TPT September 2015

Global Marketplace

in fifth place in the Top Ten. Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ makers fared well, with Chevrolet, from General Motors, placing highest among traditional US brands at seventh, followed by Ford’s Lincoln in eighth place. Both were ahead of the Japanese brands Lexus and Toyota, which placed ninth and tenth. Overall, the study found, cars are getting better. There was a 3 per cent improvement in this year’s results compared to 2014, given the finding of 112 problems per 100 cars – down from 116 last year. As noted by Chris Woodyard of USA Today (17 June), automakers that fared poorly were often tripped up by balky or complicated infotainment systems that frustrated owners. Power said that, for the third year, connectivity and entertainment systems were the biggest trouble-spot. Buyers complained of phones that could not be paired to Bluetooth systems, or voice recognition systems that did not understand them. › Renee Stephens, a Power vice president, told USA Today , “Smartphones have set high consumer expectations of how well technology should work, and automakers are struggling to match that success in their vehicles.” Yet, for all the trouble with their use, the systems are gaining in popularity. Some 67 per cent of car owners reporting to Power said they had voice recognition in the new car, up from 57 per cent in 2013. Mr Woodyard said that automakers “have been pushing hard for the systems” as a way of reducing distraction behind the wheel. Oil and gas Europe’s energy ‘Big Six’ say gas must help in the fight against climate change In a striking departure from their customary stance of studied aloofness from public affairs, the heads of Europe’s six largest energy companies are seeking to influence the UN climate summit set for Paris in December. In a 1 June letter to the Financial Times (London), the chief executives of Shell, BP, BG Group, Eni, Statoil and Total declared that natural gas must be a vital consideration in the effort to address global warming. They also called for “widespread and effective” carbon pricing to be part of any solution that emerges from the UN climate talks that had just resumed in Bonn. The six energy bosses said they had expressed themselves to that effect to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body that convenes the talks among 196 nations. “As a group of business people, we are united in our concern about the challenge – and the threat – posed by climate change,” said the letter, addressed to UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and French foreign minister Laurent Fabius. “Our companies would like to open direct dialogue with the UN and willing governments.”

of all its Los Angeles and San Francisco flights from JFK to the United hub at nearby Newark Liberty International Airport. United, whose JFK-West Coast routes have not shown a profit for the last seven years, said that the change, set for 25 October, will enable it to provide premium cabins for business travellers on all of its West Coast flights out of Newark. The expectation is that those passengers will experience a level of service similar to that available on connecting flights to Europe. › Other domestic airlines gingering up their cross-country routes include American, which flies its newest Airbus A321 with three levels of service including first class and business class to Los Angeles and San Francisco. JetBlue Airways has been assigning semi-private first-class cabins to that traffic. And Delta is putting bigger planes, typically configured for international routes, into its east-west routes. › For his part, Sir Richard Branson took the unaccustomed, for him, middle way in siting the latest project of his Virgin Atlantic airlines: a joint venture with Delta Air Lines for direct flights between London Heathrow and Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the Delta hub. As noted by business reporter Lauren Abdel-Razzaq of the Detroit News , Sir Richard himself touched down in Michigan on 11 June to inaugurate the daily service. “You have a great city that has been an underdog city for years that is fighting back,” declared the Virgin Atlantic president and founder, wearing for emphasis a “Detroit Hustles Harder” T-shirt. “It will be one of the great cities of America again.” To that end, he expects some 155,000 travellers a year to access the new service between the two cities. The joint venture gains for Virgin a much larger US network of connecting flights out of Detroit. Under their agreement Delta invested $360 million in Virgin Atlantic, acquiring the 49 per cent stake in the company previously held by Singapore Airlines. Automotive From the JD Power 2015 initial quality study: Korean cars advance; on-board infotainment systems are troublesome, popular The South Korean brands Kia and Hyundai have moved well up in the annual JD Power initial quality study, one of the most closely watched gauges in the automotive industry. Kia ranked just behind the German luxury brand Porsche, which was No. 1 for the third year in a row. And Hyundai moved up to fourth place, right behind Britain’s Jaguar. This year’s study, released 17 June, is based on responses from 84,000 drivers who bought or leased a 2015 model year car or truck. It records defects or problems in the first 90 days of ownership. Power said that Japanese brands collectively are now below industry average for the first time in 29 years. Currently the highest-rated Japanese brand is Nissan’s Infiniti,

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S eptember 2015