Nearly one less China Girl.

But fortunately not the case.

This looks scary...

The full story is here - make sure you watch it and you will see why it is so scary.

Although the full story doesn't give the full story.  For starters, it isn't a cabin scooter.

If it were a cabin scooter it wouldn't have four seats and four doors.

And what the hell was the driver up to?  There's also someone sat in the back.

I've tried to identify the vehicle involved.

The nearest (and it isn't one of these) seems to be a Lingbao Box - which is, according to this advert, a "Mini Taxi New Energy Vehicle for Ladies."

Can't tell whether or not this example is being driven by a lady.

And if it was being a taxi then I suspect no tip.

I could teach the U.S. Secret Service a thing or two.

Specifically how to drive a manual car.

The U.S. Secret Service have been gifted 10 high performance cars by GM (story here) including two equipped with manual transmissions.

One of their driving instructors has stated that, "Not everyone is able to operate a manual shift,"

And, "Having that platform here will enable us to give instruction on how to drive manual vehicles for overseas trips."

At least until electric cars take over.

Although I'm not convinced that a V8 Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing is the ideal choice for learning to drive a manual in.

Slowing down electric cars

This isn't a story about regenerative braking.

I don't seem to quote many Autoguide stories these days - maybe because they don't put out as many as the other sites I like.  But here's one that is quite interesting for its contents AND for it in itself.

It is written by "AutoGuide.com News Staff" rather than by an individual.

And that is probably because "This article was co-written using AI and was then heavily edited and optimized by our editorial team."  Sounds like more effort than usual to create an article and that the longer term plan will be to do away with the editorial team once the AI has learnt to do the job properly.

Maybe I should look into AI for my blog.  And then if someone else could develop an AI to read my Blog, it could save everyone a load of time.

Anyway, the article is titled,

Ford Kills Key EV Program

What!?  Ford are stopping EV production!?

Well they can stop that one for a start - how dare they call that a Mustang!?

No, the key word there is "key".  The Key EV Program was one whereby US Ford dealers were told to invest huge sums of money to be certified, and therefore permitted, to sell EVs.

Somebody has noticed that EV sales have significantly slowed down and, meanwhile, unhappy dealers were starting lawsuits against the program.

Even governments are noticing that plans to outlaw all petrol & diesel only cars by 2040 may be ambitious.  Perhaps the advent of solid state batteries (circa 2028) will help but there are too many uncertainties that need to become certainties in the next 16 years.  

Now, I just need to end this piece in a succinct and amusing way - how do you log into ChatGPT?

Medium Wave Goodbye

My in-car entertainment does not include AM radio. 

I'm not convinced that there is much on AM these days anyway.  Radio Wales claim to still be there but I've not picked it up in years.

Good job they are on FM & DAB.

My car doesn't have a CD or cassette or 8-Track player either.  Not a problem as I can just play the stuff on my phone via Bluetooth if I'm not in a radio listening mood.

And no AM shouldn't be a problem either as I am European not American.

According to Car+Driver, over there they are planning to legislate such that all new cars should have AM.

There is some logic to it as AM can cover further distances as mentioned here in this interesting comparison.  That would make it more suitable for some of the more remote States.  And, according to C+D, "In July 2022, one of Canada's largest cellular providers suffered a cross-country outage that left some 12 million people without coverage. But AM radio still provided news and traffic information"

However, that makes it awkward for car manufacturers (apparently EVs in particular will struggle with interference) and it would be expensive to redesign the hardware.

C+D added one of their famous surveys to the article and it looks like there is a small majority who still want AM - maybe they were swayed by the sentence, "Proponents say passing the Act is about providing emergency services or free speech."

In the survey, I went with "You must be joking. It's 2023"

It took one of the commenters to point out that it is actually 2024.

Another one came up with the solution to this problem - carmakers should give away a free AM transistor radio with each new car.

This one costs £9.98 on Amazon and is an ideal gift for a friend who likes to pretend to be an old lady.

Let's have a heated debate!

This was the most read BBC News article this afternoon - an electric bus caught fire. It's still on their front page.

There was no mention on the front page yesterday of this bus fire:

It was on their local Gloucestershire page.

Why not the front page though like today's one?

Anything to do with it not being in London?

That won't have helped but let's be honest, it was almost certainly because it wasn't an electric bus.  I've raised this bias before.  Not sure what it will take to change this.

Talking of electric vehicles, don't we all hate electric scooters?  Usually ridden with no care and attention either on the road (ignoring the rules of the road) or on the pavement (ignoring the safety of other pavement-users)

That is why the Mayor of Paris found it so easy to get them banned.

And people riding them look like tossers.

However, according to The Conversation, e-scooters are actually displacing four times as much demand for oil as all the world’s electric cars at present, due to their uptake in China and other nations where mopeds are a common form of transport.

So they are a good thing!?

Talking more of electric vehicles, The Tyre Extinguishers have been at it again.  This time targeting a Tesla Model X in Bristol.  The news sites seem perplexed that an "anti-gas-guzzler" pressure group would target an electric car but they did point out back in 2022 when I last gave them a mention, that their beef was more with SUVs - a sentiment I agree with albeit for completely different reasoning. To quote them from today's story,

"Electric cars are fair game. We can't electrify our way out of the climate crisis. The danger to other road users still stands, as does air pollution (PM 2.5 pollution is still produced from tyres / brake pads). A child killed by an SUV doesn't care if its (sic) electric or petrol."

Their grammar isn't too hot - that "(sic)" was added by drive.com.au together with another one where they talk about "SUV vehicles"

But then the electric side of the argument did point out that regenerative braking produces no brake dust - a fair point well made.

And drive.com.au also point out that, 

"Under Victoria's Litter Act of 1987, it is an offence to place leaflets on any vehicle, as the leaflet could be blown away by the wind or disintegrate in rain – with fines of more than $950 applicable for each instance."

Victorian law doesn't apply in Bristol but the potential for bits of paper (and don't forget the trees they were made from) could be floating around the River Avon doesn't sound very climate-friendly.

Three different stories for debate in one article - who would have thought that electric vehicles could be so controversial?

Grand Touring Blitz

That's what VW are calling their electric four-wheel-drives according to this Autocar article.

Here's the logo:

That squiggle is meant to be a letter I stylised to be a lightning bolt.

Their non-four-wheel-drive (but still a bit sporty) VWs are labelled as GTX.  Can't see anyconfusion there, can you?

No Offence

Etiquette is described by The Cambridge Dictionary as "the set of rules or customs that control accepted behaviour in particular social groups or social situations"

Or by Wikipedia as "the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a society, a social class, or a social group."

So who is the expert on etiquette?

Vauxhall apparently.

Although they have had some help from Debrett's.

They have produced this handy guide for polite behaviour at electric vehicle charging stations.

I'm surprised that a Debrett's guide would include such a common word as "bollard" but there it is in the "Be Streetwise" section.

I am also surprised by the "Be a Good EV Guest" section which states that, "it is quite likely that your host will not have a home charger, so you will have to rely on using a standard three-pin plug cable."  Surely anybody consulting a Debrett's guide wouldn't have friends without an EV home charger!?

But then, I'm not known as a diplomat.

Unlike Vauxhall:

MG Midget

Just as I mentioned in my previous post, I hate brands cashing in on premium names to flog crappy EVs.

But this story is about cashing in on a premium brand to flog a crappy EV.

Apparently, the MG Comet EV "takes aim at the BYD Seagull, Citroën Ami and Wuling Hongguang Mini EV with £7800 price tag"

The what now?

Here is the MG Comet:

And here is the Autocar story.

I've looked up the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV and it looks as horrific as the MG and the Citroen.  The BYD Seagull looks like a sizeable, sporty, attractive bit of kit.

But only when compared to the MG Comet, Citroën Ami and Wuling Hongguang Mini EV.

And the "£7800 price tag" is somewhat misleading as it actually is on sale for ₹798,000.

That's Rupees - it's only going to India.

It features anti-lock brakes but I suspect it doesn't go fast enough to need them.

It also features a reversing camera and parking sensors for some strange reason.

I don't like this "car".

Small wonder.

America Tending to the Right

With the mid-terms quickly approaching, I hope this doesn't happen.  DC will be watching closely.

One thing that I have always liked about America, and I have driven a bit over there (although not in a long time) is the rule they have in most States whereby you can turn right through a red traffic light (assuming it is safe to do so)

There are still rules to follow of course - here's a little Driver Ed for you.

And here is another Driver Ed:

But I digress.

Back to the traffic light rule.

According to Car+Driver, Washington (and the rest of D.C.) are looking to remove the turn right on red rule.  The story is here.  Apparently fatalities are on the up with pedestrians not looking around the corners as they cross and, more importantly, drivers not checking for pedestrians or cyclists as they go through the red lights.

This will become even more of a problem as quieter electric vehicles become more prevalent. 

Now throw in something I had not heard of before called The Idaho Stop and much chaos and death will ensue.  The Idaho Stop (although not fully implemented in D.C.) basically allows cyclists to do what they think they can do here in the UK and proceed carte blanche through stop signs and red lights.

Car+Driver added one of their little 50/50 votes at the end of story and, since we petrol-heads all think we are such skilled drivers, I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome with as many as 31% agreeing with tighter rules:

I just hope there are some pleasant surprises for Joe in the vote next month.

Humbling

Looks like Tyre Extinguishers have made it to the States.  Car+Driver report here about a group of SUV-Haters who have started to let down tyres of offending vehicles in New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

They object to gas-guzzlers but will also target electric SUVs - it seems to do more with the size than anything else.

I'm pretty sure that my saloon car does a lot more gas guzzling and particle emitting than a Ford Puma although the Puma is a lot more offensive to my eyesight.

I wouldn't normally comment on a story like this but I ended up going down one of my Internet rabbit-holes when I spotted the phrase "Hummer Salute" in the article.  I correctly guessed that a Hummer Salute is the same salute that Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns gave to a group of people who had annoyed her this week:

I also found a very prescient article from GQ Magazine of all places from 2010.

It is entitled:

The Last Hummer: A 21-gun salute for America's most cynical brand

but doesn't actually mention a 21-Gun Salute.  It does instead strongly criticise GM for their acquisition and handling of the Hummer brand at the time it was being shelved by them.  It also strongly criticises the vehicle itself.  

It blames "Zarella" for  this embarrassing GM situation.  Not a YouTube Influencer, but Ron Zarrella, part of a management team drafted in from outside the motor industry.

The prescient bit is when it says, "Under different circumstances, GM might have resurrected the brand. And another firm with very deep pockets still might—arriving at the last moment (as Spyker did for Saab, but only with more money) as a green maker of electric 4x4s, for instance."

So look at Hummer today.

Then look at Saab.

We have a humdinger and a humbled.

International Post Stories About Volkswagen Day

I probably need to visit autoguide.com more often.

If I'd visited it on April 21st I'd have read this story and learned that April 22nd was Earth Day.

And on Earth Day, but just for that day, VW in Canada made their website more eco-friendly.  Apparently, websites can use up energy (and therefore resources) too so they made it more efficient by using plain text and simple pictures. They reckon that the simpler version "generates an estimated 93% less Carbon Dioxide" than their usual landing page - which they've now gone back to.

I'm not sure how much that day will have compensated for the nitrous oxide emitted as a result of the fiddling by their German colleagues but I'm sure it's a start.

If you want to see the VW Canada page from that day, a neat little website tool called The Wayback Machine  can help - take a look here.

Meanwhile, another "World" Day missed by me but not by Volkswagen was this Wednesday which was "World Design Day". Car+Driver are reporting on a world design whereby VW have chopped the back off a Buzz to make a pick-up.

Here's a copy of what was put onto chief designer Klaus Zyciora’s Instagram profile:

I get what they are going for...

But it doesn't really work for me.

Anyway, I'm going to finish this article here because I need to prepare for National Chocolate Parfait Day tomorrow.

Moving on to Solids

Autocar are starting to get coy with their articles.  Business-related ones at least - like this one.

Last week, they were telling me I had to sign up to see them but this one seems to be one of my two free ones now.

Alternatively, I could just see what Auto Express have on the subject.

Back in the day, people told Skoda jokes - 

Why do Skodas have heated rear windows? 

To keep your hands warm when you are pushing them.

How many Skodas does it take to change a lightbulb?

Two - in part-exchange.

But then Skoda became good.

Looks like this is a new image change, or, using management-speak, a new design language.

It is called Modern Solid - and if you look that up on Google, you get a Taiwanese company that makes various bits of office furniture specialising in arms for monitors.

Anyway, the new language comes with a picture:

A deliberately blurry picture.

They don't want to give anything away before their big launch in September.

Apart from maybe a Vizor front grille.  Although, can you call it a grille if it is solid?

According to Auto Express, outgoing Skoda CEO Thomas Schäfer claims “You will soon see a wow moment for our competitors and our customers”

It doesn't say whether he is outgoing as in extrovert or he is outgoing as in leaving.

Hopefully the latter if he is associating the word "wow" with an electric SUV.

I'd Like a Big Knob I Can Twist

No, I haven't left my laptop unattended with a juvenile person around.

It is a quote of the lovely Vicki Butler-Henderson in this trailer video:

Despite what a lot of the commenters on the YouTube site say, I am looking forward to this.

Why not have an electric version of Fifth Gear?  It's not like they are saying they won't go back to the old style again - although it may become moot in the future.

Shame no Tiff in this - many of the disgruntled commenters are lamenting that too - but the addition of Rory Reid should be good - and Fifth Gear always was designed as the place for presenters who Top Gear thought they didn't need any more.

Another good thing about this is that I only have to wait one week longer to see it on Quest after the less stingy people have watched it on Discovery.

I'll just end by saying that if Vicki wants an innuendo - I'd be more than happy to give her one.

"Join us as we eviscerate this profoundly idiotic premise"

I've said it before, twice in fact, and now I appear to be saying it again:

I do like the writings of Ezra Dyer - the title of this Post is a sentence he so eloquently uses in this Car+Driver article today.

The title of the piece is

No, EVs Won't Make American Roads Look like Cuba's in 20 Years

It comes with a picture of some old cars in Cuba:

I may have deliberately chosen a bad example for the story there.

But it does sort of back up Ezra's case against a particular New York Times article that has irked him.  I think that I like The New York Times - I've never read it but they do enjoy attacking Donald Trump so that gets a big tick from me.

I would love to dissect his article dissecting the NY Times one but it makes much more sense to read his dissection first-hand by clicking on the C+D link above.  And, given that Ezra and I are both eminently sensible people, that is what you should do.

Enjoy.

The Long and Short of It.

I saw this in an Autocar Story today:

It looks like a cobbled-together in a shed, kit version of a Lamborghini LM002:

But it is actually a hell of a lot more than that.

It is an electric vehicle with a range-extender engine "built for expeditions as extreme and diverse as crossing the Antarctic or penetrating uncharted Amazon rainforests."

It's about the size of a Transit but very light weight with a high ground-clearance - it is called The Fering Pioneer.

This is the story.

It also has a bit of a Jeep Gladiator look about it...

...which I wouldn't have spotted if I hadn't read this Fox News story which talks about the best and worst cars for tall and short people.  Although Consumer Reports should get the credit for it.

You would think that convertibles would be best for tall drivers since there is infinite headroom.

Think again:

Shame about the number plate but I'm sure the Fox News viewers would appreciate it.

Apparently the second-best car for short drivers is the BMW 7-Series and the first-best car for tall drivers is the BMW 7-Series.

I think it just means it has very adjustable seats.

Urban Grim

No - I don't mean Grime.

Here's Citroen's fairly recently launched Urban EV - the Ami:

It sort of makes the old Ami look acceptable:

And now it has competition.

According to Autocar today, "New ACM City One is battery-swapping urban EV" and "New Opel Rocks-e is Citroen Ami-based urban EV for Germany"

Here's the ACM City One:

Those aren't the batteries on the roof.  I suppose it isn't horrendous on the outside.

But it is on the inside:

Very grim.  Although I do miss a good old-fashioned rocker switch.  And it seems to have heated seats.

It is German - like of course Opel are.  Their new product though is very French:

Obviously taking advantage of one of their Stellantis stablemates.

I don't know if Rocks-e has some significance in German - would a Vauxhall version be called a Roxy?

The story states, "The 2.41m-long, 471kg EV is almost visually unaltered, too, save for the addition of a new 'Vizor'-style front end panel, which brings the Rocks-e into line with Opel-Vauxhall's more mainstream cars."

"The Vizor style front end panel?"  They've just swapped the Citroen badge for an Opel badge!  Mind you, the Opel badge is well suited for an EV.

Top speed is 28mph so probably not one for the Autobahns.

Opel has confirmed its model will head for other markets in 2022, following a German market launch this autumn - this Stellantis-brand badge would fit on the front:

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.

Gammy Rather Than Gamma

I decided to go on the Australian site www.caradvice.com.au for a change this evening - I've not been on there in a while.

I soon wished I hadn't, the first picture that greeted me was this:

That is an MG3 from this story about their petrol tanks falling out.

Very ugly - and apparently it is "Australia’s top-selling city car"

But then I spotted this picture:

That really does take ugliness to an even higher level.  It is from this story about the return of Lancia - but with SUVs and electric cars.

Just like MG.

That picture, incidentally, is the aging Lancia Ypsilon - also known as the Chrysler Ypsilon - a car I disparaged back in 2011 when it was new.  It hasn't got any better looking with time.

It's a shame because Lancia have produced some beautiful (and rally-winning) cars over time - some can even look good in yellow:

Although there were some stinkers too:

It's a shame that these brands are being treated this way.

Triumph's end seems quite dignified in comparison:

Another Reason to Dislike Kia.

I'm probably being unfair but the image of Kia to me is the budget sibling of a budget brand (Hyundai) who make boring econoboxes.

Which is probably why they are rebranding.

I reported a couple of days ago about their new logo and the thoughts behind it.

Autocar have more news today.

I hate it when my boss uses the word "robust".

This is because I hate management speak.

So imagine how I feel when I read phrases like,

The Korean firm intends to “break away from its traditional manufacturing-driven business model”, instead expanding into “new and emerging business areas by creating innovative mobility products and services to improve customers’ daily lives”

and

the company will diversify into “eco friendly mobility services, centred on electric and autonomous driving across major global cities”

Ye Gods.

Now this is part of Kia’s long-term ‘Plan S’ strategy, which will see a focus on new dedicated electric vehicles - seven of which will be launched by 2027.

OK, seem reasonable.  The first will be a coupe-crossover.

Another bloody coupe-crossover!!

The preview shots (useless pictures of some vehicles in a hangar during a power cut) show a number of what Kia calls “Purpose-Built Vehicles” (PBVs)

PBVs!!

I already hate SUVs - now I've got to hate PBVs!

Meanwhile, over in America, the big news is, "Kia Sedona Minivan Could Be Renamed Carnival for 2022"

I guess the rebrand has begun.

Sparking Back Into Life

Autocar have this story today.  It is disguised as a article about whether or not it is right to take the beating heart (or internal combustion engine) out of a classic car and replace it with an electric motor.   It seems to be more of an advert for Kit Lacey's eDub Services who do just that.

As do Jack's Garage in the shadow of Grenfell Tower who Autocar told us about in December 2019.

Although eDub will let you rent one of theirs for a week:

The Jack's Garage story was just after Autocar told us that "EV conversions slammed by classic car experts"

But, then again, Michael Gove had already told us that we'd had enough of experts.  He then went on to tell us to listen to the experts on Coronavirus.

Anyway, these particular experts are The Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens (FIVA) who issued a statement, stating that it

“cannot promote, to owners or regulators, the use of modern EV components to replace a historic vehicle’s drivetrain”.

eDub are offering to box up the original engine so that it can be re-installed if it is so desired.

I'd have thought that this way, more classics would end up on the road - and in a more eco-friendly way.  Nobody is going to do this with all of the existing classics so the more the merrier. And more must be getting merrier as more and more operations set up to do this exact job.

Over in Wales (or over on Quest) is another example - Richard "Moggy" Morgan of Electric Classic Cars in Newtown is shown on Quest and the series returns this Thursday:

Not sure of their scheduling, they seemed to show half of the series then stop it.

But now it's back.

Well, they are plugging it. (plug! geddit!?)