday life; but it’s interesting to me looking at the effects on the OEM and their organization. For some decades, the automotive has been “merely” an assembly industry. No generalist OEM produces, but is limited to designing and participating in the industrialization of the project; the...

Safety of Vehicles in the European Union

After 10 years from the first introduction of the regulations about General Safety and Pedestrian Safety, the European Union introduces a new one about the General Safety of Motor Vehicles and their Occupiers and safety of vulnerable road users (like pedestrians and riders). The new rule updates the existing directions of vehicles safety described in the regulation (CE) 661/2009 about the General Safety,...

What do I have to expect if I choose a hybrid car? (Hybrid series)

supercapacitor
In this search for the perfect engine for our daily needs, we will now focus on the second type of hybrid; the hybrid series. Also in the hybrid series we have two motors, thermal and electric but, unlike the parallel, it is the electric motor that is always connected to the driving wheels; the thermal engine connected to a generator produces energy wich will go both to the electric traction motor...

What do I have to expect if I choose a hybrid car? (Parallel hybrid)

hybrid
After the posts about the CNG and LPG engines, let’s focus on the hybrid cars and their advantages. Hybrid vehicles use multiple traction energy generation systems (they normally combine a thermal and an electric power unit), combined with a system to recover energy during slowing down and braking. Hybrid cars can be classified into three types: PARALLEL HYBRID Thermal engine and electric motor...

What do I have to expect if I choose a CNG car?

CNG
The OEM has commercialised dual-fuel models for about 20 years: petrol and methane or single-fuel that is only methane. At the beginning the production of these cars didn’t directly take place from the same car manufacturer, but the transformation was entrusted to external fitters, who installed the system on the car with the original petrol version. Basically they were solutions very similar...

LPG systems, layout and security

LPG
One of the most known indicator that gives us an immediate idea about the safety level provided by a vehicle is the number of stars rated during the Euro NCAP test. The stars are rated to the shock tests passed and to the presence of security – related contents. Thanks to the tightening up both of the tests and the calculation method, today we have on our vehicles an infinitive of electronic devices,...

Dusseldorf exhibition 2018: How it went

BOOT-Dusseldorf-2013
It is not simple dealing about the Dusseldorf Boat Show without being repetitive. In the years of crisis, while almost all the other show of the same field was loosing pieces, credibility and visitors, the Dusseldorf Boot grew up until to become the most important in Europe. The progressive breakdown of the Mediterranean shows in Genoa, Barcelona, Paris and London has inevitably brought professionals...

Why does PSA want to buy OPEL and VAUXHALL?

psa
Why does PSA want to buy OPEL and VAUXHALL? A truly intriguing question for the experts, because none of these, except of course ones PSA, are able to answer. And this because it lacks any economic or industrial or commercial evidence of where the winning secret of the takeover. Opel has not exactly a story of success for the last years, and this it was emphasized by Harald Hendrikse of the Morgan...

The list of the most read posts of 2016 on Automotive Space

automotive
Also this year we like to publish the list of most read posts of Automotive Space. You can see there are more differences from the last post on the most read posts in 2015. For this reason we can confirm that Automotive Space doesn’t aim the last news. Unfortunately from one year we are publishing a fewer number of post because we haven’t abroad correspondents…be patient; we are working...

50 years ago, the project which motorized Russia

Togliattigrad1
It is never easy to assess the importance of an event that happened fifty years before, especially when it refers to automotive history. But the collaboration agreement signed between Fiat and the Soviet Ministry of industry for the construction of a car plant in what was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (URSS), and which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, deserves to be remembered. On...

Dusseldorf: cast a glance over nautical world.

agapi-boating_single-4
The Dusseldorf Boat Show, which took place during the last week in January, declared the 2016 boating season opened. About the organization of the Exhibition and the attendance figures there is not much to say! The organization is always excellent, a bit rigid (german), but surely efficient and focused on the visitors’ and workers’ needs . Numbers definitely describe it as the first and foremost...

Dieselgate: the ends justify the means?

Volkswagen-B52
Objectives, results, standards and performance. Are we sure that the ancient motto “the ends justify the means” is achievable? What happens if a Company is put under pressure, particularly when Consumers believe that the brand is incapable of overlooking high standards? Imagine a successful athlete who is “accustomed” to win by his fans. Imagine that on the eve of a competition he – not considering...

Sailing by sea or living on the sea? The debut of Overblue, the crossover

Overblue 44
Among the innovations at the Boat Show of Cannes and Genoa it couldn’t go unnoticed a “strange” boat, which could be similar to a house boat at a cursory look. Actually, at a second look even a layman realized that Overblue it’s not a simple houseboat but that have behind a very innovative concept and a lot of design work. We were lucky enough to meet the designer of Overblue, the architect...

Luxury brand have been trouble with the strange sore… Tesla!

2015-tesla-model-s
I must say first of all that: the electric car fascinates me, I like its way to move without vibrations and with little noise. The electric engine seems to me elegant, with its round components which just rotate, almost without tremors. The efficiency is a byproduct of this elegance, with its 85/90% outclasses any internal combustion engine for automotive applications and it is comparable only to highly...

Electric hybrid vehicles and their consumptions

auto ibride
For all of us, the electric hybrid vehicles and the electric pure ones by now mean reduction in consumption and therefore less CO2 emissions and more environmental protection, even if there are conflicting opinions because of the damages caused from the extraction of metals needed to build electric motors (see the post ‘Interview to professor Ivan Maio of the Polytechnic in Turin‘). Electric...

Seventh commandment: you shall not steal (the outboard motor…)

outboard motor
The theft of outboard motors, as well as that of small boats, dinghies and water motors, isn’t a recent phenomenon but in the last years it has become more frequent and organized. Ports and marinas, yacht clubs and associations, retailers’ sites and stores are increasingly “visited” by thieves. The outboard motor it’s an object easy to remove and transport, with a high intrinsic value and...

9th survey by AS. EV car registrations are still very low, why?

electric vehicles
EV car registrations are still very low, why? 91 votes: Is the Automotive Professional tired because of the warm? A topic that has been already dealt with … or is it uninteresting? Who knows! But the fact remains that the votes, deliberately collected among a large set of selections in order to have opinions and ideas from different points of view, finally can be categorized only in 3 thematic...

The China gives up the electrics and the Europe just watches

EVs
Two months ago I published one post dealing with selling data and the evolution, over the last years, of the electric cars in Europe. To avoid of causing useless wars, I limited to reporting market data (ACEA) and to suggesting how to read them analytically and how to contextualize them. But in private, someone wanted to charge me with provincialism, saying for instance: “…Pietro, but the...

Pirelli and Pininfarina: an unavoidable epilogue

Pirelli
Another company in the automotive sector of our Europe moved in the court of the giant Asian ChemChina. Pirelli, the fifth tire manufacturer on the world, has been acquired by means of sovereign funds of nationalized China. An operation financially complex which opens the debate to a series of assessments on the health conditions of our badly off capitalism, especially if you consider that the company...

The electric cars in EU in 2014: it was established their failure

Electric Cars
This “European” post is originated from some considerations after more years of incentives and more millions of euro thrown away because of the electric. Here, for ex., are the italian data (this blog was born in Italy): 1,104 sales of EV cars, in 2014, of which 246 sold to private (UNRAE data). Essentially in Italy the 0,08% of the auto market, in 2014, represents electric cars, while if you...

Time stays, carmakers go.

carmakers
In Italy, in five years, carmakers have lost more than 1,600 dealers, while the dealers of trucks (550 in 2009), today are only 110. Also in the ultra-efficient US there was a die-off: NADA-data shows that more than 6,500 dealers have disappeared. Whilst of the remaining 17,665 dealerships, 5,000 of them sell less than 10 new cars per month, and 7,000 fewer than 30 per month. These numbers in Europe...

Car colors: freedom of choice?

colors cars
The Mass Customization should satisfy the desires of each individual client, preserving the typical efficiencies of the mass production, as low costs of production and sale. To complicate matters, it often happens that customers and Companies do not speak the same language, also the excess of supply is confusing to the buyers. In the age of mass customization, the color of a new car can accelerate...

Peugeot and Citroen: It’s nice to win easy!

Aulnay
By at least one semester Peugeot and Citroen started a radical transformation of production, managerial, commercial and communication. Talk about the last aspect: the Communication! Money are invested if there is something to communicate and when there are budgets to bind on. Budgets are allocated if there are invoices. Data about Italy and Europe show that there’s turmoil… to put it mildly. From...

New FCA Group: Second semester 2014

World Map
The Second semester of the year shows positive data for the new FCA Group at a global level, in particular in the European market and the North American one as well. More in detail throughout the semester- just ended- FCA has recorded increases higher than those of both the Spanish and UK market, even with significant increases in double digits. Instead the sales trend in the important German and French...

Outsourcing in the automotive: does the abuse hurt?

outsourcing
I’’ve already largely expressed my opinion about the growing precariousness management in the automotive field, which finds its highest expressions in the outsourcing. It was a year ago…. We were convinced that some strategic position couldn’t be the subject of outsourcing and that others, even these strategic ones, during the start-up and re-engineering, could be optimized through the outsourcing. Then,...

The sustainable mobility goes through inter-modality

Mobilità sostenibile
Listening to different observation about the automotive future, and in general about means of transport, I remembered of some notes taken during the lesson of “Economy of Transport” by professor Ennio Forte (UNINA- Federico II University of Neaples – Italy -) some decades ago. In the last years, there were been progresses but, as declared by the White Book of Transport 2011 (EC), the next...

What future for the V2V- the communication among vehicles?

v2v
What diffusion will the vehicles communication have? How will the V2V evolve? Will it be a sort of Big Brother or a helpful service? The truth, as always happens, lies in the middle and also the V2V case follows the rule. What about it? V2V stand for Vehicle-to-Vehicle and it is simply to understand that this technology tries to establish a temporary communication among vehicles in short-range standing...

The LPG and CNG help you, such as the electrics

gpl
The plan, which foresees about 3,000 LPG fuel stations and 1,000 CNG ones to the end of 2012, is proceeding at a steady pace toward the goal. Actually Fiat Professional has already monitored 3065 LPG points (+40 closed) and 908 CNG points (+8 closed) regularly active (data September 7, 2012). In spite of this, a subtle and insightful enemy, the electric Lobby, which includes several devices in its...

Car and boat, two worlds very close

boat
Cars and boats, apparently two worlds very distant, in particular from a commercial point of view. I think this because I use boat for passion while I work with the car. Later on I was at the other side, working in the nautical field, when the joke became a job so I discovered… the other world. Some years ago – six/seven not so much – the world of yachting seemed the automotive one but...