Sunday 24 April 2011
Wednesday 20 April 2011
BMW Wheels Out Apps to Drive Electric-Car Buzz
BMW AG won't bring its first mass-produced electric car to market before 2013. Online and on the road, though, the luxury auto maker is already racing to drum up potential consumers.
BMW hopes the ActiveE, in New York Monday, shines on social-media.
Reuters
Its newest effort is an electric car-simulating smartphone application being promoted at the New York International Auto Show this week. Called BMW EVolve, the app lets drivers track how compatible their driving habits and daily traveling distances would be with a battery-powered electric vehicle, plus what they would save in potential fuel costs.
The app is just one move in a broader buzz-building campaign that BMW hopes will build demand for its first mass-produced all-electric city car, called the i3. "We need to attempt to understand [driver] behavior and create a culture first, and we need to start early and broad," said Rich Steinberg, BMW's North American electric car operations and strategy chief.
Auto makers typically only begin promoting new cars months before they go on sale, for fear a long buildup will cut into sales of existing models. But the uncertainty over how drivers will embrace the very different technology behind electric cars is turning the traditional marketing blueprint on its head.
BMW earlier this year launched a number of social media forums for electric-car enthusiasts and a four-part series of online documentaries featuring former astronaut Buzz Aldrin and other prominent people musing about the future of urban transportation. Later this year, it will begin delivering about 1,100 of an i3 pre-cursor, called the ActiveE, to U.S. and European test drivers who will be encouraged to tell neighbors, Facebook friends and anyone one else about their experiences driving it.
The German auto maker isn't alone in the approach. General Motors Co and Nissan Motor Co. began building buzz around the new Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf via Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites more than a year before those vehicles went on sale last year. In January, Ford streamed the unveiling of its Focus Electric, due to hit showroom floors in late 2011, over its Facebook page for electric car fans.
The grassroots push to establish electric cars is part of the auto industry's broader gamble that it can win over broad swaths of consumers who still worry about the cars' potential costs and whether battery power is sufficient to get them where they need to go.
Auto makers are pouring billions of dollars into developing electric cars, in part to meet ever-tougher emissions rules. Yet, according to a Consumer Electronics Association survey of U.S. drivers last year, 71% said they would fear being stranded with a dead battery and 59% said the current battery ranges of all-electric cars were too limiting for their driving needs.
"There will, of course, be a lot of first movers who buy electric cars, but at the end of the day, most consumers are going to ask: how much is this going to benefit my lifestyle?" asked Joe Kyriakoza, vice president of product and performance strategy at Jumpstart Automotive Group, an online auto marketing portal. "The marketing is going to have to focus on the real-life questions."
BMW says its taking its buzz-creating efforts a step further, by integrating what it gleans from them into the marketing and development of the i3 and other electric cars. Smartphone users who download BMW's new app, for instance, can feed their driving statistics into a main website that shows them how they and their fuel-savings compare with other drivers. BMW plans to collect the anonymous data on users' driving patterns to inform the design of its mass-market electric cars.
It has drawn insights from the online discussions of participants in its first series of electric car field trials, which began in the U.S. in mid-2009 and involved an electric version of its Mini-brand car, dubbed the Mini E. On a much-frequented Facebook page that Mini E participants set up on their own, for instance, a common refrain was how much colder weather limited battery range. "The temperature does have a huge effect," remarked one driver. "Even when I compare 70 degree [Fahrenheit] weather to 60 degree weather."
As a result, BMW said it developed its second test electric car, the ActiveE, with liquid cooling to better regulate the battery's response to temperature fluctuations.
One electric car convert is Tom Moloughney, owner of a Montclair, N.J., restaurant who has logged nearly 55,000 miles in the Mini E since participating in the trial. He started two blogs on BMW's electric cars.
"What's going to sell the cars won't be so much advertising but people talking to their friends and other people who have them," said Mr. Moloughney, who after initial doubts about the convenience, continues to drive the Mini E every chance he gets. "We who have been living with these cars have become the authority on them."
IMAGES OF SOME OTHER ELECTRIC CARS
BMW hopes the ActiveE, in New York Monday, shines on social-media.
Reuters
The app is just one move in a broader buzz-building campaign that BMW hopes will build demand for its first mass-produced all-electric city car, called the i3. "We need to attempt to understand [driver] behavior and create a culture first, and we need to start early and broad," said Rich Steinberg, BMW's North American electric car operations and strategy chief.
Auto makers typically only begin promoting new cars months before they go on sale, for fear a long buildup will cut into sales of existing models. But the uncertainty over how drivers will embrace the very different technology behind electric cars is turning the traditional marketing blueprint on its head.
BMW earlier this year launched a number of social media forums for electric-car enthusiasts and a four-part series of online documentaries featuring former astronaut Buzz Aldrin and other prominent people musing about the future of urban transportation. Later this year, it will begin delivering about 1,100 of an i3 pre-cursor, called the ActiveE, to U.S. and European test drivers who will be encouraged to tell neighbors, Facebook friends and anyone one else about their experiences driving it.
The German auto maker isn't alone in the approach. General Motors Co and Nissan Motor Co. began building buzz around the new Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf via Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites more than a year before those vehicles went on sale last year. In January, Ford streamed the unveiling of its Focus Electric, due to hit showroom floors in late 2011, over its Facebook page for electric car fans.
The grassroots push to establish electric cars is part of the auto industry's broader gamble that it can win over broad swaths of consumers who still worry about the cars' potential costs and whether battery power is sufficient to get them where they need to go.
Auto makers are pouring billions of dollars into developing electric cars, in part to meet ever-tougher emissions rules. Yet, according to a Consumer Electronics Association survey of U.S. drivers last year, 71% said they would fear being stranded with a dead battery and 59% said the current battery ranges of all-electric cars were too limiting for their driving needs.
"There will, of course, be a lot of first movers who buy electric cars, but at the end of the day, most consumers are going to ask: how much is this going to benefit my lifestyle?" asked Joe Kyriakoza, vice president of product and performance strategy at Jumpstart Automotive Group, an online auto marketing portal. "The marketing is going to have to focus on the real-life questions."
BMW says its taking its buzz-creating efforts a step further, by integrating what it gleans from them into the marketing and development of the i3 and other electric cars. Smartphone users who download BMW's new app, for instance, can feed their driving statistics into a main website that shows them how they and their fuel-savings compare with other drivers. BMW plans to collect the anonymous data on users' driving patterns to inform the design of its mass-market electric cars.
It has drawn insights from the online discussions of participants in its first series of electric car field trials, which began in the U.S. in mid-2009 and involved an electric version of its Mini-brand car, dubbed the Mini E. On a much-frequented Facebook page that Mini E participants set up on their own, for instance, a common refrain was how much colder weather limited battery range. "The temperature does have a huge effect," remarked one driver. "Even when I compare 70 degree [Fahrenheit] weather to 60 degree weather."
As a result, BMW said it developed its second test electric car, the ActiveE, with liquid cooling to better regulate the battery's response to temperature fluctuations.
One electric car convert is Tom Moloughney, owner of a Montclair, N.J., restaurant who has logged nearly 55,000 miles in the Mini E since participating in the trial. He started two blogs on BMW's electric cars.
"What's going to sell the cars won't be so much advertising but people talking to their friends and other people who have them," said Mr. Moloughney, who after initial doubts about the convenience, continues to drive the Mini E every chance he gets. "We who have been living with these cars have become the authority on them."
IMAGES OF SOME OTHER ELECTRIC CARS
Tuesday 19 April 2011
Nokia launches photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas for Ovi Maps
Nokia launches Ovi Maps 3D beta service featuring 20 metropolitan areas and road-level imagery for five cities.]
Espoo, Finland -- Nokia today announced photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas for the web version of Ovi Maps. This immersive and free feature adds a new dimension to the Ovi Maps experience and enables people to explore places in a completely different way.
Introduced at the Where 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, California, Nokia's 3D offering is the most realistic available and goes beyond rendering limited areas and buildings by making entire cities, including suburbs, available for exploration.
Starting with a bird's-eye view, people can scale up and down and move around objects such as buildings and trees from their desktop, experiencing a virtual but super realistic perspective of new places. Road-level imagery completes the experience with a detailed 360-degree panoramic view of streets.
With the beta service featuring 20 metropolitan areas, the number of photorealistic 3D models will increase over time. The road-level imagery is now available for five cities, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and San Francisco.
With the goal of bridging the real and virtual worlds on both mobile and web, Nokia's Ovi Maps for mobile covers 180 countries, nearly 100 of them navigable in 53 languages. Ovi Maps on the web covers 180 countries, 93 of them navigable, in 29 languages.
"Ovi Maps' photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas are a significant step towards our vision of bridging the real and virtual world, with location-based services being the glue," said Michael Halbherr, senior vice president, Nokia.
"With Ovi Maps on mobile, Nokia has shown its ability to transform a useful feature into a mass market experience that lays the foundation for innovation in location-based services beyond traditional routing benefits. With its efforts to expand the service to the web, Nokia is proving that it offers a holistic service," said Daryl Chiam, Principal Analyst, Canalys.
Nokia's photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas initially include:
Espoo, Finland -- Nokia today announced photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas for the web version of Ovi Maps. This immersive and free feature adds a new dimension to the Ovi Maps experience and enables people to explore places in a completely different way.
Introduced at the Where 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, California, Nokia's 3D offering is the most realistic available and goes beyond rendering limited areas and buildings by making entire cities, including suburbs, available for exploration.
Starting with a bird's-eye view, people can scale up and down and move around objects such as buildings and trees from their desktop, experiencing a virtual but super realistic perspective of new places. Road-level imagery completes the experience with a detailed 360-degree panoramic view of streets.
With the beta service featuring 20 metropolitan areas, the number of photorealistic 3D models will increase over time. The road-level imagery is now available for five cities, Copenhagen, Helsinki, London, Oslo and San Francisco.
With the goal of bridging the real and virtual worlds on both mobile and web, Nokia's Ovi Maps for mobile covers 180 countries, nearly 100 of them navigable in 53 languages. Ovi Maps on the web covers 180 countries, 93 of them navigable, in 29 languages.
"Ovi Maps' photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas are a significant step towards our vision of bridging the real and virtual world, with location-based services being the glue," said Michael Halbherr, senior vice president, Nokia.
"With Ovi Maps on mobile, Nokia has shown its ability to transform a useful feature into a mass market experience that lays the foundation for innovation in location-based services beyond traditional routing benefits. With its efforts to expand the service to the web, Nokia is proving that it offers a holistic service," said Daryl Chiam, Principal Analyst, Canalys.
Nokia's photorealistic 3D models of metropolitan areas initially include:
Saturday 16 April 2011
Monday 11 April 2011
Top 10 Fastest Bikes of Year 2011
10. Ducati 1098s: 169 mph (271 km/h)
This bike was produced by the Italian manufacturer Ducati. It is also L-twin cylinder, 4 valves per cylinder and liquid cooled desmodromic. This bike can re-subscribe top speed of 169 mph (271 kmh). The power of the Ducati 1098 is 119.3 kilowatts (160.0 bhp) at 9750 rpm Transmission 6-speed chain.
Sunday 10 April 2011
Maruti Kizashi is soon coming to INDIA
Maruti Suzuki India Limited is sprucing up to launch a new sedan in India. The new model will be titled "Maruti Kizashi" and is likely to be launched in 2011.
Maruti Kizashi is still in the concept stage in India. Maruti Suzuki Kizashi was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2007 and later at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi in 2008. Maruti Kizashi will be priced at Rs. 10 lakh and therefore will be a premium car with luxury features.
Maruti Kizashi comes with an outstanding aero-dynamic design with front view featuring a completely stylish look. There is a new innovative tapering headlights and classic front design that is unseen so far in Maruti small car models in India. This new upcoming model can rightfully be attributed as a cross-over sports sedan.
Maruti has very recently launched yet another small car model, Maruti Ritz, in India but it is yet to make its impact in the Indian market. Maruti Suzuki India Limited; India's largest car manufacturer that sells nearly every second car in India is contemplating an expansion of its product portfolio; especially in the sedan segment. As of now, Maruti Swift and Swift DZire attribute to a majority of its sales.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said "My concern is about the quality of our growth. Although we achieved good overall national numbers, the region-wise and model-wise performance was not uniform. We relied mostly on Dzire and Swift to power our growth."
i
Maruti Kizashi is still in the concept stage in India. Maruti Suzuki Kizashi was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2007 and later at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi in 2008. Maruti Kizashi will be priced at Rs. 10 lakh and therefore will be a premium car with luxury features.
Maruti Kizashi comes with an outstanding aero-dynamic design with front view featuring a completely stylish look. There is a new innovative tapering headlights and classic front design that is unseen so far in Maruti small car models in India. This new upcoming model can rightfully be attributed as a cross-over sports sedan.
Maruti has very recently launched yet another small car model, Maruti Ritz, in India but it is yet to make its impact in the Indian market. Maruti Suzuki India Limited; India's largest car manufacturer that sells nearly every second car in India is contemplating an expansion of its product portfolio; especially in the sedan segment. As of now, Maruti Swift and Swift DZire attribute to a majority of its sales.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Managing Director and CEO Shinzo Nakanishi said "My concern is about the quality of our growth. Although we achieved good overall national numbers, the region-wise and model-wise performance was not uniform. We relied mostly on Dzire and Swift to power our growth."
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Keep Tuned in...
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