Its talcum powder - 10 March 2026

Welcome to the Motoring Podcast, your weekly discussion of Motoring News.

This is episode 674 on Tuesday, the 10th of March, 2026.

Hello, I'm Alan.

Hello, I'm Andrew.

This week, you'll hear about one country's really stupid decision is coming back to

Hauntland.

In New New Car News, you will learn that we're allowing stupidly big vehicles in the UK.

In points of interest, we all share the frustration of the lunchtime read.

But first, we have a submission, a follow-up, and we talked about this, I think it was last

week, talking about the EU's rules for Made in Europe, and they finally released the report

or the draft legislation that will be brought in by the EU Commission.

The idea behind it is to, and I'm quoting from the ElectriVe article here, is to boost

domestic production, create jobs, and make the EU less dependent on the USA and China.

This is covering a ton of sectors, obviously automotive is one of them, and it's pretty

much what people were thinking, because it's to bring in clean technology as well, and

it's also to bring that knowledge on how to produce things like batteries and how to

renewable energy at scale in terms of manufacturing, bring that knowledge to Europe and then get

hold of it.

Because one of the things that you might have thought would be the cases they're trying

to exclude foreign investment, foreign companies coming to Europe, because they want to be

Europe only.

But that's not the case as long as they invest at a significant amount and also pass on their

knowledge to Europe, so Europe can then start building these factories for themselves.

Yes, a lot of this is similar to President Biden's Infrastructure Act in the USA, which

has been systematically torn apart over the last year.

And it's trying to do essentially the same as that was trying to do, to get companies

to build things locally.

The irony of what China did 20, 30 years ago is just I'm just chuckling daily at that

with the way that the West filters, it was exploiting China and now they're doing that

they've had to full circle it.

Exactly.

And the thing is, it's not just China in this case, but as far as the EU is concerned, it's

bringing in the investment that maybe you would have gone across the Atlantic, but isn't

now admittedly Canada, Mexico, vying for that same chunk of technology and chunk of money

and investment.

One thing about this, of course, is that it's not solely the EU.

It might well have the ability to bring in other non EU countries and introduce part

passports and these kinds of things, doesn't it?

Obviously, because Britain is outside of the EU, thanks to the vote on Brexit, there is

a real danger that the car manufacturing in this country would be excluded from being

able to easily sell or export into Europe.

That's a major problem because most of the cars we build here are exported into Europe.

And at the minute, we've got this deal where it's considered part of Europe for the sake

of automotive or other industries as well.

But we're just worried about automotive here.

If they do not get a similar agreement in place when this is voted through, because

it's only drafted at the minute and it may get tweaked by the time it gets voted through

and all this other stuff.

But this is the first time it's out for everyone to analyse.

If Britain's not considered part of Europe or does not have an agreement that they are

accepted under the same rules, then companies like Nissan, and there will be a second

article linked in the show notes from AutoCars explaining just this, Nissan in

particular would get absolutely hammered because the rules are covering all vehicles.

There was hope that small EVs would be accepted in, but that's not the case.

It is all vehicles.

Hopefully, in terms of the UK car industry, we have clever enough politicians and civil

servants who go to Europe and go, just for the car industry, can we not make this

agreement because we've already got it for the cars already.

So why don't we just extend that?

And yes, we're on board with you when it comes to using batteries made locally after

year three because we've got a couple of plants being built.

We've got what there's one in Sunderland already.

There's another huge one being built down in near Bristol because Europe's got a big

problem where there's been three or four major battery factory projects have been

canned across the continent.

Therefore, they're going to need that capacity from somewhere and here's a

potential in that maybe bridges while factories then do come online because

somebody else has decided, you know, there is actually a market now.

We can do this.

Yeah.

There's a lot of stuff up in the air.

There's potentially huge ramifications for the UK.

Hopefully, like I say, enough clever grown-ups get together and discuss this and work

it through so that it doesn't decimate the UK car industry because people will

Nissan have openly said, if this does come in and Britain is excluded, we will move.

We will shut Sunderland.

Yeah.

Well, I can quite understand why.

Should we move on?

Yes, it's near the beginning of the month.

It is, which means obviously those last month's SMNT new car registration figures.

For February 2026, the new car market rose 7.2% with 90,100 vehicles being registered.

An astonishingly high number, Alan.

It is an astonishingly high number for a short month.

It is the highest number for a February since 2004.

Tell us about battery electric vehicle volumes.

They're up 2.8% overall.

Year to date, battery electric vehicle share is at 22%.

That's quite impressive compared to when we first started this podcast.

That's astonishing compared to when we first started.

It is astonishing.

Yeah, well, it was 2%.

However, it does something crazy is going to have to happen before it can actually

reach the mandated 33% that it's meant to reach this year.

A number reached by fantasy figures.

Well, yes, we've discussed that.

But here's the other thing as well is last year in the year before it was agreed

that this figure wasn't as set in stone as people thought because there was ability to.

Fudge it.

Yes, you then go over averages over several years and whatever.

But I can't remember.

Can I haven't had a chance to dig out the regulations?

Whether that actually may be running out now and now it is getting into the know

that is the year figure that is the year figure.

But 33% is nigh on impossible at this point looking at that.

Yeah, yeah, even though we're into the second month of the year, it's going to be something bad.

What was the registrations via the fuel that you put in it?

Battery electric vehicles, as we said, up 2.8% made

24.2% market share in February.

Hybrid electric vehicles, up 3.3%.

13.1% market share, plug-in hybrids at 11.6% of the market.

And that's up 43.5% for petrol only and failed hybrids.

46.5% of the market.

That's up 5.2%.

And diesel, 4.5% of the market down 3.8%.

Overall, 90,100 vehicles registered.

And as I said, up 7.25%.

The top models list for February is, I don't know, again, I always feel these are

very small numbers these days, given just the number of models there are in the market.

But here we go anyway.

And number 10, the Hyundai Jutron, 1,222.

Number 94, Kuga, 1,286.

Number eight, the Vauxhall Corsa, 1,335.

Number seven, the Volkswagen Tiguan.

And number six, the Volvo XC40.

Number five, the Jaikoo 7 with 1,446 registered.

So we're still within 224 vehicles from 10th to 5th.

Number four, the Tesla Model 3, 1,584.

And number three, the Mini Cooper, 1,828.

And then finally, there's a bit of a step to number two, the Kia Sportage with 2,205.

And last but not least, well ahead by over 1,015 registrations,

the Ford Puma with 3,220 registrations.

I will take us through to the spreadsheet of generally not doom this week.

It didn't. No, I have lots to talk about.

Yes. And I have to scroll all the way down to the letter C and Chevrolet,

who has a minus 100% drop.

Last year they registered 16 and none in February, 2026.

And yet there might be a comeback.

Yes. Well, stay tuned for later in the show.

DS is down 77%, Fiat is down 69%.

Sorry, can we just get that down 77% of DS?

DS is essentially dead.

They registered five vehicles last month.

Yeah. Five.

Like 1,2,3,4,5.

When we talk about Stellantis and they have too many brands,

I really do feel DS has got to go.

It's top of the list.

Because I think you can incorporate some of what they've done into Citroen.

Yeah. You know, like Citroen used to.

Yeah. Like as it's a spin-off of Citroen.

Yeah. Whereas I don't see the same these days between Seat and Cupra.

Whereas in the early days, I did.

I think they are very different companies now.

They're far more distinct in their separation than DS and Citroen.

Anyway, sorry though. My apologies.

Yeah. Onto Genesis, they are down 55%.

Honda is down 39%.

Jaguar, surprising no one, is down 100%.

One was registered, by the way.

Yes, somehow.

Jeep is down 33%.

Lexus is down 23%.

Lotus is down 66%.

Maxis is down 100%.

Last year, they registered 11.

This year, none.

Mini is down 23%.

Nissan is down 33%.

Then Porsche is down 17%.

Well, this is actually quite a drop when you think about it in terms of numbers of actual cars

and the money because last year, they registered 603.

This year, 499.

Now, you consider how large their profit margin is with the per vehicle.

That's a lot of money that has not gone out the door.

Yeah.

Seat is down 33%.

Tesla is down 37%.

And other imports is down 63%.

Alan, you have many, many greens in which to run through.

Brace myself here.

Alfa Romeo up 77%.

Alpine up 1,033%, winning the Not Sponsored by MG Award.

Yes.

Audi up 17%.

BYD up 83%.

Citroen up 83%.

It must be all the DS sales that have been corporate sales, registrations.

Cooper up 16%.

Dacia up 25%.

Ford up 37%.

GWM up a nice round 40%.

In EOS, up 225% with 13 instead of 4 vehicles registered.

Or at least vehicles which aren't counted as commercial vehicles.

JQ up 180%.

KGM up 178%.

Land Rover up 29%.

Maserati up 18%.

Mazda up 25%.

Mercedes up 34%.

Amoda up 148%.

Polestar up 31%.

Renault up 17%.

Skoda up 17%.

Smart up 23%.

Subaru up 33%.

Suzuki up 78%.

And last but not least within our thresholds.

Vauxhall up 16%.

Mike Hawes, the S&T chief executive's statement is as follows.

UK's new car market is continuing to recover and EV volumes are growing too.

Even a market share remains disappointing.

All eyes are now on new plate march, which typically sets the tone for the year.

And given sales of new pure petrol and diesel cars are currently required to end in less than four years,

EV uptake must accelerate rapidly.

Manufacturers have committed monumental investment to drive demand,

but such costs cannot be sustained indefinitely,

making review of the transition an urgent priority to ensure ambition matches natural demand.

This week, SMMT is having an EV summit.

Expect to hear that message that ended that out.

Much louder, I would anticipate, is how that's going to happen.

I don't know quite how that will be received considering what's happening to oil prices,

though, at the moment, whether that is then seen as well.

You should shift to EV quicker because it's less,

it's impacted less by the oil price changes.

Although, obviously, because of the way the world works

and how global economies and local economies work,

oil prices go up, that affects everything.

Surprisingly cracking month, let's see how March goes.

I saw someone predicting record numbers for March.

Yeah, I saw that on date on the 2nd of March.

Yeah, I'm suspicious.

All I'll say is there are over 31,000 cars on AutoTrader

that have less than 100 miles on them.

Not saying that AutoTrader is the be-all and end-all, but it is perhaps a barometer.

Yeah, that's what we're keeping an eye on.

Anyway, let's move on from that.

And there was a tax tribunal recently,

in which the claim was that the VAT charge on public EV charge points

should be in line with domestic, which is 5%, not 20%.

They actually, Deloitte actually went through this whole calculation.

They produced their sums and their workings out.

And they have won the tribunal and he's agreed with them

because the existing VAT law, and I'm quoting from an EV-powered

article that is linked in the show notes,

the existing VAT law states that provision of less than 1000 kilowatt

hour of energy to a person at any premises counts as domestic supply

and should therefore be subject to the lower 5% domestic VAT rate.

It's virtually impossible for one single person

to have used up 1000 kilowatt hour of energy in a month.

Well, but the vehicle charging.

I liked the paragraph here in the story.

It says, the 1000 kilowatt hour limit is equivalent to fully charging the new

108 kilowatt hour BMW iX3 from zero to 100% more than nine times.

At its official range of 500 miles, that equates to more than 4,000 miles of driving per month.

And we no longer have that many photocopiers out there that need their replacement media.

Andrew, it's not a photocopier.

It's a physical duplication solution.

Sorry, yes, yes.

Sorry, physical media duplication solution.

But I thought that was quite an interesting way of arguing it.

And then Deloitte could come along with the sums and go, well, it's personal.

That means 5% VAT, not the 20% VAT.

Obviously, this doesn't change anything in the law, but it is a yet yet.

But it is a strong indicator that the Majesty's revenue and customs are going to have trouble

then arguing that it should retain the 20% VAT rating by their own rules.

And I think that will be added.

This will be like a pincer movement because I think the political pressure will come to bear soon.

Because whilst there will be calls for review and changes to the zero emission vehicle mandate,

I think putting the VAT on commercial or public charging down to 5% is an easy political win

if we had anybody with enough foresight and intelligence to spot that and therefore take

advantage of that.

There is a paragraph here that says in January it was reported that the Treasury was considering

giving in to these calls amid fears of the impact of the three pence per mile tax on EVs coming in

2028. You know, the one that you just have to hand over your mileage no matter whether or not you've

done it in the UK or not.

Next up then, news from both Toyota and Stellantis that they're going to pull out.

So how much background do I need to give here?

I think I need to give some background.

Yes, right at the minute there is a system between car manufacturers

where you can sort of pull CO2 credits around Europe.

Yes, so that if you sell cars that emit over a certain whatever the threshold is of CO2s

on CO2 on average or on aggregate, then you can buy credits from someone who has too many

credits to make up your credits.

So it's kind of credit balancing thing that obviously there's a couple of manufacturers

around the place that have a surplus of these credits, mostly because they only sell electric

vehicles. The two that jumped to mind immediately are Leap Motor, no pun was intended, but it

happens to be there, and also Tesla, who you might have heard of.

A Polestar.

Polestar is another yes.

But their volume may not be high enough.

Well that's it, you see Tesla had all electric and relatively high volumes.

Until recently, where the volumes were plunged significantly.

Yes.

Challenge for Tesla with the numbers plunging significantly is actually less to do with the

price of the cars and stuff and more to do with how many EV credits they have or CO2 credits

they have against their name.

And historically, until very recently, the only way Tesla ever made money or reported profits

was down to the CO2 credit trading.

Toyota and Stellantis, two groups which previously have needed quite a lot of credits.

Well, Toyota hasn't.

Toyota has not been so bad, but Stellantis kind of has.

For a long time, Toyota was leading the world in terms of lowering CO2 emissions before they

then sat on their hands when EVs became very much a thing.

The ridiculous part of that being, of course, most of Tesla came about because Toyota was

buying batteries from Tesla.

That was what funded the development of the Model S.

It's a very circular world and people do tend to forget these things.

Yeah, yeah.

Toyota and Stellantis pulling out across Europe, it will make a significant hit in the number of

credits that Tesla can sell and therefore the amount of profit that Tesla can make.

Company still in that pool, by the way, the Tesla pool are Ford, Honda, Mazda and Suzuki.

We may well find that Suzuki changes its tune relatively soon.

As Toyota are expanding the number of EVs that they sell, and of course,

apart from the GI Harris, and even then, that's kind of tricky.

I think it's hard to find a volume model from Toyota that is not a hybrid now.

Not now that the Igo Cross is not a hybrid.

I'm running it through my mind and I can't think of one.

I think they've at least got mild.

Yeah, I mean, even the Hilux is at least mild.

And the Land Cruiser too.

Anyway, so that's what's happening there.

Tesla significant impact to the pool that's going to be trading with it.

But it doesn't matter because they're an AI and robotic company now.

Yes, really good video from Chris Broad in Japan out today about humanoid robots,

actually.

He never mentions Tesla, talks about humanoid robots and the challenges of humanoid robots.

Sorry, pretty much irrelevant to the motion podcast and just about any other way.

It was really good video.

It's only 15 minutes long too, which is nice.

Well, talking of Suzuki as you've laid huge hints before in the last article,

Suzuki has acquired Canadevia, which is a Japanese solid state battery manufacturer

that used to be known as Hitachi Sosen before they renamed in 2024.

And I think this is really interesting for a number of reasons.

One, because this company has been working on developing solid states for 20 years.

And the idea is that they're getting pretty close to it now.

But the other thing is Suzuki isn't one of the big three.

And up to now, they've had to often sort of feed off scraps, do deals with the larger companies,

sort of partnerships on certain models and things like that.

I mean, we've seen it with Toyota, with some of their vehicles they've done.

The Urban Cruiser and so on.

Yeah, they did it previously with the Corolla that they re-badged.

Swayze.

Yes, that's right.

Yeah, now you say it.

I saw one the other day.

That's the only reason I noticed one the other day.

But if, and this is always the big if with solid state batteries at the moment,

if solid state batteries can be made into a thing that is easily produced for the car industry,

because I've heard that there are some in other industries.

Well, sorry, Canadevia are one of the leaders in this because they have worked with the Japanese

Aerospace Exploration Agency or JAXA and they have had solid state battery installed on the

outside of the International Space Station since 2022.

So they have been kind of testing it under extremes and testing that it still works in

vacuums under extreme radiation and temperature fluctuations.

And it's been certified as used as suitable for space applications now.

Obviously, space applications can withstand a higher price threshold than EVs, funnily enough.

But I think it's interesting to show that it has been proven not just that it can be a thing,

but it actually is a thing. And obviously now that the challenge is, okay, let's do volume

manufacture. That's what's needed here. But the actual technology is proven and that's far more

than the many other companies who are looking to use stuff for automotive.

Yeah, absolutely. There's been a lot of, oh, this is solid state and it turns out, well,

not really solid state in some instances. Others are making claims that are being

hotly disputed about their equipment. Don't talk about hotly in relationship to battery

technologies. No thermal events were initiated. But obviously, as we keep saying, if someone can

make solid states a usable, realistic thing to deploy on the car industry, this will make

such a difference and remove so many of the concern stroke arguments against adopting an EV.

Because your range will be bigger, the cars will be lighter. I mean, think about K cars.

And if you're getting like 300 mile range in the tiny battery pack, it just ends the argument,

doesn't it? It's just one of Suzuki's strongest sectors, of course. Just because we don't see

them here doesn't mean they don't exist. The Ignis, fantastic. Imagine the Ignis with the

solid state budget. That'd be awesome. Or the Swift. Oh, please, yes, do that.

I like the fact that they have gone out and they are trying to sort the solution themselves

and not rely on others. I think this is actually a really clever move and I hope it,

I really, really hope it pays off for them. Yeah, because not to go game changer down that

sort of cliche group, but this would make such a huge, huge impact on the car industry.

Because it would show smaller players, you can do it. Do you want to go to the other extreme?

Electric Ignis is wonderful. And at the other end, we've got right bus are going to apply 31

battery electric double decker buses to the Isle of Wight Southern Vectis, which is part of the

Go Ahead group is introducing 31 battery electric double decker buses into service,

built by a right bus and funded by the UK Department of Transport Zebra to

zero emission bus regional areas. There was an acronym looking for some words, wasn't it?

10.7 million pounds invested in these Isle of Wight Council contributed 733,000 pounds,

which is an awful lot of money in 1935. Oh, wow, we're going there, are we? So we are

really going to annoy all our listeners on the Isle of Wight here. Because I was expecting

you to say something about electricity being then suddenly having to be worked out how to make that

arrive in the Isle of Wight. Well, that is the big worry, isn't it? Yes. I've got the buses,

but do they actually have the electricity to run it? Please send all your loving mail to,

oh dear, did we just upset you at PO Box? London W1A 4WW.

But these are actually impressive features on these double deckers. It's like 275 mile range,

considering you're on the Isle of Wight and I'm not joking, I'm not whining people up here,

but considering your footprint is the Isle of Wight. That's a fair number of laps of the

Isle and that's not a urine extraction, by the way, that is quite a lot of,

that is quite impressive given that they're probably not going to leave the Isle very often.

So how often they need to be charged as well, which then helps the operator?

What they've done to do this, all jokes aside, some vectors have overhauled their new port depot,

they've installed dedicated charging infrastructure to support this, where they're going to be

charging them exclusively overnight, but full recharge of a double decker is expected to take

between three and a half and four hours, which is pretty impressive really. That's not bad.

Yeah, but there's not revealed full technical details of the charging setup, supposedly.

More of this and I love the fact that the government has actually,

and this is me complimenting the government, they've actually got in place funds for the

regional areas and it's not just the southeast. Right, I'm going to take us on because we have

waffled a lot in the first part of this show. We really have. Well, there's been a lot of

stuff to cover. Yes, but the last piece that we're going to refer to on the first part of the show

is from the register and it is a late entry, but important one I feel needs to be shared.

And it is titled EV Charger Biz Alec ELECQ. If you know how that's pronounced better than me,

then do feel free to let me know. And zapped by ransomware crooks customer contact data stolen.

Now they got in via the AWS platform. It's going so well for Amazon at the moment.

The AWS platforms and they fact they detected some unusual activity and then they quickly once

they realized what it was stopped that there is still investigations. This happened on the 7th

of March. There is still investigations going into how long they were in, how much data, what

sort of data. The Alec is a Chinese company that builds smart EV charging gear for homes

businesses. And it says that the compromised data, again, I'm quoting from the register

article, compromise data is limited to fairly standard account details, names, email addresses,

phone numbers and home addresses, almost implying that that's okay. And this makes me so angry when

I hear this sort of thing these days, but I don't know whether that's the emphasis from the register

rather than from the company. So I don't want to have a go at the company just yet because

I haven't read their official statement. They are quick to point out though that the charging

devices themselves have not been compromised, and they are fully secure and operational. The

Alec has informed the UK's Information Commissioners Office and Germany's Federal Commission for

Data Protection and Freedom of Information. There may be more customers across the European

market. But if you have something from Alec, be aware, pay attention to your emails,

get your spidey senses ramped up to number 11, be careful of communication. Yes, change your

password. Be very careful of any communication, particularly ones that ask for you to click

links for you to submit information, particularly bank stuff and that sort of thing.

Go and look up online how to protect yourself after a potential hack, because we aren't giving

the full information here. And make sure that you are careful. And if you know someone or a

business that has one of these charges, or many of these charges, then let them know as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, everyone just take this more seriously for crying out loud. Sorry, sorry.

Can I take you into guilt a minute now?

Please do.

Okay, it's guilt minute. Quick break at the show where we asked for a tad of financial support

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Thank you everyone that does. And thank you for everyone who continues to subscribe on YouTube.

I'm noticing a number is going up. And thank you very much for the nice comments as well

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And you say nice things. So thank you very much.

And you can, you know, if you want to listen, if you want to listen to the car or whatever,

then you can use YouTube music to stream the episode.

Yep. That works really quite well, actually.

And New New Car News, Alan?

Yes, New New Car News. Genesis has launched or at least made the UK debut of the GV60 Magma.

Is it Magma? Because it's so hot, it's from the centre of the earth.

Yeah, with 641 brake horsepower and a drift mode as well.

It's supposed to go on sale on the second half of this year and is currently on display at the

Genesis studio in Battersea Power Station until early March. This is the first of the Magma line

of high performance cars that are going to be coming from Genesis. If some of those specs around

it sound familiar, it's because the drivetrain is basically shared with the Hyundai Ioniq 5N.

Not a lot of shocks there, but it's a twin-moto powertrain,

putting up 650 metric horses, 400, 583 pound-feet of torque.

That gloves a notch 62 times in just 3.4 seconds using its launch control setting.

It also gets a boost mode, which has been enhanced and you access it via a MAGMA button on the steering

wheel. Do you have to wear oven gloves to press it?

Yeah, I think so, yes. At least racing gloves anyway, but not string-backed ones.

You can only get that full 641 imperial horsepower and 583 pound-feet of torque.

I know both units are used throughout this article.

For 15 seconds at a time, that's five more seconds than the 10 seconds,

you get in the regular car with its boost mode. The regular GV60, by the way, is more than rapid

enough. I was going to ask about this because I've always liked the look of it and I've never

driven one. I know it's got the special Spangley drive selector crystal ball.

I've passenger one because a friend of ours had one as a long-termer for a while.

He insists on demonstrating it. I remember sitting, I sat in one at an SMMT, but I didn't

drive it because I hadn't been released. I don't think I've driven one. I've definitely

passenger one and it was demonstrated to me in the slushy wet nastiness of January last year.

Similar to the 5N and the Kia EV6 GT, you also get active sound design plus

and a virtual gear shift, which simulate the sound and feel of a sequential transmission

which Andrew hates a lot of the passion, so I'm going to say that and then move on.

You also get it lowered 20mm and the track is 50mm or wider for better stability.

Big brakes, big discs, orange paint, orange bits in the seats, orange glows everywhere

to show its magma. I really like it actually. Price is to start in the region of £75,000.

Anyway, something that is less to like though. There's an awful lot of it to like if you like it.

There's a lot of it, but to like it, that's up to you. However, because of special rules in the UK,

the GM Specialty Vehicles UK will now be able to offer things like the Cadillac Escalade

and other enormous vehicles from Chevrolet GMC as well as Cadillac. This is all going to be

via the Clive dealership. At the moment, there is only one dealership in the UK that is going to

be bringing these vehicles in, but they're going to have all the stuff sorted because up to now,

as someone not a million miles away from me on a digital screen will attest,

you've only been able to do personal imports of vehicles from America that are not normally

sold over here. Well, yes, it's all to do with headlamps and all that kind of fun thing.

Yeah. Trust me. But do we really honestly need the... No.

Let's have a look. They're all left hand drive.

SUV and they're all left hand drive. Yeah, there's not going to be a right hand drive.

There is the Suburban. Obviously, that will work really well in the UK.

In the suburbs. Yeah. Yes.

And the Chevrolet Tohoi.

Stop it. The Chevy Toho.

Well, that's how much thought and care I have for these vehicles. I can't be bothered even

pronouncing the names properly or even to making a fist at it.

GMC, you can't... Sorry, GMC, you can't... Denali will cost about 110,000 pounds.

If you go for a GMC Sierra 1500, which is similar in size to a Chevrolet Silverado, but

better built, these washes on the bolts or something,

then UK prices will start at £73,000 plus VAT. The points out here in this most research

article is capable of towing more than six tons, which immediately makes a commercial vehicle.

Don't do that unless you've registered it appropriately.

And have a suitable license.

And have suitable licenses. If you want something a bit more affordable than that,

then a Silverado 1500 LT Trail Boss will be about £66,000 plus VAT.

Escalade starts at £149,950. What I'm really trying to explain to you here is,

these are not suddenly going to be appearing in the top models lists each month.

No, it's going to be the very worst of society who get them, though.

There is not. So, you know, this is... I mean, this is a wonderful access point,

and it does make it much easier for footballers and general undesirables to acquire these vehicles,

perhaps, you know, via lottery win or something.

If ever a vehicle screams, please, please pull me over.

Honestly, it's Talcumboda.

Well, it amazed me. So, I'll tell you Andrew about... Sorry, I know I shouldn't really waffle

because we've gone long this week. But friends and colleagues who come from the UK to the US

and they're getting my legs and go, why have you bought such a big car? It's like, I really haven't.

If you know it is, look, it's 70s. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's not a big car.

And then we go somewhere and we park and go off and we look around all the

discount outlets because that's what you have to do when you have visitors in the US.

And just come back to your car and you're like, where's the car?

It's like, well, you know that really big car that you were on about?

Well, it's hidden behind those two. You see that GMCU car and that suburban there?

It's behind those, but you can't see it because it's too small.

So, yes, they are... Even in the US, these are seen as really very big and they are

less... They are more of a novelty item than a vehicle, I think.

Yes, absolutely. Right, Alan, do you want to round out new car news with

not even a new car but already dead news?

Yes, the Lamborghini Alanzardo EV has been cancelled. Really, it's been cancelled because

it's shaped a platform with Porsche. Porsche have declared that they're not developing that platform.

And really, everyone's saying, well, there's collapsing demand.

Really, there's collapsing demand because, of course, the United States of America

and current times mean that EVs are all of a sudden a really bad thing.

Well, they were until about 10 days ago that they may well make a resurgence.

But, yes, all of a sudden, nobody's interested in EVs anymore because America

and that really, there needs to be the demand in the US to make these vehicles viable.

And there isn't. But also, China's market...

China as well. Has the Western car companies or non-Chinese car companies

have really struggled in recent years and it's getting worse and worse, particularly for the

VW Group itself. The combination of the two are really what's killed off this particular

platform right at the moment. Platform's gone. Therefore, there's no space for this.

By the way, I hadn't realised until I read this article from, again, Motoring Research,

that Lamborghini has an entirely plug-in hybrid range.

Every Lamborghini is a plug-in hybrid. No, I know. I thought that was quite a cool thing, actually.

Well, I never. Anyway, we're going to move on to points of interest now.

I'll put them on my list for next time I'm looking for a new car.

Yes, quite. Just check down the back of the couch for some loose change.

But from points of interest, and our lunchtime read is from Hagerty.

And the title is The Great Disgrace. UK Potholes Put Drivers Off Taken to the Road.

Alan put this in the running order and then I opened it and I just felt it hit home

on a couple of levels for me. First of all, I have not been

shy in saying how dreadful our roads are around here, how utterly appalling locally.

And then when I've gone elsewhere, I was on a drive date recently,

and the roads were so bad that they were split down the middle of the tarmac.

And you sort of go, this disgrace is the right word for it, considering

the country we're meant to be, but the state of disrepair is absolutely appalling.

And us patching up things, putting a sticky plaster over the holes is just not good enough.

There should be a huge amount of investment into our infrastructure,

but that's a fundamental issue that will never get fixed.

The other thing is, there's two points. First, I had a car recently, a high performance vehicle.

And I love this car. I've loved all the previous versions I've tried.

I don't, so you can all guess what it is.

Yeah, we've yet to do the recorded review. There's many more to record before that.

But I had a miserable time. It wasn't the car's fault, per se,

but I had a miserable time and part of that was the state of the roads.

There was no way I could drive remotely near the speed limit on particular roads. I was up

because the roads were so bad in such a shocking state. And when it comes to starting the early

work of looking at a replacement for our Balingo, I am narrowed down my search to particular types

of cars. And I can see why people go for SUVs, even though they're not my favourite type of car.

Totally see why people go for SUVs because you think I need something hopefully a bit

more robust and with the sidewall. I drove the Jermaine across Fife last week.

And whilst you could make more progress than you can in the Lexus,

yes, the occasional pothole or ripple on the road.

It's stressful. It's stressful.

And there was quite a significant bang. It was like...

Yeah, absolutely. By the way...

This is a great article from Nickburg.

Sorry, peace. It's not an article, but peace.

And thanks to Jim McGill for suggesting it, by the way.

That's very cute.

Oh, right. Great. Good choice, Jim. I like that one a lot.

List of the week then. List of the week this week is...

It's an absolute cracker. This is one of the best we've had for a long time.

This is really good. I think I said that recently too. And this is well up there.

It's by Greg Potts. It's from BBC Top Gear.

And it is 25 of the coolest mid-engine concept cars that never made production.

There's 25. Andrew, I introduced the article, so you get to pick first.

Yeah, I'll just take 24 of them, please.

Same. This is the problem, actually. This one is not a case of finding one that you like.

Yes, it's finding the one you like the most.

Yeah, it's how do you pick?

However, I have, and it was astonishingly difficult,

but I have picked the Ferrari Modulo.

There was another one I was so close to picking, but I thought, no, this.

I love the way that it opens for you to get in and out.

Obviously, where the engine is cited when you lift up the engine cover,

that's just amazing. This photograph is amazing to demonstrate this vehicle.

Now, the Modulo is an interesting one, because originally I believe it wasn't drivable.

But it was bought by an American collector a few years ago.

Now, somebody will correct me if I'm wrong on this. I'm sorry if I'm wrong.

And now he invests a lot of time and money in making it so it is actually drivable.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. I'm sure there must be other stories on that. Maybe that would be a good one for

Lovesome Read next week, actually, if we can find a story about that.

I'm sure I've seen something like that.

But you look at that interior and that really emphasizes looking out recent new episode.

It really emphasizes the points they were making when talking about a Ferrari interior,

I feel, even from this distance.

If you people who listen to this podcast haven't listened to the latest looking out,

I mean, do you remember the Ferrari Lucci interior caused quite a lot of consternation

between Andrew and I? Go listen to looking out because it's so good.

If that kind of thing interests you, go listen to it because the discussions around that are so good.

It's only on podcast players. It's not on YouTube video.

It's not on YouTube this time.

But it is on Apple Podcast. Really good. Really excellent.

I'll put a link in the Apple Podcast in the show notes to it because it's an excellent

episode. It's lovely to have them back for starters after the hiatus and they sound,

it's so chilled. Yeah.

And yes, only Lunatics do a weekly show with no breaks for 10 years or more.

Yeah, you've got to be total morons.

Alan, come on then.

Peugeot Quasar.

Okay. Peugeot Quasar.

Scrolling bucket.

It's right up top.

Yeah. See, I nearly picked that straight off when I went to scroll down.

I was like, oh, well, yeah, that.

And then I went to the next one and went, oh, well, that.

And then the next one, that.

Oh, that is the problem with this.

And then I came right back.

Also, I've seen this one in real life.

It's in the Peugeot Museum at Social in France.

And honestly, just seeing that in real life,

my first experience of it was the Matchbox toy one in white.

Although I have ones in other colorways now too.

But the white and then seeing it in real life was so awesome.

So cool.

Do you remember when car manufacturers teased us with all glass?

Yeah.

With huge levels of glass.

And now look at us looking out of letter boxes.

In 1994, it was shown off, but it's having navigation systems with it.

CRT monitor in the dashboard, all that kind of stuff.

It's very cool.

It's as cool in real life as it looks in pictures.

In fact, if not cooler.

So that's one of my favorites.

This is such a good list, everyone.

I know so many of you go, oh, I must look.

Do you listen along?

You think I must check that later and then you forget to.

Please, please, please.

I recommend that you do stuff like this.

It's absolutely cracking.

I mean, basically the cover art, the cover picture alone is worth looking at.

That's the modulo, isn't it?

Yeah, I know.

But it's just, it's in action.

So that just backs up what you were saying.

It just reminds me to get to life.

Anyway, very good.

Very good.

Anyway, moving on now and we round out with the and finally.

And this, I don't know if you've seen it, but this is from Saturday Night Live.

And it is on YouTube, a video of their car song.

And it really is worth a watch.

And then once you've watched it, you need to remember that the leading region when it

comes to car safety at the moment is China because China have outlawed electric door

handles that hide into cars and they must have a easily operable and mechanical door handle.

On the inside, this one's about this one is mostly about the inside.

But I think it's really interesting that this has.

I think one of the reasons why I flagged this when I added it is because it shows that these

problems are and recognition of these problems is transitioning into the mainstream as opposed

to just amongst nerds like us who have been grumbling about it for ages.

Yep.

And you know, there's almost 1100 comments on this.

It's like the touchscreen stuff and I'm seeing increasing numbers of people talking about ADAS.

And anyone who's listened to the show for any length of time knows how much I've

harped on about that.

Oh, he has.

I have.

Yes, I've noticed.

You might have just about.

But yeah, do do watch this.

Watch this video and then, yeah, it didn't realize how much it is hit home.

Yes, absolutely.

Anyway, on which note, I think that's us this week.

You can probably fall for more than long enough.

No particular parish notes.

Not that I know of.

No, no, no other than what we discussed earlier.

That means that don't get between now and next week.

You can give us any feedback.

Share your thoughts on the show at motoringpodcast.com on Blue Sky.

At Motoring Podcast on Instagram and Facebook.

And on the contact page of www.motoringpodcast.com, the hub of all our activities.

Remember, you can support us financially via Patreon and please leave a review and rating

on Apple Podcasts, YouTube or however your podcast app lets you do such a thing.

Andrew, what's the best way to get in touch with you?

Probably the best way to get in touch with me at the moment is via LinkedIn,

if you search from my name.

And Alan, if people would like to get in touch with you personally,

what's the best way for them, particularly if they have some

comments about the Isle of Wight and how angry they are at your comments about the Isle of Wight?

How should they do that personally?

They can use Blue Sky where I'm at AJP Bradley.

That's B-I-A-D-L-E-Y.B-Sky.Social.

I'm on LinkedIn as well, sometimes, much of the time.

We'll be back very soon.

Until then, I've been Alan Bradley.

I've been Andrew Clues.

And Safe Motoring.

Its talcum powder - 10 March 2026

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