Holden targets the Chinese market

Chinese Australians targeted with a 'pilot ethnic marketing' program
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Football, meat pies, kangaroos and yum cha. Holden has embarked on a bold marketing campaign that targets Chinese-born Australians -- offering them an exclusive $550 discount if they buy a car during Chinese New Year celebrations.

But it is not deemed discriminatory against other nationalities because anyone can take part in the offer -- even though the advertisements are only written in Chinese and it is a bigger discount than those offered to other community groups.

"You don't have to be Chinese to take up that offer," the sales and marketing director of Holden, John Elsworth, told the Carsales Network.

"It doesn't preclude [non-Chinese speakers]."

When it was pointed out that the ads were only written in Chinese, he said: "Well, you can learn Chinese."

Holden had stalls at three local events in Sydney that celebrated the Chinese New Year over the past fortnight -- at Hurstville, Burwood and Chatswood.

"It doesn't matter whether you speak Chinese, English or whatever, the promotional staff there was bilingual," he said. "One of the benefits of attending that event was a $550 rebate if you bought a new car."

He said Holden was under-represented among Chinese buyers because they were not familiar with the brand.

"There's obviously a variety of different cultural communities in Australia and one of those areas that we at Holden are under-represented is in Chinese-speaking communities," he said.

"It tends to be because there are a lot of first-generation Chinese communities in Australia and they don't, as a new immigrant, understand local brands.

"Holden is not a global brand. When they immigrate to Australia they have a better awareness of global automotive brands such as Toyota, Mazda and Honda and they understandably have a bias towards those brands. We've got that against us and we need to start doing some stuff to address it.

"We've found [Chinese buyers] are open to all brands and if we can prove we've got the right cars at the right price and the right service, there's no reason we should not be on the shopping list."

Elsworth said Holden had no plans to target other ethnic groups.

"In terms of specifically targeting particular multicultural groups, we are at this stage sticking with the biggest community and the biggest opportunity and that's the Chinese. We are doing some test marketing and if it works, we'll roll it out nationally."

The sales chief said Holden would do community-based exercises, not mainstream advertising.

"This is not the first time we've done this, but we will do a lot more that's more planned and more structured," he said, adding that Holden has appointed an agency specifically for the task.

Elsworth said the Chinese promotion was no different to others offered to different community groups.

"We sometimes do a special promotion at motor shows," he said. "If you didn't attend the motor show, you don't get the discount."

Registered netball players across Australia get a discount because Holden sponsors the sport -- but they are shortchanged slightly. The netball discount is $500, not the $550 offered to Chinese communities.

"We are one of the sponsors of netball, and we sponsor the Australian team during international tests," he said.

"Offering the discount is a good way of tracking the value you're driving from sponsorships.

"The only way to really financially calculate whether it works or not is with a cashback -- because you can tally who has claimed the money," he said.

Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe

Ahead of its March motor show debut images of the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe have today been officially released
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These images show for the first time what many are calling Mercedes' most credible (BMW) 3 Series Coupe competitor yet.

The stylish two-door sporting many of the same charismatic lines and androgynous proportions that have seen the C-Class Sedan and C-Class Estate become such a strong sellers. Indeed the forward end of the car is identical to its four-door siblings with the bodywork aft of the windscreen completely reworked.

Set to make its international debut at next month's Geneva Motor Show the C-Class Coupe will share many of the same powertrain choices offered in Sedan including efficient CGI and CDI examples.

A hotter version is also on the cards with C-Class AMG Coupe to be powered by Merc's fire breathing 6.3-litre V8 developing 336kW/600Nm (by comparison, the current class champion M3 Coupe develops 309kW/400Nm). We anticipate the AMG-enhanced coupe will accelerate from 0-100km/h in than 4.5 seconds.

Visit the Carsales Network again for our coverage of the Geneva International Motor Show from March 1.

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UK project sets to work on large sedan EV platform

Partners in Britain's Low Carbon Vehicle Technology Project have begun work on addressing one of the major barriers to consumer acceptance of electric powertrains: the tininess of the cars

Electrifying small cars for short-haul use is easy. But if the auto industry wants to convince buyers of electric power's efficacy as a replacement for internal combustion, it has to come up with something bigger than a matchbox. To address what is one of the biggest barriers facing EV acceptance, partners in Britain's Low Carbon Vehicle Technology Project (LCVTP) have set to work on a large vehicle test-bed for hybrid and EV technologies.

With virtually all industry efforts to date focused on tiny city cars as the natural platform for all-electric technologies, the news represents an inevitable progression upwards with the likelihood that batteries and powertrains will grow in power and efficiency to accommodate larger vehicles.

All the inhibitors for the acceptance of city cars with electric power – real-world, day-to-day viability, cost and range anxiety – are magnified for the larger C-D segment. But once they're addressed, the advent of a larger vehicle platform will make electric power much more viable for most buyers.

Announced in February 2010, the multimillion-dollar LCVTP includes seven industry and research partners: Jaguar Land Rover and its Indian owner, Tata Motors; powertrain and motor sport engineering specialists Zytek, Ricardo and MIRA along with WMG , the commercial engineering and research arm shared by the University of Warwick and Coventry University.

Between them they're working down more than a dozen separate technical channels, each headed up by a partner overseeing groups of contractors and subcontractors. Along with the large vehicle platform, the project covers battery cells and power packs, drive motors, drive motors, power electronics and management systems, structural weight reduction and aerodynamic research, auxiliary power units, vehicle dynamics, HVAC and system cooling optimisation, energy storage, waste minimisation and ergonomics.

The large car platform will be based on Land Rover's Freelander 2. Development will take place in three phases. First comes the basic powertrain conversion from IC to battery electric (BEV), set for completion in Q2 2011. Next will come location awareness and adaptive route control systems, a substantial weight loss and aerodynamics overhaul, likely complete mid-year. From there, the powertrain architecture morphs into a range-extended hybrid version using a petrol engine feeding a generator on-board battery recharging.

The group expects this be complete late 2011. After tweakwork on HVAC and auxiliary systems, it will be ready for use early 2012.

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McLaren supercar sold out in Australia until mid 2012

Asia-Pacific boss says the wait is almost over -- for the early birds at least

The Ferrari-fighting McLaren supercar -- so quick it will also leave Lamborghinis languishing -- is sold out for at least 18 months in Australia before the first car games has arrived in showrooms.

This year's first batch of 15 cars is sold out completely and more than half of next year's allocation of 40 cars is already spoken for, even though the price has not yet been announced or any customer has taken the car for a test drive.

Customer deliveries in the UK and Europe are due to begin in May and the first dozen or so cars are due Down Under in October.

The Australian distributor, Sydney-based dealer group Trivett Classic, had already received up to a dozen orders within days of the announcement that the MP4-12C was coming to Australia -- and before anyone knew how much it would cost.

McLaren has since given an indicative price of about $500,000 in Australia -- more than a Lamborghini Gallardo and less than a Ferrari 458 Italia -- but the official RRP is due to be announced locally next month.

McLaren's regional director for the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific, Ian Gorsuch, was in Australia this week to visit the Trivett dealership and discuss local launch plans for the MP4-12C later in the year.

"We've been really pleased and overwhelmed with the Australian response to the car," Gorsuch told the Carsales Network. "We've really only announced the dealership and already we are sold out beyond mid 2012.

"Trivetts were quite robustly asking for more cars but unfortunately we don't have any cars to give them," he said.

McLaren plans to produce 1000 cars for the world market this year and ramp up to 4000 cars per annum by 2015 -- after exports to China begin in 2013.

But McLaren is not chasing volume, he says. "We actually want to produce less cars than there is demand," he said. "We're not trying to outsell the others."

Ferrari sold about 6500 cars last year while Lamborghini built fewer than about 2000 vehicles.

The McLaren MP4-12C is powered by a bespoke twin turbo 3.8-litre V8 and can sprint to 100km/h in 3.3 seconds on road tyres and in 3.1 seconds on high performance track tyres favoured by most supercar makers.

The 0 to 200km/h time is more impressive still. A Porsche 911 Turbo stops the clocks at 11 seconds and the Ferrari 458 Italia at 10.4 seconds -- but the McLaren does it in 9.1 seconds on road tyres and 8.9 seconds on high performance track tyres.

The MP4-12C will be built alongside McLaren's F1 racing facility in Woking, in Unit 12, the same factory where the Mercedes-Benz SLR and BMW-powered McLaren F1 three-seater road car were built.

In 1992 McLaren built what was then the world's fastest supercar, the McLaren F1. Powered by a 6.1-litre V12 made by BMW, it had a top speed of 386km/h. Just 106 were sold.

In 2004, McLaren developed the Mercedes-McLaren SLR supercar in a joint venture with the German car maker. Powered by a supercharged 5.4-litre V8 it had a top speed of 334km/h. Between 2005 and 2007, the company sold 1151 SLRs, well short of the 1500 target. But the total SLR tally eventually reached 2200 cars once the roadster version was added.

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Ferrari accused of 'hotting-up' press cars

McLaren, Porsche and Lamborghini won't comment on Ferrari's predicament, but say they are squeaky-clean

Italian sportscar maker Ferrari has so far refused to respond to accusations this week that it builds special hotted-up cars for media evaluation -- but in wake of the controversy, three of the biggest names in the supercar world have defended the integrity and performance of their vehicles.

UK-based freelance motoring writer Chris Harris, formerly of respected industry journal Autocar magazine, wrote a column that spilled the beans on a widely known industry secret.

In a lengthy comment piece entitled 'How Ferrari Spins', published by the oddball but widely-read US-based motoring website Jalopnik, Harris outlined numerous instances where Ferrari had supplied two cars for magazines to test -- one for straight-line performance and another for track use -- and how adjustments were made to vehicles between timed runs.

He also told of instances where customer cars were curiously slower than those supplied by Ferrari -- and that Ferrari regularly intervened when journalists attempted to borrow customer cars for road tests. The imputation was that Ferrari would not supply vehicles for comparison tests if there was a risk it would not be deemed the superior vehicle in the outcome of the story.

In part, Harris wrote: "The whole thing stinks. In any other industry it wouldn't be allowed to happen. It's dishonest, but all the mags take it between the cheeks because they're too scared of not being invited to drive the next new Ferrari."

It may sound like sour grapes but Harris, who is wealthy from several successful business exploits -- not motoring journalism -- is one of the few writers in his field to have owned more than a dozen supercars, including a number of Ferraris and Porsches and at least one Lamborghini.

Harris continued: "What Ferrari plainly cannot see is that its strategy to win every test at any cost is completely counter-productive. First, it completely undermines the amazing work of its own engineers. What does it say about a [Ferrari] 458 if the only way its maker is willing to loan it to a magazine is if a laptop can be plugged in after every journey and a dedicated team needs to spend several days at the chosen test track to set-up the car? It says they're completely nuts -- behaviour that looks even worse when rival brands just hand over their car with nothing more than a polite suggestion that you should avoid crashing it too heavily, and then return a week later."

The spokesman for Ferrari in Australia told the Carsales Network he was not permitted to comment on the story.

But other supercar brands, while not wanting to comment on the allegations leveled at Ferrari, have sought to clarify their press car policies in case they are tarred with the same brush.

The spokesman for Porsche in Australia, Paul Ellis, told the Carsales Network: "The cars we provide journalists and the cars we provide customers have identical performance. Cars we provide journalists are not fettled to provide superior performance over a car that we would supply to a customer.

"We are very conservative when it comes to quoting acceleration and performance figures and, in our experience journalists are easily able to match or beat the official performance claims we make -- without any supervision or assistance."

The Australian distributor of Lamborghini cars in Australia, Andrew Smith, told the Carsales Network: "I am 100 per cent confident in the performance and consistency of our vehicles. I'm happy for anyone to pick a car at random and test it. The cars we supply to the media are identical to cars off the showroom floor -- because they come off our showroom floor."

McLaren's regional director for the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific, Ian Gorsuch, in Australia this week, told the Carsales Network: "We have complete trust and confidence in our car and the journalists we invite to test drive it. We believe in total transparency and honesty. People who buy these cars are savvy people. The experience they feel must be equal to what they were expecting, based on media reports. They will not settle for anything less."

He said the McLaren MP4-12C had undergone 1 million kilometres of real world testing, from the heat of Death Valley, to the humidity and dust of the Middle East, to below-freezing conditions in the arctic.

The warts-and-all comment piece, in which Harris assumes he will never be invited to Maranello again, concludes almost apologetically: "[Ferrari's] cars are so good it doesn't need [to doctor them]".

In Australia, media test drives of Ferraris are few and far between -- and usually come with restrictions on their use, and/or a companion representing the company.

Although I have driven four Ferraris in the past five years, in my experience Lamborghini and Porsche are more willing to make vehicles available for unrestricted and extended evaluation (ie: more than one day).

However, Ferraris have at least been more readily available to Australian media in the past five years since distribution was taken over by European Automotive Imports, a division of Ateco, the company that also imports Citroen, Fiat and Alfa Romeo cars.

Prior to that, under the previous distributor, Ferrari test drives in Australia were almost non-existent and seasoned journalists with decades of experience could count the number of their encounters on one hand -- or indeed had none at all.

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Battery-powered Commodores

New consortium to roll-out Commodore-based electric vehicles in $26 million 'proof of concept' trial

Aussies love their large cars, but not the fuel bills. A new enterprise named EV Engineering Limited may have the answer -- build an electric-powered Commodore...

At this stage the project is still in the 'proof of concept' stage, but within 15 months of the company's announcement there'll be seven Commodore EVs on local roads, being trialled for commercial viability.

EV Engineering is a joint venture formed through the efforts of OE parts suppliers Futuris, Air International, Bosch and Continental, plus global electric vehicle resupply company Better Place Australia. The high-tech consortium also draws on support from the CSIRO, Holden and the federal government.

Some of the names behind the company are a veritable who's who of the automotive industry, starting at the top with company chairman and former Mitsubishi President, Rob McEniry. During the presentation to the press, speakers included Better Place CEO Evan Thornley and Senator Kim Carr (pictured). When asked by the Carsales Network how the return on investment for the government's funding might pan out, the Senator explained that the $3.5 million grant from the Green Car Innovation Fund was aimed at proving the concept.

"We've got to prove that the concept works," he said. "That's what this project is about. Last year, in this country, we sold 112 fully electric vehicles -- out of nearly a million sales. So clearly there's considerable room for improvement in that number.

"What we want to see is the Australian industry advance, build its capabilities, and then make sure those R&D breakthroughs are commercialised -- actually put into our general production arrangements through our Automotive Transformation Scheme, so they can have further support from the Australian government. That's the objective here. We've got to prove the concept first. That's the point of this whole project, you can't assume that it's already proven, otherwise we wouldn't have invested in it."

The Senator also revealed that Holden was currently in negotiation with the consortium for a future role, which could refer to vehicle manufacturing or further developmental support.

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Hyundai Veloster coupe joins DCT club

Hyundai's asymmetric Veloster delivers the company's first dual clutch transmission -- and a harder-edged turbo model is on the car games ds
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The Hyundai Veloster sports coupe, to be launched in Q4 this year, will provide the launching pad for the company's first dual-clutch transmission.

To be offered as an option alongside a standard six-speed manual, the six-speed DCT will provide an extra sporting edge for the Veloster's all-new 1.6-litre direct injection petrol four. Both the engine and the transmission were developed in-house by Hyundai. Power and torque figures for the 1.6 are 103kW @ 6300rpm and 167Nm @ 4850rpm respectively.

The distinctive, hybrid-bodied coupe-hatch comes at the end of a raft of new product launches in the latter half of this year, all of which will see the company's 'fluidic sculpture' design language extended throughout its lineup from top to bottom.

With the launch so far away, Hyundai's local execs have yet to finalise pricing and specification. But they stressed at a recent preview in Sydney that the distinctive, low-slung Veloster will be pitched as a brand builder among younger buyers, so expect the price to be competitive.

They also hinted -- broadly -- at the likelihood of a turbocharged, harder-edged version following the conventionally aspirated model.

Local specifications are likely to live up to Hyundai's keen sense of competition. If the US variant is anything to go by, there's plenty of scope to break new ground for its sector. No better evidence of the youth-skew than this, lifted from the Veloster's US microsite...

    "Entirely new, the Veloster has been designed to keep you connected 24/7. Built-in features let you share your location with friends, use hands-free texting, and even upload your favourite music and play videos through a USB port. The double-scooped aggressive front end, LED headlight accents, and a trick 3rd side passenger door give this new vehicle a completely modern style, while delivering up to [5.9L/100km -- highway cycle], giving you hybrid mileage without the hybrid premium."

And this...

    "Hop in and your smart phone automatically syncs with the Bluetooth® so you can immediately start streaming music, download your phonebook and, of course, take calls. The 7-inch touchscreen is the media nerve centre of the car. Use it to check out uploaded pictures, play videos and music, and even use the available integrated navigation system to map out your next destination.

    "For music, you've got nothing but options. Select playlists from your phone... or use the iPod®/USB inputs. Gracenote® music ID management displays album art, and has voice recognition that allows you to choose your music by artist, album or genre."

The system extends to internet radio streaming, music downloading, video playback from USB and -- as long as there's a standard power plug nearby -- X-Box connectivity.

The street Veloster remains truish to the concept from which it took its name, the high-backed coupe-hatch that first broke cover in 2007 at the Seoul motor show. While it has seen extensive modification, it retains the concept car's asymmetrical three-door configuration. The single rear door will be on the respective passenger side in both LHD and RHD countries. In other words, and unlike the MINI Clubman, the rear door is on the left in RHD countries, on the right in LHD countries.

On the driver's side is a longer, coupe-like single door ahead of a flank similar to Renault's Megane RS250. But there the similarity ends. The Veloster's heavily glassed hatch, hinged above the rear seat cushion, embodies what amounts to a rear sunroof, separated a small lip spoiler from the sharply tapered rear windscreen. That high rear end and massive C-pillar mean rear visibility is not a high point, but the US spec suggests a rear-view camera will turn up at least as an option.

Hyundai will talk local pricing for the new model closer to its Australian launch near the end of the year.

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