Own stupidity - 2 September 2025

FOLLOW UP: ECG TWEAK AND FIRST BAND 1 CARS ANNOUNCEDThe Government has tightened the loophole where if one vehicle in the range is eligible for the Electric Car Grant (ECG) then all others with the same powertrain configuration are, no matter their price. This has been capped at £42,000. Click this Autocar story link here, to read more. Additionally, the Government has announced the first two cars to be eligible for Band 1 of the grant and thus the full £3750. The Ford Puma Gen-E and the E-Tournio Courier. Click this Motor Trader article to read more. LOTUS CUTS MORE STAFFIn the continued troubling news from Lotus there is the announcement that they are cutting another 550 jobs in the UK, roughly 40%. This follows another poor first half to the year, as sales dropped 42%. If you wish to learn more, click this Autocar article link here. DACIA LOSE A CEO BUT FIND ANOTHERDenis Le Vot has decided to leave as head of Dacia, with Katrin Adt taking over the reigns. This is one of several changes in Renault Group management. To find out more, click this Autocar article link here. STELLANTIS SHELVES LEVEL 3 AUTONOMOUS DEVELOPMENTStellantis has pulled the plug on deploying their SAE Level 3 autonomous driving system. In February they were saying it was ready to be rolled out. No reasons have been given but the reality of how expensive it is to developing such systems and the flawed path chosen must be part of the reason. To read more, click this Yahoo! Finance article link here. BATTERY RECYCLING CONSORTIUM RAISES £8.1MA consortium, made up of JLR, LiBatt Recycling, WMG at Warwick University and Mint Innovation has secured £8.1 million investment for their battery recycling plans. They intend to perfect recovering lithium, cobalt and nickel from end of life EV batteries. Click this electrive article link here to read more. TESLAMATE SERVERS OPEN TO ALLTeslaMate is a self-hosted data logger for Tesla owners that records all the data that is sent out by the car. A security researcher has discovered he could access thousands of these self-hosted servers and get all the information from the vehicles. To read more, click this link from TechCrunch 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 NEW NEW CAR NEWS - Changan Deepal S07Changan are one of the biggest Chinese car makers, but you’ve probably not heard of them. You will now as they’re coming to the UK, with the Deepal S07, a similar size to the Skoda Enyaq or VW ID.4. Prices start at £39,990, with up to 295 WLTP mile range. Also of note is that they are owned by the Chinese Government. If you wish to learn more, click this Auotcar link here. Subaru E-OutbackSubaru revealed the Trailseeker in the US and we were told it is coming to the UK. It is, but they have changed the name to E-Outback. Using Solterra underpinnings, this has been developed by Subaru and uses around 70% Subaru parts too. It will come with four-wheel drive, up to 279 WLTP miles thanks to a 74.7kWh battery pack. To find out more, click this Autocar article link here. Lamborghini FenomenoLamborghini has taken the wraps off their latest insane vehicle, the Fenomeno. Based on the positively sluggish Revuelto, in comparison, it has upped the power, the speed and well everything. As it should as it costs £3 million. But you can’t have one as 29 of the 30 have been sold and the remaining one is heading off to the Lamborghini museum. If you want to read more and you should, click this Autocar link here. LUNCHTIME WATCH: RUSTIVAL 2025The 2025 Rustival event took place last weekend and it looked brilliant. We are recommending three videos, one each from the organising trio, to watch and catch up on what happened. You might also see Alan’s car. For Hubnut’s video, click this link. For I Drive a Classic’s video, click this link. For FuriousDriving’s video, click this link. Then make a note to get tickets for next year’s event! LIST OF THE WEEK: 13 OF THE STRANGEST CONCEPT CARS YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER SEENThis week we recommend a great list from Top Gear as they bring us some of the more out there concepts of recentish years. Whilst only 13 long they are all good. Don’t forget to tell the chaps what you would pick. Click the link here to see the options. AND FINALLY: HOT WHEELS LEGENDS TOUR UK WINNERThis year’s UK winner of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour has been announced and it is a heavily modified E-21 BMW 3-Series. Do click this Motoring Research article link here, to read more and gawp at what has been achieved.