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Company will shift focus to hybrids, citing drop-off in EV demand among sports car lovers who ‘miss the noise’ The Italian supercar manufacturer Lamborghini has abandoned plans to make all-electric vehicles, and will instead focus on making plug-in hybrid cars, after a drop-off in demand for EVs among its wealthy clientele. Lamborghini unveiled its first all-electric concept car, the Lanzador, in 2023, but it is no longer planning to put it into production. Continue reading...

While most hybrids are said to use one to two litres of fuel per 100km, a study claims they need six litres on average Plug-in hybrid electric cars (PHEVs) use much more fuel on the road than officially stated by their manufacturers, a large-scale analysis of about a million vehicles of this type has shown. The Fraunhofer Institute carried out what is thought to be the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, using the data transmitted wirelessly by PHEVs from a variety of manufacturers while they were on the road. Continue reading...

Analysis reveals big regional disparities as critics say Labour’s proposed levy could slow uptake of EVs Drivers in the south-west of England would pay nearly four times as much as those in London as a result of Labour’s mileage-based tax on electric cars, according to analysis of official data. The 3p-a-mile road charge, announced in the autumn budget and due to take effect in 2028, is expected to raise £1.1bn a year, partly offsetting the loss of fuel duty revenues as drivers switch from petrol to electric vehicles. Continue reading...

AI romance | Giving thanks | Hotting up in bed | £2 coins | Pub queues Confirmation that the world has gone mad: I got into my car, a Smart #1, on Saturday, and before it did anything else, the car said “Love is in the air” and wished me a happy Valentine’s Day. As a matter of principle, I refused to speak to it for the rest of the day. Ray Woodhams Cawthorne, South Yorkshire • I tried to avoid saying thank you for a whole day and ended up feeling miserable and ungrateful ( The hill I will die on: Britons love saying thank you – I think we should ban the phrase, 7 February ). I feel much better now that I have gone back to saying it whenever I feel grateful for something someone has done. Roger Mears London Continue reading...

Mergers and acquisitions will shrink number of operators from more than 100 to five or six, says Be.EV co-founder British electric charger companies are asking rivals to buy them as they run out of cash amid rising costs and intense competition, according to industry bosses. A wave of mergers and acquisitions is likely to shrink the number of charge point operators from as many as 150 to a market dominated by five or six players, said Asif Ghafoor, a co-founder of Be.EV, a charging company backed by Octopus Energy. Continue reading...

I understand the appeal of avoiding all human contact. Still, good old-fashioned taxis have so much to offer It’s Super Bowl weekend here in America, which means a few things: copious amounts of gut-busting food, controversial half-time show performances, extravagant commercials, and occasionally a bit of football. For the tens of thousands rich enough to afford tickets to the Big Game, transportation to and from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, will be paramount. Thankfully, our robotic saviors are here to rescue the throng from the indignity of sharing a ride with an actual human being. This year’s Super Bowl is a test of the driverless taxi industry , currently lorded over by Waymo – a company that’s about to get a $16bn cash injection to further expand its business to cities all around the world. Smaller American metro areas like Sacramento and Nashville are next up to get Waymo service, as are global capitals like London and Tokyo. Fleets of robotaxis are seeming mo...

Data shows 29 hybrid and 98 diesel cars also sold, while the figure for battery electric vehicles was more than 2,000 Just seven new petrol cars were sold in Norway last month, data shows. The country, which is the frontrunner in the uptake of electric vehicles, shifted a record low number of new fossil-fuel cars in January, information from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council (OFV) reveals. Continue reading...

Carmaker, which owns marques including Peugeot and Jeep, will also sell stake in battery joint venture Business live – latest updates The carmaker Stellantis has said it will take a €22bn (£19.1bn) charge and sell a stake in its battery joint venture after admitting that it “overestimated” the pace of the shift to electric vehicles. The European-based carmaker, which owns marques including Peugeot, Fiat, Jeep and Citroën, said that the move was part of a reset of its business as it also admitted “poor operational execution”. Continue reading...

Industry bigger than all but seven world economies, and accounts for more than third of China’s economic growth China’s clean energy industries drove more than 90% of the country’s investment growth last year, making the sectors bigger than all but seven of the world’s economies, a new analysis has shown . For the second time in three years, the report showed the manufacture, installation and export of batteries, electric cars, solar, wind and related technologies accounted for more than a third of China’s economic growth. Continue reading...

Teenager admitted it was not the first time he had taken the vehicle but told the court he ‘won’t do it again’ A 13-year-old boy who drove his family’s Volkswagen campervan on a 70mph road in the middle of the night for a joyride in Dorset has been given penalty points for a future licence, a court heard. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was spotted by other motorists driving the 2.5-litre silver van on the A35, a busy dual carriageway in Poole. His father told the judge at Poole magistrates court his son would be “washing cars for the next year” to pay off his debt. Continue reading...

State-owned company will sell under the Lepas brand, continuing its rapid expansion in the British market Business live – latest updates The Chinese carmaker Chery is launching a fourth brand in the UK, continuing a push into the British market where it has rapidly become a major player. The state-owned company said on Wednesday that it would sell cars under the Lepas brand, which is developing battery and hybrid SUVs aimed at younger families, mainly in the European market. Continue reading...

Known as ‘white gold’, lithium is among the most important mined elements on the planet – ideal for the rechargeable batteries used in tech products. Can Europe’s largest deposit bring prosperity to the local community? It looks more like the past than the future. A vast chasm scooped out of a scarred landscape, this is a Cornwall the summer holidaymakers don’t see: a former china clay pit near St Austell called Trelavour. I’m standing at the edge of the pit looking down with the man who says his plans for it will help the UK’s transition to renewable energy and bring back year-round jobs and prosperity to a part of the country that badly needs both. “And if I manage to make some money in the process, fantastic,” he says. “Though that is not what it’s about.” We’ll return to him shortly. But first to the past, when this story begins, about 275-280m years ago. “There was a continental collision at the time,” Frances Wall, professor of applied mineralogy at the Camborne School of Mines...

The funding round valued the Alphabet subsidiary at $126bn as company aims to expand more cities worldwide Self-driving car company Waymo on Monday said it raised $16bn in a funding round that valued the Alphabet subsidiary at $126bn. Waymo co-chief executives Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov touted the massive investment as a sign that the age of large-scale autonomous mobility has arrived. Continue reading...

Sleek car doors reduce vehicle drag but are prone to losing operability in the event of a crash, officials say China will soon ban concealed door handles on electric vehicles (EVs), becoming the first country to do so after several deadly incidents triggered global scrutiny of the controversial design first popularised by Tesla . According to regulations announced on Monday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, cars sold in China will now be required to have a mechanical release on both the inside and outside of every door except the boot. Continue reading...

Waymo’s cars were first rolled out in San Francisco, but the English capital’s old roads, pelican crossings and jaywalkers may pose issues for AI At the end of the 19th century, the world’s major cities had a problem. The streets were flooded with manure, the unintended consequence of dependence on horses as the major form of transport. In this sea of filth, the infant car industry smelled an opportunity. The Horseless Age , a US car magazine, claimed in 1896 that , with the spread of motorcars, “streets will be cleaner, jams and blockades less likely to occur, and accidents less frequent, for the horse is not so manageable as a mechanical vehicle”. The streets did eventually become cleaner, but not safer. Cars brought huge benefits to society, but also huge challenges. By the end of the 20th century, cars and motorbikes were implicated in more than a million deaths a year around the world, as well as contributing to pollution and suburban sprawl. This story is often told to show th...