Chinese GP this weekend
Shanghai.
The Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai this
weekend, and also in Pattaya the start of the Songkran
festival. Monday 19 is the culmination of the collective
madness called Songkran, during which people drink to
excess, ride motorcycles and fall off when hit by buckets of
iced dirty water, and are killed. This national sport kills
around 600 participants each year.
So what has that got to do with the
Chinese GP? Everything. The ‘festivities’ are such that
traffic can come to a halt on the main day, but remember
Sunday is not the main day – that is Monday 19, called “Wan
lai”.
On Sunday 18, some businesses close their
doors, however, Jameson’s Irish Pub, is not one of those on
this Sunday with Landlord Kim Fletcher advising me that they
will be open. He also advises that the best way to approach
the pub is from Sukhumvit or North Roads, wriggle past the
Diana Gardens Estate, cross Third Road and come into Soi AR
that way. If it doesn’t work, Kim Fletcher will be singing
boy soprano.
The race will start at 2 p.m. Thai time
on Sunday, but as always, check your own TV feed, as I would
not like to be held responsible for you missing the start! I
will allow myself a little longer travelling time, just in
case, but the Grand Prix and the carvery together is too
good to miss. Jameson’s is right next to Nova Park, if you
are unsure.
Which
manufacturer sold the most at the 2010 Motor Show?
Well, if you said Toyota, you are
correct, with almost 25 percent of the total 27,878 vehicles
being a Toyota. 6,943 Toyota’s in fact, so the recalls and
otherwise bad press did not deter the Thai sales at all. And
second? If you said Nissan you were right again. The sales
figures for Nissan being 3,675. Undoubtedly the release of
the Nissan March, Thailand’s first eco-car, helped vault
Nissan up the sales charts.
Mazda2 Special.
Third and fourth were interesting, with
Isuzu (3,500) and Mazda (3,234) very close behind Nissan.
The new Mazda2 sedan would have helped Mazda’s sales.
So where was Honda? The other Japanese
giant was only 5th with 2,866 out the
door, but since they really had nothing new, this was not
surprising.
Running further down the list was
Mitsubishi with 1,404 sold, followed by Mercedes-Benz at
1,186, so the economic woes can’t be too bad in the upper
echelons. The report did not say how many AMG SLS Gull-wings
were ordered, however. I just hope someone bought one for
me!
BMW in a cocktail dress.
Further down was the Malaysian Proton at
814, showing that they have certainly got the foot well and
truly in the door in Thailand. BMW was next at 799, which is
almost 400 shy of rivals Mercedes-Benz. This must be a
continuing worry for BeeEmm, but this is still a company
that thinks all it has to do is line up their models, with
ladies in cocktail frocks and the public will knock them
over to buy.
Time for some imagination, BMW, the
display looked exactly the same as 2009, 2008, 2007…..
Down the bottom of the list were Gem cars
(electric golf buggies by another name) who sold nothing,
Lotus (three sold), the nauseating Mitsuoka who found seven
people with no taste and then Mini, Lexus, Peugeot and
Subaru in double figures only.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked which driver has won
the German GP six times? The answer was not one of the
present day overpaid auto-jockeys, but Rudolf Caracciola in
the Mercedes-Benz at the old, and feared, Nurburgring
circuit. Regular contestant Ivar Hoylem was first in and
correct.
So to this week. The US GP of a few years
back started with six cars only and was a farce. However the
24 Hours of Le Mans started one year with only 17 cars. What
year was that?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email [email protected].
Good luck!
Domestic
electrics just around the corner
Mitsubishi are well on the way to
offering one of the first ‘all electric’ small cars on city
streets. Whilst still not slotted for release in Thailand,
it is going to be available in Australian showrooms later
this year.
Small cars generally come with small
engines, but the i-MiEV replaces the mid-mounted petrol
engine found in the Japan-only Mitsubishi ‘i’ upon which
it’s based with a 47 kW/180 Nm electric motor that drives
the rear wheels and is powered by a 16 kWh lithium-ion
battery pack under the rear seat and boot floor.
Mitsubishi i-MiEV
Those who have driven production models
of the i-MiEV noted that in the 1080kg i-car, the result is
instant throttle response and brisk acceleration from just
about any speed, making the i-MiEV more satisfying – at
least in a straight line – to drive than most other small
cars.
In ‘Brake’ mode , delivers both maximum
performance and maximum ‘engine’ braking with enough
retardation to make braking unnecessary if you read the
traffic right, while also maximizing energy regeneration.
It has an electronically limited top
speed of 130 km/h (Mitsubishi says it would otherwise do 160
km/h), and Mitsubishi’s all-electric pioneer is also
suitable for short freeway runs.
Go Auto in Australia drove a production
i-MiEV exclusively within the city of Brisbane , and
reported that unlike nearly anything else on the road, the
i-MiEV makes only wind and tyre noise, and a seamless wall
of readily accessible torque from any speed in almost
complete silence.
Truth be told, the i-MiEV’s eerie silence
went barely unnoticed within the bustle of even Brisbane’s
city streets, where streams of noisy traffic reduced the
ground-breaking Japanese hatch to being just another small
car on its way to somewhere else.
Coupled to solar panels at home, however,
there’s no reason i-MiEV owners can’t be fully
self-sufficient in terms of their automotive energy
consumption by using power free from the sun.
Unlike their Japanese counterparts,
individual Australian i-MiEV owners will not have a
fast-charge option, which can deliver an 80 percent charge
in 30 minutes by connecting a different cable between a
200-volt or three-phase power outlet and an inlet port in
the left-rear of the car – rather than the right side for
regular charging.
However, Mitsubishi says none of this is
a problem because fast-charge stations are expected to
eventually be installed at many office, residential and
shopping locations, and a full range of up to 160 km should
easily accommodate most city dwellers on any given day. Like
mobile phones, Mitsubishi expects EVs will most likely be
charged overnight. The trickle-charge rate is expected to be
just seven hours.
While a digital battery charge meter
takes the place of a traditional fuel gauge and a large
central power consumption gauge replaces a speedometer, the
i-MiEV features keyless ‘starting’ like many other models
these days. Simply turn the dummy key on the steering column
and the ‘ready’ light illuminates on the instrument panel to
advise the car is ready to drive – just like the Toyota
Prius.
The i-MiEV complies with the Japanese kei-car
regulations, including a total length of less than 3400 mm
and width of 1600 mm. That makes the i-MiEV almost as small
as a Smart, and smaller than top-selling B-segment cars like
Toyota Yaris, the Mazda2, Hyundai Getz and Ford Fiesta.
Naturally, space is therefore limited in
the i-MiEV, which appears even smaller in the metal than
you’d expect but compensates somewhat for its tight elbow
room, upright seats and cramped rear legroom with a tall
roof that gives decent headroom.
There’s no getting away from the i-car’s
utilitarian roots as an affordable Japanese runabout,
however. Hard plastic surfaces abound in the funky but
functional interior and the hard seats offer limited
adjustment up front, even if there is a modicum of luggage
space behind the rear seats.
Like any car with a wheelbase this short
and wheel tracks this narrow, fore-aft pitching is brutally
apparent over pavement joints you’d never notice in a larger
vehicle.
The i-MiEV’s steering is best described
as wooden and, despite a refreshingly firm suspension set-up
that returns minimal bodyroll, the tall seating position and
high perceived centre of gravity do not inspire the
confidence to test its cornering grip.
Looking at the i-MiEV as a proposed city
car, the projected initial price of up to $70,000 puts it in
the same bracket a BMW 320d, and is therefore likely only to
attract well-heeled early-adopters that want to broadcast
their environmental conscientiousness.
Since the (high) cost of electric
vehicles is inextricably linked with the price of batteries,
which in turn is dictated primarily by production volumes,
the price of the i-MiEV and a host of other imminent new EVs
will eventually come down.
In the same way prices of plasma-screen
TVs have plunged in just a few years, Mitsubishi expects the
i-MiEV to cost less than a Prius by the time it’s widely
available.
Mitsubishi says that although it also
shares its basic architecture with the petrol-powered i-car,
the i-MiEV is the product of a 10 year development program
and is built in the factory from the ground up as an
electric vehicle, rather than being created in an
aftermarket conversion.
With an influx of other EVs from Japan
and China – and the plug-in Volt hybrid from GM, the
i-MiEV’s success could well hinge on how soon it hits local
showrooms. Mitsubishi is betting against global demand to
make that happen sooner or later, and hopes the i-MiEV will
become to EV what the Prius is to hybrid.
Of course, the i-MiEV is far from perfect
and will never replace petrol or diesel power as a means of
long-distance travel, let alone for traversing vast, rugged
continents like Australia.
However, given the refreshingly crisp
performance on offer in a vehicle that is bound by Japanese
kei-car regulations, which include limits on vehicle size
and power, the i-MiEV is a tantalizing taste of larger, more
powerful and eminently more versatile EVs to come.
