The Department for Transport report entitled ‘Uptake of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles in the UK’, draws on the research from almost 50 UK and international sources, and points to a significant change in the way motorists use and own plug-in vehicles.
Contrary to popular perceptions, evidence from the report shows that 82% of Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV)-owning households in the UK use their electric car as their main vehicle, while for 20% of owners an electric vehicle is the only car.
Volkswagen America is recalling 420,000 model year 2010-2014 Volkswagen CC, Passat, and Tiguan, 2010-2013 Eos and Jetta, 2011-2014 Golf and GTI, and 2011-2013 Jetta Sportwagen vehicles.
In the affected vehicles, debris may contaminate the air bag clock spring, a spiral wound, flat cable that keeps the air bag powered while the steering wheel is being turned and may tear the cable and result in a loss of electrical connection to the driver’s frontal air bag, but it’s not yet known if any UK models are affected.
Volkswagen said that about 2,700 of its imported cars were damaged in last week’s blasts at the port in China’s Tianjin, which killed more than 100 people.
Tianjin is China’s largest port for car imports. Volkswagen’s announcement follows Renault confirming that nearly 1,500 of its cars burned and Toyota reports three production lines have been halted inside the exclusion zone and BMW imports now go through Shanghai.
