Automotive Industry News – 22nd October
This is a fortnightly overview of the main automotive industry stories making the news and key product announcements. It also includes some of the interesting stories and campaigns that have made the news from outside the automotive sector over the past two weeks.
Automotive news
Key industry stories from the last two weeks:
Environmental
- UK Net Zero Strategy includes new zero-emission vehicle mandate
- Nissan Micra’s future being considered as an all-electric supermini
- Electric car grant: New Government net-zero incentives explained with EV charging points extended across UK
Events
Production
- Firm aiming to build £4bn UK ‘gigafactory’ poised for London IPO
- China’s magnesium shortage threatens global car industry
- Lorry driver shortage ‘to drag on for another year’
Driver News
- Second-hand cars are selling for more than they cost from the showroom
- Road tax is ‘inevitable’ to fill black hole left by motoring taxes
- DVLA to bring in huge change for motorists going on camping holiday
Product launches / unveils
Key industry product launches or unveils:
- Porsche – New Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS set for November reveal
- Fiat – New special-edition Fiat (500) Red priced from £16,435
- Range Rover – New 2022 Range Rover teased ahead of reveal
- Tesla – Tesla Roadster confirmed for 2023 production
- Ineos – Hydrogen-powered Ineos Grenadier SUV to begin testing in 2022
- Ford – Facelifted Ford Focus ST launched for 2021 with 276bhp
- BMW – BMW M135i gains improved handling and exhaust note
- Mercedes-AMG – New 2022 Mercedes-AMG SL to be revealed next week
- Rolls-Royce – New Rolls-Royce Black Badge model to be revealed next week
Automotive winners
- At least 50% of Aston Martin car sales should be electric by 2030, says CEO
- Ford to invest £230m in electric vehicle plant on Merseyside
- Electronics giant Foxconn reveals two new electric cars
- Cloud hiring levels in the automotive industry rose to a year-high in August 2021
- Lexus GS has been voted UK’s best used car to own in the 2021 owner satisfaction survey
- Hyundai delivers leading customer brand experience in 2021
Non-automotive winners:
- Contactless card payment limit raised to £100
- Co-op to create hundreds of LGV driver apprenticeships
- Tesco ditches checkouts to take on Amazon
- Smartphones: The Royal Mint to extract gold from old phones
- UK Deliveroo orders soar by 59% despite restaurants reopening
- Britain’s biggest factory to open in the West Midlands in 2025, creating 6,000 jobs
- Elon Musk could become the world’s first trillionaire thanks to SpaceX, analysts predict
- How the Balloon World Cup blew up to become your new favourite sport
- No Time to Die will become the second Hollywood movie to cross $500 million worldwide… after F9
Non-automotive losers:
- High street sales collapse as fuel shortages bite
- Major music streaming services to face competition inquiry
- Google Pixel 6, 6 Pro launch marred by shopping cart crash
- Facebook fined by UK competition body
- Mark Zuckerberg is planning to rebrand Facebook
- NHS Digital exposes hundreds of email addresses after BCC blunder copies in entire invite list to ‘Let’s talk cyber’ event
- China Evergrande shares fall sharply after $2.6bn asset sale collapses
- Marmite and PG Tips maker Unilever warns of price rises
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash