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Can you face ditching fossil fuels? Take our quiz to see how you feel about electric vehicles (EVs) Find out more about going electric and choose the right car for you: visit Auto Trader , the UK’s largest automotive marketplace Continue reading...

Reports say tech giant made announcement during meeting and forecast layoffs, ending secretive and resource-heavy project Apple is canceling its plans to build an electric car, according to multiple outlets , ending a secretive project that has consumed immense resources over the past decade. Executives from the company made the unexpected announcement during an internal team meeting on Tuesday, forecasting layoffs and telling employees that many of them would shift to working on generative artificial intelligence, per reports. Apple is believed to have spent billions of dollars attempting to develop an electric, semi-autonomous vehicle under the codename Project Titan, and its decision to kill the program is a major retreat from its previous strategy. Continue reading...

Rail Delivery Group said it hopes analysis will allow businesses to make greener travel choices Travelling by train on Britain’s busiest business routes generates less than half the carbon emissions of a battery electric car, according to detailed analysis from the rail industry. Certain journeys on the greenest, fullest electric trains produce as little as one-fifteenth of the CO2 per person compared with the footprint of a sole occupancy petrol or diesel car, the data shows. Continue reading...

Electric cars might seem like a no-brainer on a warming planet, but there are plenty of people who remain sceptical about everything from their battery life to their carbon impact and the environmental and human rights costs of their parts. Madeleine Finlay consults Auke Hoekstra, known as the internet’s ‘EV debunker in chief’, to unpick the myths, realities and grey areas surrounding electric cars Clips: Joe Rogan, Global Radio Read Jasper Jolly’s EV mythbusters series here Continue reading...

In part seven of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we look at claims friction on brakes and tyres will affect air quality Are EVs too costly to tempt drivers? Is it right to have range anxiety? Toxic smog has been a part of big city life since the Industrial Revolution: a pea-soup blanket of harmful particulates that can be so thick that seeing and breathing is difficult. Yet in many cities in the rich world that dirty pall has been banished as car engines have got cleaner and factories have moved away. (Poorer cities are not yet so lucky .) Some people believe that the shift to electric cars could reverse some of that progress: that heavier cars and the particulates they produce by friction mean we could sacrifice cleaner air on the altar of zero carbon emissions. Continue reading...

Experts ​alerted motor trade to security risks of ‘smart key’ systems which have now fuelled highest level of car thefts for a decade • Gone in 20 seconds: how ‘smart keys’ have fuelled a new wave of car crime The car industry ignored warnings more than a decade ago that keyless technology on modern vehicles risked a surge in vehicle thefts, an investigation by the Observer can reveal. Legal and computer researchers claimed keyless entry and vehicle software would be “subverted” because of inadequate security. Continue reading...

One London resident watched on CCTV as a thief walked up to his £40,000 car and drove away. Now manufacturers say they are being drawn in to a hi-tech ‘arms race’ with criminals • Read more: car industry was warned keyless vehicles vulnerable to theft a decade ago When Steve Jessop’s electric Hyundai car was stolen outside his west London house on a rainy day earlier this month, he appealed to neighbours for potential footage of the crime. He quickly secured a CCTV video and was stunned at the ease with which his car had been taken. A hooded figure approached it, opened the doors without forced entry, started the engine and drove off. Continue reading...

Owner Stellantis’s decision to invest will safeguard 1,500 jobs at the factory Vauxhall’s owner, Stellantis, will make electric vans at its factory in Luton from 2025, helping to secure the future of 1,500 UK jobs at the plant. The Luton factory will produce medium-sized electric vans for the Vauxhall, Citroën, Peugeot and Fiat Professional brands, Stellantis announced on Thursday. Continue reading...

Premiums have soared but data appears to show numbers don’t add up Can you please investigate whether Britain’s car insurers are using the cost of living crisis as an excuse to push though unjustified, above-inflation premium increases? When I was complaining to a colleague, who works in the car insurance business, that insurance on my electric VW Golf had doubled, he sent me some claims data that appears to suggest the increase is completely unjustified. Continue reading...

Since the 1980s, Britain’s roads have become significantly safer. People are alive today because academics such as my friend and colleague Richard Allsop, who has died aged 84, believed that thorough and rigorous research should support changes in public policy. In his first post, as a scientific officer at the government’s Road Research Laboratory in West Drayton, west London, in 1964, he looked at the effectiveness of motorcycle helmets in casualty reduction and injury mitigation. This led to the law that made their wearing compulsory. Continue reading...

In part six of our series exploring myths surrounding EVs, we weigh up what will be the power of the future Do electric cars really produce fewer carbon emissions? Are electric cars too expensive? Hydrogen is a beguiling substance: the lightest element. When it reacts with oxygen it produces only water and releases abundant energy. The invisible gas looks like a clean fuel of the future. Some of the world’s top automotive executives are hoping it will dethrone the battery as the technology of choice for zero-emissions driving. Our EV mythbusters series has looked at concerns ranging from car fires to battery mining , range anxiety to cost concerns and carbon footprints . Many critics of electric vehicles argue that we should not ditch petrol and diesel engines. This article asks: could hydrogen offer a third way and overtake the battery? Continue reading...

California authorities investigating if attack on Google’s Waymo car is latest in series of protests targeting autonomous vehicles Authorities in California are working to determine if the destruction of a driverless taxi in an arson attack by a mob of lunar new year revelers was the latest in a series of protests targeting autonomous vehicles in the state. According to the San Francisco fire department, which posted images of the incinerated SUV on Twitter/X, a group of people jumped on the electric vehicle in the city’s Chinatown district on Saturday night, smashing windows and spraying it with graffiti before setting it alight with a firework. Continue reading...

BYD is increasingly dominating the world market and now wants to persuade UK motorists to snap up its vehicles It is the car brand that has become the biggest seller of electric vehicles (EVs) in the world – yet many people will struggle to recognise the name. Now Chinese company BYD (it stands for “build your dreams”) is on a mission to get more UK consumers to snap up its “affordable” vehicles. It is one of the latest Chinese companies to hit the UK car market, claiming its prices are competitive and launching three vehicles since it arrived here last year. Continue reading...

EVs heavily subsidised by Beijing are flooding Europe and the globe. If we don’t watch out, it could start a major trade war Whenever people learn that I have an electric vehicle (EV) the conversation invariably turns to whether I suffer from “range anxiety” – the fear of running out of charge. The answer is that generally I don’t, though I might if I were contemplating a drive across the Highlands of Scotland to Aviemore, say. But otherwise, no. Why? Because I am able to charge the car overnight at home, and most of my trips are much much shorter than the vehicle’s 300-mile range. In that sense I am statistically normal. Government estimates are that 99% of car journeys in England are of less than 100 miles. So if you can charge at home, then most of your problems are over, which probably explains when the last time the Department for Transport did a survey , 93% of the country’s EV owners had home charging. Continue reading...

Labour has dropped its £28bn green pledge and the Tories are underfunding carbon-cutting measures, despite benefits of net zero projects Britain needs investment to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions, revitalise the national economy and create the jobs of the future. On this, all the main parties are agreed, with the backing of major businesses and strong public support. But none wants to commit the funding that economists say is needed to kickstart low-carbon economic growth. The Tories have regularly blocked or underfunded some of the areas like wind power, public transport or home insulation that would put the country on the most direct path to hit our emissions targets. Continue reading...

Grants needed towards buying EVs as well as a battery health testing standard to reassure consumers Ministers need to intervene to boost the secondhand electric vehicle market and allay “uncertainty and concerns” over the health of their batteries, a House of Lords committee has said. Peers on the environment and climate change committee urged the government to step up efforts to encourage electric vehicle adoption amid consumer jitters over the cost of vehicles, the longevity of their batteries and the availability of charging points . Continue reading...

New York-listed company, once valued at $15bn, failed to launch its debut electric van The British electric vehicle maker Arrival has collapsed into administration – putting 170 jobs at risk – just three years after it was valued at more than $15bn. The company, which had two manufacturing sites in Oxfordshire, has appointed consultancy firm EY as administrator, after failing to launch its debut electric van. Continue reading...

Industry lobby group says 2m could be reached within two years in rapid shift away from polluting fossil fuels The number of pure battery electric cars sold in the UK has passed 1m, a milestone that reflects the rapid shift away from polluting fossil fuels that is crucial to Britain’s target to produce net zero carbon emissions. Between 2002 and the end of January buyers registered 1,001,677 of the vehicles in the UK, according to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), the lobby group for the British industry. Continue reading...

Recall of more than 2m Teslas will be done with a software update as company comes under increasing scrutiny from US officials Tesla is recalling nearly all of the vehicles it has sold in the US because some warning lights on the instrument panel are too small. The recall of nearly 2.2m vehicles announced on Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is a sign of stepped-up scrutiny of the electric vehicle maker. The agency also said it has upgraded a 2023 investigation into Tesla steering problems to an engineering analysis, which is a step closer to a recall. Continue reading...

Company pushing ahead with upgrades to UK factories as electric model generates strong interest Jaguar Land Rover has reported its highest quarterly profit since 2017 and said its new electric Range Rover had generated strong interest, as it pushes ahead with upgrades to its UK factories for electrical vehicle production. The British carmaker, which is owned by the Indian conglomerate Tata, made a profit before tax and exceptional items of £627m in its third quarter, the three months to 31 December, up from £235m a year earlier. Sales reached £7.4bn, as wholesale revenues of its Range Rover hit a quarterly record. Continue reading...