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Motorists urged to carry out safety check as rubber on cars left idle for long periods can deteriorate There has been a sharp rise in the number of cars with cracked tyres – which can result in an MOT failure – because of vehicles lying idle during the coronavirus pandemic. Figures from Kwik Fit, the car maintenance chain, show that its mechanics saw almost twice as many cars with premature cracking last year compared with before the lockdowns. Continue reading...

Road safety charities emphasise the importance of looking for a safe place to stop if you feel tired Blood test for sleepy drivers could pave way for prosecutions Experts divided on ethics of testing tired drivers Nearly two-fifths of UK drivers say they have been so tired they have feared falling asleep at the wheel, while one in eight admit to having done so, according to research carried out for the AA’s Charitable Trust . Road safety charities emphasise the importance of looking for a safe place to stop if you feel tired, having a caffeinated drink, and ideally a 15-minute nap to allow time for the caffeine to kick in. However, “this should be seen as a temporary fix and does not replace the need for adequate sleep”, said Prof Ashleigh Filtness, a driver fatigue expert for Road Safety GB . Continue reading...

It’s strange that a company with a reputation for innovation, customer satisfaction and continual improvement is dragging its feet on electrification Get our morning and afternoon news emails , free app or daily news podcast Electric vehicles in Australia are on the move. Last month marked a milestone in that the country finally has a National Electric Vehicle Strategy to call its own. Although criticised for not having enough teeth , there’s still plenty of positives . It’s also a signal to the market, business and the car-driving public that Australia is ready to join the rest of the developed world in getting serious about cleaning up its highly polluting vehicle fleet. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...

Environment and EV groups say the carmaker’s comments reflect Toyota’s own delays in launching electric models, rather than the state of the market Get our morning and afternoon news emails , free app or daily news podcast Australia’s top-selling car maker has fired an early shot in the debate over a vehicle pollution limit, with a Toyota executive arguing electric vehicles are not ready to replace all cars and could leave thousands of motorists behind. The comments, from the automaker’s sales boss Sean Hanley, come less than two weeks after the federal government launched its National Electric Vehicle Strategy and a public consultation into a fuel-efficiency standard. Continue reading...

Automotive sector’s lobby group warns deadline to end sale of fossil fuel trucks by 2040 may be missed The UK does not have a single public electric charger or hydrogen refilling station dedicated to lorries, with fewer than 12 years until the first ban on diesel engines comes into force, according to the automotive industry’s lobby group. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the government must urgently set out a strategy to help the sector to decarbonise or risk missing the target to stop the sale of fossil fuel trucks by 2040. Continue reading...

The country depends overwhelmingly on secondhand cars from Japan, which makes barely any electric vehicles New Zealand has long been known for its high ratio of sheep to people. But really what stands out on various per-capita lists is just how much we love to drive. Exact comparisons are tricky and blurred by tiny countries, but we definitely have one of the highest rates of car ownership in the world, with something like nine cars for every 10 people, and each car driven over 8,000km a year. Given that a fifth of the population are children, this is a strikingly high rate of car ownership – and presents a key challenge to the country’s net zero goals. Continue reading...

Green party accuses FDP of gambling away country’s reputation after last-minute blocking of phase-out from 2035 A clash over climate protection measures is threatening to unravel Germany’s three-party governing alliance, after the Green party accused its liberal coalition partners of gambling away the country’s reputation by blocking a EU-wide phase-out of internal combustion engines in cars. “You can’t have a coalition of progress where only one party is in charge of progress and the others try to stop the progress,” the country’s vice-chancellor and economy minister, Robert Habeck, said at a meeting of the Green party’s parliamentary group in Weimar on Tuesday. Continue reading...