8 Million Fords a year

If you are a company looking to increase your output and increase your sales then the current market will be making this very tough. If you are a car manufacturer looking to double your annual sales by 2015 then you are definitely in a difficult situation. Well, this is exactly what Ford plans to do, sell 8 million cars a year by the middle of the decade – a very ambitious target, I think.

In order to do this Ford has had to look at ways it can tap into growing markets, one way to do this is to start making small fuel efficient cars and hybrid or plug in electric cars. Ford plans to introduce electric cars in the very near future, but it is a believer that there can be more extracted from conventional engines.

Being a global company means that Ford is not reliant on any one country’s economy. Although primarily a US brand Ford has spread itself right around the world, which is very handy right now! Through all the doom and gloom countries like India and China have continued to grow, their rapid economic expansion has seen demand for higher-value items such as cars increase substantially. In India alone car sales increased by 30% in 2010.

A 30% year on year growth for an automotive brand in the current market is exceptional, so Ford has decided to expand its operations in India in order to meet its 50% growth targets. Ford plans to invest $1bn (£612m) in building a new factory in the western state of Gujarat, which will be its second production line in the country.

The economical sports car

The words economical and sports car don’t usually go together, sports cars are all about power and speed and very little to do with fuel efficiency. Turbo and supercharged engines are what make sports cars, not diesel or hybrid technology. But times are changing; at recent motor shows we have seen a flurry of hybrid sports cars that offer high performance whilst sipping on fuel.

In my eyes Peugeot was one of the first mass manufacturers to produce every day diesel cars. The Peugeot 306 and 406 were great ambassadors for diesel engines and how they can be refined for passenger cars. Till this day the 406 is seen as a highly fuel efficient and practical car and a firm favourite with cab drivers.

Peugeot has taken the same initiative with its sports cars, in 2010 Peugeot released the RCZ – a 2 door sports coupe. Initially the RCZ was only meant to be a concept car, but it received positive reviews and captured the imagination of the public, so Peugeot put it into production.

The RCZ comes with two engine choices; both have plenty of power and offer excellent fuel efficiency. For once you can get a sports car with decent performance as a diesel, the RCZ comes with a 2.0 turbo diesel engine that has 154 bhp. There is a 1.6 litre petrol that is also a turbo and comes with 197bhp.

For this year’s Children in Need appeal Peugeot will be auctioning off an RCZ to help raise money for the charity. Peugeot is supporting the charity in many ways; the RCZ auction is just one of the events.

The new Civic and the Type R

Honda has been making the Civic since 1973, initially it was a small compact car but now it has evolved into a medium sized car. The Civic is built here in the UK at the Honda Swindon plant, and available as a 3 or 5 door hatchback as well as the 4 door hybrid saloon. The latest generation, the ninth is due to go on sale from 2012.

The European Honda Civic will be available as a hatchback and come with a 2.2 litre diesel engine as well as the Honda IMA hybrid power train. The ninth generation model range will also include a new Type R variant.

The Type R is rumoured to be the first ever Honda road car powered with a Turbo, it will be the fastest Type R produced to date. The Honda Type R has quickly been embraced in the UK; it has a cult like following much like the Golf GTI. The previous Type R was short lived as it had to be scrapped due to new emissions regulations, hence why the new one has a turbo. By adding a turbo the Civic Type R will have more torque lower in the rev range, so a higher gear can be used more often to boost efficiency. Stop-start technology is also likely to be fitted to help keep CO2 emissions down.

It has not been confirmed yet but apparently the new Type R will have 210 bhp, it will be able to do 0-62 mph in 6.5 seconds and have a top speed of almost 150 mph. like the Focus ST the Civic Type r will only be available as a 5 door hatchback.

VW Golf Cabriolet wins its first award

The new Volkswagen Golf has only been on sale since last month, but already it has won an award. At this year’s Scottish Car of the Year awards it was named “Open top Car of the Year”. The Golf Cabriolet has joined the VW EOS which is a hard top retractable convertible; the new VW Beetle Convertible is due to be available next year.

The front end of the Cabriolet is more or less identical to the Golf hatchback, but at the rear the Cabriolet gets the GTI LED taillights. The fabric roof opens in 9.5 seconds and it can be operated at speeds of up to 30 KPH.

At the moment the VW Golf Cabriolet comes with a choice of six engines, 4 petrol and 2 diesels. The petrol range consists of a 1.2 litre that has 103bhp, a 122bhp or 158bhp 1.4 litre and 2.0 litre with 208bhp. The two diesel units are the 1.6 litre with 103 bhp and the 2.0 litre with 138 bhp. All engines come with either five and six-speed manuals or six and seven-speed DSGs.

The Scottish award will no doubt not be the last award for the Golf Cabriolet, but it’s good to get the first one under the belt! The judges at the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers were very complimentary of the cabriolet and said, "Scots love to make the most of the sunshine as quickly and as easily as possible, so our winner has to have a fast moving roof. It also needs to keep the weather at bay on those rare occasions when the sun doesn't shine in Scotland.”

So it seems the new Volkswagen Golf Cabriolet is the car to have for next summer if you live in Scotland.

Rebirth of the NSX

Lately there have been a lot of model launches for cars that are eco-friendly or that have amazing technology. It has been a long time since I have been able to report on a launch of a super car, well here it is! Honda has announced that the new NSX is definitely under production. Autocar recently reported that Honda's R&D chief Mibe Toshihiro has confirmed that work is underway to produce a new sportscar in the mould of the iconic Honda NSX. 

The rumour is that the new NSX may be ready for sale as soon as next year, but being 2011 it will not be a conventional supercar, no, it will be a hybrid powered supercar. According to Mibe Toshiro Honda is now in a position to look into hybrid supercars, “We are now at a point where we can consider the next generation of electric and hybrid vehicles. President Ito has already mentioned a new NSX, and we have looked at that in the R&D department. It would be an interesting project - electric or hybrid vehicles can be fun as well as economical. More than that I cannot say.”

The old NSX was produced from 1990 up until 2005; it is a mid-engine rear wheel drive car. It has a 3.0 litre V6 petrol engine with Honda’s VTEC technology. After 12 years of production in 2002 the NSX received a small facelift, the major difference being non pop up head lamps for 2002 onward models. 

The NSX remains as one of my favourite supercars! The new model has got me very excited; hopefully Honda will do a good job on it and put something out of the hat!