They’ve been the law here in the UK for decades now. My first car was a 2002 VW Polo that had zero luxuries - no AC, manual locks, manual windows etc, but still had an immobiliser as the law required it. Car theft in the UK is now often either relay attacks (with cars that have proximity keys) or just stealing the…

Insurance would cover other weather related damage for sure - things like flooding or damage from falling branches. I think the question is why you should make a claim if there wasn’t anything beyond heavy rain on a parked vehicle, which is what the article implies. It doesn’t sound like the vehicle was actually…

I think there are a few factors involved right now. The UK economy is kind of in the shitter, and confidence is LOW. Nobody particularly feels like making a big change as a result - and for a lot of people, an EV is quite a jump. The government is currently going absolutely batshit and is fundamentally dysfunctional,…

Charging every night isn’t an issue if you have your own parking space with access to a charger - plenty of people do exactly this with PHEVs due to short EV only ranges anyway.

Oh for sure they’re not 1-to-1 yet - but the level of planning required is improving a lot, and so is the hassle levels.

I’ve found the one in my Polestar to be reasonably well calibrated. It also just flashes the light, and doesn’t beep. It’s a bit more enthusiastic when reversing out of a parking space, and it beeps doing that, but overall it’s not bugged me much.

Some Volvo dealers do servicing, but not sales, so you might be OK where you are. It’s a different model here in the UK- any Volvo dealer will service them. In the US they have to sign up to it. 

As an owner... they are my biggest bugbear of the car. They’re terrible. 

At least in the US many houses have dryer outlets in the garage, which an EV charger can plug into. In Europe, we have 240v so our charging out of a regular plug socket is faster, but we don’t routinely have higher amperage sockets in houses, and much more of the housing stock has no off-road parking anyway. One…

We’re already getting to the point where if (and it’s a big if) the charging network is up to it, EVs are road trip cars. Not all of them, of course, but Lucid have vehicles that’ll do over 500 miles on the EPA cycle. Even if that’s 300 miles in the real world, that’s longer than I’d want to drive non-stop, if nothing…

Volvo and Polestar seem keen on Wool. I’m wondering about the new EX30 for my next car, and I’d 100% go for the wool seating option. I currently have a Polestar 2 with the ‘Weavetech’ seats, and I’ve no idea what they’re actually made of, but they’re a good ‘premium’ feeling alternative to leather IMO. Unfortunately…

I’m English and I bought a ‘portable’ unit and a vent kit in 2020. It’s been a life saver. I evangelise about it to everyone when they whine about the heat. I know quite a few people now who have one, and sales have been going up over the past few years.

The weight they use for an ‘average’ passenger has changed over time. It’s also different in winter vs summer (the weight is passenger plus carry on), and varies from airline to airline. With 200-300 passengers, you’re going to be pretty close to the accurate weight with averages. Because that’s how averages work!

It’s how they handle things with the hatch closed. Audi have redundant lights in the bumper on a lot of their SUVs, which most of the time just looks like a reflector. The ‘proper’ light cluster, mounted on the hatch, works as you’d expect. If the hatch is open, or if the light unit fails, then the redundant ones in…

Absolutely agree. The Bolt having been selling better than ever just after getting canned, despite its shortcomings, is exactly why. Here in the UK things like the MG4 are selling like hot cakes because if you just want an appliance like EV with decent range, drives nicely, and is affordable, then that’s the go-to.

I cannot see how it could get past pedestrian safety regs here in Europe. EuroNCAP would *not* be impressed.

Have they been morons and put the turn signals where you can’t see them and don’t expect them again? Or have they been sensible and done the Audi approach by having redundant lights in the bumper?

The original Beluga was an A300 - this is the newer Beluga XL which is based on the A330. 

The thing is- weight isn’t the only factor when it comes to transporting something or someone by air. It’s not even a very good factor, when talking about passengers. A seat is a seat- it can be occupied by a small child, or a large adult- it can’t be sold twice. The empty weight of the plane is far more than the…

I love the exterior design of this, and the interior looks great too, but I’d have rather they didn’t de-content away the driver’s display. Even just a small screen like the one on a VW ID.4 would have been fine.