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Welcome to the motoring podcast here with your discussion of motoring news. This is episode 651 on Tuesday, the 30th of September 2025. Hello, I'm Alan. Hello, I'm Andrew. And in a week where we wipe away birthday cake crumbs, you'll hear a glimmer of positive news. In new new car news, you find out that old is now new again, again. And in points of interest, you can take a trip down memory lane. But first, we have, as you would expect, a smidgen of follow-up.
I expect it is still about JLR. However, we are delighted. Honestly, we are delighted to say there is some... That was fireworks, probably. Yes, I know, it was very good. Glimmer of hope. When it comes to JLR, addressing the full shutdown they have had to do on all their systems, following the hack back on the 1st of September. They have now started a phase program of switching some of the systems
back on. And this does include things like supplier payment systems. Do you have this mental image, by the way, just before we get to the serious stuff? Do you have this mental image of someone in Coventry going, well, why do you ready to do this? I think, and there's this big thing. There's a whole bank. There's a whole bank with labels.
Some systems are bad. It's like the your fuse box is, but it's that before they're industrial.
Yeah, it says, let's canteen. We need a, let's go have a tea biscuit before the next one. I don't know what accent that was meant to be, by the way, but my apologies to anyone was totally hilarious.
But when we talked about the fact that JLR hadn't been paying their suppliers and that there was the discussions of fellow schemes, which there still is ongoing, by the way, that that has not gone away. The suppliers are still struggling individuals in those companies are still applying for universal credit or have gone on zero hour contracts and stuff like this is still massive impact. Do not underestimate that.
But of course, JLR were not paying their suppliers, not out of nastiness, not out of arrogance, not out of all we must look after ourselves first. It's because all the systems are obviously on a computer system.
And if your computer system is not on, you do not know who to pay or how much you need to pay them or to authorize to pay because it is all computerized.
So this is something we missed in our coverage in the previous weeks that we should have spotted and made clear.
And then you said it to me the other day, it was like, that's so obvious how did we miss that? Of course, they couldn't. One of the parts that is up, by the way, is the new warehouse logistics system?
That one's relatively new. So of course, they'll know the architecture that have all the documentation for that because it won't have been missed about with too much.
And they'll know how to switch it on because they've only just done it.
Exactly. There is still the knowledge within the organization or so how to do this thing. That's good on a number of levels, one because it means they can order stuff they're going to need.
The other one means of course they can send out stuff that dealers need.
So that repairs, servicing, the backlog that was already existing.
Yeah, all of that stuff can actually start to happen again whilst they're not back to production.
There are moves and some of the moves are moves that will bring money in relatively soon as long as they can receive the money and see the money and know where it's coming from.
Well, on that front, they are now able to electronically register vehicles that has started again.
I don't know how widespread that is and on your other point there about production, the JLR claim they will start a some sort of production by the end of this week as we record the show.
No idea to what extent that is is that one line, one factory, all factories, which factory, which country, no idea on any details.
As we've said all the way through this, the comms have not been the greatest from JLR shall we say?
Although this is picking up a bit now they've got something a bit more positive to say rather than how it was before.
Whenever you still don't know everything or you're still not 100% certain what happened then it's best not to say anything and you should do something on the thing.
Which they did.
Yes, it could point well made.
There is something else we need to clear up.
There was reports at the back end of last week about how the government is giving JLR stroke tata alone.
Oh, that is not the case.
Yes.
JLR is getting a loan for about two billion pounds.
I believe in the region of 1.5 has been guaranteed by the UK government.
They've got five years to pay this loan back but this bank, this loan is coming from a private bank.
Yes. JLR and tata are still on the hook for 20%. Well they're on the hook for all of it but 20% of the guarantee is from them themselves.
There was an excellent article by Professor David Bailey who we mentioned last week.
I can't find it at the moment so I can't link to it. I'm afraid.
But he explained how this was some people were getting up in arms and going hang on because of the way it was reported because it was reported that the government was loaning the money to JLR.
That it was basically a bailout in the way that it felt with the banks ago which was still already raw about.
Absolutely but that's not the case. They are just underwriting a portion of it.
Which will help JLR get a more favorable interest rate which means the impact on the medium to longer term is not as severe as it could have been.
It allows them to get back on to the focus of making cars making a profit etc.
And therefore spreading that around the local environments and communities that are impacted by all this anyway.
Please don't think that the government and our tax paid money has gone to bail out JLR. That's not been the case.
I think we've covered it all this week.
Again, once again great article from Will in Inautokar keeping us up to date with all this stuff to do check that out.
Right. That was the last bit of good news until the second part I'm afraid everyone.
There is nothing we can do about this.
Totally true. That is not totally true but we're also quite a lot of grimness in between times.
Let's try and deliver the bad news and as light and positive or where is possible.
Or something is Volkswagen Audi have decided they want to join JLR in pausing production.
They're going to be pausing EV production in Europe for much of October by the looks of it.
This covers European production of the Q4E Tron, the ID4 Volkswagen ID7.
That means the group factory in Svikau in Germany where the Q4E Tron is built will port production for a week starting on October the 6th.
I suppose that's due to week demand in Europe and pricing complications due to UF's tariffs said a spokesperson for the Svikau site.
The same factory also builds a Volkswagen 93, ID4, ID5 and a set can perform US market ID4 is built in Tennessee.
They're going to have a worker follow in October as well because it's so easy to build EVs in the US right at the moment.
Today as we record is the last day of the EV tax credits in the US because they're being halted because of the US.
But also, Emden in Germany is going to pause production where they assemble the ID4 and the ID7 as well.
That's going to shut down for several days it says.
There's a big problem.
It's interesting that a reduced demand for EVs is being blamed for this and more stories as we go on.
However, Europe had I think their highest month of EV sales stroke registrations where it was 30% of all new cars and Volkswagen Group has beaten Tesla out to be the top company.
I think what people are trying to say is EV sales are not as high as we hoped.
It's not that they are not high.
Yes, and it's not that within that pool it's not that Volkswagen is feeling miserably compared to its competitors if it really isn't.
Well, it's just not the demand that people thought that there was going to be. It's not the demand is reduced.
It's just never hit the height that many of the manufacturers based their numbers on.
I think that that is a key part of the challenge here.
Stellantis, Andrew, you can cover more of the same really.
Yes, Stellantis, they too are joining the crews that are pausing production.
They are going to be pausing production in near Naples in Italy with the Fiat Panda is not going to be built.
That is ongoing this week.
They also build the Alpha Romeo Tanali there and that isn't going to be built up until October the 10th.
That's around 3,800 workers are being furloughed for that time.
Not only that, but they are going to be pausing production implants in Poland, two Spanish facilities.
And a site in Germany.
Is there anywhere else they are building anything in Europe apart from the UK?
You missed the Pasi site in Paris.
Sorry, did I not say the French one as well?
That responds well for the open marker in DS3, which are also going to be paused.
It's so easy to skip.
There are so many of them it's so easy to skip over the paragraphs by mistake.
It just sounds like to me they're shutting down Europe.
I don't know if they're footprint of factories.
I don't have like a map of that, but that's an awful lot of factories.
Quite a lot of this is, in some cases, it's stuff like the Tanali, which was really meant for North America as well as Europe.
It's not really selling anywhere, but now all the sudden they are these terrorists.
It's completely uncompetitive.
Yeah, but a lot of the stuff that also is made in Europe is only for Europe.
So therefore I think, and don't forget, Stellantis are desperately, desperately like Volkswagen, trying to save money to cut costs.
And that means they cannot sit there and churn out vehicles that are not going on anywhere.
This is really annoying people, though, who have already waited three months for an example from one of these reports.
A Jeep Avenger EV. They've already been waiting for three months.
They've just been told it's been waiting, it's been delayed another month because of these shut them.
It's not just that, it's annoying the people who have already bought the cars.
I honestly don't see a quick end to this. I think we're going to see this more and more.
There just isn't a rapid end to any of this where people are shutting down because the tariff nonsense will carry on, which will affect other divisions of these global companies,
not necessarily the ones in Europe because they're building generally for European markets and European cars, except for certain segments, obviously.
If you've got one factory that builds on the same line, it builds two different cars, one which is really aimed at the North American market, for example,
and one that is really aimed at the European market, and if there's zero, no near zero demand for the North American one, there's not enough volume for it to be worth continuing building both.
There's where the problem lies, but it's okay because everyone can just buy it there.
We'll just buy all the pickup trucks from the same companies that can't build it.
Yeah, don't worry.
If I...
Anyway, do you want to take us on to Bentley and how they are tweaking their Beyond 100 plant or strategy?
Well, they are, and it makes sense given what we talked about the other week with Porsche.
Bentley, obviously, part of Volkswagen Group along with Porsche, who is sort of part of Volkswagen Group, but it's complicated really honestly.
Yeah, Porsche stepping back from racing quite as headlong into a pure EV future, and Bentley are now doing the same.
It makes sense, because it means that there's economies of small-ish scale, that both of the luxury brands can leverage,
and it also makes sense that if people aren't rushing out to buy electric breaches and stuff, they're probably not going to be rushing out to buy electric.
Bentley's either.
One thing we do have to remember, as well, is Bentley's fairly new CEO, Frank Stefan Walliser, he was in Porsche.
I think he has seen what's happened to Porsche and is going, hang on, we can't afford to make missteps with this.
Let us be a touch more conservative and pragmatic, because they do not sell in the volumes, although their profits are astonishing per car.
They don't do the volume that would allow, it's not the same as Porsche.
I mean, Porsche's profit margin per car and the volume they do is eye-watering, frankly, very special.
Even though it's dropped down recently, because they're just not selling the same volume, you've got to be more careful with a smaller company.
There's a good quotation here from this sort of car article, which is, back in the decision, VALSA says,
there's a dip in the mind for luxury electric vehicles, and customer demands is not yet strong enough to support an all-electric strategy.
The luxury market is a lot different today than I'm going to be around to be on the 100.
Electrification is still our goal, but we need to take customers with us.
Yep, there we go.
This changing tack, by the way, doesn't make any difference to Bentley's investment in its new electric model assembly line paint shop and design centre inquiry.
It's great facility that I've been round it.
Yeah, you said.
Bosh this time, Andrew?
Yes, I feel this story should be very much a canary in the coal mine for me.
And this is the news that Bosch is to cut another 13,000 jobs on top of the 9,000 they announced at the back end of last year.
This is because they are trying to save 2.5 billion euros, and there has been a reduction in the sales of their products onto the OEMs,
and there are 2.1 supply.
They're the largest supplier in the world for the automotive industry, and if they are shedding in the region of 22,000 jobs,
everybody needs to sit upright and pay attention because that's massive.
Well, you see these stops that we've just been talking about in the last couple of stories.
And last week, yeah.
They've probably all used Bosch.
Yep, absolutely.
One part or another, it's going to be Bosch.
And obviously they're in Germany, so the work's cancelled, gearing up for a fight.
That's going to go well.
Yep.
Right, do you want to take us on to France?
Yes, the French government has discovered or it has decided that it's got a good way of raising some capital,
and it's going to raise the capital through fines, and it's going to find big companies.
This is a very French approach, really.
And what they're doing is they're going around a number of, by a number I mean, many hundreds of large companies based in France,
or the French arms of large companies.
And they're saying, show us your supplier payments history.
And the companies are going to go, okay, here's our supplier, here's our history.
And very often these large companies have been dragging their feet, taking their time,
and not necessarily being their small suppliers, smaller suppliers on time.
As the law demands.
As the law demands.
To give you an idea of this, within the first half of 2024, was it?
At first half of 2025, the competition director inspected 409 firms and found violations at nearly 40% of them.
That led to two about 47 million euros in fines.
So you can see that this is going to be quite productive.
The first five months of 2020-24, they afford 248 in spite of the same style of inspection.
But the inspector found regulations only at about 28% of the companies.
But still managed to issue almost 30 million euros in fines.
What I'm really trying to say here is this is not targeted at Nissan.
Oh yeah, and what we have to say, because it is said in the article that's linked in the show notes,
and I'm going to quote here that the Japanese automaker has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
Absolutely, yes, absolutely.
Before Nissan's lawyers could give very interesting in us.
However, last year, Japanese regulators did find that Nissan had underpaid dozens of suppliers
by a total of $3 billion a year or $20 million over a two-year period.
Nissan paid the money for the investment's nose, and the regulators also recommended it to improve oversight of supplier payments.
We'll see if that happens.
There's a good very good reason, by the way, for the French government doing this.
It saves it a lot of money, not just raking it in from the cash of that,
but about a quarter of all bankruptcies in the UK are linked to late payments
from big customers to smaller suppliers.
And they're really, as times are a deep tough,
they're really trying to make sure that big companies aren't missing around
and aren't missing small suppliers around as well.
Because it's an old trick where they just say we weren't paid to suppliers at the back end of this quarter
and it makes our figures look good.
Yeah, it's a well-known one.
And it's ridiculous and stupid.
Because all you do is you hack off your supplier and then goes,
when you go, we're in trouble and you go, oh, are you?
Oh, that's a shame.
Mr. Schema, we've got this new customer over here because they pay us.
Yeah, we're sorry.
We're not able to fulfill that at this moment.
Sorry, if we could, we really would help you out, et cetera, et cetera.
Yes, with all et cetera.
Yes.
Just as the rest of the, what's going on on the back end.
Anyway, I'm going to take us on to Mercedes now and Mercedes have decided to play
technical, managerial, musical chairs as the technology boss, Marcus Schaffer,
has announced his retirement from the company after 30 years with the firm.
Schaffer is going to be replaced by Yorg Berzer, who is the head of production quality
and supply chain management.
And the head of Mercedes AMG, Michael Schieber, is going to replace Berzer.
Not only do they all look the same, they all have the similar flipping names.
Come on, guys, think of the poor podcasters.
What happened to Martin Kudemullah?
There is no replacement announced yet.
They haven't found one for Schieber as the boss of Mercedes AMG.
And there, we've made it through.
Anyway.
Yes, we're just the most right.
Touching go in a couple of places.
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Much appreciated.
Right, we're on to new new car news.
And we're going to start with the Kia Stonic.
And that's going to be updated for 2026.
It's going to get a new design look, which will bring it up to date with the arrest of the range.
You're going to have the opposites united design language,
where the front end will resemble the internal combustion engine,
stroke hybrid powertrained.
Kia's inside the cabin will be what everyone would recognize now
if you've seen pictures or have been in a new Kia with the double screens
that are fixed behind the steering wheel and across into the centre console.
That sort of stuff.
Nice materials, all those sort of things.
And on top of that, there will also be a manual option, an increasingly rare thing.
We don't know prices though.
Okay, I like to see pictures.
The seats in here looks like they kind of value it.
Yes, in this auto car article.
Yeah.
Classic.
Yeah.
Do you think cloth seats are near the new luxury are they not?
They are.
He's going to full circle.
Power train wise, both options are going to be based on the 1.0.3-cylinder turbo petrol engine.
There will be just an ice only version, which will offer 99 brake horsepower
with CO2 emissions of 125 to 133 grams per kilometre.
And then there will be a mild hybrid.
And then there will be a mild hybrid one, which will give 113 brake horsepower,
with a naught to 62 times just for those who really need to know it of 10.7 seconds,
as well as CO2 emissions, the most useless measures ever, of 120 to 129 grams per kilometre.
Like I say, the prices have not been announced, however,
the outgoing model starts at 22,085 pounds, so expect it around about that,
but probably a little bit more with inflation and the fact that they have upgraded it from the current model,
which is very much a car from a generation or so ago,
which is a car from a generation or so ago,
not that anything wrong with it, but things have moved on in terms of interiors
and definitely Kia's design.
I like the current Sonic, by the way.
Yes, I saw one the other day, I was thinking about the Sonic,
so then I was quite pleased when it popped up and you knew you've done this week.
Next up, G-Wiz.
It's not a G-Wiz.
I know, that's true.
Thank goodness for that.
Not EV's back by 20 years here in the UK.
Yes, nobody recycles a body quite like Stellantis does.
Cremiously, there was an eight-year-van style body available for the Citroen relay,
and they've brought it back based on the e-relay model.
This is an officially licensed body kit slash rebody from Citroen.
It's made by the time I manufacture Castellani and it's basically
there is now one for the e-relay.
Make it look like you definitely sell artisanal cars.
I was joking to Andrew before the show that there's a special option
where they will actually take it and dump it in a French farm yard
for the full of chickens and straws, should you wish.
For the authentic look, if you do then want to remove it from the French farm
yard, then he'll be pleased to know it has 110 kilowatt-hour battery pack,
offering a potential range of 260 miles, and it can charge at speeds of up to 150 kilowatts.
If you want to do this though, the starting price for the electric H-van
is £51,995 plus fat, and then to get the H-type convert style,
prices start from £24,595 plus fat.
Yeah, that's if you want to convert an existing one.
There is also an L3H2 panel van, which is a mid height,
three panel long one, which is £63,495 plus VAT.
If you want to convert an existing one, there is also an L3H2 panel van,
which is a mid height, three panel long one, which is £63,495 plus VAT.
If you order them, each van comes a full Citroen warranty,
offering a colour for three years or 100,000 miles,
which I believe on the non-electric version is quite an important thing to have with those vans.
This is one of these things, or I can't work out if it is
painfully cheesy and a bit rubbish, or if I quite like it.
I sit so on the fence between the two.
I don't mind that they do it, but I don't think many people will take them up on it.
It's one of those we can get a good press release by announcing it.
Hardly anyone's going to do it.
There's a type of small lightweight goods company,
30s going to want these.
And they're going to want them for urban deliveries,
because they're distinctive, they're different, they're electric.
You'll notice the ones in the picture, in the pictures here,
on the motoringresearch.com, are almost all raffer,
the cycling branded, almost all because of the very top ones.
But all the rest are all raffer branded.
Kind of, sort of, trendy, mammal-type brand, very meaningful.
Demographic, structured, bad example.
Right, I'm going to move this on to Gordon Murray Automotive,
and they have two V12 special editions that have been inspired by the McLaren F1,
that they have shown off to the world,
and they have the Le Mans GTR,
which is sort of a bit inspired,
look-wise, by the McLaren F1.
It looks more like a P1 to me.
Yeah, that one struggles a bit more,
particularly if you put it up against the S1 LM,
which very much looks like a modernized F1 GT.
Yes.
And F1 GTR LM, which is, yes, it's very good-looking.
And I love that it's got the higher mirrors of the concept,
the first sort of concept McLaren F1.
I had the mirrors up high, obviously.
As we all know, again,
they're up with the wing mirrors from the Volkswagen Corrado.
Apart from one of the, I think,
one or two of the prototypes had the Citroën CX with the wing mirrors.
I haven't been out much lately.
Can you tell?
Yes, these are obviously fabulous.
The prices have not been discussed,
but the thought is...
Well, the thought is it's going to be higher
than the 3.1 million for the T50S Niki-Louder track cars.
And they've already sold all 24 examples.
It's so...
Wow.
How many of them will ever get used to that?
How many of us will ever...
How many will ever be seen?
It's not even the used, it's the seen.
Yeah.
Maybe a good wood.
Maybe.
Yes.
The very last paragraph.
The S1 is even more exclusive than the GTR,
just five cars being built for one unnamed client.
It's so cool, but it's such a shame.
Yeah, do click the link in the show notes so you can have a look at them,
because, like we say,
that's probably the closest any of us are going to get.
Even the new new car users depressing me this week.
Points of interest, though.
Lunchtime read.
We didn't talk about it much as it was happening.
It kind of slipped sort of under the radar mostly-ish this year.
Well, I think because social media is now so fragmented,
it's difficult to know if something is being well attended and successful or not,
because there's pockets of old car Twitter in different places now.
Yes.
Which is kind of true.
But, yes.
So, anyway, Agate runs the Radwood event.
The trouble also was it was right in the middle of that whole dense bunch.
There were a couple of weekends there where there was like six different events on.
Yeah.
Two, so whichever one your credit mates was going to,
there were the ones that you heard about most.
But anyway, because there was spread across the country,
people just couldn't go to every single one.
Yeah.
Anyway, Radwood took place best of heritage towards the end of August.
Lots of vehicles there.
Lots of very cool vehicles there.
Lots of owners there.
Some very cool owners there.
Just everything from I can see a fox or astra from the mid 80s
to a ghostbusters Cadillac Fleetwood ambulance.
A lot of it's a piece of taking place.
But, of course, the important bit is,
who won because it is very much competition.
And the winner, of course, was Pete's Honda City Turbo,
which we've seen before.
Not only does he have a Honda City Turbo,
he also has a motorcompover as well.
He's at not posh Pete on Blue Sky, isn't he?
I think so, yeah.
I believe.
Yeah.
Yeah, at not posh Pete,
a lot of Beastguide or social.
If you don't follow him on Blue Sky,
then you flip him well, should.
There's loads of other good stuff,
there's some fly style.
So, to pick up one award as well.
The Radist European went to some of the Kirby's Saab 900 Turbo.
The Radist Brit was Jameson's MG Maestro Turbo.
And the Radimord of the show was Matthew's Max Powerspect Vauxhall Corsa.
Well done.
Gosh, that really is Max Powerspect Vauxhall Corsa.
Yeah, cool.
Very good stuff.
Yep.
It looks like a nice day out.
Best of heritage, I need to get back.
I've never been.
Still too far away, too busy.
Yeah, it's just a bit too far for me,
without making it a stay over and things.
It's an awkward distance from you.
Yeah.
Anyway, let's go on to the list of the week.
And this is from classic and sports cars.
And it is titled
32 times Fiat Got It Right.
There are 33 slides,
but of which there are 32 cars.
In this Alan, we have a large choice
from the beginning of Fiat onwards.
Can I just point out that I questioned
dangerous to whether or not we did not have this recently?
It turns out if you like me
were feeling some danger of your mistake
because actually it was a very similar
alpha-romail-based list that we had recently.
Everyone's going to tell me it's just me, aren't they?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, but I have a very small break.
Slide 24 in your handout.
The Fiat 127 of 1971.
I nearly picked up.
Yes.
Good.
I'm glad you didn't.
The 127 Fiat first hatchback.
Obviously important.
It's a transverse engine
and gearbox and all that kind of stuff up front.
It almost all seemed to be the blue
of the one in the photo here.
I know that one of the teachers at my...
So teacher on the matrix,
my prepsicle had one,
that was exactly the spec of the one in the picture here.
But maybe the only difference was with black op-camps.
Very cool.
And obviously all the bits for it
are all the bits that went under the X-1-9 as well.
So you can't have an X-1-9 if you don't have one, two, seven, first.
Excellent.
There are many.
What did you choose?
I'm not a million miles on from you.
But if you go to slide 27,
I have picked the Fiat 131 from 1974.
No.
Specific?
Any...
Does the mirror-fiori...
Specific?
Yes.
This one that I've got exactly will do me
that they call valley version.
I don't know what first grabbed my attention
when I was flicking through.
But no.
I think these are fabulous.
They're just cars from a different time.
And the other thing is,
this reminds me,
talking of blue skies you did before.
Andy Ingram put up the Nissan,
uh, what was the concept car?
Oh, yes.
You're going to say that there's a strong similarity
between the two at the moment.
Yes.
I want to say the IDX,
but it wasn't.
It was the...
Yes.
Yeah, it is IDX.
As I said,
I need to get to heck out more than I...
ID small X.
Yes.
It looks like a perfect size.
Three doors were small now,
obviously,
but yeah, fabulous.
There's tons of really cool
and interesting cars in here.
Do flick through them all.
There are some of the usual suspects.
There are a couple in there
that I didn't know about,
particularly the older ones,
because my knowledge of the
much older ones is pretty poor.
No, I just love seeing through
somebody's back catalog.
Yeah, I did some of the ones from 1960s.
Like 1950s and until the 1960s.
I've someone like my favorite
piece, and they're just...
I don't know if they were ever sold here
or not,
if they just disappeared off the road
here.
There are some pretty, pretty cars
in there,
which sold like hotcakes as well.
Anyway, do you want to take us
on to the end finally?
Yeah, good one.
So the end finally
is actually a link to a photography book.
And it's called
226 Garages
and Service Stations
as by photographer,
Philip Butler.
And his book contains
you'll never guess,
226 Garages and Service Stations.
Photographed as all sorts of
weather, as all sorts of times of day
and night,
they are the sort of
non-brand garage
and service station,
the kind of which you'll see
on e-roads across the UK,
really.
Yeah.
In many cases,
closest.
And it's particularly
if you're someone of a certain age,
like my age,
I remember so many of these
working as
petrol stations and garages
when I was a kid in the 80s.
I think I'm so much younger,
I don't remember as many.
Yeah.
There's some in there
that are just really
take me to certain places
the country I've spent a lot of time in as well.
They're so similar
in how they're set out.
It's a wonderful,
wonderful snapshot
of the history we had,
even though it is looking at it today.
And what some of these,
some of these places are being used.
The link in the bottom of the article
that's linked in the show notes.
That means you can go
and order this book yourself
if you like it
and you can afford to do so.
Or you want to give it as a present to someone.
It is not ridiculous.
It's 25.60,
which for a quirky and interesting
coffee table book
with some lovely,
lovely photos in it
is not an unreasonable amount of work.
It was 238 pages
and it's almost a kilo.
786 grams worth of book
if you buy your book by weight.
God, I can crush a lot of flies
if you hit them with it.
You could, yeah, yeah.
But no, it's there.
And Christmas is almost upon us, everyone.
Oh, I know.
I know.
Any folks?
That's us, I think?
Yes.
Nothing I've forgotten?
You.
No, okay.
I haven't forgotten anything.
So, I don't forget
that we're now in next week.
You can give us any feedback
and share your thoughts on this.
So, at motoringpodcast.com on BlueSky
at motoringpodcast on Instagram and Facebook
and on the contact page
www.motoringpodcast.com
the part of all our activities.
Remember, you can support us
via Patreon, please leave a review
and rate on Apple Podcasts, YouTube
or every podcast app
will let you do such a thing.
Andrew, what's the best way
to get in touch with you?
Best way to get in touch with me
is if you search for crackwintering
on BlueSky
or if you prefer LinkedIn
is your platform of choice
I am on there under my full name.
And Alan,
if people would like to get in touch
with you personally,
what's the best way for them to do that?
Best way to do that
is BlueSky
really where I'm at
a.j.p. Bradley
that's me, a.d.
and y.b.sky.social
We'll be back
very soon until then
I've been Alan Bradley
I've been on your clues
and safe motoring.
About this episode
Motoring news takes center stage with updates on JLR's recovery from a cyber attack, including a phased restart of systems and production. The episode also covers Volkswagen and Stellantis pausing EV production due to lower demand, alongside Bentley's strategic shift towards a more conservative EV approach. Notable discussions include Bosch's significant job cuts, the French government's crackdown on late supplier payments, and the unveiling of new car models like the updated Kia Stonic. The episode wraps up with highlights from the Radwood event and a unique photography book on garages.
Original notes
FOLLOW UP: JLR WOES STILL CONTINUE BUT SOME PROGRESS
Whilst JLR is still battling against the hack that caused them to shut all their systems down on the 2 September, there is some positive progress. The company has started a phased process of turning back on some systems and they expect to begin limited car production later this week. On top of that, the Government has guaranteed 80% of a loan the company is seeking to take out to help cover the costs resulting from the shutdown. To find out the latest, click this Autocar article link here.
Link to Professor David Bailey’s piece explaining about the loan JLR has taken out and the UK Government has guaranteed a portion of, can be clicked here.
VW GROUP PAUSING EV PRODUCTIONDue to a lower demand than anticipated, the Volkswagen Group is pausing EV production in several factories. The factories in Zwickau and Emden in Germany, as well as Tennessee in the US, will pause production of various electric models in the coming weeks. Tariffs are also impacting the finances of the company which is already struggling to cut costs. Click this InsideEVs article link here to read more.
STELLANTIS PAUSING PRODUCTION ACROSS EUROPEStellantis is another company that is pausing their car production facilities due to cost savings, lacklustre sales figures and the impact of the tariffs. Pomigliano factory, in Italy, is currently not making the Fiat Panda and Alfar Romeo Tonale. The Poissy site, in France, will pause production for the middle of October. On top of that facilities in Poland, Spain and Germany are also expected to follow suit. If you want to find out more, click this Carscoops article link here.
BENTLEY TO FOLLOW PORSCHE AND KEEP ICE IN LINEUPIn what should be no surprise to anyone, Bentley will be keeping combustion engine powertrain options in their cars contrary to the previous ‘Beyond100’ plan, just as Porsche has announced. You can read more, by clicking this Autocar link here.
BOSCH CUTS JOBSBosch is cutting up to 13,000 jobs on top of the previously announced 9,000. This is a result of trying to save €2.5 billion. Of note, Bosch is the world’s largest automotive supplier. For more on this story, click the link here to an electrive article.
FRANCE REVIEWING NISSAN SUPPLIER PAYMENTSThe French Government has asked to see Nissan’s payments to suppliers. There is no indication as to why this has occurred nor is there a suggestion Nissan has done anything wrong. In France companies have to pay invoices within 60 days. Click this Yahoo!Finance article to read more.
CHANGES IN MERCEDES MANAGEMENTCTO Markus Schäffer is leaving Mercedes-Benz, after 30 years service. Jörg Burzer will move from head of production, quality and supply chain management to replace him. That means Michael Schiebe will move on from being in charge of Mercedes-AMG to take up Burzer’s old role. A new head...
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