Leigh Robinson 1948-2022 The Western Group lost a stalwart when Leigh died suddenly at the beginning of April. Leigh was a ‘proper’ journalist as many will know, working his way up through the local press in Northern England before coming south in the 1990s and after...
Whither Geneva? The first week of March has since time immemorial been the date of the Geneva Show, the event which always seemed to herald the new motoring year. But once again and for the third year in succession, the Show has been cancelled. The organisers blamed...
Last month, Daimler Benz announced that it had received authorisation from the federal traffic office to equip its car with level-three automation, effectively hands-free driving. The first appearance of this will be on the new S Class Mercedes due for launch during...
If it has struck you that there seem to be more and more Teslas about, it is not an illusion. According to analysts Jato Dynamics, in September the Tesla Model 3 was Europe’s best-selling car, with 24,571 cars sold. In second place was the Renault Clio at 18,268 and...
Electric cars are slowly improving, a development that some members of the WG recently were able to ascertain for themselves driving Honda’s new battery entry to the European market, the E. But while their manufacturers energetically promote them, electric cars remain...
While the pandemic with its daily statistics and intermittent lockdowns has naturally dominated the news for a year-and-a-half, other matters of interest, not to say concern, have often been overlooked. A case in point is the rise and rise of urban clean air zones,...
Robert Opron whose memorable designs included the Citroën Maserati and the Alfa Romeo SZ has died aged 89. Born in Amiens, he was unable to complete his ambition to become an architect because of a bout of tuberculosis which confined him in a sanatorium for two years....
The recent Evergreen affair underlines just how much the motor industry is at the mercy of supply chains over which it has little control. The Suez Canal bottleneck will probably result in some shipments arriving three-to four-weeks late and for car manufacturers it...
JLR figured large in the UK business pages last month with the announcement that from 2025 the company would build only EVs. The man delivering this news was JLR’s new CEO Thierry Bolloré, who until October 2019 was CEO at Renault, no stranger to electric cars. Also...
I learned to drive, or at least did most of my practicing in my mother’s HA Viva, but the car that, fifty years on, really stays with me is the Triumph Herald. A light blue 1966 saloon was the car I did my six instructor lessons in and in which I passed my test. I...
The big surprise about BMW’s press announcement last month was not its new iX, but that a battery-powered SUV had taken so long to emerge from Munich. It is easy to forget, but with the i3 launched in 2013, BMW was one of the first major manufacturers to produce an...
Whither the UK motor industry? SMMT car registration data shows that for January to June 2020, new car registrations were half the corresponding figure for the first half of 2019, and if June 2020 improved to 65% of the 2019 level, this is certainly the very best hope...
The motor industry has been dealing with exhaust waste since the 1970s but another issue is now rolling into view. The catalytic converter which largely took care of hydrocarbon emissions also obliged refineries to remove lead, a known toxin, from petrol. Used as an...
Electric cars are a subject on which most people have an opinion, but not always founded on facts so it was interesting recently to hear the views of a specialist: Jon Hunt is manager of Alternative Fuels at Toyota. Toyota is the world’s sixth largest manufacturer by...
As we pass mid 2019, the car manufacturing scene in Europe presents mixed messages. Ford announced the closure of its Bridgend plant, grim news, but not entirely unexpected. The contract to make petrol engines for JLR is running out and on the continent other...
For some time the car industry has been focused on electric traction. This is particularly so with European manufacturers who have long been under political pressure to reduce levels of CO2. European makes have also had to contend in short order with the demands of...
