September Thursday - 18 August 2020

FOLLOW UP: RENAULT NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES

During last week’s discussion about the SMMT New Car Registration figures the chaps remarked at how impressive the increase by Renault was. Alan has donned his deerstalker and polished his magnifying glass in an effort to investigate why. They had an increase in their core fleet business but also their best-ever month as part of the Motability scheme.

END OF BAILOUT TALKS BETWEEN JLR AND UK GOVERNMENT

JLR and parent company TATA’s talks with the UK Government over financial help have ended. Reports are that the company did not meet the requirements to receive taxpayers funding. Additional sticking points appear to be suggested requirements for an acceleration of their electrification process. TATA has announced that they are continuing to discuss possible options for financial help with the Government. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

NOKIA WINS PATENT RULING AGAINST DAIMLER

Nokia has won a legal dispute, with Daimler, over the use of their patented technology without a license. Daimler is appealing the ruling. In separate actions, Nokia is being investigated for abusing its position in the market, in the EU. The centre of all of this is the fee Nokia charges to license its mobile communication technology, which Daimler and others want to stop being charged on the basis of each car sold. To read more, click the Bloomberg article here.

KUGA PHEV SALES HALTED AND RECALL ISSUED

The newly launched Ford Kuga PHEV has a temporary ban on sales, issued a recall and informed owners to not charge their high-voltage battery until they have had their car serviced and fixed. The exact issue is still unclear. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

TOYOTA TO USE AMAZON CLOUD STORAGE FOR CONNECTED CARS

As part of Toyota’s move to create and offer its next-gen mobility services, they are utilising more of Amazon’s cloud storage and professional services. Some services could be for fleet managers to monitor their service needs or driver behaviour based insurance to access information. To read more, click The Register article here.

MOTORWAY ROADWORK SPEED TO LIMIT TO BE RAISED

Some sections of motorway roadworks are to have their speed limits reevaluated, with the potential to increase up to 60mph. Simon Wickers explained to Andrew why this may be the case and what factors are considered, which you can read by clicking the link here and also clicking here. To read more about the item, click the BBC News article here.

GOVERNMENT CONSULTATION ON AUTOMATED LANE KEEPING ASSIST SYSTEMS

In the next potential step for introducing automated technology on the road, the UK Government has launched a consultation about Automated Lane Keeping Assist systems. The system will take over driving the vehicle, in motorway conditions, without direct input from the human driver by regulating the speed, distance from vehicles around and keeping in the lane occupied. To read more, click the link to the official release...

FOLLOW UP: RENAULT NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES

During last week’s discussion about the SMMT New Car Registration figures the chaps remarked at how impressive the increase by Renault was. Alan has donned his deerstalker and polished his magnifying glass in an effort to investigate why. They had an increase in their core fleet business but also their best-ever month as part of the Motability scheme.

END OF BAILOUT TALKS BETWEEN JLR AND UK GOVERNMENT

JLR and parent company TATA’s talks with the UK Government over financial help have ended. Reports are that the company did not meet the requirements to receive taxpayers funding. Additional sticking points appear to be suggested requirements for an acceleration of their electrification process. TATA has announced that they are continuing to discuss possible options for financial help with the Government. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

NOKIA WINS PATENT RULING AGAINST DAIMLER

Nokia has won a legal dispute, with Daimler, over the use of their patented technology without a license. Daimler is appealing the ruling. In separate actions, Nokia is being investigated for abusing its position in the market, in the EU. The centre of all of this is the fee Nokia charges to license its mobile communication technology, which Daimler and others want to stop being charged on the basis of each car sold. To read more, click the Bloomberg article here.

KUGA PHEV SALES HALTED AND RECALL ISSUED

The newly launched Ford Kuga PHEV has a temporary ban on sales, issued a recall and informed owners to not charge their high-voltage battery until they have had their car serviced and fixed. The exact issue is still unclear. To read more, click the Autocar article here.

TOYOTA TO USE AMAZON CLOUD STORAGE FOR CONNECTED CARS

As part of Toyota’s move to create and offer its next-gen mobility services, they are utilising more of Amazon’s cloud storage and professional services. Some services could be for fleet managers to monitor their service needs or driver behaviour based insurance to access information. To read more, click The Register article here.

MOTORWAY ROADWORK SPEED TO LIMIT TO BE RAISED

Some sections of motorway roadworks are to have their speed limits reevaluated, with the potential to increase up to 60mph. Simon Wickers explained to Andrew why this may be the case and what factors are considered, which you can read by clicking the link here and also clicking here. To read more about the item, click the BBC News article here.

GOVERNMENT CONSULTATION ON AUTOMATED LANE KEEPING ASSIST SYSTEMS

In the next potential step for introducing automated technology on the road, the UK Government has launched a consultation about Automated Lane Keeping Assist systems. The system will take over driving the vehicle, in motorway conditions, without direct input from the human driver by regulating the speed, distance from vehicles around and keeping in the lane occupied. To read more, click the link to the official release here.

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FORMULA E: SEASON WRAPS UP IN BERLIN

We reach the end of this strange season, with the last two races being at Berlin again, last week. Formula E, the teams, drivers and everyone else associated with the Berlin races deserve a lot of credit for getting this to happen at all.

In Wednesday’s race, Oliver Rowland won for the first time, for the Nissan e.Dams team. To read more about that and how Rowland has improved as a racer, click The Race article here.

The final race of the season resulted in a Mercedes 1-2, with Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries completing a satisfactory debut season. Also, this was Vandoorne’s first Formula E victory. To learn more about what happened, click here for The Race’s article.

For the final standings, click the Forumal E article here.

WRC: JAPAN EXPECTED TO BE REPLACED BY YPRES DUE TO COVID-19

As a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the expectation is that the Japanese leg of the season will be cancelled and replaced by Ypres. To read more, click the DirtFish article here.

LUNCHTIME READ: HOW TO HAVE THE BEST DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE

Andrew Frankel has written a wonderfully optimistic piece in Autocar about getting back out on the open road and how to enjoy the experience. Key to this is preparing yourself and your car. To read through the advice from Mr Frankel, click the article here. Once you’ve read it, followed it and gone for a drive get in touch with us to tell us where you went and how it was!

LIST OF THE WEEK: TOP GEAR’S TOP 9 - EVERYTHING’S BETTER WITH SPOTLIGHTS EDITION

Top Gear has put together a list of cars that look superb with extra spotlights attached to them. To run through them all, click the link here.

AND FINALLY: NEW HYUNDAI EMPLOYEE COLLARED

At A Hyundai dealership, in Brazil, a stray dog kept turning up, and kept turning up, and kept turning up. In the end, they adopted him and gave him an employee badge. To read more about this heartwarming story, click the BoredPanda link 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.