CLOSE
Page 1008

by -

To most people, a car that is very economical in fuel consumption can’t be much fun to drive because it would probably be slow and perform uninspiringly. In some ways, this perception is based on the understanding that to get better fuel consumption, you have to drive at a lower speed and you would also need to use an engine with a small displacement that didn’t give out much power or torque.

But what if I told you that you can get a car that returns as much as 35 kms/litre (98.8 mpg) while driving normally and can get up to a top speed of 180 km/h as well as sprint from standstill to 100 km/h in less than 12 seconds? No way, you retort. Well, there is such as car and it’s no one-off prototype either. It’s the Honda Insight and over 5,500 units are running on roads in Japan, UK and North America (and two in Southeast Asia). Launched in Japan in November 1999, the Insight lays claim to being the world’s most fuel-efficient and environment-friendly car in volume production (at a rate of 20 – 30 cars a day).

In developing the Insight, Honda had the following objectives:

– To create the world’s most efficient production car, and to achieve extremely low emissions

– To make the car fun to drive

– To achieve the levels of safety and comfort that consumers expect

– To be able to sell this car at reasonable prices

However, an important consideration which was emphasized by the Insight’s Chief Engineer, Kazuhiko Tsunoda, was that the car had to really appeal to consumers. “It must be a real-world product for the global market,” he told his project team. This was crucial because of the experience with other environment-friendly models that Honda had developed earlier which did not sell well.

Although the Insight has advanced technology under the skin, it does not look very futuristic and resembles a 2nd generation Honda CR-X, except that the rear wheels are partially covered. Yet, the bodywork has the lowest drag coefficient (Cd) of any production car – 0.25! This incredibly low figure is the first of the various approaches taken towards enabling the Insight’s ultra-low fuel consumption and is an important area. Making the car more slippery means less resistance as it moves through the air, reducing the energy needed to move the car at a given speed.

Besides having all panels tightly fitting, attention was also given to making the underside of the car as smooth as possible to minimise drag-inducing turbulence and create a beneficial venturi effect. In the versions sold in UK and the USA, there is even a flat panel installed under the car to make it very smooth.

Apart fron wind resistance, weight also has an effect on fuel consumption so the Insight has been made as light as possible. At 820 kgs, it is 15% lighter than a Honda City (the chassis itself is 80 kgs lighter than a Civic’s) and the low weight comes from a combination of various measures but the major contributor is the extensive use of aluminium and plastic. Having gained much experience from producing the aluminium-bodied NSX supercar, Honda’s engineers were able to apply the knowledge to designing the Insight’s structure by using a variety of methods from extrusion to die-casting and sheet-forming. Though light in overall weight, the Insight’s structure actually registers bending and torsional rigidity that are, respectively, 13% and 38% better than the Civic’s.

Aluminium is also used for many components in the chassis to keep weight down. Even the front brake calipers are of aluminium and the cast aluminium wheels are 40% lighter than other aluminium wheels because of their special construction.

Aluminium may have one-third the weight of steel but it still offers very good resistance during an accident if the engineering is done well. In the case of the Insight, the floor construction provides the strong foundation that deforms minimally upon impact. Frames in the floor absorb and disperse the energy of front or rear impacts while impact forces on the sides are absorbed by the rigid side sills, cross-members and anti-intrusion beams inside the doors.

The whole concept of occupant protection is termed as ‘Honda G-Force Control Technology’ (which goes by the catchy acronym of G-CON) and includes such features as collapsible bonnet hinges and wiper pivots. It enables the Insight to pass in-house crash tests (which are tougher than US standards) that subject the car to a full frontal collision at 55 km/h, an offset frontal collision at 64 km/h and rear/side collisions at 50 km/h.

With its sporty looks, the Insight should rightly have nimble handling. However, in the interests of weight-saving, a simple layout has been used comprising MacPherson struts in front and a H-shaped torsion beam arrangement at the rear. The front suspension, with many lightweight aluminium parts, has an optimised roll-centre height and toe variation characteristics to enhance stability while the rear suspension, which has a compact layout to minimise intrusion into the boot, is designed to have a toe-in effect during cornering for more stable tracking.

The superior fuel consumption that the Insight is capable of is not just due to the Integrated Motor Assist (IMA) powerplant. The IMA contributes 65% (35% from the petrol engine, 30% from the electric motor assist) while the aerodynamics and ultra-lightweight body contribute 35%. To read more about the IMA technology, click on this link.

Insight test-drive report


by -

As I drove the Honda Insight towards Skudai, memories of my participation in economy runs in the early 1980s kept coming into my mind. Back then, fuel economy was thought to be a significant aspect of motoring and for cars which were proven to be economical, large figures were splashed on the advertisements – I remember the 2nd generation 1.0-litre Charade then boasting of a fuel consumption of 19.4 kms/litre (55 mpg) which was quite impressive.

The Royal Perak Motor Club (RPMC), a small Ipoh-based club, organised some economy runs between Ipoh and Singapore and in the first year, the response was good. It was a challenging event and yet anyone could take part without having to spend a lot of money to modify the car. The concept of the contest was just to drive as economically as possible.

In the second year (1980 or 1981), the leading car companies took an interest in the event and fielded ‘official works teams’. The main contenders were Nissan (Tan Chong), Toyota (Borneo Motors, the franchise holders then), Mitsubishi (C&C Malaysia), Mazda (Asia Motors, the franchise holders then), and Honda (Kah Motors in Malaysia and Singapore). City Motors also entered a team of Alfasuds, partly because the owners were from Ipoh and wanted to give their support to the club. As some of these companies were already active in rallies, they got their rally drivers to enter the economy runs, something which did not really go down well with the drivers but they agreed since their sponsored drive depended on their cooperation!

The first economy run I entered was from Ipoh to Singapore and I was in a Mitsubishi Lancer SL with Garry Chua. It was a different experience from rallying as the pace was really slow. But my role as navigator was still pretty hectic as it required, besides navigating, constantly recalculating the average speed needed and time left to the checkpoint. There was no laptop in those days so it was just with a basic Casio calculator under a dim lamp.

While the Insight drive had no specific time of arrival at a checkpoint, which meant that a snail’s pace could be applied, the economy runs had fixed times for getting between two points which required a moderate speed (as high as 70 or 80 km/h). So if the speed was too slow, you had to drive faster and that burnt more fuel. Worse, if you encountered a traffic jam, pressure would build up as the average speed to the checkpoint increased every minute you were delayed. I remember that there were times our average speed rose to 100 km/h and the thought of so much fuel being consumed was ‘painful’. But if you arrived late, you also got penalised with ‘extra fuel lost’ so it sometimes required a decision whether to drive faster and burn more fuel or arrive a bit late and take a penalty.

There were different strategies to get the lowest possible fuel consumption. A light right foot was important but some also coasted in neutral where possible and planned their drive up slopes carefully. Because every moment stopped meant wasting fuel, there were times when drivers refused to stop and that made things rather hairy. Some drivers, when coming up to a jam, would suddenly veer to the left and bump along the grass so as not to stop at all! But all of us ran with our windows up to reduce drag; it was okay at night but got pretty uncomfortable in the afternoon.

The runs usually started late in the evening and would not finish till the following afternoon so it was a gruelling drive with no sleep too. There was no N-S Expressway then and the route went along the coastal road and some sections even went through rubber estates!

Once the official teams began taking part, competition became more serious and the ‘works teams’ had the money and personnel to prepare the cars for the purpose. The cars were supposed to be ‘standard’ but carburettors (virtually no EFI engines then) could have their jets changed and tyres could be inflated to very high pressures to reduce rolling resistance. There were some ‘secrets’ which the mechanics in each team were said to know but wouldn’t tell and everyone speculated that there were people who used Singer sewing machine oil in their rear axles! Scrutineering was also quite strict and the cars and occupants were weighed to ensure that there was no unusual lightening. In any case, the system of calculation took into account the car’s weight as a factor.

I did a run with the Toyota team in 1981 but the Corolla KE70’s 1.3-litre OHV engine wasn’t quite the right type of engine for such driving and Borneo Motors didn’t continue their effort after that year. So I went back to the Mitsubishi team which used Galants, Tredias and the Colt Supershift. The Colt’s unique Supershift gearbox had two gear ranges – Performance and Economy – which could be engaged as desired. This was useful for the economy run and helped Mitsubishi win the manufacturer’s trophy in the final year that economy runs were held.

The economy runs were discontinued because there were too many allegations of cheating. The organisers had done their best to prevent cheating but somehow, people seemed to still be able to cheat. I think the first time cheating was believed to have taken place was when someone tried to bluff the others about how little fuel his car had used from Ipoh up to Kuala Kubu Baru. It was some ridiculous amount and word spread that he had cheated. This triggered off suspicion and during the night, the other teams plotted to find ways to beat that guy.

The efforts to prevent cheating were ridiculed by one team when one of its cars, upon reaching the petrol station in Singapore, had petrol overflowing when the driver uncapped the tank! The point was that in spite of the policing, people were still able to cheat. Those cars which were hatchbacks with an easily accessible boot were also suspected because there was a way to reach the fuel tank hose.

In 1982, the organisers tried a new approach to preventing cheating. They had every contestant bring along a few ‘observers’ who would sit in another car. That way, no one would be able to do anything illegal like refuelling along the way without anyone knowing. And even then, the allegations of cheating – and even sabotage – continued and Chew Tee Wong, manager of the Mitsubishi team, expressed his great disappointment at the state of affairs and declared that Mitsubishi would case to participate. His statement seemed to influence the other teams to pull out and much to the sadness of the RPMC, the economy runs lost popularity.

What sort of consumption was achieved? From the records I was able to dig up of the 1981 run, the Alfasud 1.4 was the winner that year with 28.592 kms/litre (80.7 mpg) although, as I said earlier, the weight of the car was also factored in. But the Honda team won the manufacturer’s title with its trio of CVCC Accords. Ex-Mitsubishi manager Chew told me that the Colt won in the final year of the economy runs and returned 25.4 kms/litre (72 mpg). He should have a good recollection since he was the one behind the wheel!

The economy runs were certainly interesting and provided some sort of challenge. But I doubt if Malaysian motorists really cared too much about the results. Today, fuel consumption is hardly discussed and would not influence someone to buy a car. It is generally taken for granted that for a given engine size, there is a certain range of fuel consumption. The manufacturers offer some factory figures to refer to but they are done in controlled conditions so they are optimum. The average motorist may not get such good figures since town driving these days involves a lot of stopping, crawling and having the air-conditioner on most of the time.

But it is nice if you can have a car as economical as the Honda Insight which can easily do 35 kms/litre without driving ‘economy run style’!

Chips Yap

Insight Test-drive Report


1 of 4

by -

As I drove the Honda Insight towards Skudai, memories of my participation in economy runs in the early 1980s kept coming into my mind. Back then, fuel economy was thought to be a significant aspect of motoring and for cars which were proven to be economical, large figures were splashed on the advertisements – I remember the 2nd generation 1.0-litre Charade then boasting of a fuel consumption of 19.4 kms/litre (55 mpg) which was quite impressive.

The Royal Perak Motor Club (RPMC), a small Ipoh-based club, organised some economy runs between Ipoh and Singapore and in the first year, the response was good. It was a challenging event and yet anyone could take part without having to spend a lot of money to modify the car. The concept of the contest was just to drive as economically as possible.

In the second year (1980 or 1981), the leading car companies took an interest in the event and fielded ‘official works teams’. The main contenders were Nissan (Tan Chong), Toyota (Borneo Motors, the franchise holders then), Mitsubishi (C&C Malaysia), Mazda (Asia Motors, the franchise holders then), and Honda (Kah Motors in Malaysia and Singapore). City Motors also entered a team of Alfasuds, partly because the owners were from Ipoh and wanted to give their support to the club. As some of these companies were already active in rallies, they got their rally drivers to enter the economy runs, something which did not really go down well with the drivers but they agreed since their sponsored drive depended on their cooperation!

The first economy run I entered was from Ipoh to Singapore and I was in a Mitsubishi Lancer SL with Garry Chua. It was a different experience from rallying as the pace was really slow. But my role as navigator was still pretty hectic as it required, besides navigating, constantly recalculating the average speed needed and time left to the checkpoint. There was no laptop in those days so it was just with a basic Casio calculator under a dim lamp.

While the Insight drive had no specific time of arrival at a checkpoint, which meant that a snail’s pace could be applied, the economy runs had fixed times for getting between two points which required a moderate speed (as high as 70 or 80 km/h). So if the speed was too slow, you had to drive faster and that burnt more fuel. Worse, if you encountered a traffic jam, pressure would build up as the average speed to the checkpoint increased every minute you were delayed. I remember that there were times our average speed rose to 100 km/h and the thought of so much fuel being consumed was ‘painful’. But if you arrived late, you also got penalised with ‘extra fuel lost’ so it sometimes required a decision whether to drive faster and burn more fuel or arrive a bit late and take a penalty.

There were different strategies to get the lowest possible fuel consumption. A light right foot was important but some also coasted in neutral where possible and planned their drive up slopes carefully. Because every moment stopped meant wasting fuel, there were times when drivers refused to stop and that made things rather hairy. Some drivers, when coming up to a jam, would suddenly veer to the left and bump along the grass so as not to stop at all! But all of us ran with our windows up to reduce drag; it was okay at night but got pretty uncomfortable in the afternoon.

The runs usually started late in the evening and would not finish till the following afternoon so it was a gruelling drive with no sleep too. There was no N-S Expressway then and the route went along the coastal road and some sections even went through rubber estates!

Once the official teams began taking part, competition became more serious and the ‘works teams’ had the money and personnel to prepare the cars for the purpose. The cars were supposed to be ‘standard’ but carburettors (virtually no EFI engines then) could have their jets changed and tyres could be inflated to very high pressures to reduce rolling resistance. There were some ‘secrets’ which the mechanics in each team were said to know but wouldn’t tell and everyone speculated that there were people who used Singer sewing machine oil in their rear axles! Scrutineering was also quite strict and the cars and occupants were weighed to ensure that there was no unusual lightening. In any case, the system of calculation took into account the car’s weight as a factor.

I did a run with the Toyota team in 1981 but the Corolla KE70’s 1.3-litre OHV engine wasn’t quite the right type of engine for such driving and Borneo Motors didn’t continue their effort after that year. So I went back to the Mitsubishi team which used Galants, Tredias and the Colt Supershift. The Colt’s unique Supershift gearbox had two gear ranges – Performance and Economy – which could be engaged as desired. This was useful for the economy run and helped Mitsubishi win the manufacturer’s trophy in the final year that economy runs were held.

The economy runs were discontinued because there were too many allegations of cheating. The organisers had done their best to prevent cheating but somehow, people seemed to still be able to cheat. I think the first time cheating was believed to have taken place was when someone tried to bluff the others about how little fuel his car had used from Ipoh up to Kuala Kubu Baru. It was some ridiculous amount and word spread that he had cheated. This triggered off suspicion and during the night, the other teams plotted to find ways to beat that guy.

The efforts to prevent cheating were ridiculed by one team when one of its cars, upon reaching the petrol station in Singapore, had petrol overflowing when the driver uncapped the tank! The point was that in spite of the policing, people were still able to cheat. Those cars which were hatchbacks with an easily accessible boot were also suspected because there was a way to reach the fuel tank hose.

In 1982, the organisers tried a new approach to preventing cheating. They had every contestant bring along a few ‘observers’ who would sit in another car. That way, no one would be able to do anything illegal like refuelling along the way without anyone knowing. And even then, the allegations of cheating – and even sabotage – continued and Chew Tee Wong, manager of the Mitsubishi team, expressed his great disappointment at the state of affairs and declared that Mitsubishi would case to participate. His statement seemed to influence the other teams to pull out and much to the sadness of the RPMC, the economy runs lost popularity.

What sort of consumption was achieved? From the records I was able to dig up of the 1981 run, the Alfasud 1.4 was the winner that year with 28.592 kms/litre (80.7 mpg) although, as I said earlier, the weight of the car was also factored in. But the Honda team won the manufacturer’s title with its trio of CVCC Accords. Ex-Mitsubishi manager Chew told me that the Colt won in the final year of the economy runs and returned 25.4 kms/litre (72 mpg). He should have a good recollection since he was the one behind the wheel!

The economy runs were certainly interesting and provided some sort of challenge. But I doubt if Malaysian motorists really cared too much about the results. Today, fuel consumption is hardly discussed and would not influence someone to buy a car. It is generally taken for granted that for a given engine size, there is a certain range of fuel consumption. The manufacturers offer some factory figures to refer to but they are done in controlled conditions so they are optimum. The average motorist may not get such good figures since town driving these days involves a lot of stopping, crawling and having the air-conditioner on most of the time.

But it is nice if you can have a car as economical as the Honda Insight which can easily do 35 kms/litre without driving ‘economy run style’!

Chips Yap

1 of 3

by -

Honda, manufacturer of the most engines in the world today, can design engines that are powerful enough to win Formula 1 races and yet also offer a practical powerplant that has the lowest fuel consumption and emits lower toxic emissions. Quite an achievement and it certainly demonstrates the pioneering company’s engineering prowess in no uncertain way.

In as far as making automobile engines that are efficient, Honda has had long experience which goes back to the early 1970s. In those years, tough new emission control regulations in the USA were introduced and every manufacturer selling there had to hurriedly find a way to meet them. While the other carmakers chose the easy route of simply installing a catalytic converter to clean the exhaust gases, Honda’s founder, Sochiro Honda, did not believe in such a ‘bolt-on’ solution. Instead, he told his engineers that the approach taken should be to attack the pollution where it started: the combustion process. This led to the development of a specially-designed cylinder head that modified the internal combustion process to such a degree as to be able to meet the emission control standards without the use of a catalytic converter and without needing higher-grade fuel either.

The CVCC engine, as it was known, was a fantastic breakthrough development which avoided the problem of power loss through using a catalytic converter. At the same time, the engine was also a fuel-sipper, a characteristic much appreciated by American motorists who were affected by the energy crisis which saw fuel prices going up. Ten years later, a more advanced CVCC engine in the CRX-HF became the first mass-produced 4-cylinder engined car to break the 50 USmpg barrier.

In decades to follow, the issue of fuel economy was not so seriously considered but Honda did not stop its R&D in this area. Like many forward-looking manufacturers, Honda saw that there would come a day when the internal combustion engine would become history, whether due to being forced by laws or because petrol supplies were finished. Ongoing research into alternative fuels has been carried out by Honda R&D and much data has been accumulated over the years.

By the mid-1990s, tailpipe emissions became a major issue in many countries and in California, legislators informed the auto industry that anyone who wanted to sell cars in that state in the early part of this decade would have to offer a percentage of cars which were able to meet requirements that stipulated extremely low emission levels. Within a few years, the aim was to also force manufacturers to start selling Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEVs), ie electric vehicles, in greater numbers. In fact, the initial proposal was that 10% of the sales by the six leading makers would have to be ZEVs by 2003, increasing to 3% of total industry sales in California by 2020.

Major manufacturers like GM and Ford chose pure electric vehicles (EVs)as the fastest solution but with certain inherent drawbacks, especially recharging methods, consumers were hesitant to accept such cars even if they proved ‘economical’ and non-polluting. Perhaps aiming to repeat its CVCC feat, Honda gave serious thought to the hybrid powerplant – a combination of a internal combustion (IC) petrol engine with an electric motor. The thinking was that motorists would likely be more responsive to a
powerplant which gave them some assurance that if the battery went flat, they would not be stranded because the petrol engine could still get them home. The ‘flat battery scenario’ was a major fear of buyers of electric vehicles because the batteries needed daily recharging and places to recharge were virtually non-existent.

Work on such a powerplant began in the mid-1990s and was referred to as IMA – for Integrated Motor Assist – when it was installed in the Honda Insight which went on sale in November 1999 in Japan. The IMA’s concept of operation puts the IC engine as the primary source of propulsion with the electric motor coming in whenever additional torque is needed, eg for acceleration or moving off from standstill. This concept is the opposite of that used in other hybrid powertrains (such as the one in the Toyota Prius) which have the electric motor as the primary powerplant to move the car, with the IC engine kicking in when stronger performance is required.

Honda’s rationale for this ‘reversed’ approach is that it reduces complexity and weight; making an electric motor do the bulk of the work means it has to be big and heavy with more powerful batteries would be needed as well, adding more weight and bulk. With IMA, complexity, weight and bulk can all be minimised to achieve the objective of superlative fuel economy.

The Petrol Engine
For the IMA, a new engine (coded ECA) was developed incorporating advanced technologies. Because engine displacement has an influence on fuel consumption – a larger displacement means more fuel is needed – the engineers examined various capacities and cylinder configurations, finally concluding that 995 cc from three cylinders was the optimum (a relationship which, coincidentally, Daihatsu also found back in 1977 when it designed the first Charade’s engine).

The ECA all-aluminium SOHC (chain-driven) PGM-FI engine is compact and also claimed to be the world’s lightest. Its weight-saving features include an aluminium exhaust side rocker arm, plastic intake manifold, water pump and cylinder head cover, and a magnesium oil pan. It has a single rocker shaft VTEC design with four valves per cylinder. While enthusiasts equate VTEC with high performance, the engineers have employed it to achieve fuel efficiency. The mechanism keeps one of the two inlet valves closed at low engine speeds and the use of the single rocker shaft reduces the included valve angle to 30 degrees for a more compact combustion chamber. This increases the compression ratio and enhances the swirl effect, thereby accelerating combustion. Conditions necessary to extend the range in which the engine operates under lean-burn conditions are thus satisfied, translating into exceptionally high fuel efficiency.

But with its lean-burn feature, the engine tends to generate a lot of nitrogen which creates poisonous oxides of nitrogen (NOx). To reduce NOx emissions, a special catalytic converter is used which cleverly makes use of the poisonous gas to react with hydrocarbons(HC) and carbon monoxide (CO), cleansing the exhaust gases almost totally. The engine also has the world’s first exhaust manifold-integrated cylinder head which retains heat that is used to speed up the catalyst’s warm-up so it can do its good work faster.

The highly efficient methods of processing exhaust gases enables the ECA engine to be ultra-clean. Its emissions of NOx, CO and HC are so low that they are 50% below the level set by the Japanese government for new cars sold from October 2000. It also meets the California ULEV requirements and are well below the maximum levels of the European standards that will come into force in 2005.

The Electric Motor
The MF-2 electric motor is a powerful DC brushless motor which is ultra-thin. Its width is just 60 mm (less than 2.5 inches) and it is attached to the side of the engine, connected directly to the crankshaft. This location has advantages such as quieter engine starts and lower energy loss. The thin, relatively large diameter shape means that it produces a great deal or torque. Being a brushless motor, the only moving part is the rotor which consists of permanent magnets. Such a design has high reliability which is important because of the numerous times that the motor will start and stop.

The motor not only assists the engine when needed but also functions as a starter for the IC engine (there is a conventional starter as well) and as an alternator to provide 12V electrical power for the car. It also generates electricity for the battery whenever it is in operation.

As for the battery, made by Panasonic’s EV Energy division, this is a 144V nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) type which can cope with the high electrical demands as well as recharging process. Compactly sized, it weighs just 22 kgs. The battery has a modular design and uses 120 individual 1.2V Ni-MH cells that are about the same size and shape as the larger ‘D’ batteries used in torches.

The battery remains constantly charged as the car is driven, a feature makes it unnecessary to plug into a power socket somewhere and recharge for hours. It is not the IC engine that does the recharging but the electric motor and it occurs while decelerating. During such a situation, there is recovery of the energy that would otherwise be lost as heat and the motor, which acts as a generator, sends the energy to the battery. Since deceleration is inevitable, there will be recharging occurring at various times during a drive.

The process is known as ‘regenerative braking’ and one of the unique things is that regenerative braking starts the deceleration process without using the brakes – even though you have begun to depress the brake pedal. This is because there is motor drag as electricity is drawn from the motor during regeneration, thus causing physical deceleration. But if you push harder on the pedal, the actual brakes begin to come into operation to further slow the car down. It works in a seamless transparent manner that most drivers would not be able to detect.

IMA Output
The undersquare ECA engine alone can produce a maximum of 51 kW/70 ps of power at 6700 rpm and 81 Nm of torque at 4800 rpm, while the electric motor generates 10 kW/13.6 ps of power at 3000 rpm. Depending on the driving condition, the amount of assistance from the electric motor will vary but when maximum assistance is needed, peak power available is boosted by 8.5% to 55.9 kW/76 ps at 5700 rpm and maximum torque rises by about 40% to 113 Nm. The torque is comparable to a conventional 1.5-litre IC engine and certainly impressive for a 1-litre unit.

While the boost in power is generally consistent throughout the rpm range, the boost in torque is at its greatest at about 2000 rpm – where the car is starting off. The IMA torque curve falls off fairly quickly because the theory is that as the road speed rises, the amount of assistance needed would be less. Thus, by 6000 rpm, the amount of assistance that can be provided is only about 11%.

Transmissions
Although the two Insights used in the Bangkok-Singapore run had 5-speed manual transmissions, the car is also available with a specially developed lightweight constantly-variable transmission (CVT) called the Honda Multi-Matic S. Although Honda claims that the CVT – which adds 30 kgs to the car – can improve overall fuel efficiency, a CVT-equipped Insight actually returns fuel consumption figures that are not as good as with the manual transmission. Factory tests state that in the Japanese 10-15 cycle, it is 8.6% less efficient than the 35 kms/litre attainable with manual transmission and at a constant 60 km/h, it is 4.2% less efficient than the 48 kms/litre with manual transmission.

The development of IMA was not merely for the Insight and the company will apply many of the lessons learnt into its coming range of IC engines, of which it is now producing some 11 million units annually. In fact, a 4-cylinder 2-litre engine (the i-VTEC engine in the Stream) which was introduced in Japan late last year already has the consumption-reducing technology in its design. Its pollution levels are so low that they are comparable to the pollutants generated by about a litre of spilled petrol over 160,000 kms and it is also 20% more economical than the earlier 2-litre engine. The company will also use the technology in motorcycle engines to achieve 30% better fuel efficiency.

Insight test-drive report

Other Insight Technology


by -

Earlier this week, Oriental Holdings Bhd announced that it had incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary to be known as ‘Kah Bintang Sdn Bhd’ which will have as its principal activity ‘selling/trading in all types of cars, spare parts, accessories and all related component parts’. The company has an authorised capital of RM10 million.

It is likely that this new subsidiary is being established for the purpose of selling Hyundai vehicles and offer after-sales services. Oriental recently signed a joint-venture agreement with Hyumal Sdn Bhd in which it is the majority shareholder in a new company, Oriental-Hyundai Sdn Bhd, that will assemble and distribute Hyundai vehicles. The assembly will be done at Oriental Assemblers in Tampoi, Johor.

No date has been mentioned for the start of Kah Bintang’s operations although it is likely that activities would start in the second quarter in preparation for sales commencing during the third quarter of 2001.

Although Oriental already has its Kah Motor subsidiary, it may not be able to use that channel which is still the Honda distributor for Malaysia. As such, other makes would not be allowed in Kah Motors showrooms. Therefore, there would be a need for another dealership group to sell Hyundais.

Oriental, in which Honda Motor of Japan has a 4% share, also has a subsidiary in Brunei, Happy Motoring Sdn Bhd, which is the distributor of Honda vehicles in that country.

by -

As reported in our earlier story, Oriental Holdings Bhd (of which Kah Motors, the Honda distributor, is a subsidiary) has formed a joint-venture with Hyumal Sdn Bhd, the franchise holder of Hyundai vehicles in Malaysia. The new company, which has an authorised capital of RM50 million, will be known as Oriental-Hyundai Motor Sdn (OHM). Hyundai, Korea’s leading automaker, will have no equity in this company and Oriental will hold the majority of 60% while Hyumal will have 40%.

Datuk Robert Wong, JP, told AUTOWORLD.COM.MY that discussions with Hyundai began around the middle of last year, shortly after the DRB-Oriental-Honda j-v was finalised. In our story last week, we noted that Oriental’s decision to take on the Hyundai franchise is most likely to be due to its insecurity regarding the future of Kah Motors as the dominant Honda dealer and also the impending cessation of assembly of Honda vehicles at Oriental Assemblers (OA) in Tampoi, Johor. Under the new j-v, Honda plans to assemble its vehicles in another plant which could either be brand new or a refurbished existing one (a study is still ongoing on this matter). OA, which has a capacity of 3,000 vehicles a year, would be assigned to make components although it will still continue to assemble Peugeots and Mercedes-Benzes.

Since Honda assembly accounts for the largest part of OA’s output, it is clear that something needs to take its place, hence the move to assemble Hyundais which are projected at a rate of 600 units a month. OHM expects to begin assembly by the middle of the year but the models to be assembled are not confirmed.

“There are many models in the Hyundai range we can assemble so we will be studying the matter first,” said Datuk Wong. One model which he mentioned was the Trajet MPV which seems like a strong possibility. Although Hyundai will also begin assembling the Elantra in Thailand around the same time, it is unlikely that OHM will assemble this model as it would be in direct competition with Proton. At the same time, the little Atoz, though popular, would also be a ‘politically-incorrect’ choice as it could affect Perodua sales. This leaves models like the Sonata, which Hyundai attempted to assemble in 1993 but the project was aborted.

Looking at the AFTA scenario, Hyundai is the first of the Korean automakers to establish assembly of passenger cars in ASEAN so as to enjoy the duty-free exchange of vehicles under the regional market arrangement. It may allocate certain models to certain countries and it is known that in Thailand, there are plans to assemble the Santa Fe next year as well.

As to the savings that Malaysian buyers can enjoy as a result of local assembly, Datuk Wong said that it may be around RM5,000 but it would depend on the model. As it is, Korean cars are already sold at lower prices than Japanese equivalents even though imported as CBUs so it is hard to see how much lower they can go.

It is also rumoured that Oriental is having discussions with Peugeot as well as GM. When asked about these developments, Datuk Wong responded with this answer: “If other companies want to talk to us, how can we ignore them?”

by -

Proton Edar Sdn Bhd, the new name for USPD which was acquired by Proton, has signed a joint-venture agreement with P.T. Ningz Multiusaha to establish a new company for the purpose of assembling and distributing Proton vehicles in Indonesia. The new company is to be called P.T. Proton Edar Indonesia and have an initial authorised share capital of the rupiah equivalent to US$10 million (about RM38 million). At the outset, the paid-up capital will be the rupiah equivalent of US$2.5 million(about RM9.5 million). The agreement is subject to regulatory and corporate approvals.

According to a source, Proton Edar will have a 70% equity while P.T. Ningz Multiusaha will hold the remainder. The top position of President-Director in the company will be from Proton Edar which will also be entitled to nominate one director while its Indonesian partner will nominate one director. Indonesian laws also require the presence of three ‘commissioners’ whose duty is to supervise the management of the company by the Board of Directors.

The new development reflects Proton’s efforts to broaden its presence in ASEAN before AFTA kicks in and in order to do this within the short time left, it decided to team up with the PT Nings Pacific Group which has readily available facilities, which also minimizes investment. The first Protons assembled in Indonesia should go on sale by the middle of this year.

by -

Since Monday (January 15th), a Honda Insight which has a hybrid powerplant (electric motor and petrol engine) has been driven on the road between Bangkok and Singapore. The purpose of the drive, done by 33 journalists from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, is to establish ASEAN’s first 3-country fuel economy record.

Organised by Asian Honda Motor Co. Ltd, Honda’s Bangkok-based ASEAN regional office, the 2,000-km drive is being observed by officials from the automobile associations of the three countries who will be able to certify the fuel consumption record as international records since they are authorised representatives of the FIA.

The Insight, which went on sale in Japan in November 1999, presently holds the title as the world’s most fuel-efficient and environment-friendly production passenger car, achieving 35 kms/litre (about 95 mpg) in mixed urban-highway driving conditions as specified in Japan’s 10-15 test cycle. Last year, this Honda broke a 7-year old fuel economy record in UK by completing a 6,012-km trip around the country with an average fuel consumption of 36.36 kms/litre (about 103 mpg).

Even more impressive is the result achieved by Thai journalists who last year drove an Insight nearly 2,000 kms and averaged 43.71 kms/litre (about 123 mpg)! The figure was officially certified by the Royal Automobile Association of Thailand.

On this week’s drive, the Thai journalists who did the first stage from Bangkok to the Malaysian border – a distance of over 1,000 kms on ordinary roads – have achieved an average of 43.01 kms/litre (about 121 mpg). According to one of the officials, one driver had managed to get a fantastic 60 kms/litre (almost 170 mpg)! Considering that the Insight’s fuel tank capacity is just 40 litres, that sort of consumption could mean a range of 2,400 kms – the average monthly mileage clocked by many AUTOWORLD.COM.MY forum participants.

The secret of the Insight’s fuel-sipping character is IMA – Integrated Motor Assist. IMA is the concept of the hybrid powerplant which combines a super-efficient and super-light 1-litre VTEC lean-burn petrol engine with an ultra-thin 10 kW electric motor. But IMA is not the only thing that makes the Insight so economical; also contributing significantly are the all-aluminium body which is so slippery in the air that is generates a Cd of just 0.25 – the lowest of any car in production today.

Due to the many advanced technologies in the Insight, it is not a cheap car to produce and a Honda official admitted that, in this initial phase of sales, Honda is losing money on each unit sold. “But as production volume increases, we would naturally see that the cost would come down over time,” explained Hiroshi Mikajiri, General Manager of Corporate Communications at Asian Honda.

Mr Mikajiri said that the Insight will be introduced in Singapore in March or April this year but the price has not been confirmed yet. However, as reported in AUTOWORLD.COM.MY earlier, the Singapore government is giving special rebates to buyers of environment-friendly cars such as the Insight in a move to popularise them. In Thailand, the Insight has been available since last year but no one has actually bought one yet and the reason is probably due to the high pricetag of 2.3 million baht which is largely because of import duties. In comparison, a Honda Civic costs around 800,000 baht.

On Wednesday night, Singapore journalists drove the Insight into Kuala Lumpur after a 13-hour journey from Hatyai. The average consumption figure has not been computed although it is known that at least one driver recorded 50 kms/litre.

On Thursday morning, an 11-member team of Malaysian journalists (including AUTOWORLD.COM.MY’s Chips Yap) will set off on the 330-km drive to Johor Bahru.

by -

Oriental Holdings Bhd, which has been the importer and distributor of Honda vehicles for 33 years, is to enter into a joint-venture with the present Malaysian franchise holder for Hyundai vehicles, Hyumal Motor Sdn Bhd. The new joint-venture company, to be known as Oriental-Hyundai Motor Sdn Bhd, will have Oriental as the majority shareholder with a 60% stake while Hyumal will hold the remaining 40%. The new company will assemble and distribute Hyundai vehicles assembled locally.

The move suggests insecurity on Oriental’s part with regard to its continued status as a distributor and retailer of Honda vehicles through its Kah Motors network. In mid-2000, Oriental Holdings’ relationship with Honda changed as a result of a new joint-venture in which DRB-HICOM came into the picture and Oriental’s equity was only 15% in the new company known as DRB-Oriental-Honda Bhd. Although no indication was given about the role of Kah Motors in future, it was announced that Oriental’s assembly plant, Oriental Assemblers (OA), in Johor would not necessarily continue to assemble Honda vehicles and would be converted into a components factory.

While OA still has business from Mercedes-Benz and Peugeot, it is clear that its 3,000-unit monthly capacity is more than what is needed for those two European makes and in order to utilise the excess capacity when Honda assembly ceases, it needs another brand. This is where Hyundai comes in and the new j-v deal with Hyumal includes assembly of Hyundai vehicles at OA. There is also the possibility of related components being manufactured locally and if agreed by both parties, exported to other markets.

This will be the first instance of a Korean automaker establishing local assembly of its passenger car products in an ASEAN country although Kia had earlier attempted to do so in Indonesia through the aborted Timor project (which may be revived). It is likely that the move is in preparation for AFTA so as to allow Hyundais assembled in Malaysia to be exported to other ASEAN markets with no tariff penalties. Under the AFTA provision, only vehicles with a minimum of 40% content sourced from an ASEAN country are entitled to the duty-free import benefit and if Hyundai does not assemble in ASEAN, its products would not be competitively priced after 2005.

The move to assemble Hyundai vehicles locally is not a new one. In 1992, when Hyundai first began selling its vehicles here, there was an intention to assemble the Sonata at the Tan Chong assembly plant in Segambut, Kuala Lumpur. However, various issues were not resolved and the project did not proceed.

Apart from the future cessation of Honda assembly at OA, Oriental would also be concerned about the future of its Kah Motors network as Honda retail outlets. While there has been no discussion on the matter, it is not out of the question for Kah Motors’ position to be diminished in 2005 when the market opens up. This is because the Proton sales volume of EON (owned by DRB-HICOM) is certain to drop significantly and its present network would be far too large. In such a situation, DRB-HICOM may well ask for some of its EON branches to be turned into Honda retail outlets. With only 15% equity in the j-v, Oriental may not have sufficient clout to argue against such a move, hence the latest development to get another brand to market.

As to the status of the DRB-Oriental-Honda venture, a source at DRB-HICOM told AUTOWORLD.COM.MY that the study concerning the location of the factory has not concluded yet. DRB-HICOM is believed to be urging Honda to consider the AMM plant in Pekan, Pahang, which used to assembled the Proton Tiara, Citroen ZX/Xantia and continues to assemble Proton Satrias. However, Honda, which has a 49% equity in the joint-venture company, is said to be looking at a broad range of factors and has not come to any decision yet. During the press conference last year, it was announced that if an existing plant was taken over, assembly of Honda vehicles under the new company could commence in 2001. However, if a new factory had to be built, then it could take as long as two years before production started.

by -

T.H. Chong has been appointed as Marketing Manager for Ford Malaysia Sdn Bhd, with effect from January 1 2001. He has taken over the position from Steven Tan who has moved on in the Ford world as the Communications Manager for the company’s ASEAN Operations based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Mr Chong, 38, brings with him a wealth of marketing and brand communications expertise from his previous experience in the brewery and tobacco industries as well as a long stint with an international advertising agency. In his new position, he will continue to focus on managing Ford’s marketing programmes and strategies, working closely with the company’s sales and product planning departments as well as its communications agencies.

In his new role, Steven Tan will be responsible for Ford’s regional communications and public affairs strategy and implementation. The Ford Motor Company ASEAN Operations includes the Malaysian, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesian markets.

In the three years that Mr Tan was Marketing Manager at Ford Malaysia, the Ford brand has moved from a market share ranking of 6th position in 1997 to the current 3rd position in the non-national automotive segment in Malaysia.

Commenting on Mr Tan’s move, Ford Malaysia’s Managing Director Richard Canny said that it is ‘inspirational’ for the staff at Ford Malaysia because it shows that there are many opportunities to further one’s career in Ford Motor Company. This is believed to be the first time that a Malaysian has moved to a significant regional position within Ford Motor Company in more than a decade although Mr Canny says that there are many Malaysian citizens working for Ford around the world.

Prev1...1,0001,0071,0081,009...1,033Next Page 1,008 of 1,033
-->

NEW CAR LAUNCHES

TEST DRIVES & REVIEWS

Automotive News