Maintaining The Capability - 30 November 2021

ALISON JONES NAMED PRESIDENT OF SMMTAlison Jones, Stellantis VP and Country Manager for the UK, has been announced as the first female President of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. She will take up her position on 1 January 2022. Dr George Gillespie OBE, steps down after a three year tenure as President. To find out more, click the SMMT article here. UK CAR PRODUCTION WORST SINCE 1956 The continued pressures on the supply chain constrained the UK’s car production in October to on 64, 729 vehicles, the lowest since 1956. Whilst the chip shortage was a major factor, Honda permanently shutting the Swindon factory in July also impacted the figures. For more information, click here to read the Autocar article. EV CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE OPENSMilton Keynes is the preferred location for Intertek to open their electric vehicle centre of excellence, where they will test and develop EV powertrains. Costing £12 million, the centre will also develop powertrain components. To read more about this, click the Autocar article here. REE EXPANDS UK OPERATIONSREE, the Israeli electric start-up, is expanding their Warwickshire operations to include producing their ‘corners; product that combines suspension, wheel and electric drive in one compact package, effectively creating in-wheel motors. For more about this interesting company, click here for the Autocar article. LONDON SCRAPPAGE SCHEME OVERSUBSCRIBEDThe £61 million that Transport for London (TfL) had allocated to a ULEZ scrappage scheme has been oversubscribed and the budget is now used up. 23,300 applications were made, with 9,370 accepted. TfL also acknowledged that there would be a shortfall in ULEZ income at 91% of vehicles are compliant with the rules. To learn more, click the Evening Standard article here. IONITY TO EXPAND NETWORK Ionity is to expand their network of EV charging points across Europe by 2025, with a £700 million investment. The plan is to quadruple the number of 350kW chargers to 7000. For more information, click here to read the Autocar article. COST OF EV CHARGING RISES WITH ENERGY PRICE SPIKEThe rising price of wholesale energy is now hitting the EV charging network, with organisations increasing their tariffs in line with the increases. The jump in prices is not insignificant either. To find out more about how you may be effected, click the Autocar article link here. 2022 BRUSSELS MOTOR SHOW MOVED With the ever changing situation, due to the global pandemic, the organisers of the Brussels Motor Show have taken the decision to postpone it until 2023. To read more about this, click here for the Autocar article. GOVERNMENT PLANS CAUSE PANIC FOR PARKING INDUSTRYThe Government is proposing a new cap of £50 for illegal parking, reducing it from the current £100, following the raising of “concerns about the practices of some parking operators”. The parking industry has hit back, somewhat hysterically, with claims car parks will be awash with illegally parked cars happy to pay the £25 fine rather than the fee for a day’s parking. For more information, click the YesAuto article link 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: RALLY1 YARIS AEROWhilst we impatiently wait for the start of the next season, WRC Wings has been keeping it’s eyes peeled on the development of next season’s new rally cars. In this instance they have an article discussing the new Yaris aero, which you can read by clicking their link here. NEW NEW CAR NEWSPorsche 718 Cayman GT4 RSPorsche has decided to drop their 4.0 litre, naturally aspirated, flat-six from the 911 GT3 into the 718 Cayman GT4 RS. Oh glory be. This will give it 493bhp, 332lb ft of the tourques allowing for a 0-62mph time of 3.2 seconds, which seems ‘quite quick’. But, this will not come cheaply, in fact it is only about £15 grand less than the GT3, at £108,370. To find out more, click the Top Gear article here. LUNCHTIME READ: THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF THE AFRICAR The Africar was the idea of Tony Tony Howarth, this week’s Lunchtime Read delves into the idea, the attempt at producing it and what happened. To read this fascinating story, click the Silodrome article here. LIST OF THE WEEK: INTERESTING CARS THAT DESERVED BETTER LUCKAccording to this Autocar slideshow, there have been a number of cars that have been unlucky not to do better than they ultimately did. Have a click through to the options here, then let Alan and Andrew know if you agree with their choices. AND FINALLY: TRY THE FIENDISH HAGERTY JAPANESE CAR QUIZHagerty has released another car quiz, this time centred around Japanese cars. You too can find out how unimpressive your actual knowledge is, along with us, by clicking the link to it here.