Proton-Geely critics! Just shut-up!
China’s Geely takes majority stake in Lotus, shares in Proton
SENIOR EDITOR
24 May 2017
China’s largest privately-owned automotive group, Zhejiang Geely Holding, has agreed to a deal that will hand it the majority stake in famed British sports-car brand Lotus. The Chinese group – which also owns Volvo Cars and the London Taxi Company – will also take a 49.9 per cent share in Lotus’ current parent, Malaysian company Proton. The binding heads of agreement announced today is between Geely’s holding company and the current umbrella for Proton/Lotus, DRB-HICOM … for more, go to http://www.caradvice.com.au/553503/chinas-geely-takes-majority-stake-in-lotus-shares-in-proton/
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Proton-Geely critics! Just shut-up!
The global car technology and industry is undergoing a tremendous evolution and transformation that is set to change lifestyle.
And it is not only about full electric vehicles (EVs). It is also focused on automated or driverless EVs.
“It can be said that the technology and industry are progressing and evolving simultaneously. The industry players are in a fierce race to come up with commercially viable Artifical Intelligence (AI) EVs,” Gerakan Deputy Speaker Syed Abdul Razak said.
“Yes. What about our national car Proton. To the critics who condemn China’s Geely buy into Proton, I say you are lucky that Geely is even willing to try and save Proton.
“If Geely is not globally competent, would Germany’s Daimler (Mercedes Benz) even want to go into a US$2 billion (RM8 billion) joint-venture with another China carmaker BAIC Motor Corporation recently?
“Even the precision-maniac Germans see the potential of China’s carmakers’ efficiency and competency,” he added.
Proton dealerships feel the pressure to keep up with Geely
Proton’s new CEO has introduced numerous conditions for dealerships and service centres
By AFIQ AZIZ / Pic By TMR
Proton Holdings Bhd’s new management has set a high bar for Malaysian distributors to meet in a dealership overhaul that may see only the fittest to survive. Since he took charge of the Malaysian carmaker last year, Geely-appointed CEO Dr Li Chunrong has introduced numerous conditions for dealerships and service centres that are meant to strengthen the brand and improve buyer experience. Li was appointed CEO after Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd took 49.9% stakes in Proton from DRB-Hicom Bhd, which retains a 50.1% stake, last year. But, the changes which Li is implementing will also mean that some of Proton’s oldest dealerships may not make the cut … for more, go to https://themalaysianreserve.com/2018/01/18/proton-dealerships-feel-pressure-keep-geely/
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“If not for Geely, Proton would have folded up last year,” he added.
“Geely is most certainly competent to revamp operations and turn Proton around into a global carmaker. Stop the unfounded criticisms.
“Turning around Proton is about technology and business competencies. It has no place for politics or race. Period. So, to Proton-Geely critics, just shut up and leave Geely alone to do their work,” he added.
The following are four car industry-related stories (all posted by The Star Online) reproduced for the convenience of readers to understand how much Geely has to face globally to turn Proton around:
"Daimler in US$2bil China investment with BAIC as Geely swoops
AUTO
Monday, 26 Feb 2018
6:43 AM MYT
BERLIN: Daimler and its Chinese partner BAIC plan to invest almost US$2 billion in a state-of-the-art factory in China, underlining their relationship as rival Geely makes a surprise swoop on the German carmaker.
The two will invest more than 11.9 billion yuan ($1.88 billion) in modernizing a plant to build premium Mercedes-Benz cars including electric vehicles, BAIC said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange dated Friday and confirmed by Daimler on Sunday.
The chairman of Chinese carmaker Geely said late on Friday he had bought an almost 10 percent stake in Daimler, in a $9 billion bet to access the Mercedes-Benz owner's technology.
The move poses a challenge to Daimler, which as well as its Chinese partnership with BAIC Motor Corporation has an industrial alliance to develop cars and trucks with Renault-Nissan <RENA.PA>, which owns a 3.1 percent stake in Daimler.
Geely's Chairman Li Shufu, who quietly built up the 9.7 percent stake, is now expected to meet Daimler executives in Stuttgart on Monday, a source familiar with the matter said, and hopes to meet top German government officials in Berlin.
His approach contrasts with that of previous Chinese investors in German technology companies - such as Midea <000333.SZ>, which bought Kuka <KU2G.DE> or Weichai <000338.SZ>, which bought a large stake in Kion <KGX.DE> - who have tended to engage in lengthy consultation with stakeholders.
Berlin said it saw no need to take any action over Geely's purchase, either in terms of competition rules or of foreign investment rules.
"It is a company decision," a government spokesman said. "Due to the character of the investment as a minority stake, there is no need to act."
The government declined to comment on a report in German tabloid Bild am Sonnntag that Li would visit the German chancellery for a "secret meeting" with Angela Merkel's economic adviser on Tuesday.
Daimler also declined to comment on any possible meetings with Li.
Geely said it wants an alliance with Daimler, which is developing electric and self-driving vehicles and is the only German carmaker not to be controlled by a family, to respond to the challenge from new rivals such as Tesla <TSLA.O> and Uber.
Self-driving cars will kill things you love (and a few you hate)
TECH NEWSWednesday, 14 Feb 2018
6:00 PM MYT
Limited tests of driverless cars are already happening today and they’ll be in use everywhere within six years, according to Carlos Ghosn, CEO of the Renault Nissan Alliance. A change on that scale would reach far beyond the automotive industry to upend businesses, transform our daily lifestyles and reshape cities.
Even if the skeptics are right and the technology necessary for full level-five autonomy develops more slowly, the revolution could still claim many victims.
Bikes and buses
In a future where anyone is able to summon a cheap driverless pod at the click of a smartphone button, the line between public and private transport would start to blur. People use ride hailing apps instead of taking the train, driving, cycling or even walking. Removing human drivers from the equation could make those services even more affordable and convenient compared with trains or buses following fixed routes. Dwindling passenger numbers could ultimately starve public transit of investment.
Domestic airlines
In the US people often fly between or even within states, but autonomous technology could make car journeys a more pleasant and productive alternative. The impact could be similar to Japan’s bullet trains, which diverted passengers away from airlines.
“Air travel in North America isn’t really good – the airports suck, the airlines are horrible,” said Ali Izadi-Najafabadi, an intelligent mobility analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “In a driverless car you could read a book, watch a movie and do other fun stuff.”
Traffic jams
Cloud-connected vehicles with advanced computer brains won’t just drive themselves, they’ll be able to communicate with other cars, traffic signals or emergency services. Even if the number of cars on the road increases, these systems could speed up city traffic and reduce jams by rerouting flows away from accidents or repricing toll routes.
Parking tickets
Some of the most hated people on the planet may soon find themselves out of work. If shared driverless cars constantly patrol the streets awaiting a ride before returning for storage in centralised depots, rather than parking on the street, there’ll be little need for parking enforcement officers.
Mechanics
Auto repair shops may grow to hate the sight of autonomous battery-powered cars, on the rare occasions they actually encounter them. Many of the common repairs for gasoline-powered vehicles –replacing spark plugs or engine oil – simply won’t be needed for electric motors. They’ll still have tires and brakes that suffer wear and tear, but the lack of a combustion engine makes a big difference. — Bloomberg
Fitch: Electric vehicle growth could see oil demand peak by 2030
AUTO
Tuesday, 20 Feb 2018
6:41 PM MYT
LONDON: Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption is an increasing threat to oil demand, which could plausibly peak before 2030, Fitch Ratings says in a new report.
This is not our core scenario, but developments in 2017 show how technological changes and greater product awareness could lead to annual sales of 10 million battery-powered EVs by 2025.
Last year saw a slew of EV product announcements driven by technological advances such as the continued decline in battery costs, consumer preferences and environmental policy.
Governments and manufacturers have also set EV targets.
OPEC has raised its forecast for the size of the EV fleet in 2040 to 250 million units from 140 million, and other forecasters have disclosed EV penetration assumptions for the first time.
To assess the potential impact of faster EV adoption, Fitch revisited the scenarios in its October 2016 report into the disruptive potential of battery technology and incorporated both conservative and more aggressive EV sales estimates based on car companies' own announcements.
The latter shows EV sales in 2025 slightly higher than in our extreme scenario from 2016 (which assumed a 33% CAGR of EV sales).
Of course, the path of EV sales relative to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle sales will depend on how far consumer behaviour and public policy goals support the heavy investment in EV production needed to meet bullish estimates.
But by considering a scenario where EVs' cost and range are comparable to ICEs, consumers prefer driving EVs, policymakers mandate and support electrification, and carmakers see cost benefits of focusing on one drivetrain, it is not unreasonable to expect global EV stock by 2040 of over 1 billion, or more than half the vehicles on the road.
This is not our core expectation. The pace and pattern of EV adoption will be more nuanced.
Manufacturers have a history of missing big strategic targets, the development of charging infrastructure remains a key uncertainty, environmental impact assessments and policy could change, advances in battery technology may slow, and ICE technology may itself adapt.
But we believe the new extreme scenario has become more plausible over the last year.
Applying it to oil demand, in combination with International Energy Agency's (IEA) New Policies Scenario assumptions on non-transportation use, shows oil demand peaking in 2029.
Even then, the peak is shallow, with oil demand in 2040 broadly unchanged from today, as the world still needs to consume vast amounts of oil.
However, the absence of rising demand would be a significant structural change for the oil market and could make prices more volatile and, on average, lower.
Most large oil companies are taking steps to diversify into natural gas, petrochemicals and alternative energy.
Our ratings already take into account their production cost position, which is key in any market but would be even more important if demand weakens. - The Star Online
BP sees self-driving electric vehicles crimping oil demand
OIL & GAS
Wednesday, 21 Feb 2018
6:45 AM MYT
LONDON: The emergence of self-driving electric cars and travel sharing are set to dent oil consumption by 2040, oil and gas giant BP <BP.L> said, forecasting a peak in demand for the first time.
In its benchmark annual Energy Outlook, BP forecast a 100-fold growth in electric vehicles by 2040, with its chief economist Spencer Dale painting a world in which we travel much more but instead of using private cars, we increasingly share trips in autonomous vehicles.
While travel demand more than doubles over the period as economies in countries such as China and India grow, higher oil demand will be more than offset by increased engine efficiency standards as well as the larger number of EVs and shared traveling.
Unlike many other forecasts, including previous BP Energy Outlooks, which looked solely at the growing share of EVs in the car fleet, BP this year focused on the share of vehicles kilometers powered by electricity.
Under BP's Evolving Transition scenario, which assumes that policies and technology continue to evolve at a speed similar to that seen in the recent past, some 30 percent of car kilometers are powered by electricity by 2040 from almost zero in 2016.
At the same time, the number of EVs is set to increase from 3 million today to over 320 million by 2040, representing roughly 15 percent out of a total car fleet of 2 billion.
The gap between the increasing number of EVs on the road and the kilometers powered by electricity is due to the expected growth in so-called shared mobility by EVs, Dale said.
"Cars will be used much more intensely over time," Dale told reporters in a briefing on Monday ahead of the release of the report on Tuesday.
As a result, fuel demand from the car fleet is forecast to dip to 18.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2040 from 18.7 million bpd in 2016, when it represented around one fifth of total oil demand, according to BP.
CHEAPER RIDES
BP expects autonomous vehicles to become available in the early 2020s. Their initial high cost means the vast majority of the cars will be bought by fleets offering shared mobility services.
The average electric car is expected to be driven about two and a half times more than an internal combustion car, according to Dale.
"What we expect to see in the 2030s is a huge growth in shared mobility autonomous cars ... Once you don't have to pay for a driver, the cost of taking one of those share mobility fleets services will fall by about 40 or 50 percent," Dale said.
The vast majority of the shared mobility is expected to be EVs because of their lower maintenance costs.
Car makers including General Motors <GM.N> and high-tech giants such as Google Waymo and Uber Technologies have poured billions into the autonomous vehicles industry hoping gain a first-mover advantage. Robo-taxi services are seen as the main use for most self-driving vehicles.
BP sharply raised its estimate of growth in electric vehicles in the coming decades from last year's forecast that EVs would reach 100 million by 2035. The big upwards revision is due to an increase in hybrid cars and an expected sharp growth in EV purchases in the second half of the 2030s, Dale said.
PEAK OIL
London-based BP joined other oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> in forecasting a peak for oil demand in the late 2030s, when it is expected to slightly decline at around 110 million bpd.
It did not foresee a peak in demand in its previous outlooks that stretched into 2035.
While the transportation sector will continue to dominate the growth in oil consumption, demand for plastic manufacturing will become the main source of growth in the 2030s.
Oil companies such as BP, Shell and France's Total <TOTF.PA> are betting on growing demand from the petrochemical sector in the coming decades.
Dale however said changes in regulations for plastics consumption such as stringent policies on plastic bags and packaging could dent oil demand by as much as 2 million bpd, roughly the same as the impact of EVs.
Overall energy demand will continue to grow in the coming decades, rising by a third into 2040, or roughly 1.3 percent per year, driven by growth in China and India, but the world is learning to "do more with less energy" as economies become more efficient, Dale said.
For example, the European Union's gross domestic product is set to treble in 2040 from 1975 but the level of energy demand will be the same.
China's energy demand will continue to grow but at a slower pace by the 2030s, when India will become the main driver of growth.
BP once again revised upwards its forecast for growth in renewable power, which is set to grow by 40 percent by 2040, with its share in the energy mix increasing from 4 percent to 14 percent.
The revision is due to technological gains as well as more aggressive government policies, particularly in India and China.
"There is plenty of scope for policy to continue to surprise us" to further boost the growth in the renewables, Dale said. - Reuters"
The two will invest more than 11.9 billion yuan ($1.88 billion) in modernizing a plant to build premium Mercedes-Benz cars including electric vehicles, BAIC said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange dated Friday and confirmed by Daimler on Sunday.
The chairman of Chinese carmaker Geely said late on Friday he had bought an almost 10 percent stake in Daimler, in a $9 billion bet to access the Mercedes-Benz owner's technology.
The move poses a challenge to Daimler, which as well as its Chinese partnership with BAIC Motor Corporation has an industrial alliance to develop cars and trucks with Renault-Nissan <RENA.PA>, which owns a 3.1 percent stake in Daimler.
Geely's Chairman Li Shufu, who quietly built up the 9.7 percent stake, is now expected to meet Daimler executives in Stuttgart on Monday, a source familiar with the matter said, and hopes to meet top German government officials in Berlin.
His approach contrasts with that of previous Chinese investors in German technology companies - such as Midea <000333.SZ>, which bought Kuka <KU2G.DE> or Weichai <000338.SZ>, which bought a large stake in Kion <KGX.DE> - who have tended to engage in lengthy consultation with stakeholders.
Berlin said it saw no need to take any action over Geely's purchase, either in terms of competition rules or of foreign investment rules.
"It is a company decision," a government spokesman said. "Due to the character of the investment as a minority stake, there is no need to act."
The government declined to comment on a report in German tabloid Bild am Sonnntag that Li would visit the German chancellery for a "secret meeting" with Angela Merkel's economic adviser on Tuesday.
Daimler also declined to comment on any possible meetings with Li.
Geely said it wants an alliance with Daimler, which is developing electric and self-driving vehicles and is the only German carmaker not to be controlled by a family, to respond to the challenge from new rivals such as Tesla <TSLA.O> and Uber.
Self-driving cars will kill things you love (and a few you hate)
TECH NEWSWednesday, 14 Feb 2018
6:00 PM MYT
Electric cars, robo taxis and self-driving trucks are coming to change the society we live in, possibly sooner than you think. — Bloomberg |
Limited tests of driverless cars are already happening today and they’ll be in use everywhere within six years, according to Carlos Ghosn, CEO of the Renault Nissan Alliance. A change on that scale would reach far beyond the automotive industry to upend businesses, transform our daily lifestyles and reshape cities.
Even if the skeptics are right and the technology necessary for full level-five autonomy develops more slowly, the revolution could still claim many victims.
Bikes and buses
In a future where anyone is able to summon a cheap driverless pod at the click of a smartphone button, the line between public and private transport would start to blur. People use ride hailing apps instead of taking the train, driving, cycling or even walking. Removing human drivers from the equation could make those services even more affordable and convenient compared with trains or buses following fixed routes. Dwindling passenger numbers could ultimately starve public transit of investment.
Domestic airlines
In the US people often fly between or even within states, but autonomous technology could make car journeys a more pleasant and productive alternative. The impact could be similar to Japan’s bullet trains, which diverted passengers away from airlines.
“Air travel in North America isn’t really good – the airports suck, the airlines are horrible,” said Ali Izadi-Najafabadi, an intelligent mobility analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “In a driverless car you could read a book, watch a movie and do other fun stuff.”
Traffic jams
Cloud-connected vehicles with advanced computer brains won’t just drive themselves, they’ll be able to communicate with other cars, traffic signals or emergency services. Even if the number of cars on the road increases, these systems could speed up city traffic and reduce jams by rerouting flows away from accidents or repricing toll routes.
Parking tickets
Some of the most hated people on the planet may soon find themselves out of work. If shared driverless cars constantly patrol the streets awaiting a ride before returning for storage in centralised depots, rather than parking on the street, there’ll be little need for parking enforcement officers.
Mechanics
Auto repair shops may grow to hate the sight of autonomous battery-powered cars, on the rare occasions they actually encounter them. Many of the common repairs for gasoline-powered vehicles –replacing spark plugs or engine oil – simply won’t be needed for electric motors. They’ll still have tires and brakes that suffer wear and tear, but the lack of a combustion engine makes a big difference. — Bloomberg
Fitch: Electric vehicle growth could see oil demand peak by 2030
AUTO
Tuesday, 20 Feb 2018
6:41 PM MYT
Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption is an increasing threat to oil demand, which could plausibly peak before 2030, Fitch Ratings says in a new report |
LONDON: Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption is an increasing threat to oil demand, which could plausibly peak before 2030, Fitch Ratings says in a new report.
This is not our core scenario, but developments in 2017 show how technological changes and greater product awareness could lead to annual sales of 10 million battery-powered EVs by 2025.
Last year saw a slew of EV product announcements driven by technological advances such as the continued decline in battery costs, consumer preferences and environmental policy.
Governments and manufacturers have also set EV targets.
OPEC has raised its forecast for the size of the EV fleet in 2040 to 250 million units from 140 million, and other forecasters have disclosed EV penetration assumptions for the first time.
To assess the potential impact of faster EV adoption, Fitch revisited the scenarios in its October 2016 report into the disruptive potential of battery technology and incorporated both conservative and more aggressive EV sales estimates based on car companies' own announcements.
The latter shows EV sales in 2025 slightly higher than in our extreme scenario from 2016 (which assumed a 33% CAGR of EV sales).
Of course, the path of EV sales relative to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle sales will depend on how far consumer behaviour and public policy goals support the heavy investment in EV production needed to meet bullish estimates.
But by considering a scenario where EVs' cost and range are comparable to ICEs, consumers prefer driving EVs, policymakers mandate and support electrification, and carmakers see cost benefits of focusing on one drivetrain, it is not unreasonable to expect global EV stock by 2040 of over 1 billion, or more than half the vehicles on the road.
This is not our core expectation. The pace and pattern of EV adoption will be more nuanced.
Manufacturers have a history of missing big strategic targets, the development of charging infrastructure remains a key uncertainty, environmental impact assessments and policy could change, advances in battery technology may slow, and ICE technology may itself adapt.
But we believe the new extreme scenario has become more plausible over the last year.
Applying it to oil demand, in combination with International Energy Agency's (IEA) New Policies Scenario assumptions on non-transportation use, shows oil demand peaking in 2029.
Even then, the peak is shallow, with oil demand in 2040 broadly unchanged from today, as the world still needs to consume vast amounts of oil.
However, the absence of rising demand would be a significant structural change for the oil market and could make prices more volatile and, on average, lower.
Most large oil companies are taking steps to diversify into natural gas, petrochemicals and alternative energy.
Our ratings already take into account their production cost position, which is key in any market but would be even more important if demand weakens. - The Star Online
BP sees self-driving electric vehicles crimping oil demand
OIL & GAS
Wednesday, 21 Feb 2018
6:45 AM MYT
LONDON: The emergence of self-driving electric cars and travel sharing are set to dent oil consumption by 2040, oil and gas giant BP <BP.L> said, forecasting a peak in demand for the first time.
In its benchmark annual Energy Outlook, BP forecast a 100-fold growth in electric vehicles by 2040, with its chief economist Spencer Dale painting a world in which we travel much more but instead of using private cars, we increasingly share trips in autonomous vehicles.
While travel demand more than doubles over the period as economies in countries such as China and India grow, higher oil demand will be more than offset by increased engine efficiency standards as well as the larger number of EVs and shared traveling.
Unlike many other forecasts, including previous BP Energy Outlooks, which looked solely at the growing share of EVs in the car fleet, BP this year focused on the share of vehicles kilometers powered by electricity.
Under BP's Evolving Transition scenario, which assumes that policies and technology continue to evolve at a speed similar to that seen in the recent past, some 30 percent of car kilometers are powered by electricity by 2040 from almost zero in 2016.
At the same time, the number of EVs is set to increase from 3 million today to over 320 million by 2040, representing roughly 15 percent out of a total car fleet of 2 billion.
The gap between the increasing number of EVs on the road and the kilometers powered by electricity is due to the expected growth in so-called shared mobility by EVs, Dale said.
"Cars will be used much more intensely over time," Dale told reporters in a briefing on Monday ahead of the release of the report on Tuesday.
As a result, fuel demand from the car fleet is forecast to dip to 18.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2040 from 18.7 million bpd in 2016, when it represented around one fifth of total oil demand, according to BP.
CHEAPER RIDES
BP expects autonomous vehicles to become available in the early 2020s. Their initial high cost means the vast majority of the cars will be bought by fleets offering shared mobility services.
The average electric car is expected to be driven about two and a half times more than an internal combustion car, according to Dale.
"What we expect to see in the 2030s is a huge growth in shared mobility autonomous cars ... Once you don't have to pay for a driver, the cost of taking one of those share mobility fleets services will fall by about 40 or 50 percent," Dale said.
The vast majority of the shared mobility is expected to be EVs because of their lower maintenance costs.
Car makers including General Motors <GM.N> and high-tech giants such as Google Waymo and Uber Technologies have poured billions into the autonomous vehicles industry hoping gain a first-mover advantage. Robo-taxi services are seen as the main use for most self-driving vehicles.
BP sharply raised its estimate of growth in electric vehicles in the coming decades from last year's forecast that EVs would reach 100 million by 2035. The big upwards revision is due to an increase in hybrid cars and an expected sharp growth in EV purchases in the second half of the 2030s, Dale said.
PEAK OIL
London-based BP joined other oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L> in forecasting a peak for oil demand in the late 2030s, when it is expected to slightly decline at around 110 million bpd.
It did not foresee a peak in demand in its previous outlooks that stretched into 2035.
While the transportation sector will continue to dominate the growth in oil consumption, demand for plastic manufacturing will become the main source of growth in the 2030s.
Oil companies such as BP, Shell and France's Total <TOTF.PA> are betting on growing demand from the petrochemical sector in the coming decades.
Dale however said changes in regulations for plastics consumption such as stringent policies on plastic bags and packaging could dent oil demand by as much as 2 million bpd, roughly the same as the impact of EVs.
Overall energy demand will continue to grow in the coming decades, rising by a third into 2040, or roughly 1.3 percent per year, driven by growth in China and India, but the world is learning to "do more with less energy" as economies become more efficient, Dale said.
For example, the European Union's gross domestic product is set to treble in 2040 from 1975 but the level of energy demand will be the same.
China's energy demand will continue to grow but at a slower pace by the 2030s, when India will become the main driver of growth.
BP once again revised upwards its forecast for growth in renewable power, which is set to grow by 40 percent by 2040, with its share in the energy mix increasing from 4 percent to 14 percent.
The revision is due to technological gains as well as more aggressive government policies, particularly in India and China.
"There is plenty of scope for policy to continue to surprise us" to further boost the growth in the renewables, Dale said. - Reuters"
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