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UK researcher uses maths to explain seeming inevitability of phenomenon experienced by many motorists It is a situation experienced by many motorists: one driver overtakes another only to find the slower car is right behind them when they reach a red light. Now a researcher has used mathematics to reveal why the situation feels inevitable. Dr Conor Boland from Dublin City University has called his work “The Voorhees law of traffic”. Continue reading...

More use of two-way charging will earn money for owners and could avoid the need to expand North Sea oil drilling The Iran war has sent petrol and diesel prices to their highest levels in years, sparked warnings of fuel rationing across Europe and triggered calls for Britain to drill more North Sea oil and gas . But analysis suggests the UK is looking for solutions in the wrong places – and that one of them is sitting on people’s driveways or parked in the street. If more drivers switched electric vehicles, Britain would sharply reduce its petrol and diesel consumption, with every car charged from the grid rather than the pump extending the country’s fuel reserves – and experts say the potential impact goes far beyond that. Continue reading...

Here’s what to know about how the current crisis could shape the expansion of renewable energy As the deadly war in Iran triggers what the International Energy Agency has described as the worst oil crisis in history, climate advocates are calling for a faster shift away from fossil fuels, but the conflict may also hamper that transition. US-Israeli strikes on Iran have disrupted supply routes through the strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of global oil flows. The US, Israel and Iran have also all launched strikes on fossil fuel facilities, creating additional market shocks. Continue reading...

Iran war should be wake-up call about costs of not going full throttle towards EVs as Chinese have done, experts say By the 1980s, Detroit’s once titanic carmakers were being upended by rivals from Japan. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler had grown rich selling gas guzzlers, but when oil prices rose and suddenly cheap, fuel-efficient Japanese models looked attractive, they were unprepared. The collapse in sales led to hundreds of thousands of job losses in the automotive heartland of the US. Now western car manufacturers are making what one former boss calls a similar “profound strategic mistake” as they pull back from electric vehicles (EVs) and refocus on the combustion engine just as oil prices are soaring once again. Experts say the industry’s future – and that of tens of millions of jobs – could be on the line. This time, however, the threat is from China. Continue reading...

Online searches for electric and hybrid cars increase as war-linked fuel prices hit highest levels in nearly three years Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox US car buyers are showing a surge in interest in electric vehicles after Donald Trump ’s decision to attack Iran helped cause a major jump in gasoline prices. The cost to refuel a vehicle in the US is at its highest level in nearly three years, with the average national price of gas standing at $3.90 a gallon on Friday. Continue reading...

Driverless ‘robotaxis’ will be accepting fares in Britain’s biggest city by the end of next year. Can they deal with London’s medieval roads, hordes of pedestrians and errant ebikers? I got in the passenger seat to find out ‘I’m really excited to show you this,” says Alex Kendall, the CEO of Wayve, as he gets behind the wheel of one of the company’s electric Ford Mustangs. Then he does … nothing. The car pulls up to a junction at a busy road in King’s Cross, London, all by itself. “You can see that it’s going to control the speed, steering, brake, indicators,” he says to me – I’m in the passenger seat. “It’s making decisions as it goes. Here we’ve got an unprotected turn, where we’ve got to wait for a gap in traffic …” The steering wheel spins by itself and the car pulls out smoothly. Riding in a self-driving car for the first time is a little like your first flight in an aeroplane: borderline terrifying for a few seconds, then reassuringly unremarkable. At least, that is my experien...

Company says it will continue to sell cars with V12 internal combustion engines as there is demand from clients Rolls-Royce has abandoned its goal to sell only electric cars by the end of the decade. The luxury car company launched its all-electric Spectre model in 2022 , saying at the time that it would end production of its vehicles with V12 internal combustion engines by the end of 2030. Continue reading...

Cybertrucks have locked passengers inside and burned so hot they’ve disintegrated drivers’ bones. Victims’ families blame what they say is the faulty design of a truck Elon Musk calls ‘apocalypse-proof’ When sheriff deputies arrived at the scene of a late-night crash off a desolate Texas road in August 2024, they could see a giant pyre through heavy smoke. According to police reports detailing the events of that night, the officers tried to approach the vehicle, but the fire burned too intensely. They saw it was a Tesla Cybertruck and couldn’t see anyone inside. So they combed the surrounding area for the driver. Continue reading...

Carmaker reduces office-based roles and will not fill vacancies ‘to ensure long-term competitiveness of business’ Bentley is to cut 275 jobs in the UK as the carmaker faces a “challenging global market environment”. The luxury brand, owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, is preparing to launch its first all-electric model but acknowledged it had some work to do to convince consumers to switch away from internal combustion engine vehicles. Continue reading...

Huge vehicles are popular with drivers, but their wider impacts on road safety and the environment must be tackled No one who walks, cycles or drives around London, or many of the world’s big cities, could fail to notice the vastly increased size of the typical car. A type of vehicle once associated with rural settings and outdoor lifestyles is now ubiquitous. Heavily marketed as sports utility vehicles (SUVs), supersize cars are among the key consumer trends of recent decades. In 2022, they accounted for 46% of global new car sales . For manufacturers, these vehicles are big earners due to higher profit margins . For those inside them, they offer more space and a higher vantage point. But for those on the outside, SUVs have obvious downsides. The threat that they pose to pedestrians is one. Research shows that children are 77% more likely to die if struck by an SUV compared with other cars, due to their size and structure – particularly their raised bonnets. This ...

Carmaker’s decision to drop NissanConnect EV app on relatively recent cars fuels warnings from experts Owners of some Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are angry after the carmaker announced it would shut down an app that lets them remotely control battery charging and other functions. Drivers of Leaf cars made before May 2019 and the e-NV200 van (produced until 2022) have been told that the NissanConnect EV app linked to their vehicles will “cease operation” from 30 March. This means they will lose remote services, including turning on the heating, and some map features. Continue reading...

Clothes-buying tip | Laundry lesson | EV charging | Paper pals | Pushing the envelope One thing my mother taught me ( My mother’s best advice: learn to raise one eyebrow at the world, 11 March ) is that barley wine is much stronger than you think. The other thing she taught never leaves me: I will not buy clothes without crunching up the fabric to see if it creases. Should you browse a rack and wonder why a garment has a small crumpled area, you will know that I have been there before you. Anne Cowper Swansea • My mum told me “Don’t cut your toenails on a Friday”, “don’t wash your hair when you’re having your period” and “you don’t need as much washing powder as it says on the box”. I’d recommend that last one to all readers. Ruth Guthrie Cockermouth, Cumbria Continue reading...

Ofgem licence means firm can replicate Texas setup of powering homes, businesses and EVs Elon Musk’s Tesla has won approval to supply electricity to households and businesses across Great Britain, as the tech billionaire expands his energy ambitions. The energy regulator, Ofgem, has formally granted Tesla an electricity supply licence , enabling it to provide electricity to domestic and business premises in England, Scotland and Wales. Continue reading...

When I heard ‘Rachel’ answer the helpline number in her metallic voice, my soul felt as empty as the batteries of my malfunctioning car Something went wrong. The car charger wouldn’t work. Terrible, enervating, life-shortening faff ensued. It was to do with the wifi to which the car was linked having to be changed. I find this stuff so boring that I have been known to simply slump to the floor and fall into a deep sleep. But this wasn’t an option, as I had to drive miles to work and my car’s batteries were as empty as my soul. I’d already been on the road for five hours listening to Antony Beevor’s history of the second world war. Man’s inhumanity to man is so very disappointing, even more disappointing than a malfunctioning EV charger on a wet and windy day. I resolved to dig deep. The human spirit would prevail. If only I could find another human to help me out. Continue reading...

Electric vehicles | Delightful dumps | Loyal readers | Football fans Regarding China’s fantastically fast electric vehicle charging ( Editorial, 8 March ), when you consider that most private cars spend the majority of the time parked, is there any need for widespread supercharging? Taxis and minicabs may find it useful perhaps. At least in this part of the country, where the railways are electric and must have access to a megawatt supply, it wouldn’t be too difficult to put high-speed chargers near stations. Let the rest of EV users charge at the supermarket or use extension leads. We don’t need to stress about keeping up with China. Martin Cooper Bromley, London • I love my local dump ( A delightful day at the dump: ‘The trick is not to leave with more stuff than I arrived with!’, 5 March )! It has a charity shop attached. I get unbelievably excited when I drop in with garden waste. I have taken chairs, tables and all manner of kitchen bits – most recently a cast iron casserole f...

Megawatt fast EV charging reflects a coordinated grid strategy the UK once used. Privatisation and fragmentation now make that infrastructure far harder to build The future of electric cars arrived this week in China. The world’s biggest car seller, BYD, unveiled a new battery giving its latest electric models more than 600 miles of range. Remarkably, the Chinese motor-maker said 250 miles of range could be injected into its new batteries in just five minutes . If true, the last remaining advantages of petrol cars – long range and quick refuelling – are beginning to disappear. But such technology requires megawatt charging points. A single charger can draw as much power as a small town in Britain. BYD’s system relies on chargers delivering around 1.5 megawatts of electricity – more than four times the fastest chargers in the UK. China is moving fast, planning thousands of megawatt charging stations within two years. Continue reading...

Lawsuits and slander claims fly in IG Metall’s battle with Elon Musk over employment rights and conditions Business live – latest updates Europe’s largest trade union is trying to gain control of the works council at Elon Musk’s Tesla gigafactory near Berlin, in an industrial relations showdown marked by lawsuits and mutual accusations of slander. The works council, an elected body of employees that negotiates everything from working hours to pay deals with a company’s management, is considered an entrenched aspect of the German corporate world, particularly in the car industry. Continue reading...

Oxford-based firm has raised $103m for commercial development of software for self-driving industrial vehicles Nvidia is investing in the British autonomous driving startup Oxa , alongside backing from the UK’s National Wealth Fund, in a boost to the country’s technology sector. The Oxford-based company, which has developed software for self-driving industrial vehicles, said it had raised $103m (£77m) from investors to focus on commercial solutions for that software, as well as its physical AI and robotics technology, and to push on with its global expansion plans. Continue reading...