Back in May, we read several reports that the Hyundai/Kia group had signed a €80M partnership with Rimac, the developer of prototype electric sports cars. It wasn’t just a partnership agreement that was signed. What they did sign was an investment agreement, a stake in the company that goes far further than simply signing a partnership agreement to develop a new car. Even … [Read more...]
BMW Self Driving Consortium
Over the last few weeks, Motoring Weekly has been publishing articles about the companies behind the scenes of autonomous vehicle development. Most are unknown to the general public, however this article covers a name that everyone knows about: BMW. Firstly though, it is important to define what “autonomous” means and the levels of autonomy that the industry has agreed on - … [Read more...]
Hydrogen Powered Cars
In the past few years many manufacturers who were developing prototype hydrogen powered cars have dropped them in favour of hybrids or pure electric cars. Ford, Nissan and Renault have all dropped their programs although BMW, Toyota and Mazda have been the three notable proponents of this technology who are pushing on with their development. Hyundai and Honda have also been … [Read more...]
The New Australian Car
Following on from an earlier post about the Chief Designer at Hyundai saying that within three years, Australians would be buying an “Australian” Hyundai - and that it would be a big seller, I discussed the notion that an indigenous car could only be that if it was designed and built locally. Then along comes another story - about a true Australian car! Let’s recap the current … [Read more...]
The Korean Australian Car
In a recent interview, Casey Hyun, the creative design manager for Hyundai, has stated that the Korean manufacturer is planning to build an Australian car. This suggests that the industry has come full circle! In the early years, manufacturers would ship cars from their local factories to all points globally and when sales got big enough, they would open up an assembly plant … [Read more...]