A lively discussion kicks off with the latest motoring news, including the confusion surrounding Jaguar's design chief and Ford's partnership with Renault for EV platforms. The hosts dive into the challenges facing the automotive industry, particularly around small cars and the future of combustion engines in Europe. They also explore Renault's shift away from mobility projects and the implications for car-sharing schemes. The episode wraps up with a look at wallet-friendly classic cars and a recommendation for a new gymkhana video featuring Travis Pastrana.
10 days after the story first came to light that Gerry McGovern, the design chief of JLR, had unceremoniously left the company, they state that isn’t the case and nothing else. No further details, no explanation, nothing. Instead of clearing things up, this has only caused more confusion. Click this Autoevolution article link here to read more.
FOLLOW UP: CRIT’AIR STICKERS STILL NEEDED IN FRANCE
Due to the chaotic nature of French politics, currently, the proposed legislation that would have removed clean air zones from the country’s cities has not been passed into law. Therefore, we are warning all that intend to visit the country in the next few months to make sure they have the appropriate stickers and paperwork. If you wish to read more, click this link from The Connexion.
FORD SIGNS DEAL WITH RENAULT
Ford has signed a deal with Renault that will mean the Blue Oval will be gaining the small electric car platform from the French firm. This will allow them to create more affordable EVs following how badly their larger electric SUVs are doing in the marketplace. Click this Autocar article link here to read more.
BMW GETS A NEW CEO
BMW has announced that they have chosen their production expert, Milan Nedeljković, to take over departing Oliver Zipse’s role as CEO. The change will officially take place on 14 May 2026. If you wish to learn more, click this Autocar article link here.
MERCEDES-AMG GETS A NEW CEO
Mercedes-AMG has announced Stefan Weckbach will be taking over the role of CEO after leaving Porsche, where he headed up the Taycan product line. To read further about this, click this Autocar link here.
ITALDESIGN SOLD TO A LITTLE KNOWN US FIRM
Audi has sold their stake in ItalDesign to a US firm that most will not have heard of, named UST. It is difficult to understand, via their website, exactly what it is they do too. Lamborghini retains their shares. Click this Carscoops article link here, to read more about this story.
EU MOVES ON 2035 ICE BAN REQUIREMENTS
Following hard lobbying from both nations and the automotive industry the EU is proposing some tweaks to the legislation regarding 2035 ICE bans. To read the first rumblings of this matter, click here for an electrive article link.
"...the Kitelle car pollution stickers and the zero emission or low emissions zones in some towns and cities ..."
Some cities have rules that only cars with low pollution levels can drive inside. If your car is too dirty, you might have to pay or stay outside.
Low emissions zones (LEZs) are areas in cities where vehicles that do not meet certain pollution standards are restricted or charged a fee to enter. They aim to reduce air pollution and improve public health.
"...the Kitelle car pollution stickers and the zero emission or low emissions zones in some towns and cities ..."
In France, you need a special sticker to prove your car is clean enough to drive in certain city areas. Without it, you might get fined.
Kitelle stickers are the official permits issued in France that allow vehicles to enter low emissions zones. They certify that a car meets the required emission standards.
"Ford came out and said that they've done the deal with Renault and they're going to use their EV platform"
Ford and Renault are working together so Ford can make electric cars faster. They’ll use a shared base that helps build new models more easily.
Ford announced a collaboration with Renault to use Renault’s electric vehicle (EV) platform for future Ford models in Europe, aiming to accelerate EV production.
"I'm saying, oh, we're not going to restart production of the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of the F-150"
The F‑150 Lightning is a truck made by Ford that runs entirely on electricity instead of gasoline. It has big batteries and electric motors to move the vehicle.
The Ford F-150 Lightning is an all‑electric version of the popular Ford pickup truck, featuring a dual‑motor setup and a large battery pack that powers both propulsion and onboard electronics.
"Yeah. It's been a lot of that. The capri by the way, to me, is the worst of the law."
The Ford Capri is a small, fast‑looking car that was made in the 1970s and 80s. It’s popular with collectors but can be hard to keep running because parts are old and rust can be a problem.
The Ford Capri is a classic British‑style coupe produced by Ford of Britain from 1970 to 1985. It’s known for its sporty styling but also for reliability issues such as rust and electrical problems.
"Just a pointless ugly vehicle, which the explorer by the way, I actually really like the looks of the explorer."
The Ford Explorer is a large SUV that was first made in 1990. It’s popular for family trips and can handle rough roads, especially the older models.
The Ford Explorer is a mid‑size SUV first introduced in 1990. It’s known for its spacious interior and off‑road capability, especially in the early 2000s models.
"Audi's not walking away and Volkswagen Group is not walking away entirely Lamborghini."
Volkswagen Group owns many different car brands, from everyday cars like the VW Golf to luxury models like Audi and Porsche.
Volkswagen Group is a German automotive conglomerate that owns several brands, including Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, Porsche, and Lamborghini. It is one of the largest car manufacturers worldwide.
"Audi's not walking away and Volkswagen Group is not walking away entirely Lamborghini."
Lamborghini builds very fast and expensive cars like the Huracán and Aventador. They are famous for their sharp looks and loud engines.
Lamborghini is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer known for its high-performance, exotic designs and powerful engines. It operates under the Audi brand within the Volkswagen Group.
"[816.0s] Yes, generally German cars, or Stellantis cars."
Stellantis is a big car company that makes many different brands of cars, like Jeep and Dodge. It was created when two large car groups joined together.
Stellantis is a multinational automotive manufacturing company formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group. It owns brands such as Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Peugeot, Citroën, and many others.
"[1409.5s] is the least sector-sexy in verticals of the lot, which is the charging network."
When you drive an electric car, you need places to plug it in and charge the battery. A charging network is a group of these stations that you can use, like a chain of gas stations for electric cars.
A charging network refers to a system of electric vehicle chargers, often owned or operated by a company, that allows EV owners to recharge their vehicles at multiple locations.
"...two thousand euros more than a Citroen Ami. And at that point, two thousand euros more than a Citroen Ami is getting on for a fifth year."
The Citroën Ami is a tiny car made by the French company Citroën. It’s very small and cheap, so it’s good for driving around town.
The Citroën Ami is a compact, ultra‑low‑cost city car produced by the French automaker Citroën. It’s designed for urban commuting, featuring a small footprint and an economical engine.
"up to 282 miles when they have the new 55.4 kilowatt-hour"
Kilowatt‑hour is a way to say how much energy a battery can hold. Think of it like the size of a water tank: bigger tanks mean you can drive farther.
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit of energy that measures the capacity of an electric vehicle’s battery. Higher kWh typically means more stored energy and potentially longer range.
"Prizes start from around 27,000 for the internal combustion engine models. The electric models expected to be around 30,250"
A car with an internal combustion engine uses gasoline or diesel to make the car move, unlike electric cars that use batteries.
An internal combustion engine (ICE) burns fuel inside the engine to create power, as opposed to electric motors that use stored electrical energy.
Car
Koenigsegg Alexis LFA concept
"the Alexis LFA concept, which shares the same underlying structure with the GT3 car"
It’s an electric car that looks like the very fast LFA, but it runs on batteries instead of gasoline.
The Alexis LFA concept is a battery‑electric version of Koenigsegg’s famous LFA supercar, sharing its chassis but powered by a large battery pack instead of a V10 engine.
It’s a type of engine with ten cylinders that can make a car very fast.
A V10 engine has ten cylinders arranged in two banks of five, offering a balance between power and smoothness; it’s common in high‑performance cars.
Car
Koenigsegg LFA
"doesn't have a V10 from the last LFA"
It’s a very fast, rare car made by Koenigsegg that uses a V10 engine to produce a lot of power.
The Koenigsegg LFA is a limited‑run supercar produced between 2008 and 2010, powered by a 5.0‑liter V10 engine delivering over 1,000 horsepower.
"[1759.6s] It is not as attractive as an LC500 though."
The LC500 is a special Lamborghini car that was shown to the public as a design idea. It has a very modern look and shows what future Lamborghinis might look like.
The Lamborghini LC500 is a concept car unveiled in 2019 that showcases a futuristic design and advanced aerodynamics. It was built to demonstrate Lamborghini’s vision for future production models, featuring a hybrid powertrain and striking LED lighting.
"In the US, you get them that were supercharged and all wheel drive as well as mid-engined."
Mid-engined means the engine is located in the middle of the car, between the front and back wheels. This helps the car handle better because the weight is more evenly spread.
A mid-engined layout places the engine between the front and rear axles, typically behind the driver but ahead of the passenger compartment. This design offers balanced weight distribution and handling characteristics.
"In the US, you get them that were supercharged and all wheel drive as well as mid-engined."
All wheel drive means the car can send power to all four wheels at once, which helps it grip the road better, especially in slippery or uneven conditions.
All wheel drive (AWD) is a drivetrain configuration where power is sent to all four wheels simultaneously, improving traction and handling in various driving conditions.
"In the US, you get them that were supercharged and all wheel drive as well as mid-engined."
A supercharger is like a fan that pushes more air into the car’s engine, so it can make more power. It’s powered by the engine itself.
A supercharger is a device that compresses air before it enters the engine, allowing more fuel to be burned and increasing power output. Unlike turbochargers, superchargers are driven directly by the engine via a belt.
Select text to request an explanation
Welcome to the Motoring Podcast, a week's discussion of motoring news. This is episode 662 on Tuesday, 16th December, 2025. Hello, I'm Al. Hello, I'm Andrew. And this week you'll hear us explain how one company's mobility move has had the handbrake plied. In new car news, you will listen to us describe a car that won't happen. And in points of interest, you will get some suggestions for wallet-friendly classics. But first, we go into follow-up.
And red faced. We're not red faced. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I do feel a bit red faced about this, but also it wasn't our fault. No, no, right. Okay, Jaguar are saying they haven't fired Jerry Macoff. We said they had. We would like to point out that we left that story for a week because we don't do the rumors. And we thought, oh, with this real or not, we left it for a week.
And there was nothing to contradict that. Not by last week, which we made a point about saying as well how the silence was deafening.
We did. Definitely broke the silence. And basically just said, no, we didn't sack him. And that's it. That's all it eats. Now nobody knows what the situation is.
Is he still in charge of design? Is he still employed? Just because they didn't sack him. Doesn't mean he hasn't necessarily left.
Jeremy Govin's board member of JLR, of course. And it's difficult to sack someone who's not in position. I think what we have guessed is that there are probably two sets of lawyers making decent Christmas bonuses in the background.
By decent, you mean able to afford holiday homes in Bermuda or something?
Another holiday home in Gishtat or somewhere or somewhere in Samarit or somewhere nice in the Alps for.
Don't worry, Priscilla, we shall go skiing this year. Yes. And these kind of things.
It's not just a big mess, isn't it now? It's such a big mess. This should have been.
This should have been fixed by now to a point where they can do an official statement that says something that because at the minute now is it's so unclear.
That we're just going to weld them what and they say we won't speculate on rumours as well.
Great, half of people commenting thinks that Jaguar is dead and the new car isn't coming out half are going that's ridiculous and nobody knows anything.
We don't know anything either. Let's just be completely clear about that. We know nothing. We've no insider info here.
Right, I think we've cleared that up. That would be really unsuccessful either.
We'll go on to take us to France then and sort something out that is a model and make that clear. Oh, right. Okay. Good luck with that.
Yeah, exactly. We talked a little while ago about France and the Kitelle car pollution stickers and the zero emission or low emissions zones in some towns and cities and how they'll have been votes to abolish low emissions zones.
As part of efforts to simplify economic life in France, once again, well, the debate on that has been delayed and delayed because France has been having sort of governments lasting sleep for the less time and less trust for the last few months.
It's a little bit messed up. They haven't really done that yet but the point is that they haven't voted on that properly yet.
If you are going to France over the holidays, if you are planning a trip to France in the next few months, you will still need to create a sticker because the low emissions zones are still in place.
The stickers are still necessary for the low emissions zones.
Carry on as usual people. Yes, they're end of my wise words.
Right. I'm going to take us into new news and the big one from last week is the fact that Ford came out and said that they've done the deal with Renault and they're going to use their EV platform.
As the basis for some vehicles to come out in Europe, obviously people then jumped up and down and went, oh, goodie, a Fiesta replacement that looks a lot like a Renault 5.
Now that the magazines, the magazines have tweaked the fronts of pictures.
No, but people were talking about that though. People were talking about, good, bring back a Fiesta, please, which is a fair point because if you look at Ford's range and if you ignore the Ford Tornio, which is the van that they put seats in,
the lowest priced car is the Puma at 26.5 grand.
Yeah. Having said that, when the Fiesta ended, it wasn't much cheaper than that.
No, exactly. Ford seems to have abandoned small cars in Europe.
Hopefully this is an attempt to bring a couple back again because it's lost a lot of market share, especially here in the UK.
Absolutely has. And if you look at its large EVs, they bombed.
They're darn expensive. By generally, would you have one unless you, he says, would neighbor across the road has an explorer.
But you don't see them around that much and why have one when you can really have an equivalent Volkswagen for less and it's got a Volkswagen badge, which here in the UK is more premium than a Ford.
Yeah. I think it underlines how poor decisions have been in the company for some time.
I've said quite a lot that the Ford's product planning department just seems to be a bit lost its way over the last few years.
Well, that's and now my thing is, Ford doesn't do product planning. It does need your reaction and we can see that in North America as well.
I'm saying, oh, we're not going to restart production of the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of the F-150, because we live our life, one financial quarter of the time, so I think to paraphrase.
Yeah. There's an excellent auto-carticle that's linked in the show notes, which discuss six.
It goes into more detail as well, some quotes from Jim Farley who's the CEO of Ford Global.
And there's some bits in there that he's talking about, particularly when he's talking about regulatory side of things that I can get on side with, because that's an added spanner in the works on top of their very hit and miss decision making that they've had.
Yeah. It's been a lot of that. The capri by the way, to me, is the worst of the law.
Just a pointless ugly vehicle, which the explorer by the way, I actually really like the looks of the explorer.
My only problem with that is I've seen them a few times out and it's certain angles that go, oh, which VW is that again? Oh, hang on, it's a Ford.
It's a Volkswagen Explorer.
Yeah, so I just like, well, I just have the Volkswagen instead.
When you get in it, it's all Volkswagen controls.
Dashboard, the direction selector, everything is Volkswagen.
But it drives, you know, it drove five round Melbourne. It looks nice.
I don't have much to complain about there, but the capri is such a dog's dinner.
Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway, do you want to take us on to a company that seems to be making moves in a very controlled and thought-through manner?
It is.
BMW has confirmed that the successor to the CEO Oliver Zipsi, it is going to be a production specialist, Milan Nadelkovich.
He's going to take over immediately after BMW's annual general meeting, which is meant to take or plans take place on the 14th of May next year.
Nadelkovich joined BMW in 1993.
It's had management roles in Oxford, Leipzig and Munich, as well as the corporate quality divisions before joining the management board in 2019.
His contract should run up until 2031.
Anyway, I'm going to take us on to Mercedes who have looked outside their company, but not very far.
And the Mercedes AMG new CEO is going to be Stefan Beckbach, who has come from Porsche, and he's going to take over from Michael Sheeber, who has moved onto Mercedes production quality and supply chain management operations.
We talked about that story a few months ago, and they still had a couple of positions that they hadn't decided, because there was a lot of moving chairs inside of Mercedes.
What they've done is they've gone for Beckbach, who helped do the rollout for the EV side of things for Porsche, including the Taken, which he was the head of that product line.
Mm-hmm. And the Mission X as well and stuff. I don't...
Looking at the track record of Porsche's EVs, I not blown away by that appointment.
Maybe at some much, many bits of that were out of his control.
Quite possibly.
Perhaps he's being rewarded for the bits he was in control of that he executed well.
Yes. One hope so, anyway.
Yeah.
Last up in German car news is Audi.
Of course, we have worked our way through, we were in equal large German automotive conglomerate.
Abuser. Abuser, yes, podcast this week, can't we?
Audi has just sold Italian design.
I don't know, people weren't really aware of it.
They've kind of forgotten about 15 years ago, Volkswagen Group, bought Italian design from
Josietto Giorgio and his investors, and whoever else owned it.
But he was the person, not everybody connected with Italian design, because he essentially, the founder,
Volkswagen bought it and then they put it under Audi and we talked a couple of weeks ago about
the Audi and that group within Volkswagen and the different profits from the different parts.
But of course, the bit we didn't talk about was Italian design, because it's in design studio
and we were talking terms of the profit per vehicle and that kind of thing.
Audi selling off, now they are selling it to a Californian based company called USD,
which of this car scoops, this car scoops.com article is, you must read it.
It's worth a read. One of the bullet points at the top saying it's been bought by California
based USD, which loves AI and buzzwords. They say a lot of things.
They point out that USD is based in California claims to employ 30,000 people over more than
30 countries, which I would have thought I'd have heard of it by then.
And they've also said they've spent more than two decades working and here I'm quoting.
Side by side with the world's best companies and leading OEMs in the automotive industry to make
a powerful impact through transformation, which to me by the way, and a well known,
globally famous design house sounds terrifying, but not as terrifying as the next quote,
because cascus is on say that's pretty generic and so is this gem which reads, I'm quoting the
quote again, how it by technology driven by AI inspired by people and led by this purpose,
what purpose USD partners with clients from design to operation.
Audi's not walking away and Volkswagen Group is not walking away entirely Lamborghini.
Audi within Volkswagen Group, Lamborghini within Audi, and then Italian design within Lamborghini,
are we all following at home?
It's going to need one of our, another one of our 4D charts.
We'll retain what's been called a significant stake. Nobody's really talking about prices,
specific figures, strategic partnership, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So we'll see what happens,
but no, that's screwed.
The faith is not strong with this, they do not seem like it.
I'm probably being incredibly unfair.
Well, no, when you read further down and you see what USD's apparent expertise is,
which I won't read out for everyone, you can read that yourselves, because you do need to read
the tone of how this article is written, it's quite enlightening, I think, but no, I have zero faith
in this, unfortunately, which is such a shame.
Yes, that's what Michael Gutierrez, the story there.
Right, okay, I'm going to take us to Europe, and whereas you said,
this is the end of large German water motifs, I think they have had a big hand in this next story,
and it's a two-part, it started off with a finding an article in Electrive that said,
six more EU countries seek to scale back ice phase out, and this was asking the European
Commission via a letter to tweak the rules that are in place at the moment for when
full internal combustion engine, stroke hybrids will be banned from sale as new cars,
and they have to go, and the European countries have to go EV only.
Obviously, this is with the likes of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Poland,
and Slovakia, all of which do like to build a, or have a factory or two that's build cars.
Yes, generally German cars, or Stellantis cars.
Yes, in fact, I think that that covers the broad scope of it, you know, apart from
obviously France and Germany as well.
Yeah, but I think in those countries as well, you will also see a few Chinese EV factories
are beginning to pop up. Goodness, that's an interesting one.
Basically, the point is, let me do the second part, which came out Monday, yesterday as we were
recording this, that there is a report that combustion vehicles will be allowed to remain on sale
after 2035 in the European Union. There are rules being stipulated for this,
and it's going to go forward for voting, but the ice vehicles must be made with either low carbon
steel, which is produced in the EU, or fueled with e-fuel or biofuels.
Bio-diesel, let's have diesels back again. Oh, I think the rules will be a bit weird,
but 90% will be electric, remaining 10% will be made up of hybrid and combustion vehicles.
That's what's being said a minute. Let's see what happens. It is a very fresh story.
This one, caveat, caveat, caveat. Quite. Look forward to follow up in the new year.
But one thing it does really harm a home is how poorly thought through the initial
legislation was because the politicians at the time had no idea what the knock-on effects
and unintended consequences were for coming out and doing what they're doing,
out on what they've demanded. It opened the door massively to China that they've had to
back pedal on. It's also given huge sways of job losses across the continent. We've seen that
for the last few years, and also on top of it, people are not buying them at the rates that are
demanded or was expected or simply can't buy them because they're so darned expensive.
Well, that's it. That's the thing that's really hammering home for everybody is that they are not
being sold at levels required, and the biggest reason for that is cost. But the big question from
all this is if the EU does this, does that have a knock-on effect into the UK? And if it does,
how badly will that message be handled? You saw Ken bad not saying that if she came into power,
they would wind back the Labour Party's demands for the effect, and it's just like,
no, no, this, you know, I'm not going to sit and make excuses for the Labour Party, but
that wasn't there, that was you lot. Three times. Yeah. Three times you did this.
Yeah, don't start with that one. No, it is very silly. Just ridiculous. It was like,
oh, wait, who was it? I said, I'm Brett, I'll name check out Brett. And he was saying, do I have this
thing that other people don't have called a memory? Well, the other thing that's happened since
that news came out, I've noticed a lot on LinkedIn, a lot of people writing a lot of words,
and it just reminded me, whenever you look at someone posting something, remember what their
motivation is? Clicks. Well, no, is there motivation? There is that, but is there motivation
that they are paid or and or have tied their existence into stuff that isn't EVs or stuff that
is EVs and bear that in mind. It's not, I'm not saying you disregard what they say, but bear it
in mind and that will give you a hint of their motivation and the why it's why it is written
in the way it is. And then you can go and get a balance from that. Well, you've got to be
it's being aware of the waiting. It's not saying don't pay any attention to it. It's just knowing
that there is there will be a waiting, a waiting behind that. Yeah, because there's a lot of people
who's income and existence is so tied up into one particular way or another at the moment
because it all has to be binary, let's not forget. Ridiculously. Not like gray areas. No, that
there's a lot of nonsense being said as well. Well, continues to be said. Yes. Yeah, and
tries to drive them an ass type. Yeah. Type world around things when that's really not necessary.
Anyway, moving on from the evils of LinkedIn, which is a rant I can quite easily join in with
hours. Renault has dropped most of its mobiles projects following what's described as a strategic
shift. The mobiles will mobilize projects are all around mobility and some of them are around
car sharing and other sort of solutions, rather than necessarily being around cars and vehicles.
Now, we've seen recently that there seems to be issues with car sharing schemes generally. I mean,
car sharing schemes have never really been successful around most of the world and the other
ones that have been successful are ones that have been then turned into, you know, crack addict
encampments and things. Well, I was thinking about this actually because I saw someone again
them go back to LinkedIn because I saw someone make a comment about this and also talking about
ZIP car. And I've always struggled to understand who it's really for because I know I'm not target
market. But unless you ban private vehicles, I can't see this ever succeeding very well. Or
only a private vehicle is so inconvenient and everything that you need is so convenient like
Singapore. Well, Singapore, Paris. Paris is, as far as I'm concerned, the example almost what
London? Well, not so much. Paris is far more just the way the city has been. It's far more
little villages. London's a series of larger towns that have kind of gathered. London did it
long enough ago in most places that there's been that a homogenization. Okay. Paris because of the
focus on shops and individual things. And the fact that it was smaller villages. 15-minute cities.
Exactly. Perfect. 15-minute on foot cities. Paris is a great city for walking around. You've got
your bikers, your green grocers, your butchers and your pharmacy because for odds. And you've got
your bikers and your pharmacy. And then Paris is like that, like every sort of two blocks or something.
You have a cluster of the same styles of shops. So you don't need that. And then you've got really good
public transport in and around Paris. And then really good public transport out of Paris.
Because of course it's the perfect hub and spoke model. London kind of is but because of where
it's situated in the UK. It's not quite as good that way. It really works there. And then generally
the bigger French cities also have really good public transport. You can get from your house in
one town to your friend or your family's house in another, you know, in Paris too, your friend
of family's house in another city relatively easily without a car. And then when you're in the city
you don't need a car. And having cars expensive. But you've got these utterly if you can just use them.
And people used to use them just for commuting to the office for all sorts of stuff within the city.
Or, you know, I need to go do some shopping. I'll take them and there were so many of them.
London, one of the troubles is that actually the whole town thing, sorry, I've gone off on a
huge tangent here. The whole town thing is what gives London all its different councils.
Right. So London's a pain in the butt because you don't just...
There's not one central organisation, is it? In Paris you work with the mayor's office
which is centralised because France, it's all centralised. That's how it France works.
London, you've got to deal with each of the councils in London.
And that's what makes things like car sharing.
That's what the scooters and the bikes in London.
The scooters and the bikes. The pain for parking. London is an absolute horror story for all
of these things. And it's what it's... I forgot how many councils are out. It's a 10-12.
Different councils in greater London and they have to negotiate with every single one.
And some of them have gone off and made agreements with other services.
You can't. So you end up with these like doughnuts, you know?
Yeah, yeah. There's no-go areas.
When they tried to do the Ottawa-Lebes in London, they could only have them in Hammersmith and City.
In Hammersmith, no Hammersmith and City, that's never too blind.
It was Hammersmith and whatever it is that's joined up with Hammersmith on the council.
And then there was one other small bit, so you could only park at them,
but charge them in these specific places.
That's why it couldn't possibly work in London.
And then they had to develop special cars that were right-hand,
you know, pinion-free in the cars, which were right-hand drug, not left-hand-ra.
Anyway, that's why car sharing and London.
It's a one-to-zip car lasted so long. Sorry, I thought about all this
after we record it. But again, it's the same in many other cities around the world.
Mercedes BMW itself, they dropped their years ago. They had ones in the US and all sorts of
stuff. I'm in Germany. That's gone. But the big thing about this Renault story, because we
were actually talking about Renault originally, is the big thing, which I think is the silly part
of this, is that they decide to scale back the charging network so they were building.
I think that's the biggest mistake. Because I still think that the best thing Tesla has done
is the least sector-sexy in verticals of the lot, which is the charging network.
That's what made Tesla successful, not that it could go from north to 60 in two seconds,
not because there was an integrated available charging network.
And that's despite him lying about saying it was all going to be renewable energy in order to
do it. Despite us, it's the fact that exactly what you said.
And it was reliable because it was like, it's the Apple thing. You know,
why do I buy Apple computers? Because Apple computers run Apple operating systems.
And it generally works. I mean, it might have roundy corners and some nasty animation
and stuff, but generally it works. Anyway, yeah. So that's the shame that they are scaling back
all this stuff. But the charge a bit that I think that's a mistake. I do. It's a shame.
The other thing that getting rid of is the, I forgot the name of it, but it's essentially the new
Twizzy The Duo. Duo, part of that down to cost. I mean, it's going to be one of those saying,
as somebody pointed out, it's going to be one of those million point things from a nice
buybook because it seems to have made so few of them. But the thing is, it costs like
two thousand euros more than a Citroen Ami. And at that point, two thousand euros more than
a Citroen Ami is getting on for a fifth year. Anyway, that disappointing story, I think brings us
to guilt minute. Quick break in the show where we ask for a tad of financial support,
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Yep, 100%. Okay, it is new new car news and I'm going to start with the
Avauxal Astra is getting updated. Now this is a car that I've never really liked the design of,
but apparently it brings the bold new face. Well, okay, I suppose. It's got a monobrow,
everyone. It's got that light that shows its electric by going right across the front.
It's in line with the rest of the range now and it is basically what's happened.
I just find the car too slabby for my liking, whether in hatchback or estate version,
but also they've boosted the EV range, which is always a good thing. We do like to hear that.
So the range has increased by 22 miles up to 282 miles when they have the new 55.4 kilowatt-hour
battery pack, which replaces the 51 kilowatt hour battery pack. It's hard to get very excited.
It is hard to get excited by it. I don't know. I probably have an E308 or one of the SUVs because
they're a bit more attractive, but again, it's a perfectly good car. Well, I was going to say the
SUVs are going to win out, aren't they? You're going to go for the Mocha if you want the
the Astra hatchback and you'll go for the Grandland if you want the estate. Yeah. Because that's what
people are buying because everyone else is buying them sort of thing. Yeah, which is a shame.
Prizes start from around 27,000 for the internal combustion engine models. The electric models
expected to be around 30,250, but they were just under 40,000 before. It was a significant price cut
on all of these. Yeah. But if you wonder why companies aren't building estate cars or hatchbacks,
I mean, this is almost falling back into the discussion about Ford at the start of the show,
then look and see how many extras you see compared to Grandland. Yeah, especially around here.
Anyway, do you want to take something that does get us a bit more excited than that?
No offense, Astra. More EVs. Really, it's kind of fall one from last week. Really last week we talked
about the new Kazoo, the GR GT. This week is its sister car, the Alexis LFA concept, which shares
the same underlying structure with the GT3 car, but this time it is a battery electric car. So it
doesn't have a V10 from the last LFA. Okay, that's fine. Some people seem to see that as a problem,
but that was always going to be the case. Yeah, it's more luxurious. It's more sculpted.
It's more sculpted. This one's not quite as much of a production car. It has silly wing mirrors,
for example, and a ridiculous dashboard. But I think the general outer form is going to be pretty much
pretty much there. I think it looks nice than the original LFA. Sorry, would you just say it looks
nicer than the original LFA? Front. The front, I think it does the back. I'm not convinced about.
It is not as attractive as an LC500 though.
Not nearly as attractive as an LC500. That's true, but I don't agree with your first statement,
but again, either beholder, etc., etc. I mean, it's not a million miles off it. I'm not going to,
do you know, I could be persuaded and swayed either way. If you put the two beside each other,
I could change your mind. I don't think the gray helps it. It probably the gray doesn't.
The gray doesn't help it because a lot of stuff is getting lost because there's a lot of
in the images that are in the top gear article that's linked. There's a lot of lights that are
bouncing off, I think deliberately, to try and hide some of the shape and form a little bit
from the casual observer. And it's a gray car, it's a gray background, and it just sort of highlights
stuff. Yeah. I could be persuaded otherwise. But I just wanted to make it clear that I always mean
there are degrees of orbit, there's different bits. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I sound like I'm back
pedaling. I promise I'm not trying to. No, it's great to see they've gone, they've gone all
in for the EV side of things as well. I think that's important, particularly for the stick.
Quite a bit of it justified that Toyota and Lexus do get with their approach to how they've handled
things. I thought that's it, they've had such a lot of stick about it, and then they come
out and go, oh, the supercar's going to be completely electric. And then all the others go,
but that goes back to what we were saying in the first part of the show about the binary nature
of the discussions. These these date, well, they're not discussions of people screaming each other
for some mad reason. I don't get it. I do not get it. Yes. It's not a discussion, it's hate.
Yes. You're not someone in discussion, you're a hater.
Absolutely. But let's move on now to Citron, and they have brought out a concept called the ELO,
or ELO. I don't know whether it's meant to be three, three letters or not. And it's not very big,
but it's an MPV. And the interior I really, really like. I might dial back the orange,
but I like the playfulness of it. The overriding thing I had when I looked at this,
because I got very excited looking at it. That's cool. I love the shape of that. The exterior is
pretty cool. And then I just thought, they keep doing this to a Citron. Yeah, they do. They keep
bringing out these cool, cool concepts. And then you look at what they give us on the road,
and you go, it's not, and they're not bad, but they are not in the same universe as how cool
their concepts are. And that disappoints me. And I know that one needs to temper one's expectations
because it's a concept and stillantis. Well, that's it. I'm glad you said that bit first,
because I wonder if there's a certain amount of internal marketing going on with cars like this.
I think absolutely. Because there's a couple of quotes here in this article from
Watercar LinkedIn, the show notes blah, blah, blah. And it said, it is the perfect manifesto
of how life can feel better with Citron. The whole idea is it's a room in the car,
it's lifestyle, it's all of these kinds of things in a form, which is very just isn't
seen in stillantis at the minute. It reminded me a lot of what's here have done quite a lot of
with some of their concepts recently. When I was looking at this, I was going, oh, that's
interesting. You have decided to do the same thing. That tells me something. Lift out your
feet and inspired by decathlon and all these kinds of things. Yes. It's the same kind of idea that
the super easily replaceable bumpers and recyclable bits and all of this kind of stuff.
There's a lot in here, and I think that this is a really cool combination of ideas.
It's a really great showcase of ideas internally and externally, externally to say, well,
look from Citron, of course, a different one. We think like this. In fact, the cars, you know,
what you've got by C3 and it thinks a bit like that, it's as much as they could get away with like
that in terms of dealing with market forces, internal politics, the sharing of panels,
sharing of panels, all of these kind of things. Yeah. Yeah. Could you go to do it for scale?
I understand why it happens. Don't get me wrong, but I'm not going to stop mocking it.
But this is what we really want to build. This is what we really want. And hopefully trying to
then persuade higher ups and say, well, okay, we'll let Citron do something special.
Because you can see some returning themes from previous ones. They've got the tail lights inside
the back window. And that's something they've done before. It was then, wasn't it? There was about
the cheaper vehicle. Yeah, that was the Oli. Yeah. They put it behind the glass, so therefore,
it's like a separate pod thing. You're not having to mold it into the body itself.
Aye. And also, your light cluster doesn't have to be weatherproof. No. There's an awful lot of
money saved. Yep. Just by the way, as far as I can tell, just by the fact it's called the ELO,
and it seats six at every point, the band ELO had more than six members, so they don't actually fit.
You can't fit the ELO into the ELO. Well, that's deeply disappointing. That's the kind of
in-depth research I do for this show, by the way. I think we should be applauded for the fact
that you have gone to that extra mile to find that out. Thanks Wikipedia. Consumer,
consumer motoring journalism at its finest. But now, do click the link in the show notes,
because it's a really cool looking thing. If you've not seen it, I particularly like the way
they've played with the interior and the adaptability of the interior. There's a great gallery and
slide show of some of the details as well, and there's real pictures as well as prep pictures.
Right. Should we go on to points of interest and see if we can tie into one of the follow-ups?
Yes. Point of interest. The first wind of interest this week is obviously a lunchtime read.
We've taken it from Haggerty, and it's from the global Haggerty site, which is in American
English, so don't be like one of the commenters. But it's also by, for any of the show,
materially Carter. And it's titled, Jerry McGovern was a larger than life figure at JLR for better
and worse. And then it says updated because they have updated it to say that we're not really sure
what the heck is happening. But they felt that they should leave this published. It's a really good
piece, obviously. We all know that material is good and automotive history and design history
and all of these kinds of things. And you can see all that in here.
Yes, very well balanced because like we said last week, there's a lot of people have been very
quick, not that I blame them either, very quick to come out and not say anything positive about
the chat. And depending on what news we find out in maybe another month or two, if we're lucky
from JLR, that may or may not have been a good thing to have done publicly. Yeah. Yeah. Well,
but it's a really interesting piece. Yeah. Well worth five, 10 minutes of your time to read through,
make up your mind, et cetera. Yeah. Excellent. Peace out. The cracker.
Right. We're going to have a list of the week from Honest John. And it is titled the best
cheap classic cars for 2026 over the Christmas period when we're not doing any news shows. But
there will be stuff coming out for you to listen to. Well, you sleep off your mince pie overdoses
we thought we'd give you something for possibly planning ahead for the new year and maybe thinking
about a project vehicle in your life if you are that way inclined. This list is several affordable
classics with the pros and cons of them in each of them and also explaining why the particular car
itself should be chosen. And as a consequence, it turns for me to ask Alan if he has anything.
It also tells your alternative uses for your turkey based after Christmas as well if you read right
to the very end. Things you should look for when you're going out and buying or considering to
consider it by a classic car. This is quite a spread here. It is yes. There are modern classics,
there are much older ones. There's cars that Andrew has owned in the time that we've been doing
this box. Yes, I'm going to choose, however, the Toyota Previa. Oh wow, because that was such a left
field unexpected thing. Yes, I was not expecting this in the list. I think it's fabulous that is
cousin of mine owned one and I used to mock him for it every time he gave me a lift. No, he would
explain to me how brilliant it was and how it was just a work of genius. In the US, you get them
that were supercharged and all wheel drive as well as mid-engined. I mean, they're all mid-engined,
but there was something really. It's a bit of a delicacy. No, it's far faster. You don't get
the supercharged delicacy. The delicacy is basically an L200 of the box on top. No, I was thinking
of the four wheel drive bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's well more all wheel drive than four wheel
drive. But these are super cool. I always, always like these. Cool. Cool. There's not many on here,
so I'm not going to tell you my choice in there. There's some I wouldn't touch with the barge pole.
I have to be honest. Yes, the one that the aforementioned one that the, yeah. Well, that's one of them.
There's two in here that I'm torn between. Anyway, Alan, do you want to take us to the
end? Finally, we give double treats this week. We do. And finally this week, there is a new gym
carna video out with Travis Pastrana, hooning something that looks on the outside a lot like a
Subaru brand underneath. I don't think it was pickup truck. And he's in Australia.
And he's, well, lots of it's on the port side in Sydney. But if you, and he's really cool, it's
great watch. Before you watch it, though, if you haven't already, then I recommend also
watching the mighty car mods video that came out last week, not this week's, this week's is about
racing. They had to last weeks, one which, because they've got a cameo in it right at the start,
they've done a video a bit of behind the scenes, but what they didn't, what they couldn't do,
oh, didn't do. And staff and a quick chat to directors, my wife's in Sydney, and all sorts of fun
stuff like that, which is really good half an hour as well. Watch them both. If you haven't watched
either, watch the mighty car mods one first, because it doesn't really have any giveaways in it at all.
And then bucks, warms you up to it, and then watch the doonig and moon second. Both are really good,
so if you've seen one, watch the other. If you've watched them both, good on you, join the club.
But they're really good, as always. I'm a huge fan of mighty car mods, I've been for a long,
long, long time, because they've been making YouTube for a long, long, long time.
No parish notes this week, there is, other than to say, other than to say, this is the last
one of the year, last new show of the year, because everybody's off to have their Christmas lunch
years, and nobody's really going to have any news over Christmas in New Year, so we should be back
probably not the very first Tuesday in January, maybe the second Tuesday. Might be the sixth.
Yeah, I think so. That makes us sick.
Even then, yeah, well, let's see how much news we've got. Let's see how much news we've
gotten, but how many special editions we have in the can, because I've actually forgotten how many
we have in the can. But in the meantime, as we can, yeah, if we've got four then we're laughing.
We definitely don't need as many as four right to the minute. So then it's going to be special
editions are going to be published on the Tuesday instead of the new show. Yes, we'll be back
early in 2026. We have not quite sure what date yet, because still there is much in the background
of things for both myself and to a certain degree for Alan as well, which are complicating lives
a little bit. But there's also no point in coming back in the very first Tuesday because there'd
be no news in the meantime. Yeah, there's going to be enough to be worth a show. And if we haven't
have a special edition to fill the gap, then let's just do that. Yeah, yeah, it takes a weight on both of us.
Okay, good. We'll be back at some point in the new year. Don't forget the between now and
whenever the heck it's going to be in 2026, how a really good Christmas and new year celebrations
take care of yourselves and your family and we shall see you then. If you want to give us any
feedback, though, you can do that and share your thoughts to the show at motoringpodcast.com
on Blue Sky, at motoringpodcast on Instagram and Facebook and on the contact page of
www.motoringpodcast.com, the hub of all our activities. When we can support us financially via
Patreon, please leave a review and rate your own Apple podcasts, YouTube or however your podcast
app lets you do such a thing. Andrew, over that period, what's going through the best way to get
in touch with you? Is it cracking messages perhaps? Yeah, probably. Maybe LinkedIn just about,
if not the message system on the website and then I'll afford it to me and at least I'll pay
attention to it, but don't give him extra work. He's trying to have time off as well. Yeah, LinkedIn
are probably the best. I am on Blue Sky as well, if you search for crack windscreen, but I'm just not
looking at it at the moment, I don't have the time or the inclination to be that irritated, that much.
And Alan, if people would like to get in touch with you personally because you're a nicer person
than me, what's the best way for them to do that? That's so much nicer. The best way to get in touch
is to use Blue Sky where I'm at, AJG Bradley, that's B-I-D-L-E-Y, topb-b-sky, dot social. We will be back
in the new year, but until then, I've been Alan Bradley, I've been on Shlues, and Safe Motoring.
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