Tag: auto news

Boxing champ Nicola’s knockout new motor

Gareth Herincx

4 hours ago
Auto News

Polestar and Nicola Adams in new partnership

Double Olympic gold medallist Nicola Adams and Swedish electric performance car brand Polestar have announced an official partnership.

The 39-year-old’s first Polestar experience was at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed during a passenger ride up the famous hill climb in an experimental version of the 100% electric Polestar 2.

Now, as a member of the Polestar family, Nicola’s taken delivery of a Polestar 2 Long range Dual motor. The 100% electric performance fastback is capable of travelling up to 299 miles on a single charge and accelerating from 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds.

Nicola-Adams-drives-her-new-Polestar-2

The partnership cements Polestar’s focus on performance, while bringing sustainable personal mobility to a new audience via the retired boxer’s following.

Nicola recently launched her own documentary film, Lioness, which tracks her inspirational journey to becoming the first female Olympic boxing champion. A common theme in the film is the sexism she faced as a young female athlete.

Polestar hopes the partnership “will foster further opportunities to stand together for a more sustainable, equitable and innovative future”.

“I am passionate about making sustainable choices and doing my bit to help the environment and tackle climate change, starting with what I’m driving,” said the former Strictly Come Dancing star.

“Being 100% electric, the Polestar 2 ticks that box perfectly. It also doesn’t hurt that the design is sleek, it features the latest tech such as Google Assistant, and it’s the perfect size for myself, Ella and our dog.”

The equal rights champion added: “I am so excited about this partnership, hopefully it will inspire more people to go electric.”

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Lotus-Elise-Exige-and-Evora-productions ends

End of an era at Lotus

Production of the Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora sports cars has ended in readiness for …

Porsche Taycan revealed as new Formula E safety car

Home / Auto News / Porsche Taycan revealed as new Formula E safety car

Gareth Herincx

2 days ago
Auto News

PORSCHE TAYCAN REVEALED AS NEW FORMULA E SAFETY CAR

Porsche’s first all-electric sports car is the new safety car in the innovative electric racing series, Formula E.

The vehicle will celebrate its racetrack debut at the opening round of the new season on January 28-29 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

Designed to be more than just the Formula E safety car, the striking Porsche Taycan Turbo S samples the liveries of all 11 teams competing in the championship, as well as the colours of the FIA and Formula E, while the number 22 acknowledges the performance of the 22 drivers contesting the series this season.

PORSCHE TAYCAN REVEALED AS NEW FORMULA E SAFETY CAR

“We’re proud that Formula E has entrusted a Porsche with this task – one that is important for the safety of its drivers,” says Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport.

“With the Taycan Turbo S as the official safety car, we’re making an important contribution to track safety and also underlining the importance of Formula E for Porsche Motorsport.”

The conversion of the Porsche Taycan Turbo S into a safety car required the installation of a roll cage and racing bucket seats with six-point seatbelts as well as wire harnesses for the safety car lighting and the Marelli Logger System. Flashing lights were integrated into the bumpers.

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Gareth is a versatile journalist, copywriter and digital editor who’s worked across the media in newspapers, magazines, TV, teletext, radio and online. After long stints at the BBC, GMTV and ITV, he now specialises in motoring.

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Lotus-Elise-Exige-and-Evora-productions ends

End of an era at Lotus

Production of the Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora sports cars has ended in readiness for …

Britain’s bestselling cars of 2021

Home / Auto News / Britain’s bestselling cars of 2021

Gareth Herincx

2 days ago
Auto News

The final figures are in and the Vauxhall Corsa was the the UK’s most popular car in 2021, deposing the Ford Fiesta after 12 consecutive years at the top of the charts.

Not only is the Corsa available with a choice of petrol and diesel engines, but there’s also an affordable pure electric version (badged Corsa-e) with a range of up to 209 miles.

Latest data from the SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) showed that 305,000 plug-in vehicles (electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids) were sold last year, accounting for 18.6% of overall market share.

Electric vehicles accounted for 11.6% of the market, or 190,727 cars, meaning that more EVs were registered last year than over the previous five years combined, with the Tesla Model 3 leading the charge.

The overall UK car market only improved fractionally, thanks to the global semiconductor shortage and COVID. In 2020, 1.63 million cars were sold, while in 2021 it was 1.65 million.

  1. Vauxhall Corsa
    2021 registrations: 40,914
    2020 ranking: 2nd (up 1 place)
  2. Tesla Model 3
    2021 registrations: 34,783
    2020 ranking: 14th (up 12 places)
  3. MINI Hatch
    2021 registrations: 31,792
    2020 ranking: 7th (up 4 places)
  4. Mercedes-Benz A-Class
    2021 registrations: 30,710
    2020 ranking: 5th (up 1 place)
  5. Volkswagen Polo
    2021 registrations: 30,634
    2020 ranking: 8th (up 3 places)
  6. Volkswagen Golf
    2021 registrations: 30,240
    2020 ranking: 3rd (down 3 places)
  7. Nissan Qashqai
    2021 registrations: 29,992
    2020 ranking: 6th (down 1 place)
  8. Ford Puma
    2021 registrations: 28,697
    2020 ranking: 9th (up 1 place)
  9. Kia Sportage
    2021 registrations: 27,611
    2020 ranking: 16th (up 7 places)
  10. Toyota Yaris
    2021 registrations: 27,415
    2020 ranking: 15th (up 5 places)

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Gareth is a versatile journalist, copywriter and digital editor who’s worked across the media in newspapers, magazines, TV, teletext, radio and online. After long stints at the BBC, GMTV and ITV, he now specialises in motoring.

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Zap-Map reveals UK’s best electric vehicle charge point networks

Revealed: UK’s best electric vehicle charge point networks

Zap-Map, the UK’s leading electric vehicle mapping service, has released its annual public charging network …

Hotspots for car theft across England and Wales

Gareth Herincx

3 days ago
Auto News

Car crime vehicle theft

New research has revealed the regions in England and Wales that see the most – and least – vehicle thefts.

Car insurance experts at Uswitch analysed how car thefts have changed over the last five years by analysing ONS crime and vehicle theft statistics, to reveal the regions with the highest rate of vehicle thefts.

London has the highest rate of vehicle crimes per head with 113.0 reported per 10,000 people.

The West Midlands have the second-highest rate of vehicle crime in England and Wales, with 87.0 crimes per 10,000 people in the area, whilst Greater Manchester places third, with 79.6 reported crimes per 10,000 people.

10 police areas with the highest rate of vehicle crime in England & Wales 

Rank Area  Population (2019) No. Offences to March 21 Vehicle Crime Rate per 10,000
1 London (Metropolitan Police) 8,952,300 101,131 113.0
2 West Midlands 2,928,600 25,470 87.0
3 Greater Manchester 2,835,700 22,568 79.6
4 Bedfordshire 675,000 5,079 75.2
5 South Yorkshire 1,409,000 10,266 72.9
6 Hertfordshire 1,189,500 6,959 58.5
7 Essex 1,846,700 10,392 56.3
8 West Yorkshire 2,332,500 13,086 56.1
9 Warwickshire 577,900 3,210 55.5
10 Northamptonshire 753,300 4,134 54.9

Meanwhile, the area covering the Welsh regions of Dyfed and Powys has the lowest rate of vehicle crime in the country, standing at 12.1 crimes per 10,000 people.

Regions in England and Wales that see the lowest rate of vehicle theft

Rank Area Population (2019) No. Offences to March 21 Vehicle Crime Rate per 10,000
1 Dyfed-Powys 519,700 628 12.1
2 Cumbria 500,000 704 14.1
3 North Wales 699,600 1,061 15.2
4 Devon and Cornwall 1,772,500 3,107 17.5
5 North Yorkshire 828,700 1,534 18.5

The Uswitch study also revealed that from 2016 to 2021, national vehicle crime numbers fell by 8.70% from 365,037 to 336,650.

North Wales has seen the biggest reduction in vehicle crime in the last 5 years, with the number of offences falling by 48.3% to 1,061 in the year to March 2021.

The Metropolitan Police saw the biggest increase in vehicle crime anywhere in the country, with numbers rising by as much as 22.1%.

Since Covid-19, vehicle crime has reduced nationwide by 27.13% with over 100,000 fewer crimes being recorded during the first year of the pandemic.

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Zap-Map reveals UK’s best electric vehicle charge point networks

Revealed: UK’s best electric vehicle charge point networks

Zap-Map, the UK’s leading electric vehicle mapping service, has released its annual public charging network …

End of an era at Lotus

Production of the Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora sports cars has ended in readiness for the ramping up production of the all-new Emira – the brand’s last petrol-powered car.

Between these three model lines and over the course of 26 years, a total of 51,738 cars will have come off the production line at Hethel in Norfolk.

Combined, they represent almost half of the total production of Lotus in its 73-year history.

In addition, 9,715 sports cars were built on the assembly lines for Lotus’s third-party clients, including GM and Tesla.

From 1996 to 2000, the first-generation Elise and Exige sports cars were built in a small assembly hall at Hethel alongside the Lotus Esprit.

The current assembly lines, which were installed in 2000, will be dismantled and replaced with all-new state-of-the-art facilities in support of the all-new Emira factory.

Full Emira production begins in the spring, after the prototype and test phases currently underway are completed, taking Lotus sports car production into an exciting, high-tech and semi-automated era, and increasing capacity up to 5,000 cars per year on a single shift pattern.

The last examples of the Elise, Exige and Evora models are reserved for Lotus’ growing heritage collection.

Joining the collection will be the last Elise, a Sport 240 Final Edition finished in Yellow and the last of 35,124 cars; the last Exige, a Cup 430 Final Edition in Heritage Racing Green – number 10,497; and the last Evora – a GT430 Sport finished in Dark Metallic Grey – the last of a production run of 6,117.

The Elise and Exige sports cars are built around the Lotus ‘small car platform’. On the same platform, and also manufactured by Lotus at Hethel were the Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220 (7,200 cars built between 2000 and 2005) and the Tesla Roadster (2,515 cars built between 2007 and 2012).

When the Lotus 340R, Europa, 2-Eleven and 3-Eleven cars are included, this brings the total Lotus small car platform production volumes to 56,618 cars.

Next out of the Lotus stable will be the Evija electric hypercar, followed by Lotus’s first SUV, which will be revealed to the world in the spring.