If there is one thing to be more wary of than an advertisement for a new product, it is an ad that isn't selling you any product at all – just image, pure and simple. So, in the middle of a recession when car sales are low, Audi last week bought the back pages of the Guardian and Sunday Times, and no doubt others, to tell us about what its largest typeface called “a very, very quick glimpse of the future”.
This week, Audi used the Detroit Auto Show to show us that glimpse: its e-tron concept car, “an electric car with electrifying performance” that was originally unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year. Concept cars are mock up models that never reach the showrooms in their present form.
It's nice to see electric cars being promoted as fit for more than just getting around town – albeit only at motor shows and on the back pages of newspapers. But we are entitled to be cynical. This corporate image advertising has a deservedly bad reputation for greenwash.
In the world of oil companies, for instance, there seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount of money spent promoting corporate green aspirations and actual investment in delivering clean energy. Witnesses the millions spent by Shell.
So what is Audi doing out in the real world? The answer is not nearly enough. It is so far behind the green curve that the company told me this week it won't have its first hybrid on the market for almost another year, and no electric vehicles before the end of 2012.
True, last month, its A3 2.0 picked up the “green car of the year 2010″ award, sponsored by America's Green Car Journal, at the Los Angeles Auto Show. But how come the award was made even before 2010 was under way? It seems that date inflation by the award organisers was keeping pace with inflated environmental claims by Audi.
The diesel-powered A3 2.0, has CO2 emissions of 115-147 grams per kilometre. This is better than average, but with a range of cars now under 100g, it hardly meets the citation from the journal's editor that the car “defines what a green car should be”.
The Audi website also has a page on “green issues and sustainability” (pdf). In keeping with the company's famous slogan, Vorsprung durch Technik (advancement through technology), it focuses on how the company is improving engine technology so you save fuel without noticing any change in performance.
This is good. But before you start believing the hype, read the latest report from Transport & Environment (pdf), an independent European think tank. It uses official data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to chart progress by major car manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions from their cars in Europe. And guess where Audi and its owner Volkswagen, which together sell more cars in Europe than any other company, appear?
They are third from bottom in a table of 14, with fleet-average emissions for cars sold in 2008 at 159g/km. This is way off the voluntary target of 140g/km agreed between the EU and European car manufacturers more than a decade ago to be achieved by 2008. Audi tells me its average in 2008 was a very poor 175g, though the early months of 2009 were close to the lower Volkswagen figure, which would be “better than all but one of our key competitors”.
To be fair, most other manufacturers also missed the target. The EU average for cars sold in 2008 was 152g. Only Fiat and Peugeot-Citroen have got below 140g.
They all have a long way to go to meet the EU's new target of 130g across average fleets by 2015. And Audi and its owners at Volkswagen more than most. The Transport & Environment report notes caustically that “the Volkswagen group … have a strategy of selling fuel efficiency as an option, rather than as standard”. Audi denies this and says it works “to improve fuel efficiency as part of the normal development process”.
But even so, take a close look at that ad. It is, as they say, a “very, very quick glimpse of the future”. Now you see it; now you don't.
New US$21 million investment will further Dorel's global car seat leadership position
EXCHANGES
TSX: DII.B, DII.A
MONTREAL and COLUMBUS, IN, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ – Dorel Industries (TSX: DII.B, DII.A) today announced plans to build a Design and Development Competency Center at its Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG) USA car seat manufacturing facility in Columbus, Indiana. The project is the first major milestone in Dorel's car seat product capital investment program and involves a total investment of US$20.8 million through 2013. DJG will immediately spend US$3.6 million and will add 39 jobs at its Columbus facility with a total of 98 jobs being created over the next four years.
“The development of this world class technology center with specialized research and design facilities will further Dorel's leadership position as the largest manufacturer of car seats globally and will drive ongoing technical advancements and innovations for child passenger safety,” stated Dorel President and CEO, Martin Schwartz.
This past year, Dorel's team of car seat engineers launched Air Protect(TM) Side Impact Technology, the most innovative and groundbreaking safety feature ever offered in a car seat.
The Design and Development Competency Center will be located adjacent to Dorel's current one million square foot car seat manufacturing facility. The expansion project will renovate 40,000 square feet of office and warehouse space doubling the space dedicated to child restraint systems design and development. The new center will house cutting-edge resources to aid in the development of future car seat technological breakthroughs. A revolutionary new crash test sled, dedicated computational engineering resources, and advanced side impact testing capabilities are just some of the dynamic assets to be included.
“We take great pride in the continued innovation and advancements our team has made in the car seat industry, most recently with the launch of the ground-breaking Air Protect Side Impact Technology,” said Dave Taylor, President of Dorel Juvenile Group US. “The new Design and Development Competency Center will enable us to bring additional leading car seat technologies to more families on the road today.”
“Dorel's decision to expand its development and testing operations here is an incredible vote of confidence in the Indiana economy and the work force of Columbus,” said Governor Mitch Daniels. “We appreciate their continued investment in this region and look forward to the new opportunities they will bring Indiana workers.”
Ninety percent of Dorel car seats and 50 percent of the DJG USA's total business are currently produced and distributed from the Columbus, Indiana facility. In addition, expansion with Dorel's new Competency Center will improve the community's economic development through the addition of new jobs and will highlight the area as a center for child passenger safety innovation.
Profile
Dorel Industries Inc. (TSX: DII.B, DII.A) is a world class juvenile products and bicycle company. Established in 1962, Dorel creates style and excitement in equal measure to safety, quality and value. The Company's lifestyle leadership position is pronounced in both its Juvenile and Bicycle categories with an array of trend-setting products. Dorel's powerfully branded products include Safety 1st, Quinny, Cosco, Maxi-Cosi and Bébé Confort in Juvenile, as well as Cannondale, Schwinn, GT, Mongoose, Iron Horse and SUGOI in Recreational/Leisure. Dorel's Home Furnishings segment markets a wide assortment of furniture products, both domestically produced and imported. Dorel is a US$2.2 billion company with 4700 employees, facilities in eighteen countries, and sales worldwide.
Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information provided herein, this press release may contain information and statements of a forward-looking nature concerning the future performance of Dorel Industries Inc. These statements are based on suppositions and uncertainties as well as on management's best possible evaluation of future events. The business of the Company and these forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from expected results. Important factors which could cause such differences may include, without excluding other considerations, increases in raw material costs, particularly for key input factors such as particle board and resins; increases in ocean freight container costs; failure of new products to meet demand expectations; changes to the Company's effective income tax rate as a result of changes in the anticipated geographic mix of revenues; the impact of price pressures exerted by competitors, and settlements for product liability cases which exceed the Company's insurance coverage limits. A description of the above mentioned items and certain additional risk factors are discussed in the Company's Annual MD&A and Annual Information Form, filed with the securities regulatory authorities. The risk factors outlined in the previously mentioned documents are specifically incorporated herein by reference. The Company's business, financial condition, or operating results could be materially adversely affected if any of these risks and uncertainties were to materialize. Given these risks and uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results.
SOURCE DOREL INDUSTRIES INC.
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