PG Carz World

For those of us who can’t drive due to disabilities, the drawbacks of these vehicles are vastly outweighed by the possibilities they offer The robotaxis are coming! The robotaxis are coming! Well, actually, they’re already here. Until now they’ve been the stuff of science fiction, but this summer London’s streets have seen Silicon Valley-based company Waymo testing out self-driving cars. It hasn’t been the smoothest of introductions – from cars getting stuck in a cul-de-sac and repeatedly waking up the residents of Shoreditch to one driving into a crime scene , after a double stabbing in Harlesden. The automated vehicles (AVs) have so far had trained drivers waiting behind the wheel to take control if needed, but will soon be shedding their human minders. Waymo and British rival Wayve are hoping to launch driverless minicabs in the capital this year, subject to approval from the British government and Transport for London, among others. A subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, Waymo c...

Analysis shows cars in Europe have grown longer, taller and wider every year since 2000 Cars have grown 1.2cm longer, 0.5cm taller and 0.5cm wider each year on average since 2000, analysis of new vehicles sold in Europe has found, in what green groups call “relentless carspreading”. The increase in size, which leaves people more likely to be killed in a crash and increases emissions that hurt lungs and heat the planet , has progressed at a roughly steady rate for two and half decades even as family sizes have fallen, the campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) found. Continue reading...

Firm has been developing full EV version of its top-selling model in Europe at its plant in Sunderland Business live – latest updates Nissan has reportedly stopped developing a fully electric version of its Qashqai, its top-selling model in Europe, as the Japanese carmaker looks to cut a fifth of its models and slash costs. The carmaker quietly halted development of a full EV version of the Qashqai at Sunderland, the site of the UK’s largest car factory, last year, according to a report by Reuters. Continue reading...

Smaller, cheaper cars built for narrow city streets are becoming more stylish – but require careful design decisions The winding backstreets of London, Paris and Rome are a large part of their charm. But they are also a problem for electric carmakers. For a long time, squeezing big batteries into smaller, cheaper cars to fit European streets was too much of a problem, so manufacturers focused on bloated SUVs instead. But that is finally changing. Battery technology has improved and Europe’s carmakers havecut manufacturing costs enough that they can now sell cars that might have a chance of fitting down a medieval lane or two. Continue reading...

Supplier Agratas sacks its main building contractor on the government-backed project amid a budget mismatch Jaguar Land Rover faces the risk of delays to the first deliveries of electric car batteries from a £5.2bn government-backed factory in Somerset after construction problems. The British carmaker is planning to rely on the Agratas factory in Bridgwater, Somerset, to supply the batteries for its new electric models. Agratas and JLR are owned by the Indian industrial conglomerate Tata. Continue reading...

Apart from effort to electrify, there were geopolitical tensions around climate science and the 1.5C goal Electrifying the world – with electric vehicles , electric heating and cooling, and modernised heavy industry – could be the next biggest step towards phasing out fossil fuels, replacing the 80% of global energy that still comes from hydrocarbons. As using electrical energy is much more efficient than combustion, the move would save billions of dollars for consumers and businesses – global energy demand could be halved, according to one estimate. For decades, electrification has been a nerdish backwater of global climate action. But in the last two weeks, at preparatory talks in Bonn before the forthcoming UN Cop31 climate summit , the subject finally took centre stage. Continue reading...