Gloss Over That - 15 September 2020

FOLLOW UP: WINTERKORN AND FOUR OTHERS CHARGED WITH FRAUD

A court in Braunschweig, Germany, has allowed a case to move forward charging Winterkorn and four other former VW managers with fraud. Additionally, the court has allowed an amendment to add additional criminal gang charges. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

FOLLOW UP: MERCEDES AGREE DEFEAT DEVICE SETTLEMENT IN US

Mecedes-Benz owner, Daimler, has agreed to pay £1.17 billion to the U.S. Government and State of California for installing defeat devices on some of their diesel engined vehicles. Mercedes will also have to fix all affected models, as part of the settlement. As part of the settlement Merceds deny the charges levelled at them and any wrong doing. To read more, click the CarDealer article here.

FOLLOW UP: KELLY AND NISSAN TRIAL BEGINS

In the abscence of Carlos Ghosn, Greg Kelly’s trial has started in Japan, where he is accused of hiding the misappropriated funds that Ghosn is supposed to have taken from Nissan. Nissan has admitted liability and paid a fine, Kelly has reiterated that he is not guilty. To read more, click the SuperUnleaded article here.

MCLAREN LOOK TO RAISE FUDNING

McLaren is planning a fund and lease back plan, involving their HQ. Contrary to how others have reported it, they are not selling up and moving away from Woking. The expectation is that the properties will raise over £200 million, which is needed, they say, as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on motor racing and car sales. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

MERCEDES LOSES ANOTHER PATENT CASE

Mercedes Benz has been found to be using some of Sharp’s technology without paying to do so. This is the second case where this has been found to be the case, in the last few weeks. This time, Sharp need 'only post a collateral of €5.5 billion to ban the sale of any vehicle using the disputed technology. To read more, click the Automotive News Europe article here. To find out how all this mess came around click here for the Automotive News article explaining it all.

SECTIONS OF MOTORWAYS TO BE REDUCED TO 60MPH LIMIT IN TRIAL

Highways England is trialling the reduction of some sections of motorway’s speed limit, to see how that impacts emissions. The M1, M5, M6 and M602 will be affected in very small areas. The trial is expected to begin before October and run for 15 to 18 months, if successful they could become official policy. To read more, click the EVO article here.

SPEEDING NOT RISING OVERALL BUT STILL TROUBLING

The Department for Transport has released information on vehicles speeding, showing that overall there is no increase in speeding but certain speeds have seen an increase. Exceeding 70 and 30mph has climbed but there are drops for cars and motorcycles in 60mph areas. Exceeding speed limits was a contributing factor in 5.1% of road...

FOLLOW UP: WINTERKORN AND FOUR OTHERS CHARGED WITH FRAUD

A court in Braunschweig, Germany, has allowed a case to move forward charging Winterkorn and four other former VW managers with fraud. Additionally, the court has allowed an amendment to add additional criminal gang charges. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

FOLLOW UP: MERCEDES AGREE DEFEAT DEVICE SETTLEMENT IN US

Mecedes-Benz owner, Daimler, has agreed to pay £1.17 billion to the U.S. Government and State of California for installing defeat devices on some of their diesel engined vehicles. Mercedes will also have to fix all affected models, as part of the settlement. As part of the settlement Merceds deny the charges levelled at them and any wrong doing. To read more, click the CarDealer article here.

FOLLOW UP: KELLY AND NISSAN TRIAL BEGINS

In the abscence of Carlos Ghosn, Greg Kelly’s trial has started in Japan, where he is accused of hiding the misappropriated funds that Ghosn is supposed to have taken from Nissan. Nissan has admitted liability and paid a fine, Kelly has reiterated that he is not guilty. To read more, click the SuperUnleaded article here.

MCLAREN LOOK TO RAISE FUDNING

McLaren is planning a fund and lease back plan, involving their HQ. Contrary to how others have reported it, they are not selling up and moving away from Woking. The expectation is that the properties will raise over £200 million, which is needed, they say, as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on motor racing and car sales. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

MERCEDES LOSES ANOTHER PATENT CASE

Mercedes Benz has been found to be using some of Sharp’s technology without paying to do so. This is the second case where this has been found to be the case, in the last few weeks. This time, Sharp need 'only post a collateral of €5.5 billion to ban the sale of any vehicle using the disputed technology. To read more, click the Automotive News Europe article here. To find out how all this mess came around click here for the Automotive News article explaining it all.

SECTIONS OF MOTORWAYS TO BE REDUCED TO 60MPH LIMIT IN TRIAL

Highways England is trialling the reduction of some sections of motorway’s speed limit, to see how that impacts emissions. The M1, M5, M6 and M602 will be affected in very small areas. The trial is expected to begin before October and run for 15 to 18 months, if successful they could become official policy. To read more, click the EVO article here.

SPEEDING NOT RISING OVERALL BUT STILL TROUBLING

The Department for Transport has released information on vehicles speeding, showing that overall there is no increase in speeding but certain speeds have seen an increase. Exceeding 70 and 30mph has climbed but there are drops for cars and motorcycles in 60mph areas. Exceeding speed limits was a contributing factor in 5.1% of road traffic collisions, according to DfT’s own data. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

T-PLATES TO BE TRIALLED BY BLACK-BOX DRIVERS

Co-Op has stepped in to help young drivers, who are using black-box telematic insurance systems, that feel under pressure from other road users to drive faster by trialling T-plates that show anyone they have an insurance device fitted. The hope is that other drivers will ease up and not make younger drivers feel unsafe. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here.

EU AND UK AUTOMOTIVE BODIES CALL FOR POST-BREXIT TRADE TO BE URGENTLY AGREED

The UK’s SMMT and European equivalent organisations have called on both side negotiating the post-Brexit trade deal to urgently announce details of any agreement, asking for it to be frictionless or there will be “severe repercussions”. We can only hope they are listened to. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

Dr Andy Palmer has some interesting thoughts on why the lack of clarity is affecting the automotive sector. To learn more, watch the video here.

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FORMULA E: MAHINDRA SIGN EX-MERCEDES POWERTRAIN SPECIALIST

Mahindra have signed Josef Holden, who was the Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains team leader. They will hope his experience of being part of the Mercedes F1 Team will be invaluable. To read more, click The Race article here.

WRC TURKEY

WRC Turkey is taking place this weekend, where they will be implementing the same restrictions as they did in Estonia. To read more about that and the lead up to the event, click the DirtFish article here.

There is another excellent DirtFish article, this time discussing the move to hybrid cars, which we all thought was done and dusted. Apparently not, Hyundai are now wavering, due to the cost and perceived benefit, to the point that leaving the championship is on the table. To read about that and what the options are, click the article here.

LE MANS SPOTTER GUIDE FROM ANDY BLACKMORE

Andy Blackmore has once again created his Spotter’s Guide for the 2020 Le Mans race that takes place over the coming weekend. To see more, click the link to the Tweet from Andy here.

LUNCHTIME WATCH: HOW THE M-SPORT STORY BEGAN

Managing Director, Malcolm Wilson, talks through how his and the M-Sport story began, for this week’s Lunchtime Watch, from DirtFish. To watch this fascinating interview, click here.

LIST OF THE WEEK: 11 OF THE BEST FUN CARS WITH LESS THAN 150BHP

This week’s List of the Week is curtsey of Top Gear, talking about fun cars that are blessed with nothing more than 150bhp. To find out more and select your own favourite, click the link here.

AND FINALLY: EV CHARGING RECORD SET FOR JOHN O’GROATS TO LANDS END

Zero Carbon World achieved a record time of only 1 hour, 32 minutes, 32 seconds of charging, for their run from John O’Groats to Lands End. The overall journey time was 15 hours 32 minutes. To read more, click the Zap-Map article here.