Salvage Wire

Salvage Wire
Helping Automotive recyclers become leaders in their industry

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Hybrid and EV Technology


Spent a few hours at the Bus and Coach Expo being held at the NEC in Birmingham this week, some very interesting stands especially Wrightbus who were displaying their new Hybrid Bus for London that replaces the iconic Routemaster and also their full EV bus.

This was my first opportunity to have a close inspection of the new Bus for London and I was impressed, 3 sets of doors, 2 stairwells, minimalist design and whilst thoroughly modern has enough references to the Routemaster to be a very believable big brother to the original.

They were not the only manufacturers displaying low or zero emission vehicles, and I discussed with most of them the life expectancy of the battery pack and return on investment.

Most agreed that it could take up to 5 years to recoup the additional cost of the battery pack and one manufacturer who shall remain nameless believes that after 5 years the battery pack on their full EV would be operating at 80% of its’ original capacity – dangerously close to many experts opinion that High Voltage batteries for Hybrid or EV use would be End of Life at 75% capacity.

600 of the new Bus for London have been ordered, hope that their battery packs last for more than 5 years!

None of the manufacturers could give me information on how to disable the battery packs in the event of an emergency situation, flood, fire or accident could require the battery pack to be isolated and the first question is where the fuses are, how can the high voltage system that runs at 600+ volts be made safe and what are the safety requirements?

Otherwise, a great show with lots of new innovations, especially loved the Volvo stand and the quality of some of the new coaches and buses is so high, travelling public are being spoilt!

Tuesday 6 November 2012

5th Asian Automotive Environmental Forum

The Auto Recyclers Association of Australia are proud to host the 5th Asian Automotive Environmental Forum from 29th November until 1st December.

The forum will be held at Hotel Grand Chancellor, Surfers Paradise and will include delegations from Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Seminars will include:

  • Strategies to Strengthen Cooperation between Governments, vehicle Manufacturers and Auto Recyclers
  • Industry led initiatives to improve environmental outcomes from ELV processing
  • Future strategies to achieve 95% recycling of End-of-Life vehicles
  • Developments in the treatment of Automotive Shredder Resideu (ASR)
  • Environmental Compliance Standards for Auto Recyclers
  • and much more.


Full details of the programme, costs and to register for the Forum please see www.autoenvironment.asia




Are you planning for 2013?

Under 2 months until the end of 2012 and there are many businesses working very hard to meet commitments and targets they set themselves at the start of the year, how many are taking some time out to plan for 2013?
One of the best things I have learnt this year is the word Clarity. Clarity is essential when you are giving instructions, planning, forecasting and so-on, and it is absolutely essential for staff so they know what is expected of them every day, what their targets are for the week, month, quarter and year, and also how they are going to reach those targets.
Are you building you plans so that all staff know what they have to do when they walk through the door on the 2nd January or will you ‘wing’ it again?
What are your targets for next year? Are they achievable? Do your staff know what the targets are?
 If the answer is yes, then well done, your business will have a good and profitable year (assuming the plans are well designed and accurate).
If you haven’t started working on your plans for 2013 then you still have time to develop them and motivate your team to adopt them as their plans and targets, but don’t waste too much time!
When writing the plans concentrate on what you can change or affect, there is too much happening in this world that you cannot change so don’t worry about political, population or economic changes, but concentrate on what you can change, create and develop.
Concentrate on what you are doing best and think through these questions:
Why do people do business with us?
Why don’t people do business with us?
The 3 most important things to do to grow our business next year are?

 Not much, but it is a start to understand why your customers keep coming back (what you are doing well, different or what nobody else does), why you lose customers (what they can get elsewhere better/cheaper/reliably…) and what you need to do to enhance the good and improve the negative.

 Give it a try, you may be surprised by the results!