Category Archives: Automotive industry

Flying cars will be a reality by 2030, says Hyundai’s Europe chief

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Michael Cole says urban air mobility could free up congestion and help with emissions in cities

Flying cars will be a reality in cities around the globe by the end of this decade, according to a leading car manufacturer, and will help to reduce congestion and cut vehicle emissions.

Michael Cole, the chief executive of the European operations of South Korean carmarker Hyundai, said the firm had made some “very significant investments” in urban air mobility, adding: “We believe it really is part of the future”.

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Thirty Tesla crashes linked to assisted driving system under investigation in US

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Auto regulators have opened probes into crashes involving 10 deaths where the company’s Autopilot system was in use

US safety regulators have opened 30 investigations into Tesla crashes involving 10 deaths since 2016 where an advanced driver assistance system was suspected to have been in use.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a list offering details about crashes under review by its special crash investigations programs.

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David Beckham buys stake in vehicle electrification firm

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Lunaz specialises in classic cars but is set to start conversion of bin lorries to help transition away from fossil fuel

Snaps of David Beckham in expensive cars were a tabloid staple during the footballer’s days as a star player, but now his interest has taken a surprising turn: bin lorries.

The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder has taken a 10% stake in Lunaz, a Silverstone-based company that electrifies classic cars from Rolls-Royce, Jaguar and Range Rover. Now it hopes to take the same engineering logic and apply it to refuse trucks and other specialist commercial vehicles, giving them a new lease of life in the transition away from fossil fuels.

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VW, Audi and Skoda owners angry over fault in SOS warning system

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eCall contacts emergency services in an accident – but it is causing problems for some drivers

The Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda group has been accused of knowingly selling cars with defective SOS warning systems that in some cases failed before the new owner had left the dealership.

Since 2018 all new cars sold across the EU have been required to have an eCall system that automatically contacts the emergency services with the vehicle’s location in the event of a serious accident. It is a sophisticated set-up using the car’s navigation system and airbag sensors, and it has its own mobile phone sim card.

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No joke: Volkswagen confirms it will change name to Voltswagen in US

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In what was initially thought to be an April Fool’s prank, company confirms name change to reflect its investment in electric cars

For 65 years, Volkswagen has been one of the most popular and best-known names in American motoring, its iconic VW Beetle snaring generations of enthusiasts and helping sell millions of vehicles.

But now, in North America at least, the Volkswagen brand is no more. In what was initially thought to be an April Fool’s prank, apparently thanks to a premature announcement by an overeager publicist, the German auto giant has confirmed its metamorphosis into Voltswagen – an attempt to reflect its investment in the growing electric vehicle (EV) market.

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Why Japan’s carmaking heavyweights could be facing an electric shock

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Analysis: The rapid development of battery-only cars is eclipsing petrol vehicles and even hybrids, leaving Japan’s big producers racing to catch up

Japan’s traditional carmaking giants need to raise their game in the race to develop pure, battery-driven electric vehicles or risk being left behind by Chinese, American and European producers, analysts have warned.

Despite dominating car production in Asia for decades, Japan’s big players have been slow to fully develop the battery-only technology that is now eclipsing hybrid vehicles as the most likely type of car to plug petrolheads into the automotive revolution.

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Elon Musk changes his Tesla job title to ‘technoking’

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Company’s financial chief has been rebranded ‘master of coin’ following £1bn bitcoin investment

Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla with a penchant for eccentric behaviour, has changed his job title to “technoking” of the electric car manufacturer.

In addition to Musk, who also retains his position as chief executive, the company’s financial chief, Zach Kirkhorn, has been rebranded as “master of coin”.

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Fossil fuel cars make ‘hundreds of times’ more waste than electric cars

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Analysis by transport group says battery electric vehicles are superior to their petrol and diesel counterparts

Fossil fuel cars waste hundreds of times more raw material than their battery electric equivalents, according to a study that adds to evidence that the move away from petrol and diesel cars will bring large net environmental benefits.

Only about 30kg of raw material will be lost over the lifecycle of a lithium ion battery used in electric cars once recycling is taken into account, compared with 17,000 litres of oil, according to analysis by Transport & Environment (T&E) seen by the Guardian. A calculation of the resources used to make cars relative to their weight shows it is at least 300 times greater for oil-fuelled cars.

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Old-school Stellantis car factories gear up for the shock of electric

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Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port plant is one of many whose future lies in the hands of the merged auto giant

Carlos Tavares is an unashamed petrolhead, with a rally-racing hobby that harks back to an earlier automotive age. Yet carmakers like Stellantis, which he leads, and its rivals have had to set aside affection for roaring internal combustion engines as environmental rules set the limits for the industry.

Stellantis was formed in January in a €50bn (£43bn) merger between France’s Peugeot and Italian-American Fiat Chrysler, in one of the clearest responses to the Tesla-driven electric revolution: the merger will allow them to share expensive investments in battery technology.

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Electric vehicles close to ‘tipping point’ of mass adoption

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Sales increase 43% globally in 2020 as plunging battery costs mean the cars will soon be the cheapest vehicles to buy

Electric vehicles are close to the “tipping point” of rapid mass adoption thanks to the plummeting cost of batteries, experts say.

Global sales rose 43% in 2020, but even faster growth is anticipated when continuing falls in battery prices bring the price of electric cars dipping below that of equivalent petrol and diesel models, even without subsidies. The latest analyses forecast that to happen some time between 2023 and 2025.

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Hyundai’s value surges by $9bn amid reports of Apple electric car deal

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South Korean firm backtracks on statement confirming ‘early discussion’ with US company

Hyundai’s value surged by $9bn (£6.6bn) on Friday after reports that it could join with Apple in developing a driverless electric vehicle – despite confusion as it backtracked on a statement acknowledging “early discussion” with the iPhone manufacturer.

Investors sent the South Korean carmaker’s share price on the Seoul exchange up almost 20%, as local media reported a possible tie-up on electric cars and batteries with Apple, which has been developing its own vehicle technology.

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‘He’s a risk-taker’: Germans divided over Elon Musk’s new GigaFactory

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The Tesla project will put Grünheide on the map, but some say it is doing ‘irreversible’ harm to the environment

For the past 10 months, Silas Heineken has been flying a drone over one of Germany’s biggest building sites and posting the images on YouTube.

The 14-year-old self-named “Tesla Kid” has built a significant following, as tens of thousands tune in each week to see the latest developments in Elon Musk’s GigaFactory as it emerges at speed from the sandy ground of Brandenburg, south-east of Berlin.

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‘Peak hype’: why the driverless car revolution has stalled

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As Uber parks its plans for robotaxis, experts admit the autonomous vehicle challenge is bigger than anticipated

By 2021, according to various Silicon Valley luminaries, bandwagoning politicians and leading cab firms in recent years, self-driving cars would have long been crossing the US, started filing along Britain’s motorways and be all set to provide robotaxis in London.

1 January has not, however, brought a driverless revolution. Indeed in the last weeks of 2020 Uber, one of the biggest players and supposed beneficiaries, decided to park its plans for self-driving taxis, selling off its autonomous division to Aurora in a deal worth about $4bn (£3bn) – roughly half what it was valued at in 2019.

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‘Old and unsafe’ cars sent to developing world fuelling air pollution, report finds

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Poor quality of used vehicles exported from the US, Europe and Japan are hindering efforts to mitigate climate breakdown, says UN

Millions of used motor vehicles exported from the US, Europe and Japan to developing countries are of poor quality and are contributing significantly to air pollution, according a new UN report.

About 80% of the 14m used light-duty vehicles – saloon cars, SUVs and minibuses – exported between 2015 and 2018 went to low and middle-income countries. About 40% went to Africa, found the report, published by the UN Environment Programme (Unep).

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UK insurers warn against go-ahead for self-driving cars on motorways

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Government plans set to start in 2021 risk lives and are ‘hugely wrong’, experts say

Plans for cars to drive themselves on UK motorways as soon as 2021 are unlikely to go ahead after insurers warned government proposals were risking lives and “hugely wrong”.

Cars with the technology to keep in lane, accelerate and brake automatically will be on the road next year, and ministers had proposed that drivers could relinquish control to their vehicles at speeds of up to 70mph on motorways.

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Illegal devices that bypass vehicle emissions controls spread across US

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Thousands of tons of pollution spew into the air in the US from devices that proliferate online and in body shops

When officials at the Environmental Protection Agency began investigating Freedom Performance, LLC, they didn’t have to look very hard for evidence that the company was violating the Clean Air Act. According to legal documents, the Florida car parts distributor literally advertised violations on its website.

“The road to hell is often paved with good intentions,” stated one ad for a kit to remove federally required emissions controls from diesel trucks. It identified a particular emissions control system that “is certainly noble in its intent” but “in reality it is putting your engine through hell … The best solution is deletion.”

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France bans Dutch bike TV ad for creating ‘climate of fear’ about cars

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Ad for VanMoof bike unfairly discredits automobile industry, says watchdog

A TV commercial for a Dutch-made bicycle has been banned by France’s advertising watchdog for creating a “climate of fear” about cars.

Despite being aired on Dutch and German television, the Autorité de régulation professionnelle de la publicité (ARPP) said the ad for the VanMoof bike unfairly discredited the automobile industry.

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UK car sales slump as 2,000 workers lose their jobs in Covid-19 crisis – business live

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Live coverage as Aston Martin and car dealer Lookers announce costs savings plans

Young’s pub chain intends to open all of its 276 sites by the 3 August, and is hopeful the business can “bounce back” once its pubs are allowed to reopen, but expects trading to be “materially below average” for the rest of the year.

Another interesting detail from the SMMT data: Tesla’s Model 3 was the most popular car during May.

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Electric cars gain market share in Europe despite Covid-19 crisis

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Data suggests that carmakers are making progress towards meeting emissions reductions targets

Electric and hybrid cars gained traction among European buyers in April despite coronavirus lockdowns stalling the market, suggesting carmakers are likely to avoid potential fines potentially worth billions of euros if they fail to reduce average emissions.

Battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars accounted for 17% of sales across all European markets, including the UK, in April, according to data collated by industry analysts Jato Dynamics. That was more than double the 7% market share achieved in April 2019.

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