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Lame ducks | Tamarind seed art | Punishment haircuts | On further reflection | Car parking experience I couldn’t help seeing a strong parallel last week between two demoralised sets of lame ducks. There’s the England cricket team, facing near certain elimination from the World Cup, bereft of ideas and positivity, and wishing they could just get on a return flight ( England’s inflexible tactics meant they went hard and now they will go home, 27 October ). Then there is the Tory party, facing almost certain banishment from power, and wishing they didn’t have to go through the motions of pretending to be a government for the next 14 months, and that it could all just end now. Robin Spencer Reigate, Surrey • Re your article ( Seeds of potential: the Caribbean women reviving a dying art, 28 October ), I saw some of these beautiful works, created from seeds, for sale in the shop at the Garden Museum, just by Lambeth Palace in London. Maybe if more people bought them, this would not be a ...

Motorway services provider Moto tells of serious concern about government’s management of the problem Toilets are big business on the motorway: using them is the number one reason people stop at services. But the electric car era is going to change that. The need for fast charging will soon be the key reason for visits to motorway services, says Ken McMeikan, chief executive of Moto, which operates them. There is a problem: many of the sites lack the power needed for ultra-rapid charging. That could hold back the transition to electric cars as more and more drivers are forced to wait longer to recharge on longer journeys. Continue reading...

Motorists locked inside their cars, while an NHS doctor said her BMW iX accelerated to 65mph and then crashed An electric car owner has claimed her vehicle’s autopilot engaged without warning and accelerated to 65mph, zigzagged across the road and caused a serious crash, the Guardian can reveal. The alleged incident involved a doctor, Ravpreet Kaur, who was travelling in Buckinghamshire with her son in the family’s £80,000 BMW iX. Her husband said they were lucky to escape unhurt. Continue reading...

Sean Hanley says hybrid vehicles are ‘better fit’ in Australia but Electric Vehicle Council says brand’s comments could undermine lithium industry Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails , free app or daily news podcast Australia’s most popular car brand, Toyota, has launched a stinging attack on electric vehicles claiming they are not ready for our roads, not as green as they seem and remain “impractical for the vast majority of Australian motorists”. But Australia’s most popular electric car brand and industry groups claim the argument is a “cynical” attack by a company “too slow off the mark” and at risk of losing the future automotive race. Continue reading...

German company points to ‘intense price competition’, which it sees as unsustainable Mercedes-Benz has said the electric car market is “brutal” for carmakers as heavy competition forces them to cut prices. Sales of electric cars are soaring in Europe and China, with the US further behind, but the rush of new launches is putting pressure on European manufacturers in particular, who are struggling to compete with cheap models coming from China. Continue reading...

Bosses warn European Commission president that ‘rules of origin’, which come into force in January, will harm EV production in Europe The bosses of Europe’s largest carmakers have urged the president of the European Commission to postpone the “cliff-edge” introduction of post-Brexit tariffs they say will harm EU electric vehicle production. Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Ferrari were among the 13 large manufacturers who wrote on Tuesday to Ursula von der Leyen asking for a delay to “rules of origin” that are scheduled to come into force on 1 January. Continue reading...

DMV cites ‘unreasonable risk to public safety’ from General Motors’ subsidiary amid multiple investigations California suspended Cruise’s permits to operate self-driving cars on the state’s public roads, effective immediately, the state’s department of motor vehicles said in a statement on Tuesday. The agency said Cruise’s vehicles pose a danger to the public and that the company had misrepresented key facts when dealing with safety regulators. “When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits,” the regulator said. Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, can still operate its vehicles with safety drivers, per the DMV’s statement. Google’s Waymo, Cruise’s main rival, maintains its permit to test its autonomous vehicles sans drivers on the streets of San Francisco. Continue reading...