Articles by Karla Pincott

The Proton-owned company aims to target the luxury small vehicle market with the City Car priced to battle the status and price of the Aston Martin Cygnet, and has followed that up by unveiling a World Vehicle Concept. Lotus recently announced its City Car would go on sale in the UK priced at around £2000 cheaper than the Cygnet – so somewhere under the equivalent of $45,000. And it says the World Vehicle Concept.would cost less than $10,000 if it ever came to market. It will also follow Aston’s rebadging example (the Cygnet is a Toyota iQ under the skin), with the City Car going on sale first as a Proton and later as a Lotus. It will be based loosely on the Ethos Concept seen at Paris motor show with an electric motor coupled to a 1.3-litre three-cylinder Lotus engine that will serve as a range extender – recharging the lithium-ion battery bank but never directly providing drive to the wheels. While the City Car is slated for sale in 2014, the World Vehicle Concept is for the moment just a computer-generated illustration of how Lotus imagines a high-volume, low-cost set of wheels. A report in Automotive Engineering International cited Lotus Engineering North America CEO Darren Somerset as saying the concept could be an answer to the wave of vehicles expected to come from China and possibly India. "You can see the proliferation of Chinese OEMs and Indian OEMs right now, so we believe there's going to be a big influx of very-low-cost cars into the US and into the European markets,” Somerset says in the AEI interview. “For all traditional OEMs, the way to offset the volumes that they'll lose will be to find very unique and clever ways of using technology to produce vehicles that are low cost in their own right.  “This concept represents a fun-to-drive, low-cost, back-to-basics commuter car that provides a practical, high-volume solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving fuel efficiency," said Somerset. The ultra-compact is packaged as a four-seater, but in a 1+2+1 configuration over three rows, with the rear wheels powered by a mid-mounted 37kW two-cylinder shaft-driven engine -- rather than a hybrid or electric. "If you have a carryover vehicle and you're trying to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions, a hybrid-electric application can do that. But it will also push the price of the vehicle up. What we're saying is for a ground-up product, start with the basic physics of engineering. And then optimize each area of the car that ultimately influences fuel efficiency and emissions," Somerset says. He indicated that if put into production, the car would aim to be competitive against Chinese and Indian vehicles, and likely have a price under $10,000.

In fact, if the car doesn't recognise your bum, you won't be able to drive it at all - let alone steal it. New anti-theft technology developed in Japan relies on biometric recognition of your derriere.The driver's seat squab is embedded with sensors that measure pressure and distribution, creating a 3D plot of your rear end. If the driver's seat doesn't recognise that part of your anatomy, the car won't start.The system has been developed by Engineers from the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo.Reports say it was able to recognise and give the 'permission to drive' nod 98 per cent of the time to six different drivers' arses, but didn't say if the seat could tell them from elbows.

A car that flies and climbs skyscraper walls. And it can drive too. It’s the winner of an annual design contest that has been trying to find Hollywood’s Next Hottest Movie Car. Car companies around the world competed in the Design Challenge as part of the recent LA Auto Show, and micro-car maker Smart took the gong with 341 Parkour urban vehicle -- a car designed for a hypothetical movie the Daimler-owned company called Annie Gets the Grannies. We can only ponder at the vision behind that, but it promises to have the potential for plenty of action as the vehicle features driving, flying, and climbing modes, using vacuum cups and retractable wheels to scale walls and take flight. This year’s winning Smart vehicle followed their granny thread of last year, with the 2010 car they proposed would be knitted from carbon fibre by robot grannies – which sounds like a horror movie – so that “the knitting can create complex shapes and forms, enabling the geometry to be optimized in strength and weight”. But there was some strong rivalry for first prize, from the design studios of American, European and Japanese car makers.  Honda designers imagined a dystopian future High Noon where scientists create a vehicle based on the remaining DNA of a legendary creature once known as a horse. This is evolved into a vehicle called the IH, which “uses the efficient, lightweight, strong, and functional characteristics of bones for its inspiration. The IH vehicle combines both the character and simplicity of a horse with the latest structural, safety and technological innovation”. Hyundai followed the current vampire fad, with two vehicles designed for the Countess of Siberia -- born in Moscow in 1829 of vampire parents, and with superhuman senses. The Countess Elena is fitted out by Hyundai to help in her war against communism around the globe: the Hyundai Stratus Sprinter multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) and the DB Atlant Airship that serves as her home base and MPV carrier. “The MPV can travel any road due to its high ground clearance and has light combat capabilities. The Airship stays afloat and hidden high in the sky to avoid detection. Both vehicles have a magical stealth force that renders them invisible during daylight, only to reappear after dark”. Maybach reinvented Cinderalla as a “Berline Carriage Engineer who spends all her days working at her father's workshop, while her wicked stepmother and stepsister party. “On the night of her birthday, Cindy's father surprises her with a beautiful dress and allows her to take a new Maybach prototype out on the town -- a reinterpretation of the historic Berline Carriage. The Carriage is teleoperated via a satellite link to a Maybach Virtual Chauffeur Centre. This leaves maximum interior space for the passengers and also allows maximum privacy. A large glass screen with 3D laser projection is suspended from the ceiling and can display the Virtual Chauffeur or a variety of media and entertainment.” Mercedes-Benz’s Silver Arrow racecar was the central player in a proposed movie where two enlightened crash test mannequins, Hans05 and Franz02, battle against the evil Dr. Crash-Barrier’s reign of terror and mayhem. The two heroes take action to save their beloved Silver Arrow  -- a long-slung, sculpture on hooped wheels, with body lines that recall  Formula 1 cars and a diagonally configured, hub-less roller track for 'Omni-Directional' driving. Subaru looked far into the future -- 200 years after the rotation of the Earth has stopped, and the planet split into two, distinctly different hemispheres, the Daysphere and the Nightsphere. Humans have been living in a highly developed civilization in the Nightsphere, away from the sun's harmful electromagnetic waves. They have electricity sourced from an innovative energy plant but the fuel, a rare crystallized mineral, is running out. A team sets out to find it in the Daysphere -- a place from which no human has ever come back alive – travelling in the Ultra Subaru HORIZON designed to withstand the strong electromagnetic field, chemical imbalances, scorching heat, and raging storms of the Daysphere. The Design Challenge has been running for eight years, with the annual theme set by a board of design studio execs and the world’s top car design studios invited to take part. The panel includes Pixar Animation Studio art director Jay Shuster, Academy of Art University director of industrial designTom Matano, and Detroit College for Creative Studies chair of transport design Mark West.  

Based on the crossover Ray launched there a few weeks ago, the front-drive Kia Ray EV is powered by a 50kW/147Nm electric motor that draws from a 16.4kWh 330-volt lithium-ion polymer battery pack. Kia says a single charge will take just 25 minutes in fast-charging mode, and six hours from a standard domestic power supply, with a full charge giving the car a range of up to 139km. It has a claimed top speed of 130km/h and a 0-100km/h acceleration of 15.9 seconds. Extra charging energy is captured by a regenerative braking system – which also uses the electric motor to create hydraulic braking pressure and ‘moderates’ brake force to make sure it is uniform in all situations. A special satnav system can also guide the driver to the closest of one of Korea’s 500 charging stations – a number expected to increase to more than 3000 within the next year. To overcome the ‘silent killer’ risk of pedestrians not hearing the quiet electric car, Kia has given the Ray EV a Virtual Engine Sound System (VESS) that broadcasts recorded engine noises at speeds below 20 km/h or when reversing. When the car hits higher speeds, the sound of the tyres is deemed to be enough warning that the vehicle is on the way. However, like most other electric cars, the Ray EV will not be starting its public life by going on sale to the public – instead it is being rolled out in a lease program for government departments and Korea’s public service.

Just drive in and park – and you’ve got charge. Or slot into a special carpark on the street and do the same thing.Similar to the inductive charging plates you can get for mobile phones – and the inductive technology used by your electric toothbrush as well – cordless charging is probing into the car world.A trial project has been started in Berlin, with German carmakers Audi, BMW, Daimler, Opel and VW lining up to give their electric vehicles a shot. The real-world trial is being backed by the German government, and will start in March 2012 with a family of four living in an induction-equipped house.Over the 15 months they’re in residence, they’ll get to drive cars from the German brands, with the first car onto the rank being a Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-CELL modified with a special charging coil that allows an induction charging option.The A-Class E-CELL will be parked over a charging coil in the carport floor, automatically activating charging via an electromagnetic field. The A-Class will still be able to be charged via the house’s domestic power outlet and public charging stations.Lining up behind the A-Claass – and from the same Daimler stable - are a Smart Fortwo and a Smart ebike electric bicycle, all of which will be evaluated to see how well the technology fits into everyday family life. At least, if you’re an everyday family living in a one-off science lab project.

Every year, the US department store’s Christmas catalogue features a special car among its range of fantasy gifts for the obscenely overindulged – and similarly wealthy.This year it was a Ferrari FF priced at the equivalent of $390,000, or $90k higher than the standard one (although don’t expect to see it here at that price, given our import duties and LCT which are likely to push it to twice that price). The NM Fezza comes in a special ‘Grigio Caldo’dark grey colour, and includes matching custom luggage, seven years of maintenance and a snow driving experience in Aspen. Only 10 of the cars were available, and they were all snapped up in less than an hour.Pretty quick but nowhere near the three minutes that disposed of last year’s Chevrolet Camaro catalogue car.The Neiman Marcus fantasy gift section also features an annual watercraft, and this year’s is a handbuilt 27-ft Hacker speedboat for $250,000 – or a bit under $10,000/ft.Buyers can feel a warm glow knowing that $3000 from each sale will go to the Double H Ranch charity – cofounded by Paul Newman – for children affected by life-threatening illnesses. Also on the ‘gift with a social conscience’ list is the WET dancing fountain, which for a mere $1,000,000 will deliver “a personal scale fountain showcasing two of its amazing underwater robotic nozzles dancing as a couple”. Personally, we’d prefer to drink ourselves cross-eyed and just stare at the kitchen tap – which should be dancing pretty well by about the first $100 worth.  However that would deny Water.org the $10,000 Neiman Marcus will donate from each fountain towards providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries.Most of whom could probably find a better use for the million than blowing it on a stage-struck garden feature. At the $420,000 level you can opt to tour the flower shows of Europe, dragging along nine friends – presuming that floral nerds have that many.Or any. From that price, $5000 goes to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for the preservation of stuff that would be considered weeds here.  And for what seems like a much more down-to-earth $75,000 you can get into a tent full of garage sale crap.Admittedly, the catalogue’s flowery language  describes it as a canvas ‘Dream Folly’ filled with “pièces de résistance: one-of-a-kind, down-filled pillows, linen wall coverings and a custom, handcrafted crystal chandelier”.  Gold Coast caravan park, then.

It’s not her first appearance for the calendar, and it’s probably not her first shoot with this year’s photographer – her ex-boyfriend Mario Sorrenti.The calendar session took place over a week in Murtoli, Corsica (with Moss’s new husband Jamie Hince there the whole time) and has resulted in a series of sun-soaked images.Twenty thousand copies of the calendar were made – and only about 200 come to Australia – but none are for sale. They are all given to a secret list of VIPs as gifts. But of course one calendar is already listed on eBay for about $1000.Moss is joined on the calendar pages by another Sorrenti ex-girlfriend, actress and former supermodel Milla Jovovich -- who has also starred in the latest luscious Campari calendar.“He’s pretty much the only photographer I would take my clothes off for,” Jovovich says in the behind-the-scenes video.Last year’s calendar was photographed by legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, the maestro of Chanel.  From his Paris studio, Lagerfeld has created a tribute to ancient Greek and Roman mythology, with 36 monochrome photos. Other famous photographers who have shot the Pirelli Calendar in the part are Annie Leibovitz and Richard Avedon.The 2012 calendar has 25 pictures, in both colour and black-and-white, and the costly printing and packaging includes canvas linings and matt- black backgrounds. Unlike the majority of calendars, individual pictures are not matched to a month, so owners will be able to pick and mix their favourite images as the new year passes.Pirelli unveiled the 2012 calendar at a black-tie gala in New York on Tuesday night, with Sorrenti and the calendar models in attendance -- but gowned. 

That world has now stretched into a more hopeful vision, including uni study and better employment prospects for the 18-year-old, and more contact with other kids for her girls. The game-changer was adriving instruction program run by the Salvation Army's Oasis Youth Support Network in inner Sydney's Surry Hills, which has helped more than 50 disadvantaged young people like Amy get a licence. And after the donation of three new vehicles from Skoda through Carsguide.com.au, the Drive for Life program is set to reach even more youth. Amy is able to attest to what it will mean for them. "I did the Driving for Employment program and it has made a huge difference. It's opened up a lot of opportunities for me and for the girls too," she says. "With two young girls it was very difficult to get around without a licence. And not having any family to teach me how to drive - or enough money to have driving lessons - made it impossible to get one.  "Everything was hard to do: grocery shopping, taking the girls to the doctor, doing anything at all if it was raining. Now we can do all that -- we go to play centres and family events, and I've just started studying psychology at uni - so it has started my career, hopefully." Head of Skoda Australia, Matthew Wiesner, said while many of us take a driver's licence for granted, it had become harder for disadvantaged young people to get one. "With today's mandatory 100-plus hours of driving training - which are important to make sure that young drivers are safe drivers -- it's very difficult for those who don't have a family support structure," Wiesner said. "So this program is a fantastic opportunity for them, and Skoda's partnership with the program is a way for us to put something back into the community." Director of the Oasis Youth Support Network, Major Robbin Moulds AM said the donation of the three Yetis was more than they had ever hoped for.  "We had asked about the possibility of a single car - even a used one. And now we have not one, but three, brand new ones." Major Moulds said the Yetis would be in strong demand, and would help the program expand.  "Currently we have 75 young people at Oasis on a waiting list wanting to learn how to drive," she said. "But we can now also extend the program out to western Sydney and into Queensland." In addition to the three vehicles, the partnership with Skoda and Carsguide.com.au will include a volunteer program and promotion of the benefits in the community.

Last drinks have been called for the thirsty six- and eight-cylinder engines in the Swedish carmaker's line-up.Volvo says its future lies in more efficient four-, three- and even two-cylinder units, with power levels raised by technology such asturbocharging, supercharging and the addition of electric motors. Global CEO Stefan Jacoby says the smaller, smarter engines are the only sensible way to go. "This is a logical step you only engineer logically for four cylinders," he says. "We can with a modern top-of-the-class engine technology get the same performance as a high-performance six-cylinder engine." "The technology available brings you the same fun to drive as with the classical six or eight cylinders," he says. "The time of (six and eight) cylinders are over.It goes into the direction of four cylinders three cylinders or even two cylinders which are powered by turbochargers and twin-chargers and compressors and all these things." The four-cylinder wave will come in with the arrival of a modular platform strategy, called Scalable Platform Architecture, which can be adapted for vehicles across the entire range. Some aspects of the SPA platform will be seen in the extended C30 architecture used for the new V40 that will arrive next year to start edging out the S40 and V50, but the first vehicle to be fully based on the new development will be the 2014 replacement for the aging XC90 SUV.

The Wankel rotary is turning full circle.