Motoring Podcast - News Show

Motoring Podcast
Motoring Podcast - News Show

Motoring enthusiasts Alan and Andrew discuss their takes on the week's motoring news in this 45 to 60 minute audio podcast.

  1. 6 DAYS AGO

    Unsell the idea - 29 October 2024

    FOLLOW UP: VW CONSIDERS RADICAL COST SAVING PLANSInformation has come out as to the extent that Volkswagen Group are considering how to save the $4 billion they state they need to. This includes closing up to three German plants, reducing wages, reducing bonuses and more. Unions have reacted angrily whilst VW has not commented on the claims. To find out more, click this Reuters link here. FOLLOW UP: JLR STILL HAVING REPAIR ISSUESA year ago the CEO of JLR, Adrian Mardell, apologised for how long it was taking to repair their customer’s vehicles. This situation is still not resolved. Problems with their supply chain, which not all are their fault, as well as the supply hub they switched to has meant that around 10,000 customer cars are off the road. Click this Autocar article to read more. RADFORD MOTORS FILES FOR CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCYThe car company co-founded by Jenson Button, Ant Antsted and Dan Bednarski, to build a low volume supercar based on a modern interpretation of the Lotus Type 62, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. This is a debt restructuring move and does not mean the company is folding. There are also two court cases being brought against Ansted and Bednarski over financial matters related to the company. In order to find out more, click this Road & Track article link here. CHINA DEPORTS VW EXEC OVER DRUG ALLEGATIONSChina has deported a senior Volkswagen executive, Jochen Sengphiehl, over claims he failed a recreational drug test. He was held by authorities for 10 days before the action was taken. Many questions come from this, is it real or China flexing? You can read more, by clicking this Reuters article link here. RIVIAN AND BOSCH TAKE EACH OTHER TO COURT Bosch has sued Rivian for breach of contract, which caused Rivian to counter sue. Rivian cancelled their contract for electric drivetrains from the supplier as they will use their own in-house developed ones. Bosch are, understandably, unhappy at the loss of business, whilst Rivian state that this issue is why they did not deliver as many cars as expected previously. Click this electrive link to find out more. NEW PHEV BATTERY GIVES CLAIMED 249 MILE RANGECATL has released information on a plug-in hybrid battery, that gives a claimed electric only range of 249 miles. This has the chaps confused. Why is it PHEV only? Sounds almost too good to be true, but is it? What are Alan and Andrew missing? You can read more on this, by clicking this Autocar article link here. STELLANTIS TO ROAD TEST SOLID STATE BATTERIES IN 2026Stellantis are the latest company to announce when they will be road testing their solid state batteries. Using a fleet of Dodge Charger Daytonas, for some reason, they will be trying them out on the roads in 2026. To read more on this, including the list of others who have claimed they will have...

    36 min
  2. OCT 23

    HR dependant - 22 October 2024

    FOLLOW UP: TESLA STILL HIT BY SWEDISH STRIKESIn Sweden, the strikes by various workers from a variety of industries that serve parts of Tesla’s business has expanded to include the union Vision. Those that work on the Tesla Supercharger network will no longer service, repair or run maintenance on the charging stations. To learn more, click this Automotive News Europe article link here. STELLANTIS TO SHAKE UP UK BUSINESSCarlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis and wielder of the big hammer affectionately named “cuts”, has said there will be an announcement in the next few weeks for the “correction” they will be making to the UK business. In recent months the company has threatened the UK Government, as seems to be their Plan A in all countries, with closing production plants. The main bugbear is the ZEV mandate and, in the company’s eyes, a lack of financial support from the Government. Click this Autocar article to read more. STELLANTIS UK GET A NEW MD AFTER SURPRISE EXITMario Gazia Davino has made the shock move of leaving the company with immediate effect. Peugeot UK’s new director has been promoted to run the UK operation for Stellantis, and also Peugeot until a successor can be found. There is a lot of upheaval and changes of personnel within the company, both in the UK and Europe, in recent times. If you wish to read more on this, click here for an article from Auto Retail Network. VW FINANCE HIT WITH FINE BY UK REGULATORVolkswagen Financial Service, one of the largest car finance operators in the UK, has been fined for failing to fairly treat customers in financial distress. The time period in question is January 2017 and July 2023 and covers around 110,000 customers. On top of the £5.4 million fine, the company has agreed to pay compensation in the order of £21.5 million to customers who suffered harm. In order to find out more, click this AMOnline article link here. JLR APPOINTS NEW SALES DIRECTOR JLR has appointed Angela Shepherd, as the group’s new sales director to help it transition to the luxury market. JLR are trying to move to a hybrid dealer and agency model. Click this AMOnline article link to learn more. VOLVO SHAKE UP MANAGEMENT STRUCTUREIn an attempt to create a company that is “designed to increase simplicity, speed and collaboration and reduce complexity by flattening our structure”. The most senior person to be impacted by this is the Chief Commercial Officer and deputy to the CEO, Björn Annwal. To read more on this matter, click here for an electrive article link. MASERATI UK APPOINTS NEW BOSSPeter Charters has left Maserati with immediate effect and has been replaced by Mariangela Del Vecchio. She will also be looking after Scandinavian operations. You can read more, a href="https://www.am-online.com/news/maserati-appoints-new-uk-boss-to-replace-peter-charters" rel="noopener...

    49 min
  3. OCT 16

    The Old Bait And Switch - 15 October 2024

    FOLLOW UP: EU vs Chinese EVsThe European Commission has approved tariffs on Chinese EVs. There are a number of stories behind this: European Commission Approves Tariffs On Chinese EVS - AutocarEU Rejects Chna’s Proposal for €30,000 minimum price - electrive.comWhy EU rejected China's compromise on EV tariffs - Automotive News EuropeJLR encourages further talks in plea to avoid EU-China tariff war - AutocarEU-China EV dispute: Beijing retaliates with levy on French brandy - Automotive News Europe FOLLOW UP: DIESELGATE - Winterkorn’s Trial Moved AGainThe trial for ex. Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn, has been delayed due to his current ill health. A new timeline is being planned and will be announced in due course. Click this Automotive News Europe article for more. FOLLOW UP: FIAT 500E PRODUCTION PAUSED FOR LONGERFiat has announced that the current pause in production of the 500e will continue for longer, which the company claims is down to the low demand for EVs. Or is it the reduced demand for the 500e? To read more on this, click here for an Autocar article. SEPTEMBER NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURESSMMT has released the new car registration figures for September. The overall figures are still down significantly on the Before Times, pre-Covid. There has been a lot of things said and written about these which require more than surface level analysis that has occurred. EV numbers were once again good. But the SMMT is leaning heavily into calling for Government assistance for Private consumers. Which rather counters all the claims that cost is not a driving factor in the growth of EVs not being as fast and large as many expected and hoped. If you wish to learn more, click this SMMT link here. You can also see more on the industry’s calls for help, click this link from The Guardian. SEVERAL COMPANIES ISSUE PROFIT WARNINGS In the past few weeks several car brands have issued warnings on their expected profits. Mercedes, Stellantis, Aston Martin, BMW and Volkswagen for a second time. More can be found on all of that by clicking this Reuters article link here. CARLOS TAVARES TO...

    40 min
  4. OCT 2

    Awfully appealing - 1 October 2024

    FOLLOW UP: GHOSN ORDERED TO RETURN YATCH Carlos Ghosn has lost his appeal over the ruling that he must return his luxury yacht and repay approximately $32 million, to Nissan. This could prove tricky as he is in Lebanon and due to geopolitical issues, it may be tricky to send someone to go pick it up. To learn more, click this article link from The Autopian. JLR INVESTS £500M IN HALEWOOD PLANTIn order to build hybrid vehicles and prepare for their electric future, JLR are updating the Halewood plant to the tune of £500 million. They will also be able to build combustion engined vehicles at the same facility. Click this article link to The Guardian. NISSAN BUYS MORE SHARES BACK FROM RENAULTNissan is buying another 5% of shares back from Renault as the Rebel Alliance continues to dissolve. Estimated to be worth around $551 million which will help Renault’s finances. If you wish to learn more, click this article link from Automotive News Europe. UK GOVERNMENT HAS NO PLANS FOR PAY-PER-MILE CHARGE YETIn a surprise move, the UK Government has confirmed that it will not be announcing a pay-per-mile charging scheme, which many expected as a replacement for fuel duty and VED. That is not to say it isn’t going to happen at some stage. Click here to read more from Top Gear. KIA DEALER PORTAL VULNERABILITY FOUNDSecurity researchers found a flaw in the Kia dealer portal which allowed them to take remote control of vehicles, find their location, examine details of customers and more using only the license plate information. This was reported to Kia who have fixed the issue and confirm no one maliciously accessed their systems via this method. To read more on this, click here for the Bleeping Computer article. LUXURY VEHICLES STILL GETTING TO RUSSIASky News has followed up an earlier investigation and found that luxury vehicles, including those from British manufacturers, are finding their way to Russian customers via other countries. We are not sure what the car brands can do to prevent this, as it is not from them directly. If you want to see what is going on, click this link here to read more. POLESTAR ANNOUNCE INFOSYS AS SOFTWARE PARTNERPolestar is going to partner up with Infosys, the Indian IT giant, for their infotainment, driver assistance and connected services software. We REALLY hope Polestar has the people to check and tripple check the software that is produced. We are not confident this will be a good move. You can read more by clicking this article link from The Register. 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 a...

    33 min
  5. SEP 18

    Bears exist - 17 September 2024

    FOLLOW UP: BWM DOWNGRADES OUTLOOKOn the back of the news that the BMW brake recall has expanded, which we covered last week, BMW has announced that they have cut their projected outlook for 2024 due to the costs incurred by the issue of the Continental supplied part. On top of that, reports are now surfacing that they were first informed of the issue in June 2022. To read more, click this link to an AMOnline story. TOYOTA SOLID STATE BATTERY PLANS APPROVED Toyota has announced that it will begin production of solid state batteries in 2026, with mass production to begin in 2030. Have they actually cracked? If you wish to read more, click this InsideEVs article link here. MERCEDES AND SUPPLIER DEVELOPING SOLID STATE BATTERYMercedes-Benz and Factorial have announced plans that they are developing a solid state battery, but with no confirmation on a date when these might come to market or be fitted to cars. Click here to read more, via a Reuters article link. MG TO SELL SOLID STATE BATTERY CAR IN 2025Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), the company that owns MG amongst other brands, has announced that it will reveal their solid state battery in the second quarter of 2025. They then expect to start selling cars fitted with them by the end of the same year. To learn more, click this Autocar article link here. TOYOTA REDUCES EV TARGETSToyota is the latest car maker to lower their production targets for electric cars. They are moving from 1.5 million to 1 million EVs produced, in 2026. Whilst that looks dramatic, it is not as dramatic as the jump from now. If you want to read more, click this electrive article link here. VOLVO SUBSCRIPTION BUSINESS TO ENDVolvo has announced that it will be shutting down their car subscription offering. The system covered all costs except insurance and fuel. Whilst this has not worked for Volvo, or not well enough, others in the industry still think it is a viable business model and something consumers want. To find out more, click this AMOnline article link here. FORD PATENTS COME TO LIGHTFord has submitted patents that are invasive of personal space and information to just a bit silly. We have to remember that patents often don’t make it to market and we can hope some of those unearthed don’t. One is to use in-cabin microphones to monitor conversations, combined with predicting the trip intention and historical data to “serve” you adverts, both visually and through the speakers. Yep, we’re more than appalled at that, just like you. Click this link from The Record, to read more on this. The other one that raised an eyebrow, is for ‘Smart Vehicle Holograms’ that will, apparently, do a whole host of things from project security guards and dogs patrolling around a car, to

    48 min
4.9
out of 5
10 Ratings

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Motoring enthusiasts Alan and Andrew discuss their takes on the week's motoring news in this 45 to 60 minute audio podcast.

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