Dr Automotive Design and Tools

Volkswagen today presented the XL1 prototype, the eagerly-awaited vehicle that consumes only 0.9 l/100km (261.3 US mpg - 313 IMP mpg)! Scheduled to make its world debut at the Qatar Motor Show (26-29 January), the new concept releases only 24 grams of CO2 per kilometer, obviously thanks to a series of technological innovations, all of them supposed to cut emissions and improve mileage.

The XL1 uses a combination of lightweight construction, monocoque and add-on parts made of carbon fiber, a very low aerodynamic drag (0.186) plus a very advanced plug-in hybrid system which relies on a two-cylinder TDI engine and an electric motor.

Specifically, the car measures 3,888 mm / 1,665 mm / 1,156 mm (153 in / 65.5 in / 45.5 in) and has a wheelbase of 2,224 mm (87.5 in). The 800 cm3 two-cylinder TDI engine generates a maximum power of 48 hp and 120 Nm of torque, while the electric motor adds an extra 27 hp and 100 Nm of torque. The powertrains are mated to a 7-speed DSG, with the electric unit being backed by a lithium-ion battery pack.

Weighing only 795 kilos, the car can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in just 11.9 seconds, while achieving a maximum electronically-limited speed of 160 km/h (99.4 mph). The estimated range of the electric motor is 35 kilometers, while the whole autonomy, TDI plus electric, goes up to 550 km with only 10 liters of fuel.

A survey has revealed that the number of people considering buying a plug-in hybrid or battery electric car has risen from nine per cent to 53 per cent.

The December poll, carried out by vehicle valuation company Glass’s, sought to discover motorists’ views of the government’s £43m Electric Vehicle Plug-in Car Grant.

According to a statement, it first asked respondents whether or not they would consider buying an electric or hybrid vehicle prior to notifying them about the government incentive, to which 36 per cent said they would.

This figure rose to 53 per cent as a direct result of being told about the scheme. When asked if they would consider buying an electric or hybrid vehicle as their next car in July last year, 0.5 per cent of respondents said they would buy an electric vehicle and eight per cent said they would buy a hybrid.

‘This is a phenomenal increase in a very short space of time and represents a fast-growing acceptance of the emergence of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles into the mass market,’ said Andy Carroll, managing director at Glass’s. ‘It is also clear that the government’s Plug-in Car Grant is making an impact on figures and could be the deciding factor for people already considering buying a plug-in hybrid or battery electric car, as well as appealing to those who would not previously have considered it.’

In addition, the survey revealed that of those still unwilling to consider buying an electric or hybrid vehicle despite the Plug-in Car Grant, almost half said that this was not due to cost.

‘This is also a significant finding as it indicates that people need to be reminded of the benefits of running a plug-in or battery electric car and also the reassurance that there will be a better recharging network if they are considering purchasing an electric vehicle,’ said Carroll. ‘Encouragingly, the government has just announced plans to relax planning permission laws for charging points, and has also urged councils to promote their installation, which is another step in the right direction for consumers.’

The government’s £43m incentive programme, which offers buyers of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles up to £5,000 off the purchase price, was rolled out on 1 January 2011 and so far nine models are eligible for the grant.

If someone told you there was a way you could save 2.5 million to 3 million lives a year and simultaneously halt global warming, reduce air and water pollution and develop secure, reliable energy sources -- nearly all with existing technology and at costs comparable with what we spend on energy today -- why wouldn't you do it?

According to a new study coauthored by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson, we could accomplish all that by converting the world to clean, renewable energy sources and forgoing fossil fuels.

"Based on our findings, there are no technological or economic barriers to converting the entire world to clean, renewable energy sources," said Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. "It is a question of whether we have the societal and political will."

He and Mark Delucchi, of the University of California-Davis, have written a two-part paper in Energy Policy in which they assess the costs, technology and material requirements of converting the planet, using a plan they developed.

The world they envision would run largely on electricity. Their plan calls for using wind, water and solar energy to generate power, with wind and solar power contributing 90 percent of the needed energy.

Geothermal and hydroelectric sources would each contribute about 4 percent in their plan (70 percent of the hydroelectric is already in place), with the remaining 2 percent from wave and tidal power.

Vehicles, ships and trains would be powered by electricity and hydrogen fuel cells. Aircraft would run on liquid hydrogen. Homes would be cooled and warmed with electric heaters -- no more natural gas or coal -- and water would be preheated by the sun.

Commercial processes would be powered by electricity and hydrogen. In all cases, the hydrogen would be produced from electricity. Thus, wind, water and sun would power the world.

The researchers approached the conversion with the goal that by 2030, all new energy generation would come from wind, water and solar, and by 2050, all pre-existing energy production would be converted as well.

"We wanted to quantify what is necessary in order to replace all the current energy infrastructure -- for all purposes -- with a really clean and sustainable energy infrastructure within 20 to 40 years," said Jacobson.

One of the benefits of the plan is that it results in a 30 percent reduction in world energy demand since it involves converting combustion processes to electrical or hydrogen fuel cell processes. Electricity is much more efficient than combustion.

That reduction in the amount of power needed, along with the millions of lives saved by the reduction in air pollution from elimination of fossil fuels, would help keep the costs of the conversion down.

"When you actually account for all the costs to society -- including medical costs -- of the current fuel structure, the costs of our plan are relatively similar to what we have today," Jacobson said.

One of the biggest hurdles with wind and solar energy is that both can be highly variable, which has raised doubts about whether either source is reliable enough to provide "base load" energy, the minimum amount of energy that must be available to customers at any given hour of the day.
Jacobson said that the variability can be overcome.

"The most important thing is to combine renewable energy sources into a bundle," he said. "If you combine them as one commodity and use hydroelectric to fill in gaps, it is a lot easier to match demand."

Wind and solar are complementary, Jacobson said, as wind often peaks at night and sunlight peaks during the day. Using hydroelectric power to fill in the gaps, as it does in our current infrastructure, allows demand to be precisely met by supply in most cases. Other renewable sources such as geothermal and tidal power can also be used to supplement the power from wind and solar sources.

"One of the most promising methods of insuring that supply matches demand is using long-distance transmission to connect widely dispersed sites," said Delucchi. Even if conditions are poor for wind or solar energy generation in one area on a given day, a few hundred miles away the winds could be blowing steadily and the sun shining.

"With a system that is 100 percent wind, water and solar, you can't use normal methods for matching supply and demand. You have to have what people call a supergrid, with long-distance transmission and really good management," he said.

Another method of meeting demand could entail building a bigger renewable-energy infrastructure to match peak hourly demand and use the off-hours excess electricity to produce hydrogen for the industrial and transportation sectors.

Using pricing to control peak demands, a tool that is used today, would also help.

Jacobson and Delucchi assessed whether their plan might run into problems with the amounts of material needed to build all the turbines, solar collectors and other devices.

They found that even materials such as platinum and the rare earth metals, the most obvious potential supply bottlenecks, are available in sufficient amounts. And recycling could effectively extend the supply.

"For solar cells there are different materials, but there are so many choices that if one becomes short, you can switch," Jacobson said. "Major materials for wind energy are concrete and steel and there is no shortage of those."

Jacobson and Delucchi calculated the number of wind turbines needed to implement their plan, as well as the number of solar plants, rooftop photovoltaic cells, geothermal, hydroelectric, tidal and wave-energy installations.

They found that to power 100 percent of the world for all purposes from wind, water and solar resources, the footprint needed is about 0.4 percent of the world's land (mostly solar footprint) and the spacing between installations is another 0.6 percent of the world's land (mostly wind-turbine spacing), Jacobson said.

One of the criticisms of wind power is that wind farms require large amounts of land, due to the spacing required between the windmills to prevent interference of turbulence from one turbine on another.

"Most of the land between wind turbines is available for other uses, such as pasture or farming," Jacobson said. "The actual footprint required by wind turbines to power half the world's energy is less than the area of Manhattan." If half the wind farms were located offshore, a single Manhattan would suffice.

Jacobson said that about 1 percent of the wind turbines required are already in place, and a lesser percentage for solar power.

"This really involves a large scale transformation," he said. "It would require an effort comparable to the Apollo moon project or constructing the interstate highway system."

"But it is possible, without even having to go to new technologies," Jacobson said. "We really need to just decide collectively that this is the direction we want to head as a society."

Jacobson is the director of Stanford's Atmosphere/Energy Program and a senior fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Toro Rosso are one of several teams who will be using a Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for the first time this season. Unlike some of their rivals, however, they at least have the benefit of a tried and tested system at their disposal - Ferrari’s.

As part of their Ferrari engine supply arrangement, Toro Rosso also have access to their fellow Italian team’s KERS, which was used extensively by the Scuderia during their 2009 championship campaign, before all teams agreed to drop the technology for 2010.

But with KERS set for a welcome return for this year, and with more teams expected to use it this time out, Toro Rosso are making the most of Ferrari’s expertise, not just in terms of their technical knowledge, but also in terms of the practicalities of life with KERS.

“The men from Maranello have a good knowledge of all the practical aspects of running the system,” said Toro Rosso on their official website. “In conjunction with Ferrari we are running a training programme prior to testing, so that we do the maximum possible in order to ensure the highest level of safety for the guys and to make sure we deal adequately with the electrical side of the KERS.”

It is not just Toro Rosso’s engineers that have been going through the training, but their entire race crew, as the team bid to ensure that everyone understands the procedural changes that will come with running KERS-equipped cars.

“There will be times when we can behave exactly as previously, but in other situations we will restrict access to garage areas, if for example we are charging batteries or going through other procedures that require extra care,” added the team.

Those team members directly involved with operating and maintaining the KERS will have to wear and use special equipment and Toro Rosso have been evaluating various types to ensure minimal impact on staff’s normal routines.

Toro Rosso will have the first chance to put their KERS training into practice in earnest next week, when they debut their new car, the STR6, at the first 2011 pre-season test at Valencia in Spain, starting on February 1.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he remains committed to a campaign goal to flood America's highways with plug-in cars and will ask Congress for new programs to support sales and development of electric vehicles.

"With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015," Obama said during his State of the Union address.

The president plans to ask Congress to approve a budget that includes improved consumer rebates, investment in research and development and other programs to encourage communities to invest in electric vehicle infrastructure, according to a fact sheet provided to the Free Press by the White House.

The automotive industry has been investing heavily in hybrid and electric cars with the support of federal loans and grants and has been making progress towards Obama's goal.

Between 2007 and 2010, more than 1.2 million hybrid, plug-in and electric vehicles were sold in the U.S., according to J.D. Power and Associates. But most of those sales are from conventional gas-electric hybrids -- such as the Toyota Prius and Ford Fusion hybrid -- and only a few hundred plug-in or electric cars have been sold.

Still, by 2015, J.D. Power and Associates forecasts the number of plug-in and electric vehicles -- such as the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf -- will grow to about 700,000, or about 300,000 short of Obama's 2008 campaign pledge.

Obama's proposal to continue to encourage development of electric cars also reflects a campaign promise he made when he visited Lansing in 2008.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., welcomed Obama's renewed pledge on Tuesday.

"Advanced technology manufacturing is extremely important to our state's economy," she said in an e-mail to the Free Press. "We need to build on this success to create even more jobs."

Currently, the Volt and the Leaf are supported by federal tax credits of up to $7,500. The development of hybrid and electric vehicles also has been supported by loans and grants from the Department of Energy.

So far, the department has awarded about $8.3 billion out of a $25-billion loan program to Ford, Nissan, Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors. Loan requests from General Motors, Chrysler and other companies are pending.

In 2009, Michigan benefited from a separate Department of Energy program that awarded about $1.36 billion in grants to firms with advanced battery manufacturing plants in the state.

U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, a Midland Republican, however, said the federal government should focus on streamlining regulations and energy policies that will create real consumer demand.

"The auto industry is making great strides in bringing these new technologies to the market," Camp, the new chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said

Nissan said on Tuesday it would add overtime and holidays at one if its Japanese factories towards the end of the business year in March to bring production of the Leaf electric car up to full speed.

Japan's second-biggest automaker has gradually ramped up output of its first mass-marketed zero-emission car since it starting building the Leaf in late October, completing about 3,000 units to date.

By March, the pace of production will rise to full capacity of about 4,000 Leafs a month at the Oppama factory, south of Tokyo, putting Nissan on track to hit a target of producing a total 10,000 units by the end of March, a Nissan official said.

"We'll build more Leafs in the next two months and add overtime and holidays to keep up with production of the other vehicles on the line," said Seiji Honda, head of the Oppama factory, noting that car demand typically ticks up at the end of Japan's fiscal year in March.

Nissan, along with partner Renault, wants to lead the auto industry in the field of battery-run electric vehicles, and delivered its first electric vehicle (EV), the Leaf, to customers in Japan and the United States last month.

Until production starts at its Tennessee and Sunderland factories in 2012 and 2013, respectively, Nissan will supply the car from Oppama.

On Tuesday, Nissan invited journalists to tour the 430,000-units-a-year Oppama plant, where the Leaf hatchback is assembled on a mixed line alongside gasoline-engine models such as the Juke, Cube and Note.

With battery packs and electric motors waiting on the side of the trim and assembly lines instead of fuel tanks and engines, the Leaf's frames flowed seamlessly on conveyor belts between those of the Juke crossover and Cube minivan.

The battery modules and other EV-specific parts are put together in a separate "sub-line".

"Right now, about one in every seven cars is a Leaf, and we'll start building more until we reach maximum capacity in March," Honda said.

Nissan has taken orders for 6,000 Leafs in Japan and 20,000 in the United States so far, closing reservations for the time being. It sold the first Leafs in Portugal this month and will begin deliveries in select European markets in the coming months.

Nissan Americas Chief Carlos Tavares said earlier this month the automaker has committed to delivering the Leaf to all 20,000 U.S. customers by September.

Nissan and Renault are preparing factories around the world to manufacture a combined 500,000 lithium-ion batteries a year, mainly for their electric vehicles, by 2015.

The companies' joint CEO, Carlos Ghosn, has predicted that one-tenth of all new vehicles sold worldwide would be all-electric by 2020, and wants the alliance to take the biggest share, much as Toyota has done with gasoline-electric hybrids.

Le sinergie tra Lancia e Chrysler, di cui si fa un gran parlare da qualche mese, hanno posto all'attenzione di molti la questione del valore del brand. In questa sede ci asterremo da un'analisi delle scelte strategiche in casa Fiat-Chrysler (se ne dice già troppo), concentrandoci sullo sviluppo di questa particolare tecnica produttivo-commerciale, ricordandone i casi più eclatanti.
LA NASCITA - Tutto iniziò negli U.S.A., patria della catena di montaggio e dell'automobilismo “pragmatico” per eccellenza. In terra americana, negli anni '20 del Novecento, la Nash Motor Company proprose sul mercato la “Light Six”, un modello già prodotto con marchio Ajax, senza variazioni evidenti, se non la sostituzione dei loghi Ajax con il marchio Nash. L'episodio, che pare legato ad un improvviso guizzo di orgoglio di Charles Warren Nash in persona, ha dato il “La” ad una delle più abusate tecniche dell'automobilismo di massa: il "badge engineering". Un'arma a doppio taglio che negli anni ha mietuto vittime illustri che, con il Secondo dopoguerra, con la diversificazione dei mercati ai due lati dell'Atlantico e con la motorizzazione di massa nel Vecchio Continente, fu definitivamente sdoganata in campo internazionale. Prescindendo da casi sporadici, possiamo senza ombra di dubbio definire l'inglese BMC come il primo, grande, gruppo automobilistico ad aver applicato su larga scala i concetti del badge engineering. Seppur ormai lontani negli anni, resta ben impresso nella mente di ogni appassionato la “danza” di marchi con cui era proposto un prodotto di grande serie come la MINI. Al debutto, nel 1959, la piccola utilitaria d'Oltremanica era proposta con i marchi Austin, Morris e successivamente in Italia, Innocenti (rispettivamente con il nome di “Seven” e “Mini Minor”), gemelle, che differenziavano essenzialmente per il grado di finitura. Ma prima della declinazione italiana, già nel 1961, a queste versioni originarie si affiancarono altre due “gemelle” con i marchi Riley e Wolseley. Questa nuova coppia, con un terzo sgradevolissimo volume applicato in coda - ed un frontale più elaborato – venne proposta con i nomi rispettivi di Elf e Hornet. Sulle vicissitudini della BMC (poi British Leyland e, quindi, Rover Group), e sull'uso esteso e spregiudicato che questa fece del badge engineering, ci siamo soffermati più volte. L'intera gamma del colosso inglese, fino agli anni Ottanta, si basava su pochi modelli declinati svariate volte in marchi differenti, situazione che è perdurata anche dopo la prima crisi (in cui, tra le altre, si videro delle Innocenti IM3 e Regent, tutti cloni italiani di modelli del Gruppo) e quindi durante la gestione Honda. Di questo periodo si ricordano le Triumph Acclaim e le Rover serie 200 e 400, che nei vari step evolutivi erano identificabili come gemelle delle Honda Accord, Concerto e Civic, con poche differenze identificabili essenzialmente nelle finiture e in pochi altri particolari, oppure – in senso inverso – la declinazione Honda della Land Rover Discovery 1, che i giapponesi conobbero come Honda Crossroad.
LA REALTA' AMERICANA - Intanto sull'altra sponda dell'Atlantico il badge engineering era diventato la norma. La causa scatenante fu la crisi che disorientò i costruttori americani negli anni Settanta, impreparati davanti all'invasione orientale e, soprattutto, obbligati a correre ai ripari inventandosi il segmento delle “compact” e delle “sub-compact”. Impacciata nella realizzazione di automobili compatte, Detroit si rivolse direttamente all'Europa, usufruendo delle proprie controllate nel Vecchio Continente. Esemplare, al riguardo, l'esperienza GM che importò sul suolo americano dapprima le vetture della tedesca Opel (GT 1900 e Kadett Coupè in primis), salvo poi effettuare vari e curiosi rebadge, di cui fu protagonista la stessa Kadett, nelle sue evoluzioni distribuita come Chevrolet Chevette, Pontiac 1000, Le Mans e Asuna, nonchè – sfruttando la corrente dei marchi giapponese – Isuzu Kadett Opel (commercializzata dalla rete Buick). Quello di GM verso il badge engineering fu un vero e proprio amore, espressosi anche con le sportive Pontiac e Chevrolet per il mercato americano e con il rinnovo delle gamme Vauxhall, per il Regno Unito, Holden , per l'Australia e Chevrolet per Brasile e America Lantina. Negli anni Settanta questi brands proposero nei rispettivi mercati gamme omologabili in gran parte a quella della tedesca Opel, che divenne di fatto il “centro di sperimentazione” per le compatte del colosso di Detroit. Di derivazione Opel erano anche gli ultimi modelli della defunta Saturn, le Cadillac Cimarron (Opel Ascona) e Catera (Opel Omega), derivata Saab è stata la recente erede della vecchia Cimarron, ovvero la BLS. Ancora, negli anni Novanta, la partner coreana Daewoo proponeva una versione aggiornata della Kadett, che da anni produceva per il mercato interno, la Nexia. Proprio Daewoo ha recentemente subito sui principali mercati, la sostituzione del proprio marchio con il brand è diventato Chevrolet. Tra l'altro è singolare come la doppia losanga di Detroit sia anche scesa in campo sull'erede della Lada Niva che nell'Europa dell'Est è nota come Chevrolet Niva. Seppur lontani dall'integrazione Made in GM, anche le holding Ford e Chrysler si dedicarono “con passione” a questa tecnica. Da ricordare in Ford le declinazioni con marchio Mercury dell'intera gamma americana, con i cammeo della Capri, divenuta negli anni Settanta “Mercury Capri” e della più recente Cougar. Sul campo dei SUV la mente torna alla Maverick, semplice rebadge della notissima Nissan Terrano. Tra l'altro, il rapporto tra Ford e le case orientali, si espresse al meglio negli anni Novanta, quando l'integrazione con Mazda fu spinta ai massimi livelli: un'intera famiglia di compatte per il marchio USA e l'insolita Mazda 121 del '96, gemella della Ford Fiesta. Chrysler, la terza tra le Big Three, impantanatasi negli anni Settanta con l'affare Simca (divenuta Chrysler France), cercò di far fruttare queste sinergie realizzando dapprima uno scambio di marchi tra Europa e U.S.A. (le vecchie Simca, divennero Chrysler e/o Plymouth), rinnovando la gamma con un prodotto trasversale come la 1307 – che però non giunse mai nel ricco mercato Nordamericano – e soprattutto con un'autentica world car come la Horizon, commercializzata in mezzo mondo e venduta con i marchi Simca, Chrysler, Dodge e Plymouth (prima di rinascere come modello Peugeot- Talbot). Da non dimenticare, poi, gli accordi tra la Casa di Detroit e DeTomaso, che condussero alla realizzazione di una particolare versione della coupè Dodge Omni (tecnicamente derivata dalla Horizon), con motore da 1.7 litri (di derivazione Volkswagen) e commercializzata con il nome “Dodge De Tomaso” e, soprattutto, che generarono l'insolita “Chrysler's TC by Maserati”, una sorella della LeBaron e prodotta a Lambrate con il curioso logo di un Tridente inserito nel Pentagono della Casa americana.
NEL VECCHIO CONTINENTE - Con Chrysler e De Tomaso torniamo ad affacciarci al mercato europeo, dove la British Leyland, seppur la più nota nel campo, era comunque in buona compagnia. Non si può sorvolare sui primi trent'anni di vita della Seat, che sotto il controllo Fiat aveva una gamma notoriamente “clone” rispetto a quella torinese. Fiat che, tra l'altro, si era già espressa negli anni Trenta e Quaranta, in un'analoga operazione con la francese Simca, a cui seguirono la tedesca NSU e la Steyr-Puch, nonché la polacca FSO, la russa Lada e la yugoslava Zastava. Se Lada regalò una vita lunghissima alla Fiat 124, la piccola casa austriaca Steyr Puch, invece, si dedicò al rebadge della Nuova 500, che presentava, rispetto all'omologa Fiat, finiture migliori e motorizzazioni più prestazionali. Nel novero di chi, con accordi di collaborazione a vario titolo realizzò rebadge di modelli Fiat c'è il gruppo PSA, con cui Fiat vanta decenni di collaborazioni nel campo dei veicoli commerciali (gestiti dalla società Sevel) e da cui la Casa torinese ha attinto due generazioni di monovolume, nate in PSA e ribattezzate sotto l'egida Fiat/Lancia. La Renault, invece, produsse – per forniture militari – la TRM500, un gemella della Nuova Campagnola e, in operazioni analoghe si cimentarono la Citroen (clonando la Volkswagen ILTIS) e la Peugeot che, con la sua P4 produsse una versione francese della Mercedes G, già nota in Austria con marchio Steyr-Puch. La Germania vide anche la nascita di uno dei suoi modelli di punta, la Volkswagen Polo, da un rebadge “in famiglia”. La prima generazione della Polo, infatti, derivò da un riposizionamento della piccola Audi 50. Mentre l'utilitaria dei Quattro Anelli non ebbe praticamente eredi (fino ad oggi), la Polo ha generato una lunghissima progenie di modelli attraverso quasi quattro decenni.
BADGE ENGINEERING: UNA NECESSITA' - E con il gruppo VAG chiudiamo la nostra panoramica. Quelli elencati sono frutto di una semplice selezione in un universo di episodi interessanti che riguardano l'argomento. La lettura ci da la misura di quanto il badge engineering sia una tecnica antica, rodata e, soprattutto, necessaria. L'automobile è un prodotto industriale di indubbia complessità, per il quale il contenimento dei costi rimane un punto cardine. Tuttavia qualche dubbio sull'efficacia di questa tecnica rimane, rimane essenzialmente in termini di immagine. Se non altro perchè, ad un indagine sommaria, non si può sorvolare sul un concetto fondamentale, ovvero che il badge engineering è un processo complesso e pericoloso. Ha regalato indubbi vantaggi all'industria, per esempio nel settore dei veicoli commerciali e industriali, in cui le caratteristiche tecniche acquisiscono importanza primaria rispetto ad altro, ma allo stesso modo ha mietuto vittime spesso anche illustri e di notevole peso: l'industria automobilistica americana “tradizionale”, caduta negli ultimi due anni sotto il suo stesso peso, ne è il grave esempio. Tuttavia sembra che l'industria riesca sempre meno a prescindere da questa soluzione, soprattutto in un mercato come quello attuale, costantemente stressato dalla concorrenza, dalle normative di omologazione e dai giochi mediatici e che, soprattutto, vede nelle zone più ricche del Pianeta trend sempre più orientati intorno allo zero.
(Fonte: www.omniauto.it - 22/1/2011)