THE CAR NAIRA BLOG

The Sony Honda Afeela 1 is an innovative all-electric vehicle (EV) developed through a collaboration between Sony and Honda. This joint venture, known as Sony Honda Mobility (SHM), aims to combine Honda's automotive manufacturing expertise with Sony's advanced technology and entertainment capabilities and was just presented at CES 2025. The Afeela 1  comes in two versions: the Origin and the Signature. The Origin starts at $89,900, while the Signature trim is priced at $102,900.  Some key features of the Afeela EV are: - A display screen on the front end that shows the logo, greetings, and other customizable messages. - Advanced Technology: The vehicle is equipped with 40 sensors, including cameras, LiDAR, radars, and ultrasonic sensors, to support advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). - Autonomous Driving: The Afeela 1 includes a suite of autonomous driving features, powered by AI and machine learning, rumored to be subscription-based. - Entertainment: It features Sony H...

Nissan Qashqai Nissan is developing an engine for road cars that could reach 50% thermal efficiency, meaning the potential for much more fuel-efficient cars. An engine's thermal efficiency is a measure of how much of the heat energy generated by combustion is actually converted into useful work. A good rating for a road car is about 40% whereas 50% is a rating normally associated with the best Formula One engines. Most cars particularly older models are have 20%-30% efficiency ratings. Nissan said Friday that an engine designed for road cars could achieve 50% thermal efficiency, but there's a catch: the engine would need to be running at a constant rpm, for example when used as a generator in an extended-range electric vehicle. In a conventional car, an engine experiences a wide variety of rpm and loads, which prevents it from running in its most optimal state due to the rich air-fuel mix required at certain rpm levels. This isn't the case for an engine acting as a generato...

Volvo's new cars and SUVs strike up a conversation with one another 2020. The automaker has announced Monday that every new car sold in Europe will be fitted with its latest connected-safety technology that can warn other Volvo drivers about road conditions or vehicle crashes. Volvo connected car safety Volvo calls the features its "Hazard Light Alert and Slippery Road Alert", which rolled out in 2016 on the brand's 90-series cars, but was relegated to Sweden and Norway. Now, all 2020 model year Volvos will feature the technology across Europe. Motor Authority reached out to Volvo to learn if U.S. drivers will be treated to the technology and a spokesman confirmed there are plans for an introduction. However, Volvo isn't ready to say when it will be ready for the U.S.  Before you ask, there's no hope for Africa.  Volvo connected car safety The technology works over a cloud-based network that all Volvo cars will be connected to. From there, every car will anony...

The main difference is in the placement of the camshaft.  OHV means Over Head Valve. Although almost all modern car engines have valves placed in the cylinder head The term OHV is used to describe a pushrod engine, with the camshaft placed in the cylinder block.  OHC stands for Over Head Cam, or the camshaft is installed in the cylinder head. SOHC means Single Overhead Cam, while DOHC means Double Overhead Cam. Which one is better? It's always a heated argument. Muscle car fans will swear by an old-school pushrod, while younger car enthusiasts will say that nothing beats the twin-cam (DOHC). Each design has its pluses and minuses.  OHV or Pushrod engine An OHV engine animated diagram In an OHV engine, the camshaft is placed inside the block and the valves are operated through lifters, pushrods and rocker arms. This mechanism is called a valvetrain. An OHV design has been successfully used for many years. Most early American cars had OHV engines and they...

So now that we know all the basic parts of the engine, let’s take a look at the movement that actually makes our car move: the four-stroke cycle. Please read our earlier article :  The anatomy of the engine . Each piston travels through four strokes to complete a single cycle. Any given cycle is the succession of operations that are constantly being repeated in a cylinder when the engine is running. And a stroke can be defined as the piston moving from the point where it’s the highest in the cylinder to the lowest point in the cylinder, or vice-versa. The above illustration shows the four-stroke cycle in a single cylinder. This is going on in the other cylinders as well. Engines may have 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 or 16 cylinders in "V" or "W" configurations. Repeat this cycle a thousand times in a minute, and you get a car that moves. Twitter and Instagram; @VverteAutoSevcs Email; vverteautosevcs@gmail.com Phone; 09137103730 <script async ...

The engine is the heart of your car. It is a complex machine built to convert heat from burning fuel into the force that turns the road wheels. A V6 engine To understand the engine fully, it is necessary to understand the individual components and related terminologies. Don't worry about getting confused, it's simple. If you're new to this, read through the whole thing to get an overall grasp, and then read it again so you have a basic understanding of each piece as it’s being talked about. Engine Block (Cylinder Block) An engine block The engine block is the foundation of an engine. Most engine blocks are cast from an aluminium alloy, but iron is still used by some manufacturers. The engine block is also referred to as the cylinder block because of the big hole or tubes called cylinders that are cast into the integrated structure. The cylinder is where the engine’s pistons slide up and down. The more cylinders an engine has the more powerful it is. In ...

An internal combustion engine is called an “internal combustion engine” because fuel and air combust inside the engine to create the energy to move the pistons, which in turn move the car. Contrast that to an external combustion engine, where fuel is burned outside the engine and the energy created from that burning is what powers it. Steam engines are the best example of this. Coal is burned outside of the engine, which heats water to produce steam, which then powers the engine. A steam engine Most people think that steam-powered external combustion engines came before the internal combustion variety. The reality is that the internal combustion engine came first. The ancient Greeks messed around with steam-powered engines, but nothing practical came from their experiments. In the 16th century, inventors created a form of internal combustion engine using gunpowder as the fuel to power the movement of the pistons. Actually, it wasn’t the gunpowder that moved them. The way this early int...

When you see an automobile advertised as being "turbocharged," everyone has the general sense that is a more powerful engine. Here's how it makes that magic. A turbocharger is a device fitted to a vehicle’s engine that is designed to improve the overall efficiency and increase performance. A Garret turbocharger How a Turbocharger Works In a standard internal combustion engine (ICE), it is actually the flow of air that is most critical to the engine's performance, not the amount of fuel sprayed. Normally, in a running engine it is the downward motion of the pistons that draws air into the engine cylinders. The air is mixed with​ fuel, and the combined vapor is ignited (spark plugs) to create power. When you step on the accelerator, you are not really pumping liquid fuel into the engine, but rather drawing in more air, which in turn draws in vaporized fuel to create power.   A cut-out turbocharger A turbocharger is an exhaust-driven mecha...

What is a continuously variable transmission? A continuously variable transmission, or CVT, is a type of automatic transmission that provides more useable power, better fuel economy and a smoother driving experience than a traditional automatic transmission. A Continuous Variable Transmission How  CVT works To understand this better, we must make comparisons with a conventional automatic transmission.  Conventional automatic transmissions use a set of gears that provides a given number of ratios (or speeds). The transmission shifts gears to provide the most appropriate ratio for a given situation: Lowest gears for starting out, middle gears for acceleration and passing, and higher gears for fuel-efficient cruising. A conventional automatic transmission The CVT replaces the gears with two variable-diameter pulleys, each shaped like a pair of opposing cones, with a metal belt or chain running between them. One pulley is connected to the engine (input s...