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Lane closure at Putrajaya-Gamuda Cove Interchange

From today (July 12) until July 17 (Friday), the slow lane and emergency lane at KM23.14 to KM24.21 (Southbound) along the at the Putrajaya-Gamuda Cove Interchange on the North-South Expressway Central Link (ELITE) will be closed.

PLUS says the closure is to facilitate and enable safer pavement maintenance works at the area. This will improve safety, which PLUS continuously works on.

In the event of congestion at the area, motorists can utilize the access road to the Dengkil R&R as an alternative route to continue traveling to the south. PLUS personnel at the locations can also suggest alternative routes to use when passing through the stretch.

PLUS customers now have PUTRI to help them with their enquiries

F1 (Round 2): Preview and Starting Grid of the 2020 Formula 1 Pirelli Styrian Grand Prix



               Race starts at 3:10 pm in Austria | 9:10 pm in Malaysia

Just last weekend, the opening round of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship was run at the Red Bull Ring in Austria and this Sunday, the second round takes place at the same circuit. It’s unusual to have two consecutive rounds at the same location but this is due to the postponement/cancellation of earlier rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the organizers have to compress the schedule for this season as they try to get up to 18 races run by the end of the year. Ten have already been confirmed to date.

The FIA says that this is the first time that a region’s name has been used for a F1 round but then again, there is the European GP and Europe is also a region, isn’t it? The event also has the name of 2020 Formula 1 Pirelli Styrian Grand Prix, only the 43rd time that a round has had an individual tile. Styria is the region in Austria which the Red Bull Ring is located.

To recap on the previous round, the race was certainly a chaotic one and by the time the chequered flag came out, just 13 cars (of the 20 that started the race) were classified as finishers. It was the lowest number since the 2017 Australian GP when the same number completed the race.

Although the Red Bull Ring is familiar to the teams and drivers, the gap of just a week has meant that there has been limited time to analyze performance and address issue and concerns. It seemed that there were some reliability issues as certain systems in some cars had problems.

*The positions of Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi were changed after they received grid penalties for various offences.*

*Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) crashed during practices but still made it for the qualifying session.*

For the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, the free practice sessions were used to check whether those reliability concerns were fixed. “The team is still looking into that, but I think we have made some progress. We made some good set-up tweaks and I tried to use the learnings from last weekend, in terms of one-lap pace and driving style over a race distance,” said the winner of the first round, Valtteri Bottas.

*The Official F1 Medical Car assessing track conditions during the heavy rain that delayed qualifying.*

Heavy rain forced the final practice session to be cancelled and today’s qualifying sessions could not start on time due to the same climatic issue. Eventually, the cars went out on wet tyres after a 45-minute wait.

In the Constructors’ battle, Bottas’ win and Lewis Hamilton’s fourth place last weekend put Mercedes-AMG in the familiar position at the top. They have an 11-point lead over McLaren which was the combination of points for the third place of Lando Norris and fifth place of Carlos Sainz, Jr. Ferrari struggled but still collected 19 points with the second placing of Charles Leclerc, plus 1 point from Vettel.

*Fernando Alonso will rejoin the Renault team!*

F1: Results & Highlights of the 2020 Rolex F1 Austrian Grand Prix

Geely Auto enters D-segment SUV market with the Haoyue

In the 22 years that Geely Auto has been making cars, it has steadily established a presence in many segments of the automobile market. And like other global players, the company has also been increasing its presence in the booming SUV market.

Now it is entering the D-segment SUV market, a highly competitive area of the market that is currently dominated by foreign joint-venture brands (in the Chinese market). Its first entrant is the Haoyue, a 7-seater model with strong design, functionality, and value.

Speaking at the online launch event, the President & CEO of Geely Auto Group, An Conghui, said: “Geely is committed to meeting the different demands of people from all corners of life. Geely was founded on the premise of making good cars that are affordable for all, which today has transformed into ‘Making refined cars for everyone’. The Hao Yue’s unique offering in its segment will go on to lead the market and become another excellent product representative of the Geely Auto brand.”

Maximum space with ‘Expansive Aesthetic’
Geely’s ‘Expansive Aesthetic’ concept guided the design of the Haoyue’s broad muscular body. Its form integrates with technology to create a modern, refined design that strikes unique a balance of space and functionality. Sizewise, the Haoyue has an overall length of 4835, a width of 1900 mm and its roof line is 1780 mm from the road.

With a 2815 mm wheelbase, the Haoyue is available in both 5-seat and 7-seat configurations with rear seats capable of folding completely flat to maximise space utilization. Fully folded, the rear interior space can reach 2.2 square metres – equivalent to a king-sized bed – whilst the cargo space can be expanded to 2,360 litres, capable of accommodating all kinds of medium to large objects.

Both seating configurations offer extensive legroom, allowing users as tall as 1.9 metres to sit comfortably without any adjustments. Seats in all rows are adjustable including those in the third row which are even equipped with 8-way adjustable backrests. Customers can also opt for a 7 ‘VIP’ seat configuration that has 7 independently-adjustable seats.

The ‘Healthiest’ SUV
The Haoyue was developed following Geely’s ‘healthy car’ concept, with all materials undergoing stringent environmental testing. The company’s in-house requirements are over 20 times higher than Chinese national standards.

There is said to be no ‘harmful new car smell’, usually emanating from certain types of materials that are traditionally used in cars. The Haoyue also comes equipped with Geely’s officially certified CN95 grade high-efficiency air purification system capable of filtering out 99% of PM2.5 particles and 98% of droplets bigger than 0.74µm which may contain viruses and other harmful elements. In combination with a 3-zone air conditioner and AQS system, cabin air can be quickly purified and refreshed in under 3 minutes.

Powering the Haoyue is Geely’s latest 1.8TD engine paired with a dual-clutch 7-speed transmission. It is likely that this won’t be the only engine choice and a new 2-litre turbocharged petrol engine is expected to be offered in future.

Semi-autonomous motoring
L2-assisted driving technologies receive data from 24 sensors to provide 17 intelligent drive features. The various systems enable the large SUV to automatically follow, stop, as well as turn at speeds up to 150 km/h. The vehicle can also park itself automatically with 360° panoramic imaging.

Inside the Hao Yue, there’s the latest GKUI Geely Smart Ecosystem utilizing Geely’s independently developed high-performance quad-core dedicated vehicle microprocessor. GKUI allows users to interact with the vehicle through an AI-powered voice assistant. The ecosystem is also able to be integrated with a host of IoT (Internet of Things) applications such as JD.com’s Smart Home which allows for monitoring and controlling home appliances from the vehicle.

The driver can also interact and monitor information in the vehicle through the multiple high-definition displays including a 12.3-inch central infotainment panel, 12.3-inch full LCD instrument panel, and advanced WHUD heads-up navigation display.

An export model too?
In China, the Haoyue is priced from 103,600 to 139,600 yuan (about RM63,120 to RM85,000) with a choice of 3 variants. Export plans have not been announced but it is almost certain that Geely would sell it in places like Russia and Europe. ASEAN may a possibility if they can price it attractively enough as the D-segment market already has a number of models.

Geely Auto looks at ‘passenger safety’ from a different perspective, aims to make cars ‘healthier’

Two more F1 rounds of 2020 F1 championship announced by FIA

Following the announcement in June confirming the delayed commencement of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship with 8 rounds, starting from July 5, the FIA has now announced another 2 rounds. The two rounds will be at Sochi Autodrom in Russia (September 27), which has been a regular F1 venue for some years, and for the first time, at the Mugello Circuit in Italy on September 13.

This brings the current number of confirmed races to 10, with more to be announced in the coming weeks. The organisers still expect that the revised 2020 calendar, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, will have between 15 and 18 races by the end of the year.

Mugello – owned by Scuderia Ferrari
The Mugello Circuit is located in Tuscany, central Italy. One lap is 5.345 kms and it has 14 turns. The original circuit between the 1920s and 1970 was a public road circuit and the current circuit was opened in 1974.

While Formula 1 has never been held at Mugello, other events have been run over the years, including Formula 3000. The track belongs to Scuderia Ferrari which uses it for Formula One testing.

The official name of the event – Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix of Tuscany Ferrari 1000 – is a tribute to the land that will host this event and also to a historic anniversary for Scuderia Ferrari. The race will be the 1,000th F1 race by the Italian team which is the only team that has participated in all the 70 editions of the Formula 1 championship.

Ferrari 312B 1970 — *Scuderia Ferrari is the only team that had raced in every Formula 1 championship.*

Sochi Autodrom
The Sochi Autodrom is located next to the Sochi Olympic Park in western Russia. 5.85 kms in length, the circuit hosted the first F1 race in Russia in 2014. The Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team has won every race since the first one, with Lewis Hamilton winning four (2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019) and Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas winning in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

F1: Results & Highlights of the 2020 Rolex F1 Austrian Grand Prix

Fuel price updates for July 11 to July 17, 2020

SEAT to use CUPRA high-performance brand for first electric car

SEAT, like other carmakers (especially in Europe), is steadily making the transition towards electrification, an important move to meet increasingly tough legislative requirements in the years to come. The emission levels are so low that it is necessary to use hybrid powertrains if not all-electric ones to meet them.

Interestingly, however, the Spanish carmaker will launch its first all-electric model next year using its high-performance CUPRA brand rather than the SEAT brand. The reason for this is said ‘to be to change the dynamic perception of electrically-powered vehicles’.

The new electric model will be based on the el-Born Concept which was shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 2019. Since then, the design team and the SEAT Technical Centre have been working on the production model, continuing to evolve the vehicle. Some of the changes they have made have given it a sportier character and an even more impressive visual appeal.

“CUPRA el-Born displays all the genes of the CUPRA brand and we have taken the original concept to the next level creating a new sporty and dynamic design and reengineering the technological content. CUPRA el-Born is the living proof that performance and electrification are a great match,” said CUPRA CEO Wayne Griffiths.

SEAT el-BORN CONCEPT 2019 — *The SEAT el-BORN concept which was displayed in Geneva last year.*

The performance and dynamics of the CUPRA el-Born have been a clear focus during the development of the car, and acceleration from 0 – 50 km/h will be within 2.9 seconds. The Dynamic Chassis Control Sport (DCC Sport), which has been exclusively developed within the VW Group MEB platform for the CUPRA el-Born, combines the low driving height of the car with a system that is adapting automatically to any conditions, offering a superior level of driving dynamics.

For now, the company will reveal that the el-Born will have features such as Head-up Display with Augmented Reality and a range of up to 500 kms on a fully charged battery pack. The 77 kWh battery pack can be fast-charged within 30 minutes which will provide at least 260 kms of range, it is claimed.

The interior is designed to encapsulate the CUPRA philosophy of quality and performance mixed with sophistication. This is highlighted in the sports bucket seats, the steering wheel with Drive Profile Selection and CUPRA mode buttons, and high-quality material choices. CUPRA puts a particular focus on the sustainability of the el-Born using recycled materials in the interior of the car.

VW Zwickau — *The Volkswagen Group factory in Zwickau, Germany, will produce electric vehicles for the various brands, including SEAT and CUPRA.*

The model will be manufactured at the Volkswagen Group factory (SEAT is part of the Group) in Zwickau, Germany. This factory has been renovated and configured to produce electric vehicles for the Group’s different brands from 2021. It will have a production capacity of up to 330,000 electric vehicles a year.