Gap insurance provider Aequitas Automotive has announced the addition of tyre insurance to its product portfolio. Its new tyre insurance brand, TyreInsurance 123, will be rolled out this year and a retail website launched in the coming weeks.
Yokohama Tire Corporation has hired Andrew Zeisser as its new director of OE sales. In this role, Zeisser will be responsible for the company’s original equipment business in North America and will lead Yokohama Tire Corporation’s OE sales, engineering and quality functions. He will be based at the company’s Detroit, Michigan office.
Continental is continuing its ongoing plans to more fully “connect” cars. As far as the automotive supplier is concerned, it is not just about smartphones or computers, but rather, but rather connectivity is becoming an increasingly influential part of any sales proposition. For Conti, the connected vehicle will be a key subject of future developments. “Today, more and more new vehicle functions are already based on connectivity. To create innovative functions, we are linking vehicle components and systems ever more closely with one another and, at the same time, increasingly connecting the vehicle to the outside world,” explains Ralf Lenninger, head of the Strategy and Development department of Continental’s Interior division.
It was announced last week that Volkswagen of America set a new Guinness World Records achievement for the “lowest fuel consumption- 48 US states for a non-hybrid car” by achieving a phenomenal 77.99 mpg (3.02 litres per 100km). In a Passat TDI Clean Diesel car, with two drivers, the record was achieved on a set of Continental’s PureContact tyres with EcoPlus technology. The record betters the previous mark of 67.9 mpg and also beats the hybrid vehicle record of 64.5 mpg.
New research and data released by a leading automotive remanufacturer, has uncovered the top ten strangest DIY repair attempts on cars; including a man who attempted to use bubblegum to fix his car radiator and a woman who replaced her car door locks with heavy duty padlocks.
Groupauto, the UK’s largest trading group, is keen to highlight the fact that the market is changing and the dominance of basic lead-acid battery technology will soon begin to decline. The automotive battery is becoming a much more technical component and with the increasing amount of electrical equipment fitted to even the most basic of vehicles, the demands placed on it are much greater than ever.
Supertracker reports that a growing number of tyre retailers are using the company's concepts to tailor their own in-house training sessions. UK sales manager and principal engineer Jerry Barker was recently invited to sit in on a specialised advanced wheel alignment course by one of the UK's leading tyre and automotive retailers.
The observation that trends regarding tyre size and speed rating have been tracing an upward trajectory for some time is nothing new, but the clear focus of the world’s largest tyre manufacturers on higher than high performance segments in Europe has perhaps never been so pronounced. Chasing improved profit margins with increased technology is always attractive to those with the capability and the incongruously strong luxury car market has provided an additional reason for migrating business focus from V-rated and 17” tyres into WYZ and 18”-plus territory, according to Automotive market research company GfK.
Pro-Align has trained Team UK Auto Tech’s Alex Knight on the Hunter Elite TD imaging aligner in readiness for World Skills Leipzig 2013. Pro-Align trainer Barry Sumner helped Knight familiarise himself with the Hunter imaging aligner with QuickGrip targets, which will be the featured alignment equipment at World Skills Leipzig, extending his alignment knowledge. Knight commented, “My previous wheel alignment experience has been rather limited, so today was invaluable. The Hunter is so quick, easy to use, and far better than anything else I have used in the past.”
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After seven years as chairman of the Automotive Aftermarket Divisional Board at Robert Bosch GmbH, Robert Hanser is stepping down on 30 June. The company says he is doing so due to his age. From 1 July, Hanser will join the Bosch Management Support GmbH board of management, a body of senior experts who act in an advisory capacity for Bosch across the world.
Although there are still some three months until the opening of the 11th China International Tire Expo, the show’s organiser says the number of stands booked and floorspace have already set a new record. According to Wilko Fong, managing director of Reliable International Exhibition Services, he expects more than 320 exhibitors at CITExpo 2013 to occupy 24,000 square metres of exhibition space in the three halls of the Shanghai Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center.
Retail Motor Industry Standards and Certification (RMISC), a subsidiary of the RMI, announces the launch of the RI-MARK logo following its UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) approval.
Stuart James, RMI Director commented, "We are pleased with the positive response to our PAS125 accreditation service and our new logo allows accredited companies to demonstrate their compliance by displaying the RI-MARK that will become recognised as the definitive certification mark in the automotive industry.
BEN, the automotive industry charity, has won £13,000-worth of free PR support through Automotive PR's #tweetcharity competition. The competition, which ran exclusively on Twitter – from nominations to voting – reached more than 650,000 users, with hundreds of tweets for the shortlisted charities, including from television presenter Mike Brewer, the official Twitter feeds of Help for Heroes and Best Western Hotels, as well as from famous racing drivers Derek Bell MBE, the five-times Le Mans winner, and Ben Collins, formerly ‘The Stig' on the BBC's Top Gear.
German scientists claim to have produced lithium-ion batteries with a much longer working life than those currently on the market. The team at the Ulm-based Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und WasserstoffForschung (Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research) Baden-Württemberg report developing a battery that retains than 85 per cent of its initial capacity after 10,000 full cycles while possessing qualities comparable to batteries produced by leading Asian manufacturers, including power density.
Business secretary Vince Cable has appointed Joe Greenwell, the former chairman of Ford, as head of the Automotive Investment Organisation (AIO). Funded with up to £3 million over the next two years, the AIO will spearhead the campaign to attract inward investment to the UK. Continuing to attract investment from overseas into the UK is one of the main themes of the automotive industrial strategy to be published shortly. The automotive sector is one of 11 key areas that the government is working collaboratively with industry on a long-term plan to deliver economic growth and prosperity.
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