Our electric future came a step closer this week as Mercedes announced that it was installing re-charging stations within its retail dealer network. Another milestone of sorts should be noted as last weeks share offer by the loss making electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla was vastly over subscribed.

The decision by the Mercedes network to install the charging points is no doubt motivated by the news that the battery-powered Smart car may be available in the UK before the end of the year.

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ACEA – the European car manufacturers and retailers association – has announced that it has reached agreement on common charging systems to apply across Europe, ready for the day we will all be driving electric vehicles.
Its seems to have taken a long time to get to this point. And as many major manufacturers are promising to introduce practical models within the next few years, the time is right.

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There was not much goods news for anyone in the emergency budget, but I suppose we can feel a little fortunate that the increase in VAT has been delayed until January 2011.
This does give a chance for the slow recovery in new car sales to continue for the rest of the year; and with the hope of a boost in September or towards the end of the year as customers shift their purchase forward.

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With England’s World Cup endeavours stuttering, Wimbledon just around the corner and the new Government’s emergency budget only a few days away, the past week has been relatively busy in terms of advertising by manufacturers. This week, for interest, we’ve also included poster campaigns that have run during the past fortnight.

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Next week will see the new coalition government’s emergency budget. We know that the government will aim to claw back some of the money it has given away to the banks by means of public spending cuts and taxation.

The big cuts will probably be put off until the autumn’s spending review report. So that leaves taxation for now.

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During a busy sporting weekend with the World Cup starting and motor racing at Montreal (Canadian Formula 1) and Le Mans, it’s been another busy time with 20 manufacturers campaigns noted.

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Autointel have just released May’s Top-50 Dealer Group rankings, accounting for 37.23% all new registrations in May, up from April’s 36.42%. (more)

The latest registration figures for May shows an ever improving picture for the motor retail trade, with registrations for the last twelve months (June 2009 to May 2010) further improving April’s figure (2,142,507) now at 2,159,744 vehicles (+0.8% from April). (more)

Lotus Cars are planning ahead to autumn this year when they will be re-launching the brand at this year’s Paris Motor Show. The strategy is re-position Lotus at the forefront of the ’super-car pack’ building on the brand’s heritage, including a great range of cars and its return to Formula One racing.

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For the eleventh consecutive month new car registrations have increased, by +13.5% in May to 153,095 vehicles compared to May 09 at 134,858. This result included positive gains in both fleet (+16.0%) and private (+12.3%) sectors.

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