Our Little Run of Fun - 18 January 2022

SMART MOTORWAYS HALTED BY GOVERNMENTThe roll out of new smart motorways will be halted for five years, as the Government wants to use that time to collate more data on the safety of the existing sections. Those schemes that are already being built will continue, however. In the meantime, £900 million has been pledged to improving the safety of existing smart motorways. For more on this story, click the Autocar article here. FUEL DUTY LOSS ESTIMATED AT £5 BILLION THANKS TO EVSThe RAC Foundation has estimated that the Government could lose £5 billion in revenue from fuel duty, with the rise in EV adoption, by 2030. This brings up the thorny problem of how will that be recouped, especially as car owners already feel they are over burdened with costs. To learn more, click here for the YesAuto link. LONDON MAYOR CONSIDERING A DAILY CAR CHARGESadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has commissioned a City Hall report into achieving the net zero target for London of 2030. One of the recommendations is for a daily charge of £2 per car, except the zero emission vehicles, as well as charging those from outside entering Greater London. This would increase the scope and area of existing schemes. The claim is this is needed for clean air reasons. In order to find out more, click the BBC News article here. POTHOLE DAMAGE AT THREE YEAR HIGH The RAC attended an astonishing 27 call-outs related to pothole damage each day in 2021. This is a three year high. The RAC has called on the Government to properly invest in maintaining roads to a safe and acceptable standard, as well as fresh thinking as current practices and funding levels are inadequate. Further information can be found by clicking this Motoring Research article link here. SCOTLAND PUSHING FOR CAR USE REDUCTION The Scottish Transport Minister, Graeme Day, has published a ‘road map’ for reducing the need to use cars. This has been criticised for having little in terms of actionable steps. To read more about this, click the YesAuto article here. This stance is being echoed in the UK Government, with Transport Minister Trudy Harrison, stating we need to move away from private car ownership late last year. You can read her comments and more by clicking the AMOnline link here. RENAULT GROUP SALES SLIDE AGAINFor the third year running, sales fell for Renault Group, two of the last three years are fairly easy to explain though. Last year, further disruption from Covid and the semi conductor chip shortages are being blamed. Some bright news is that Alpine, Dacia and Lada made gains. For more on this story, click the Autocar article here. RENAULT TO BE ALL EV IN EUROPE BY 2030 Renault are the latest to announce when they will be electric only in Europe. They have plumped for 2030, but Dacia may be behind that mainly due to costs of the technology and how Dacia is priced currently. More information can be found by clicking this Autocar link. VEOLIA OPENING CAR BATTERY RECYCLING CENTRE IN THE UKVeolia has announced the opening of it’s UK-based car battery recycling centre in Minworth, West Midlands. They estimate they will be able to handle 20% of the end of life batteries, in the UK, by the end of 2024. To learn more, click the YesAuto article here. SHELL OPENS FIRST EV CHARGING HUB IN LONDONShell has converted a petrol station and forecourt to their first electric car charging hub, in Fulham, London. Nine cars will be able to charge using the 175kW chargers. Further information can be found if you click this link to the YesAuto article. BOLLINGER PAUSES 4X4 EV DEVELOPMENTBollinger has announced that they will be focusing on commercial EV development, pausing their work on the B1 and B2 4x4 passenger vehicles. Deposits have or will be refunded on the $100,000 vehicles. For more, click the Autocar article 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: FIA BOSS WANTS CHANGESThe new FIA President, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, has views on what WRC needs, in order to survive and thrive. He is looking for a more inclusive collaboration between WRC, promoters and manufacturers. Three manufacturers is not enough to help draw crowds and TV to the spectacle, in his view. With diminishing viewership and locations such as Great Britain losing their round, it is hard to argue with him. Click here for the DirtRally interview, which includes a podcast in their post. LUNCHTIME READ: HIGHWAY CODE UPDATE FOR 2022 - A REMINDERAs a reminder we wanted to share the changes in the 2022 Highway Code, which fundamentally alter the relationship and actions of drivers in relation to more vulnerable road users. To learn what you should do as a road user, click the Parkers article link here. LIST OF THE WEEK: SIX WAYS TO MAKE CARS YOUR HOBBY IN 2022Once again, we link to a Hagerty article, this time about what you could do in 2022 to further your involvement and enjoyment in the car world. Do not to forget to let the chaps know which of list you want to explore more this year. For the list, click the link here. AND FINALLY: THE BREATHTAKING CARS OF FRANCO SCAGLIONEWe have been remiss for far too long in not having a video from the Roadster Life YouTube channel linked to, on the podcast. We address that now by recommending Matteo’s video about the designer Franco Scaglione and the amazing vehicles he penned. To enjoy just over eight minutes of loveliness, click the YouTube link here.