Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/655581
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 MARCH 2016 Motoring III Apple car 'ready by 2021' APPLE'S long-rumoured plans to build a car could see first deliveries rolling off the assembly line in 2021, ac- cording to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Apple Car Fans spoke to Munster, "one of the world's most recognized and respected Apple financial ana- lysts", and found him "bullish" in his assertions regarding the tech giant's plans to enter the automotive industry. "There will be a car that you can see and order in 2019-2020," he said, adding that it won't be on driveways before 2021. Showing off a device a year or two before it goes on sale is a break from Apple's usual marketing approach, but there's an advantage to the strategy: "to hold up the market in anticipation". If an Apple car does go into pro- duction – something Munster pegs at a better than 50 per cent chance, despite recent reports noting setbacks in the firm's auto division – it should go on sale at $75,000, a price com- parable to the Tesla Model S, another electric car set to get self-driving capabilities in the near future. Munster says that the company has a sizeable team working on the so-called Project Titan, adding that Apple's "biggest concern is growth" and the automotive market offers "a potentially generous amount of it". While Apple will likely design the car, around 80 per cent of the manufactur- ing could be outsourced. Business Insider is sceptical, though, and says the market for luxury electric vehicles [EVs] is still too small, with "very little certainty" over its pros- pects. "EVs now make up such a tiny sliver of the overall auto market that there's no place to go but up. However, even with plenty of EV options on the market, consumers aren't really buy- ing the cars," it says. "It's hard to see how [Apple's car] could pay off unless there's a major transformation in the market for mobility". As for the legitimacy of Munster's beliefs, Jalopnik says it is "all specula- tion based on insider trading and ru- mors but it's also literally this guy's job to back what he's heard with reason and criticism for investors". Rumours should be taken with an "apple-car sized grain of salt" and if a car is in the pipeline, we can expect plenty of leaks during its development. Duke of Edinburgh's globe-trotting 1950s Aston Martin up for sale THE clue is in the col- our, and the extra mirror: the shade is Edinburgh Green, and the mirror is for one to fix one's hat on the way to royal engage- ments. An immaculate veteran, a 1954 Aston Martin Lagonda, custom-built for Prince Philip, is coming up for auction with an estimate of up to £450,000 – more than three times the price of a brand new Aston Martin DB9. "The accompanying paper- work beggars belief," says Da- mian Jones, sales manager at H&H auctions, which will sell it in late April at the Imperial War Museum's site in Duxford, Cambridgeshire. The car was once stopped by a London traffic policeman, who spotted the occupants and hastily waved it on. The convertible, a four-seat- er upholstered in grey leather – and which won the firm its first royal warrant – became almost as much of a star as its occupants, appearing in in- numerable press photographs and newsreel films. The extra vanity mirror was specially fitted so the Queen could get her hat absolutely straight. And a radio telephone – of which only the control button on the dashboard remains – allowed Prince Philip to phone home, his call relayed through a Pye station in north London. The Duke of Edinburgh drove it to open the M1 motorway in 1959, and regularly used it to drop his eldest son at prep school. It was serviced by weekly visits from Aston Martin engineers, sent to the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, or to Windsor Castle, In 1956-57, when Phil- ip and the Queen went on a Commonwealth tour, the car was craned on to the royal yacht Britannia and went too. A senior engineer from the firm met it on its arrival in Australia for the Melbourne Olympics, and Dunlop ensured that all its branches on the itinerary were stocked with the correct tyres. In 1961 he replaced it with an Alvis TD21 Drophead Coupe, which is still part of the royal collection, garaged at Sandringham. The Lagonda engine and bodywork have recently been extensively overhauled, and the original paint scheme restored – but it still only has 50,000 miles on the clock, after one peppery and several overawed private owners. Volvo recalls 59,000 cars over software glitch VOLVO is recalling 59,000 cars, from markets all over Europe, over faulty software that can briefly shut down the engine. The recall affects five-cylin- der diesel models S60, V60, XC60, V70 and XC70 built from mid-2015. Owners of the Swedish cars are being sent letters directly, asking them to take their ve- hicles to their local dealership for a 30-minute no-fee fix. The cars are being recalled across 40 markets, but those affected have been sold mainly in Sweden, Britain and Germany. Group spokesman Stefan Elfstrom said that the glitch can be "unpleasant" but the company has no information about any accidents caused as a result. Both the engine and electric system start up again immedi- ately after shutting down.