00:00
Welcome to the Motoring Podcast, your weekly discussion of motoring news. This is episode
00:06
647 on Tuesday, the 2nd of September 2025. Hello, I'm Andrew, and no, there isn't any
00:12
Allen this week, unfortunately. However, this week you will hear one item that will
00:17
remind you of the little Dutch boy story. In new car news, you'll learn about one
00:21
car that is nearly quicker to 60 than it is to say its name. And in points of
00:26
interest, you get to see how enjoyable a car park in the West Midlands can be. But first,
00:32
we have a touch of follow-up, and it's to do with the electric car grant. Now, the government
00:41
has tightened the EV grant scheme. A few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about
00:49
the farce that was the loophole that if one model of the range was under £37,000 and met
00:58
all the other eligibility requirements, then all the vehicles that shared the same powertrain
01:05
would actually be eligible as well, no matter what the cost. Hence, the Nissan
01:12
IRA managed to get in somehow 44,000, I think their most expensive one was. But now the government
01:20
has decided that they're going to sort of put a cap on that, and they've decided £42,000.
01:26
So only £5,000 over the original eligibility mark is able to get the grant of either £1,500
01:35
or £3,750. Insert your own shaking head emoji, your own head-on desk emoji. That's just ridiculous.
01:46
What a waste. However, that wasn't the only news that came out. We finally have two cars
01:51
that are in Band 1 of the grant, which means that they are eligible for the full £3,750
01:59
discount. That is the Ford Puma Gen E and the E Torino Courier. Congratulations to Ford
02:07
on that for managing to be the first car maker to have met all the rules. However, as we've
02:13
seen with the other ones, other vehicles that have been approved, I'm not sure how tightly
02:18
they hit the rules. But there we go. Anyway, on to new news. I'm going to start with
02:25
actually some really worrying and bad news, which is that Lotus is to cut 550 more jobs
02:32
in the UK, which means it will be cutting roughly 40% of its UK workforce. However, in wonderful
02:41
business word salad, it decided that it is actually still committed to Hethel. And I'm
02:47
going to quote here from the company statement that is on the Autocut article linked in
02:51
the show notes. The proposal is designed to enable Lotus cars to operate with a flexible
02:55
and agile business model, allowing it to ramp operations and resources in line with demand
03:01
as and when needed. Oh dear. Never mind. It just doesn't look good for Lotus does it
03:10
at all for the reasons we've said many times. But now the full debt for the first quarter
03:18
of 2025 because we the article that's linked doesn't have details about the first half financial
03:27
result which were released on the 29th or 30th of August. And their debts go up to $3.3
03:35
billion. They've raised 300 million on a share sale, apparently. It just looks grim
03:43
because their sales dropped 42% in the first quarter of the year. I don't know. I don't know
03:51
what they do to fix this. I don't know how they manage it because it just doesn't look
03:58
like what they're trying to do is working at all. But obviously thoughts with all the
04:02
staff members who've been let go. Good luck to everyone in the company. And I hope they
04:07
manage to come up with some sort of idea on how they're going to fix things. I really do.
04:13
Anyway, moving on. And we're going to go to the Renault group. And the headline news is
04:18
that Dacia's CEO, Dennis Levoe has stepped down after four years. He's apparently left
04:24
of his own decision. And he has been replaced by Katrin at who was Mercedes Benz vice
04:31
president. And she's done a lot of work in Mercedes. She's got 20 odd years
04:35
experience in the car industry. And you have to first of all congratulate Levoe on what he
04:42
managed to achieve with Dacia. The vehicles they brought out have been a great success.
04:47
They're including the latest one, which is the bigster. They have hit a corner of the
04:53
market that is really resonated. Dacia often are the top one or two best registered
05:00
stroke sale selling cars in Europe every month. They've done a fantastic job there.
05:06
But that's not the only changes that have been made within the Renault group. Now that
05:11
they have a new CEO, the Renault brand CEO, Fabrice Camberleave is now also being
05:18
given the role of chief growth officer for both Renault and Dacia. On top of that,
05:25
Philip Brunet has been named as the Renault group's new chief technology officer, which has
05:31
taken that piece off Philip Kreef's desk, so he can concentrate on just being just he says,
05:39
just being the CEO of performance brand helping going to be interesting watching how
05:44
they're going because from certainly from a design perspective, and what appears to be
05:49
the capabilities behind it. The Renault group are doing a cracking job right now.
05:57
Right, we're going to move on to Stellantis. And this is the news that they have
06:02
shelved their level three driver assistance program. As we know, they've
06:09
had a new CEO recently, and they have been struggling financially for quite some
06:15
time. And the new CEO Antonio Filosa said that he was going to have to make tough
06:21
decisions. And this appears to be one of those tough decisions. Because back in February,
06:26
the company said this was ready to deploy, which sort of gives the impression that
06:30
perhaps it wasn't ready to deploy if they're shelving it because it still
06:34
hasn't come out now. And we also have to remember that level three on the SAE
06:40
automated and autonomous driving level list is where the first time the car
06:47
companies themselves will be held responsible only be held responsible for
06:52
the use of their system. Whereas when it comes to level zero, level one and level
06:57
two, you as the driver are initially immediately held responsible for any
07:05
issue or incident with the car. And they've stepped back from this, it would
07:11
appear that they found it too hard to do. It's too expensive. And they still
07:16
haven't got anything that they can put on this or put on the road.
07:20
Associated with that is a reminder that any level two plus or similarly
07:27
marketed thing is not real in terms of SAE levels. The SAE levels are purely
07:35
whole numbers. There is no plus, there's no addition, there's no none of that
07:38
other stuff. So that is purely marketing. And if they say level two plus what
07:43
they're actually trying to deploy is a level three, but not be held
07:47
responsible. Just remember that if you see it.
07:50
Finally, some good news. And it's in the UK this time. And there is a UK
07:56
consortium that has secured 8.1 million pounds of investment to scale
08:01
up battery recycling technology. The idea is for them to develop a large
08:07
scale process for recovering lithium, nickel and coal bolt from end of life
08:11
EV batteries. The consortium is made up of JLR, LiBattery Cycling, WMG at
08:19
the University of Warwick and Mint Innovation. This is really important
08:24
if we can get to a point where we are actually able to recover the
08:30
minerals within batteries, it will reduce our need to dig more and larger
08:36
holes in the ground causing the problems associated with that, let alone
08:40
the processing and et cetera, et cetera. And it also gives us this more
08:45
circular battery economy that we're supposed to be after. And let's not
08:49
forget that the EU demands there should be something in the region of
08:53
75% of materials must be recycled. And we're supposed to be or car
08:59
companies are supposed to be doing that now, I think, or certainly by 2030 at
09:04
the very latest. And all the projections when you read reports that say
09:08
how good things are going to be in terms of lack of CO2 compounding those
09:15
sort of issues, they are all presuming that these using recycled
09:21
materials from processes that we do not have at scale yet. We do not
09:26
have them at scale across the world. We have some bits that are doing
09:29
things, but it's not at the scale that's remotely what's required by
09:33
legislation. Just bear that in mind as well. But this is brilliant news.
09:38
The project is going to run over three years. It's going to be in the
09:42
West Midlands, and it aims to prove, according to this
09:46
electrive article, prove battery recycling as a strategic pillar of
09:50
the UK's electrification roadmap. Good luck to them. Hope they can
09:54
manage that. Right, final article of the first part of the show. And
10:01
this is from TechCrunch and the headline reads security researcher
10:04
maps hundreds of Tesla mate servers spilling Tesla vehicle data.
10:09
Tesla mate is an open source data logger, which allows a Tesla
10:14
owner to self host all the data that is sent out from their car. And
10:19
it can go back to their own computer. So then they can have a
10:22
look at vehicles temperature, battery health charging sessions, as
10:26
well as maps that to therefore where it's been, the speed pretty
10:32
much in real time. Now there is a security researcher who is
10:38
called soy fella Kilich. And he's founder of the cybersecurity
10:44
company sword sec. And he's found over 1300 internet exposed
10:49
Tesla mate dashboards on the internet. He's fully aware there's
10:52
probably made by Mr. made public by mistake. But the information
10:57
was stored without needing a password or access to the store
11:02
stored data without needing a password. Oh, dear way. This is not
11:08
the first time that Tesla mate has had this problem previously in
11:10
2022. There were dozens of these dashboards exposed. Just
11:16
don't use third party stuff if you can help it. But it does give
11:20
you an idea of exactly how much information comes out of your
11:22
car. Please, if you have a Tesla and you listen to the show, or
11:27
you know someone who does, find out if they're using that and
11:30
then tell them to close it down or make it secure at least.
11:33
And that is the end of the first part. That means it's
11:39
guilt minute. And it's the quick break in the show where we
11:41
asked for a tad of financial support to keep the lights on and
11:43
hosting running. If you feel that the murdering podcast is
11:46
worth a small consideration every month, then you can become a
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patron. Different levels of patron include different levels
11:52
of commitment from us to you, including being able to watch
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the show recorded live. We also have a small range of merchandise
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in our spring stall from stickers to mugs and t shirts.
12:00
If you don't have any spare cash, and we completely
12:03
understand that, then you can help us by falling for free
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from podcast player to receive every show as they're
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released and by liking and rating the show and whatever
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12:14
and some of you do, so thank you very much indeed. Then the
12:17
last thing you can do is recommend us to your friends
12:19
and colleagues. That means we move on to new new car news.
12:25
Again, it's still a bit thin on the ground. We are
12:28
approaching the Munich Motor Show and so expect stuff to
12:31
start coming out. But we will wait until full information
12:36
has been released or it is the week of the Motor Show
12:40
itself. But the first one is that a Chinese state owned
12:46
company is coming to the UK with according to this
12:49
article, a Tesla Model Y rival. Chang gang is the company
12:54
that is coming here. Apparently, the UK is a primary
12:58
market according to Chang gang UK MD Nick Thomas. They are
13:04
apparently again, I'm quoting from him from the
13:06
article, we're not just launching a new car, but a
13:08
fully capable ecosystem to support it along with future
13:11
models we will bring to the UK. Okay, looks wise. It's an SUV
13:16
that looks like an car. Very much. Dear AI, please design me
13:21
an SUV that looks inoffensive. And there you are really. It's
13:27
going to have a WLTP range of 295 miles from an 80 kilowatt
13:33
hour battery pack. It's got a rear mounted 215 brake horsepower
13:37
motor and a 0 to 62 time of 7.9 seconds. Standard kit will
13:42
include heat pump, keyless entry and a 15.6 infotainment
13:46
touchscreen and heated seats. There's going to be 20 sites
13:50
across the UK of that will sell the D Pal SO seven. That's
13:55
what this one is going to be. And its prices will start
13:58
at 39,990 pounds. Okay, just remember, Chinese state owned. Do
14:09
with that information what you will. But they are quite an old
14:12
company. They began as an arms manufacturer in 1862. And they
14:16
may started making motorized vehicles in 1959. They're one
14:20
of the biggest in China actually they sold 2.68 million
14:22
models last year in Asia, the Middle East and Russia. They've
14:27
got a R&D center also in Birmingham to click the link in the
14:31
show notes if you want a nearly 40,000 pound Chinese SUV. Right
14:37
moving on and we're going to go to Subaru and this information
14:41
came out a while ago, but we just haven't had the space in
14:44
the show to talk about it. And we talked initially about the
14:49
trail seeker, which is a jacked up electric estate. However,
14:53
when it comes to the UK is going to be known as the E
14:55
outback, which is probably sensible because that's at least a
15:00
name that will be recognized. It's going to have 375 brake
15:04
horsepower four by four. And it's going to share the
15:07
underpinnings of the Solterra. And it also has just a
15:11
fraction more luggage space than the Solterra as well. We're
15:15
all fans of a jacked up estate on the show, particularly if
15:19
you slap on a load of cladding which they have done
15:21
well done Subaru. There's another tick. But they have said
15:27
that Subaru has really gone to town on this one. It's going to
15:31
feature 70% of Subaru parts and then we built in one of the
15:36
company's own factories. Whilst the Solterra is manufactured
15:41
by Toyota because that is the twin with the BZ4X. And
15:45
don't forget there's the uncharted coming out which
15:47
is based on the CHR plus. There's going to be a pair of 201
15:52
brake horsepower motors in each axle. 0 to 60 mile per hour is
15:58
4.4 seconds. And it's going to have a WLTP combined range of
16:04
up to 279 miles, thanks to a 74.7 kilowatt hour battery. It
16:10
can be charged up 250 kilowatts. And so 10 to 80% can take
16:16
less than 35 minutes. All environmental conditions allowing
16:20
it also and this might be important actually for the
16:24
market is aiming at it can tow up to 1588 kilograms. It's got
16:30
several drive modes as you would expect Subaru have lent into
16:34
it being very capable off road as well. So there's snow in
16:38
deep mud as well as hill descent control.
16:42
Subaru has yet to announce pricing but the trail seeker is
16:45
likely to be positioned above the Salterra. Next year we get to
16:49
see it. And we will round out new new car news with something
16:53
really rather ridiculous. And this is the 3 million Lamborghini
16:58
fenomeno. I think that's how you pronounce it. It is based on
17:03
the Revoluto, which is their hybrid hypercar. Yeah, it's
17:08
going to be a limited run no kidding at 3 million. And its
17:12
power has been boosted to from from only one thousand and one
17:17
brake horsepower in the Revoluto to one thousand and 65
17:21
brake horsepower. Thanks to 10 brake horsepower from the engine
17:27
that's been redesigned. And also 54 brake horsepower from the
17:33
biggest seven kilowatt hour lithium ion battery has been
17:36
created especially for this vehicle. It's only going to
17:40
weigh 1772 kilograms. And it is going to be the fastest most
17:47
powerful Lamborghini ever with a nought 62 sprint time of just
17:51
2.4 seconds. So that's 0.1 of a second quicker than the
17:56
Aston Martin Valhalla and just 0.1 of a second slower than
18:00
the Ferrari SF 90 XS. Well, tops out 280 mile an hour gets
18:07
124 mile an hour in 6.7 seconds. Just seems a bit insane,
18:13
really. Yeah, they they've limited it down to 30 examples.
18:19
29 have already been sold. And the other one is going to the
18:22
Lamborghini Museum in Bologna. But do have a click on the
18:26
AutoCard article link in the show notes to have a look at
18:29
this thing because it is, it is typically Lamborghini is
18:33
mad. Absolutely mad. And the stats are insane as well. Cricky.
18:40
Okay, now we move on to points of interest and unless you were
18:47
under a rock last week, or weren't looking at the internet,
18:53
you wouldn't realize that it was Rusteval 2025 at the
18:58
British Motor Museum. Alan was there and he got to meet
19:02
several people, which is good for him. I wasn't there, which I
19:07
am frustrated at because of my own stupidity of not getting
19:10
tickets in time. However, it did look a blast. It looked great
19:14
fun. The weather held off. There are three videos in the
19:18
show notes for this. We have a one from Hubnut. We have one
19:25
from Steph, one from furious driving. All those three helped
19:30
create the Rusteval. They helped organize it and helped put the
19:34
show on. Do click a link to each of the links in the show notes,
19:38
do watch their videos, give them some free internet love if you
19:41
don't if you can't support them in any other way. And do enjoy
19:45
seeing all the mad variety of vehicles that pitched up and
19:49
all the people were there. I haven't watched all the videos
19:52
yet myself. But I do know that in Hubnuts video you do
19:57
get to see Alan's land. Sorry, Lexus. I was going to call it
20:01
Land Cruiser then. He's Lexus. Don't forget there is a video on
20:04
our YouTube where Alan walks around and points at things at
20:07
his Lexus. You can watch that. Do click those links, do have a
20:11
look and do put a reminder to get tickets for next year
20:16
because it just looks such a fun and happy show. So more of
20:22
that, please. Right, list of the week. And as there's only me,
20:29
I'm going to pick a slightly smaller one. And this is from
20:31
Top Gear and it's titled here are 13 of the strangest concept
20:34
cars you've probably never seen. And to be fair, I haven't
20:39
seen many of these as a few I have seen. But many I haven't.
20:45
And there is a wide gambit of concept cars here. Some are more
20:53
successful than others, shall we say? Yes, and others you can see
20:58
have led to vehicles we've got on the road. But the one I'm
21:02
going to choose is a number 13. And it's the Volvo T6 Roadster
21:07
from 2005. And wow, you know, when PT did a sort of roadster
21:19
thing, I think TV's Paul Cowland has got one. It's along those
21:24
vibes, but more so. And it just looks fabulous. Absolutely
21:30
wonderful, silly, crazy, what one would hope from concept cars
21:36
that are not effectively a production car, just needing some
21:40
door handles and wing mirrors on it. Now, this is this all the
21:43
cars in there are definitely the we were we are playing with an
21:48
idea, or we're just playing. And the Volvo Roadster I think
21:52
was just playing and it's wonderful for it. Do click on
21:57
the top gear link in the show notes, do have a little look
22:00
around and see if you if you to agree with that or which
22:05
one would you rather have from the full list? Okay, that means
22:10
we have only got the and finally, and it's that time of year
22:16
again, the Hot Wheels Legend Tour UK has finished, and they
22:20
have selected a winner. And this was done at the NEC, where
22:27
they were part of SLAM's UK Gravity Show. And they had seven
22:33
cars on display at the show, which was down from 200
22:36
entrance. They had a Jaguar Mark seven. There's also a classic
22:42
Polo, which won the public vote. But the judging panel was Hot
22:46
Wheels designer Charlie Angulo. There was Nicola Hume, there
22:49
was Jordan Clark and Matt Armstrong. And between them,
22:53
they decided that a heavily modified Benny BMW three series
22:58
was the one to represent the UK. And it was an E21 1982 three
23:04
series, and it was created by Father and Son team, Paul and
23:08
Ethan Foster from Wickford and Essex. And it is suitably Hot
23:14
Wheels. It's mad. They have done so much to this. You do click
23:18
the motoring research article link in the show notes, because
23:23
they crammed a Rover V8, a five liter Rover V8 in there, given
23:28
its side exhaust, DTM gearbox, quave limited, differential
23:34
adjustable coil overs and Wilwood brakes, as well as so many
23:39
aesthetic and cosmetic changes. It is just brilliant. I love
23:44
it. I love it. Well, good luck to them. When it gets to
23:47
the full legends tour. And hopefully, the Britain can win
23:52
once again. And that rounds us out for the show this week.
23:57
Parish notes, we're going to be a day early next week. I've got
24:01
to go off and do a car thing. So we're going to be recording
24:04
on the Monday for release on the Tuesday next week. But after
24:08
that, we should be back to some sort of normal ish
24:11
schedule again. And that means that all I've got left to
24:16
say is that don't forget between now and next week, you
24:19
can give us any feedback and share your thoughts with the
24:21
show at MotronPodcast.com on Blue Sky, Motron podcast on
24:25
Instagram and Facebook and on the contact page of Motron
24:28
podcast.com, the hub of all our activities. You can also
24:32
support us financially by a patron and please leave a
24:34
review and rating on Apple podcasts, YouTube or
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however your podcast app as you do such a thing. The best
24:41
way to get in touch with me is if you search for crack
24:45
windscreen on Blue Sky, failing that if you prefer
24:48
LinkedIn, I am there under my full name. If you would
24:51
like to get in touch with Alan, the best way is to use Blue
24:54
Sky where he is at AJP Bradley. That's B-R-A-D-L-E-Y. We'll be
25:00
back very soon. But until then, he's not been Alan Bradley.
25:04
I've been Andrew Clues and Safe Motoring.
