Motoring Podcast - News Show

APRIL 2021 NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURESThere have been some attention grabbing headlines written, which seem to forget that whilst the year-on-year comparison stats are dramatically up on last year, we were all locked in our houses 12 months ago. Against the 10 year average the number of new car registrations are still down. To read more, click the SMMT article here. FORD AND NHS TRIALLING VACCINE TRANSITA specially converted Ford Transit is being trialled by the NHS to take the Covid vaccines out to the community. There are fitted with temperature controlled fridges, folding seats and other equipment to administer the injections. Hopefully this works, as it will help get the vaccine to everyone, especially those who cannot travel to the centres that have been set up to administer them. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here. ROAD AND RAIL INVESTMENT BEING REEVALUATED In a move that should be unexpected to everyone, the Government is reevaluating the transport infrastructure spending plans. T

Alan spent a week with one of the most divisive vehicles to have been launched in the last year, the BMW M440i X-Drive. Find out how he got on and just what he thought of “that” grille.

GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCEMENT CONFUSES INDUSTRYThe Government announced that there could be “self-driving” cars on the road towards the end of the year. This caused a lot of confusion because the driver assistance technology they were mentioning is not, nor ever will be, ‘self-driving’ as it is Automated Lane Keeping Systems. These are going to be only allowed to move a car up to 37mph, whilst keeping it in a lane of the motorway, with the driver able to remove hands and feet from the controls but still paying attention to the road and surroundings. To read more, click the Top Gear article here. TOYODA GOSEI SHUTTING DOWN UK OPERATIONToyoda Gosei, which is part of the Toyota Group, has announced they will be closing their production facilities in the UK. This will lead to the loss of 458 jobs, which the company is blaming on “a significant reduction in key UK customer demand”. They supply Toyota, Honda and Nissan in this country. To read more, click the Autocar article here. DIESS LEAVES SEAT AND SKODA BOARDSVolksw

Alan was joined by Dan Prosser of The Intercooler to talk about the new digital car-based magazine he’s founded with Andrew Frankel.You can find out more about The Intercooler by visiting their website, following on Twitter and Instagram or by downloading their app for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

FOLLOW UP: CHIP SHORTAGE HITTING MANUFACTURERS HARDSeveral manufacturers have now openly discussed the challenges of the current semi-conductor chip shortage and how that will effect their factories. To get a round up of who is currently feeling the effects, click the Autocar article here. FOLLOW UP: MCLAREN SELLS HEADQUARTERSMcLaren has found a buyer for it’s Woking headquarters, but at £170 million rather than the £200 million they were seeking. To read about the details of the agreement, click here for the Autocar article. TOKYO MOTOR SHOW CANCELLEDThe 2021 Tokyo Motor Show has been cancelled for the first time in it’s history, by organisers, due to the ongoing risks of the pandemic. They intend to return as a live event but be rebranded and include all aspects of mobility. To read more, click the Autocar article here. V2V COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL AGREED IN JAPANToyota, Suzuki, Daihatsu, Subaru and Mazda have reached an agreement to use a standardised vehicle data communication system and technical details f

CHIP SHORTAGE TO LAST INTO 2023The automotive chip shortage is expected to last into late 2022 and even 2023 according to some semi conductor manufacturers. This will add pressure to OEMs already trying to recover from a year of lockdowns across global markets. To read more, click The Register article here. There is some good news, though, with the Japanese factory that was damaged in a fire is expected to be back at full capacity by the middle of May. To read about the remarkable recovery, click here for The Registry article. RICHARD PARRY-JONES HAS PASSED AWAYFollowing a tragic accident on his farm, Richard Parry-Jones has passed away. He was the man heralded as turning modern Fords into enjoyable, fun driving cars rather than just cost-conscious boxes. Many throughout the industry have shared stories and their deep admiration and respect of both what he achieved and who he was as a person. To read more, click the TopGear article here. NEW NEW CAR NEWSDue to the Shanghai Motor Show taking place this week an

Alan was joined by Chris Pollitt, Head of Editorial at online marketplace Car & Classic, to chat about buying and selling classic cars.You can find out more about Car & Classic, browse vehicles for sale, find out how to sell your own vehicle and find editorial outlets via their website linked here.You can find out more about Chris’s background in his Rear View chat with Andrew. You can follow him on Twitter here.

FOLLOW UP: VW TO PAY INTEREST ON DIESELGATE LOANSVolkswagen will have to pay the interest on a car loans taken out by customers who bought cars affected by defeat devices. The German judge was quite specific on the ruling, which has left no room for appeal. To read more, click the Automotive News article here. WORLD CAR PERSON OF THE YEARThe boss of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, has won the World Car Person of the Year Award. In typically humble fashion, he feels it is the result of the hard work of the Toyota Team, rather than him specifically. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here. VAUXHALL RULED AS BRITISHA number of people, who were clearly very bored, have complained to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), over the claim by Vauxhall that it has been a “British Brand since 1903”. Those with nothing else to do, cited the ownership by GM and now Stellantis, both of whom are foreign companies, to show they were no longer British. The ASA agreed with Vauxhall’s response that it only sells to the Un

NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES MARCH 2021We will now start seeing the effect of national lockdowns on the annual comparison figures, which is why many of the headlines abut March’s figures were quite silly. Due to the difference in the lockdown restrictions, the monthly numbers were up on last year. To read more, click here for the SMMT article and data. As ever, we also include a link to Tristan Young’s tweets on the figures and type of fuel used, to see that data click here. CATERHAM FIND JAPANESE BUYERCaterham has been bought by their Japanese importer, VT Holdings, with a commitment to continuing the Seven model, in line with legislation. As for future development of the brand there is no news yet available. To read more, click the Autocar article here. CYBER SECURITY TYPE APPROVAL TO BE REQUIREDWith cars becoming more connected to the internet, than ever before, manufacturers will be required to go through type approval for their cyber security efforts. They must protect the vehicle for it’s entire lifecy

FOLLOW UP: VW SEEKS DAMAGES FROM FORMER EMPLOYEESFollowing the conclusion of the independent internal investigation into the dieselgate situation, Volkswagen Group has released a statement where they announce they will be seeking damages from former employees, for failing in their ‘duty of care’ for the company. To read more, click the Car Dealer article here. HONDA FINDS BUYER FOR SWINDON PLANTHonda will stop production of the Civic in July, thus ending their time in the UK. Panttoni, a logisitcs and industrial site developer, has confirmed it will be investing heavily in redeveloping the site. They should take ownership from early 2022, after Honda has finished decommissioning equipment. To read more, click the Autocar article here. RIMAC OPENS R&D CENTRE IN UKRimac, has opened a new Research and Development Centre in Warwick Enterprise Park, at the company edges closer to the launch of their new hypercar, the C_Two. To read more, click the Autocar article here. UK AV AND EV ACT PARTIALLY COMES INTO FOR

PLUG-IN GRANT REDUCED OVERNIGHT BY GOVERNMENTThe Government announced, with immediate effect, the reduction in the plug-in grant they were making available for cars with a price up to £50,000. Not only has the grant amount been reduced from £3,000 to £2,500 but also the eligibility price is cut to a maximum of £35,000. There was much howling at the timing, immediacy and depth of cut. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here. As a counter to this FleetWorld has an opinion piece giving some explainers as to why the Government has made some of the decisions it has. To read that, click the link here. To find out which cars are affected, click the Autocar article here. To read about Citroën tackling the issue with their e-C4, click the ZapMap article here. COMPUTER CHIP SHORTAGE HURTING CAR INDUSTRYThe global shortage of computer chips was already impacting the global car industry, however this situation has been made worse by a fire at one of the main production plants, in Japan. But this points to

FOLLOW UP: BATH CLEAN AIR ZONE GOES LIVEBathe has implemented a Clean Air Zone, which remains free for passenger cars and motorcycles to enter, but could cost up to £100 per day for older lorries and buses. Find out more here. FOLLOW UP: CONSULTATION ON ENDING THE SALE OF NEW ICE/HEV CARS AND VANSThe Uk government has concluded its consultation on the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars and vans. You can read the official response here.NEW ENGINE DEAL FOR DAGENHAMFord has announced that Dagenham will build the engines for the next generation of Transit Custom. The engines will be exported to Turkey, where the van is to be built alongside its Volkswagen sibling. Read more on this story here.ASTON JOB LOSSES AT ST. ATHANAston Martin has announced job losses at its St. Athan factory. The DBX production line is being “downsized” to help a return to profitability. 95 employees are to lose their jobs alon with around 100 contractors. You can read more here from Autocar and here from the BBC.CONCERNS OF EV CH

FOLLOW UP: ANDREW GOT LOST IN LIVERPOOL Thank you, to the keen eared listener who corrected Andrew on where Aigburth Road actually is in Liverpool, when he described Edge Lane. FOLLOW UP: DEALERS UNHAPPY WITH VOLVO PLANSThis week’s ‘well knock me down with a feather’ news item is that the dealerships who found out that Volvo wants to ditch a lot of them for sales, are less than happy with this idea. To read more, click The Truth About Cars article here. NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES FEBRUARY 2021This will be the last month that does not compare restricted UK, year on year, when looking at registration figures. Considering the country has been in another ‘full’ lockdown, manufacturers and dealers have done well to only be 35% down on last year. To read more, click the SMMT figures here. In our not very regular segment about LGVs, it is interesting to see that vans are still going strong, with registrations being up 22% on last year. To read more about that, click the SMMT article here. FUEL DUTY NOT RAISED IN B

FORD BUYS BACK FACTORYIn Merseyside, Ford has bought back the remaining stake in a transmission factory, securing the future of 600 workers. This is a glimpse of good news and look forward to finding out why they have made such a move. To find out more, click the Business Live article here. YARIS IS THE EUROPEAN CAR OF THE YEARWhilst many are only grumbling about Geneva, rather than getting ready to go AND grumbling, the European Car of the Year was announced. The winner is the Toyota Yaris. To find out more about which country voted for which cars, click the Motoring Research article here. There is a fun article running through all the past winners, to see how they fared after being hailed as the best, to read about that click the Autocar article here. E10 PETROL TO BE SOLD FROM SEPTEMBER 2021The Government has announced that E10 petrol will start to be sold throughout the UK from September 2021. This has a higher amount of ethanol in it than existing fuel. The expectation is that around 700K vehicles will b

FOLLOW UP: 2000 JOBS TO GO IN JLR ‘REIMAGINATION’There has been further clarification to the information from Jaguar Land Rover, with regards to their ‘Reimagination’ strategy. 2000 salaried, non manufacturing, workers will be lost from the global workforce in the next year, as part of the cost cutting element of the strategy. To read more, click the Autocar article here. FOLLOW UP: MITSUBISHI MAY NOT BE LEAVING EUROPEAccording to reports, Mitsubishi may be about to change their position on Europe, thanks to Renault. Suggestions are that their models will be built in Renault factories that, however there are no new models being designed for Europe and this would not affect the decision to stop selling cars in the UK. To read more, click the Automotive Management article here. FOLLOW UP: BRISTOL CLEAN AIR ZONE STARTS IN OCTOBERBristol has now confirmed the latest idea and map for their Clean Air Zone, following the Government asking the council to rethink the decision to ban all diesels for large portions of t

FOLLOW UP: GHOSN ESCAPE TEAM LOSE COURT APPEALThe father and son team who are accussed of helping Ghosn spring from bail in Japan, has lost their appeal to be extradited to Japan to face charges relating to Carlos Ghosn’s escape. To read more, click here for the Automotive News article. JAGUAR LAND ROVER ANNOUNCE NEW STRATEGYJLR has announced a ‘reimagining’ of their path forward. From 2025 they will be a fully electric focused company. Jaguar will ditch SUVs as they will be Land Rover’s sectors. The XJ, which is so deep into development, has been ditched. There are a lot of aspects to their plans, in order to read more, click the Motoring Research article here to get an overview. For some more in-depth analysis, click here for Professor David Bailey’s take on the news in Car Dealer Magazine. GOVERNMENT POTHOLE FUND DROPSThe Government announced it is injecting £500m into the pothole fund, to help local councils repair the shocking state of the roads. Whilst this is a lot, it is a reduction on last year’s ov

FOLLOW UP: TESLA CHIP RECALL EXPANDED TO UK Tesla has expanded the recall they were forced to initiate in the US, to the UK, for Model S and X cars. The issue is with the type of chip used in their touchscreens, which is not able to cope with the demands of automotive use. There is no timescale on when the recall will begin. To read more, click the Car Dealer article here.JANUARY 2021 NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURESIn January there was a drop of nearly 40% in new cars being registered, which is an excellent effort from the industry considering the country is in another lockdown. The Top 10 *Most Registered* list has a few surprises. To read more, click the SMMT article here. For Tristan Young’s breakdown of registrations due to the ‘fuel put in it’, click the Twitter link here. To learn more about Used Car Transactions, from 2020, click the SMMT link here. DIESEL MOT FAILURE RATE ROCKETSFollowing the introduction of the latest MOT rules, in May 2018, the number of diesel vehicles failing the emission element ha

OLD TYRES BANNED Following a lengthy campaign after a tragically fatal accident involving a coach with old tyres, a new law has come into force that bans tyres over 10 years old from being fitted to lorries, coaches and buses where there is only a single tyre. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here. TOYOTA RECLAIMS WORLD’S LARGEST CAR MANUFACTURER CROWNToyota was the largest car manufacturer in 2020, knocking the Volkswagen Group from the lofty top spot. Whilst all were affected by lockdowns across the globe, the reach of Toyota’s network appears to have softened that blow. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here. JLR POST PRE-TAX PROFIT FOR LAST QUARTERThe impact of the dramatic cost-efficiencies across Jaguar Land Rover are bearing fruit, as they announced a pre-tax profit of £439m, for the last quarter. To read more about this good news, click the Autocar article here. NEW MD NAMED BY LOTUSMatt Windle has been named the new Managing Director of Lotus, taking over from Phil P

FOLLOW UP: VW APPEAL $20M SPANISH CLAIM After a Spanish court order Volkswagen to compensate owners €3000 each, who bought a car with the defeat-device fitted. The company has announced it will appeal the ruling. To read more, click the Reuters article here. FOLLOW UP: VW SEEKS US RULING ON EMISSION UPDATEWhen Volkswagen agreed to settle the criminal and civil actions, in the US, to the tune of $20 billion, it did not get liability protection from state and local governments, according to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. VW disagree and are taking the ruling to the US Supreme Court to attempt to protect themselves from state and local governments claiming penalties for the defeat-devices. To read more, click the Automotive News Europe article here. VW FACING FLEET CO2 FINEVolkswagen Group missed their required target for fleet CO2 levels, in 2020, and is now facing a potential fine of €95 for every g/km missed per car sold. Diess tried to put a brave face on it, by stating VW and Audi brands exceeded the

FOLLOW UP: SOME CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST WINTERKORN A Lower Saxony court has dropped the charges of market manipulation, against former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, preferring to focus on the accusation that he knowingly sold vehicles fitted with defeat devices. Winterkorn’s lawyers maintain his innocence of all charges. To read more, click the DW article here. STELLANTIS LAUNCHES ON STOCK MARKETSThe newly formed company, following the merger of the PSA and FCA groups, has launched on several stock markets across the globe. Their share price has been positively welcomed by traders. To read more, click the Automotive Management article here. JURGEN HUBBERT PASSES AWAYThe former Chairman of Mercedes-Benz, Jurgen Hubbert, has passed away at the age of 81. He took on the role in 1989, holding it for 15 years, ushering in many changes to the company and their models. To read more about what he managed in that time, click here for the Autocar article. RENAULT ANNOUNCES NEW STRATEGY Ignoring the dreadful mashi