Cardiff has abandoned a plan to charge some motorists entering the city.
The emissions tax was part of a £32m plan to reduce air pollution and congestion in the city but after public consultation was judged it would penalise the owners of older cars and simply spread pollution to other parts of the city, so alternative proposals include more bus and cycle lanes with the introduction of electric buses.
Around 10% more vehicles have crossed the M4 Severn bridges into Wales since tolls were abolished, according to figures from Highways England.
Traffic figures show 32,420 vehicles used the crossing in January and 35,457 in February compared with 28,897 and 31,866 for the same months in 2018, but the weather was worse 12 months ago.
The VW Group aims to put future electric vehicles into its ranges for a modest price rise over traditionally powered models by using more common platforms underneath.
As explained in Automotive News Europe, this will dramatically slash costs as the industry steadily transforms and introduces the latest technology, and the rise in price is targetted to be about the same as a diesel engine over a petrol engined model.
In February 2019, the EU passenger car market contracted by 1.0% compared to one year ago, despite some major EU markets showing a slight recovery with Jaguar scoring a 9.5% improvement along with 35% gain by Jeep.
After a five-month decline, demand for new cars increased modestly in Germany (+2.7%), France (+2.1%) and the United Kingdom (+1.4%) last month, however, in Spain (-8.8%) and Italy (-2.4%) car registrations continued to decrease for the sixth consecutive month and Porsche collapsed by 44.3%.
Car makers in the UK have welcomed the ‘no-deal’ rejection by MPs.
They now want an extension to Article 50 to enable a purposeful agreement on future trade in vehicles and parts.
Fastned, a charging company which is building a European network of fast charging stations, won a second tender in the UK led by the North East Joined Transport Committee.
Fastned will build and operate five fast charging stations (hubs) for electric vehicles across the region. Each station will initially house two 50 kW fast chargers (known as “rapid” chargers in the UK) that will deliver 100% renewable electricity.
