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The Kia Soul, introduced in 2009, has performed well enough in safety tests to earn 5-star EuroNCAP rating and to be named a Top Safety Pick by the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
Toyota have recalled 5.6 million vehicles in the U.S., but Toyota’s recall isn’t nearly the largest, so far ranking No. 4 on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s list of top recalls in the agency’s four-decade history.
Renault Group report revenues of €33.7bn, down 11% year-on-year but up 25% in the last quarter. The group’s world market share, including passenger and light commercial vehicles,
1.32 million passenger cars were sold last month in China, the world’s largest auto market, compared with 610,600 units sold a year earlier and 1.1 million units sold in December 2009,
India’s car sales rose more than 32% year on year in January from 110,000 to 146,000, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
New Audi A8 reportJust published. Learn more…
Xenon 25W is increasingly being seen and planned as an optimal solution for better lighting in the near future for most cars.
Fully integrated Xenon 25W comes with 5 advantages and one obstacle.
The first 4 advantages, weight and volume reduction, shortened LCL and 12/24 volt line voltage, were presented and discussed in our last 2 weekly newsletters.
Here now is the fifth advantage and the obstacle to overcome:
Advantage 5: one single part
Xenon systems consist of a bulb with an integrated or separate igniter, a shielded cable, special connectors, and an ECU (ballast). In and around today’s headlamps we have 3 major parts. Each interface is a source of quality issues. Where to put the ballast? In every vehicle development project, the same discussion takes place because the ECU needs to be in or near the headlamp. This requires either a costly extra housing or often a complicated slider technology in the tool.
The fully integrated 25W Xenon system under discussion in the European experts working group is targeting a unitized solution with everything inside. The hassles will be gone; easy development and reduced tool costs are coming. While nobody was able to specify the cost delta for service and parts operations or the OEM aftermarket between having 3 spare parts versus a single one, everyone agrees parts proliferation costs money for the production period and the 15 years beyond. Yes, one single part is a good idea to avoid needless waste of money.
Obstacle: Reengineering the 25W Xenon AFS system.
In opposition to the five advantages, there is an obstacle if we consider the full electronic integration. It is the amortization of all new designs:
– Fully integrated Xenon 25W bulb
– Reengineering of the projector module to consider the 17mm shorter light centre length and reengineering of the dynamic bending light module.
Philips have released an all-new HIR2 (9012) halogen bulb with very high luminance, flux, precision, and lifespan. This is the third effort by any maker to produce a bulb of this category. In the mid-1990s, General Electric set out to produce high-flux halogen bulbs for headlamps.
Stanley Electric of Japan have released a high reliability white LED for general lighting and automotive applications.
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