A new strategic partnership between Toyo Tire Corporation and automotive component manufacturer JAOS Corporation aims to increase the value of both brands within the SUV and 4×4 sector around the world. The two Japanese companies will collaborate in marketing activities and leverage their aggregate knowledge gained through joint participation in motorsports events and original product testing.
Linglong Tire has entered into a cooperative agreement with Chinese car-making joint venture company SGMW. The new partnership commenced with the signing of a strategic cooperation framework agreement at SGMW’s headquarters on 30 December. Under the agreement, the two parties will collaborate on product design, development, application, quality assurance, cost optimisation and manufacturing over a long-term basis.
The team at Tyrepress.com view independent tyre tests as an invaluable consumer purchasing tool. We will therefore follow the new licensing partnership between Auto Express and Auto Bild with interest, particularly in regards to how it influences both publications’ approach to tyre testing.
Diagnostics expert, Hella Gutmann Solutions (HGS) has partnered with online car repair marketplace, WhoCanFixMyCar.com. The supplier of the mega macs range of diagnostic systems states that the arrangement means drivers using WhoCanFixMyCar.com to find a workshop will now be able to differentiate between those that utilise HGS tools and those who don’t. The HGS logo will appear on relevant workshop profiles.
Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Motors Corporation have jointly invested 80M Euros in Rimac Automobili (Rimac) – the Croatian high-performance electric vehicle technology and sportscar company. The companies have announced a strategic partnership to collaborate on the development of two high-performance electric vehicles by 2020.
Automotive lighting and electronics supplier Hella is to extend its strategic partnership with AEye, a forerunner in artificial perception systems and the developer of iDAR. The companies are working to deliver customised sensing and perception solutions for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) based on AEye’s iDAR technology.
Marangoni Spa and Borrachas Vipal SA have announced that the two retreading material suppliers have entered into a partnership agreement aimed at “increasing the synergies and productivity, strengthening the industrial and commercial organisation of both groups”. Details of precisely what this means are still scarce but, according to a statement issued by Marangoni, this will lead to the creation of “the largest global independent player in the tyre retreading sector”.
Hella, the lighting and electronics specialist, and the French technology supplier Faurecia will cooperate in a strategic partnership for the development of innovative interior lighting solutions. Within this cooperation, the companies will jointly develop lighting solutions with high-technology content in the area of surface and dynamic-lighting for a comprehensive, personalised cockpit environment.
Pirelli has renewed its agreement with Porsche Club GB, Europe’s largest Porsche club. As such, it will continue to give the club – with its more than 22,000 members and 60,000 Porsche cars – technical and other types of support for an additional five years.
Logistics supply firm CEVA Logistics and Goodpack, operator of the world’s largest fleet of intermediate bulk containers, have entered into a new strategic alliance to provide solutions for the tyre industry. As part of this alliance, the two companies have developed ‘TyreCube’, an intelligent returnable container for tyres with data acquisition and track & trace capabilities.
Garage equipment distributor Absolute Alignment has announced two partnerships with UK race teams in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and British GT Championship. The company has become an Official Technical Partner to Power Maxed Racing in the BTCC, and will be supporting Academy Motorsport’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 entries in British GT.
A partnership between Continental and the German Corporation for International Cooperation (the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, or GIZ) aims to improve the sustainability of the natural rubber supply chain in Indonesia, the world’s second largest producer of natural rubber. The goals of the collaboration are to develop a criteria catalogue for the sustainable production of natural rubber, to train farmers in sustainable production in accordance with these criteria and to track the rubber from smallholders all the way to production at Continental. By doing so, the partners expect that this optimisation of the supply chain, paired with increases in rubber quality and yield, will generate higher incomes for rubber tree cultivators.
Pirelli has joined simulation company Slightly Mad Studios’ Project CARS franchise in a technical, promotional, and marketing partnership. The agreement brings Pirelli’s motorsport and tyre technology, and North America’s premier GT production series, the Pirelli World Challenge, to the second iteration of the game. The series will come with Project CARS 2’s release on 22 September, playable in the in-game career mode, and featuring GT3 cars and their specific liveries. Tracks include Long Beach, Circuit of the Americas, Road America, and the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.