Automotive Industry News – 14th January 2021

Performance Communications | January 14, 2022

This briefing document provides 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:

EV, Environment & Autonomous

Industry

Driving

Motorsport

Product Launches / Unveils

Key industry product launches or unveils:

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Non-automotive winners:

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Non-automotive losers:

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Research and insights:

New poll shows high satisfaction among EV drivers

A new poll has revealed that the vast majority of drivers who bought an electric car would never go back to owning a petrol or diesel model. The research from Zap-Map showed 91% of owners are ‘extremely happy’ with their zero-emission vehicles with just 1% hoping to return to fossil fuels.

Improved range and better-charging infrastructure have made a big difference in consumer customers when it comes to choosing an EV over a traditionally fuelled car.

The research, one of the largest surveys of electric car owners so far, showed that once drivers take the leap to EVs they don’t wish to turn back.

More than 48% said that their current vehicle was their first EV
28% of those made the purchase in 2020

The poll asked 3,306 EV drivers how they would rate ownership of a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) or Petrol Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) out of a maximum 100.

The average of the two categories was 91
Petrol and diesel owners scored 74

The research also highlighted increased confidence in long journeys; most respondents (53%) said they have driven more than 200 miles in their EV in a single trip.

And almost a quarter of respondents (24%) said they had driven more than 300 miles in one trip.

UK drivers rage against ban on private car ownership in cities ‘First step to communism!’

Transport Minister Trudy Harrison has called for a move away from private car ownership and towards increased use of shared transport. But a new poll has revealed a huge resistance to her transport plans.

In a poll of 3,276 people, a staggering 91% said private car ownership should not be banned in cities.

Ms Harrison, MP for Copeland, said the country needs to abandon “20th century thinking centred around private vehicle ownership” and said it was “staggering” that nearly two-thirds of car trips are taken by lone drivers. She stressed the importance for British roads to introduce “greater flexibility, with personal choice and low carbon shared transport” such as bike-share schemes, car clubs, e-scooters, and digital demand responsive transport services like Uber.

Richard Dilks, chief executive of shared transport campaigners CoMoUK, welcomed Harrison’s comments, which he said demonstrates that shared transport is on the Government’s agenda.

In October, London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone tax was extended from a 21 square km area of central London to cover London outskirts, affecting a 225 square km zone. The move aims to encourage city dwellers away from private car ownership and towards using public transport to decrease toxic air pollution.

Since the introduction of ULEZ in 2019, there are now 44,100 fewer polluting cars driving in the zone every day, and toxic NO2 concentrations have been reduced by 44%.

Second coming: Retro Cars we’d like to see again…

If you didn’t know it already, the retro resurgence is in full swing. In recent years, cars like the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, Alpine A110 and reborn Renault 5 have all ridden the retro wave. At the Paris Motor Show last week, Renault was at it again, with a stand that included EV reinterpretations of the Renault 4, […]

Hybrids are at a crossroads – and EREVs are the vehicle category to watch

What does the future of hybrid vehicles look like? It turns out that it may include brands taking lessons from the past. Most hybrids on sale today use parallel architecture. This refers to the fact that the hybrid’s combustion engine and the battery can both power the vehicle independently – but there is another way […]

Cruel Britannia? Why the IOC and Team GB restrict athlete’s brand partnerships during the Olympics and our top tips to handle it

With the Paris Olympics officially starting today, the 16 worldwide partners of the Olympics (Coca Cola, Toyota, Visa and Anheuser Busch InBev to name but a few) will be relishing their time in the spotlight. However, the Games, as always, is not without its controversies. If you work in marketing or PR, the Olympics […]

Saying au revoir to range anxiety

As a way of communicating the range of an electric vehicle (EV), the idea of completing a long-distance drive is tried and tested. In 2018, we drove a Jaguar I-PACE through the Channel Tunnel (yep, literally, along the service tunnel) to show how it could travel from London to Brussels on a single charge. More […]

Performance Communications Transitions To Employee Ownership

Performance Communications, a leading provider of specialist communications services to the Automotive, Sport and Technology industries is delighted to announce that it has transitioned to employee ownership via an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). The move secures the agency’s long-term independence and will provide its employees with both a greater level of involvement and a share […]

Cricket at the Olympics, it’s just not cricket!

Let’s set the record straight, I don’t like cricket, I love it* but cricket at the 2028 Olympics, is that really necessary? The IOC has announced the five new sports that will be included in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Funnily enough some of the new sports that will appeal to a Northern American […]

Top 5 Sports Documentaries – The Power of Sports Documentaries

It seems that recently a new pro sports documentary appears on an almost daily basis, 24-7 viewing if you need to get away from the family over Christmas! While the docs undoubtedly provide the streaming channels with engaging content to draw subscriptions and drive revenue, should sporting associations or teams always give the green light […]

Unveiling Threads: Exploring the Disruptive Factors and Success Behind the New Social Media App

In a rapidly evolving social media landscape, new platforms emerge, seeking to disrupt the status quo and capture users’ attention. Can Threads go the distance though?