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PM will have to respond to Climate Change Committee’s recommendations on future emissions cuts with drastic changes in many sectors of economy Keir Starmer will face a key test of his claims to leadership on the climate early next year, when the UK’s statutory advisers issue their latest advice on future cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. The independent Climate Change Committee will set out recommendations on the UK’s seventh carbon budget on 26 February. At the core of the budget will be an overall cap on emissions for the years 2038 to 2042, needed to meet the legal obligation of reaching net zero emissions in 2050. Continue reading...

Analysts argue 2024 is minor blip and that lobbying for relaxation of rules could harm industry in long term Affordable new electric family cars – particularly those that are EU-made – have been tough to come by in Europe for the past few years. There were no launches of homegrown electric models for less than €25,000 (£20,740) across the EU during 2022 and 2023, according to the campaign group Transport & Environment. Yet in the past few months that has changed, with a rush of new cars ranging from the Fiat Grande Panda to the Citroën ë-C3, the Hyundai Inster to the latest Dacia Spring and the Renault 5. Suddenly, buyers have options . Continue reading...

Exclusive: Report finds poorer areas particularly affected by varying availability and cost of charging electric cars The UK is at risk of a drastic slowdown in its transition to electric cars because of big disparities in the availability and cost of charging points, especially in poorer areas, a report says. The study, by the consultancy Stonehaven, argues that given rapid advances in batteries and car range, persuading more people to move to electric vehicles is now less an issue of technology than one of “urban management and social equity”. Continue reading...

Number hits record level but rate of growth slows as installers face delays to government funding The UK installed a record number of public electric car chargers in 2024, although the rate of growth slowed as installers contended with delays to government funding. Numbers rose by more than a third to reach 73,421 by 20 December, according to Zapmap, whose data the government uses. The increase of 19,600 was nearly equivalent to the total number of chargers at the end of 2020. Continue reading...

Report comes day after Ford and GM said they’d donate $1m each as big companies look to cozy up with president-elect Toyota is reportedly donating $1m to Donald Trump’s inauguration. The report, per Reuters citing a company spokesperson, comes one day after Ford and General Motors said they would donate $1m each to the president-elect’s inaugural fund. The two US automakers will also provide vehicles to the 20 January event, the outlet reported. Continue reading...

More than 160 Chinese nationals were found living in ‘degrading’ conditions and working excessive hours Business live – latest updates Brazilian authorities have halted construction of a factory for the Chinese electric vehicle company BYD, after they found more than 160 Chinese nationals living in “slavery-like” conditions. The workers, based in a construction site in Brazil’s north-eastern state of Bahia, were found to be labouring for excessive hours – sometimes for seven days straight – and living in “degrading” accommodation. Continue reading...

Potential deal sounds more like a credible plan for crisis-hit carmaker as its troubled alliance with Renault hits a dead end Until recently, the plan at crisis-hit Nissan was to muddle through somehow. About 9,000 job losses were announced last month out of a global workforce of 130,000. Production capacity was cut by 20%. There was some muttering about seeking a new anchor investor because the troubled 25-year alliance with Renault of France was heading up a dead end. None of it appeared to be a sufficiently radical response to a self-described “severe situation” and a plunge in Nissan’s stock market value to a clapped-out $8bn (£6.3bn). It seems its management now agrees. The new game is talks with Honda on a full-blown merger , which should probably be viewed as a takeover given that the would-be partner is worth four times as much. Either way, the potential deal sounds more like a credible plan: full consolidation creates the possibility of far deeper cost-cuts at what would be...

GM is shutting down its robotaxi business, Tesla is creating one of its own – what does the future hold for self-driving? Want TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up here Welcome back. This week in tech: General Motors says goodbye to robotaxis but not self-driving cars; one woman’s fight to keep AI out of applications for housing; Salt Typhoon; and tech’s donations to Donald Trump . Thank you for joining me. Tenant-screening systems like SafeRent are often used in place of humans as a way to ‘avoid engaging’ directly with the applicants and pass the blame for a denial to a computer system, said Todd Kaplan, one of the attorneys representing Louis and the class of plaintiffs who sued the company. The property management company told Louis the software alone decided to reject her, but the SafeRent report indicated it was the management company that set the threshold for how high someone needed to score to have their application accepted. Continue reading...

Ministers should be bold and radical in taking measures to boost demand in a key sector of the green transition The resignation of the high-profile CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, was the latest sign of the ongoing crisis afflicting some of the world’s most famous carmakers, as they negotiate the historic transition to electric vehicles. Last month, Stellantis – the maker of Fiat, Vauxhall, Jeep and Peugeot cars – announced the closure of its Vauxhall van factory in Luton, in part blaming the impact of electric vehicles sales targets mandated by Westminster. Ford has announced it intends to cut 4,000 jobs across Europe, including 800 in Britain, citing sluggish growth in EV sales as a contributory factor. For Labour, and for a sector crucial to the green transition, this is a crucial moment. The government has restored a 2030 cutoff point – kicked back to 2035 by Rishi Sunak – after which the sale of pure internal combustion engines will be banned. But car manufacturers ar...

National Audit Office says government on track to install 300,000 charge points by 2030 but areas outside south-east risk missing out Plans to roll out 300,000 electric vehicle charge points across the UK by 2030 risks creating a “regional divide” between well-connected areas in London and the south-east and the rest of the country, according to the spending watchdog. The National Audit Office found that the government was on track to meet its goal for 300,000 charge points to be fitted by 2030, but that large swathes of the country were missing out. Continue reading...

The company said it would no longer fund the venture and will prioritize Super Cruise, its driver assistance program General Motors announced on Tuesday it will end robotaxi development at its money-losing Cruise business, a blow to the ambitions of the largest US automaker to advance the technology. GM said it would no longer fund work on self-driving robotaxis “given the considerable time and resources that would be needed to scale the business, along with an increasingly competitive robotaxi market”. Continue reading...

The rebrand forces Jaguar’s audience ‘to break every habit they had’ concerning the once-cool carmaker, experts say James Bond . Washington state . Corporate America . Boy scouts . Delta airlines . The Hasbro toy company . College campuses . Emojis . Pizza Hut , Nike , Lego , M&Ms . Bud Light. This is a small selection of the things that Republicans and the rightwing commentariat has branded woke. And in the past couple of weeks, the car company Jaguar has found itself added to that list. Continue reading...

Elon Musk carmaker pushed for British government to introduce rules for HGVs, as it readies Semi truck Tesla lobbied the UK government to strengthen rules on carbon emissions from cars and lorries, according to documents that also show the electric carmaker continued to push for increased taxes on fossil fuel cars. The US carmaker, which is run by Elon Musk, pushed for the British government to strengthen its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate for cars and introduce equivalent rules for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), in a letter to Lilian Greenwood, the Labour roads minister. Continue reading...

Many electric vehicle charging points in local areas are underused, says Chas Ball, while Stephen Psallidas rejects the idea that all EV owners need a charging unit at home I agree that chargers are key to the transition to electric vehicles (EVs), particularly as over a third of households have no space for off-street charging ( Letters, 3 December ). But too little is made of the existing domestic and institutional charging infrastructure close to home. I can identify underused chargers within easy walking distance of my house (which has no driveway). A 20-unit housing association development has a charge point for each house, but only a few are in use. If these householders were incentivised to join Co-Charger, an online platform and app , their neighbours, including me, would be more inclined to switch to EVs as they would have access to occasional at-home charging. Simple online payments, contributing a little more than the cost of the electricity, would avoid the 20% VAT adde...

Sales of Elon Musk-owned carmaker have chalked up an annual drop of nearly 21%, as the overall EV sector growth weakens Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Elon Musk may be riding high in the US with Donald Trump just weeks away from taking office, but fortunes of his electric carmaker, Tesla, are fading in Australia. Australian sales dropped again in November, contributing to the brand’s first annual decline. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...

Number of petrol cars on British roads rose to 18.7m this year, but decrease expected amid growth of EVs The number of petrol cars on British roads has peaked this year but is set to tumble by more than 40% over the next decade, according to a report. Auto Trader’s latest motoring forecast estimates there were 18.7m petrol-powered cars on the roads this year, but that this will steadily decrease from 2025 to 11.1m by 2034. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: The iconic British carmaker has been accused of going ‘woke’ after releasing an electric model in pink, upsetting petrol heads and traditionalists everywhere Good morning. Over the past few days, you may have been wondering why a neon pink tank has been following you round the internet. Relax: this isn’t an algorithm judging your taste and predicting your next purchase. It isn’t a tank, either. It is a Jaguar Type 00, it is the subject of an unholy quantity of media coverage, and it may be a vision of the electric future. Or: it may be a sharp bit of marketing whose weirdest features will never make it to the cars Jaguar actually sells. Either way, it’s a story with a lot to tell us about how the rush for electric is changing the car industry. For today’s newsletter, Jasper Jolly , who covers the automotive industry for the Guardian, explains why. Here are the headlines. Continue reading...

Stephen Smith says people won’t buy EVs until they can easily access the energy needed to drive them. Raj Parkash thinks every car should be charged using the same mechanism Gaby Hinsliff’s article ( Starmer has discovered a tricky truth about the electric vehicles transition: there’s no gain without pain, 29 November ) doesn’t address the key point in the analysis of car companies’ difficulties in selling enough electric vehicles (EVs). There is a lack of demand that is only partly due to the higher prices. More importantly, it is due to a failure to install the necessary infrastructure to enable mass charging. A minority of car owners live in houses where home charging is possible. For the rest, to make EVs a possibility, never mind attractive, there need to be a huge number of charging points to accommodate millions of people. I live in a city with a very high density of tenement and other flats; at the moment there are virtually no charging points easily accessible for flat own...

Reader says it is unfair she would have to pay £2,000 to buy the battery in her Zoe, or £400 to have it removed I own an eight-year-old Renault Zoe and lease the battery for £50 a month from Mobilize Financial Services . As the vehicle is getting older, I asked what would happen to the lease if the car broke down and was too expensive to repair. Mobilize says I have two options: to buy the battery and end the lease or pay for it to be removed and returned to Renault. Continue reading...

Spokesperson says firm aware of pictures circulating online – but it is unclear how accurate they are Leaked images of Jaguar’s much-hyped electric concept car have appeared hours before the model’s official unveiling in Miami – revealing a vehicle that may just about live up to its controversial advertising pledge to be radically new. Early online reaction suggests that the concept car, a sleek long-bonnet electric model in shocking pink, might indeed appear more familiar to fans of Barbie or the Pink Panther than the traditional owners of a Jag. Continue reading...