God of War - 8 September 2020

FOLLOW UP: GREEN NUMBER PLATE TRIAL

Last week we discussed the news that Nissan dealers were trialling, the soon to be introduced, green number plates that indicate the car is an EV. Alan and Andrew were confused by why only Nissan and why a trial, turns out that these are only mock-ups and not actually road legal. The chaps apologise for not doing enough research to have established the full facts. We will do better in the future.

NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES FOR AUGUST 2020

August is traditionally a quieter month for New Car Registration figures due to holidays and September being a new plate month. However, even taking that into consideration, the market was still down 5.8% year-on-year. Considering the state of, well everything, only 5.8% is not bad! The figure was boosted by a surge (sorry) in the number of electric vehicles registered. To read more, click here for the SMMT article.

ZAP-MAP BRINGS PAYMENT UNIFICATION

Zap-Map, the best EV charging station mapping service for the UK, has unveiled its one-stop payment service, called Zap-Pay. This means that you can just pay via this to be able to charge at any point regardless of the network provider, so long as they have joined with Zap-Map. To read more, click the article here.

FUEL-PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE

Petrol and diesel prices have risen for their third month in a row, yet they still remain on average below January’s prices. Motorway fuel is also significantly cheaper than it was previously. The hope is prices will drop again as there is a reduction in oil price and the holiday season is over. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here.

KODIAQ VRS SALES TO STOP

Skoda has announced they will be ceasing production of the current Kodiaq vRS, due to the EU emission targets that require a much stricter fleet average than last year. However, for fans of a fast SUV, they will be bringing it back next year with a revised engine and mid-life facelift. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

JIMNY IS BACK SORT OF

Recently Suzuki stopped selling the Jimny due to the EU emission rules that we discussed int he Kodiaq story, however, Suzuki has announced that it will be coming back in limited numbers as a commercial vehicle. Commercial vehicles have different rules over emissions and they can’t have rear seats, but most owners didn’t use the back seats anyway. To find out more about this good news, click here for the Autocar article.

NEXT QASHQAI DELAYED UNTIL 2021

Nissan has dialled back from an expected October production start for the next generation Qashqai, with claims that the main reason is the pandemic and also uncertainty over Brexit, causing the company to pause its investment until more is known. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

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GIVEAWAY COMPETITION TIME

After realising we were about to hit our 350th episode and our 5th year anniversary, almost at the last second, we joked how we are hopeless at...

FOLLOW UP: GREEN NUMBER PLATE TRIAL

Last week we discussed the news that Nissan dealers were trialling, the soon to be introduced, green number plates that indicate the car is an EV. Alan and Andrew were confused by why only Nissan and why a trial, turns out that these are only mock-ups and not actually road legal. The chaps apologise for not doing enough research to have established the full facts. We will do better in the future.

NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES FOR AUGUST 2020

August is traditionally a quieter month for New Car Registration figures due to holidays and September being a new plate month. However, even taking that into consideration, the market was still down 5.8% year-on-year. Considering the state of, well everything, only 5.8% is not bad! The figure was boosted by a surge (sorry) in the number of electric vehicles registered. To read more, click here for the SMMT article.

ZAP-MAP BRINGS PAYMENT UNIFICATION

Zap-Map, the best EV charging station mapping service for the UK, has unveiled its one-stop payment service, called Zap-Pay. This means that you can just pay via this to be able to charge at any point regardless of the network provider, so long as they have joined with Zap-Map. To read more, click the article here.

FUEL-PRICES CONTINUE TO RISE

Petrol and diesel prices have risen for their third month in a row, yet they still remain on average below January’s prices. Motorway fuel is also significantly cheaper than it was previously. The hope is prices will drop again as there is a reduction in oil price and the holiday season is over. To read more, click the Motoring Research article here.

KODIAQ VRS SALES TO STOP

Skoda has announced they will be ceasing production of the current Kodiaq vRS, due to the EU emission targets that require a much stricter fleet average than last year. However, for fans of a fast SUV, they will be bringing it back next year with a revised engine and mid-life facelift. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

JIMNY IS BACK SORT OF

Recently Suzuki stopped selling the Jimny due to the EU emission rules that we discussed int he Kodiaq story, however, Suzuki has announced that it will be coming back in limited numbers as a commercial vehicle. Commercial vehicles have different rules over emissions and they can’t have rear seats, but most owners didn’t use the back seats anyway. To find out more about this good news, click here for the Autocar article.

NEXT QASHQAI DELAYED UNTIL 2021

Nissan has dialled back from an expected October production start for the next generation Qashqai, with claims that the main reason is the pandemic and also uncertainty over Brexit, causing the company to pause its investment until more is known. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

_____________________________________________

GIVEAWAY COMPETITION TIME

After realising we were about to hit our 350th episode and our 5th year anniversary, almost at the last second, we joked how we are hopeless at celebrating milestones. Thankfully some wonderful people listen to us, Phil Huff (of FrontSeat fame) and James Rüppert (Mr Bangernomics) have donated prizes for a giveaway.

By answering the question in the episode, via our contact form on the site and using the word COMPETITION in the subject line, you could win a Lego Speed Champions McLaren 720S and a copy of the book Bangernomics: Rebooted.

To go directly to our Contact Form, click here.

If you like what we do, on this show, and think it is worth a £1.00, please consider supporting us via Patreon. Here is the link to that CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST

WRC ESTONIA

By all accounts, whilst Estonia was hosting the WRC for the first time, it felt as though it had been part of the calendar for years. Ott Tänak took the win, for Hyundai, with Craig Breen making it a one-two for the Korean manufacturer. Third was secured by Sébastein Ogier, bringing in the highest placed Toyota who charged hard but could not get past Breen. This has closed up the manufacture and driver’s championship. To read more about the result, click the DIrtFish article here. To read about how well the event went down, click the DirtFish article here.

GOODWOOD REVIVAL GREATS LIVESTREAM

Whilst Goodwood has had to postpone a live Revival, they are going to stream the Revival Greats over what would’ve been the event’s weekend. To read more and make a note of when it starts, click the Goodwood Road & Racing article here.

LUNCHTIME READ: HOW A POWERFUL NISSAN INSIDER TORE APART CARLOS GHOSN’S LEGACY

In what reads like a medieval story of power and dethroning, Bloomberg has a fascinating article on how the fall of Ghosn came about. Intrigue, conspiracy and scores to be settled, in what could be from a thriller. We remind our listeners, that the pentest element of the story is often how these things are run so do not read too much into that without information of wrongdoing being revealed. To read this excellent article, click the link here. Thanks to Damien Scully for the recommendation, it is one hell of a read!

LIST OF THE WEEK: 24 RANDOM THINGS MADE BY CAR MANUFACTURERS

This week’s List of the Week is some of the other things that car manufacturers have made. What a gloriously mad list it is too. To have a look, click the Autocar article here.

AND FINALLY: VINTAGE JCB RESTORED

Tying in with the List of the Week, we bring you the story of the 1964 JCB backhoe loader, that has been fully restored. To read more about the restoration, click the AggNet article here.

AND FINALLY FINALLY: ZOOM ZOOMERS CALL

Alan takes part in a gathering of folks from the motoring world, on a Monday night, run by Damien Cross. If you would like to see last Monday’s meet up please click the YouTube link here.