Automotive Industry News – 5th November 2021

Performance Communications | نوفمبر 5, 2021

Industry Snapshot, Automotive and Beyond

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:

Cost of Driving

Sales & Manufacturing

Policy & Environment

Trends

Electric Vehicle news

Supermarkets have installed nearly 1,000 EV charging points since start of 2020
DOE Announces $209 Million for Electric Vehicles Battery Research
Daimler Truck AG and BP to pioneer deployment of hydrogen infrastructure, supporting the decarbonization of UK freight transport
Tesla opens its chargers to other electric cars
Portable EV charger – UK firm launches portable EV charger for urban drivers

Product launches / unveils

Key industry product launches or unveils:

Range Rover – First glance at the new Range Rover plug-in hybrid
Volkswagen – An EV with a 325 mile-range: Arrival of the new Volkswagen ID 5
BMW – A reboot of the Mini for the electric age
Aston Martin – Valkyrie: first customer car ready
Volkswagen – Retro ID Buzz EV primed for imminent launch
MINI – New 2023 MINI Countryman spied for the first time
Citroën – Citroën Ami Cargo confirmed for UK sale in 2022
Renault – New 2022 Renault Kangoo E-TECH electric van

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Automotive winners

Tesla – Tesla becomes first $1tn car firm as Hertz orders 100,000 Model 3s
Ford – Transit Custom receives Euro NCAP Gold award for assistance tech
Hyundai – The electric Kiwi Kona has won its debut hillclimb event
Nio – Under the skin: Improving EV cold-weather battery performance
JCB – JCB awarded Dewar Trophy by RAC for hydrogen-fuelled engine
SEAT – New SEAT concept turns the Ibiza hatch into a car-sized nightclub
What Car? – What Car? reveals 2021 What Car? Van of the Year Winner
Vauxhall – Gloucester mechanic retires after 75 years with same company
SMMT – More plug-in vehicles to be registered in 2021 than the whole of the last decade

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Non-automotive winners

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Non-automotive losers

Research and insights:

Automotive Insights

Online buying is here to stay, with 10% of UK car buyers looking to purchase next car entirely online

The latest data from What Car? and Haymarket Automotive reveals that 10% of car buyers intend to purchase their next vehicle entirely online, increasing from 8.9% in May this year. This compares to 69.3% who prefer a combination of online research and direct shopping with dealers
Over 50% of buyers said they would be comfortable purchasing a vehicle online, a 10% increase since May
1% of respondents cited improved vehicle availability online as one reason why they were more likely to consider making a purchase this way
Another factor is the emergence of virtual showrooms during the pandemic. 45.8% said they would not visit a physical showroom to view a model if they could have a virtual tour instead

Non-Automotive Insights

Climate change: Polls shows rising demand for government action

A survey of over 30,000 people conducted by GlobeScan for BBC World Service showed that support for taking stronger action on climate change is growing across the world. Concern about climate change is also at its highest point since 1998 – 63 percent now believe climate change is a “very serious” issue.
Across the 31 countries polled, an average of 56% of people want their governments to set stronger targets that would address climate change as quickly as possible
In 2015, 43% of those polled wanted strong action on climate change, but that has risen to 58% now
56% want their countries to play a leadership role during the COP26 summit, with a greater proportion of people in some of the biggest emitting countries wanting to see their country play a more prominent role in tackling climate change
61% of respondents say governments hold “a great deal” of responsibility to address climate change, compared to 57% who think companies hold the same level of responsibility and 36% for individuals

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

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