PG Carz World

Van Dyke v van Dyck | Yorkshires and custard | Ulez row | Green party | Smartphone seniors I wish to take issue with Orlando Goodden ( Letters, 27 July ). From what I recall of the film Mary Poppin s, Anthony van Dyck was probably closer to being a cockney chimney sweep than Dick Van Dyke. Geoff Williams London • Both my parents worked when I was at primary school in Hyde, Cheshire, so I used to avoid school dinners by having lunch with my godparents, who lived next door. Their speciality was a large slice of yorkshire pudding smothered with custard. The ultimate comfort food; I can taste it still ( Yorkshire puddings: three weird, delicious ways to eat Britain’s favourite regional delicacy, 26 July ). Beverley Mason Cardiff Continue reading...

These hulking vehicles are lethal to pedestrians, disastrous for the environment and have no place on our city streets Walking on a busy London street recently, I heard a shout. “Don’t hit me,” a cyclist screamed, as a Land Rover driver reversed into his path. Next, it was my turn to jump out of the way. The driver lurched forward, veering unexpectedly in my direction just as I was crossing a sidestreet. A moment later, another panicked voice behind me; a little girl scooting in front of her mother overshot the pavement ever so slightly, and came just inches from the driver’s path. Behind the steering wheel the driver appeared impassive, apparently unaware of the consternation in her wake. Laura Laker is a journalist who writes about cycling and urban transport Continue reading...

EVs are heralding a new kind of driving culture, from friendly chats at charging stations to reshaping where and how long we stop on road trips Get our morning and afternoon news emails , free app or daily news podcast A couple with a brand-new electric Lexus stand blankly at the EV charging station, walking from one charger to the other with cables in hand. Within minutes, a crowd of EV drivers gathers. The strangers offer to help the couple with charging their car, showing what plugs and apps to use. Soon enough, the appreciative pair are charged up and back on the road. Motorists are not generally known for their community spirit and small acts of kindness. But around electric vehicle charging stations – whether on a regional highway, outside a cafe or in the centre of a busy city – a strange and wonderful communal vibe is developing. Continue reading...

Report comes amid concerns Elon Musk, who owns SpaceX, Neuralink and Twitter, is spread too thin Tesla narrowly beat Wall Street expectations in the second quarter of 2023, marking a solid start to the year as the electric carmaker produced a record number of vehicles. Revenue for the quarter topped $24.97bn compared to analyst predictions of $24.7 bn. Continue reading...

San Francisco’s Safe Street Rebel group are disabling autonomous taxis by placing a cone on the hood of the car A group of San Francisco organizers are encouraging people to put traffic cones on the hoods of driverless vehicles as a form of protest against the cars’ expansion on city streets. A video of the group’s actions with step-by-step instructions on how to disable a robo-taxi with a cone has gone viral on Twitter and sparked intense debates about the pros and cons of autonomous vehicles and the value of protesting in this way. Continue reading...

The country generates more solar energy than all other countries combined, but burns half the planet’s coal. There are lessons here for the rest of us, though Big numbers are a hallmark of China’s economy and now its energy transition: they thrill, they mystify, and at times they contradict, at least on the surface. China’s solar capacity is now 228 gigawatts (GW), more than the rest of the world combined , according to Global Energy Monitor. And wind capacity, at a whopping 310GW, also leads the world. With another 750GW of new wind and solar projects in the pipeline, China will hit its 2030 target of 1,200GW – an unimaginable number when proposed just a few years ago – five years early. Continue reading...

We tried everything but the company’s mantra is ‘We understand your frustration but we cannot help you’ Back in mid-January I took delivery of a new £35,000 electric Hyundai Kona. When I collected it from the Slough dealership, it was only 70% charged but I was told that this was down to a fault with their charger. But when I later tried to charge it, it would again only reach 70%. I was advised to run it down and to try again using a third charger but the same thing happened. Continue reading...

Her hit book Doughnut Economics laid out a path to a greener, more equal society. But can she turn her ideas into meaningful change? Continue reading...

Missed staff payments and an Australian police investigation – Scale Facilitation’s electric vehicle battery-making ambitions face serious hurdles The Australian offices of Scale Facilitation, the company in charge of resurrecting the UK’s electric vehicle battery-making aspirations, were unusually quiet when the federal police used a search warrant to access its financial systems. On 23 June, many employees at the Geelong premises, south-west of Melbourne, had the day off. The company had fallen behind in staff payments and offered several days off as a gesture of goodwill. Continue reading...