Tag Archives: plans

News

Nine out of ten councils don’t plan to extend parking bay sizes

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Fewer than 1-in-10 UK councils (8.2%) have plans to extend the dimensions of their parking bays, even supposing automobiles are getting greater – that’s based on information completely obtained by Autocar. 

Data from a Freedom of Information request reveals drivers of bigger automobiles will discover it more and more onerous to park their automobile with out risking punishment if the present pattern of rising automobile dimensions continues. 

Analysing how the sizes of a few of the UK’s hottest fashions have modified since 2018, Autocar in contrast the sizes of a pattern of 27 automobiles offered within the UK. It discovered that they had elevated in size by a median of 97.6mm (3.8 inches). 

The automobile within the pattern which has grown probably the most is the Peugeot 208, which is sort of 580mm (22.8in) longer than it was in 2018. 

The BMW 7 Series has grown practically a foot longer, which means it’s too lengthy for the overwhelming majority of parking areas within the UK.

Standard off-street parking bays measure 2.40 metres broad by 4.80 metres lengthy, and 7 out of the highest 10 best-selling automobile manufacturers within the UK final 12 months produce automobiles that exceed this size.

To make issues worse, 5 UK councils already impose most size restrictions on autos, placing the drivers of many big-selling fashions vulnerable to receiving fines when utilizing council-run amenities. 

Of the 287 councils that responded to Autocar’s request, 1.7% expressly ban automobiles exceeding a selected size, starting from as little as 5.00 metres as much as 5.35 metres. 

That means fashions together with the Tesla Model X, Mercedes S Class and Range Rover are unparkable in council-run amenities in Wokingham, South Hams, and Broadland and South Norfolk.

Since 2018, Autocar discovered that councils have issued greater than 357,000 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) for automobiles parked exterior marked bays since 2018, raking in additional than £8m over this era.

News

Blackstone to purchase Britishvolt battery manufacturing facility web site for big information centre

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Plans initially set out by failed start-up Britishvolt to construct £3.8 billion electric car battery gigafactory within the northeast of England look to have ended after three years.  

The proposed 95-hectare web site for the manufacturing facility is near being offered to US-based Blackstone Group, one of many world’s largest personal fairness companies, which intends to develop the location and construct one of many largest information centres in Europe. 

The determine Blackstone is alleged to have paid for the location has not been publicly disclosed.

News

Tesla pivot threatens to blow a gap within the investor case

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The explosive report detailing plans inside Tesla to cancel its ‘Model 2’ low-cost electrical automotive to concentrate on a robotaxi has blown a gap within the funding case for the agency, as analysts scramble to evaluate what it means long-term.

Much of the case for investing in Tesla – the world’s Most worthy automotive maker, based mostly on its share worth – has come from CEO Elon Musk’s stratospheric progress projections for the agency: as a lot as 20 million vehicles by 2030, up from 1.81m

Smartphones

How Much T-Mobile’s 55+ Plans Cost (And What You Need To Do To Get One)

A complete of three totally different plans make up T-Mobile’s 55+ choices, every with a bigger variety of perks and advantages as the worth goes up. They all promise no-cost 5G entry, embrace Scam Shield protections, and will not restrict discuss, textual content, or information utilization. The lowest-cost choice is the Essentials Choice 55 plan, which has the fewest advantages (and can throttle your information utilization to present precedence to larger tiered accounts); it does solely price $45 each month or $30 per line per thirty days with two to 4 traces), although.

Beyond the fundamentals is the mid-tier Go5G Plus 55 plan, which drops the info throttling and ups the streaming video high quality in addition to permits for cellphone upgrades after two years — in different phrases, customers can commerce of their present cellphone to assist cowl the associated fee to improve to a more recent one after two years have handed. Of course, this additionally means it prices a bit extra, coming in at $70 per thirty days (or $50 per line for 2 or extra).

After that, there’s the top-tier Go5G Next 55 plan at $80 per thirty days ($60 for 2 or extra traces), and it contains just about the entire similar stuff because the Go5G Plus 55 tier. The largest distinction is that the two-year improve choice has been diminished to 6 months, so customers can commerce of their present cellphone towards a brand new mannequin after lower than a 12 months if they need.

News

Report: Tesla Model 2 scrapped in favour of robotaxis

Tesla has scrapped plans for a brand new ‘Model 2’ entry-level electrical automobile, Reuters experiences.

The long-promised new mannequin line, which boss Elon Musk lately prompt may enter manufacturing late subsequent 12 months, was tipped to return to market at lower than £25,000 as a rival to the likes of the Volkswagen ID 2, Renault 5 and MG 4 EV.

Citing three sources accustomed to the matter and inner firm messages, Reuters says the project has been scrapped and the platform that was to underpin the EV will now be used for a line of autonomous robotaxis, produced at a lot decrease volumes.

Tesla refused to remark when approached by Autocar and Musk responded to the report with a submit on his social media platform, X, that learn merely: “Reuters is dying”.

Tesla has lengthy hinted at plans for a cut-price new automobile to sit down beneath the Model 3 saloon and Model Y crossover however has solely given restricted indications of its positioning over the previous few years.

Most lately, the agency launched a shadowy teaser picture of its silhouette, suggesting it will successfully be a downsized tackle the Model 3.

The American agency spoke of formidable plans to promote an astonishing 700 million examples of the automobile, codenamed Project Redwood, over its lifetime.

Tesla’s transfer away from the cheaper finish of the EV market comes at a time when inexpensive Chinese cars, such because the BYD Dolphin, are arriving within the UK. 

Crucial to the Model 2’s viability was a brand new manufacturing course of known as Unboxed, which primarily revolves round lowering the quantity of labor achieved at every stage of the manufacturing line, avoiding any pointless motion or disassembly of the automobile or its parts throughout its journey down the manufacturing line.

For instance, the seats can be mounted on to the underfloor battery pack, with all the unit then raised right into a bodyshell that has been painted in sections to keep away from the necessity for door removing and reinstallation.

Initial manufacturing for the Model 2 was tipped for Germany. The automobile’s platform was considered unrelated to different Teslas.

Reuters suggests this manufacturing course of and the platform to which it applies will as an alternative be deployed for Tesla’s long-mooted autonomous ride-hailing car – which will not be produced in the identical colossal volumes.

It quotes a supply as saying “Elon’s directive is to go all in on Robotaxi”.

Motorsport

GM Thinks Tetris-Shaped Batteries Could Be the Key to Better Cooling

General Motors has plans to function 4 battery crops, with one in Lordstown, Ohio already pumping out cells. With the flexibility to make its personal batteries comes the potential for customized configurations and kind components, one thing the corporate is contemplating taking to the intense. A current patent from GM exhibits batteries not formed like rectangles or cylinders, however Tetris-like blocks meant to accommodate extra environment friendly cooling channels.

The doc is presently simply an software, nevertheless it was printed very just lately in late February, with a current file date as effectively. All of this appears to point it is a new concept out of the automaker that it might have wished to guard rapidly. It begins by saying how battery cells are presently cooled, a minimum of in GM’s case. In vehicles just like the Hummer EV, we all know that is achieved on a module-by-module foundation with a cooling plate on the backside of the cells. In this patent, GM claims this technique can result in uneven cooling, which ends up in untimely battery degradation. As a aspect observe, different corporations use different cooling strategies to fight this phenomenon.  

GM’s concept is to make the cells in a tough “L” or “C” form in order that two cells mixed will go away a number of tunnels between the cells the place a cooling channel could be added. GM even has some uncommon diagonal shapes in there.


Motorsport

Volkswagen Will Reveal its High-Performance ID.Buzz GTX on March 21

Volkswagen introduced on Friday plans to disclose a brand new efficiency automobile throughout its annual press convention taking place March 21. The firm revealed a teaser picture to LinkedIn alongside the announcement exhibiting the headlight silhouette of an ID.Buzz electrical van, suggesting a high-performance model of VW’s people-mover is lower than a month away.

Confirmed for manufacturing at the start of 2023, the ID.Buzz GTX will be a part of the corporate’s different sporty EV choices, the ID.3 GTX and the ID.7 GTX Tourer, in VW’s rising listing of high-performance, zero-emissions autos.

Volkswagen’s been mum on particulars concerning the ID.Buzz GTX, saying solely that it’ll make 335 horsepower due to a dual-motor all-wheel drive system, mirroring output on the ID.7 GTX. We count on different upgrades too, like a stiffer suspension, higher brakes, greater wheels, and a sportier inside.

volkswagen teaser image with head-on shot of id.buzz headlights

The ID.Buzz GTX has been on our radar for months now. An all-white take a look at mule stated to be a prototype for the automotive was spotted by our spy photographers on the street final summer season. Not lengthy after that, it was caught lapping the Nürburgring throughout an trade take a look at pool session. So the timing of this reveal is smart.

It’s unclear proper now whether or not Volkswagen is planning to carry this high-performance ID.Buzz variant to the United States. Neither the ID.3 GTX nor the ID.7 GTX tourer are slated for US consumption, and the traditional ID.Buzz has but to even go on sale Stateside. Moreover, Volkswagen’s electrical GTI has but to be greenlit for the US. With demand for electrical autos waning, a sporty EV van seems like a really area of interest product which may not conjure the demand VW expects. Either method, we might love to present one a go. 

News

Mercedes A-Class lives to 2026 as agency scales again EV-only plans

The Mercedes-Benz A-Class is ready to be produced effectively into 2026, plans to retire the fourth-generation hatchback as quickly as this yr having been cancelled.

News of the transfer comes after Mercedes-Benz confirmed it was abandoning its EV-only stance in favour of what its CEO Ola Källenius describes as a extra “flexible” mannequin technique, below which it can continue to produce ICE models primarily based on current platforms effectively into the subsequent decade.

The agency had been making ready to make its line-up totally electrical by 2030, as a part of a so-called “electric first” technique. However, Källenius has now revealed that its newest research venture PHEVs and EVs will possible make up simply half of its international gross sales by then.

“I don’t think anyone had ever thought that the once-in-a-century transformation of the auto industry will be a straight line. There will be peaks and troughs,” he stated.

Källenius pointed to the continuing worth disparity as one motive for the slower-than-expected take-up of EVs, suggesting they are going to stay dearer than their ICE equivalents for a while.

According to Mercedes’ research, demand for EVs will primarily be within the small and medium automobile segments.

Cost parity between EVs and ICE automobiles “is many years away”, Källenius stated. “You can see that in the pricing.”

In preparation for the continuation of A-Class manufacturing, Mercedes has altered its Rastatt manufacturing plant in Germany to allow it to provide automobiles atop the MFA compact automobile platform and its electric-biased MMA successor. 

The MMA platform has been conceived as a hybrid construction able to accommodating ICE, PHEV and EV drivetrains.

It will first be used for the third-generation CLA compact saloon, the primary prototype for which was accomplished in September final yr, Autocar has realized.

Motorsport

Mate Rimac Shows Behind-The-Scenes Photos Of Bugatti’s New V16 Engine

Bugatti introduced on Thursday morning plans to exchange its flagship quad-turbo W16 engine with a new V16 hybrid powertrain. The firm launched a brief sound clip alongside the announcement teasing what the engine will sound like, and now, because of Bugatti-Rimac CEO Mate Rimac, we’re in a position to take an extended at some behind-the-scenes improvement images of the facility plant.

The Croatian CEO shared a handful of images to Facebook on Thursday afternoon exhibiting improvement of the V16 engine, together with images of the block, the crankshaft, and the pistons.

 

Though the V16 is perhaps information to us, it has been within the works for at the very least 14 months, in line with Rimac. The CEO claims these images had been taken in November 2022, and that the corporate already had operating engines testing on dynos on the time.

“It was very hard to keep quiet about such an amazing development,” Rimac mentioned on Facebook. “And there are many more such surprises waiting with the rest of the car! I am incredibly proud on what the team has managed to pull off and not go crazy with me over the last years.”

 

Aside from the V16 hybrid powertrain, we do not know a lot about Bugatti’s subsequent hypercar. It would be the first fully new product launched by the model since Rimac’s and Porsche’s takeover of Bugatti in 2021, which noticed Rimac take a 55-percent stake, whereas Porsche claimed the remaining 45 %.

With improvement of the V16 thus far alongside, we would not have to attend for much longer to see what kind of automobile it’s going to name house. The inside combustion engine is way from useless. Color us excited.