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Iran war should be wake-up call about costs of not going full throttle towards EVs as Chinese have done, experts say By the 1980s, Detroit’s once titanic carmakers were being upended by rivals from Japan. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler had grown rich selling gas guzzlers, but when oil prices rose and suddenly cheap, fuel-efficient Japanese models looked attractive, they were unprepared. The collapse in sales led to hundreds of thousands of job losses in the automotive heartland of the US. Now western car manufacturers are making what one former boss calls a similar “profound strategic mistake” as they pull back from electric vehicles (EVs) and refocus on the combustion engine just as oil prices are soaring once again. Experts say the industry’s future – and that of tens of millions of jobs – could be on the line. This time, however, the threat is from China. Continue reading...

Online searches for electric and hybrid cars increase as war-linked fuel prices hit highest levels in nearly three years Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox US car buyers are showing a surge in interest in electric vehicles after Donald Trump ’s decision to attack Iran helped cause a major jump in gasoline prices. The cost to refuel a vehicle in the US is at its highest level in nearly three years, with the average national price of gas standing at $3.90 a gallon on Friday. Continue reading...

Driverless ‘robotaxis’ will be accepting fares in Britain’s biggest city by the end of next year. Can they deal with London’s medieval roads, hordes of pedestrians and errant ebikers? I got in the passenger seat to find out ‘I’m really excited to show you this,” says Alex Kendall, the CEO of Wayve, as he gets behind the wheel of one of the company’s electric Ford Mustangs. Then he does … nothing. The car pulls up to a junction at a busy road in King’s Cross, London, all by itself. “You can see that it’s going to control the speed, steering, brake, indicators,” he says to me – I’m in the passenger seat. “It’s making decisions as it goes. Here we’ve got an unprotected turn, where we’ve got to wait for a gap in traffic …” The steering wheel spins by itself and the car pulls out smoothly. Riding in a self-driving car for the first time is a little like your first flight in an aeroplane: borderline terrifying for a few seconds, then reassuringly unremarkable. At least, that is my experien...

Company says it will continue to sell cars with V12 internal combustion engines as there is demand from clients Rolls-Royce has abandoned its goal to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade. The luxury car company launched its all-electric Spectre model in 2022 , saying at the time that it would end production of its vehicles with V12 internal combustion engines by the end of 2030. Continue reading...

Cybertrucks have locked passengers inside and burned so hot they’ve disintegrated drivers’ bones. Victims’ families blame what they say is the faulty design of a truck Elon Musk calls ‘apocalypse-proof’ When sheriff deputies arrived at the scene of a late-night crash off a desolate Texas road in August 2024, they could see a giant pyre through heavy smoke. According to police reports detailing the events of that night, the officers tried to approach the vehicle, but the fire burned too intensely. They saw it was a Tesla Cybertruck and couldn’t see anyone inside. So they combed the surrounding area for the driver. Continue reading...

Carmaker reduces office-based roles and will not fill vacancies ‘to ensure long-term competitiveness of business’ Bentley is to cut 275 jobs in the UK as the carmaker faces a “challenging global market environment”. The luxury brand, owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, is preparing to launch its first all-electric model but acknowledged it had some work to do to convince consumers to switch away from internal combustion engine vehicles. Continue reading...