Whisper in your ear - 10 December 2024

FOLLOW UP: RECARO SAVEDSome good news, for a change, as Ricaro, the seat manufacturer, being saved by an Italian parts maker called Proma Group. Unfortunately, many will lose their jobs as production will move to Italy. However, some technical and sales people will remain. You can learn more by clicking this Auotcar link here. FOLLOW UP: ARAMCO BUYS 10% STAKE IN HORSEAramco has finally bought the 10% stake in Horse which Geely and Renault were hoping for, after signing a letter of intent earlier in the year. Click this Yahoo Finance link for more. FOLLOW UP: JUDGE BLOCKS MUSK PAY PACKAGE AGAINThe appeal by Musk, to be awarded a ridiculous $56 billion pay package, has failed. The judge cited that the many arguments Musk’s legal team used to change the ruling were full of flaws, anyone of which could have led to dismissing the appeal, let alone all of them together. Tesla will appeal. Again. To learn more, do click this link to a TechCrunch article here. NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES FOR NOVEMBER 2024The November new car registration figures were released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), and they’re not great. A 1.9% decline in registrations overall, but BEVs increased again, with over 14,000 extra registrations than for the same month in 2023, amounting to a 25.1% market share for the month. Petrol and diesel fell, as did PHEVs. What will be concerning is that Fleet numbers fell, on top of Private continuing to decline. The SMMT called on the Government to help the industry out as the levels of price cutting and incentives was not sustainable. To read the SMMT post and information, click this link here. AMOnline have an article discussing EV depreciation, which we have discussed many times on this show, that you can read by clicking this link here. For context on why registrations are not increasing at a rate many hoped and expected, click this link to a post about research into the financial well being of UK adults in 2023. TESLA PAUSES CYBERTRUCK PRODUCTIONLast week Tesla paused Cybertruck production, which is on top of reducing hours earlier in the year. They are, for now, back to normal. You can read more, by clicking this Yahoo Finance article link here. OX DELIVERS AFRICAN CONTRACT JOYOX Delivers, which is an electric truck mobility service company, has created a new franchise partner that signed a $163 million agreement to expand their services in Rwanda and some neighbouring countries. Customers can either contract an electric truck including the servicing costs or book space on one of the OX trucks to collect and deliver their products, increasing the reach for businesses. If you want to learn more, click this EV Powered link here. NEW RURAL WALES EV CAR CLUB LAUNCHEDTrydaiNi, a community owned car club, has expanded operations to cover parts of mid Wales (apologies to all Welsh speakers for Andrew’s pronunciations). People can apply to join, once approved are able to book a car to use. We applaud this sort of initiative. We need more of this, as well as improved public transport services. Click this link here to learn more. 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 - Ford Puma Gen-EFord have finally announced a car they should have, when they ended the Fiesta and Focus, an electric Puma. Starting price is just under £30,000 and the specs seem pretty good. If you want to find out more, click this Motoring Research article link here. Cupra TerramarCupra are brining a new SUV to market, with a variety of powertrain train options, from internal combustion engine, to hybrid to plug in hybrid. Power output is also varied. Click this Motoring Research article link to find out more. Lamborghini TemerarioLamborghini has revealed the details of their V8 hybrid supercar, the Temerario. Heaps of power, hugely fast, very Lamborghini. You can read more, by clicking this Motoring Research article link here. LUNCHTIME READ: VIN DIESEL IS RIGHTThe Autopian discusses the highbrow Fast and Furious movie series, agreeing with Vin Diesel’s assertion that when it was about car races and the likes it was much better. Alan puts forward his suggestion for the best of the series, whilst Andrew admits to not watching more than half an hour of the first one before never returning. And do check out the podcast Automovie, who the chaps refer to by clicking this link to their website here. CONFIGURATOR OF THE WEEK: PORSCHE E-MACANThanks to a suggestion from listener Jamie Stokes, when we asked what we could replace the List of the Week as it becomes increasingly more difficult to find ones good enough to include, we now have the Confirgurator of the Week. We bring you the Porsche e-Macan to start this off. Click here to go to the blank configurator. For Alan’s choices, click this link here. For Andrew’s choices, click this link here. AND FINALLY: PHOTOGRAPHER’S TOKYO CAR SPOTSThe Tokyo based photographer, Alfie Goodrich, has captured random cars on his walks around the city and compiled some of them into a small gallery for us to enjoy. Click this link to his website to see more and then check out what other excellent work he does by mooching around the rest of the site.