Transport for London (TfL) has appointed the suppliers who will provide the rapid charging points that the capital needs to make it easier than ever before to use electric vehicles. A competitive bidding process resulted in Ireland’s Electricity Supply Board (ESB), being among the successful bidders along with the Centrica Consortium, BluepointLondon, Chargemaster, and Fastned. They will fund, maintain, operate and install the network. The operators will move quickly to install the charge points, with…

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has commenced unannounced inspections of car dealers nationwide. The focus of these inspections is to identify and take enforcement action against dealers who mislead consumers in the sale of crashed and/or clocked cars. Isolde Goggin, Chairperson of the CCPC said, “Consumers need to be able to rely on accurate information from car dealers in relation to a vehicle’s roadworthiness and its history, including mileage. All material information should…

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), for which commercial vehicles play a significant role in the development of new technology, will transform the lives of six out of every 10 people in the UK, according to new research published recently by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: Revolutionising Mobility in Society, the first comprehensive UK-based study of the human impact of CAVs, canvassed the views of more than 3,600 respondents and found that this new…

I came upon this interesting feature story on the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders’s Transport News Brief and I thought it would interest you. The population size of Aberdeen is about 230,000, which is somewhere between Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and Fingal in Dublin. Shouldn’t we be doing similar trials with hydrogen fuelled vehicles? Afterall, it is the future and we are away behind the UK in planning for it. Hydrogen is still discussed in…

Imminent changes to Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) mean consumers have just over a week to secure a deal on a new car before tax rates soar by up to 2475%. Analysis by What Car? has shown that the cost of taxing a car purchased after 1 April 2017 could be up to 25 times more, with even some of the most environmentally friendly plug-in hybrids commanding sharp tax increases. It’s conventional hybrids such as the…

Increased motor insurance costs for commercial vehicle operators could curb efforts to remain competitive, according to FTA Ireland. A survey of motor insurance prices by the association found that 87 per cent of its members experienced rises in 2016, with half saying their premiums had gone up by more than 40 per cent. To compound the problem, the lack of regulation and transparency within the insurance sector in Ireland is causing confusion on pricing and…

The UK automotive industry reports that it has once again beaten CO2 targets, with average new car emissions down for the 19th consecutive year, according to a report published by their Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) today. The annual ‘SMMT New Car CO2 Report 2017’ reveals that carbon tailpipe emissions fell to an all-time low in 2016, with new cars averaging just 120.1g/km. This beats the previous year’s record by 1.1 per cent…

The Seat Componentes plant near Barcelona, has been allocated the Volkswagen Group’s new MQ281 gearbox, a part that will be made there to service their global requirements. For the first time, a carmaker has installed POV cameras at different stages of the manufacturing process to show everything involved in making them in an accelerated video lasting 60 seconds. Every 27 seconds, a new unit leaves the SeatComponentes plant, which ranks first in manufacturing time for…

New car registrations for the month of February fell by 21 per cent (17,128) compared to the same month last year (21,573) with the total new car registrations for the first two months of the hyeardown eight per cent (56,110) on the same period last year (61,295), figures released by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) reveal. 

Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) have also seen a decrease in February of 28 per cent (2,504)…

Garda-Operation Thor had a very successful multi-agency checkpoints at the M1 Motorway at Balbriggan on Sunday last, the 19th February. As part of Operation Thor, under the direction of Detective Superintendent Colm Fox, Gardaí, Revenue Customs officers and compliance officers attached to the National Transport Authority, carried out a planned multi agency operation in the Balbriggan area targeted at disrupting organised criminals who use the motorway network. The operation was centred on the M1 motorway…