Electric Vehicles

After months of speculation, the wraps recently came off the highly anticipated Porsche Taycan recently. In the face of a dramatically changing world, Porsche looks set to build on its sports car credentials as it stakes a claim for Tesla’s electric crown. A new foray for Porsche, the Taycan is a pivotal moment for the brand and it’s clear that it’s current vehicles have heavily influenced this new machine. Visually the Porsche DNA is clear. Taking a front and rear end similar...

There’s no doubting that electric cars are rapidly taking a foothold around the world and this has all happened in just a matter of years. Wind the clock back just a handful of years and the future of the electric car looked sceptical. However significant advances in technology have spawned a new electric generation and it’s this wave that Mercedes Benz is looking to capture with it’s all new EQ range. We’ve known about the need to take action away from polluting vehicle...

Volkswagen has become the latest manufacturer to take on the infamous Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Located in Colorado, United States, Pikes Peak is a white-knuckle 12-mile climb which pushes car and driver to the limit. Volkswagen has been a notable absentee from the global motorsport stage since it suddenly pulled the plug on its World Rally Championship campaign at the end of 2016 after ‘dieselgate’ rocked the automotive world. But now it’s back and it’s more serious than e...

BMW recently became one of the first major manufacturers to offer both an electric sports car and city car with both since going on to help change the perception of electric vehicles. Jumping both feet first into electric vehicle adoption, the BMWi range has been a fundamental part of building the marques green credentials. Whilst other manufacturers were specialising in one type of electric vehicle, BMW was carefully, and silently, working away on two all new electric and hybrid vehicles. The ...

A perfect segway from our recent blog post on electric vehicles, our star car this week is this fantastic, all-electric, Tesla Model X. Whilst Tesla are relative newcomers to the car manufacturing world, being established in 2003, they have quickly established themselves as a leader of fully electric vehicles. Starting out with their first model, the Tesla Roadster, it gained critical acclaim for its performance and the way it handled, thanks in part to it’s Lotus Elise underpinnings. ...

The automotive industry is continually changing and this has always been the case since the first car came into existence, however, advances in powertrain technologies have seen this rate of change accelerate at a pace the industry hasn’t seen before. Petrol and diesel engined vehicles have very much been the staple means of propulsion on Britain's roads for the best part of almost a century now, but as the world wakes up to its environmental obligations, this is slowly beginning to cha...

They say 'follow the money' - and if the latest moves in the financial world are anything to go by, it might be time to start really believing in electric. Here at Big Motoring World, we were struck by the news that investment by venture capitalists into battery technology has now hit $1bn already this year – that’s far more than ever before. This massive cash injection is being driven by a need to create industry leading technology for electric cars - batteries are a fundamental par...

The good news just seems to keep on coming for fans of alternative energy vehicles - in the wake of a series of recent announcements by national governments of impending bans on diesels, it now seems that electric vehicles are also becoming an increasingly affordable option. Lower running costs Here at Big Motoring World we were certainly intrigued to read news of a recent piece of research that suggests that it is now cheaper to own and run an electric car than a petrol or diesel in the UK, US ...

The annual UK Budget is always a slightly unnerving time for British motorists - the news is rarely that encouraging, and most gifts are given while something else is simultaneously being taken away. So, here at Big Motoring World we were really pleased to hear that the there is some undiluted good news on the way for the UK car industry - a £500 million cash injection to help support electric motoring in the UK. Riding the wave It's an announcement that is probably not that surprising, gi...

Every generation sees themselves as pioneers in some way - the first people to see the way the wind is blowing, the first to embrace new ideas and start revolutions. And it seems that the same applies in the car industry too - as alternative power trains become increasingly popular, and the major manufacturers begin to pour money into researching the next big thing in car development - it is the younger drivers who are embracing change. In depth research Recent research by the AA - which asked 1...

‘Iconic’ is a word that gets seriously over-used - these days everything from buildings to haircuts are given the label. But here at Big Motoring World we’re quite happy to use it for vehicle as legendary as the traditional black London cab - a car so distinctive that you could tell it from its outline alone. It’s been a fixture on London’s streets since the Austin FX4 was introduced in 1958, but its current version has been coming under increasing pressure to adapt...

We’re huge fans of alternative fuel vehicles here at Big Motoring World - and it seems that customers are increasingly open to industry innovation in this area. Sales of AFVs (which include everything from pure electric vehicles to hybrids) hit 4.4 per cent in June this year in the UK - higher than ever before. Clearly, alternative fuels are going to be a big part of our motor industry’s future - but judging by some of the things we hear from customers here at Big Motoring World the...

A couple of big news stories caught our eye recently here at Big Motoring World. One was the announcement by Volvo that they will only be launching new hybrid or electric cars from 2019 (you can read more about this in our other post this week), and another that the new French president Emmanuel Macron’s government has promised that diesel and petrol cars will be banned in France by 2040. Serious business They’re both significant, not least because it shows just how seriously the ind...

  While many people are sceptical - and maybe even a little nervous - of the idea of driverless cars, at Big Motoring World we’re excited about the possibilities of this incredible technology. There’s been some real progress in this area over the last few years - despite a number of high profile setbacks - and it now looks like driverless cars are all set to arrive on the UK’s roads and motorways in the very near future. Oxbotica are a firm who develop the sophisticated ...

There are many ways that technology has transformed car ownership, and one of the biggest is the rise of the EV. Electric cars have quickly become more accepted as a viable option for UK drivers. And this means that more EVs are now on the second-hand market. But is it worth buying one? And if you do, what should you keep an eye out for? Is a used EV right for you? It can’t be denied that there are lots of reasons to look into buying a second hand EV, including lower prices, reasonable mil...

Recently, industry publication Auto Express’ Editor-in-Chief, Steve Fowler, argued that the UK needs more plug-in points for electric vehicles, which are fast-becoming more popular with consumers. Surging market Consumers, especially younger ones, are increasingly becoming environmentally conscious. With each passing day, more people are buying electric cars, to be more environmentally friendly. The Guardian reports that globally, electric car sales are set to eclipse the two million mark ...