Finished exclusively in Frozen White, the new MS-RT R120 is a Limited Edition of the Welsh company’s QVM-Approved MS-RT Transit Connect. The company, which uses styling and technology pioneered by Ford’s works rally team, is producing a limited run of 30 R120s in the mainland UK and 6 in Northern Ireland, with the model designed and built at its factory in Pontypool, South Wales. Priced from … [Read more...]
Newcomers
UK car maker may need bailout
Despite Coronavirus, the plug-in market in Europe grew by well over 100% this year and it will happen again in 2021. BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) will grow by more than 100% and surpass the growth of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). In 2019, the UK sold 38,000 BEVs and the UK is currently on track for between 98,000 and 101,000 BEV sales by the end of 2020. Those in the industry are predicting that … [Read more...]
Newslines 1 December
The motorist and transport industry will pay the price for the Government’s support package for the UK in the Chancellor's Spring Budget, said Howard Cox, Founder of FairFuel UK. Fuel duties which have been frozen in recent years are likely to be substantially increased as HMRC has lost huge income and the Government wants to discourage motoring to save emissions and drive its green … [Read more...]
Continuing disagreement over evs “green” credentials
While more and more companies are focusing on electromobility in order to meet climate targets, the scientific community has by no means reached a consensus on what the propulsion system of the future will look like. This is shown in a new infographic from Block-Builders.net (right). The CO2 balance of an electric car looks much less attractive than that of a conventional combustion engine when … [Read more...]
Weekend roadtest: MINI John Cooper Works GP3
Following the success of the two previous MINI GP models introduced in 2006 and 2013, the new limited edition MINI John Cooper Works GP3, is the most powerful and fastest production MINI ever sold, writes David Miles. Just 3,000 of these models will be built at MINI Plant Oxford for global sales with 575 of them available to UK customers. They are priced from £35,345 on-the-road … [Read more...]
Naran muscles into motoring world
Naran Automotive, the new manufacturer of luxury ultra-high performance cars, has revealed the exterior design of its first model – The Naran. The four-seater hyper-coupé will deliver an authentic GT3-style driving experience for the road when it arrives next year, combining the uncompromising performance and dynamics of a track-focused hypercar, with opulent ultra-luxurious materials inside and … [Read more...]
Classic cars and their ev future
The Government stands to lose about £28B in fuel duties annually as EVs become the norm in a decade or so, says Hagerty Classic Car insurance, so it must find a way to compensate. At the last count, there were more than 20 toll roads in the UK, including 18 river crossings, but also the M6 toll road and congestion road pricing in Durham and London. UK motoring taxes raise almost £40 billion a … [Read more...]
Tradelines 25 November
Ford is introducing a new Ranger chassis cab variant for the first time in 2021. It will provide a wide range of customers with the ability to easily create bespoke vehicles based on Europe’s best-selling pick-up and winner of the International Pick-up Award 2020. Autotrader announced a new partnership with automotive industry charity, Ben. The company has made a significant donation to Ben … [Read more...]
Leading EV pioneer warns of jeopardising advances
As the UK Government prepares to bring forward a complete ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars to 2030 it has been warned by an experienced automotive engineer not to jeopardise advances. Former CEO of Aston Martin and one of the UK’s most experienced and well-known industry experts, Dr Andy Palmer, welcomed the news as a step towards achieving a net zero carbon future and potentially … [Read more...]
UK specialists’ EV technology & weight challenge
In just nine years all new cars sold in the UK will have to be fully electric, or in some cases still to be clarified, hybrid. But where does that leave the specialist car companies of Britain, who have shaped a disproportionately large part of our nation’s automotive identity? Electrification poses a number of challenges for makers of specialist cars, most notably the weight and cost of the … [Read more...]