FLEETDRIVE
SPEED SLOWDOWN ELECTRIC EGYPT SUV SURGE
Speed, fuel efficiency and safety are
difficult to reconcile but Volvo Cars is
working hard to rectify that by effectively
limiting the top speed of all new
production vehicles to 180kph. The
move has been implemented to improve
safety towards an eventual goal of zero
serious injuries and fatalities in traffic.
Apart from the speed cap, every Volvo
car will now also come with a Care
Key, which allows Volvo drivers to set
additional limitations on the car’s top
speed, for example before lending
their car to other family members or to
younger and inexperienced drivers.
“The problem with speeding is that
above certain speeds, in-car safety
technology and smart infrastructure
design are no longer enough to avoid
severe injuries and fatalities in the event
of an accident,” Volvo said.
Volvo Cars believes it has an obligation
to take action that can ultimately save
lives, even if this means losing potential
customers.
The Egyptian government is
implementing an ambitious £447.3 billion
($27.6 billion) investment plan to carry
out at least 691 green projects for the
upcoming 2020/2021 financial year. The
investment primarily affects the transport
and energy sector.
The funds allocated by the Egyptian
government will be used, among
other things, to implement an electric
train project that will link the new
administrative capital (NAC) to other
cities in the country.
The railway line will be 67 km long with
11 stations. The first phase of the project
was due to start at the end of 2019 with
work being carried out by the China Civil
Engineering Construction Corporation
(CCECC).
The future rolling stock will be able to
carry 340,000 passengers a day. Once
completed, the project is expected to
save the government 2.3 billion Egyptian
pounds (about $130 million) in fuel
subsidies related to car traffic per year.
It will also reduce traffic on the highway
linking the capital to the port city of
Ismailia, north-east of Cairo, by 30%.
Sport utility vehicles and utes are
dominating US auto sales like never
before as carmakers start to recover
from the biggest shock to their
industry in decades.
Recovering pickup and SUV demand
helped the annualised rate of sales
rebound to 12.2 million in May
from 8.6 million in April, according
to researcher Wards Intelligence.
The earlier reading was the lowest
seasonally adjusted figure for data
going back to 1976.
The “light-truck” share of US sales,
which include SUVs, rose to a record
77.2% as passenger cars fell even
farther out of favour. With Hertz
Global Holdings Inc. having filed for
bankruptcy and its peers cancelling
vehicle orders, automakers are unable
to support their struggling sedan
models with deliveries to rental fleets.
“The clear positive is that US autos
have passed the worst,” said Dan
Levy, an auto analyst at Credit Suisse.
“Supply has started to get tight
and will likely get tighter in June –
especially in large pickups.”
ISSUE 23 2020 / WWW.AFMA.ORG.AU
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