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Since the 1970s, when it was clear that the combustion engine powering motor vehicles was a major culprit in air pollution and also diminishing fossil fuel supplies, there has been a search for an alternative propulsion system that does not pollute and is also sustainable. Instead of fossil fuel – the product of dead dinosaurs and plants millions of years ago – electricity is the ‘fuel’ of the future.

Electricity is used to power motors and like liquid fuel, it is stored in a battery pack in a limited quantity which needs to be replenished. The electricity comes from power generating plants that run mainly on coal, which generates undesirable emissions. So while electric power is ‘clean’, the electricity itself comes from a source that is still not clean.

There are alternative electricity generation methods – hydro-electricity, solar and wind – but these are limited in use at this time. What has been seen as promising has been the fuel cell concept that was originally developed for spacecraft. This concept uses hydrogen as a fuel in an electrochemical process that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electrical energy and water.

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Imagine yourself having a peaceful drive on a Saturday morning (traffic jams notwithstanding), minding your own business and obeying all the traffic laws. You’re waiting at a traffic light and suddenly, a car comes from behind and rams into your car. The crash would certainly be a great shock, and the start of a tiring process of having to make a police report and then dealing with the insurance company to get compensation for repairs. Normally, it can be a nightmare…

That’s what happened to six motorists last Saturday when a Lexus crashed into their cars as they were waiting at a junction near the Lumba Kuda Roundabout along the Bukit Jalil Highway in Kuala Lumpur. A motorist in one of the fortunate cars not to be hit got the footage on his dashcam of the crash which also resulted in the vehicle overturning.

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Though EVs were around over 100 years ago, they faded away as technology then wasn’t advanced enough to provide performance as good as cars with internal combustion engines (ICE). So ICE cars were more popular and have grown to dominance over today. However, the combustion process gives off gases that are toxic and also cause global warming, so using ICE as a propulsion system has been considered detrimental to the future of the planet, hence the switch to EVs which have zero emissions. Of course, there is the other side of the matter concerning power-generating plants which use mainly coal to provide the electricity, but that’s a debate for another time.

It’s a good time to buy an electric vehicle (EV) in Malaysia as these few years will be one of the rare occasions when cars can be purchased duty-free throughout the country and not just in Langkawi and Labuan. It’s the government’s way of encouraging the switch to EVs as one way of achieving the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Malaysia has set this goal as one of the 195 signatories of the Paris Agreement in 2015 which has a target that must be met cooperatively in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C. If the temperature rise cannot be limited, climate change is predicted to have a very serious effect on the planet.

You may be considering doing your part to save the planet by switching to an EV. Or you may just be interested in the electric lifestyle which can also save you money. You don’t have to buy liquid fuel any longer and though there is still the cost of electricity, it should lower running costs. EVs are the future so you may like the idea of being among the pioneers.

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In a Facebook post today, Hannah Yeoh, Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister paid homage to Malaysian wonder kid Travis Teoh. 

Travis, who started racing at six years old and is now 12, has had a spectacular run in the MAM Malaysia Karting Championship and the IAME Series Asia where he secured multiple wins. 

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As the lights went out to signal the start of the first round of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen pulled away from the field cleanly. Ferrari’s  Charles Leclerc sneaked by Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez in pursuit of the world champion. .

Red Bull would be aiming to win at Bahrain for the first time since 2013 while Lewis Hamilton would hope that he could add one more win to the five previous ones that have made him the most successful driver at this circuit.

Although Fernando Alonso started from P5 and his team mate in the Aston Martin team was in P8, they somehow came in contact as the pack went through Turn 4. It appeared that Stroll was eager to get past Mercedes-AMG’s George Russell who had started from P6 but instead caused Alonso to drop to 7th. The Stewards considered the Aston Martin incident and decided that no action was necessary.

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For most people, ‘5G’ – the fifth generation of cellular connectivity technology since 1979 – is associated with telecommunications. Since the deployment of 5G networks in South Korea in April 2019, the technology has been adopted in many countries. Malaysia launched the network at the end of 2021 and by December 2022, 50% coverage of populated areas nationwide was achieved, according to Digital Nasional Bhd.

While 5G may seem to be mainly applicable to mobilephones and internet connectivity, it actually has a far wider scope of application which includes the auto industry. While cars already have connectivity to the internet (and therefore the World Wide Web) and can receive software updates ‘over the air’ (OTA), the much faster speed of 5G transmissions will expand the capabilities of cars in not just driving but also safety.

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After much anticipation over the past few months, a new Formula 1 season has started. Bahrain again has the honour of being season-opener where it used to be towards the end of the season and it was Australia that started the season.

Apart from the new cars, there are also three new faces – Oscar Piastri with the McLaren F1 Team, Logan Sargeant with Williams Racing, and Nyck de Vries with Scuderia AlphaTauri. While the first two drivers are making their debut in F1, de Vries (who also raced in Formula E) actually made his unplanned debut last year at the Italian GP. He took over Alexander Albon’s place in the Williams team when the Thai driver had appendicitis and could not race. 27 years old then, the Dutch driver did well to ninth position, scoring points on his first F1 outing.

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With the car market continuing its steady recovery, helped by two festive seasons that will occur during the first quarter of the year, sales for Proton have been booming. Compared to the same month in 2022, the February sales volume this year was 52% higher with 14,033 units (domestic and export) delivered.

The volume was 20.1% higher than January while for the first two months of the year, the year-to-date volume has increased to 88% to 25,714 units. Where market share is concerned, it was estimated to be 22.7% as the official market data has not been released by the Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) yet.

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It is common knowledge that today’s prices of goods are not what they used to be. Fifty cents could get this writer a lunch meal in school back in the late 90s, but today fifty cents does not even get an MRT ticket nor a bottle of water.

According to the website worlddata.info, RM1,000 in 2010 was worth RM1,234 in 2020. And that just goes to show that it is quite normal to pay more for something after a few years thanks to the magic of inflation.

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When BAuto took over the Kia franchise in April 2021 and established subsidiary Dinamikjaya Motors to handle the Korean brand, local assembly was already being planned. Unlike some other new brands where the carmaker may want to wait a while and see how fast their volume grows, Kia Motors had already decided to use Malaysia as a regional production hub and wanted local assembly to commence as soon as possible.

They revealed a 5-year plan which showed the models that would be assembled for the Malaysian market, and the chart showed that the first two models would be the Carnival and Sorento. The Carnival started rolling out of the Inokom plant in Kedah in July last year and now comes the Sorento.

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