Web Wednesdays – October Week Two

Welcome to AdFeeder’s web Wednesdays, your weekly dose of the latest news and stories that have caught our eye. From technology news to the latest vehicle releases and everything in between, we aim to bring you a quick run down of what you need to know each week.

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Another new Lotus is on its way

 

It’s a brand that is steeped in motorsport history, with some of the world’s most famous names getting behind the wheel at some point. Graham Hill, Ayrton Senna, Mario Andretti and even Kimi Raikkonen have all driven an iteration of a Lotus in their careers, and their huge success in motorsport often lead the brand to make some seriously impressive road cars too. 

With the all-new and frankly ridiculous Evija well and truly invading the hypercar market, and the spicy looking and freshly launched Emira taking care of the ‘I want something sporty but don’t want to spend £100,000’ market, there’s one market Lotus are yet to tap into. In fact, not many brands are yet to tackle it, we’re talking about a fully electric sports car. Porsche have teased it with the new Cayman, Alpine have hinted that the new A110 will be electric, but Lotus have promised it, and the numbers that are being thrown around are deeply impressive. 

The new model, said to arrive in 2026 is going to be 37% lighter than the equivalent structure used by the Emira, it has been designed from the ground up to compensate for the added weight of an electric powertrain and with a view to replicating the typical dynamic traits of previous Lotus models. The batteries can either be stacked vertically behind the seats – in a layout reminiscent of a conventional mid-engined format – or arranged under the floor in longer-wheelbase cars with rear seats. 

We’re just excited to be talking about new Lotus models! It’s a brand with such a rich affiliation to Britain and was almost seen as the ‘people’s sports car’, offering a driving experience like nothing else on the road.

Windows 11 is…problematic

Next we head to Microsoft, and the long awaited release of Windows 11. It’s almost expected now that a new operating system gets a bit of, shall we say ‘criticism’, but it seems this latest offering seems to have missed the mark in quite a big way.

It was released last week, and users of Windows 10 were given the option to upgrade to number 11 completely free of charge, but many users and media outlets have warned it might be better to wait a few months before updating. We’re not just looking at this one as an individual user either, as whenever a new operating system is launched businesses can sometimes lose precious time and money while their staff gets to grips with the new layouts and programmes. 

While Windows 11 isn’t a major departure from Windows 10, there are some differences, especially in the user interface, that could cause confusion. By slowly testing out Windows 11 with a few employees, businesses should be able to identify any potential issues (and sort them) before rolling it out to the entire workforce. This is a much more sensible approach than just putting everyone on Windows 11 at the same time, then trying to fix all the problems at once.

 

 

Norway are now world-leaders in electric vehicles

Finally, we head to a country that is leading the way in the electric revolution. Norway just hit a record in its move to phase out cars that rely on fossil fuels.

More than 9 in 10 new cars sold there in September were either electric or rechargeable hybrids, according to the Norwegian Information Council for Road Traffic, or OFV. Of all new passenger cars sold so far in 2021, less than 5% are petrol-powered, and a slightly smaller percentage use diesel

Norway’s government had already mandated a 2025 cutoff for internal-combustion cars, but it seems that buyers will beat even that target, with the last new petrol-powered car ever sold in Norway predicted to be as soon as April 2022.

This really caught our attention, as it just shows how powerful word of mouth really is. Residents are not forced into buying EVs, they purchase them because they can clearly see the benefits to them – the reduction in ownership costs for a start, but also the huge benefit they have on the environment around them. It’s also worth noting that electric vehicles sold in Norway are exempt from the heavy 25% VAT, meaning they’re cheaper than most combustion engines cars too! The good news doesn’t stop there though – EV owners get half price parking, toll roads and ferry journeys – small changes, but huge incentives nonetheless. 

 

So what cars are the most popular in Norway? Around 8 in 10 new passenger vehicles were all-electric, led by the Tesla Model Y. Sales of all-electric cars saw a roughly 46% increase over the previous September, the council said.

The top two models sold were both made by Tesla, the Model Y and the Model 3. In the third slot was the Skoda Enyaq, followed by the Toyota RAV 4 — the only hybrid in the top 10.

So it seems Norway has a clasp on making a lasting change to the way in which people travel, starting with the mode of transport that is most prominent. They are currently the world leaders in the electric vehicle market, and it naturally got us looking at what stage Britain is at. September has been a pretty terrible month for new car sales, the lowest since 1999 in fact, but sales of Electric vehicles are soaring, up 36% year on year. So we could potentially be seeing a shift in attitude towards EVs, and whilst there’s still plenty of skepticism around our charging network, we’d hope that the more we see on the road, the greater the benefits to those who are taking the plunge!

Let’s hear your thoughts, do you think the UK will follow in the footsteps of Norway? Is 2021 the year that the combustion engine loses its spark? I guess time will tell!

 

 

Elliot NewtonWeb Wednesdays – October Week Two