Motors in Maldon

Tesla has opened its Supercharger network to non-Tesla drivers living in four more countries as the brand expands its trial. Selected sites in France, Germany and Norway have been opened up all to electric car owners following a successful trial in The Netherlands last year. Although Belgian electric car owners can access the new sites, no Supercharger sites in Belgium have been opened up.

The move, which has been welcomed by non-Tesla drivers in the countries where the network has opened, marks the start of a new phase of the trial.

Every Saturday, Maldon Nub News brings you Car of the Week from Churchward Car Sales at Wycke Hill Business Park, Maldon.

This week our Car of the Week is this Nissan Juke SUV 1.2 DiG-T-N-Connecta (S/S) 5DR (2016/66), priced at £9,990.

The Volkswagen Golf GTE is one of those cars that seems like it has every imaginable box ticked. It'll do 40 miles of pure electric running (according to official WLTP figures) courtesy of its 13kWh battery, before a 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine kicks in to keep the GTE functioning like any 'normal' petrol car.

Due to the Golf's charging rate being capped at 3.6kW, the fastest you'll be able to charge that battery is just under four hours from a dedicated home wallbox, or some five hours from a normal three-pin domestic socket. The cables are provided for both of these charging methods, and it's reassuring to know that the Golf GTE's Type 2 charging socket is compatible with most public car chargers.

While rivals have been scrambling to produce designed-from-the-ground-up electric cars such as the BMW i3 and VW ID.3, Mercedes has taken a more practical approach – just convert existing cars. The first example of this was the EQC, which is an impressive machine but undoubtably has a few compromises as a result of sharing big bits with the petrol and diesel versions.

The company's next all-electric car was this EQA, which uses exactly the same formula. Unlike the posh and pricey EQC though, this is aimed at the more affordable end of the electric car market with prices starting at £44,495.

Every Saturday, Maldon Nub News brings you Car of the Week from Churchward Car Sales at Wycke Hill Business Park, Maldon.

This week our Car of the Week is this Mazda MX-5 Convertible 1.8I Venture 2DR (2012/12), priced at £9,750.

Police forces in the UK are to try out a Tesla Model 3 to see how it copes with the demands of emergency work.

Various constabularies have used electric cars previously, but these have always been for low speed patrol work rather than quick response duties. The Model 3 Performance will be tried out as a full-blown fast response and traffic patrol car, potentially replacing cars such as BMW's 330d and a Volvo's S60.

Every Saturday, Maldon Nub News brings you Car of the Week from Churchward Car Sales at Wycke Hill Business Park, Maldon.

This week our Car of the Week is this Volvo XC90 4x4 2.4 D5 SE Lux Geartronic 4WD 5DR (2014/64), priced at £17,490.

Vauxhall is making serious headway in its drive to electrify its range. The battery-powered Corsa-e is one the UK's best-selling and most affordable small electric cars, while the Mokka-e has been designed cater for buyers who need a little more space and demand a lot more style.

Looks are always a question of personal taste of course, but there is no doubt that the new Mokka is now a much more interesting car to look at. If you go for the electric version (Vauxhall offers the Mokka with a traditional petrol or diesel engine as well), you'll get a 50kWh battery and a motor which produces around 134bhp. That's actually more powerful than the petrol or diesel versions and is about the same as you'd expect from something like a 1.6-litre engine in the old model.

A record number of electric cars were sold in Europe in December, with 176,000 registrations during the month. Meanwhile, the sale of diesel cars continued its collapse, dropping to 160,000 for the month.

In the UK the figures were even more pronounced, with diesel sales plummeting from 15,813 in December 2020 to 5,201 in 2021 while battery cars rose from 21,914 to 27,705 over the same period.

The makers of the hybrid London Taxi, LEVC, have released the first details and artist impressions of a campervan conversion, called the e-Camper.

Campervan sales have grown hugely after the pandemic as holidaymakers are forced to stay in the UK rather than travel abroad. This has led to a raft of new conversions, including pure electric-powered camper versions of the Vauxhall Vivaro and Nissan e-NV200.