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VOLUME 5 ISSUE 10 MAY 2019THE VEHICLE DEALER’S NEWS SOURCE
The Australian Automotive Dealer As-sociation and Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce aren’t sold
on the Labor opposition’s immigration policy to increase the minimum wage in foreign workers.
The AADA says the 21% increase to migrant workers’ minimum earnings would put additional strain on dealer-ships especially in regional areas, where it’s a common practice to fill employ-ment places with immigrant talent be-cause local employees are hard to find.
Labor suggests increasing pay to foreign staff from $53,900 annually up to $65,000, would encourage businesses to use what is traditionally cheaper im-migrant labour in favour local talent, but the automotive industry advocates aren’t convinced.
The AADA says dealerships, particularly
in rural towns and provincial cities, are resorting to immigrant employment – not their first preference – because of a wider issue.
“AADA members, like all reputable businesses, only resort to temporary skill visa workers when they can’t get Austral-ians to fill critical vacancies in their opera-tions,” chief executive David Blackhall explains.
“New car dealers in regional and rural Australia operate in areas with lower costs of living, which is reflected in the salaries they can offer.”
The AADA says Labor’s policy will leave regional business to foot a bill they may not have any choice in paying, “making it harder to operate in a competitive en-vironment” where franchised businesses compete for a limited customer base.
INSIDE
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Continued on page 12
Continued on page 6
Bosch boffin talks tech P4Vehicle waste: who gives a scrap? P5Aftermarket builds bridge to OEMs P7Alfa love tested by dealers P9
Australia’s taxi industry has stalled against rival Uber, whose army of drivers now
ferry about one fifth of Australia’s population.
After just six years, Uber has seen strong growth in all age categories and over a three-month average sees close to 4.3 million people over 14 years old use the service, according to the latest Roy Morgan research.
In 2016, Uber’s three-month av-erage was just two million, or 10.2% of the population, compared with 20% of Australia’s current popula-tion.
Uber has seen a 73% usage increase of 25 to 34-year-olds to the tune of 1.19 million, and a 253% increase in 14 to 17-year-olds amounts to 197,000 teens who now appear to trust the service as of December 2018.
To the same research period, the state-based taxi sector, still holds the upper hand in most states over-all, but is being chased by Uber.
Uber has officially overtaken in Queensland with 19.5% to Uber
Taxis stall against UberLabor’s labour shortage
solution amiss
2 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
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AUTOTALK.COM.AU | APRIL 2019 | 3
NEWSTALK
Aussie transport an international laggard
A report from the Australian Academy of Technology says our transport system is at risk of
becoming archaic.The Shifting Gears – Preparing for a
Transport Revolution report says failing to ready our transport network for the future will impede mobility, increase congestion, deteriorate health and negatively impact productivity.
Australia’s sparse population cen-tres and geographic isolation remains a critical problem, but transport can be revolutionised and disrupted by technology, the report indicates.
The academy highlights sustainabili-ty and climate change, productivity and health as the three primary challenges that need to be addressed in the next 10 years.
The congestion problem costs $16.5 billion per year alone. It’s made worse by the fact 70% of all domestic passen-ger travel in Australia occurs on roads, with 79% of passenger kilometres by road, and 82% commuting to work by car; compared with just 4% of passen-ger kilometres and just 10% of com-muting covered by rail.
Yet it’s estimated, as of February 2019, by the department of infra-structure Australia spends $27 billion per year as an economic cost of road crashes – which human error is a fac-tor in 90% of them.
Urban congestion, according to data sourced for Shifting Gears, will rise to a per annum cost of $30 billion by 2030 and the number of people using public transport in capital cities increases by 30%.
Greenhouse emissions from transport, contributing 19% of Australia’s overall emissions in 2018, will rise by a further 9% in 2030.
By that time, Australia’s population is expected to rise by more than 20% over 2017 to hit 29.8 million.
Tokyo’s 102 train lines, which include legendary 300km/h bullet trains, manages to move 14 billion people every year. Madrid, Spain, with a population of only 5.6 million people, has 21 lines and 396 stations (making it the sixth-largest metro system in the world) moving 1.5 billion passengers annually.
Seoul has Wi-Fi, television and mobile reception on every climate-controlled train. New York’s subway system, like the city itself, never sleeps and runs 24 hours a day.
Unfortunately, the academy rates Australia’s infrastructure readiness in regards to “high frequency mass tran-sit” as only a quarter ready, despite a three-quarters social readiness.
Intelligent transport systems is only rated at a quarter ready, and the skills availability for connected autonomous vehicles is also only rated a quarter.
The report makes a list of recom-mendations including governments who need to set nationally consistent standards to support productivity en-hancing technology such as electric-vehicle charging infrastructure, and of-fering competitive grants programmes to entice transport technology trials tailored to Australia’s unique geograph-ical or climatic conditions.
The academy also implores govern-ments in strengthening the teaching of STEM subjects (science, technol-ogy, engineering and mathematics) at primary and secondary school levels in order to support further workforces, as well as preparing university and VET courses to be developed in collabora-tion with industries such as automo-tive, transport and construction, to ensure a talent pool with relevant skills is available.
Academy fellow Kathryn Fagg high-lights the rapid rate at which our unique transport system is becoming affected by advanced tech-nological innovation, and the lack thereof.
“Failure to be prepared will risk a de-cline in many aspects of our Australian way of life and society,” Fagg says.
“With Australia’s geographic isola-tion and long distances between urban centres, the transport sector will be both significantly disrupted and revolu-tionised by this technological transfor-mation,” she explains.
Fagg warns “increased congestion and vehicle-related emissions, a dete-rioration in health, safety and security, and a negative impact on the cost of living, productivity and the ease of mo-bility” are all a likely result of inaction.
But she says it isn’t all bad news, suggesting Australia does have the ability to prepare.
“Australia is performing well on a number of readiness indicators and is well placed to capitalise on the coming technology revolution, but we need to make smart, strategic decisions to keep pace with the technological frontier,” she advises.
Academy fellow Kathryn Fagg
NEWSTALK
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4 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
Workshop technicians doing the flash dance
Bosch Australia has told automotive workshop business owners pass-through data sharing software is
ready and waiting for implementation.Speaking at the Australian Automotive
Aftermarket Expo, Darren Todd, senior technical director at Bosch Australia, says independent repairers, workshops and smash repairers need pass-through access to technical data expected to be legislated in 2019.
Todd says a proper pass-through system will mean workshops in Australia won’t have to pretend to be citizens in the US just to gain technical service and repair data to repair vehicles already out of factory warranty.
“Vehicles are incredibly complicated now, we know that; I was in Germany recently watching one of the newest production Mercedes park itself – that’s where we are now.
“Trying to figure out the telephone se-quence for Kansas isn’t right; we shouldn’t need to sneak around on the internet to find backdoor access to reflash a vehicle’s computer,” Todd explains.
He says pass-through access isn’t just about having access to vehicle workshop manuals, but includes having access to basic data, firmware and the ability to use it on a customer’s vehicle.
Todd says there are vehicles stretching back as far as 2013 and beyond which can have simple fault codes and software fixes performed by independent and franchise-chain workshop service technicians using pass-through programming.
“It’s not hard to think of example vehi-cles, some of the most popular, modern cars on the market, with faults that don’t go away without re-flashing,” he points out.
“The origins of most of these program-ming tools are from the US, it’s emissions
related, as most things are in our automotive world, but the EPA (En-vironmental Protection Agency) basically said they need a standard so they (American me-chanics) could fix the vehicles and keep them compliant.”
He says the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) developed the J2534 standard, which meant from 2004 any American vehicle needed to be able to be reflashed by any qualified technician, which they could obtain the software for directly from the manufacturer, using a generic ECU reflashing tool, such as the Bosch device Todd demonstrated with.
“Any workshop could perform this basic task in America,” he says.
“The standard, which was built initially for emissions, was updated later on be-cause it worked so well, and they decided to develop it, to extend the range of tasks it could fix,” Todd continues.
Todd says data access laws, expected to pass through parliament later in the year, need to offer the tens of thousands of independent vehicle repairers tech support on par with OEM-franchised dealers.
“If part of the new [Australian] legislation surrounding this means you need to clear fault codes or do security functions, they [OEMs] should provide that as well - it’s no good doing half the job then you have to take the car around to the dealer,” he says.
“It will be required by law that every-thing available to dealers will be avail-able to independent workshops, and we expect OEMs will require an accreditation process for qualification to access that data,” Todd highlights.
Continued on page 16
Darren Todd, Bosch Australia
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 5
NEWSTALK
Who gives a scrap?
A mountain of scrap vehicles the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground is generated hundreds of
times every year.The Auto Recyclers Association
of Australia and Victorian Automo-bile Chamber of Commerce say the 800,000 vehicles sent to landfill in 2018 - which could fill the MCG 400 times and stretch nose-to-tail from Sydney to Auckland return - is a sur-mountable problem.
The VACC says the 1.2 million new vehicles, including motorcycles, bought by Australian consumers, businesses and governments in 2018 will push another million end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) out of circulation and into landfill by the end of 2019.
Chief executive Geoff Gwilym says there is a growing problem in the auto-motive industry with how the millions of tonnes of scrap material is disposed of.
“Embarrassingly, Australia currently does not have a national policy dealing with ELVs,” he says.
“This lack of policy leaves the auto recycling sector vulnerable to envi-ronmental breaches and rogue trad-ers,” Gwilym explains.
VACC communications manager David Dowsey says accredited auto-motive recyclers are doing their best but can’t do it all.
“Accredited automotive recyclers do keep as much scrap from going to landfill as possible by keeping as much material as their lots can hold, and on-selling parts to give them a second or even a third life,” he says.
“But eventually that remaining vehicle carcass – those parts that are not recycled – has to go somewhere and the fact we don’t have a national end-of-life vehicle disposal policy in place to monetise and repurpose those 800,000 vehicles in scrap yards is a lost opportunity for the industry, and ecologically irresponsible,” Dowsey explains.
ARAA executive director David Nolan tells AutoTalk the auto salvage and recycling problem is an extension of Australia’s broader and widely-publi-cised waste management crisis.
“Out of about 2000 auto recycling businesses, 300-400 are doing the right thing, paying tax, meeting com-pliance standards, employing people and operating their business responsi-bly,” he says.
“But these large compliant busi-nesses are the ones at the scrutiny of regulators, and the small, rogue operators flouting the rules are hard for regulators to deal with,” Nolan explains.
According to Nolan, roughly 60% of end-of-life vehicles go through a “shredding” process, which separates a vehicle’s metal components from the glass, rubber, plastic and other non-metallic materials. But he and the VACC says there is between 200,000-300,000 tonnes of that non-metallic material going from the shredder to landfill, including 65,000 tonnes of unrecyclable vehicle material going directly into Victorian landfill each year.
Nolan says Australia is well behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to automotive waste regulation.
“Compared with Japan, China, Eu-rope and the US, Australia’s regulatory system for vehicle recycling is totally inadequate,” Nolan reveals.
“Automotive waste has a signifi-cant environmental impact because vehicles are highly intensive of material resources,” he continues.
Nolan says a wide range of various types of metals, as well as other non-metallic materials, go into making a vehicle, which then can either go back into the ground, or stay in circulation. The politics, he notes, is not producing a result.
“At an industry level it’s a signifi-cant problem, but at a federal level it isn’t; the waste management prob-lem as far as a federal government approach is concerned is to operate locally through councils and states, but the automotive problem always falls shy of attention,” he says.
“It’s too hard for local government to regulate on its own, the state-based EPA does what it can, but the federal government needs to step in and take control of the nation’s automotive waste problem,” Nolan warns.
David Nolan, Auto Recyclers Associa-tion Australia.
Geoff Gwilym, VACC.
Continued on page 6
6 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
NEWSTALK
According to the China End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) and Dismantling Industry Report, 2018-2022, Chinese vehicle ownership increased by more than 15% from 2010 to 2017 and is predicted to continue for another five years, reaching 313.1 million vehicles under ownership by 2022 – which all have a life cycle of their own.
But the same problem emerges, al-beit on a much larger scale. The report indicates 1.469 million ELVs were recy-cled in China from January-November, 2018 – an increase of 15% over the same period in 2017. But the full-year recycling rate is only as high as 20%.
China boasts an ELV scrap rate which remains far lower than the level of 6% to 8% in the developed countries, plus as many as 700 car dismantling firms, many considered small against the likes of Shenzhen GEM High-Tech which employs over 3000 people or Henan Yuguang Gold & Lead smelter and recycler with over 3500 staff.
The Chinese government offers an incentive scheme, paying subsidies di-rectly to vehicle owners, which means professional dismantling firms buy cars at a low price due to weak profitabil-ity, but causing “an influx of scrapped cars to the black market … [at] a higher price”.
According to Japan for Sustainabil-ity (JFS), it ranks in the top 10 for car ownership courtesy of the ownership rate of one car per 1.7 people. Stats Japan cites nearly 127 million people, and nearly 69 million registered cars (forgetting the 69.1 million bicycles), making end-of-life vehicles a problem for the island nation as well.
JFS says roughly 55% of parts by weight are not immediately reusable, such as “some engine components as well as catalysts, non-ferrous met-als, and tyres”, but as much as “80% of parts [by weight] per vehicle are reused
or recycled”.Nolan highlights the inadequacy
of Australian EPA regulations which allow fluids and gases such as refriger-ants like the R-134a hydroflurocarbon, which contributes to global warming, as non-recyclable. However, Japan has had regulations in place since 2002 which stipulate it can and must be recycled.
The Law Concerning the Recov-ery and Destruction of Fluorocarbons forces Japan’s automotive dismantling industry to ensure “fluorocarbons used for car air-conditioners be recovered,” JFS says.
Industrial landfill sites are near ca-pacity in Japan, where 25% of ELVs put through shredding were once typically sent to landfill, but the increase in dis-posal fees and drop in steel prices risks an illegal dumping trend.
Automakers in Japan are required by law to remove and recycle fluo-rocarbons, airbags and ASR from the vehicles they manufacture or import; fluorocarbons must simply be de-stroyed. Those manufacturers also pay collection fees at the end of this process.
Tyre Stewardship Australia says the national fleet, which the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports consisted of 19.2 million registered motor vehicles as of January 31, 2018, is putting 56 million used tyres into the waste man-agement system every year.
A 550-metre Pakenham horse track in Victoria has used a product called Equine Air which consists of approxi-mately 3000 passenger car tyres - just 27 tonnes worth – and it’s just one of 29 other projects TSA has under way.
Nolan says we’re lucky if 250,000 end-of-life vehicles were de-polluted of oil, petrol, brake fluids, coolant, lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury and plastic compounds in an environ-mentally appropriate manner.
“We are simply shredding the vehi-cles,” he says
“All of the shredder residue, which contains all of those [harmful] elements … ends up in landfill.”
“Australia seriously lags the rest of the industrialised world in managing its vehicle waste,” he adds.
Auto Recyclers Association of Aus-tralia wants to see national recognition of certified automotive recyclers.
Who gives a scrap?Continued from page 5
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | APRIL 2019 | 7
NEWSTALK
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Building bridges with OEMs
The relationship between Austra-lia’s aftermarket and carmakers is stronger than ever before, and
the rivalry isn’t what it once was.Speaking to AutoTalk
at the Aftermarket and Collision Repair Expo, Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association chief executive Stuart Charity says he’s had enough of the two
industry counterparts butting heads.Charity says what has in the past
been two sides with staunchly opposed positions on servicing and repairs, parts and vehicle warranties, as well as in the accessories and off-roading enhance-ments market, now have a lot to gain from each other.
He says a mutual, respectful relation-ship, even at the dealership level, could bring what he describes as a “Mexican stand-off” to a win-win situation.
“It isn’t quite as serious as it was a few years ago and quite frankly I want to see the end of this Mexican stand-off between us and OEMs, it’s some-thing we talk about a lot,” Charity says.
“We’re all in this industry together, we can work hand-in-glove with companies competing vigorously with each other, but in the end we’re all trying to support the consumer.
“The structure of the industry is changing and I can see some of those barriers and walls are coming down in Australia,” Charity adds.
The AAAA says with the trend of global manufacturers relying on fewer core platforms across all or multiple regions means aftermarket businesses are being increasingly relied on in local markets by those consumers.
“Due to economic pressures we’re seeing platform rationalisation, so
more vehicles are coming into our market which can’t have the same OE equipment on them to suit all our customers and every end use,” Charity says.
“If someone’s towing a heavy cara-van, or a boat, or they’re going off-road to regional areas, they’ll need auxiliary lighting, frontal protection, reinforced suspension and towing equipment, and the aftermarket has really pioneered that market, almost created it with lots of its own IP.
“What we do and what the car com-panies do – and they can’t do every-thing to the same degree of quality, refinement and testing that some of our companies do – can work in harmony,” he adds.
Charity high-lights this with the Ford Ranger as one exam-ple, where 4x4 accessories and fit-for-purpose add-ons, par-ticularly in the fleet sector, are important areas where intellectu-al property needs to be shared with the aftermarket.
He also says the fact more brands are using non-genuine parts to outfit their vehicles under warranty from the deal-
ership is testament to the ingenuity and engineering nouse of Australia’s aftermarket.
Ford’s Ranger Raptor features Fox shock absorbers, HSV fitted SupaShocks racing suspension and features the aerodynamic design of Aeroflow Performance in the rear spoiler bolted to the GTSR W1, and Toyota Australia dealerships are honouring warranty on bullbars from Frontline Australasia, LED lighting from Narva (Brown & Watson International), rock rails and recovery points from ARB and hard tonneau
Continued on page 8
Stuart Charity, AAAA.
covers from ERG Group for the Rogue, Rugged and Rugged X range.
“We’re not expecting to see Toyota fall over themselves to work with us from day one, but I think we will see more and more co-operation, because we have companies who all compete vigorously with each other to support the consumer,” Charity says.
While the term aftermarket refers to any part that is designed for, sold and fitted to a vehicle after the completion of manufacture, Charity says increas-ingly OEMs are bringing those special-ist brands closer to the production line – even at dealership level.
“The aftermarket stands ready to work with the dealership networks to provide parts solutions to give their customers a choice and more options, and our members invest a lot into innovation, R&D and branding with strong products people will demand,” Charity concedes.
“It’s not the dealers’ fault though, it’s the OEMs dictating terms of their arrangements, so we welcome discus-sions with the dealer associations on opening that because it’s a win-win opportunity,” he continues.
Charity also acknowledges the inability for brands to embrace the af-termarket in their dealership contracts means fewer bums testing seats in the showroom.
“Every business is about having a re-lationship with the customer,” he says.
“Especially around customisation, people are getting their new car on-spec, driving out of the dealership and taking it immediately to an aftermar-ket store to put all the gear put on it, so that’s a lost sales opportunity for dealerships.
“We’re also in full support of deal-ers and OEMs in their efforts to see Luxury Car Tax abolished, which should hopefully be soon,” he adds.
Charity believes in a symbiotic ecosystem between carmakers and the aftermarket and points to the spike in interest (8000 pre-registrations) for the expo seminars signifying the impor-tance of the relationship among the industry.
“There isn’t this big wall between OE parts suppliers and aftermarket, it’s just a different part of the market,” he says.
“We need the new integrated prod-uct in the showroom in order to adapt and modify and understand the tech in there to make sure we integrate with it to maintain compliance and so on – we’re all in this together and it’s a big industry, a big pie.”
Charity says talking theoretically or metaphorically about cars being com-puters on wheels is to be uninformed.
“They’re out there now coming into workshops with telematics, pass-through technology, over 40% of their content now is electronics, you’ve got radar and advanced driver assist systems, and there’s a lot of noise out there about electric cars,” Charity says.
“Our workshops, the automo-tive trade, have these cars coming in now with new technology and they just want the facts on what’s going to happen, how it’ll happen and how to adjust.”
The AAAA will open an Automotive Innovation Centre in Melbourne and Adelaide in the next year which will be modelled off the SEMA Garage in the United States, to hone skills and devel-op products for Australian consumers.
Looking at the structure and scale of the United States auto industry, the working relationship between au-tomakers and aftermarket brands here will benefit from the AIC which aims to learn the architectural, technological and electrical infrastructure under the bonnet.
“In the US, OEMs give SEMA Garage users full pre-release vehicles to do product development on because their aftermarket accessories on vehi-cles at their launch helps drive sales,” Charity explains.
“The car brands can then launch their product at SEMA with the modi-fied vehicle to show what it could look like if they buy one – we’re going to see more and more of this.”
The AAAA says it will take time to catalogue a range of vehicles’ intricate layers of data but will start with the most in-demand models such as the 4x4 dual and single-cab ute segment, 4WD wagons and popular SUVs for modification.
Building bridges with OEMsContinued from page 7
NEWSTALK
8 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
versus 18% taxis, Western Australia’s taxi fleet usage is on 19.6% (down 3.7% from 2016) against Uber’s 25.7% (up 10%), and Victoria has also seen Uber surpass taxis at 23% (up 10%) versus 20% (down 1%).
In NSW, Uber is up 11% (on 20% total) and taxis are down 1%, holding onto
24% usage, South Australia’s taxi service remains in favour of taxis 23% to 16% Uber.
Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine says Uber is enjoying global success charging affordable rates for a premium service.
“While Uber comfortably sits at a phenomenal domestic market share,
the sudden growth of new competitors cannot be ignored, and Uber would do well to reconsider where their unique value propositions are,” she says.
“However, there are now many new companies from all across the world looking to replicate Uber’s success, and they have already started to influence the Australian market,” Levine explains.
Taxis stall against UberContinued from page 1
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 9
NEWSTALK
Big brand dealer starves tiny Italian
No other brand can reach into your pulsating heart and pick at every string with such fidelity
that rationality simply leaves your brain to consciously ignore the warning light flashing on your cranial dashboard.
It’s the reason Antonio Scafidi and his fiancee Laura Cannistra got into the humble business of servicing and re-pairing Alfa Romeo and Fiat automobili. However, their passion for the brand, like love itself, is being tested.
On the Alfa Romeo website, Selenia oil is described as “the lifeblood of every Alfa Romeo ... the difference between it running as intended”, which on a technical level is becoming something nightmarish for Antonio’s Auto Service.
Their modest little family business tucked away in less-than-glamorous Thomastown depends on a relationship with a range of parts suppliers for both aftermarket, non-genuine and 100% authentic genuine Alfa Romeo and Fiat parts for the most enthusiastic of their loyal customers.
“We have quite a number of cus-tomers who absolutely will not have anything other than totally genuine Alfa Romeo parts used on their car,” Cannistra tells AutoTalk.
“But we also have a customer base who say they will not service their Fiat or Alfa with anybody else because they are a part of our family, so we honour them by giving them the best customer service we possibly can,” she adds.
Her hair is splayed, the makeup stayed in the case and her darkened fingernails suggest she is far from the primped receptionist one might find at a dealer-ship nearby. Her daggy jumper wears the proud fade of a partner dedicated to the family business, not afraid to pull on gloves and lift sheetmetal onto a welding trolley, hold an oil filter without fear of smearing, and will get involved in the workshop in any way possible.
Antonio’s is not a gleaming fran-chised service department with ironed overalls strutting under the roof of a multi-million dollar contract with a global automotive powerhouse.
But business is becoming hard to hold onto when late-model Alfa Romeo owners start to get short-changed by the brand they love, some of whom AutoTalk understands have had a better customer experience with Antonio’s than their dealership.
“When we order Selenia oil, which the customer has requested be used to ensure everything in her car is Alfa Ro-meo, we can only get it from the fran-chised dealer in Australia – it can’t be imported independently and nobody is allowed to stock it,” Cannistra explains.
“So, we order five litres, the quote comes back saying four one-litre bot-tles are on back order, and we would’ve been supplied one litre – the order also had a three-month delay,” she reveals.
Cannistra likens the situation to the food industry where “home brand” food is typically the same, if not truer to the original food, than name-brand versions, which often have added salt, sugar and preservatives behind the col-ourful, graphic label.
“It’s marketing; no car manufacturer makes the servicing parts and if I call one of the dealers to order spark plugs, filters, etc; I get a box with Alfa Romeo and Fiat logos all over it, on the packag-ing, but opening it up, they’re the same NGK plugs I could get at Burson’s or Repco,” she says.
Selenia oil is made by Petronas and is a formula of oil specifically for Alfas, especially Giulietta, made in the last 10 years.
“If I contact Petronas directly, they say they can’t sell it to me, they also can’t sell me an equivalent because there isn’t one, according to them,” she says.
“I feel they don’t want to give it to anybody else, either because their stock is tight, or they aren’t allowed to sell it to us, but considering they have to service their own customers under warranty, I find it hard to fathom,” Cannistra concedes.
“It’s unfair because they’re our only option. If they don’t have the oil, then they couldn’t possibly be putting it in cars they’re servicing,” she surmises.
According to Penrite’s product selector, 5.1 litres of Selenia goes into a current-model 1.7-litre engine Giuli-etta Veloce, and 3.5 litres goes into the 1.4-litre engine, still under warranty.
And according to VFACTS data from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, Alfa Romeo sold 56 Giuliettas year-to-date to the end of March 2019, and 89 for the year-to-date by end of March 2018. Even if sales were split 50/50 Veloce to base model and mid-spec versions, that’s 623 litres of Selenia oil required to service those vehicles in the last two years.
Anybody who tries to buy from another brand like Penrite or Liqui-Moly, will find an equivalent listing such as the “Enviro” 5w-40 from the former, which works fine in most cases, to a point.
Another workshop in Melbourne’s west run by Matt, aka “Alfa Man”, regards itself as an Alfa Romeo specialist and says the Selenia oil situation is just one example.
“The new Selenia oil blend recipe is not licensed to any other oil brand,” he says.
“There are equivalent oils you can use from other brands which match the performance and then some, but they don’t protect special solenoids which are prematurely chemically damaged by anything other than Sele-nia,” Matt reveals.
“I would suspect many workshops, possibly even some dealerships, are not
Anotonio Scafidi and Laura Cannistrà are in love with Italian cars, most of the time.
Continued on page 10
10 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
NEWSTALKNEWSTALK
using Selenia oil because whenever I’ve contacted the warehouse, they tell me it ‘hasn’t been in stock for months’ or ‘hasn’t been made available’,” he adds.
Matt says the string of curious responses doesn’t stop at the seem-ingly uber-rare Selenia oil but includes snapped timing belts not being serviced in the required intervals.
“Talking to the service manager at the Alfa dealer, I quote a part number and there’s a total lack of knowledge for Selenia or other parts,” he says, not knowing if it’s by design or inconvenient coincidence.
In terms of winning customers, the dealership, according to Cannistra and her customers, are quoting list prices for parts, excluding GST, which she pre-sumes is to make their quotes appear initially cheaper to customers.
Other hurdles for both businesses include access to data through proper Alfa Romeo scan tools. Cannistra also points out the so-called genuine part Mann oil filter (sitting on her desk) which Antonio pulled off a car, wasn’t even the licensed Alfa Romeo-branded filter, despite being identical to the non-branded Mann filter.
“We had one of the first new Alfa scan tools, even before the dealers, but when we logged on from Australia their IP blocked us out,” she says.
“We have to turn away customers when we can’t get the Selenia oil, or the Selespeed automated clutch oil which is again the only oil some cars will ac-cept,” she adds.
“It’s not fair. We started as a mobile service six years ago when Anotonio couldn’t even speak English, and we still have a handful of our very first clients, some we’re now family friends with,” Cannistra remembers.
“We even started doing overflow work or jobs other Alfa and Fiat me-
chanics didn’t know how to do; people always say ‘don’t buy Italian cars’, but it’s not the cars, it’s the mechanics, and Antonio is one of the best,” she beams.
“Antonio could take a handful of bolts, screws and clips and tell you exactly where they go.”
Matt says Alfa workshops are still managing to find ways to service vehi-cles without authenticated scan tools.
“There aren’t many brands like Alfa which require a branded proprietary-specific computer for resetting service indicator, but the software is becoming leaked through certain channels,” he dis-closes, but doesn’t give away his secrets.
Alfa was down 38% in March 2019 compared with 2018, down 12% year-to-date compared with 2018, but did finish 2018 up 21% on 2017 with 1279 reported sales. Alfa also had a strong 2017 selling 1057 cars for a sizeable 48% improvement over 2016, helped by the Giulietta launch and opening Zagame’s Richmond showroom. Alfa is coming on strong.
Fiat Chrysler Australia chief executive Steve Zanlunghi said in late 2016 that the Zagame Alfa dealership would rep-resent the start of the brand’s premium market push.
“This [dealership] is the flagship of the Alfa brand and it is way ahead of the curve [compared] with some of the other dealers,” he said.
“The journey is just beginning for the Alfa brand ... You won’t see any of our long-term dealers having competi-tive makes in their facilities,” Zanlunghi said.
There are now 16 Alfa Romeo dealers across Australia.
“We have volume aspirations, but we are not looking to take over the world with this brand,” Zanlunghi added, intending to “establish as a premium contender”.
But it seems there’s still work to be done.
“The current cars like the Giulia are amazing,” Matt continues.
“But people are walking away from dealership servicing to us because they’re not being shown the same level of customer service passion as they feel for their Alfa,” he continues.
“They love their Alfa, or their Fiat, they love the brand, but as soon as their warranty is up, they’re gone,” he concludes.
Matt says he’s also had to find several clever ways to service his customers’ cars without having to rely – if that’s the right term – on sourcing through franchised Alfa Romeo dealerships.
This begs the question why (or if) all franchised dealers, let alone Alfa Romeo, are missing the chance to sell their genuine parts in earnest to inde-pendent brand-only specialist work-shops, for the betterment of the brand.
Cannistra says many of their customers are adamant they will not have any other brand on their pristine, original Alfa.
For all the workshop business own-ers who would drop or run from the Milan and Visconti serpent badge, there are a few who wouldn’t dare.
Selenia may be the lifeblood of every Alfa, but Alfa Romeo, for better or worse, in sickness and health, runs through Antonio Scafidi and Laura Can-nistra even thicker.
Big brand dealer starves tiny ItalianContinued from page 9
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 11
NEWSTALK
A Dutchman did it and now an Italian is following suit – travel-ling the world in an EV, includ-
ing Australia.Tesla Owners Club Italy vice-pres-
ident Pierpaolo Zampini is touring in a Tesla, and has been driving around Australia for three weeks.
He was able to use one of Evee’s Tesla Model S cars, shared by its Aus-tralian owner.
Zampini travelled from Sydney to Adelaide to Townsville along the coast and then back through inland routes, visiting main cities as well as remote locations where electric cars haven’t been seen before.
He documented the 5000km Tesla trip on social media as part of his global mission to demonstrate EVs are not just the future but already present and available to many shortly.
Dutchman Wiebe Wakker has just completed a similar EV journey in a converted Volkswagen station wagon around Australia, driving 95,000km from Amsterdam to Sydney where he finished on April 7.
He’s now continuing his EV trip in New Zealand during May to July before returning home to write a book about it, saying it has proved the vi-
ability of EVs.Zampini is the
chief executive of-ficer of Ecolibera, a property develop-ment company which provides “Energy Plus” housing solu-tions in Italy and is helping with his EV journey.
The homes produce all the energy needed with zero emissions, mainly through solar panels, enough even for an electric car.
Once back in Italy, the Ecolibera Tesla will stop in Asti, where the first Energy Plus house is taking shape. It’s a villa that can be disconnected from the electricity grid and aims to have a zero power bill, the energy coming from a 20kW photovoltaic system which combines with a 42kWh Tesla Powerwall to recharge an electric car and power home utilities.
Since 2016, Zampini has traversed Europe, the USA, the United Arab Emirates, and now Australia. He is heading to Japan next.
Evee founder Slava Kozlovskii says
his company helped make Zampini’s Australian visit possible.
“We are the only Australian platform providing Tesla [and soon other EVs] for rent,” he says.
“The owner of the vehicle was also very happy to share his car with a fel-low Tesla enthusiast from Italy. This is a great example of the global EV owners’ community wanting to con-nect and share their cars with each other.
“Zampini’s Australian tour proves that long distance travel in an EV is already a reality - a view not currently shared by many in Australia, especially the Government,” he says.
“When someone from a different country can land here for the first time and immediately set off to drive 5000km in just three weeks, it defeats the very notion of range anxiety.”
Kozlovskii says Zampini’s drive is the longest road trip an Evee customer has undertaken.
“Many don’t realise that there are more power sockets in more remote areas than petrol stations. And each of those power sockets is a source of energy for your electric car.”
Italian on world Tesla trip
Slava Kozlovskii
Pierpaolo Zampini and Liliana Modoran.
12 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
NEWSTALK
The VACC tells AutoTalk the problem stems from what they have been telling the Victorian state government, and re-spective Motor Trades Associations have been telling their state governments, for many years.
“In previous decades, and even during war-time the industry was able to find sufficient local labour, which included new Australians, to make and repair cars,” chief executive Geoff Gwilym says.
“The Shorten position, while designed to encourage the uptake of local labour, does not take into consideration that many young people are landlocked in a landscape of higher education certifi-cates,” he explains.
Gwilym says Labor’s policy is well-intentioned but could have the adverse effect.
“The 30,000 people needed for auto-motive jobs is here in Australia, it’s just in the wrong classroom,” he says.
“Making overseas labour more expen-sive for employers just reduces the labour pool even further and intimately leaves employers with an even smaller skills base through which to run their businesses,” he concedes.
The Australian Automotive Dealer Association says the Shorten Labor opposition government’s proposed Temporary Skilled Migration visa policy could squeeze dealers.
The ALP proposal would mandate a 21% minimum wage increase paid to for-eign staff to discourage businesses using traditionally cheaper labour from overseas to favour local employment.
However, franchised automotive deal-ers and their respective service depart-ments, as well as independent repair workshops across Australia, are known for hiring overseas talent, often through employment agencies, in order to fill vital gaps in operational personnel.
The wage increase would amount to $11,000 extra paid on the current $53,900 wage, up to $65,000, a threshold which hasn’t changed since 2013, the last time Labor was in power.
The AADA says dealerships in regional communities are already desperate for technicians in their service departments.
“New car dealers in regional and rural Australia operate in areas with lower costs of living, which is reflected in the salaries they can offer,” the association says.
“The ALP policy will fall on regional
business, making it harder to operate in a competitive environment,” the AADA explains.
“Like all reputable businesses, AADA members only resort to temporary skill visa workers when they can’t get Aus-tralians to fill critical vacancies in their operations,” the AADA adds.
The Motor Trades Association and Victorian Automobile Chamber of Com-merce have widely reported an automo-tive trade employment hole of between 25,000-30,000 people for the last two years.
VACC chief executive Geoff Gwilym told AutoTalk recently the lack of young people entering the workforce through automotive is concerning.
“We have to find those 30,000 people who want to come into the industry as apprentice mechanics, managers, sales-people, panelbeaters,” he says.
“We have to send a very strong mes-sage to parents and schools to get them to re-engage with the automotive indus-try,” Gwilym adds.
“Automotive apprentices are generally employed for their entire life and are em-ployed quicker than university students, they also learn and grow on the job,” he concludes.
VACC, and the industry more broadly, have supported the training of young and older Australians in the automotive industry for well over 100 years.
In previous decades, and even during war-time the industry was able to find sufficient local labour, which included new Australians, to make and repair cars. In fact, women played a critical role in tough times, rolling up their sleeves to do the same work as men, in our factories and in our service and repair shops.
For many decades there was some sort of equilibrium between the growth in the economy, an expanding vehicle fleet and skilled migrant intakes. Things started to change in the late 80s when the gap between reported vacant positions in automotive and the skilled people avail-able to under-take these tasks started to widen.
This was not due to a drop in migrant intakes but more likely a perceived dulling down of the trades in Australia.
Without the benefit of foresight state-ments made by the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1988, that Australia needs to be “the clever country” exacerbated a
tide of young Australians channelling their career aspirations through university pathways instead of through vocational training and into traditional trades.
Parents and schools, and to a larger degree our communities became highly focused around higher education, with-out enough evaluation of jobs that may or may not exist at the completion of a Bachelor or higher level degree.
In fact, Gwilym says: “Melbourne is probably the Double Degree Barista capital of the world … an environment littered with people who took up higher education courses with poor employ-ment destinations”.
Yes, these people make great cof-fee but many of them would have been better advised to have gone into trades that have systemic skills shortages, like automotive.
The labour challenge was further compounded with the introduction of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) initiated in 1989 which meant that university fees were effectively invisible to students until they later earned more the $55,000, after which they had to start to pay the debt back.
And even though almost all parents insist their offspring are burgeoning Ein-stein’s, we all know deep down that some of these beautiful people just aren’t built for university study.
In 2012 more barriers to university entry were removed with the Gillard Gov-ernment removing caps (the number of students a university could enrol) on most university courses.
This created a bounty for universities who could attract students who would pay fees later in life but could also poten-tially lower entry levels and fill classrooms with new students. Clearly a popular move with a 22% increase in university student numbers between 2009 and 2013.
Well that’s a great story. So what, and how does that affect our migrant and visa intakes and the Shorten team’s policy an-
Labor’s labour shortage solution amiss
Geoff Gwilym, VACC.
David Blackhall, AADA
Continued from page 1
Continued on page 16
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 13
NEWSTALKPEOPLETALK
Workshop technicians doing the flash danceContinued from page 4
AAAA director of government relations Lesley Yates says this is a whole-of-industry issue and data pass-through will offer benefits for all parties.
“We have leaflets designed to be given to customers that tell them under Australian Consumer Law they are able to choose the vehicle service and repair workshop of their choice without af-fecting their warranty,” she begins.
“Maintaining your statutory rights [as a consumer] requires you use a workshop with qualified staff and fit-for-purpose parts – there is no requirements, even with a brand new car, for you to take it back to the dealer.”
She describes a “watershed moment” is coming in Australia’s automotive in-dustry with the legislation expected to be passed later in 2019.
“You’d be forgiven for asking: ‘Are we there yet?’, but this is a very exciting time,” Yates says.
“You’ll soon be able to tell the kids that come in to work in your business that you remember a regime where there wasn’t mandatory data sharing, that you remember having to diagnose a fault and fix a car without having ac-cess to data.”
“You’ll be the last generation of peo-ple who have to make this s*** up as you go along,” she adds.
Bosch technician Darren Todd also says the Europeans have even come around to the American system, having been in a similar position to Australia.
He says in 2009, Europe followed the American model, although left a number of loopholes.
“It’s a real mess the way certain coun-tries get around the system; there’s some real dodgy stuff going on, so I’m glad we’re taking the American approach and following the consumer law approach,” Todd explains.
He says most vehicles in Australia since about 2013 are capable of being reflashed using pass-through program-ming, but it’s not always that simple.
“The vehicles are capable of being reflashed, but that doesn’t mean the manufacturer provides you the software and the ability to do it as an independent
workshop. “General Motors do,
but they’re the poster brand for that; post-2005 when Australia went Euro 5, cutting and pasting the European emissions legislation, they left out all the important bits about getting the information and actually doing the job,” he continues.
Getting down to dem-onstrating the pass-through procedure, Todd uses a 2005 Holden VZ Commo-dore, where it becomes immediately ob-vious how many computerised hoops a workshop technician must jump through on an Australian-made vehicle that’s turning 14 years old.
He urges business owners to ensure they have even the most basic require-ments sorted before trying to attempt a vehicle computer reflashing procedure.
“Before you even think about playing around with this stuff, you need a serious power supply,” he advises.
“If you’re in the middle of reprogram-ming a vehicle and the battery goes flat, or the computer’s battery goes flat, it’s going to be a really expensive job,” Todd warns.
The power supply requirements for data pass-through tasks as not to be underestimated, Todd explains, with the likes of BMW “now up to about 90amps for their [module] power supply”.
He says technicians who are connect-ing up to any late model vehicle need to guarantee batteries stay charged, “Otherwise you will brick the vehicle and it’s often unrecoverable”.
Staff who like to do things their own way and take liberties may also find themselves in hot water.
“You must follow the manufacturer’s instructions, and these are expensive instructions to not follow properly,” he implores.
Todd himself admits to a laughing audience how “highly likely” his demon-stration was to “turn to poo”.
Preparing the vehicle, he says in ad-dition to checking the power supply, because technicians are working with software and hardware, getting pass-through programs to work needs solid USB connections.
He advises against Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and the bad habits of a messy work space - not leaving cables laying around to be kicked or tripped on, ensuring stable internet connection, pathologi-cally following instructions to the letter, writing down passwords to be readily accessible when needed and storing them in a safe place.
As Todd filters through drop-down menus, clicking on sub-category after sub-category, navigating a software maze reminiscent of selecting a pro-gram in The Matrix and using jargon that probably needs its own thesaurus, it’s increasingly apparent that the below-average workshop could be very quickly overwhelmed with the level of complex-ity without proper training.
Todd explains the need to register with OEMs to use their data could easily become another competitive barrier. He says proof is in the fact so many are forced to use false registration details as a known tactic in the industry to get around guarded carmakers not willing to make data readily accessible.
“All this software we’re talking about downloading, it’s not Bosch’s or the tool providers, it’s all from the manufacturer, so it’s easy to be out on your own if you have problems,” he empathises.
Lesley Yates, AAAA
14 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
Lead management in the Wi-Fi age
In my 20 years working in automo-tive advertising, I’ve seen a huge amount of change, both in the types
of advertising available to dealerships, as well as the way that the customers purchase vehicles.
Back in the day, new customers were either walk-ins visiting their lo-cal dealership, or would make contact in response to radio or print advertis-ing, or following a vehicle search on a classified site. Prospective customers would want to speak to their chosen dealership, either on the telephone or face-to-face; and when they hit the showroom floor, they were well and truly in-market for a new vehicle.
The new generation of automo-tive customer, however, is different. With the advent of digital advertising, customer targeting is far more sophis-ticated than it has ever been. Social media, Google and YouTube adver-tisements can be targeted based on a variety of demographics and profiles, meaning prospective customers can be reached at an earlier stage in their buying journey.
These customers are likely to be in the early “consideration” phase of the purchasing funnel. This means they may not necessarily be in-market and ready to buy at the very moment they see and respond to your advertise-ment, but experience has shown that, if nurtured and managed well, these
can be the most valuable leads for your business.
So, how should you manage this new brand of leads?
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONDespite what you’ve been taught,
don’t just pick up the phone. Many of these early-stage leads will be re-sponding to a digital advertisement, so it is more than likely they will contact you electronically via website enquiry, live chat, SMS, email, or Messenger.
It is important that you respond to these customers in the same way that they have contacted you - at least in the first instance. They need to feel as though they are in control of the com-munication.
ON THEIR TERMSIf conversations with the customer
are continuing, it is important to con-firm their preferred method(s) and times for communication. Many may need to speak to you after hours or on their lunch break, so it’s important to be flexible and allow them to dictate when and how the communication will take place.
TREAD CAREFULLYThis new type of customer is often
at the very start of their purchasing journey. They do not want to feel pres-sured into making a decision about a new vehicle, so it is important that you tread carefully with them. Show empathy and understanding and, in the early stages, focus your contact more on providing information and answer-ing questions about the vehicle, as op-
posed to locking them into a test drive.
UTILISE YOUR CRMThese customers need long-term
nurturing, which means it is important that all contact with them is recorded in your CRM to avoid bombarding them with too many calls or emails.
CRMs usually include data such as how many times and when an email has been opened. By using this intel, you can gauge the level of interest a customer has in your dealership, as well as what time might be appropri-ate to contact them.
If this new brand of lead is well managed by your sales team, your dealership will reap the rewards. You will find that these customers are less likely to look around at other dealer-ships, which means that price will be less of a factor for them in their purchasing decision. This in turn will give you the opportunity to leave more margin in your car, which will be great for the dealership’s bottom line.
Furthermore, if a customer has a positive experience with your dealer-ship from the moment of enquiry right through to delivery of their vehicle, the results will be sure to reflect in your customer satisfaction index (CSI), and in your repeat business through service and further sales.
So, when you see those chats and web enquiries come through from a digital ad, don’t dismiss them as time-wasters. Treat them as serious buyers who, with a bit of long-term TLC, could be your dealership’s most valuable customers.
Gavin Coxchief commercial of-ficer, AdTorque Edge
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autotalk.com.auTHE VEHICLE DEALER’S NEWS SOURCE
PEOPLETALK
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 15
PEOPLETALK
Millennials and cars
As the Millennial generation -- those born between 1981-1996 -- gets older, starts families and shift to more affordable housing in suburbia, they too are following earlier genera-tions into car ownership.
However, there is little doubt that there are economic, social and tech-nological influences on this generation that mean that they don’t quite think or behave like the generations preced-ing them.
Senior commercial analyst at car-sales, Kane Hocking, outlines a few factors that dealers should keep in mind about when marketing and sell-ing to millennial car buyers.
1. Social media
“As the first generation to grow side-by-side with social media, mil-lennials are highly influenced by what they see posted online by friends, celebrities, influencers and people they’ve never met,” explains Hocking.
“And online posts are dedicated to the showing the best and most pre-mium products, services and customer experiences. Anything less than that standard, hurts social standing”
A recent study by Allianz Life in the US revealed that 57% of millenni-als spent money on something they hadn’t planned to because of what they saw online.
“Millennials are diverting spend to products and services that boost their social standing amongst peers – best evidenced by the explosion of luxury sneakers and upgrading to premium products such as Gold Class cinema
and premium airline seating. “In the car space, this is reflected in
the growth in prestige sales in recent years. The share of prestige and luxury brand new cars sales nearly doubled in Australia between 2012 and 2018, growing from 6.5% to 11%, or around 60,000 cars.
“The challenge is to build this experiential element and emotion into the car purchase – and not just across premium price points.
“It’s important to keep in mind that there is an aspirational vehicle for millennials at every price point. The success of cars such as the Mazda 3 and Fiat 500 with private buyers is testament to this.”=
2. Big debt and new expenses
According to GM’s global design boss Mike Simcoe: It’s not the car themselves, but their prices, that may impact car ownership.
“Value for money in terms of specs and features has never been better for new cars. However, record levels of student debt in the US, higher utility and insurance costs and casualisation of labour, have pushed the new car purchase down the priority list.
“Smartphone costs are also higher than ever – not to mention there are new ‘must-haves’ such as Netflix.
“A lot of the millennial lifestyle has been funded via Alternative Payment Lenders which have burst on to the scene in recent years. These firms are not regulated as a credit provider for the purposes of the National Credit Consumer Protection Act 2009 (Cth), allowing them to capitalise on the need for immediate gratification.”
3. Frictionless transacting
The Deloitte University Press study, “The changing nature of mobility”, found that millennial drivers value the
customer experience three times as much as vehicle design.
“The customer experience that a millennial expects form a bricks and mortar retailer, is the same friction-less transaction they’re accustomed to from pure online retailers –easy, fast and transparent.
”Of course, we all know that car buying - as the second highest value purchase that most of us will make – can be complex and intimidating for many. ‘See and Touch’ will always be a critical element of an emotional purchase, but the best customer expe-riences will seamlessly align the online experience with the showroom – to grow conversion and retention.
On carsales, buyer satisfaction with dealers -- measured by Average Dealer Ratings -- falls as the buyer becomes younger.
“Multiple and long paper forms, and drawn out negotiation is not how this generation is accustomed to transacting.”
Tips to better engage millennials
1. Photos and video that stimulate emotion
Instagram and Facebook have conditioned millennial buyers to high quality photos that elicit an emotional response. This makes listing photog-raphy as critical as ever. A vehicle can become an aspirational or premium choice for a millennial when photos present it in the best light.
In an Australian automotive clas-sifieds first, dealers are also now empowered to upload video to their listings on carsales.com.au, bringing to life exterior and interior features, sounds and condition, and building greater excitement and emotion.
2. Message instead of diallingMany millennial buyers will prefer
David Toscano,Carsales trade marketing content producer
Continued on page 16
16 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
NEWSTALK
interacting with your business through SMS or instant messaging, as opposed to the traditional phone call, as nego-tiating can be a less daunting experi-ence for them. SMS enquiries should be treated as seriously as phone and email, and buyers that enquire via this channel will expect an even faster response.
3. ‘Fair deal’ pricing Upfront, “fair deal pricing” with little
to no room for negotiation, aligns with how millennials want to buy a car.
35% of millennials say trying to negotiate makes them stressed, while 45% of millennials would prefer to avoid it entirely.1
4. Transparent borrowingThe changes to flex commission rules
give rise to an opportunity to increase rate transparency. This in turn may help increase finance penetration rates. No-
tably, the volume of new cars finance at Australian dealers is less than half of that in the US and as such, dealers are en-couraged to widely advertise transparent and easy-to-understand finance rates.
Source:1 Why millennials say they avoid
negotiating published March 22, 2019. URL: https://www.ibj.com/articles/72992-charlotte-westerhaus-renfow-why-millennials-say-they-avoid-negotiating.
nouncement on overseas worker? We have to recognise in Australia that
we have the available labour here but it’s almost impossible to untap. Notwith-standing some great exceptions, most schools, and no doubt parents, continue to consciously or unconsciously bias our youth toward university pathways.
While we know we have great careers in the trades and there are many many jobs here, we gladly wave our youth off
to the local, interstate or international university to undertake their studies. Until we change this mindset, until we have a committed vocational skills approach in primary and secondary schools this dilemma will not change.
The Shorten position, while designed to encourage the uptake of local labour, does not take into consideration that many young people are landlocked in a landscape of higher education certificates.
Once they have spent half a decade
in higher education they are less likely to ever start an apprenticeship, even if they would have a made a great chippy or mechanic.
The 30,000 people needed for auto-motive jobs is here in Australia, it’s just in the wrong classroom. Making overseas labour more expensive for employers just reduces the labour pool even further and intimately leaves employers with an even smaller skills base through which to run their businesses.
Labor’s labour shortage solution amiss
Millennials and cars
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Continued from page 14
Continued from page 12
Toyota rises in April despite slow year
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 17
NEWSTALKSTATSTALK
Top 10 Brands
1. Toyota 64,753
2. Mazda 35,987
3. Mitsubishi 30,016
4. Hyundai 26,834
Top 10 Brands continued p20AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 17
The Australian new car sales race was dominated by Toyota in April with three models in the top 10
despite a haemorrhaging market.According to the latest VFACTS report-
ed sales figures provided by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, April’s monthly reported sales decline completes a full year of monthly market misfortune.
April 2019 fell 7380 reported sales short of last year’s effort, a whopping 8.9% slump, worse than the 7.1% drop in March, not quite as bad as the 9.3% scalping of February, and worse again than the 7.4% drop in January.
The downward trend didn’t stop Toyota, whose market share increased 0.3% to 18.8%, or 64,753 reported sales year-to-date, albeit down 4359 sales against April 2018.
Toyota’s Prado snuck into the top 10 models to finish ninth on 1473 reported sales (down 13.3%), but it was the Land-Cruiser which marched into fifth place on 2034 reported sales (up 0.8%), to beat Hyundai’s i30 in sixth (1910, up 0.4%), Mazda’s CX-5 seventh (1827, up 5.9%), Kia Cerato eighth (1650, up 24.8%), and the Hyundai Tuscon 10th (1355, down 25%).
Holden’s best-selling model, in retail, remains the Colorado on 5180 sales year-to-date, but the brand holds on to ninth brand overall with just 15,305 sales year-to-date – 4792 sales down on 2018. Honda Nissan and Volkswagen, plus Ford, are also showing declines, while Kia is up to 19,331 sales for a 5.6% market share.
Ford’s Ranger is up 7.7%, Toyota’s Corolla lost 18.5% over April 2018 and Mazda 3 holds onto fourth place but is also down 2.9% over April 2018.
Passenger vehicles are down 13.5% (3717 reported sales) compared with April 2018, SUVs are down 8.2% (2969), and the light commercials were tools-down to the tune of 486 sales (down 3.0%).
FCAI chief executive Tony Weber says the trend of 2018-19 continues.
“The results for April are in line with trends for year-to-date 2019; we’ve seen a decrease of around eight per cent across the first four months of the year,” he says.
“This decrease is the result of a number of factors in the Australian market, includ-ing the downturn in the housing mar-ket, the tightening of lending practices, environmental factors such as drought and flood, and, of course, the imminent Federal Government election,” Weber explains.
“With all these elements currently present in the market, it is no surprise that Australian consumers are conservative in their approach to major purchases at the moment,” he adds.
Kia Cerato capitalises on sodden sales
2019 sales in AprilTop 10 Light Passenger
Over $25K
1. Hyundai Accent
998
2. Toyota Yaris 678
3. Mazda2 642
5. Suzuki Swift 523
6. Honda Jazz 382
7. Volkswagen Polo 365
8. MG MG3 150
9. Suzuki Baleno 77
10. Skoda Fabia 61
4. Kia Rio 538
1. Mercedes- Benz A-Class 346
2. Audi A3 225
3. BMW 1 Series 181
5. MINI Clubman 15
6. BMW i3 9
7. Mercedes- Benz B-Class 3
8. BMW 2 Series 0
9. Volvo V40 0
10. Volvo V40 Cross Country 0
4. Lexus CT200H 18
Top 10 Small Passenger Over $40K
18 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
STATSTALK
6. Kia 19,331
10. Holden 15,308
9. Honda 14,872
7. Nissan 15,866
8. Volkswagen 15,871
Top 10 Brands continued
5. Ford 21,062
Top 10 Brands continued
The very first impressions of Suzu-ki’s reborn Jimny off-road were full of childish smiles followed
by a wagging tongue, not dissimilar to that of a dog’s out the car window.
It’s frisky, capable, light, grunty and virtually unstoppable in first and second-gear squirts up and down the well-trodden slopes of the Melbourne 4x4 proving ground. Its hill descent control will work its hardest against gravity going down the most unnerving descents, and fight like hell scrambling up the trickiest, most washed-out inclines.
In the wilderness, when it’s just you, the other half and the dog atop a pile of camping gear, the Jimny absolutely fits the brief, especially when adding ARB bullbars, a Warn winch, UHF radio, Rhino roof racks and a Narva light bar to blind moths on the next ridgeline.
But sampling both automatic and manual flavours of Jimny in the con-crete jungle, among trams and traffic, threading through thorny intersections and tracking towards Toorak, the onus of compromise starts leaning back onto the driver.
To be brutally honest, initially, the Jimny feels flimsy and floppy in the modern metropolitan world of speed humps, multi-vehicle freeway fracas and school drop-offs.
The four-speed automatic – yes, you read that correctly – with overdrive – again, correct, and no you’re not in the 1990s – has trouble deciding whether to change up or stay in gear and fire all 75kW of hilarious rage and a weirdly suf-ficient 130Nm of torque. When you need to get going, the only option is to floor it, and wait for the cogs to change.
The 1.5-litre petrol-four is a brilliant little engine, with mountain goat-like take off and consistent throttle input at low-speeds and for crawling over the
crest of a dusty slope. But in traffic it peaks so quickly there’s nothing smooth or progressive about it, you’re just going or stopping. Hard.
Hard because the brakes also lack grace and feel; preferring a lunging stomping to wipe off speed (see-sawing on the front shocks) rather than a confident press of the pedal. The fact it weighs less than 1.1 tonnes in both auto or manual is your advantage here.
The manual, however, is much better, presuming you remember what to do with the stalk sticking out of the floor. In a few quick movements you’re already in fifth gear, but again, in the real world, fifth on the freeway commute, still revs sit on 3000rpm at 100km/h - like a Torana!
Also, on freeways, especially the likes of the M80 Ring Road where large sec-tions are susceptible to high winds, so too is the slab-sided Jimny.
While on said freeway, trying to over-take means revving its proverbial bits off, building up speed to the point air rushes over the windscreen and the cabin is filled with the rumbles of brick-like aero-dynamic efficiency.
When things calm down and you take a moment to appreciate the funky retro cabin design, the front passenger grab handle is one of the highlights (although the tough-looking hex-bolts are fake), and the use of space is clever consider-ing there isn’t much.
Window switches are on the centre dash in front of your left hand because there’s literally nowhere to put it on the door trim, the Suzuki infotainment system is joyfully easy to use, and a conventional manual park brake means less electronic faff to go wrong.
However, the cupholder – singular – is totally useless sitting almost behind your left kidney, and the centre console bin is so small it should’ve been made into an armrest because there’s literally nowhere to put your left elbow.
Also redundant is the door bin, which is so thin you can barely get your hand in to retrieve anything. This includes your
phone which started the journey placed vertically for easy removal, but fell hori-zontal as you braked for traffic. Pro tip: Connect your phone to USB ports and use the cable to winch it out.
The lack of a digital speedo means you’re guessing the set cruise control speed, until the dash cluster displays your needle is somewhere between 98 and 101km/h. This begs the ques-tion why a digital readout couldn’t have found its way, given the guerilla-style level of anti-speed enforcement in our modern world.
The Jimny is a remarkable vehi-cle and pulls the enthusiasts. A bloke named Eddie pulled up out front seeing the bright white 2019 Jimny on the nature strip.
His 20-something lilac Sierra, is still going strong, despite faded stickers, crackled paint in places and an inte-rior true to its odometer reading nearly 200,000km. We spoke for at least 15 minutes as he tried to wipe the smile off his face that he could get himself into the new one for less than 30 grand.
Personally, Jimny can’t be World Car of the Year, in my opinion, because anything less than a five-star ANCAP or EuroNCAP rating simply cannot be the best. But don’t confuse this with disdain.
Engineering and design are both below expectations and surpasses them, because car buyers deserve life-saving five-star structural safety and airbags which deploy properly, and yet Suzuki have delivered exactly the Jimny people like Eddie want.
Jimny is an automotive oddity in 2019. In so many ways it’s a brilliant little machine that farmers, off-roaders, campers and adventurers will and clearly do love because order books are full. But despite having autono-mous emergency braking, there’s no gentle way to say I wouldn’t put my family in one, and didn’t.
In full disclosure, it’s easy to love the old-school manual Jimny, but it belongs on a farm or in the bush off the beaten track, not on the road.
Wild in the countryScott Murray,Editor
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 19
20 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
STATSTALK
Hybrids charge ahead
Hybrids continue making big gains in the passenger market, especially against diesel ve-
hicles which are declining in droves.Electrics and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs)
are playing catch up with hybrids in most cases, according to the last VFACTs April new vehicle sales figures.
The biggest increases for hybrids are in the private and non-private passen-ger segments, recording 552 for April (up nearly 68% on April 2018) and 1024 (up 58% on April last year) respectively.
Year-to-date (YTD) totals in that category show the drive for hybrids is on with 2187 in the private passenger market, up 88% on the same time last year. And in the non-private passenger category the YTD figure is 3812 – a 66.8% rise.
It’s not so good for hybrids in the SUV private and non-private categories though.
In April, hybrids accounted for 65 sales in the private sector and 70 in the non-private SUV segment. The first category was up by just six on the same month last year and the latter market down 15.7% in monthly comparisons, with YTD totals little better (about 28% up for private and down the same amount for non-private).
Electrics and PHEVs only really made substantial gains in the SUV private and non-private sectors – up 516.7% to 74 and up 157.7% to 67 respectively, so not huge numbers. YTD totals in those categories were 201 private – up 337%, and 492 – up 256.5%.
In private passenger sales, electrics and PHEVs recorded a small increase with 22 for April – up just five on April 2018, and 123 YTD compared with 73 previously (a 68.5% rise).
The dropped in the non-private pas-
senger area, just 18 electrics and PHEVs sold in April – down five on the previous month with only 84 YTD were down 53.8% on the previous YTD total of 182.
There was no movement at all in the light commercial non-private electric/PHEV sector which stays at just five YTD.
Whether those figures change after the May 18 federal election remains to be seen.
But the April sales statistics certainly show vehicle sales generally are down.
Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) chief executive Tony Weber says it’s a continuing trend.
“The results for April are in line with trends for year-to-date 2019. We have seen a decrease of around 8% across
the first four months of the year.“This decrease is the result of a num-
ber of factors in the Australian market, including the downturn in the hous-ing market, the tightening of lending practices, environmental factors such as drought and flood, and, of course, the imminent federal government election.”
Until such time as a national EV tar-get is set, various incentives introduced and charging infrastructure improved, the vehicle sales figures for the electric/PHEV categories in particular are not expected to change much either.
Recent studies and agencies like the Electric Vehicle Council say Australia runs a real risk of being left behind on vehicle technology unless political ac-tion is taken nationally.
NEW VEHICLE SALES BY BUYER TYPE AND FUEL TYPE APRIL 2019
Month YTD Variance +/- Vol. & %
Total Market 2019 2018 2019 2018 MTH YTD MTH YTD
ELECTRIC Passenger Private
22 17 123 73 5 50 29.4% 68.5%
Passenger Non-Private
18 23 84 182 -5 -98 -21.7% -53.8%
SUV Private 74 12 201 46 62 155 516.7% 337.0%SUV Non-Private
67 26 492 138 41 354 157.7% 256.5%
Light Com-mercial Non-Private
0 1 5 1 -1 4 -100.0% 400.0%
Sub Total 181 79 905 440 102 465 129.1% 105.7%HYBRID Passenger Private
552 329 2,187 1,163 223 1,024 67.8% 88.0%
Passenger Non-Private
1,024 648 3,812 2,286 376 1,526 58.0% 66.8%
SUV Private 65 59 278 217 6 61 10.2% 28.1%SUV Non-Private
70 83 243 337 -13 -94 -15.7% -27.9%
Sub Total 1,711 1,119 6,520 4,003 592 2,517 52.9% 62.9%
TOTAL 1,892 1,198 7,425 4,443 694 2,982 57.9% 67.1%
Hybrids remain the flavour of the month.
STATSTALK
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 21
DIARYTALK
candidates to account and ensure road and public trans-port users have a fair share of funding for safer roads.
April 9‘Lemon laws’ eliminating dodgy car sales“Lemon laws” passed by the Queensland Government now give customers who have bought cars with several de-fects greater legal protections.
The new laws lift the limit that customers can claim from $25,000 to $100,000 through Queensland’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Uber Australia sets five-star vehicle requirementAll new vehicles signed up with Uber Australia from October will need a five-star Australasian New Car Assess-ment Program (ANCAP) safety rating.
An email sent to driv-ers this month spelled out the requirement, with Uber Australia head of drivers Lucas Groevenveld saying most UberX trips in Australia are already taken in cars that have a five-star ANCAP rating or equivalent.
April 10Australia’s vehicle industry may be resurrected
Labor may offer key manu-facturers millions of dollars to build electric and hydrogen vehicles in Australia.
Under a yet-to-be un-veiled Labor plan, research and development grants from a $1 billion fund could come to the automotive industry, the ABC reports.
NT police select KIA StingerNorthern Territory (NT) se-lected the KIA Stinger as its front-line road traffic polic-ing vehicle, following in the
footsteps of Queensland and Western Australia.
The old Holden Com-modore SS fleet is being phased out for the bi-turbo V6 Stinger as its replacement after being trialled in the NT and found to be a suitable replacement, Road Policing Command commander Matt Hollamby says.
April 12Hydrogen has a role in Australia’s EV futureHydrogen Mobility Australia chief executive officer Claire Johnson says hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are the lesser-known zero emission technology, but not for long.
With discussion on the future of Australia’s transport fleet growing day-by-day, it’s time to bring the other electric vehicle to the forefront of this important conversation, she says.
April 17MTA Institute first trade to be ACPET CertifiedThe Motor Trades Association (MTA) Institute is the first trade registered training organisa-tion (RTO) in Australia to be approved under the ACPET Industry Certification Pro-gramme.
“The programme explores a student’s journey, from their first encounter right through to graduation and there is an extensive evalu-ation process involved in becoming an ACPET Industry Certified Member,” MTA Insti-tute general manager Paul Kulpa says.
April 18Four-wheel drive hire business under consumer cloud
Continued on page 22
April 1Labor policy accelerates Australia’s EV ambitions – EVCLabor’s National Electric Vehi-cle policy is branded a “game changer” by the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia and would introduce a national retail sales target of 50% by 2030 and a Government electric vehicle target of 50% by 2025.
Other key aspects include an upfront tax deduction for businesses purchasing EVs and a formal EV COAG agenda, which EVC chief executive Be-hyad Jafari says is an “exciting stride forward for the nation”.
Buying intentions decline over next four yearsAutomotive consumer inten-tions are at their lowest in four years and well below the 15-year average.
According to Roy Morgan research, there were 135,000 fewer intending consumers in the automotive market at the end of 2018, 6% down on December 2017.
April 2VACC demands Luxury Car Tax bites election dustThe Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce says the rancorous Luxury Car Tax needs to be abolished by whoever wins the 2019 federal election.
Chief executive Geoff Gwi-lym says the fact both country and metro-based consumers are forced to buy a Mitsubishi Pajero, Toyota LandCruiser or Nissan Patrol with 33% tax added on top of the GST-inclusive price simply because the $66,331 threshold is unfair.
Carmakers back Labor eco-vehicle policy
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries says the Labor opposition govern-ment’s new focus on low emissions and electric vehicle targets “deserves attention”.
The FCAI advises of a cau-tious approach to the 50% low-emission vehicle sales target by 2030, in favour of a more progressive transition.
Chief executive Tony Weber says plenty of low and zero-emission vehicles are al-ready available and the target will encourage sales.
April 4Innovation centres to grow automotive manufacturingTwo Automotive Innova-tion Centres will open in Melbourne and Adelaide this year to support the growth of Australia’s automotive manu-facturing sector.
Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association chief executive Stuart Charity says the AIC facilities have state government backing and will also add to automotive jobs security, creation and an un-precedented level of vehicle product development.
April 8AAA launch campaign listening to AustraliansThe Australian Automobile Association (AAA) launched a nationwide campaign that lets voters communicate directly with their local Federal Elec-tion candidates about road and transport issues.
“My Money. My Transport” enlists voters hold all political
AUSSIE TALK DIARY AutoTalk Australia’s editor Scott Murray looks at the month gone by on autotalk.com.au
22 | AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019
DIARYTALK
Continued from page 21
Australian 4WD Hire has allegedly engaged in uncon-scionable conduct and unfair contract terms by penalising customers for using vehicles in less than ideal conditions.
The Australian Competi-tion and Consumer Com-mission accuses the off-road vehicle hire business of breaching consumer law by charging customers for driving behaviours it claimed would cause excessive wear and damage to vehicles.
April 19Dealers will be heard before electionThe Australian Automotive Dealer Association will be speaking to local members in the next four weeks to make sure the issues of the fran-chised new car retail network are heard.
The AADA says its Driving Our Future campaign aims to engage both sides of the political divide by connecting with members of the public, partnership businesses and members of local communi-ties on political issues affect-ing dealers.
April 22Battery tech employee allegedly caught stealing trade secretsBattery charging technology company CTEK is facing a lawsuit from rival NOCO after an employee was allegedly caught stealing trade secrets inside a notebook.
The notebook belonged to a NOCO employee exhibit-ing the brand at the Austral-ian Automotive Aftermarket Expo on April 6, when it was allegedly taken by a CTEK member in what the lawsuit
claims was an attempt to steal “sales strategy, contacts and valuable” notes from a smaller, emerging rival brand.
April 23Nissan ute partnership will end - Daimler chiefNew Daimler chief executive Ola Källenius says the joint venture between Daimler and the Nissan-Renault alliance won’t last much longer.
The arrangement which saw the Nissan Navara plat-form on which the X-Class was based and modified upon will cease, according to an inter-view by Manager Magazine in Germany with Källenius which refers to him suggesting he will “gently drain the alliance without hurting anyone” and “end the co-operation”.
AHG responds to AP Eagers bid
Automotive Holdings Group is reiterating to shareholders to take no action while the bid from AP Eagers is in motion.
AHG says an AP Eagers bidder’s statement has been sent to AHG shareholders in relation to the unsolicited and conditional takeover of-fer of shares.
April 25Hacked Tesla reveals fleet-wide threat potentialThe successful hacking of a Tesla Model 3 has exposed potential weaknesses in the company’s software security.
Thanks to contestants competing to expose flaws in cyber security systems in some of the biggest compa-nies, the Pwn2Own competi-tion has seen two hackers crack the infotainment software on the new Tesla Model 3.
April 2
Cost of NZTA regulatory failures ‘unknown’Reported comments about the future of the NZ Transport Agency’s regulatory function “are misleading and incorrect”, regu-latory compliance lead Steve Haszard says.
Haszard says the NZTA is making a lot of progress in addressing areas of non-compliance identified in its recent review.
April 5NZ beats Aussie at own gameA New Zealander has taken out the victory at the Tech
Guild grand finals held at Holden Australia Headquarters in Melbourne.
Craig Bright from West City Holden took the Grand Champion title at the annual event, where thousands of technicians from Australia and New Zealand compete in a series of hands-on tasks and assessments.
April 9MG Motor appoints first three dealersMG Motor New Zealand has confirmed the first three of its new dealers – in Tau-ranga, Palmerston North and Christchurch.
Farmer Motor Group will be its first dealer representa-tive in Tauranga, Cartown in Palmerston North, and Cockram Motor Group for
Christchurch and the wider South Island.
Colin Muir to depart Isuzu NZIsuzu NZ general manager Colin Muir has announced his resigna-tion and will be joining equip-ment and machinery dealership AdvanceQuip.
Muir starts the new role of AdvanceQuip general man-ager effective from May 6.
April 11Year-round stink bug treatment has industry supportShippers and importers are floating the idea of an industry initiative to have Oceania-bound vessels heat treated for stink bugs all-year round.
It comes as the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is seeking feedback on plans to introduce stricter import requirements for vehicles and sea containers.
April 23Autotrader.co.nz sold to managementBauer Media have exited the automotive publishing space in New Zealand with the sale of its iconic Autotrader brand to its former managers.
From last week, Ross Logue and Richard East have taken control of the website and magazine, under a new company Autotrader Media Group.
New boss confirmed for Trade MeThe boss of Trade Me’s Nor-wegian counterpart has been picked to lead New Zealand’s leading online commerce site.
Anders Skoe, the CEO of Finn.no and executive vice-president of Nordic Marketplaces at Schibsted in Norway, will move to New Zealand to take on the role later this year.
THE DIARY AutoTalk New Zealand’s group editor Richard Edward looks at the month gone by on autotalk.co.nz
AUTOTALK.COM.AU | MAY 2019 | 23
DIARYTALK
EV TALK DIARY EVtalk Australia editor Geoff Dobson looks at the month gone by on www.evtalk.com.au
April 2Transport drivers demand Safe Rates as capitals brought to a crawlSunday’s nationwide Safe Rates protest brought state capitals to a peaceful crawl as transport drivers honked, revved and rumbled their way through the streets.
More than 200 trucks brought the Sydney Harbour Bridge to a crawl in both directions and circling the CBD, to highlight the flawed industry which has seen 27 people killed in truck crashes so far this month, including nine truck drivers.
Kenworth launches new truck rangeKenworth is releasing two new additions to its range with the
T360 and T410 trucks models.The trucks feature the
new 2.1m wide cab, originally launched in December 2016 in the T610.
April 10Fatal crashes involving trucks down, report findsThe number of fatalities involving trucks on Australian roads has dropped 14% in two years, according to the Na-tional Truck Accident Research Centre (NTARC) report.
The report also predicts we could see zero truck-in-volved fatalities from 2032.
April 12SEA Electric builds momentum
Australian automotive electric technology company SEA Elec-tric is set to exhibit at Califor-nia’s Advanced Clean Transpor-tation (ACT) expo this month.
The company has taken a number of vehicle orders from the recent Work Truck Show in Indianapolis that will soon be deployed to cities includ-ing Detroit, Philadelphia, New York City and San Francisco.
April 23UD Trucks tops up Quon rangeUD Trucks Australia is an-nouncing a new 8-litre Quon variant ahead of the 2019 Brisbane Truck Show.
The addition comes in two models, the CD 25 360 and the CW 25 360, and follows
two years after the launch of the new Quon range.
April 24Hybrid bus fleet hits Melbourne streets
The first of 50 new hybrid buses have been introduced to Melbourne public trans-port routes marking the biggest single order of hybrid buses in Australia.
The buses, featuring Volvo hybrid driveline and Volgren bodywork, are be-ing introduced by transport operator CDC Victoria, a subsidiary of ComfortDel-Gro group which operates in seven countries and has a global fleet of around 43,300 vehicles.
TRANSPORTTALK DIARY Transporttalk Australia editor Scott Murray looks at the month gone by on www.transporttalk.com.au
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April 3Australia to get Ford Escape PHEVThe new Ford Escape plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is the first electrified Ford SUV offered to Australians.
Due for sale in Australia in 2020, it weighs up to 90kg less than its predecessor.
April 8First Hyundai Kona Electric for green AussieA green power enthusiast and former car dealer has become the first Australian owner of the new Hyundai Kona Electric.
Charles Dalglish owns a green power business in the Blue Mountains and will charge the SUV from his home solar installation.
April 9EVs could reduce power bills – EvenergiMass adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) can potentially improve power use, improve grid stability, and drive down electricity costs for consum-ers, a new report says.
The report by Australian start-up and EV advocate Evenergi finds that EV charg-ing could help balance sup-ply and demand in a future electricity system dominated by renewable energy like rooftop solar and wind.
April 11Mini Countryman hybrid arrivesThe Mini Countryman plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is in Australian showrooms, priced from A$57,200.
“The Mini Country plug-in hybrid is the first step in what will be an exciting journey into the world of Mini future mobility,” Mini Australia gen-eral manager Brett Waudby says.
April 17Barnes backs EVsAustralian musician Jimmy Barnes is set to make electric vehicles his “Driving Wheels” after trying a Tesla while on an overseas holiday.
Barnes says it’s convinced him to switch to electric.
April 18Tim Storer pulls plug on politicsElectric vehicle advocate South Australian independ-ent senator Tim Storer won’t contest the May 18 federal election.
Storer, who chaired the Senate Select Committee on Electric Vehicles, has decided against seeking re-election for family reasons.
Strategy for Queensland’s future transportAutomated vehicles, drones and working towards a zero-emission transport network, are in the Queensland Government’s new 30-year transport plan.
Consultation is open for the draft Queensland Trans-port Strategy.
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