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CARNORAMA»Antonio Ferreira

Antonio Ferreira

Self-proclaimed 'TREND ENTHUSIAST'. Automotive industry expert with two decades of experience; consistently providing original and outstanding automotive intelligence.
Automotive Industry in 20 Years' Time

The Automotive Industry in 20 Years' Time

Usership not ownership, new vehicle propulsion and all-new brands: automotive industry futurist Antonio Ferreira shares his vision of the future. If the automotive industry is poised to see more change in the next five years than it has in the past 50, what sort of future are we looking at 20 years down the line? There’s no crystal ball, but the trends at work today suggest a clear direction towards a shared economy and smart technology. Read more

Shifting the Premise of Car Ownership

Shifting the Premise of Car Ownership

By chance as a young teenager I became the proud owner of three cars, which I salvaged from certain breakers-yard destiny, worked hard on them for several months and transformed into decent run-arounds. In consequence even before the legal driving age, I was already enjoying the premise of car ownership in London embodying not just freedom and adrenalin but also adulthood, status and sex. Read more

Tesla Battery Swap

Tesla unveiled a 90-second battery swap system. The niche vehicle manufacturer is planning to roll out premium battery-swapping stations later this year. Electric cars have been slow to catch on with consumers because of their high battery price, limited driving range and lack of a charging infrastructure. Tesla has been working to address some of those issues with fast-charging stations and now with the battery-swapping technology. A battery pack swap will cost between $60 and $80, about the same as filling up a 15-gallon tank. Read more

Apple iOS in the Car Infotainment System

Apple iOS in the Car Infotainment System

Apple’s answer is to put the phone into the infotainment system. Creatively named iOS in the Car, Apple plans to integrate your iOS device with your vehicle. Vehicle infotainment systems are nothing new. Over the last decade we’ve seen improvements to dashboard systems that control information and entertainment trickling down from luxury vehicles to economies of scale. Infotainment systems are now almost a commodity but in real-life testing proprietary automotive solutions are usually found lacking and deficient in common sense. Can Apple once again improve on the benchmarks and break the mould of vehicle infotainment? Read more

Creating Automotive Value © image: gursahindesign.com

Creating Automotive Value

Automotive consulting, it is all about creating value! Today countless innovative automotive business models are emerging. Entirely new automotive technologies and supply chains are forming as old ones crumble. Automotive startups are challenging the old guard, some of whom are struggling feverishly to reinvent themselves. How will automotive business models look like in two, five, ten, or even twenty years from now? Who will be among the dominant automotive players? Who will face competitors brandishing formidable new business models? Which trends can make automotive business more challenging? Or, which trends are being missed right now? Read more

Android Powered Volvo Infotainment System

Android Powered Volvo Infotainment System

Automotive infotainment systems will grow to a market of almost 70 million units by 2020; with connected navigation, multimedia streaming, social media, in-car Wi-Fi, and many other features. True factory-installed automotive infotainment platforms always struggled to find momentum and match consumer demands and expectations (for example consortiums like GENIVI and CCC). The automotive industry has been forced to adopt modified smartphone platforms like Android to compensate for the existing gap between automotive hypothesis and consumer reality. Read more

Automotive Consulting

Automotive Consulting

When it comes to gauging delivery quality, the growing trend within our client base is to implement a fairly structured approach by which delivery success is evaluated across time, quality, and cost parameters. This approach allows for a 360-degree review of each specific engagement, with the client evaluating CARNORAMA and vice versa. A weighted average overall performance score can be calculated for the engagement and evaluated against a detailed scoring grid. Read more

Audi R8 E-Tron: Electric Vehicle Limitations

Electric Vehicle Limitations

The simple truth is that presently EVs are not a comprehensive solution for all our transportation needs, instead it’s an option that will satisfy only some of our basic requirements. Current Electric Vehicle (EV) limitations are beyond obvious. The challenges of short ranges, long charge times, and hefty price tags indicate that answering the “How far, how long, how much?” EV riddle is still a complex one. As in: – How far can I drive my EV on a single charge? – How long does it take to completely charge my EV? – How much does my EV cost me? Read more

Electric Vehicle Insurance

Electric Vehicle Insurance

One of the main problems with electric vehicles (EVs) has always been the price. Rechargeable battery technology has seen a lot of improvement, but still remains a large chunk of vehicle price. It seems like there is another EV cost that some haven’t considered…insurance. Early adopters of EVs have to pay a premium to purchase their chosen car, but some are reaping unexpected savings on their insurance bills. Obviously insurance premiums vary widely based on driving history and local crime and vehicle theft rates, but owners of lower segmentation EVs such as the Nissan Leaf can generally expect a lower insurance premium. Read more

Future Electric Vehicle

Considering Overall Life-Cycles Electric Cars Pollute More

The public’s apathy for electric vehicles might turn out to be a good thing, with experts once again claiming that charging chemical car batteries using electricity from coal-fired power stations generates more pollution than building and running regular combustion engine vehicles. Read more