Motoring Podcast - News Show

With characteristically good timing, Alan needed to make a trip to Scotland inter-lockdown to collect more stuff than would ever fit in a Yaris. This seemed like a good opportunity to play at “White Van Man” to remind ourselves just how competent the current generation of mid-sized vans is and to see just how much you can fit into a Mercedes-Benz Vito.

FOLLOW UP: UN SAYS GHOSN TREATMENT ‘UNFAIR’An independent group of experts, working for the United Nations, has stated that Japanese treatment of Carlos Ghosn was ‘fundamentally unfair’. They have made no comment on the allegations of his crime, only how he was arrested several times and the harsh bail conditions levied on him. To read more, click the Guardian article here. FOLLOW UP: ICE 2030 BAN FORMALLY ANNOUNCEDWhilst we were recording, last week’s show, the Government announced that they will be bringing in the ban on new internal combustion engined cars from 2030, as we stated we were waiting for. Rather than go through it all again and because there is so much misinformation and misunderstanding with the situation we recommend you read the Motoring Research article that calmly discusses the matter and what it will mean, to do so click the link here. NISSAN REFUTES SUNDERLAND CLOSURE CLAIMSReports, from a respected German automotive magazine, suggested that Nissan had decided to close Sunderland but was

Andrew had an example of Subaru’s first tentative step into the world of adding hybrid technology to their cars. Listen in as he tells Alan about his week with the car, how hybridy the car is and have they done a good job first time out.

FOLLOW UP: GHOSN CLAIMS TO HAVE FLED TO ESCAPE INJUSTICECarlos Ghosn has a book coming out soon and in an interview with the Sunday Times he discusses what has happened to him and how he claims he fled Japan to escape injustice. To read more, click the Autocar article here. GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING ROAD PRICING Over the weekend, the news was leaked that the UK Government is actively looking into adopting road pricing, due to the expected short fall from a lack of fuel and vehicle excise duty, with more EVs being used on the roads ahead of the expected 2030 cut off date for no more new ICE cars. To read more, click the Autocar article here. This is not a new idea within Government, click here to see what George Freeman had to say on the subject in November last year in Company Car Today. The BVLA has also released a report following their investigation into the idea of road pricing, which you can find by clicking here. Thanks to Tom Callow for tweeting the link out. Related to this, Zero Carbon World has some 7k

Alan headed to the Sussex to spend a day with the new GR Yaris to find out more about this WRC homologation special. Is the 1.6 litre 3-cylinder up to the job? Most importantly, is it special enough to evict the GRMN from his driveway?

NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES OCTOBER 2020The October New Car Registration figures were down only 1.6% year-on-year, even with the Welsh lockdown. Diesel, unsurprisingly, and petrol both down but battery vehicles up a whopping 143.9%. There is a surprise or two in the model Top 10 list as well. To read more, click here for the SMMT article. CO2 POOLING Car manufacturers are beginning to finalise their plans for dealing with the EU Fleet CO2 rules. In an effort to avoid large fines the fine print allows manufacturers to buy CO2 credits from others who have spare. To see further who has signed up with whom, click the CarScoops article here. M6 TOLL PRICE RISEFrom the 4 December 2020, the price will increase to use the M6 Toll Road. Cars will be charged £6.90 to use the full length of the road during the day, with the Junction price being £4.90. Local residents can get a Flxi-Pass, which means that paying £29 will allow for 10 Junction trips. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here. MORE DRIVING TR

FOLLOW UP: FORD TO REPLACE KUGA PHEV BATTERIESIn August Ford announced they were pulling Kuga PHEVs from sale and that owners should not plug in theirs in due to the risk of a battery fire. The cause of the issue is now known, with battery cells becoming contaminated, meaning that Ford will replace the traction battery packs via a recall. To read more, click the Autocar article here.TFL FUNDING PACKAGE REQUIRES £15 CONGESTION CHARGEPart of the agreement for the extra £1.7bn funding, agreed between the Government and Transport for London, requires the £15 temporary Congestion Charge to continue. However, rumours that the area will increase to be essentially inside the North and South Circular Roads have been rejected. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here.SHELL DITCHES LPG DUE TO LACK OF DEMANDJust as Dacia announce they are introducing LPG vehicles, to help with the CO2 rules of the EU, Shell announces it will be removing LPG from their stations as there is a lack of demand. To read more, cli

FOLLOW UP: BRANKIN NEW MD OF FORD BRITAIN AND IRELANDFord of Britain and Ireland has announced that Lisa Brankin will be the new Managing Director, from the 1 November 2020. This follows her stepping into the interim position after Andy Barratt who took a leave of absence recently. To read more, click the Ford release here.THATCHAM CALLS ON A HALT TO AUTOMATED DRIVING PUSHThatcham Research is calling on the Government to pause the introduction of ‘hands-free’ driving from Spring 2021, as the technology is not there to do so safely. Listeners may have heard Andrew say this once or twice. To see more, click on the Thatcham tweet here to see how far off technology is from perception.TAYCAN ADDS APPLE PODCAST AND MUSICLYRICSThe Porsche Taycan is the first car to have full integration with Apple Podcasts, including charts, all the 1.5 million shows and in over 100 languages. Added to this, passengers get the advantage of MusicLyrics, the Apple service that displays time-synched lyrics, in their dedicated screen. T

LOOPHOLE CLOSING CONSULTATION OPENSA consultation, with suggestions on closing loopholes on the use of mobile phones whilst driving, has been announced. Whilst these are a welcome step, some are asking if the Government is really serious about safety as there are no proposals to ban hands-free mobile phone calls, even though there is a stack of scientific evidence that proves how impaired a driver becomes. To read more about the consultation, click the BBC News article here. To go straight to the consultation, click the link here. To listen to Nick Freeman discuss how the proposals do not go far enough, click the YouTube link here.COLLABORATIVE POTHOLE MAP CREATEDThe Government, collaborating with the likes of Uber, Tesco, Deliveroo and Ocaado, will create a map of the UK’s roads, allowing highway departments to plan their works and take advantage of the fund set aside for mending the epidemic of potholes on our roads. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here.GLOUCESTERSHIRE’S ‘MISSING LINK’ ROA

Andrew spent a week with the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, just before it had a mid-life update. For you, dear listener, he sacrificed a lot to do a thorough review of the car, driving it for many, many miles just to make sure he could conclusively say if it was any good or not. Hear him chat with Alan as he discusses optional extras, steering feel and understatedness.

FOLLOW UP: SEPTEMBER REGISTRATION FIGURES ANALYSISJim Holder has looked at the September registration figures of the UK and sales figures of Europe for a deeper analysis of what the industry looks like. He also noted the weak performance of Subaru and several other brands. To read more, click the Autocar article here.CLEAN AIR ZONES FOR BATH AND BIRMINGHAMBath has announced the date for their Clean Air Zone (CAZ), which will be 15 March 2021, also it is not for private cars or motorbikes. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here.Birmingham has also confirmed the start of their CAZ as June 2021, but this does cover private cars if they are not Euro-6 diesels or Euro04 petrol engines. To read more, click the Van Fleet World article here.BP CHARGEMASTER IN £21M POLICE SCOTLAND DEALBP Chargemaster and Police Scotland have announced a deal, worth £21 million, to supply charging points for police vehicles. Scotland, unlike England, has a large network of free charging points for EVs so entering this m

NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES - SEPTEMBER 2020As we all know, September is a ‘new-plate’ month which traditionally is a higher registration month. There are some surprises, including who is Number 1 of the Top 10! Another interesting point was how close the number was to last year, even though there is the current global situation. To read more, click the SMMT article here.UK EU DEAL BLOW TO MANUFACTURERSFollowing the latest round of negotiations between the UK and the European Union, manufacturers discovered rules about car parts country of origin means those from Turkey and Japan will not be considered British. This matter will also hit electric cars, which were part of a separate request to be considered British even with most parts coming from outside of Britain and the EU. To read more on this, click the BBC News article here. Following this news, Nissan, Toyota and other manufacturers have announced that they will seek compensation for tariffs imposed following conclusion of negotiations. To read more, c

FOLLOW UP: EX-CEO WINTERKORN FINALLY FACES TRIALProceedings have finally started against Martin Winterkorn over accusations of fraud and market manipulation, connected with #dieselgate. To read more, click the Autblog article here.FOLLOW UP: FURTHER EIGHT VW EMPLOYEES CHARGEDEight more employees of the Volkswagen Group have been charged in connection with the #dieselgate scandal, concerning either encouraging, supporting or not preventing the defeat device from being fitted, amongst other charges. To read more, click the Reuters link here.FOLLOW UP: FCA SETTLES OVER REPORTING SALES CHARGEFCA has paid $40 million fine, whilst admitting no guilt, to the charge of misreporting their monthly sales figures, in the US. The Securities and Exchange Commission brought the case against the company. To read more, click the RoadShow article here.FOLLOW UP: UBER GET 18 MONTH LICENSE IN LONDONUber has now been allowed to continue working in London, after it was awarded an 18-month license. They have been deemed to have imp

Alan took a trip to sunny Milton Keynes to try out as many of the trial e-scooter services as he could.In the course of one afternoon he tried scooters from Ford-owned Spin, established street-mobility contender Lime and UK-based Ginger. Did this two-wheeled cocktail leave his views on urban mobility shaken or stirred?There will also be a video version of this podcast out very soon.

FOLLOW UP: SUPERVISING DRIVER OF UBER TEST CAR CHARGEDThe supervising driver of the Uber test bed car, that killed Elaine Hertzberg, has been charged with negligent homicide. A reminder that Uber will not be charged with any wrong doing, in connection with the collision, by the local sheriff’s office. To read more, click the BBC News article here.PRODUCT DESIGN AWARD FOR STUDENT’S TYRE PARTICLE COLLECTORImperial College London and Royal College of Art students have created a device that will collect tyre particles via the use of electrostatics. The claim is that up to 60% of particulates are collected. To read more, click the Autocar article here.As we have discussed the matter previously, we wish to link to a revisited article from Alex Grant, who has been reporting on this issue, to read the updated article click the link here.RIMAC IN TALKS TO BUY BUGATTIThe surprise news that the VW Group is in discussions with Rimac to sell Bugatti off, hit us last week. The question is why? Looking into it, all is not w

FOLLOW UP: WINTERKORN AND FOUR OTHERS CHARGED WITH FRAUDA court in Braunschweig, Germany, has allowed a case to move forward charging Winterkorn and four other former VW managers with fraud. Additionally, the court has allowed an amendment to add additional criminal gang charges. To read more, click the Autocar article here.FOLLOW UP: MERCEDES AGREE DEFEAT DEVICE SETTLEMENT IN USMecedes-Benz owner, Daimler, has agreed to pay £1.17 billion to the U.S. Government and State of California for installing defeat devices on some of their diesel engined vehicles. Mercedes will also have to fix all affected models, as part of the settlement. As part of the settlement Merceds deny the charges levelled at them and any wrong doing. To read more, click the CarDealer article here.FOLLOW UP: KELLY AND NISSAN TRIAL BEGINSIn the abscence of Carlos Ghosn, Greg Kelly’s trial has started in Japan, where he is accused of hiding the misappropriated funds that Ghosn is supposed to have taken from Nissan. Nissan has admitted liabili

FOLLOW UP: GREEN NUMBER PLATE TRIALLast week we discussed the news that Nissan dealers were trialling, the soon to be introduced, green number plates that indicate the car is an EV. Alan and Andrew were confused by why only Nissan and why a trial, turns out that these are only mock-ups and not actually road legal. The chaps apologise for not doing enough research to have established the full facts. We will do better in the future.NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES FOR AUGUST 2020August is traditionally a quieter month for New Car Registration figures due to holidays and September being a new plate month. However, even taking that into consideration, the market was still down 5.8% year-on-year. Considering the state of, well everything, only 5.8% is not bad! The figure was boosted by a surge (sorry) in the number of electric vehicles registered. To read more, click here for the SMMT article.ZAP-MAP BRINGS PAYMENT UNIFICATIONZap-Map, the best EV charging station mapping service for the UK, has unveiled its one-stop p

Alan left his own car for a fortnight’s holiday “Chez Toyota” and took a Corolla Touring Sport on holiday instead. How did Toyota’s handsome, hybrid C-estate challenger cope with long motorway journeys and a minimal amount of urban start/stop?To hear Alan’s chat with Richard Seymour about how the Toyota hybrid system works and has evolved, listen to the dedicated Special Edition in episode 200.

FOLLOW UP: INEOS SET TO BE SMART ABOUT THEIR FACTORYIneos is in advanced talks with Daimler, over purchasing their Smart factory in France. A bid has been tabled, with the expectation that a deal will be reached soon. This means that the Portugal and Bridgend plants will be shelved. To read more, click the CarScoops article here.FOLLOW UP: CYBERSECURITY FIRM HIRED TO TEST NISSAN IN 2018Hari Nada, Nissan Senior Vice President, brought in French cybersecurity firm Waveform, to run a pentest on Nissan in 2018. This is being made out as an attempt to hack Ghosn’s emails, which it is not. When running a pentest you keep as few people as possible in the loop. Question marks will be raised if this invalidates Nissan’s submitted information, as this happened at the same time as Nada was helping authorities. To read more, click The Drive article here.MINI OXFORD REDUCING WORKFORCEThe Mini plant, in Oxford, is shedding nearly 400 agency staff due to a reduction in demand. As the chaps have discussed before, this is a t

FOLLOW UP: GERMAN PROSECUTORS AGREE DEAL WITH POETSCH AND MUELLERParent company Porsche Automobil Holding SE has paid Stugartt prosecutors €1.5 million for them to drop further investigations into the claim of market manipulation levelled at Hans Dieter Poetsch and Matthias Mueller. They reiterate that the pair have done nothing wrong. To read more, click the Reuters article here.FOLLOW UP: CLEAN AIR ZONES ON HOLDLeeds and Bristol have announced that their planned Clean Air Zones are now postponed, due to air quality levels being above the minimum threshold thanks to less traffic. As they do not meet the criteria for Government funding, the local councils are not implementing their plans. They are actively looking at non-charging options and encouraging continuation in the recent work patterns and lifestyle changes. To read more about Bristol’s position, click here for the BristolLive article. To learn more about the situation in Leeds, click the BBC News article here.ACTIVE TRAVEL SCHEMES BEING CLOSEDCouncil