PG Carz World

Kristy Holmes always knew she could use her electric car for ‘good things’, but when storms caused a blackout, it proved life-saving An electric vehicle owner has used her car’s emergency power system to run her 11-year-old son’s lifesaving dialysis machine and another has ridden to the rescue of his neighbours after devastating storms cut power in south-east Queensland. When the power went down following storms and flash flooding on Christmas Day, many residents immediately felt the consequences: electric gates did not work, septic tanks began to fill, air conditioners could not run and fridges began to warm as a heatwave followed. Continue reading...

The infamous A30 summer holiday bottleneck will go when eight miles of dual carriageway opens in March. But for some, the cost is too high As cars and lorries snail interminably along the A30 in Cornwall – the county’s notorious trunk road – the words of the furious driver in John Betjeman’s poem, Meditation On The A30, seem befitting: “I can’t go on crawling like this!” Such frustrations are especially acute in summertime when tourists compete with hauliers, tractors and local residents for space on the asphalt, many of them en route to the coastal hotspots of Perranporth and St Ives. But those days could soon be gone. Continue reading...

More than 33,500 videos sent to police in England and Wales in year to November, up 30% on 2022 Dangerous drivers are being caught on camera and shopped to the police in increasing numbers, with other drivers and the general public having sent more than 100,000 video reports to UK police forces. The number of reports filed in 2023 increased by 30% compared with the previous year, with more than 33,500 videos submitted to police via the National Dash Cam Safety Portal until the end of November. Continue reading...

A battery-powered Mustang and Volkswagen’s electric take on the Kombi van are some of the vehicles to arrive in 2024 Major brands are preparing to launch electric cars in Australia for the first time, in a move experts say will cause some motorists to question their brand loyalty. Near-silent sports cars, a battery-powered Mustang, Toyota’s first electric SUV and a modern take on the Kombi van are expected to launch in Australia in what is said to be a breakthrough year for electric vehicles. Continue reading...

Mark Harper says vehicles can improve road safety and personal freedom, as autonomous cars face increased scrutiny Autonomous vehicles could be on UK roads as soon as 2026, the transport secretary has said, as ministers seeks to capture as much as £42bn of the international self-driving market within the coming decade. “This technology exists, it works, and what we’re doing is putting in place the proper legislation so that people can have full confidence in the safety of this technology,” Mark Harper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Toyota subsidiary has admitted falsifying data on some models for more than 30 years Production was suspended at the last operating domestic factory of Japanese automaker Daihatsu on Tuesday, as the Toyota subsidiary grapples with a safety testing scandal affecting 64 models going back more than three decades. Issues with falsified crash tests first came to light in April, when the firm admitted it had manipulated data on four models manufactured in Thailand and Malaysia from 2022 until this year. Continue reading...

Annual increase of 43% takes total number above 53,000, of which more than 4,600 are ‘ultra-rapid’ The UK installed a record number of public electric car chargers in 2023 as the size of network of ultra-rapid chargers for longer journeys doubled. Almost 16,000 public chargers were installed in the year to 12 December, pushing the total above 53,200, according to the data company ZapMap. That represented a 43% increase on 2022, significantly faster than the last three years . Continue reading...

In part five of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we assess the greenwashing claims Are EVs too costly to tempt drivers? Is it right to have range anxiety? Do EVs pose a greater fire risk? There is a spectre haunting electric cars: the question of greenwashing. What if, for all the green hopes attached to zero-emissions cars, the truth is that they fail to achieve their main goal of cutting world-heating carbon emissions? Our EV mythbusters series has looked at some of the most persistent criticisms of electric cars, ranging from car fires to battery mining , range anxiety to cost concerns . This article asks: do electric cars really produce fewer carbon emissions than petrol or diesel? Continue reading...

Sales surge as cities and states look to cut pollution from cars and improve options for Americans to get around After several years of false starts, electric bikes are finally entering the American mainstream, amid booming sales of a multiplying number of models on offer and as more states offer incentives for people to ditch their cars and shift to two, motor-assisted, wheels. This year could be considered “the year of the ebike”, according to John MacArthur, a transport researcher at Portland State University. Ebike sales in the United States leaped by 269% between 2019 and 2022, with the market size expected to have grown further in 2023 , to be worth $2.59bn. Continue reading...

Adapting the story of the Italian car owner’s tumultuous life has been a major mission for the director. He talks about his need for speed, his love of the night and his unlikely love of British TV As you look around Michael Mann’s office, in an anonymous building in downtown Los Angeles, clues as to the subject of his latest film aren’t hard to find. On the windowsill sits a glass box with a model of a bright red Ferrari inside. On a shelf behind his desk there is a row of books about the revered Italian car manufacturer. Mann himself owns two of them. “What drew me to Ferrari and held me there for so many years is that it does what almost nothing else I can think of does,” Mann says. “It resonates with the way life really is, the way people really are … How life works.” Continue reading...

In part four of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we weigh up the issue of costs Is it right to be worried about getting stranded in an EV? Do EVs pose a greater fire risk than petrol or diesel vehicles? How problematic is mineral mining for EVs? Cars are money sinks: the second biggest purchase most people will ever make also requires spending large amounts just to keep them on the road. It is no surprise, then, that claims that electric cars will add to the bills have alarmed drivers around the world. Our EV mythbusters series is examining claims such as this in detail. So far we have looked at fires in electric cars , mining for battery materials and range anxiety . Continue reading...

Peter Constable finds that the payment system is problematic Your article runs through all the myths about about range anxiety from battery capacity to lack of chargers ( Is it right to be worried about getting stranded in an electric car?, 9 December ). In my three years of electric driving I have experienced constant range anxiety but not due to either of these issues. My fear is that when I easily find a charging point I am unable to use it. Recently I found a clutch of BP chargers in a public car park, but was unable to use my credit card. Later I opened an account with BP and shortly afterwards received a note to say my account was empty and the next charge would be refused unless I deposited £5. Continue reading...

Autonomous vehicle unit cuts about a quarter of its workforce as it moves to reduce costs and remake itself after accident General Motors’ troubled Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is cutting over 900 jobs, about a quarter of its workforce, as it moves to reduce costs and remake itself after grisly accident in San Francisco and subsequent regulatory scrutiny. Early last month, the company recalled all its robotaxis , which it had been testing on roads in California, and regulators accused Cruise of hiding the severity of the incident . The subsidiary announced the cuts Thursday in a letter to Cruise’s 3,800 workers from its president and chief technical officer, Mo ElShenawy, who wrote that the layoffs are not the fault of the workers. The job cuts come a day after Cruise confirmed that nine key leaders are no longer with the company amid an ongoing investigation into an October crash involving one of its driverless robotaxis that forced it to suspend operations. Continue reading...

Wouldn’t it be great to have an LED sign in the back window of your car to send messages to other drivers and put an end to waving and gesturing? Well, such a device exists I know what I want for Christmas – an LED sign for the back window of my car. I’ve only just realised these things are readily available. I assumed otherwise because in all my years of motoring I’ve only ever seen one in operation. It was about six years ago on the A55 heading south towards Wrexham. I was riding my motorbike. It was a beautiful moment. A black Range Rover ahead of me was indicating a wish to move into my lane. I slowed down a little and nodded my helmet to signal my assent. And blow me down if an LED sign in the back window didn’t flash up a cheery THANK YOU. So sweet. But then I felt a bit rotten because I had no way of returning this friendly fire when I overtook him. It felt impolite not to say NOT AT ALL! But it’s difficult to physically communicate that, especially on a motorbike. With a rando...

New iteration of flagship vehicle is JLR’s first foray into building electric cars in UK British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover has begun road testing prototypes of its electric Range Rover, in its first foray into building electric cars in the UK as it tries to catch up with rivals. JLR, which makes the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, said it had opened a waiting list for pre-orders of the new Range Rover, its flagship vehicle, which is seen as a crucial step towards its electric future. Continue reading...

We’re interested to hear from UK drivers whether they will trade in their car for an electric or hybrid one next year, and if not, why not We’re keen to hear from car owners in the UK whether they will make the switch to a hybrid or electric vehicle next year, or whether they are holding off, and why. We’d also like to hear from drivers who have switched already, and how they have been finding their new hybrid or electric car. Continue reading...

In part three of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we look at range anxiety and concerns about the charging network Do electric cars pose a greater fire risk than petrol or diesel vehicles? How problematic is mineral mining for electric cars? Of all the reasons car buyers give to avoid buying an electric car, two words stand out above all: range anxiety. Drivers wary of making the switch from petrol or diesel to electric overwhelmingly cite a concern that batteries will not last the journey. Our EV mythbusters series is taking a closer look at some of the most common criticisms of electric cars, highlighting the myths, the realities and the grey areas. We have asked whether we should be more concerned about fires in electric cars and whether cars have a mining problem . This article asks whether fears about battery range mean the transition away from internal combustion engines never reaches its destination. Continue reading...

For all the billions spent, the dream of these vehicles ruling the roads remains just that. It would be much smarter to focus on public transport Developing driverless cars has been AI’s greatest test. Today we can say it has failed miserably, despite the expenditure of tens of billions of dollars in attempts to produce a viable commercial vehicle. Moreover, the recent withdrawal from the market of a leading provider of robotaxis in the US , coupled with the introduction of strict legislation in the UK , suggests that the developers’ hopes of monetising the concept are even more remote than before. The very future of the idea hangs in the balance. The attempt to produce a driverless car started in the mid-00s with a challenge by a US defence research agency, offering a $1m prize for whoever could create one capable of making a very limited journey in the desert. This quickly turned into a race between various tech and car companies (OEMs, as they are now known – original equipment m...

All you need to know about the European Commission’s new proposal to delay its 10% charge on EVs EU set to suspend Brexit tariffs on EVs for three years Brussels to issue veiled warning to China over state-subsidised goods The European Commission is likely to propose a three-year delay on post-Brexit tariffs on electric cars , after months of lobbying by industry and the UK government. Carmakers were fearful that exports between the UK and EU – in both directions – would be hit by 10% tariffs in the new year because of “rules of origin” aiming to reduce China’s dominance of the global battery industry. Continue reading...

Commission moves to delay 10% sales charge after intense lobbying by EU and UK carmakers The European Commission looks set to propose a three-year delay to a 10% tariff on sales of electric vehicles between the EU and the UK, in a major boost for car industries across Europe. Duties were due to kick in on 1 January 2024 but all the major carmakers in the UK and Europe including BMW, Volkswagen and Stellantis have been lobbying for a temporary reprieve. Continue reading...

Its GoElectric Overnight tariff promised drivers big savings – only problem, it couldn’t deliver EDF is inviting customers to sign up to its GoElectric Overnight tariff which promises “super cheap off-peak rates of just 8p a kWh to power your electric car and home appliances for less”. If you sign up, you receive an automated email saying the switch will take place within five working days. And then nothing happens. Continue reading...

General Motors service faces $1.5m penalty over allegations it misled regulators after a driverless car ran into a pedestrian California regulators are alleging a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent suspension of its California license. The potential penalty facing GM’s Cruise service could be around $1.5m, based on documents filed late last week by the California public utilities commission. Continue reading...

EU and UK carmakers have secured just 16% of lithium, cobalt and nickel needed to hit 2030 targets, says study European carmakers have secured less than a sixth of the key raw materials they will need by 2030 to make electric vehicle batteries, according to analysis that highlights the expected scramble for green-tech resources. Carmakers have secured contracts for 16% of the lithium, cobalt and nickel required to hit their 2030 electric car sales targets, according to public disclosures analysed by Transport & Environment (T&E), a Brussels-based campaign group. Continue reading...

Lack of public chargers blamed for decision to be only ‘zero-emissions capable’ by April 2024 London’s biggest minicab company has U-turned on plans for all its cars to produce zero emissions this year, blaming a lack of public chargers in the capital. Addison Lee said it had spent £30m on new Volkswagen Multivans, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which combine a small battery with a polluting internal combustion engine, and admitted that the switch to electric cars had been harder than it had expected. Continue reading...