The cheap, small car is an endangered species in Europe - but there are green shoots of a revival
Close
Back in 2014, Suzuki offered Europeans a choice of three low-cost city cars of the type that made its reputation: the Splash, Celerio and Alto.
Ten years later the brand is still a leader in the field in both India and Japan, with a wide choice of basic mobility on offer. But in the UK and Europe? Not one.
Suzuki axed its final city car, the Ignis, last year after failing to make the economics stand up.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
17 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Wind turbines in our gardens? Miliband has finally lost the plot
His latest cunning plan being for people to erect wind turbines in their gardens. This is quite bold and brazen even for Miliband. Wind turbines are the vast steel, fiberglass, iron, copper, aluminium and concrete weapons of scenic destruction that have been popping up to fester in all their hideousness across our cherished isle. And many communities have managed to ward them off. Where I used to live in south Northamptonshire, for example, a scheme emerged for a flock of unseemly turbines to litter the horizon above the quaint village of nearby Helmdon, a place frequently wet but definitely not very windy. When the scheme was mooted, objecting seemed a fruitless task to most of us. But a few diligently went about doing their best and amazingly managed to defeat the plans. The landowner then went around sheepishly saying he'd never really wanted them anyway and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Until the following week when HS2 was announced and we sold up and moved to near Exmoor, where more wind turbines were mooted. Fortunately, the Exmoor National Park Authority's passion for conservation means large-scale wind farms don't quite fit the bill. But eagle-eyed Miliband has a way around that. If he can't get massive farms built then he, rather aptly, will see his way to a scattering of more diminutive erections across the country. Which means in your field, or your garden. This week, he announced a consultation on relaxing planning rules that govern the construction of turbines on residential and commercial properties. And when someone like Miliband or Angela Rayner use the word 'relax', what that means is they will ignore, or ride roughshod over local objections. Which, for communities, is very far from relaxing. 'Every turbine we build helps protect families, businesses and the public finances from future fossil fuel shocks,' Miliband said this week, adding: 'As part of this, we will consult on how permitted development rights can support the rollout of small-scale onshore wind.' So the prospect is that while your local council will deny you planning for your cute new conservatory, roof terrace or garden room, what the Government will consent to is a vast wind turbine plonked where your neighbour used to grow cabbages. As Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy spokesman, said this week, Miliband is 'trying to turn the nation's suburbs into a giant wind farm'. And it is this kind of random, unfettered construction that ruins the look and feel of Britain. You can also be sure that these huge structures (whose low hum will keep you awake and whose blades, if they ever turn, will kill birds) will cost a pretty penny. It means that those who can afford them will make huge energy savings as they generate electricity for their own consumption while selling the excess to the National Grid. The issue would prove hugely divisive for communities. However, we can take heart in that Miliband's announcement comes in the same week that Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that Britain will be 'fat free' by 2035. It may not be the silly season yet but there's certainly a lot of scorchingly hot air.
The Independent
24 minutes ago
- The Independent
Did Jaguar ‘go woke and go broke'? No, it's more complicated than that
It's genuinely unnerving, not to say upsetting, when even supposedly mainstream media report news which is not news, and where the reader is, knowingly or not, entirely misinformed about why. It's especially upsetting, I should add, for those of us who care about such things, when it concerns a venerated marque and a slice of what's left of the British motor industry. I refer of course to Jaguar, maker of some of the most beautiful, graceful and exhilarating cars in history. All last week there were headlines such as 'Go woke, go broke! Jaguar sales have crashed 97.5% since rebrand that stunned fans' and 'WOKE WOE Jaguar sales plummet 97.5% after fierce backlash over woke pink 'rebrand' that left fans slamming 'nonsense' EV'. 'Jaguar is heading for oblivion' was actually one of the more accurate ones, but only because it's been heading for oblivion on and off for most of the last half-century. 'Jaguar still alive' would be a better story. Coincidence is not causation, even when it makes for a neat woke-broke narrative. It's perfectly true that, in some quarters, the pink-themed androgynous models featured in a brand awareness ad a few months ago made some folk choke on their gammon. The new concept car, a wildly ostentatious, you might well say camp, deco-retro design with an improbably long phallic bonnet also caused similar controversy when it was subsequently revealed. (That was, by the way, one of the most successful attention-grabbing PR campaigns in recent times. As you see, we're still talking about it). It's also true that Jaguar sales have indeed collapsed. But that is really because, erm, Jaguar has basically stopped making cars. There's been no sales 'backlash' against the dramatic new electric pink thing with the odd 'jaGuar' logo because you can't order something that doesn't exist yet. It's a concept car. It might happen; it might not. Rarely do such outlandish ideas end up in the showrooms. The 'collapse in sales' has nothing to do with anything other than the ending of production. It's like saying that sales of Morris or Hillman cars have 'collapsed' in 2025. If Jaguar were still making their stylish saloons, sports cars and SUVs people would be happy to buy them; pink wasn't even a special paint option. But why isn't Jaguar making any vehicles? Two good reasons, neither 'woke'. First, the owners of the Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) group, Tata of India, weren't making any money on them, and there was no immediate hope of a return to profitability. There were in fact rumours not so long ago that the storied brand would be retired permanently, which would be a terrible shame, but make obvious commercial sense, and so allow the company to concentrate on its lucrative Range Rovers. Apparently, the boss, Ratan Tata, who died last year, wouldn't hear of it, but we can't be sure. In any case, happily, the second reason for Jaguar ceasing production of its internal combustion engine models, plus one slow-selling EV, was so that JLR could re-tool and reposition itself as an up-market, super luxury, advanced, thoroughly modern and profitable all-electric brand. A big ask for anyone in the automotive business, that, but it's not impossible. There are some interesting recent precedents. The Lotus Eletre, for example, is a huge, dramatically styled super-premium all-electric SUV far removed from the little sports cars Lotus is renowned for, but it seems to be doing OK. Lotus is majority owned by the Chinese giant Geely these days, which has the financial muscle to revive this other beloved yet neglected make, and which, we learn, will still be making cars in Norfolk, even though the Eletre comes in from Wuhan (no jokes in poor taste, please). Lotus, like Jaguar, had virtually disappeared before getting an infusion of cash and creativity from its new foreign owners. In a different sector, in mass-produced family cars, Shanghai Automotive also managed to exhume the MG brand and make it a major player in the family car 'crossover' SUV market. Again, that seemed a hopeless project to many pundits, but the buying public said different. Another, historic, example, would be how Volkswagen in the 1970s managed to escape from its reliance on the ageing Beetle by inventing the Golf, which soon defined and dominated its sector and helped the company stage a textbook 'product-led' recovery. The lesson seems to be that if you have a well-known and much-loved brand that has lost its way then you can, sometimes, defy your critics and turn things around. The next generation of all-electric Jaguars, Land Rovers and Range Rovers will share platforms, power packs, electronics and much else, which will help reduce costs, and with the right styling and marketing, they'll thrive. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. There's life in the old cat yet.
BBC News
25 minutes ago
- BBC News
Cornwall's double award success for commitment to fair pay
Cornwall has been recognised nationally for its commitment to fair pay at the Living Wage Foundation Champion Cornwall living wage place (LWP) campaign was awarded campaign of the year, while the council's good growth programme and Truro Foodbank were named joint winners of the local champions Council CEO Kate Kennally said: "These awards reflect the dedication of our partners across the public, private and voluntary sectors."They show what can be achieved when we work together to tackle low pay and insecure work in Cornwall." The LWP campaign began in 2023, when Truro Foodbank noticed an increase in employed people not being able to pay essential bills and needing to turn to foodbanks for help, the council added, 30% of households visiting the foodbank, at that time, had at least one person in work but were either paid the lowest legal minimum or were in a job with insecure Council's £186 million good growth programme, which manages the UK shared prosperity fund in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, was praised for its innovative approach to local growth funding since launching in 2022, the council said the programme was helping to shift Cornwall away from a low-wage economy, adding more than 150 employers and hundreds of employees had already benefited. 'Genuine recognition' Simon Fann, chair of the Cornwall LWP group and manager at Truro Foodbank, said: "This award is a genuine recognition of the commitment put in by a whole team of people to assist employees struggling on the lowest, most insecure pay. "Getting to this point marks good progress but we must not be complacent. "Last year, for the first time ever in the UK, more employed people than those on benefits felt compelled to turn to loan sharks with resultant massive interest and debt. "If this campaign means workers can determine their own financial security without the need to use foodbanks or loan sharks, then that is the true achievement."Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation said: "Together the living wage movement has put £3.85 billion back into the pockets of low paid workers since the campaign began. "I warmly congratulate Cornwall Council, Truro Foodbank and the Cornwall living wage place campaign on their well-deserved award and thank them for their support for the living wage movement."
