Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport has ordered Mercedes-Benz to recall 238,000 diesel cars over concerns they may be fitted with ‘defeat devices’ to pass emissions tests.

The announcement followed discussions between Andreas Scheur, Minister of Transport, and Mercedes-Benz CEO Dieter Zetsche. Mercedes-Benz has denied any use of specific software designed to manipulate vehicle emissions.

Despite this, the Transport Ministry announced that Mercedes-Benz would be made to recall the vehicles with immediate effect. The models affected include the GLC compact SUV and the C-Class saloon – both fitted with the 220d engine. The Vito series of vans is also believed to be involved. 

The 2.1-litre turbodiesel ‘OM651’ unit is offered in a variety of power outputs, and was initially developed to meet Euro 5 emissions standards.

Later revisions were intended to make the engine pass the more stringent Euro 6 regulations, with a specific focus on reducing particulates. This involved the use of the ‘AdBlue’ system of injecting diesel exhaust fluid to reduce NOx emissions. 

Whilst the initial recall is limited solely to Germany at present, there is the potential for it to be made European-wide. Estimates suggest that this could involve more than 770,000 vehicles if extended further. 

European Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska is one official calling for the recall to be taken beyond Germany:

Germany orders 230k recalls for #Daimler cars. Full support for @AndiScheuer actions. We need mandatory recalls in all 28EU Member States. Other countries should follow quickly https://t.co/a3P6qJbnTp

— Elżbieta Bieńkowska (@EBienkowskaEU) June 11, 2018

A recall is seen by industry experts as a move to avoid further action being taken against Mercedes-Benz. Substantial fines have previously been threatened against the firm, with the cost of a recall potentially less expensive. 

The number of vehicles involved is smaller than that implicated in the Volkswagen dieselgate scandal, but suggests that the issue of diesel emissions testing is not going away in the immediate future.

This Mercedes-Benz recall comes just days after results of the new ‘TRUE Rating’ for emissions testing were published. The real-world testing found that almost every new diesel engine failed to meet the required levels for NOx particulates.

Following news of the announcement, Mercedes-Benz has made only a short statement through parent company Daimler AG to confirm that the recall will take place.

Our statement from today’s meeting between #Daimler and the Federal Ministry of Transport: Daimler confirms the recall. Open legal questions will be clarified in the objection proceedings. #Diesel pic.twitter.com/e3JJa1fkcD

— Daimler Truck (@DaimlerTruck) June 11, 2018

Motorists are being misled about exactly what the latest driver assist technology is capable of, sometimes with dangerous consequences, warns Thatcham Research. It’s thus calling for car makers to think again how they use the word ‘autonomous’ in describing the tech.

The organisation says that today’s systems are assisted driving technologies, not fully autonomous systems. They are “still in their infancy and not as robust or as capable as they are declared to be” – despite car makers using “misleading” names such as Autopilot and ProPilot.

The problem comes where cars can take over some of the driving tasks, such as running and steering within lanes on motorways. The danger is that “the motorist may not be sufficiently aware that they are still required to take back control in problematic circumstances,” said Thatcham’s head of research Matthew Avery.

“Fully automated vehicles, that can take over the driving task from A to B with no need for driver involvement whatsoever, won’t be available for many years to come. Until then, drivers remain criminally liable for the safe use of their cars… [so] the capability of current road vehicle technologies must not be oversold.”

Thatcham Research has now outlined these dangerous grey areas in a new publication, called ‘Assisted and Automated Driving Definition and Assessment’. Later this summer, it will conduct a round of tests assessing six cars to a new ‘Assisted driving’ consumer testing programme.

‘Deeply unhelpful’

Avery blamed car makers for how they name and describe such systems. “Names like Autopilot or ProPilot are deeply unhelpful, as they infer the car can do a lot more than it can.

“Absolute clarity is needed, to help drivers understand when and how these technologies are designed to work, and that they should always remain engaged in the driving task.”

Thatcham Research wants it to be made clear today’s systems are ‘assisted driving’ technologies, not ‘autonomous driving’ functions. “The use of the word autonomous in carmaker marketing and literature is lulling drivers into a false sense of security.

“These are not autonomous systems.”

James Dalton from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) backed this up. “We are a long way from fully autonomous cars… it remains crucial that all drivers are alert and ready to take back full control at a moment’s notice.

“Manufacturers must be responsible in how they describe and name what their vehicles can do, and the insurance industry is ready to hold them to account on this.”

Thatcham Research has illustrated the dangers in a new video, showing the dangers of over-reliance on the technology with a Tesla Model S.

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Catching a glimpse of even one movie car in the wild is rare enough, but imagine pulling around a semi on your Monday morning commute and seeing seven.

In the world’s greatest bit of #carspotting ever, Twitter user @dartvindican posted a video of what he reckons is “The greatest truck in the world,” a magic car carrier loaded with seven iconic movie vehicles.

There’s the Ecto-1 from “Ghostbusters,” a Tim Burton-era Batmobile, a Ford Explorer and Jeep Wrangler from “Jurassic Park,” the “Back to the Future” DeLorean, the motorcycle and sidecar from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” and Herbie the Love Bug.

“The best truck you will see in your life,” is the translation from the tweet. A bold claim, but who are we to argue? A look at the number of likes and retweets suggests plenty fully agree with it.

Based on his twitter handle, we imagine @dartvindican was more excited than most.

El mejor camión que verás en tu vida. pic.twitter.com/B0C0EpPY3c

— Lord Darth Vindican??✌?? (@darthvindican) June 10, 2018

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The Porsche Taycan is the official production name chosen for the Porsche Mission E concept car, Porsche’s first ever all-electric car. Production will commence in 2019.

Apparently, a Taycan is, via a rough translation from an unspecified oriental language, a ‘lively young horse’. Since 1952, the Porsche crest has featured a similarly excitable horse rearing up. And the similarities don’t end there, said Oliver Blume, Porsche AG chairman.

“Our new electric sports car is strong and dependable; it’s a vehicle that can consistently cover long distances and that epitomises freedom.”

It’s the latest Porsche name that corresponds with the model and its characteristics, insists Porsche. Take the other models in its range:

• Boxster – combination of boxer engine and roadster design
• Cayman – incisive and agile
• Cayenne – denotes fieriness
• Panamera – a ‘GT-plus’, referencing the Carrera Panamericana long-distance race
• Macan – derived from the Indonesian word for tiger

Presumably the 911 needs no explanation.

Porsche says the new Taycan four-door, four-seat EV sports car will use dual electric motors putting out over 600hp. It will run 0-62mph in “well under” 3.5 seconds and 0-124mph in under 12 seconds. “The performance is in addition to a continuous power level that is unprecedented among electric vehicles.”

Porsche says “multiple fast starts are possible in succession without loss of performance,” and also confirms the Taycan’s maximum EV driving range will be well over 300 miles.

It’s going to be built at the Porsche HQ in Zuffenhausen, where work is already underway on a new paint shop and dedicated assembly area. Even the existing engine shop is being expanded to also build the Taycan’s electric drive units; around 1,200 new jobs will be created in Zuffenhausen thanks to the addition of the new Porsche EV.  

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The fourth instalment in the popular open-world racing game for the Microsoft Xbox has been announced at the E3 2018 gaming show. For those in the UK it will mean the chance to race on home soil, with Britain confirmed as the chosen location.

Unlike traditional racing games, the Forza Horizon series has placed gamers into a giant free-roaming environment, racing against other competitors both on and off-road. The previous three games in the series have all collected multiple awards, with fans enjoying the freedom to explore.

Forza Horizon 4 will stick with the open-world environment, but add a new feature of dynamic seasons. This will mean roads that are dry and grippy one week may be covered in ice and snow the following week.

Developers Playground Games say that every player will experience the same weather and seasonal conditions at the same time, opening up the possibilities for various new challenges. Being based in Britain, we presume this will mean grey skies for 99 percent of the time, followed by one day of sunshine…

Most important of all is the roster of cars, and Forza Horizon 4 seems unlikely to disappoint with more than 450 on offer. Starring as the cover car for this iteration is the epic McLaren Senna hypercar. A 1997 Land Rover Defender is also set to play a big part in the game.

From the initial trailer video we can also see a classic London taxi, a host of British-built MGs and Jaguars, plus a hovercraft! We’re not sure what the story is with the latter, but we guess it will be exciting.

As with previous games, all cars will be fully upgradeable and customisable. Be prepared to spend many hours creating your perfect livery. New to Forza Horizon 4 will be the ability to own property, although Playground Games are keeping quiet about what advantages that will bring.

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The game will be released on 2nd October 2018, and available for the Microsoft Xbox One, Xbox One X, and also Windows 10 PC. The keenest gamers will be able to pre-order from Monday 11th June 2018.

Name:  Vauxhall Corsa GSi

Age:  25

Style:  Lowered suspension, big alloy wheels, rear spoiler, shiny exhaust pipe.

A new car that’s 25 years old?  Kind of. Vauxhall has brought back the GSi badge for the current Corsa, and is using the opportunity to remind everyone about the original Corsa GSi from the early 1990s.

Was it one of those Max Power machines?  Oh yes indeed. Along with the earlier Nova, this was one Vauxhall that defined the modified car craze. A time when reputation wasn’t measured by Instagram likes and Twitter followers, but by how much ICE you had.

That sounds like drugs to me…  No, no, ICE stood for In Car Entertainment, not crystal meth. ICE was all about how many tweeters, subwoofers, and amplifiers you could cram into your average supermini. This frequently involved butchering your parcel shelf to fit a pair of 6×9 speakers, and losing most of your boot space for the aforementioned subwoofer.

Surely that added a lot of weight?  Yes, but we’re hardly talking about peak performance here. With just 105hp from a 1.6-litre naturally aspirated engine, the original Corsa GSi could only do 0-60mph in 9.2 seconds. Top speed was 121mph. But it did have 16-valves!

Did the number of valves matter?  It did, if you were trying to impress people outside a retail  park on a cold Thursday night, that is.

Does the new version have 16-valves then?  Vauxhall hasn’t said just which engine the updated GSi will be using, but everyone presumes it’ll be the 1.4-litre turbocharged unit from other models in the range. If so, 16-valves are go.

Phew. That’s a relief.  You bet. There’s the all important 18-inch alloy wheels, fancy bodykit, stiffer suspension, and sports seats inside. Most of these are taken from the Corsa VXR, which is due to bite-the-bullet to make way for the GSi.

Will there be ICE though?  Most Corsas now come with Vauxhall’s Intellilink system, meaning you can use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The GSi will be the same, so buyers will be able to stream their music, rather than needing to make mix tapes like in the olden days.

Do remember:  “I’ll meet you in the McDonald’s car park at 9pm” 

Do forget:  “This all just sounds like penny-pinching nostalgia to me”

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Fully Charged Live, Britain’s biggest ever motor show for electric cars, is now underway at Silverstone – and the bustling halls suggest the new car show is proving an instant hit. With dozens of new EVs on display, along with charging companies and other electric vehicle experts, there’s even a surprise extra for visitors – a pit garage full of classic cars converted to run on electric.  

Headlined by Robert Llewellyn, star of Red Dwarf, Robot Wars and the Fully Charged YouTube show, with the support of Jonny Smith and Helen Czersky, ticket sales for the opening day have vastly exceeded expectations – and so many people have turned up, Silverstone officials have had to open an extra car park to accommodate them all.

“We sold 1,000 tickets last night alone,” Llewellyn told Motoring Research. “We hoped to sell around 5,000 – but it already looks like at least 6,000 people will come.” As tickets remain on sale for the second day of the show on Sunday 10 June, the total could rise even higher.

Llewellyn told us he hoped the show would help dispel some of the myths around electric cars for beginners, as well as showing off leading-edge new technology for electric vehicle evangelists. “Several companies have chosen to launch products here this weekend,” he revealed.

Exhibitors include Ecotricity, whose founder Dale Vince helped Llewellyn open the show, plus Chargemaster, Drive Electric, the Renewable Energy Association and Calvin Capital. Most of the electric cars and plug-ins currently on sale in Britain are on show, with numerous examples of the market-leading new Nissan Leaf, plus the Renault Zoe, Tesla Model S and Model X, Volkswagen E-Golf and Hyundai Ioniq.

Taking pride of place at the entrance to the show is the new Jaguar I-Pace in one of its first public exhibitions in Britain, while the innovative Morgan EV3 is also on show.

As well as speaking to experts on the various stands, Fully Charged Live organisers have put on a series of talks – Saturday morning’s headliner was an EV101 introduction to electric vehicles, chaired by motoring journalist and television presenter Jonny Smith. He and Llewellyn will hold a live Q&A later in the day; another EV myth-busting talk is planned for Sunday.

Other discussion topics include:

• V2G: how can car, home and grid work together
• How to turn your home into a virtual power plant
• Total cost of EV ownership
• What the Watt?! The terminology of technology, simplified
• Generate your own heat and power at home
• From Zero to Hero: enabling the next Tesla

Bosses from Electric Classic Cars will also be discussing electric car conversions: in the Silverstone pit garage was a range of converted classics from a Fiat 500 to a Range Rover, plus a Ferrari that was waiting to have its V8 engine replaced by an electric motor and Tesla battery pack.

There was another highlight for visitors, too. Not only was there a solar-powered bus to ferry people from the car park to the massive Silverstone Wing, a heroic group of Tesla and Renault Zoe owners turned up en masse simply to transport people from point to point. They did it free of charge, will be doing it all weekend, and it seemed everyone who got out at the end of their trip was already beaming even before entering the show.

Just another demonstration of why Fully Charged Live’s opening day has proven such a hit. Come back to Motoring Research for more from the show; in the meantime, click on our images and, if you’re thinking of visiting on Sunday, see what’s waiting for you at Silverstone…

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You wouldn’t really expect Porsche to celebrate a 70th anniversary of producing sports cars with something as simple as cake and balloons. Instead, the Stuttgart-based company has revealed a special concept version of the 911 to mark the occasion.

Described as reflecting the ‘brand essence’ that Porsche has channelled for the past seven decades, the 911 Speedster Concept features deliberate nods to past cars. For Porsche nerds it’s the perfect opportunity to show off their knowledge by spotting where the individual influences have come from.

One of the Speedster signatures is the cut-down front windscreen, which changes the side profile of the 911. This is said to pay tribute to the 1954 356 1500 Speedster, a car notably designed to appeal to the American market.

The double-bubble cover for the rear seats has also become a Speedster tradition, and here it is made from lightweight carbon fibre. For the concept car it integrates a rollover hoop, along with a bespoke engraved wind deflector wearing the ‘70 years of Porsche’ logo.

Lightweight carbon fibre is used throughout the construction of the 911 Speedster Concept, with wings, bonnet, and rear cover all created from it. Although it may leave the Speedster looking like Porsche ran out of time to finish painting it, the white and silver colour scheme is meant to evoke memories of the earliest racing cars from Zuffenhausen.

One of the neatest details are headlight covers which feature subtle opaque and transparent sections. These form the shape of a cross, making it appear as if the Speedster Concept has the headlights taped up like a classic race car.

Inside is all about a lightweight focus on performance, with no radio, air conditioning, or satellite navigation. A pair of bucket seats are formed from carbon fibre, and covered in light brown Aniline leather as another reference to classic Porsche models.

Despite the 21-inch Fuchs-style alloy wheels, don’t think the Speedster Concept is all show. Beneath the trinkets, the chassis is essentially that of a 911 GT3. The 4.0-litre flat-six engine is also GT3-derived, producing 500hp and here connected to a new titanium exhaust system. A six-speed manual gearbox is used, much to the delight of Porsche purists we imagine.

The bigger question is whether those Zuffenhausen fans will be able to get their hands on this particular 911 Speedster. Porsche has created eight different models wearing the Speedster badge, often in limited numbers.

Although this new car is billed strictly as a concept, Porsche admits limited production is not impossible, but that any road car would not emerge until 2019. Start harassing your nearest Porsche dealership now should you want the latest in the Speedster lineage.