This year, EU car sales will stagnate at 2018 levels in terms of units sold, staying close to the 15 million new registrations mark recorded last year, according to new forecasts by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. Although 2018 was the fifth consecutive year of growth, the pace of growth has slowed down significantly over the last few years, amounting to a slight increase … [Read more...]
Newslines 12 February
The along awaited Audi e-tron electric models will go into showrooms in April. There will be two versions from £71,490 after the ev plug in allowance and it will be a their version of the VW Golf sized I D Neo hatchback. The next generation Vauxhall Corsa range will include a plug-in battery-electric model. It will also have the intelligent LED headlights first seen on Insignia and … [Read more...]
MoT test widens to more vehicles from 20 May
More agricultural, delivery, recovery and construction vehicles are now liable to the annual safety test. The DVSA is introducing annual testing for some when their current tax is renewable but others must have a test done by 20 May 2019. Vehicles now needing a test certificate include: mobile cranes breakdown vehicles (not breakdown vans) tower wagons some mobile engineering … [Read more...]
Trial clears doubts & raises questions for evs
An extensive 18-month trial has thrown up interesting insights into the UK electric charging network and its use by vehicle drivers. By the time the Electric Nation project ended in December 2018, data had been collected from more than 140,000 electric vehicle charging instances. Analysis suggests that there is likely to be sufficient flexibility to manage charging away from peak electricity … [Read more...]
Exhaust-leak tests’ headache for car makers
After the chaos of last autumn’s new engine emissions tests, car makers are preparing and bracing for even tougher legislation covering stationary vehicles, and which could be more favourable to diesel models. Volkswagen Group's sales chief Christian Dahlheim said that to pass the latest tests nearly all engine-transmission variations will again have to go through "time consuming" WLTP … [Read more...]
Green transport motivation in motion begins in North Wales
An event aimed at motivating public sectors to speed up the transition to a low carbon and low emission transport system in Wales was today opened by Economy Minister Ken Skates. This was the first of two “Opportunities in Ultra Low Carbon Emission Transport and Local Mobility” events, and took place in Wrexham Glyndwr University and the second will be in Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens at the end of … [Read more...]
£86M grants for decarbonising and supply chain
The Advanced Propulsion Centre is helping to lower the barriers for Small and Medium Enterprises to contribute to decarbonising the automotive sector and anchoring the supply chain in the UK. The APC provided financial and mentoring support to 87 SMEs including £86m through its Core Competitions, and its Technology Developer Accelerator Programme (TDAP) since 2013. 60 SMEs have received … [Read more...]
Tradelines 6 February
A survey by Venson Automotive Solutions reveals that one in three (33%) company car drivers would not report minor damage to their employer – a figure which has almost doubled since 2015 when the same question was asked of company car drivers (17.5%). Overall drivers do appear to be very slightly more involved today than they were 3 years ago in keeping their car in good running condition; 57% … [Read more...]
Newslines 5 February
The new 2019 Mitsubishi Mirage is available to UK customers from £11,295. A new entry level Mirage 3 is available with a manual transmission and is £1,005 less than the outgoing Juro model and they have a 3 cylinder 1.2-litre MIVEC engine, 80hp and 106Nm torque and emit 107g/km CO2. Two plug-in versions of the new BMW 7-Series will arrive in Spring. In-line 6-cylinder petrol engine and … [Read more...]
Used diesels dropping in price, petrols rise
The average price of a used diesel car fell by 10.3% between Q1 2017 and Q4 2018. Diesel car values dropped 5% through 2017, on the back of consistent negative news about the fuel, and new data shows that slump continued through 2018 at a near-identical rate. The analysis from car buying comparison website Motorway.co.uk also shows equivalent used petrol prices increasing 10% between Q1 … [Read more...]