New data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) reveals the 15 major EU countries earned £370 billion from vehicle taxes last year.
For context, that’s a 3.5 percent increase compared with the previous year. The figure also represents more than 2.6 times the total EU budget, which was £142 billion for 2019.
Different EU regions tax their car-owning residents in different ways. Common practice is to base taxation on CO2 levels, but some member states remain faithful to engine power, cylinder capacity or a combination of these and other factors.
While the uptake of electric and ultra-low emissions vehicles has been incentivised in some way or another across 24 of the 28 European member states, it’s questionable how much these offers benefit drivers. The increase in revenue suggests they aren’t taking the tax-break bait.
“Tax measures are a crucial tool in shaping consumer demand for zero- and low-emission vehicles,” said ACEA Secretary General, Erik Jonnaert.
“Given that the affordability of electric cars is still a major barrier to their wider market uptake, Europe’s auto manufacturers strongly encourage the 28 national governments to put in place meaningful incentive schemes.”
Calling this the most incredible driving simulator on the planet would be an understatement. The temptation is to draw comparisons with off-the-shelf racing games like Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo.
In truth, both pale in comparison to what Ansible Motion does. It’s like lining up a firework alongside a Saturn 5 rocket.
A simulator that ‘tricks’ you
This setup is a bit more complicated than a Logitec hooked up to an Xbox. It’s also about 5,000-times more expensive, assuming your Xbox and wheel cost you around £500.
So what do you get for £2.5 million? A simulator system comprised of 16 computers, 300 data channels, 11 or more motion axes, an eight-metre wraparound screen and a projection system, plus audio that’s at least five times more powerful than inside a cinema. Add to that a full cockpit (of your choice) mounted in a carbon fibre tub on a stratiform machine with horizontal, longitudinal and rotational movement, while pivoting on three additional axes.
Why doesn’t Ansible Motion use a whole car? Well, it would go to waste on a rig and be extremely heavy. All this operates in a compact space, with much greater efficiency and freedom of movement than a ‘conventional’ hydraulic hexapod simulator.
The result is a near-perfect driver-in-loop (DIL) system that tricks you into thinking you’re driving a real car.
The key is syncing everything up to the driver’s vestibular system. Put simply, that’s what gives you your sense of balance and place in the world. It’s an enormous part of what helps you distinguish between what’s real and what isn’t – and the final hurdle to ultimate immersion. It doesn’t matter how good gaming rigs get, you simply won’t get this level of realism.
Kia Cammaerts, founder and technical director of Ansible Motion, told us how a driver from “the top half of the grid of the fastest race discipline on Earth” was in Hethel to test the machine. He had a go, with the parameters for his car plugged in, and was having difficulty. Something didn’t quite feel right. Upon checking the systems, they found it was calibrated for him sitting 10 centimetres or so further to the right. Once fixed, he immediately gelled, setting world-class laps from the off.
What is the simulator used for?
Incorporate the parameters for your car – a lengthy process, we admit – and it’s possible to actually drive as you would the real thing. By parameters, we mean suspension spring rates, chassis rigidity, tyre tolerances and much more. Plug your relevant information in and, before you know it, you’re driving without driving.
Ansible Motion was understandably secretive about which marques it’s worked with. “Some of the latest supercars” were developed using one of these rigs. Their range of clients goes from mainstream car manufacturers to Formula 1 teams.
A moneyed Middle-Eastern customer also asked them to make him a game. They considered it, but talked him down. Based on how much work it is to develop a single research parameter, such as suspension bump and rebound (for a single car at a single circuit), it would make for one of the most sophisticated but least diverse gaming setups there is. And you’d need a small team to run it.
Aston Martin recently showed off something similar being used for its Valkyrie hypercar. It means a lot of the real-world testing that was previously necessary (some of which could be dangerous), can be offloaded onto sims. Connect a real powertrain to the computers and the rig, and lay down hundreds of testing hours at Spa without any worries of stuffing a multi-million-pound prototype (and yourself) at Raidillon.
Then there’s the other end of the scale. Stick a driver in a simulated autonomous car and you can monitor how that person reacts to stimuli. You can see the effects of challenging traffic situations, or how a driver might get distracted over the course of a long journey. At Millbrook, by the 10th run, the tyres would be dead and it’d be raining.
The possibilities are nearly endless, for driver in-loop, hardware in-loop and software testing. The company is getting “more requests for use cases and testing than we’d ever even imagined”.
Driving the Ansible Motion Delta S2
Initially, I was sceptical. While the rig itself and the scale of the system was impressive, the graphics weren’t as real-looking as I’d hoped. Could I really be put under the spell of this machine if my eyes weren’t fooled?
Yes, absolutely I could. The power of the vestibular system, and the fact that Ansible Motion have cupped it like a tiny delicate bird with their remarkable machine, became immediately apparent.
The rig is so responsive and has such a range of movement that you’re fully immersed. This was the first time I’d ever felt ‘there’ while driving in a virtual system. The sensations of sound, G-forces, acceleration, deceleration, body-roll, turning resistance, – it all felt so realistic.
The weighting of the controls, the feeling of pressure in the brakes, the way the seatbelt tightens as you lean on the brakes – any way you interact with a car as you’re driving it, it’s simulated. I couldn’t help but crack a smile of disbelief.
To get a sense for how successful it’s been, and how highly the industry regard the Ansible Motion system, I wasn’t allowed to drive a ‘real’ car. Or, at least, I wasn’t allowed to know what it was. Closely-guarded dynamic secrets hide within the models and code inside these computers. Instead, I went out in a ‘generic mid-size executive car’, something like a BMW 3 Series.
This experience of simulated driving is one I won’t forget, even though it did feel oddly familiar.
The entry-level Range Rover Evoque diesel with front-wheel drive is as clean – and in some ways cleaner – than petrol rivals.
Indeed, the Evoque D150 is the first luxury compact SUV to meet stringent Euro 6D-Final and RDE2 emissions standards.
How did the Evoque go green?
The Evoque D150 makes use of Adblue NOx emissions treatments, which are managed by intelligent exhaust monitors. Particulate filters help capture a total of 99.9 percent of soot.
Its Ingenium engine has a low-friction design to improve emissions from start-up, while mild hybrid tech harvests energy that would otherwise be lost in braking.
The result is NOx output that matches some petrol engines, while retaining the significant CO2 and efficiency advantages of diesel.
“Meeting the standards for this certification almost two years ahead of schedule is a real achievement and a result of collaboration within our engineering team to develop advanced engine and exhaust technologies,” said Nick Rogers, executive director of product engineering at Jaguar Land Rover.
“The new Range Rover Evoque uses a low-friction engine design that has reduced real-world driving NOx emissions by 90% since 2010, demonstrating vast progress for Jaguar Land Rover.”
Real Driving Emissions is a test procedure that all new cars must undergo. The second phase (RDE2) comes into effect in January of 2020, and this entry-level variant of the Evoque is already certified as compliant.
That means that it emits less than 80mg/km of nitrogen oxides, or NOx: the pollutant at the centre of recent emissions scandals.
The testing procedure is more real-world and less laboratory-based, to ascertain what new cars are really emitting.
Locating a charging point for your electric car should become less stressful, as Google launches updates to its Maps application.
Whilst Google Maps previously documented the location of EV charging points, the software can now offer live status updates of actual charger availability.
It should hopefully help reduce the risk of planning a journey based upon a specific charger, only to find that all ports are in use – or not working – on arrival.
Launching the updates, Google said not being able to charge your EV at your desired spot could “really put a damper on your day when you have places to go and things to do.”
Covering the UK and United States at present, the updates to Google Maps will document real-time info on charging points from networks including Chargemaster, EVgo, and SemaConnect. The Chargepoint network will also be added to the list of those supported in the near future.
Included in the search function will be details on the type of charging ports, the charging speed, and information about the business it may be connected to.
The updates to Google Maps will be available from 23rd April, and include Android and Apple iOS applications, along with the traditional desktop website version.
Adding extra EV information is just the latest in a line of updates to the Google Maps software. Changes to the company’s Alexa-rivalling Google Assistant, launched earlier this year, allow drivers to reply and compose text messages, or plan route maps through voice commands.
Google is also working with aftermarket suppliers to make accessing the Google Assistant easier through a range of in-car accessories.
Ford can feel deservedly pleased, as the Mustang has once again claimed the record for the world’s best-selling sports coupe.
Some 113,066 examples of the famous pony car found homes across the globe last year, with the ‘Stang now sold in an incredible 146 different countries.
According to Ford, the Mustang also increased its share of the global sports car market, adding an extra half a percent compared to the previous year.
Whilst American buyers took home the most Mustangs of all, accounting for almost 76,000 of all units sold, other markets saw growth too.
In the UK, Ford sold 2,323 examples of the Mustang. That represents an increase in sales of some 5 percent, set against a new car market generally hit by Brexit uncertainty.
The sales success looks set to be continuing into 2019, with a total of 2,300 Mustangs making their way to new customers across Europe so far this year.
Compared to 2018, Ford has sold 27 percent more examples of the muscle cars to European-based buyers for the first quarter of the year.
The news comes as the Mustang celebrates its 55th anniversary, with the latest sixth-generation car accounting for more than 500,000 sales alone.
As a true global brand, the Mustang is now successfully competing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, features in NASCAR, and is also a highly competent drift racer.
Along with on-track action, associations with the silver screen are also said to be helping Mustang sales. The movie-inspired Bullitt edition has helped contribute to increased demand in Europe and other key markets.
Think of London in the swinging 60s and it won’t be long before a Mini zooms into your mind. The little car, born as an economy special in 1959, was quickly reinvented as an icon of cool, equal to the Beatles (who famously all owned one). What better way, then to remind ourselves what makes the Mini great than an adventure through central London?
Microscopic Mini
It’s been decades since I drove a Mini, after learning to drive in one when I was eight (amazing what you can do on private land). Even the Mk1 Ford Fiesta we traded up to back in 1992 felt like a huge step up; today, original Fiestas feel tiny. And the Mini? Microscopic.
As we stood by the blue 1998 Cooper, I felt like a giant, who could almost pick it up with two hands. Modern cars make original Minis seem like toys. I bent down to push in the cool metal button on the door, and pulled open a wafer-thin piece of metal. Crash safety? Best not ask. Later Minis had side impact bars; goodness knows how they squeezed them in, or what benefit they could possibly bring.
Getting into a Mini is like climbing aboard a go-kart. It’s awkward, you need to be limber, and you drop down much longer than you expect before your bum hits the seat. At my first go, I got my knee trapped under the steering wheel, and was literally stuck solid. A sideways bash with my fist released it and, once the pain subsided, I surveyed the interior.
Our Mini was an original, with the centre speedo. Posh 70s Clubmans had offset dials, and enviable 1275GTs had a three-pack set including a rev counter. This leather-lined later model carried the original Clubman dash, with the added dials, wood veneer and Metro column stalks Rover added in the late 1990s. The acutely-angled steering wheel was even given an airbag, another minor sign of modernity in a classic car cabin.
Archaic, then, but full of character. After doing what everyone does when they get into a Mini for the first time – trying to move the seat back, only to find that’s as far as it went – I whirred the starter motor and fired the classic A-Series engine into life. Fuel injection meant it started cleanly, but that’s about it for mod-cons.
A Mini adventure
A heavy, short-travel clutch matches the heavy, short-travel brakes, which complement the heavy non-assisted steering. Minis are tiny but it’s no small effort to drive one. Being sat almost on the floor, with other cars towering over you, is also different. You’re so low, you have to crane your neck just to enjoy the thumbs-up from those in the car next to you. But so little road does the Mini take up, you feel there’s always an escape route.
(The Minis driving across piazzas, down steps and through tunnels in the Italian Job could admittedly be a factor here. Perhaps best not to try any of that in London today.)
The engine is on your side, too. Unlike modern turbo units, it gives all its grunt virtually straight away – a bit like an electric car, albeit a noisy and throbby one. With the Mini’s lack of weight, it gives the car a great feeling of agility and energy, of little lost motion, as if it’s always ready to get up and at ’em.
As if this wasn’t exciting enough, then there’s the ride. Minis are bouncy cars, and you can see from the video how much I’m jostled about. Our videographer’s Vauxhall Corsa felt like a Rolls-Royce after a morning in the Mini. But it’s not actually uncomfortable, just lively, and this adds to the thrill and sense of spectacle when driving one.
Wooed and wowed
Particularly as you are flooded with so much feel and feedback. Honestly, this is why everyone needs to drive a Mini at least once in their lives, just to feel how lucky racing drivers are to use cars that are so communicative. At all times, I knew exactly how much grip there was, and the state of the road surface below. The precision was incredible. The more I drove, the more confident I felt, and the more the Mini wooed and wowed me.
London had never been more fun. I can barely remember reaching fourth gear, but was still buzzing and mentally tallying up how I could own one. And all the fun I was having seemed matched by tourists and onlookers, revelling in the sight of a classic Mini being used just like it should be.
There’s a year of Mini celebrations ahead, starting at Excel in London. Nearly two decades after production stopped, it’s easy to forget how much fun the Mini still is, and how immense it must have felt in its 1960s heyday. For a morning, I put the mighty Mini back into London, and loved every minute. Sixty years on, it remains as magical as ever.
The soft-top version of the DBS is the second Volante model introduced under Aston Martin’s ‘Second-Century Plan’, following the DB11 Volante.
Raising the roof
The new roof has a class-leading stack height of just 260mm. That means the styling of the car doesn’t have to be ruined in order to stow the hood away. It also allows for better luggage space.
The roof itself can go from up to down in 14 seconds, then back up again in 16 seconds – and can be operated with the key.
Its made up of eight layers for maximum refinement. The mechanism and materials have been durability-tested to the tune of over 100,000 cycles, in conditions ranging from the searing heat of Death Valley to the vicious cold of the Arctic Circle.
It’s still a supercar
Under the skin, the coupe’s monstrous 725hp twin-turbo 5.2-litre V12 remains. Needless to say, this is the fastest Volante – and indeed the fastest soft-top Aston – ever made. It’ll crack 62mph in 3.6 seconds, on the way to a top speed of 211mph.
Also carried over is the eight-speed automatic gearbox from ZF and the clever aerodynamic addenda.
The latter includes the air extractors for the front arches and the double diffuser at the rear. The ‘Airblade II’ rear spoiler has also been revised. In total, the Volante produces 177kg of downforce at its top speed, just 3kg less than the coupe.
Open-air V12 soundtrack
The elephant in the room with the DBS Superleggera was always the DB11. Especially with the excellent AMR revisions, the DB11 isn’t an awful lot less car than the DBS. Especially when you consider the similarities in the cabin. Yes, the DBS looks as striking as it is beautiful, but the family relationship isn’t hard to spot.
The DBS Volante, however, offers something unique. If you want a brand new convertible V12 Aston Martin, the DBS Volante is your only choice. The DB11 Volante only comes with the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8.
Deliveries by autumn 2019
New Aston Martins aren’t a rare thing these days. A new Aston you can actually buy within six months of its reveal is something unusual, however.
Those interested in the DBS Zagato, 003, Valkyrie, Vanquish and DBX SUV will all have to wait; deliveries of the DBS Volante begin by the third quarter of 2019. Yours from £247,500…
Ferrari Premium is the new scheme offering peace of mind to Ferrari owners with cars aged up to 25 years.
It involves providing eligible cars with a certificate attesting to service and maintenance history. This also certifies any recall repairs, revisions or replacements that have been carried out. In short, it confirms your classic Ferrari is the real deal.
Models eligible include the 456 GT, 456 GTA, 550 Maranello, 550 Barchetta, 360 Modena, 575, 575 SuperAmerica, 612 Scaglietti, F430, 599 and Enzo.
Yes, you can get a Premium certificate to confirm that your Enzo has been properly cared for. Quite what effect that has on the seven-figure value, we’d be intrigued to know.
Maintenance for the fuel, lubrication, hydraulic and braking systems are all available at special prices, too. And the scheme gives you a shortcut to Classiche certification once your car passes 20 years old.
Ferrari Premium complements the after-sales schemes on new cars. Impressively, for a supercar manufacturer, Ferrari also offers a four-year warranty and seven years of free maintenance (both extendable still further at added cost).
Accidents on UK motorways where lights are off at night – be that because they’re turned off or broken – have nearly doubled over the past nine years.
The Highways England report indicates casualties on motorways and A-roads with unused lighting have jumped 88.2 percent. Its counter argument is that while the percentage jump is large, the numbers involved aren’t so shocking. It represents an increase in annual casualties from 93 in 2010 to 175 in 2017.
The news contrasts with an overall drop of a quarter in accidents and subsequent casualties since the end of the last decade.
It is also interesting to make the comparison with ‘lit during darkness’ road casualty numbers. The fact they’re much higher merely indicates that there are more lit roads than unlit roads. For lit roads, 2017’s 1977 casualties were almost 500 down on 2010’s 2,423. There was an overall low of 1931 in 2013.
Accidents in the dark
Is the 88 percent figure attributable to the lights being off? The correlation is difficult to ignore. Motoring groups such as the AA, who warned of the dangers of turning off road lighting, suggest the two are linked. Back in 2010 when the initiative to turn off lights at night to save energy began, the AA warned that drivers would be more likely to have accidents.
The scheme saw lighting turned off between the hours of midnight and 05:00, on roads including stretches of the M6, M2, M54 and the M5. This, in a bid to save money and reduce CO2 emissions.
The AA continues to call for a full investigation into the effects of turning off lights on road accident rates, as well as research on the real-time effects on road users.
Motorway service stations are invited to apply for funding to improve facilities for travellers with disabilities, under a new £2 million government-backed scheme.
The Department for Transport (TfL) has teamed up with Muscular Dystrophy UK (MDUK) to award money for Changing Places toilets, which are expected to be ready by the early 2020s. Motorway service station operators have until 12 July 2019 to submit their application.
The Changing Places Consortium is a group of organisations working to support the rights of people with learning difficulties or physical disabilities by campaigning for accessible toilets to be installed in big public places.
More than a quarter of a million people across the UK cannot use standard toilets, meaning they have to travel without a bathroom break, be changed by their carers on toilet floors, or forced to stay at home.
Changing Places facilities allow people with conditions like muscular dystrophy and cerebral palsy to use toilets safely and comfortably. It’s important to note that these toilets are different to standard disabled toilets and need to be provided in addition to accessible facilities.
To support travellers, Changing Places has created a toilet map of the UK.
‘Determined to do more’
Transport accessibility minister Nusrat Ghani said: “Today marks the next step towards our ambition of delivering a fully inclusive transport network. It is unacceptable that, despite welcome investment in some areas, our roadside services are not more accessible for over a quarter of a million people, and I am determined to do more.
“Our partnership with MDUK will help ensure that everyone, disabled or not, can use our roads and I encourage as many operators as possible to apply for funding.”
Catherine Woodhead, chief executive of Muscular Dystrophy UK, added: “Individuals and families living with a disability often tell us that travelling by car is the easiest way for them to get from A to B.
“Building Changing Places toilets at motorway service stations will make it easier for more than a quarter of a million people and their families to visit friends, go on holiday, or simply enjoy a day out somewhere – activities the rest of us take for granted.
“We’re delighted the Department for Transport has recognised this need, and look forward to working together on delivering this transformational project.”
The Changing Places application portal will remain open for three months with successful applicants announced in September.
Locating a charging point for your electric car should become less stressful, as Google launches updates to 
Launching the updates, 
Whilst American buyers took home 
The news comes as the Mustang celebrates 
Think of London in the swinging 60s and it won’t be long before a Mini zooms into your mind. The little car, 
