Major football teams such as Manchester United and Germany’s HSV have gladly taken on tyre makers as sponsorship partners, but unauthorised affiliation is another matter entirely. A tyre shop in Auckland, New Zealand discovered this recently when it fell foul of the New Zealand Rugby Union.
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Veteran aftermarket executives, Kevin Judge and Cory Cheever have been hired by friction manufacturer Fras-le to help boost the company's North American light vehicle aftermarket business. Judge will serve as the company's East Coast sales manager for the light vehicle aftermarket, while Cheever will be responsible its West Coast aftermarket sales. Judge and Cheever will report directly to Randy Mordue, who consolidated the light and commercial vehicle sales aftermarket divisions as director of sales and marketing.
Pirelli Tire North America has appointed Rafael Navarro, III to the newly formed post of vice-president, Communications and Media Relations. In his new position, Navarro is responsible for all internal and external communications for Pirelli in the NAFTA region. His job description involves integrating public relations and working closely with the marketing and motorsport departments of all three country offices, overseeing brand activity. Additionally, he will continue to manage key influencer relationships in the region.
A licensing agreement signed between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and US firm Xerion Advanced Battery Corp. is expected to exploit a technology said to potentially enable the charging of electric vehicle batteries within minutes. Under the terms of the agreement, announced on July 19, Xerion has been granted the exclusive right to bring the University’s ‘StructurePore’ battery-charging technology to market.
German tyre maker Continental intends to optimise the way in which its 190 locations in 39 countries around the world work together with each other. To achieve this, the company will draw upon solutions from IBM in Germany, utilising its ‘Connections’ and ‘OmniFind’ software in order to respond to unforeseen events with greater flexibility and to take advantage of new business opportunities.
The MAM Software Group has announced the appointment of sales and professional services staff at its North American subsidiaries. The UK-based provider of business automation and e-commerce solutions for the automotive sector says the appointments strengthen its position as a growing force in the tyre and component aftermarket. The new appointees are Michael Moothart, Joe O'Regan, Scott Gaines, Ryan Putans (all MAM Software) and Jeff Carpenter, (Aftersoft Network NA).
Fras-le North America has announced that Randy Mordue is to expand his duties as director of sales and marketing, incorporating the commercial vehicle aftermarket segment. He was previously responsible for the light vehicle segment alone. His added commercial responsibilities extend to both medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. He will continue to report to Fras-le's director of operations, Zomar Oliveira.
TyreSafe has announced that it will begin quarterly communications briefings on 7 September, issuing an open invitation to existing TyreSafe members and other interested parties such as road safety professionals, fleets or even company HR managers. The briefing will tackle the organisation’s upcoming campaigns, launching campaign materials for this October’s tyre safety month, the organisation’s new website and a range of online resources, and is designed to allow members and non-members alike to plan and integrate their own activities around them. Anybody wishing to attend the free event can do so by registering with TyreSafe by calling 01787 226995.
Following a September 15 change in the regulations covering automotive spare parts in Qatar, the importation of used tyres and certain new tyres into the Gulf state is now forbidden. Under the new rules, issued by the country’s Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Business and Trade and Ministry of Interior, no new tyres will be permitted to enter the country unless accompanied by a Gulf Conformity Certificate. Tyres must also carry a 180km/h speed rating in order to be eligible for importation. Balloon tyres intended for use on passenger vehicles are also no longer able to be imported unless accompanied by a certificate of conformity, with the type of tyre engraved in red on the sidewall.
Research by The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders SMMT shows that the average new car emits 15 per cent less CO2 than five years ago. The data also shows that Greater London and the North West saw a fall in the number of registered cars over the last five years. Meanwhile the figures highlighted that proportionally Plymouth has the fewest low-carbon cars, while Leeds is the pinkest town in the UK.
The US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently awarded three industry teams a total of US$7 million to aid the development of computer-aided software design tools for producing the next generation of electric vehicle batteries. The three teams’ projects support the DOE’s Computer-Aided Engineering for Electric Drive Vehicle Batteries (CAEBAT) program, a project aimed at helping the automotive and battery industries design and develop electric vehicle batteries more quickly, thereby lowering unit cost.
Kumho Tire’s Namkyung tyre factory in Nanjing, China is one of some 172 plants said to have fallen foul of the local government’s fight against pollution. Chinese media sources report that the city of Nanjing has ordered the said factories to relocate or cease production on environmental grounds. The tyre maker is now said to be discussing plans for relocation outside of Nanjing with the Chinese government.
Two shortcomings of today’s crop of fully electric vehicles (FEV) are their limited driving range and long charging time – for the majority of motorists this pair of factors outweighs the host of environmental and cost benefits such vehicles offer. Key culprits behind these limitations are vehicle batteries, however improving battery technology alone is no panacea. To unlock the FEV market and reduce “range anxiety”, several leading automotive industry firms have partnered in a European Union co-funded project aimed at optimising how the power provided by existing battery technology is utilised.
HiQ’s promise that all of its 700 fast fit technicians would automotive technician accreditation by the end of 2012 has reached the first milestone on its way to fulfilment as HiQ Tamworth technician Craig Cowell became the network’s 50th to achieve the goal. The fast fit network believes the voluntary ATA accreditation is an “effective way of driving personal standards across the network,” with the external assessment making external the network’s internal training policy.
Titan International has named a successor to former vice-president of sales and marketing Jeff Vasichek, who left the company on May 31. Jim Allen has joined the Titan in the role of vice-president of sales and in this capacity will head up the company’s entire tyre and wheel sales group. Commenting on Allen’s appointment, Titan International CEO and chairman Maurice Taylor said “Jim has a background in the automotive industry. We believe his experience and quick learning skills will fit into our culture at Titan.”
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