GM and Ford in the US down in the dumps, but Honda all smiles
Dayton, Ohio (AP) - Eager to ramp up production in the
part of the world that produces half of its growing profit, Honda Motor Co. said
it will build a $400 million (€310 million) plant in the U.S. as part of a
$1.18 billion (€920 million) expansion.
Officials with the Japanese automaker said Wednesday they are in the final
stages of securing a site, but would not say when a decision would be made. The
plant will be built by 2008 and employ 1,500 workers.
“We’d like to have it sooner rather than later,” Larry Jutte, a Honda
senior vice president, told a conference call with reporters. Jutte said no
decision has yet been made on what kind of vehicles the plant will produce.
The new plant - Honda’s sixth in North America - would produce 200,000
vehicles annually and boost the company’s North American production capacity
from 1.4 million to 1.6 million vehicles a year for a company whose profit more
than doubled to a record $1.9 billion (€1.47 billion) in the first quarter.
Honda also plans to erect a new assembly factory in Japan and an engine plant in
Canada. The three plants are aimed at meeting an ambitious 34 percent increase
in annual sales to 4.5 million vehicles a year by 2010, Honda President and CEO
Takeo Fukui told a news conference in Tokyo.
Honda said it will invest $665 million (€516.22 million) and create 1,900 jobs
in North America to expand production.
Honda also said it will introduce a new, more affordable hybrid car in 2009,
producing 100,000 units a year. And the automaker said that in the next three
years it will introduce new diesel-engine technology designed to increase fuel
economy.
Honda and its larger rival, Toyota Motor Corp., have been rapidly expanding
their North American manufacturing capacity to keep up with demand even as US
automakers General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are cutting thousands of jobs
and closing plants as their market share declines.
The increased competition from foreign automakers comes as the US companies also
struggle with enormous costs for health care and pensions. GM, for example, lost
$8.6 billion (€6.68 billion) in 2005, spending more than $5 billion (€3.88
billion) on health care.
Toyota will open a truck plant in the U.S. this year and a plant in Canada next
year. The company also is scouting sites for an engine plant.
The Big Three US automakers saw their combined US market share fall to 56
percent in the first quarter, down from 58 percent a year earlier. At the same
time, Toyota and Honda had a combined share of 22 percent for the quarter, up
from 21 percent the year before.
Honda’s expansion plan includes construction of the new $140 million
(€108.68 million) engine plant in Canada, which will produce 200,000 units a
year and create 340 jobs. The company will invest $125 million (€97 million)
to expand production at existing engine plants in Ohio and Georgia, creating 80
new jobs.
(James Hannah, Associated Press Writer)
They do have racing on the left hand side of the Atlantic
While F1 is still, in my opinion, the epitome of “le sport
pure”, it should not be forgotten that there is a very strong motor racing
following in the USA, with their own indigenous championships, and it is
difficult to find a competition with more mystique than the famous
“brickyard”, the Indianapolis 500 mile race. This year’s Indy 500 on May
28 is the 90th running of the event. That is a real
competition history.
With the speeds of the cars these days, a 4 km lap is covered in around 40
seconds, and they keep that up for 200 laps. The cars are so closely matched,
timing is done to four decimal places! In practice this month, Sam Hornish
clocked 40.1104 seconds with Helio Castroneves a close second behind his
teammate with a lap of 40.2879, followed by Scott Sharp at 40.3058; 2004 Indy
winner Buddy Rice at 40.3777; and defending champion Dan Wheldon at 40.4286.
To show that this closeness goes all the way through the field, female sensation
Danica Patrick, who began drawing attention to herself last year when she
regularly ran fastest in practice, endured another frustrating day, posting the
20th quickest lap at 40.9975. “It was a tough day in the Argent Mortgage
Honda,” she said. A tough day, for sure. Zero point eight seconds behind and
19 cars in front!
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I mentioned that two of the Maserati brothers had
the same name, and I asked, how did this happen? This was easy (especially for
the Googlers). There were seven Maserati brothers (born to Rodolfo Maserati and
Carolina Losi), Carlo b 1881; Bindo b 1883; Alfieri b 1885 (who died in infancy
and his name was given to the next son) Alfieri b 1887; Mario b 1890; Ettore b
1894 and Ernesto b 1898.
So to this week. I mentioned the third race car to go into the harbour at
Monaco, which was staged for the movie Grand Prix. What was the movie race
driver’s name who played the part, and what was the car?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct answer to email
automania@chiangmai-mail.com
Good luck!
Luxury Lexus Hybrid hits the general market
Lexus GS
450h
The Lexus GS450h – “h” for hybrid – is the
company’s first performance hybrid. It is also the first among the luxury
marques to deliver an economical, yet enormously powerful luxury sedan, and that
perhaps is the real measure of the inroads Lexus has made. It started out
following the pack, now Lexus leads it, and with oil certain to touch $100 a
barrel by the end of this year, Lexus is providing the well-heeled set
justification for their expensive choice. Not only that, but in some markets,
the hybrid GS 450h is being priced under the GS 430, which shares body and
mechanicals, other than the power train.
The GS450h has a 3.5 liter quad-cam VVT-i V6, plus two highly efficient
water-cooled variable voltage electric motors mounted within the
sequential-shift CVT transmission.
For the techno folk, the V6 and the first electric motor (MG1) are linked by a
planetary gear set that splits the petrol engine power to propel the vehicle and
drive MG1 to create electricity. MG1 also fulfils the role as starter motor for
the V6. The second electric motor (MG2) provides motive power and power to act
as a generator for the regenerative braking system. It sounds complex but the
whole operation apparently works seamlessly.
The GS450h has both power and performance, with the combined electric and petrol
engines developing 254kW. This is 22 per cent more combined power than the 208kW
V8 GS430. Notwithstanding the impressive power output numbers, the hybrid also
manages to deliver 275Nm of instantaneous torque from the electric motor.
The
GS hybrid has been designed to deliver the performance of a V8 with the economy
of a six cylinder, and with a zero to 100 kph time of under six seconds, this
hybrid is certainly no slouch. The powerful electric motor delivering high
levels of torque during mid-acceleration, for impressively quick overtaking
manoeuvres. The combined output of both the V6 and hybrid system is 254kW with
the MG2 itself developing 147kW/275Nm from standstill.
With the hybrid in tandem, the GS450h delivers instantaneous torque right across
the rev range. Apart from fuel economy gains, the hybrid technology ensures that
the GS450h has one of the industry’s lowest emissions ratings.
The hybrid has all the active and passive safety features of the rest of the GS
range with 10 airbags, variable gear ratio steering, adaptive variable
suspension, pre-collision system, active radar cruise control, traction control
and vehicle stability control, vehicle swerve control, brake assist and vehicle
dynamics integrated management.
Like other Lexus vehicles, the standard equipment list is long and detailed,
running to climate-control, parking sensors, rain-sensing windscreen wipers,
Bluetooth compatibility, 14-speaker Mark Levinson CD stereo, sunroof, power
boot, climate-controlled front seats and navigation system.
On the inside there is little to distinguish the hybrid except for the visual
power/economy readout and a kiloWatt power meter to marked to 275kW, which
replaces the traditional tachometer.
Apart from the car’s high-tech and luxury attributes, the Lexus also delivers
fuel economy of 7.9L/100km, giving it a 32 percent greater fuel range than the
GS430 and 13.5 per cent greater range than the GS300.
A little Monaco history
Since 1929, the Monaco GP has always run through the streets
of Monte Carlo. It is a slow circuit, demanding on both car and driver. The
presence of kerbs and walls leaves little room for even small mistakes.
One of the men behind the original race was Louis Chiron, who last drove at
Monaco in 1955, when he was placed sixth and, at 55 years and 276 days, was the
oldest driver to start a World Championship Grand Prix (so there’s hope for me
yet)! Chiron continued as Clerk of the Course up to his death in 1979.
There have been small changes to the circuit over the years, but it has retained
its essence and frequently provides some of the more spectacular crashes in the
calendar. Two drivers have managed to finish up in the Monte Carlo harbour.
Alberto Ascari in 1955 and Paul Hawkins in 1965 - in neither case was the driver
badly hurt. There was a third excursion in the harbour, in the classic movie,
Grand Prix, but that was staged for the movie.
