Continental, the automotive parts supplier, has been fined €100 million for its part in the dieselgate scandal. The fine was such due to the full cooperation of the company and changes they have subsequently made to their compliance structures. There are six weeks for Continental to pay the fine. Click this Reuters article for more information.

Carlos Tavares criticises the current UK EV mandates as “terrible”. He has met with the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, to discuss the situation and suggest alterations that will make it more workable for the industry. We are finding out that you cannot just manufacture demand, when reviewing the monthly SMMT registration figures. You can read more, via a Peter Campbell thread here. For another article, click here to view an Autocar article.

Mike Johnson, who is the chief commercial officer of Lotus and the public facing executive for the brand, will be leaving the company after only 18 months in role. He is said to be staying in automotive, but we will have to wait to find out where and when. If you wish to read more on this, click the Autocar article link here.

A ransomware attack on Leicester City Council has led street lights to “misbehave”. This should cause great concern as more and more systems are linked and accessible remotely. Hopefully, more important and safety critical systems are being looked at across the country so there is not a serious impact from such incidents. Click this BitDefender story link here, to read more.

Mercedes-Benz are preparing for the Megawatt Charging System (MCS), that is due to be finalised in 2025, and have successfully charged an eActros 600 prototype at 1MW for the first time. Not details were given on how long the vehicle charged or even how long at 1MW. You can read more, by clicking this electrive article link here.

At the 37th Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exposition, in Seoul, Samsung revealed that they will start production of a new electric vehicle batteries that will charge to 80% in nine minutes and some will last 20 years. The plan is for production to start in 2026, but it being fitted to cars in 2029. That’s all a little way off, hopefully this isn’t like solid state batteries and just far enough ahead for us to forget the last date that was declared. Click this article link from The Register for more.

Ken Skates, the Welsh Government Transport Secretary, has announced that some of the road limits recently changed from 30mph to 20mph, will now revert back to the original limit. This is an acknowledgement that the implementation of the reduced road speeds has not been as carefully executed as should have occured. If you wish to learn more about this story, click this BBC News article link here.

The UK Government has reiterated that it will not be providing incentives for private buyers seeking an EV. This follows calls from the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee’s Electric Vehicles report, which recommended several actions. Click this Autocar article link, to read more.

Tesla have decided to step up to the plate of not having the best week imaginable. Firstly, they announced the sacking of over 10% of the global workforce, as one step to deal with their declining sales. You can learn more about that, by clicking this Reuters article link here.

Secondly, the company has quickly recalled all Cybertrucks following the news that the accelerator pedal cover can become loose and potentially cause the pedal to be jammed down. We applaud Tesla for quickly reacting to this news, though. To read more, click this article link from The Verge.

Finally, the company announced a new raft of price cuts to it’s models. Reminding all fleet operators why they will not be buying Teslas in the future, where dependency on value is a must. Click this article link from The Guardian for more.

Now that JLR can get its hands on parts, once again, it has increased its sales in 2023 by 22%. Much of that was from the Defender, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. However, there is also good news for Jaguar as its sales are up too. If you wish to find out more, click this Autocar article link here.

JLR, in partnership with Alley Energy, has revealed their portable Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) which incorporates used PHEV batteries from Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports. Click this press release from JLR to learn more, including how they propose to use it.

For the first time, the US car workers union, UAW, has been voted for by workers in Tennessee at a Volkswagen plant. The south of America has attracted manufacturing plants due to previous anti union sentiments, but this seems to be changing. You can find out more, by clicking this article link from The Autopian.

A former supplier to Volkswagen,...

A report is claiming that BYD has received $3.7 billion, in funding from the Chinese Government, to help it to reach its dominating position. This is all part of the EU’s investigation into whether companies from the country have an unfair advantage thanks to state aid. Click this Yahoo Finance article link for more information.

The site of the ill-fated Britishvolt battery factory is to be sold by the local council, to a company that wishes to create a data centre, after the new ‘owners’ Recharge Industries, have still failed to pay the monies owning. If you wish to learn more, click this BBC News article link here.

Two reports from the European Court of Auditors have shown that the testing regime, WLTP, results, do not come close to real-world usage on the public roads. Other conclusions have also been inferred by the investigation, however we would urge caution as not enough detail has been provided in how the data was calculated and if that was correct or even valid. But, there are now calls for the system to change, once again, at a time when the car industry is under enormous pressure from multiple vectors. You can read more, by clicking this Autocar article link here.

Lotus announced losses for 2023, of £594 million. Whilst this does sound a lot and quite scary, we must all remember the transformation that is undergoing the company right now. They are fundamentally changing how they do things and the cars they produce in an incredibly short period of time. For more detail, click this Autocar article link here.

Stellantis, and in particular their CEO Carlos Taveres, had quite the last seven or so days. First off there was the public spat about the Italian Government trying to cosy up to foreign car companies, to encourage more manufacturing jobs in the country, which Taveres warned over such moves. You can read more, by clicking this link to a Reuters article.

That’s not all though, Taveres then had to fend off questions over which brand or brands the Stellantis Group were going to ditch. He refuted these claims as “fake news”. Click this Autocar article link for more.

You’ll have to wait till New New Car News for the third piece of Stellantis news.

Volkswagen has announced that it will be investing $2.7 billion in a Chinese manufacturing site. This is quite odd, as only recently the “roof is on fire” speech from their CEO and huge cost-cutting efforts across the group. On top of which, there is ever...