auto alert
This car is to be built in Japan, so the
“Italy only” philosophy will effectively
prevent it from carrying the Alfa
nameplate.
An important step in the reinvention of
Alfa Romeo will be the reintroduction
of the marque to the North American
market, from whence it departed in 1995.
If that action is successful, it can make
a substantial contribution to the desired
expansion of global volumes to the
300 000 level, the target that has been
mentioned in FCA’s published objectives.
An early element of this strategy was the
American launch of the new Alfa Romeo
4C - a small, lightweight, mid-engined,
rear wheel drive, two-seater Coupé.
The car was revealed as a concept at the
81st Geneva Motor Show in 2011, and
the production version was launched
to the European market at the 83rd
Geneva Motor Show in 2013. It was
introduced to the American market at
the Los Angeles Motor Show at the end
of November 2013. The 4C is intended
to act as a “halo car” for the rejuvenated
Alfa Romeo brand in America, and will
reportedly be sold, from mid-2014,
through Maserati and some selected
Fiat dealerships. Global production has
been set at 2 500 units per annum, and
around 1 000 of these are expected to
be sold in America.
PSA Teams with Dongfeng
Back in the December/January issue,
we wrote about the possibility that PSA
Peugeot-Citroen, Europe’s secondlargest carmaker, would enter a
partnership with state-owned Chinese
automaker Dongfeng Motor Corporation,
in an attempt to counter the prevailing
depressed conditions in the European
vehicle market. The proposal was that
Dongfeng would purchase a € 1,5 billion
stake in the French company, while
the French government would make
a matching € 1,5 billion investment.
Subsequently, on Wednesday, March
26th, a framework deal was signed, in
terms of which Peugeot and Dongfeng
will extend their existing Chinese joint
venture, co-develop new vehicles,
ramp up production, and increase
Asian exports. It is also expected that
Peugeot will need to urgently address
some current business issues in its Latin
American and Russian operations.
While the immediate objective of this
association, from a Peugeot viewpoint,
will be to expand global sales volumes
and restore profitability, Dongfeng will
undoubtedly be looking towards future
collaboration in the technology and
marketing arenas. Chinese manufacturers,
up until now, have made very little
progress in penetrating markets in Europe
and North America, and much of this can
be ascribed to lack of brand awareness.
Chinese branding, in many instances,
remains a mystery in those markets, and
this alliance will have the potential to bring
cost-effective Chinese manufacturing to
more sophisticated markets, in products
carrying well-recognised and respected
nameplates. The recent example, where
Indian-built Toyotas, Fords, Suzukis and
Hondas are exported in large quantities,
may be a blueprint for wider global
acceptance of Chinese manufactured
vehicles.
Fuel Cells are Coming –
but at a Price
The prospect of vehicles that do not
depend on increasingly expensive
and environmentally polluting fossil
fuels has been occupying the minds of
governments, scientists, engineers and
ordinary people for more than a decade.
Some interim developments, such as
hybrids and all-electric vehicles, have
provided encouragement, and also
important enabling technology, to this
theme, but most of the solutions currently
available to the commercial market remain
tied to fossil fuel consumption at some
point in their modus operandi. This may
take the form of large-scale national grid
electricity generation, or just an on-board
internal combustion engine that is called
into play when the batteries run out.
The holy grail of alternative propulsion
appears to lie with hydrogen fuel cells.
What, exactly, then, is a fuel cell?
According to the Smithsonian Institute, it
is “a device that generates electricity by a
chemical reaction. Every fuel cell has two
electrodes, one positive and one negative,
called, respectively, the anode and the
cathode. The reactions that produce
electricity take place at the electrodes.
Every fuel cell also has an electrolyte,
which carries electrically charged particles
from one electrode to the other, and a
catalyst, which speeds the reactions at
the electrodes.
| words in action
51
may 2014
Hydrogen is the basic fuel, but fuel cells
also require oxygen. One great appeal of
fuel cells is that they generate electricity
with very little pollution – much of the
hydrogen and oxygen used in generating
electricity ultimately combine to form
water.” In automotive applications, the
fuel cell delivers electrical power to
electric motors that power the driveline, or
individual wheels. The biggest obstacles
to commercial usage, up to now, have
been the need to develop a safe means
to store the volatile liquid hydrogen fuel
on board the vehicle, and the provision
of an adequate network of supply points
where motorists can fill up. Another point
worth mentioning is the true cost of this
technology. There is even suspicion that
the current generation of hybrids and
all-electric vehicles are heavily crosssubsidised by their manufacturers to make
them affordable.
The truth in this matter lies somewhere in
the bowels of corporate accounting, and
we probably won’t see the real picture
emerge until these alternative technologies
become much more widely used.
Notwithstanding, news has now broken
that Honda and Toyota will start to market
series production fuel cell vehicles in 2015,
both at a rate rising to 1 000 units per
annum. Up to now, small numbers of these
vehicles have been leased to selected
private and public sector fleets, but the
units on outright sale are expected to cost
in the region of $US 100 000 per copy.
Honda’s fuel cell vehicle will be a fivepassenger sedan, equipped with a carbon
fibre hydrogen tank, which should be
available from November, 2015. Maximum
range between refuels is expected to be
500 km, and these Saitama-built units will
be offered for sale in Japan, the US and
Europe. Toyota’s Aichi-built sedan will
also be sold in the same regions during
2015. The po vW"