There'll Be Bluebirds Over...

...at the charging points.

Remember back in April when I quite liked the electric Hyundai Pony?

Well Nissan have done the same thing now with The Bluebird.  Here's Autocar with the story.

Although it's not really Nissan who have done it - they got a local company who do such conversions to do it for them.  It's to celebrate 35 years since the first car was built at their Sunderland factory - seems a strange number to celebrate.  I must have missed the celebrations for the 35 years since the completion of the M25.

I do like it:

I wouldn't have given it a second glance in the '80s even with the garish paintjob and it's only the lights that would make you suspicious today.

Unlike the Pony, the interior is very stock if you ignore the ugly plate where the gearstick should be:

But there does seem to be an issue if you want to get home from the airport and fancy ordering a nostalgic private hire ride:

Electric Light Vans

Interesting article on the Autocar site today.  It is about Swindon and the effects of the forthcoming closure of the Honda car plant there.

It seems it won't be completely bleak for the workforce.  The Brexit that caused the closure (despite what they claim) has also left a shortage of workers for other industries so there will be other jobs in the area.

Meanwhile, it's all looking bright for Sunderland.  Nissan's car plant was in similar danger of closure but they have announced an expansion to build electric cars and a new plant building electric vehicle batteries.  The Government have negotiated this a part of a deal involving a large input of public money.  Nobody will admit how large but given that it is in the North of England where the Tories are ingratiating themselves with the voters, we can safely assume that we are putting a huge amount in.

The battery plant will be vitally important for the future of the British car industry - trying to import large numbers of batteries from Europe or elsewhere would be a logistical nightmare.

The other site in danger is (or hopefully "was") Vauxhall's plant down the road from me in Ellesmere Port.  It looks like the "Home of the Astra" will become the "Home of Electric Vans".   Not particularly exciting but a sensible move in the current climate.

More exciting would be building a different electric vehicle.

This I really like:

Although the eyes are a bit scary.

It is an E-Legend EL1 - modelled on the Audi Quattro.  There will only be 30 of them and they will sell for about £1 Million each - shame - it's just out of my price range.

It mustn't be confused with the Honda Legend which, unlike the Civic, Accord, Jazz and CR-V, has never been built at their Swindon plant.

And now, it never will.