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The Government has launched a consultation on creating a road crash investigation team as self-driving technologies become more prevalent.

The aim of the new Road Collision Investigation Branch (RCIB) would be to learn lessons from road traffic collisions, including those involving self-driving vehicles.

The RCIB would operate much like the similar independent bodies that already exist for air, maritime and rail accidents.

It would carry out thematic investigations and probe specific incidents of concern to establish the causes of collisions and make independent safety recommendations to help further improve road safety across the country.

Roads Minister Baroness Vere said: “The UK’s roads are among the safest in the world, but we’re always looking at ways to make them even safer.

“A new investigation branch would play a huge role in this work by identifying the underlying causes of road traffic collisions, so we can take action to prevent them from happening again.

“It would also provide us with vital insight as we continue to modernise our road network to ensure better, greener and safer journeys.”

The Department for Transport (DfT) consultation on proposals to set up a Road Collision Investigation Branch (RCIB), is being launched now due to the huge developments which are taking place across the transport sector, such as the rollout of increasingly automated and electric vehicles (EVs), it says.

Director of the RAC Foundation Steve Gooding said: “After excellent progress across many years, sustained road safety improvement has been hard to achieve over the past decade, both in the UK and further afield.

“We should be challenging ourselves on whether we are understanding all we can about the causes of road collisions and what could be done to prevent them – our research to date suggests that more could be learnt – which is why today’s consultation is so important and so welcome.”

Jason Wakeford, head of campaigns at the road safety charity Brake also welcomed the move. He said: “Currently, information about the perceived cause of a road crash is recorded by police at the time of a collision, but only provides basic insights which simply are not adequate to properly investigate and determine the most effective countermeasures to tackle future road casualties.

“Brake has long advocated for an independent agency to provide the necessary evidence to learn from crashes and so we applaud the Department for Transport for launching today’s consultation.”

The consultation will run until December 9, 2021.By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

A freedom of information request has revealed that 52% of UK councils made no investment in electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure last year.

While some parts of the country have made sizable investments in EV infrastructure, others have spent nothing, and/or received no government funding to do so.

The findings are presented in a new report from DevicePilot, which argues that the UK is not yet ready for the inevitable arrival of universal EV ownership.

“Universal EV ownership is not a target, it’s an inevitability,” said Pilgrim Beart, DevicePilot CEO and co-founder.

“In the next ten years, more than half the cars on the road will be electric. To facilitate this transformation, the UK must install tens of thousands of chargepoints reaching every corner of the country.

“EVs are vital to the UK’s carbon emissions targets, but while some parts of the UK are on schedule to meet greater EV demands, others areas lack the funding to do anything whatsoever.

“I have a lot of sympathy for councils whose budgets have been stretched to breaking point by the pandemic and budget cuts, but we cannot continue to let the divide between the EV haves and have nots grow further. It should be the UK’s short-term goal to ensure everyone in the country can reap the benefits of EVs, not just the privileged few.”

The report reveals that nearly two thirds of UK councils (60%) received complaints about the availability, reliability or number of charging points over the last 12 months.

It also highlghts that, on average, UK councils received 15% less funding from the Government for EV charging infrastructure in the last 12 months compared to the same period in 2020.

London councils spent more than double the national average on EV charging in 2021 (£204k) and are planning to install 39 new chargers per 100,000 people in 2022, compared to a national average of just nine per 100,000 people.

Nearly half of councils (46%) reported that they don’t know how many chargepoints they will install in 2022, or are planning to install zero

On average, councils are planning to install 52 charging points in their area by the end of 2022 (up from 28 in 2021). The average cost of a council-bought chargepoint in the UK is £6,000.  By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

Cazoo saw its total loss deepen massively last year to £102.7m from £18m in 2019, its latest accounts show.

The online retailer’s financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2020 – just published on Companies House – show that its total comprehensive loss was £102.687m versus £17.964m in 2019.

Meanwhile, its adjusted EBITDA went from minus £16.7m to minus £81.2m, while revenue rose from £1.2m to £162.2m over the same period.

It made a gross loss per unit of £229 in 2020, which was a big improvement on the £9,883 it lost per vehicle the year before.

However, it emphasised that the difference was because it only started in December 2019, meaning there was just one month of post-launch sales for that year against purchases ahead of the launch.

Cazoo sold 107 vehicles in the last month of 2019, whereas it shifted 12,097 during the whole of 2020.

It added: ‘The decrease in gross loss per unit in 2020 was primarily due to a significant increase in retail units sold, refurbishment efficiencies, reducing days to sale and growing ancillary services.’

The accounts and accompanying reports were published under the name of Cazoo Holdings Ltd and were said to be for its subsidiaries as well, aka Cazoo. It’s the first time that consolidated statements have been issued for Cazoo.

Over the year, Cazoo bought Imperial Car Supermarkets for £26.9m in July 2020 and closed it as a business in October of that year.

The purchase gave it leasehold and freehold sites to accelerate the roll-out of its customer centres, from where cars can be collected.

Since the end of the reporting period, it has bought subscription services Drover in the UK for £58.8m and Cluno in Germany for £60.4m.

It has also brought the refurbishment of vehicles in-house by acquiring Smart Fleet Solutions for £23.1m plus £15.9m of its freehold property, as well as SMH Fleet Solutions – which also carries out vehicle movements – for some £70m, and bought Cazana for £25m.

In addition, it floated on the New York Stock Exchange following a business combination with special purpose acquisition company Ajax I – the new holding company is based in the Cayman Islands.

Cazoo has also agreed to buy Vans365 for £6.5m, subject to FCA approval.

Average monthly unique users of its website for 2020 was 763,000 versus 195,000 in 2019, it said, attributing the rise to marketing investment and better brand recognition.

As of December 31, 2020, its total assets stood at £507.7m, versus £106.7m in 2019, thanks to two funding rounds of, respectively, £125.1m and £231.6m. By Graham Hill thanks to Car Dealer Magazine

Four of the world’s biggest carmakers have failed to sign a COP 26 summit pledge to only sell zero emissions cars and vans by 2035.

Volkswagen, Toyota, Renault-Nissan and Hyundai-Kia were not among signatories to the climate summit declaration.

China and US, which are the world’s biggest car markets, were also absent from the list of signatories.

Big car manufacturers that did sign up included Ford, General Motors, and Jaguar Land Rover.

What did the pledge say?

The declaration, which was made at the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow, called on signatories to speed up the global transition from cars that burn fossil fuels to zero emissions vehicles, which include electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

The agreement signed by governments and city authorities across the world commits signatories to ending the sale of new cars that produce emissions in “leading markets” by 2035, and globally by 2040.

Investors and banks said they would support the transition, and some fleet owners pledged to make their car and van fleets green.

Who signed up the list?

Some major carmakers were signatories, including Ford, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo.

Governments that signed up included Canada, Denmark, India, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the UK – although Britain has already said it will ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.

Some US cities and states put their names to the list, including New York and California.

Investors including Aviva and NatWest, and fleet owners including supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Tesco also signed up.

Who was absent from the list?

While some parts of the US such as Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City signed up, the US itself, which is the biggest car market, remained off the list.

China, which is the second-largest car market, was also absent. Germany, the largest car market in the EU, did not sign up.

The world’s largest car manufacturers, VW and Toyota, were not on the list, alongside rival car giants Renault-Nissan and Hyundai-Kia.

Volkswagen, which recently unveiled its ID.5 electric SUV, said that while it was creating electrified products, the environmental benefits of signing up to the pledge were not clear-cut when electricity production in the US and China is still heavily reliant on burning fossil fuels.

A spokesman said major markets relying on fossil fuels to produce electricity means “the argument isn’t there” for pledging to only sell electric and other zero emissions cars by 2035, adding: “We are just being realistic.”

“We believe that an accelerated shift to electro mobility has to go in line with an energy transition towards 100% renewables,” the car giant said in a statement.

“The Volkswagen Group, representing business activities in all major markets worldwide, decided not to sign the declaration at this point in time.”

Toyota, which put its first commercially produced electric cars on the road in 1997, said it will “provide the most suitable vehicles, including zero emission products, in response to the diverse economic environments, clean energy and charging infrastructure readiness, industrial policies, and customer needs in each country and region”.

Why does this matter?

Transport in the EU and the US accounts for about a third of carbon dioxide emissions from those locations, which is one of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming.

Of that total, in the EU, about 70% comes from road transportation.

For this declaration in Glasgow to have been a breakthrough, it needed the backing of major governments and car manufacturers, Professor David Bailey of the University of Birmingham Business School said.

“Without the US, China and Germany on board, we are not going to get vehicle emissions where we need to be by 2050,” Professor Bailey said, adding that the big car makers also need to be “on board”.

He said that the US “has a penchant for big pick-up” trucks that will need to be electrified eventually, but a 2035 target for new sales would not gain popular support for US President Joe Biden.

The car industry in Germany is split between car electrification and wanting to use synthetic fuels, while China is heavily reliant on coal, and building more coal power stations.

China setting zero emissions vehicles sales targets would beg the question about why it was not committing to more electricity generation from renewables, he added.

Were there any more COP 26 transport announcements?

The UK launched the Zero Emission Vehicle Transition Council (ZEVTC), a group of 30 countries that “have agreed to work together to make zero emission vehicles the new normal”, the government said.

It also announced that all new heavy goods vehicles will be zero emission by 2040, with HGVs of 26 tonnes and under being phased out from 2035.

Industry body the Road Haulage Association said that it was “concerned about the timing of phasing out some sizes of new trucks from 2035”.

The RHA’s managing director of policy and public affairs, Rod McKenzie said:

“We support the government’s aim to decarbonise but the pace may be impossibly fast. Care is needed to ensure that all markets are served and future disruption to the supply chains are avoided.

“We would like the deadline extended for lorries over 18 tonnes by five years with support for hauliers in making the transition.

“Proven alternatives to diesel for all uses, locations, ranges and the heaviest trucks don’t yet exist. It will require continuous review of the timeline over coming years to ensure a sustainable and successful transition to zero tailpipe lorries.”

The UK also announced a new design for electric vehicle charge points “which could become as iconic as the Great British post box, London bus or black cab” it said.  By Graham Hill thanks to the BBC

Chemicals company Johnson Matthey has scrapped plans to capture a slice of the market for electric car batteries in a surprise move that saw its shares tumble up to 20%.

It said rivals were too far ahead in the technological race, and the battery chemicals arm would go up for sale.

Johnson Matthey is a major producer of catalytic converters that clean exhaust emissions from petrol and diesel cars.

But with the pending ban on such cars, it needs alternative revenue sources.

The company is thought to have spent hundreds of millions of pounds trying to commercialise a chemicals project called eLNO, aimed at improving the efficiency of batteries.

There were high hopes the company would play a key role in helping the UK develop a large-scale electric battery manufacturing sector.

But chief executive Robert MacLeod, who also announced on Thursday he would step down next year, said the potential returns from the battery division could not justify further investment.

He said: “This decision will allow us to accelerate our investment and focus on more attractive growth areas, especially where we have leadership positions such as in hydrogen technologies, circularity and the decarbonisation of the chemicals value chain,”

Development of better-performing lithium-ion batteries is key to producing electric cars that can travel further on a single charge. The market is dominated by companies in China, South Korean and Japan.

An exit from the market would more strongly tie Johnson Matthey’s fate to the internal combustion engine at a time when the future of transport looks to be electric, said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Laura Hoy.

“Ultimately the group will be starting over from square one as it looks for ways to change alongside the new greener auto industry,” she said.

Charlie Bentley, analyst at Jefferies, said that while the development of hydrogen transport will grow, “it is very hard to believe these can be sufficient revenue drivers and replace the very significant earnings” from Johnson Matthey’s current operations.

Mr MacLeod is being replaced in March next year by Liam Condon, the head of Germany’s Bayer crop science unit.

“After nearly eight years as chief executive, the time is right for me to move on. I am confident in our future growth prospects,” said Mr MacLeod.  By Graham Hill thanks to the BBC

A new survey commissioned by electric fuel card provider Paua has found that 40% of fleets do not use any public electric vehicle (EV) chargers. Similar surveys have shown that consumers are equally reticent to use them.

The research found that billing has proved particularly challenging for fleets. With 75 public charging networks in the UK, there is a challenge with apps, cards and membership schemes that fleet managers don’t have time to organise and consumers find very confusing.

While many chargepoints now provide contactless card payment for instant access, this often comes at a premium charging rate.

Of those surveyed, 85% of fleet managers agreed they would use public charging if there was a single solution to access multiple chargepoints with one single bill.

“What is incredible about this response is the missed opportunity that public charging networks are facing due to the complexity that fleets face accessing and using the solution,” said Niall Riddell, CEO and co-founder of Paua.

He added: “Paua’s electric fuel card solution seeks to overcome these challenges enabling fleets easier access to public charging.”

The research identifies that more than 70% of car fleets and 76% of van fleets are intending to order electric vehicles during 2022. Paua believes that public charging solutions are an important part of a fleet electrification strategy, freeing fleets from depot and home-based charging solutions.

Public charging can also avoid expensive depot and grid upgrades. It enables fleets the ability to consider electrifying alternative routes and to consider smaller battery vehicles. But the key to use of public charging for fleets, according to Paua, is ensuring that drivers have a simple solution enabling them to find the correct chargepoint, initiate a charge event and then for a single bill to end up with the fleet manager.  By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News.

The 100% discount on plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) entering London’s congestion charge zone has been scrapped.

The PHEV exemption was withdrawn on Monday, October 25 to coincide with the launch of London’s expanded ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ).

The expanded ULEZ covers an area up to, but not including, the North Circular Road (A406) and South Circular Road (A205).

It is 18 times larger than the original central London ULEZ, which occupied the same area as the congestion charge zone.

Transport for London (TfL) estimates that 100,000 cars, 35,000 vans and 3,000 lorries could potentially be affected by the tighter standards in the expanded area every day.

Speaking at a Cross River Partnership webinar on the ULEZ expansion, Tanya Ferguson, senior policy and programmes officer for the Greater London Authority (GLA), said: “We’re ending the cleaner vehicle discount for plug-in hybrids in recognition of the point that vehicles (irrespective of emissions) contribute to congestion and we want to be encouraging a shift to walking, cycling and public transport.”

Prior to the change, only vehicles that emitted no more than 75g/km of CO2 and had a minimum 20-mile zero emission capable range, qualified for the 100% cleaner vehicle discount.

Now, only battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are eligible for the cleaner vehicle discount, which Transport for London (TfL) says will be scrapped altogether from December 25, 2025.

From this date, it says all vehicle owners, unless in receipt of another discount or exemption, will need to pay to enter the congestion charge zone during charging hours.

Currently, the congestion charge, which is in addition to the ULEZ charge, operates from 7am to 10pm, seven days a week, with drivers paying £15 to enter the zone.

The congestion charge zone fee was increased by 30%, from £11.50 a day, and the hours of operation extended by four hours a day and applied at weekends for the first time from June 2020, as a result of a funding agreement between the Government and TfL.

However, TfL is running a consultation on the future operation of the congestion charge, with the main proposals including no charges in the evenings to support London’s recovery, operating between 12-6pm on weekends and retaining the current charge level of £15.

The proposed new weekend charging hours are targeted at reducing congestion at the busiest times, says TfL.  By Graham Hill thanks to Fleet News

Survey also shows young drivers were more likely to panic buy fuel than older motorists.

Recent fuel shortages have made a third of UK motorists more likely to buy an electric vehicle (EV), according to new research out this week. A study of 2,000 UK drivers by Volkswagen Financial Services found 35 percent of those questioned said they would be more likely to go electric thanks to the fuel shortage.

The shortages of late September and early October of this year saw queues at petrol stations amid a panic buying spree after a small number of petrol stations announced they were unable to get fuel deliveries. As a result, some petrol stations limited the amount customers could buy, while others had to close pumps because they ran out of fuel.

Volkswagen Financial Services’ study found 30 percent of 18-24-year-olds and 31 percent of 25-34-year-olds admitted to panic-buying fuel. In comparison, just seven percent of 55-64-year-olds made the same admission, as did a mere three percent of 65-74-year-olds.

Regionally, the south-east – one of the regions hit hardest by the fuel shortage – saw the most widespread panic buying, with 17 percent confessing they had headed to the pumps unnecessarily. That number fell to just seven percent in Scotland.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the Volkswagen Financial Services survey shows the impact of the shortage on buyers’ intentions, with more than a third saying they are more likely to go electric when they come to change their car. Similarly, 32 percent of Brits say they are likely to buy a second-hand electric vehicle when the time comes to change their car.

“Electric vehicles have never been more popular than they are today and it’s clear from our research that the recent fuel crisis has only accelerated the surge in demand for electric cars and their new technologies,” said Rebecca Whitmore, the electric vehicle senior product owner at Volkswagen Financial Services UK. “However, to meet the government’s decarbonisation targets, we need the take-up of EVs to be much higher.

“The average length of each car journey in the UK is fewer than 10 miles, so there’s still a lot of work to be done to alter the wider public’s perception of their driving habits, because an electric car would slot into the average person’s daily life more seamlessly than they probably imagine. As EV technology continues to improve and these vehicles continue to become more affordable and accessible, it won’t be too long before we have mainstream adoption in the UK.”  By Graham Hill thanks to Motor1.com

A survey by budget car brand Dacia shows that a third of UK drivers don’t use 75% of the features fitted to their cars.

A whopping 78 per cent of UK drivers don’t want unnecessary technology in their new cars, while a third of car owners only use 25 per cent of the features fitted to their vehicles.

Those are the headline claims from survey results published by Renault-owned budget brand Dacia. The published figures also suggest that 61 per cent of UK drivers would prefer not to pay for this raft of redundant features.

Dipping further into the survey reveals 76 per cent of drivers believe cars overloaded with tech can be dangerously distracting, and 69 per cent believe in-car technology is simply too complicated these days.

The Dacia data shows young drivers between 25-34 tend to use their in-car tech features the most, but even they use less than half of the available features. On average, drivers are said to use just 40 per cent of the available tech, so premium features such as in-car Wi-Fi or self-parking often go completely unused.

While Dacia has scored big sales hits with models such as the Sandero and Duster that have relatively low-specifications compared to pricier rivals, it didn’t limit its survey to owners of its own cars – the results came from a nationwide sample of 2,000 drivers in a bid to reflect the views of UK motorists as a whole.

Add to this the fact that with microchips being in short supply manufacturers have reviewed some of the electronic gadgetry fitted to cars as standard and revised its standard features then either removed them altogether or took them off the standard feature list and changed them to an optional add on. So make sure that you know exactly what is fitted on your new car.  By Graham Hill thanks to Auto Express.

Record demand for cars amid new and used supply shortages persuades buyers to abandon favourite brands.

Brand loyalty may be a thing of the past for the automotive sector, as the continuing shortage of new and used cars drives buyers to abandon their favourite manufacturers.

The ongoing semiconductor shortage is making it extremely difficult for manufacturers to build new cars, which has also led to increased demand for used models. As such, both brand-new and second-hand cars are in short supply, but a record number of drivers – 41.2 per cent – are still hoping to buy a car in the next 12 months.

Autovia – parent company of Auto Express – interviewed 2,445 buyers, 47.4 per cent of whom are looking at alternatives to their original choice, abandoning their favourite manufacturers in the process.

Only one in four buyers has managed to make a purchase in the past six months. Just 57 per cent said they were prepared to wait three months to get their hands on a new car, with 32.8 per cent having already given up on purchasing a new model and opting for a used car instead.

A staggering 86.8 per cent of buyers said their purchasing plans had been delayed by supply and price issues – 21.2 per cent have been put off by high prices and 17.9 per cent say the model they want is currently unavailable. Less than seven per cent of buyers, however, have indefinitely delayed their intentions of buying a new car.

John Webb, managing director of automotive data, demand generation and commercial operations at Autovia, said: “The disruptions of the past two years have reversed the usual pattern we see in data for car-buying intentions.

“Despite the frustrations that led to 72 per cent failing to find the right car at the right price over the past six months, half of the people we questioned still hope to find a car imminently, and that rises to 69 per cent when looking to purchase over the next six months.

“We’re seeing a pressure cooker of demand in a market that still can’t hope to satisfy consumer appetite and many commentators saying that production problems are likely to continue into the second half of 2022.”

Webb added: “Perhaps the most significant finding in our data is that almost half of the huge number of hopeful buyers are prepared to change their choice of car. This is a red flag for brand loyalty because motorists are likely to switch makes to find the comparable size and body style they originally set their hearts on.” By Graham Hill thanks to Auto Express.