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Loremo AG (Munich, DE) introduced their fuel efficient car “Loremo” at the Geneva Motor Show last moneht.

Founded in 2000, the company developed the car to be light-weight and aerodynamics. This petrol ca can manage an impressive 157 miles per gallon (1.5l per 100km)

Unlike other companies efforts the car does have a fine top speed. The base model “Loremo LS” is powered by a 2 cylinder 20 hp turbo diesel engine that will reach a speed of 100 mph and the GT model will reach up to 135 mph with a 0 to 60 mph acceleration of 9 seconds.

While this sounds marvellous the stumbling block for environmentalism is usually cost. Loremo say the LS will be EUR 11,000 and the GT for EUR 15,000, which sounds resonable but VRT will bring up the price in Ireland of course.

Continue reading ‘Loremo to produce a 157mpg car’

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There is a fascination with road deaths in the Irish media. Almost every day a higher figure is quoted, and compared with “this time last year“. The figures invariably increase.

So a problem does exist, and it is getting worse, but how can it be solved? Well that is another story, it is very easy to identify a problems and to talk about it, but solving it requires action.

The government talk about “excessive speed” and “drink driving”, both of these are certainly contributors and due to bad drivers, the government would like to “crack down”, an admirable idea, and I’m sure they would enjoy the monetary speeding fines generated in such a crack down, indeed the extra penalty points on the respective drivers licences will ensure the government’s two percent insurance levy kickback will be higher.

But what about the other causes of road deaths, as a driver without any political connections I can consider these with some authority and independence, from the ground. I believe that poorly surfaced roads, and inappropriate speed limits are to blame for many accidents. The margin of many roads are in a terrible state of repair, so cars are forced to drive more towards the centre line of the road then the margin, and because this isin’t an occasional oversight by the local authorities roads department, both sides of the road are equally bad, so opposing traffic has a higher chance of colliding. Now on to inappropriate speed limits, lets look at the classic example, a sensible 50kmph limit exists in in an urban town or village, but for some reason the limit continues for some distance into the countryside. A classic example is found in Co Cork. On the Ballinhassig to Five-mile-bridge road. After leaving Ballinhassig heading West for the latter area the 50 kmph stays in force. While theorists may argue a slow limit would reduce accidents, empirical research disagrees. Drivers who have somewhere to go will accelerate and pass slower cars in the zone, or if unable to pass in the zone they will pass soon afterwards with an understandable agressiveness. One wonders if the limit exists as a cash cow, where the traffic corps can enjoy fish in a barrel revenue collection?

What is the solution?

Well putting up Accident Blackspot signs is a favourite…

as is lowering speed limits…

But how about surfacing roads properly?
Continue reading ‘Road deaths in Ireland’

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• The constant stream of new dell boxes in the corridor dries up
• Adsense appears on the homepage
• Employees start wearing interview suits, and taking long lunchbreaks
• Employees race from the office to the nearest bank to cash their paycheques
• People actually start going to the weekly meetings
• Crates of logo festooned biros start appearing on ebay

Continue reading ‘Signs that a company is about to go bust’

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Please excuse the tabloid headline, here is a more acacemic one I was going to use “Brownfield sites in contemporary Ireland, a brief consideration”

There is much talk in Ireland about farmers selling greenfield sites to property developers for residential units. The reasons are numberous and seem to centre on the EU “decoupling”. But what is more interesting is whats happening to brownfield sites. I’m not referring to UK style post-industrial sites, of which Ireland doesn’t have many, so rather I’m referring to commercial sites in cities and towns.

• The property, or more likely the land is stands on, is worth more than the annual turnover of the business
• The business can no longer get staff to work at economic rates (even if mimimum wage staff are found they will later move on)
• The business is subjected to increasing costly legislation (much of it worthwhile, but still costly)
• The owner is close to retirement age and would like a nest egg (his existing pension won’t return or that much)
• The population of the area is being forced out beyond even the suburbs by the price of property, so businesses reliant on a local catchment area see decreasing trade (like service stations, small shops)
• The Internet allows customers to bypass the high street shop for ebay (these are cheaper because they aren’t renting prime retail space)
• Retail outlets in the city center pay very high rents, which means only businesses that selling high-margin products can afford locate there (entertainment, mobile phones, fashionable clothing, and shoes). Existing leasehold businesses in other sectors, which may have been there for decades, find it hard to pay these rents and are forced out.
• Parking is expensive, and sometimes impossible, in the city center so shoppers head to out of town shopping centers with plentiful free parking.
• Banks lend to the developers to build houses
• Banks lend to the people to for house mortgages
• People borrow money based on the increased value of their house to fund imported goods such as large televisions, and other electronics which imported from Asia
• Borrowed money is flowing out of the country into foreign property as even the rich can’t afford holiday homes in scenic Ireland.

Continue reading ‘Celtic Tiger closes city shops’

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