His Hand Over His Mouth - 4 April 2023

FOLLOW UP: EX-AUDI BOSS FACES JAIL IN GERMANYRupert Stadler, the former CEO of Audi has been told the case of fraud against him and others, has been substantiated and therefore could face jail unless he fully confesses. He and three other defendants were charged in 2020. The judge confirmed that there was no proof that one of the engineers was guilty of criminal activity. Click here to read more, from the Automotive News Europe article. FOLLOW UP: PARIS RESIDENTS VOTE TO BAN E-SCOOTERSWith a turnout of just 6%, residents of Paris have voted to ban dockless shared e-scooters. This has cause furious anger from the pro-scooter brigade. Whilst the vote is only advisory the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, insisted she would abide by the result. Click this Move Electric article link to learn more. UK GOVERNMENT ZEV MANDATE CONSULTATION OPENSThe UK Government has opened its zero emission vehicle mandate consultation. They have outlined their proposed implementation of policies that would require zero emission vehicles to be sold. You can read the consultation documentation by clicking this link here. Amongst the plans is to fine car companies if they do not meet targets for zero emission vehicles sold, the year on year changes to limits and how hybrids do not appear to be allowed post 2030 thanks to the new ICE vehicles ban. Click here to read more, from Move Electric. POOR ROAD REPAIRS TO INCUR FINESUtility companies will face fines for poor repairs to works, the Government has announced. Inspection of the work will be £50 and every subsequent inspection being £120. Those who do consistently excellent repairs will then be inspected less. To read more, click this Autocar article link here. SEAT TO BE THE MOBILITY BRAND OF THE VW GROUPIn the latest efforts of the Volkswagen Group in trying to decide what to do with Seat, they announced they would become the mobility brand for the Group. Seat will offer car-sharing and e-scooters. Final plans are yet to be confirmed. You can learn more by clicking this Automotive News Europe article link here. GM ANNOUNCES ANDROID ONLY SOFTWARE IN THEIR CARSGeneral Motors has announced that they will be utilising Android Automotive in their cars, starting with the Blazer EV. As a consequence Apple CarPlay will not be offered to owners. This offers astonishing levels of data to Google, especially if the driver logs into their account on the car. Click here to read an article outlining some of the data Google collects, via this Autoevolution link. This is a ‘brave’ move by GM to cut off a large section of actual or potential customers by excluding their phone of choice. As can be seen by reading this FT article,