New Vauxhall CEO delivers blunt message for UK car manufacturing. Uh oh.

This story is interesting in so much as it addresses an elephant in the room – namely how does the UK car industry expect to survive in a post-Brexit world? The CEO of the newly formed Stellantis Group (a $50B merger between FiatChrysler and Peugeot – owners of Vauxhall) announced that he has reservations about the viability of Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port factory which currently manufactures petrol and…

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Japan caters to its ageing drivers – but will it be enough?

There’s some interesting bits in this Bloomberg article regarding Japan’s older drivers. After a high profile road accident last year involving an 89 year old former senior bureaucrat that resulted in the death of a mother and child, safety features have taken even greater importance amongst the Japanese car manufacturers. As an aside, it was also interesting to read that in the wake of the accident, roughly 350,000 drivers…

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Chinese EV maker Nio announces Tesla beater…

Chinese EV maker and NYSE-listed Nio announced to much fanfare the launch of its first battery powered saloon at the company's annual "Nio-Day" event in Chendou this past Saturday. The car is aimed squarely at Tesla's Model S and also hopes to eat some of Mercedes-Benz's S-class and BMW's 7-series lunch, too. The unimaginatively-named ET7 is set to be priced at £50k for the entry-level model with…

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Apple to make an EV? Errr… maybe!

Just before Christmas Apple announced that they intend to make an electric vehicle with a target date of 2024. This isn't Apple's first foray into car building, having initially launched the idea back in 2014 before scrapping it and relaunching it again 2019. Also, Apple has shifted back and forth between focusing their efforts on building an EV versus focusing on just self-driving technologies. What makes the…

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