SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTWEDNESDAY 27 DECEMBER 2017

New-look Toyota Prado impresses with superior driving performance

Mazda's Vision Coupe, Kai Concept make a mark at Tokyo Motor Show

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ACTING MANAGING EDITORMohammed Salim Mohamed

ADVERTISING MANAGERAli Wahba

CHAIRMANSheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDr. Khalid Al-Shafi

ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Muhammad Shammas

DESIGNAbraham Augusthy

IMAGE PROCESSINGMohd Sajad Sahir

AFP

It’s November 22, 2028 and Sarah, a young mother, gives her two chil-dren a kiss goodbye before buckling them into the driverless car that will bring them to school.

Sarah doesn’t have a car and has no plans to buy one. Living in a suburb, she has run the numbers and the result is clear: It’s much cheaper to order a car only when she needs one.

The “robo-taxi” has also made her life easier, but only after such vehicles upended the business models which car-makers had relied on for decades.

The revolution is already under way, with every major brand racing to cre-ate autonomous electric cars and trucks that will always be just a few clicks of a smartphone away.

Fully electric cars are expected to make up 12 percent of the global mar-ket in 2025, before jumping to 34 percent in 2030 and 90 percent by 2050, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecast last month.

The motivations are clear: Smog is becoming a serious menace in cities around the world, with China in partic-ular demanding cleaner vehicles for its rapidly growing market.

Traffic jams are also eating up hours of commuters’ time, meaning car own-ership is already no longer a given for many city dwellers.

And carmakers have nimble new

rivals: Apple, Google and Tesla — which recently unveiled an all-electric semi truck — see a chance to dominate a mar-ket that will soon depend as much on software as on engineering.

Industry chiefs aren’t waiting: France’s PSA is betting on car-sharing and other “services” with its Free2Move division, which it hopes will let it get back into the huge US market.

In Germany, Daimler is working with Bosch to develop self-driving elec-tric cars that could be on the road by the early 2020s, and has already launched its own car-sharing service, Car2Go, in some two dozen cities worldwide.

Its German rival Volkswagen has created Moia, a “social movement” unit exploring e-shuttles, ride pooling and car hailing. “Even if in the future not

everyone is going to own a car, with Moia we’re trying to make sure everyone will be a client of ours one way or another,” VW chief Matthias Mueller said.

Robo-taxis could generate 40 per-cent of auto industry profits by 2030, according to German consulting firm Roland Berger, which expects demand for private vehicles to drop 30 percent in the period. And industry experts warn

that the automakers which fail to adapt to the shift risk might not survive.

But that means investing billions in batteries, charging infrastructure and autonomous driving technologies with little prospect of seeing a payoff any-time soon. For now, so-called “zero emission” vehicles remain a tough sell: Renault’s Zoe range of electric cars, which is has offered since 2012, made up just 1 percent of its sales last year.

Its chief, Carlos Ghosn, is hoping that figure will reach 5 percent by 2022. The contest will be costly for all automak-ers, with PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimating that production costs for the next generation of electric cars will be 20 percent higher than traditional mod-els, while warning of “serious problems” for returns on investment.

“The speed” of the shift toward an electric future “will have to be taken on by all automotive companies,” PSA’s chief executive Carlos Tavares said at the Frankfurt auto show in September. Yet Western carmakers and government officials already fear they are lagging behind Asian rivals, with China in par-ticular making headway on electric motors and batteries. That led the EU Commission to urge the creation of an “Airbus for batteries”, with European com-panies joining forces for large-scale battery production. “This technology is too important to import it from overseas,” the commission’s vice president charge of energy, Maros Sefcovic, warned.

Carmakers gear up for ‘robo-taxi’ revolution

Volkswagen's SEDRIC Robo-Taxi concept car at Frankfurt Auto Show 2017.

WEDNESDAY 27 DECEMBER 20172

The Peninsula

Reputed brands come with certain amount of expec-tations – be it a mobile phone or an automobile. When you buy a Toyota vehicle, you know it will

deliver certain standards like solid per-formance, stylish design and ease to manoeuvre.

2018 Toyota Prado doesn’t fail to deliver the high standards, which you expect from the Japanese carmaker. What the SUV has done is, it has upped the game by many notches with some very fine new design elements in the exterior and interior. The off-roader tackles all the terrains – city road or dunes – with such ease that you won’t feel the difference.

The 2018 Prado has got a facelift. It has a new bonnet, redesigned head-lights, radiator grille, new bumper bar and fenders, which all together gives it a much more macho look than the ear-lier editions.

The bonnet has been shaped to enhance downward visibility at the cen-tre. In order to protect the engine bay, it is sandwiched between the bumper sides. Incorporating integral fog lamps, the lower part of the bumper corners kick upwards, and the centre section has been shaped like a skid plate to enhance off-road manoeuvrability. The fender tops have been raised to help drivers easily locate the vehicle extremities.

The radiator grille and headlamps have been placed high for greater off-road functionality. The grille openings are as large as possible to allow for opti-mum engine cooling performance, while the headlamp main beams are posi-tioned inboard to avoid damage from obstacles during off-road driving.

The grille features broad vertical bars with slit-shaped cooling openings finished in chrome. Integrating high and low beams, a front turn signal lamp and Daytime Running Lights (DRL) within a distinctive casing, the headlamp clus-ters may be equipped with either halogen or LED/halogen headlamps, the latter incorporating LED DRL.

A set of side stripes, flowing from the front to the rear, are developed exclusively for customers in the Middle East in recognition of the popularity of the Land Cruiser Prado in the region.

New elements to the rear include a redesigned lamp cluster featuring an LED stop light, a smaller rear garnish plate incorporated within the number plate surround and a restyled bumper with a kicked-up base to the protrud-ing corners.

The new Prado is available in ten exterior colors, including two new colors: Blackish Ageha Glass Flake and Avant-Garde Bronze Metallic.

The interiors has also got fresh look and feel with some cool features, which will make life easier for the driver. The first thing that will strike you when you enter the cabin is the enormity. The SUV is so spacious that no one will complain lack of leg space in the second row. And there will never be a problem with car-rying luggage or golf bags.

Storage points are provided all around the cabin. Front seat storage includes a capacious glove box, over-head sunglasses holder with built-in conversation mirror – this is very cool feature to have. There is also a large s t o r a g e b o x , a v a i l a b l e

with cooling function, under the center console armrest and is big enough to hold four half-litre bottles and fitted with an upper-level tray.

A high-definition 8-inch full-colour multimedia screen enables centralized control of navigation and audiovisual systems which complements the rear-view monitor to guide the driver while backing up the car.

In addition to AM/FM radio and a DVD player, the JBL system optimally positions 14 speakers through the cabin, creating a quality sound space.

The system also features Bluetooth support and has USB and mini-jack inputs offering external audio input, enabling the driver and passengers to easily connect playback devices to enjoy their favorite music.

Rear seat passengers can also enjoy video from DVDs, Blu-ray discs and other sources on the large, retractable 9-inch LCD monitor.

But that’s not all when we talk about storage, as the powered third-row seats

have under-floor storage function giv-ing the Prado extra load capacity. With all second-row seats in place, there is room for four suitcases to be carried in the rear load space; when the third-row seats are raised, there is still space for one large and one medium size suitcase.

A total of three interior colors are available for the interiors, including two newly-added colors – ‘Neutral Beige,’ which is introduced in response to cus-tomer demands for a modern look, and ‘Black/Red Wood’ to further enhance the sporty atmosphere of the cabin.

EngineThe new Prado is available in a wide

range of engine options for both petrol and diesel formats. Petrol engines are available with either a V6 engine 4.0-liter 24-valve DOHC with dual VVT-I producing 271 hp and up to 38.9 kg-m or 4-cylinder 2.7-liter in-line 16-valve DOHC format with VVT-i producing 164

hp and up to 25.1 kg-m. Both petrol engines are mated with

either a 6-speed ‘Super-Intelligent Elec-tronically’-controlled automatic transmission with multi-mode sequen-tial shift mode or a 5-speed or 6-speed manual transmission.

In the diesel engine category, there is a 4-cylinder 3.0-liter in-line 16-valve DOHC with turbo producing 161 hp and up to 40.8 kg-m that offers low emis-sions with class-leading power and fuel efficiency. The diesel engine is mated by a 5-speed ‘Super-Intelligent Electron-ical ly ’-control led automatic transmission.

The new Prado comes with Drive Mode Select, allowing the driver to tai-lor powertrain and suspension responses by selecting drive modes suit-able for the situation, or to match their preferred driving style, thus heighten-ing driving pleasure. Modes include Normal, which realizes an excellent bal-ance between driving performance and fuel economy that suits a wide variety

of driving scenes; ECO mode adjusts powertrain responses and air condition-ing to prioritize fuel-efficient driving; while in the Sport mode, the Variable Flow Control (VFC) and powertrain components, such as the engine and transmission, are controlled. This pro-vides enhanced accelerator response and a more dynamic and powerful feel of acceleration.

It’s ‘2nd start’ feature is very useful on dunes as it allows the vehicle to start in the second gear and this reduces the wheel spin if you are stuck in sand. This is mainly used for snow but comes handy in dunes also as more the wheels spins the deeper you get stuck.

SafetyThe new Prado has a complete new

advanced safety technology package, called Toyota Safety Sense.

Pre-Crash Safety (PCS) system uses sensors to detect other vehicles or obstructions and warns the driver to perform evasive maneuver while auto-matically activating the brakes when there is a high probability of a collision.

An interesting feature, Automatic High Beam (AHB) system, detects oncoming headlamps and tail lamps of the vehicles ahead and automatically switches to low beam to reduce glare.

Further ensuring that safety is at the heart of the experience for both the driver and passengers, the available Emergency Brake Signal automatically activates the hazard lamps during emer-gency braking. The signal serves as a warning for the vehicle in the rear when sudden brakes are applied.

Active headrests on the driver and front passenger seats move up and for-ward in the event of rear-end collisions to help reduce neck impact and simul-taneously cushion the head and back.

New-look Toyota Prado impresses with superior

driving performance

WEDNESDAY 27 DECEMBER 2017 3

The Washington Post

You must insert an ignition key to start this one, which tells you something about its price range in a vehicle age where push-button ignition

is commonplace. It is inexpensive by today's standards, certainly less costly than the popular Toyota RAV-4 com-pact sport-utility vehicle.

Toyota's marketers call this one a "sport-utility vehicle," which is more of a marketing term than anything else.

The C-HR XLE, a new Toyota prod-uct for 2018, looks and feels more like a small station wagon, whimsically designed by grade-school students given its loopy yet angular exterior sculpture and availability in two-tone body colors (radiant green mica with ice-white roof in the model used for this column) gen-erally shunned by other vehicle manufacturers.

The interior is washable — a work of recyclable, diamond-embossed, plas-ticlike door panels and fabric-covered seats. It is great for car owners with messy young children, or for adults who never have learned to tidy up their liv-ing spaces. It is not a vehicle designed to impress folks who have been driving for 10 or 20 years, or who have long held a desire to sit behind the steering wheel of something with dual exhaust pipes and loud exhaust notes.

It is an odd small wagon for people with normal driving expectations, who intend to obey all posted speed limits and respect the authorized officials who enforce them.

Equipment includes a 2.0-liter, pet-rol-powered, four-cylinder engine (144 horsepower, 139 pound-feet of torque) linked to an automatic, continuously variable transmission - an automatic transmission that seamlessly sends power to the drive wheels via the use of pulleys instead of fixed gears.

The advantage of CVT models is that they tend to save fuel. But many drivers complain that they lack driv-ing feel and are less than robust in climbing hills.

The C-HR XLE does embrace moder-nity in the base XLE model and even more so in the top XLE Premium trim level. There is an auto-dimming rear-view mirror with integrated backup camera display, advanced electronic safety features (e.g., lane-departure alert), and automatic high beams - largely thanks to the Toyota Safety Sense package, highly recommended by this column.

Like most Toyota products, the 2018 C-HR XLE is well-made, bereft of any obvious fit-and-finish faults. Whether it will attain the popularity of the RAV-4 remains to be seen. This one deliber-ately is aimed at a younger, less-affluent buyer, although Toyota's marketers are loath to put it that way. They use more

exciting language. To wit: "Revolution-ary style meets rebellious spirit." Hmm. Here's hoping Toyota's "rebels" have as much willingness and enthusiasm to part with their money as buyers of the rival Nissan Rogue.

Nuts & BoltsBottom line: The C-HR XLE is a well-

made starter vehicle, designed to have an appeal to young buyers similar to that of the Nissan Rogue.

Ride, acceleration and handling: It is acceptable in all areas of on-road performance.

Head-turning quotient: I doubt that it will appeal to older adults. It's not meant to.

Body style/layout: The C-HR is a compact, front-wheel-drive wagon/sport-utility vehicle with two large front side doors and two smaller side doors in the rear with hidden door latches. It has a rear hatch and is available in XLE Premium trim.

Engine/transmission: It comes with a 2.0-liter, inline, four-cylinder 16-valve petrol engine with variable valve tim-ing. The engine is linked to a continuously variable automatic transmission.

Capacities: Seating is for five peo-ple. Cargo capacity is 19 cubic feet with all seats up and 36.4 cubic feet with mid-dle seats lowered. Fuel capacity is 13.2 gallons of petrol. Regular grade is okay.

Real-world mileage: We - my wife,

Mary Anne, and I - averaged 28 miles per gallon in highway driving carrying no cargo.

Safety: Standard equipment includes four-wheel disc brakes, ven-tilated front and solid rear; four-wheel anti-lock braking system; emergency braking assistance; blind-spot and lane-departure warning accident avoidance systems; lane-departure warning; pre-collision safety; stability and traction control; and side and head air bags.

Pricing: The 2018 C-HR XLE starts at $23,723, about $24,523 with an esti-mated $800 delivery charge. The C-HR XLE Premium starts at $25,922, about $26,722 with delivery charge. Toyota dealers say they are willing to bargain.

Toyota C-HR XLE: A wagon

designed to appeal

WEDNESDAY 27 DECEMBER 20174

Warren Brown The Washington Post

The "middle class" no longer drives the American econ-omy. In too many cases, it comfortably cannot afford the average price of a new

car or truck with options, taxes, and fees. As a lifelong lover of automobiles and student of the global automobile industry, it pains me to write this. But it is what it is. I had a painful collision with reality.

It happened in what, to me, was an ordinary way. For nearly 30 years, it had been my happy custom to wel-come each week the industry's latest wares in my driveway. Of course, I noted the prices, but thought nothing of them. I was writing about the things, not buying them.

Last week marked a similar occur-rence. There arrived an absolutely beautiful 2018 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400 all-wheel-drive coupe. The car looked every bit like its name. The exte-rior red paint was the deepest, most luxurious red, so wonderfully deep, you could swim in it.

I found myself standing and exam-ining its body. Inside was equally beautiful — a work of cream-colored, semi-aniline leather and silver optic car-bon-fiber inlays. It was stunning.

I pushed the ignition button and fell more deeply in love. The car's engine was strong, smooth, willing (a 3.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V-6, with 400 horse-power and 350 pound-feet of torque). Everything about it was "Whoosh!"

I stayed behind the wheel of the Red Sport until I thought it was time to drive home and placate my wife of nearly 50 years, Mary Anne. Lately, she has been complaining that I have been "gadding about" the highway as if I were a teen-ager — not an argument I could win or would dare counter.

"Who can afford that car, anyway?" she asked. I hadn't thought about it. I checked. The answer was sobering — not many, not comfortably, which means they would have to struggle with mortgage and other necessary payments to meet the Red Sport's estimated $600

monthly note.The total transaction price of the Red

Sport is $65,795, including a $995 fac-tory-to-dealer shipment charge. According to conservative auto indus-try estimates, the average amount of money contracted for a new car or truck in the United States was $33,650. That was near the end of 2015.

Today, according to industry ana-lysts, we're looking at $34,800 and monthly car notes of $400 or more last-ing 70 to 80 months - not something most of us enter on a whimsy.

Not many US buyers can afford such loans. They rely on used vehicles, not shiny new Red Sports. Automobile man-ufacturers and many of their dealers are experimenting with cost-cutting

transactions — leasing, ride-sharing and similar programs.

There are about seven cars, mostly used models, sold in this country for under $15,000 - a price many of us com-fortably can afford. They include late models such as the Nissan Versa — affordable, but not lovable.

I've fallen in love with items such as Infiniti's Sensory Package, with rear cross-traffic alert, blind-spot warning and backup collision intervention. I can't afford them. Most of us can't.

Nuts & BoltsBottom line: Is the Red Sport worth

it? Yes, if you have the money and are willing to spend it.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Any nearly $66,000 car that can't give you excellent ride, acceleration and han-dling, as the Red Sport does, is not worth the conversation.

Head-turning quotient: It is a child of Nissan/Infiniti's F-Platform vehicles. Remember the G-35? This iteration is beautiful.

Engine/transmission: It is equipped with a twin-turbocharged, gasoline 3.0-liter, 24-valve V-6 with variable valve lift and timing. The engine is mated to a seven-speed automatic transmission that also can be operated manually via steering-wheel-mounted paddle shifters.

Capacities: Seating is for four peo-ple. Keep in mind that this is a sports

car, not for anything practical. Cargo capacity is a tiny 8.7 cubic feet. The fuel tank holds 20 gallons of petrol. Premium grade is required.

Real-world mileage: I averaged 24 miles per gallon on the highway.

Safety: Standard equipment includes front and rear ventilated disc brakes; four-wheel anti-lock brake protection; emergency braking assistance; traction and stability control; dual front-mounted side and head air bags. A full suite of advanced electronic safety items is available - for a price.

Pricing: The 2018 Red Sport starts at $54,000. Add an estimated $10,800 in options and a $995 factory-to-dealer shipment charge. As drive, it was priced at $65,795. This is a "want" buy.

The Infiniti Q60 Red Sport: Watch it whoosh far beyond your budget

2018 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400

Warren Brown

It was about freedom — going where I wanted when I wanted — and dignity. I enjoyed watching my parents or anyone I loved and respected being in the driver's

seat. I enjoyed driving. I still do. Notions of "prestige" — the kind of

vehicle driven - did not come until later and were bound not to last forever. It is a natural development in the life of someone raised with teachings of the "impossibility" of "loving things". I loved cars and trucks and all things with motors, and I vowed to learn as much about them, the people who made and sold them, the people who bought them, and the why of it all as I could. I did.

And I will continue. This week's subject model, the 2018 Mazda CX-5 Touring all-wheel-drive SUV, is indicative.

Car manufacturers were playing down safety when I started writing about the business in the early 1980s. Safety was not a favorite marketing prop. It certainly was not prioritized above speed, flash, power, style.

Trouble is, dead people can't buy those things. Millions of automobile customers and would-be customers were dying in vehicle crashes world-wide. It had to stop. Governments began forcing carmakers to develop safer

vehicles. Car manufacturers turned to advanced electronic technology. Mod-els such as the 2018 CX-5 became commonplace and are becoming more so.

It has the necessities for freedom. Equipped with a 2.5-liter, in-line four-cylinder petrol engine (187 horsepower, 186 pound-feet of torque), it easily moves from place to place any time you want to move as fast as the law and driving conditions will allow you to

move. It runs on regular-grade fuel and uses about 29 miles per gallon of it in highway driving. It is safe, even more so for those of us who are aging. It can be had with blind-side monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, pedestrian and for-ward-collision mitigation, and all of the things that can protect your body and ego from pain and embarrassment. We need these things. They should be sold as man-datory equipment, not options.

Nuts & BoltsBottom line: The 2018 Mazda CX-5

Touring is a compact SUV, perfect for families of five who travel with light cargo. It is reasonably affordable, about $31,000, which allows you to travel and pay rent or a mortgage.

Ride, acceleration and handling: Ride and handling in the CX-5 are good. Acceleration? You can go to jail, the hospital or the grave in this one as fast as you can in anything else.

Head-turning quotient: The exte-rior is attractive and will fit nicely in most church, school and shopping-center parking lots.

Engine/transmission: The standard engine is a gasoline 2.5-liter, 16-valve, in-line four-cylinder model (187 horse-power, 186 pound-feet of torque) with variable-valve lift and timing. The engine is attached to a six-speed auto-matic transmission that also can be operated manually.

Capacities: Seating is for five peo-ple. If you want or need more seating space, consider a Mazda CX-9. But the CX-5 is big enough for most of us, includ-ing 30.9 cubic feet of cargo space with the seats up. The fuel tank holds 14.8 gal-lons. Regular grade is fine.

Real-world mileage: I averaged 29 miles per gallon in highway driving.

Safety: Standard equipment includes four-wheel disc brakes, ventilated front and solid rear; four-wheel anti-lock brake protection; emergency braking assistance; post- and pre-collision safety systems; traction and stability control; blind-spot and lane departure warning accident-avoidance systems.

Pricing: The 2018 Mazda CX-5 Tour-ing all-wheel-drive SUV starts at $27,515. Priced as driven is $33,515, including an estimated $5,105 in options and $895 factory-to-dealer shipment charge. Prices on the 2018 models are settling and subject to bargaining.

Mazda CX-5 has the necessities of freedom — fast and safe

WEDNESDAY 27 DECEMBER 2017 5

Al Attiya Motors & Trading Co, the exclusive distributor of Kia cars in Qatar, has an ongoing 2017 end-of-year promotion titled “Award-

Winning Cars, Unbeatable Prices”, which has so farbeen an immense success.

Customers can take advantage of special deals on Kia’s models of Award Winning Kia cars.

As part of the current promotion, Kia is offering lucrative deals on 2016 and 2017 models namely the Cadenza, Mohave, Sportage, Soul, Sorento, Carens, Grand Carnival and Cerato.

The promotion’s response so far has been fantastic with the special prices and wide-ranging selection of models on offer, but also the perks Kia is offer-ing as part of the promotion which includes a zero percent down payment, free registration and an option to avail for in-house financing without banking approval.

This is a great time to purchase a new Kia, as customers will get the best value for their money especially with the high level of service and commit-ment Kia provides to their customers. Our state-of-the-art service centre ensures high quality servicing by pro-viding fully qualified technicians and advanced diagnostic and servicing equipment located under one roof. Kia goes the extra mile to ensure customer satisfaction.

Kia Qatar meets your expectations with great promotions and unbeatable offers. To ensure that all lovers of Kia cars benefit from this discount offer, the

promo is valid until the end of January. Don't miss your chance to save!

With models to fit just about any life-style — from the modern and urbane to stylish yet functional — you're bound to find something that grasps your inter-est in a Kia showroom.

For further information, visit showrooms in Al Sadd and Industrial Area or go to www.kiaqatar.com to view the current promotion. You can expect an outstanding experience every time you visit.

Kia Qatar extends year-end promotion

To ensure that all lovers of Kia cars benefit from this discount offer, the promo is valid until the end of January. Don't miss your chance to save!

This is a great time to purchase a new Kia, as customers will get the best value for their money especially with the high level of service and commitment Kia provides to their customers.

WEDNESDAY 27 DECEMBER 20176

Bloomberg

As carmakers turn their vehi-cles into app-laden computers on wheels, there's one habit they don't want to acquire from Silicon Valley:

fighting over patents in court.Manufacturers from BMW to

Hyundai to Ford are trying to learn from the smartphone wars, which cost tech-nology companies hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees, as they prepare to revolutionise their vehicles.

"No sane carmaker wants to repeat these wars, where the lawyers were the only winners," said William Coughlin, chief executive officer of Ford Global Technologies, Ford's intellectual prop-erty arm. Carmakers have ramped up their patent applications as they com-pete to roll out crash avoidance systems, on-board Wi-Fi and cars that can drive themselves.

To avoid court battles over who gets paid and how much, competitors are banding together to jointly license tech-nology, use non-proprietary software and buying or challenging patents that might be used in lawsuits against them.

Both Toyota and Ford were among the top 21 recipients of US patents last year, with 1,540 and 1,530, putting them in company with Apple, Qualcomm and Google, according to figures compiled by the Intellectual Property Owners Association. Toyota's recent patents cover ways to keep a vehicle in the proper lane and respond correctly at a traffic signal; Ford won rights to sensors

that gather data from other vehicles and a system to measure customer satisfac-tion by expressions or statements made while driving.

The smartphone wars that began in 2010 were sparked by a clash of the phone and computer industries and pit-ted iPhone-maker Apple against manufacturers of phones that ran on Android, the operating system owned by Google. Microsoft also got swept in when it demanded royalties on phones that used Android.

Technology companies frequently resolve patent disputes — others have been over computer memory, network-ing and video cards — in court. But the big automakers tend to settle their fights more informally or let suppliers duke it out. One way is by joining with other companies to share technologies. Many of the groups that are attracting auto-makers as members were created by Silicon Valley companies to limit the number of lawsuits filed by licensing firms known as patent assertion enti-ties — or by the pejorative term "troll".

Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Tesla and Volkswagen are members of the LOT Network, a non-profit consortium in which companies pledge to continue to make their patents available to all members even if they sell them to another firm. Daimler, Ford, and Toy-ota are among those belonging to Unified Patents, which challenges pat-ents at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Ford also is a member of RPX Corp, a risk management service that buys up patents and challenges

patents that already have been issued. Last week, BMW became the latest car-maker to enter a licensing deal, agreeing to pay a per-car fee to gain access to a "pool" of patents related to wireless industry standards from com-panies including Qualcomm, Ericsson, Sony Corp and eight others.

"They see every day there is litiga-tion and they don't want that," said Kasim Alfalahi, head of Avanci, a Dal-las-based group that operates the patent pool. "They say, 'We have looked at this, we have studied this and we would like to avoid it'. " Figuring out the proper roy-alty rates for use of industry standard technology has led to global fights among technology companies, the most prominent being Apple and Qualcomm's

three-continent combat over what pat-ent fees Qualcomm collects from each iPhone.

Carmakers "look at the fights right now, and they understand that a lot of it has to deal with the pricing and expec-tations," said Alfalahi, who was Ericsson's top intellectual property counsel before starting Avanci.

Another way carmakers are cutting costs is by using non-patented technol-ogy. Open Invention Network, which buys and cross licenses patents related to the open source Linux operating sys-tem, has signed up companies such as General Motors and Daimler, giving them free access so they can then build their own individual applications for on-board systems to monitor traffic patterns, help cars avoid crashes or per-form other functions akin to a computer or smartphone.

Keith Bergelt, the network's CEO, said the battle between Apple and phones that used Google's Android operating system "created a culture that brought out the worst in many companies". The automotive industry hasn't been completely immune to lit-igation. When it comes to self-driving vehicles, it's still somewhat of a "Wild West," with companies all over the country doing research and hoping to come up with the next big thing. That's already spawned a nasty fight, with Alphabet's Waymo claiming Uber Technologies Inc. stole trade secrets

for the laser-based sensors known as Lidar. Thousands of cars now run Apple and Google's operating systems for info-tainment through their dashboard touchscreens in the form of Apple Car-Play and Android Auto. Ford and BMW are integrating the Amazon.com's Echo into their dashboards.

A big chunk of the lawsuits against tech companies were an outgrowth of the dot-com bust, during which sharks picked up patents from bankrupt inter-net companies and then demanded royalties from companies that were still in business. Companies like Delphi Auto-motive have expressed concern that the same thing may happen to companies that don't succeed in the autonomous car market, said Bruce Rubinger, founder of Global Prior Art, which con-ducts research on the validity of patents. The carmakers and suppliers have been investing in technology companies, so they will own rights to some of the research no matter what happens with the company, Rubinger said.

The relatively slow pace of change in the auto industry can help it avoid some legal problems. In the technology industry, new products are introduced every 18 months, but it can take four years or more for a new feature to go from the design stage to the showroom floor.

"Car manufacturing is different from that perspective — it's not like smart-phones where you can just outsource it," said Shawn Ambwani, co-founder of Unified Patents. "There are very few players who get into the market. Mar-ket share doesn't change dramatically every five years." And the auto industry will be able to draw on the legacy of the technology industry's patent cases. Court rulings make it easier to invalidate pat-ents and lower the amount of damages that can be awarded.

Legislation also created a new pro-cedure at the US patent office that's been embraced by Silicon Valley for its rep-utation as a "death squad" for patents. So far there have been few lawsuits over the new cars, though Ford's Coughlin said they will come because "everybody wants to protect their investments." Still, he said, he's not expecting a lot of pat-ent litigation "unless somebody is acting unreasonably."

App-laden computers on wheels: Carmakers steer past patent wars

WEDNESDAY 27 DECEMBER 2017 7

The Washington Post

The global automobile indus-try is changing in terms of products and function. Those shifts are represented in the all-new 2018 Honda Accord

Touring. The new midsize, front-wheel-drive Honda Accord sedan, the Touring trim model, is a car that recognises those changes are coming and are necessary, particularly the need to make automo-biles as safe as possible and to price them in a way that keeps them acces-sible. It is safe. The Accord Touring offers as standard equipment advanced elec-tronic safety items sold as costly options on other cars — blind-side monitoring, collision-mitigation braking, pedestrian-intervention braking, road-departure mitigation and more.

Honda has changed the overall physical structure of the new Accord to increase passenger comfort and crash safety. In exterior stance, it is smaller, lower in the rear and weighs less. Yet, it is physically stronger and smarter in design. (Yes! It has narrow A-pillars, front pillars, that don't obstruct forward vision.) The feel of the new Accord is

solid without being heavy. The exterior look is attractive and efficient. The com-pany uses technology such as laser brazing to achieve a smoother, more air-resistant roofline.

With the Accord Touring, Honda seems more interested in making a prac-tical car that works for its buyers than it does in exploiting the ego for cash, and that does not mean the new Accord is in any way lackluster. It is the way forward.

The Touring trim level comes with a new engine — a turbocharged

2.0-litre, inline petrol four-cylinder model that replaces a V-6. The new engine is powerful (252 horsepower, 273 pound-feet of torque). Yet, it is reasonably fuel-efficient in delivering an average 35 miles per gallon on the highway using regular unleaded fuel.

Nuts & BoltsRide, acceleration and handling: All

excellent.Head-turning quotient: It is conserv-

ative but attractive, smaller than

predecessor models on the outside with a more accommodating and upscale interior.

Body style/layout: The new Accord is a front-engine, front-wheel-drive, midsize sedan completely redesigned for 2018. It is available in six trim levels - Sport, Hybrid, EX, EX-L, EX-L Navi, and Touring.

Capacities: Seating is for five peo-ple. Cargo capacity with all seats in place is 16.7 cubic feet. Fuel capacity is 14.8 gallons of petrol. Regular unleaded works fine.

Experienced mileage: Average of 35 miles per gallon on the highway.

Safety: Standard equipment includes four-wheel disc brakes, ventilated front and solid rear; four-wheel anti-lock brake protection; emergency braking assistance; traction and stability con-trol; pre- and post-collision systems; advanced electronic safety systems; and side, head and knee air bags.

Pricing: The 2018 Honda Touring sedan starts at $35,800. The price as tested is $36,690, including an $890 fac-tory-to-dealer transportation charge.

Honda has changed the overall physical structure of the new Accord to increase passenger comfort and crash safety. In exterior stance, it is smaller, lower in the rear and weighs less. Yet, it is physically stronger and smarter in design. The feel of the new Accord is solid without being heavy. The exterior look is attractive and efficient. The company uses technology such as laser brazing to achieve a smoother, more air-resistant roofline.

2018 Honda Accord Touring: Passenger comfort at its best

Bloomberg

Carmakers with ambi-tious plans to roll out more than a hundred new battery-pow-ered models in the

next five years appear to be for-getting one little thing: Drivers aren't yet buzzed about the new technology.

Electric cars — which today comprise only 1 percent of auto sales worldwide, and even less in the US — will account for just 2.4 percent of US demand and less than 10 percent globally by 2025, according to researcher LMC Automotive. But while con-sumer appetite slogs along, carmakers are still planning a tidal wave of battery-powered models that may find interested buyers few and far between.

"When you hear people talk about the tipping point, it's really that they're counting the number of product offerings," Hau Thai-Tang, Ford's global head of product development and purchasing, said of electric cars. "Nobody can cite what the actual demand will be."

With battery costs declining rapidly and Tesla's stock price on a tear, automakers are rush-ing to get in the game with their own all-electric models. Gen-eral Motors has announced plans to roll out 20 models by 2023, while Ford and Volkswa-gen are among those planning new electric lineups in China. Toyota this week promised more than 10 electric models by early next decade.

In total, 127 battery-electric models will be introduced worldwide in the next five years, Thai-Tang said, with LMC pre-dicting pure electric offerings will increase by more than five-fold to 75 models in the US alone. "There's certainly more hype than real growth in sales volume," Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting for LMC, said. "How long have we been talking about EVs? We're now finally seeing them in num-bers, but the sales numbers are not taking over the industry by any means."

It's a mix of panic and prom-ise that's driving automakers to set ambitious goals to catch up to perceived market leaders like Tesla and GM, which each are enjoying a run-up in their stock prices this year. GM Chief Exec-utive Officer Mary Barra said her company will sell more than 1 million electric vehicles per year-profitably-by 2026.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk had been planning to build half a million electric cars in 2018, although that timeline could be jeopardized by missed produc-tion targets for the $35,000 Model 3 sedan. Wall Street con-tinues to reward Tesla and

values the Silicon Valley elec-tric-car maker as worth more than Ford, even as the Detroit carmaker dwarfs Musk's com-pany in nearly all metrics, from output to revenue. Tesla shares are up about 60 percent this year, while Ford has gained closer to 5 percent.

"Tesla has a cult following and that helps build the hype," Schuster said. "Other companies say, 'How do we capture some of this buzz Tesla has? Can we do it by electrifying our lineup, too?'" There's a growing opti-mism that the electric market is ready for liftoff, based in part on improvements in battery chemistry and costs and in part on the Field of Dreams adage: If you build it, they will come. Still, the rush to electrify in the face of uncertain demand has left auto suppliers on edge. They have to build factories and invest to develop components of battery-powered propulsion systems to support the auto-makers' aggressive ambitions.

Magna International Inc, for example, the largest auto sup-plier in North America, is having vigorous debates over whether to add capacity to tool up for electric cars when its executives

don't see much demand for them over the next eight years.

The company predicts EVs will only grow to between 3 per-cent and 6 percent of global auto sales by 2025, said Jim Tobin, chief marketing officer at the Canadian company.

Industry executives con-vinced drivers will abruptly exit their internal combustion engine vehicles in favor of electrics may find themselves too overzealous, with LMC fore-casting gasoline-powered engines will still make up about 85 percent of US new car sales in 2025. But that shift could accelerate as electrified vehi-cles reach price parity with gasoline-powered cars, which Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts will happen by 2029 or sooner for most models.

Rick Haas, former chief engineer of the Tesla Model S who now runs the North Amer-ican operations of Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahi-ndra, counts himself in the optimistic camp. Although

today's drivers aren't too excited about battery cars, tougher regulations in places like China and the power-thirsty needs of driverless features could help speed the transition along.

"Things move about 10 times the speed that they moved 25 years ago," Haas said. "As soon as the ball crests the hill and everyone thinks, 'I'm com-fortable with this,' then the whole industry will flip." And no carmaker wants to be left behind to sell the 21st century version of the buggy whip: a car that runs on fossil fuel. "There will be a lot of winners and los-ers," said Haas.

"Companies will die because of this." Ford does not want to be one of the casualties. Thai-Tang said his engineers and suppliers are working hard on developing a cost-efficient battery that is bet-ter and cheaper than today's lithium-ion versions.

Toyota is working on energy-dense solid-state batteries, seen as the next frontier in electric

power, with Panasonic.Yet the greatest challenge

may not be technological. It could be marketing, as more than 10 dozen models fight over a sliver of market share. "The question we've been asking ourselves is, 'OK, if you're going to launch in that clutter of 120 competitive products, what's going to allow somebody to want to even consider your product?" Thai-Tang said, not-ing that the "provocative" design for the small electric SUV Ford's planning may help differentiate it in a crowded field. "But not in a weird sci-ence-fair kind of provocative" way, he added.

While the math doesn't yet add up for the glut of models chasing the tiny market for EVs, no automaker wants to be caught short when the switch gets flipped to battery power. "Our ambition for electrifica-tion is not modest," Jim Farley, Ford's executive vice president of global markets, said in an interview. "We're going for it."

The near future of electric cars: Many models, few buyers

WEDNESDAY 27 DECEMBER 20178

Mazda Motor Corporation unveiled two concept mod-els, the Mazda Kai Concept and the Mazda Vision Coupe

at the 45th Tokyo Motor Show which concluded on November 5, 2017.

As per Mazda’s development phi-losophy, a car is more than just a means of transport or a mass of metal. It should be a vital presence in people’s lives, like a living being. That’s why the KODO —Soul of Motion, Mazda’s design philosophy, introduced in 2010, is all about breathing life into the very form of our cars.

Mazda has captured the energy found in the frame-by-frame dyna-mism of living creatures as they move, and infused this energy and rhythm into the form of our vehicles, creating cars with a vitality that makes them truly alive.

National Car Company (NCC), the sole agent for Mazda vehicles in Qatar, have showcased Mazda’s latest range of sedans and SUV’s in a state of the art showroom located at Al Nasr.

Sathish Nair, Marketing & Sales Manager – Mazda Qatar, who recently attended the Tokyo Motor, said: “Maz-da’s development philosophy and the next generation models on display at the Tokyo Motor show gives us great confidence that the Mazda customers are well assured of the latest design, comfort, safety and performance fea-tures much ahead of the contemporary offerings in the market. We will be introducing the latest models as soon as they are available for the GCC market.”

Mazda Kai ConceptMazda’s next generation theme - the

pursuit of a unique elegance. The ele-gance that Mazda seeks to express traces its heritage right through classic Japanese aesthetics—a beauty that is subtle and restrained, yet rich and abundant. This could be described as a style which grows out of an exquisite sense of balance—beautifully restrained, with nothing overemphasized. Much of Japanese tra-ditional culture is based on the minimalist concept of “less is more,” where the emphasis is on removing or minimizing elements to create an abundance of empty space. In this style, a sense of rich-ness emanates from something that appears deceptively simple in design. In the coming generation of Mazda cars, they aim to express the own unique vision of elegance as part of this image.

Featuring Spark-Controlled Com-pression Ignition, a never-before-seen combustion method, Mazda’s Skyactiv-X engine represents the second step in Mazda’s quest to develop a gasoline engine with the ideal internal combus-tion mechanism.

Developing compression ignition for gasoline engines has long been a goal of engineers. In the Skyactiv-X, spark plug ignition is used to control compres-sion ignition, resulting in dramatic improvements across a range of impor-tant performance indicators.

Mazda Vision CoupeThe Mazda VVision Coupe is a

next-generation design vision model which showcases the “new elegance” that was developed drawing upon Maz-da’s long history of design. The name of the car, “Coupe” gives a hint of where this special “Mazda elegance” originally came from.

In this model, Mazda have sought to create a beauty that’s special to cars based on the “golden ratio” of classic coupe proportions. The silhouette cre-ates the feel of a high-performance

machine, with a hint of powerful for-ward momentum.

From the Mazda badge on the front to the badge on the back, a single pow-erful axis runs right through the car, evoking the look and feel of supple steel, with all the car’s movements centering on this central vector. The result is a form that is extraordinarily simple yet full of a sense of latent speed: the “one motion form” that is the outstanding fea-ture of this model.

Mazda have aimed to create an inte-rior that allows occupants to feel safely ensconced in the cabin without any sense of confinement, creating a sense of oneness between the car and those who travel in it.

For more information on the 2017 and 2018 models of Mazda sedans and SUVs, visit Mazda showroom, or call 44435965/44417859 or visit www.mazda-qatar.com

Kai Concept

Vision Coupe

Mazda’s Vision Coupe, Kai Concept make a mark at Tokyo Motor Show