Month: March 2024

Two people have been arrested after the driver of a Lamborghini Huracan allegedly failed to stop for police and then crashed on a Derbyshire A-road.

The supercar, which can cost upwards of £250,000, was left damaged on the central reservation of the A617 in Chesterfield in the early hours of Saturday morning after the single-vehicle crash.

Derbyshire Constabulary said the driver failed to stop for officers at around 1am and they followed at a “safe distance” before the crash.

In a statement, a spokesman said: “Two people have been arrested on suspicion of driving offences after a collision in Chesterfield.

“Officers followed the vehicle at a safe distance but it was involved in a single-vehicle collision on the A617 shortly afterwards.

“A woman in her 20s was arrested at the scene and a man in his 20s was arrested soon after. Both have been bailed pending further enquiries.”

Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich site in the West Midlands will cease production of the firm’s XE, XF and F-Type models in June as it transitions to the creation of a new range of cars.

All three models remain on sale and available to order via the Jaguar website, though customers aren’t able to specify their own configurations which suggests that they’re being made to set standards instead.

The move means that, from June, Jaguar’s line-up will become SUV-only with the F-Pace, E-Pace and I-Pace remaining as the three cars left in the firm’s range.

In a statement, a JLR spokesperson said: “As JLR transitions to its electric future, current Jaguar production at our Castle Bromwich site will come to an end in June 2024.

“Our UK production facilities are being reconfigured to produce JLR’s next-generation electric models, this includes the stampings operation at Castle Bromwich which will be expanded to manufacture body panels for all our brands.

“Jaguar will begin an exciting new era as a pure-electric modern luxury brand with production commencing at our Solihull facility from 2025.”

The F-Pace remains in production at JLR’s Solihull site, while the electric I-Pace is built in Graz, Austria, by Magna Steyr. The smaller E-Pace, meanwhile, is built alongside the I-Pace in Austria, as well as at a second site in China.

The Castle Bromwich factory was originally the production site for both Spitfire and Lancaster planes during the Second World War, before falling under British Leyland ownership. It was after this that Jaguar took the reigns, reinvigorating the facility and building a range of cars there including the S-Type and XJ.

Nissan has halted production of its electric Leaf at its Sunderland plant as the firm begins the move to a new model.

The Leaf has been a hugely important model for Nissan, with 270,000 examples produced since 2013 and 13 years since Nissan brought out the first generation in the UK.

But the existing Leaf is bowing out for a new model which is expected in 2026 – alongside new generations of the Juke and Qashqai – thanks to £2bn of investment by Nissan.

Nissan has stated, however, that the current Leaf will remain on sale for the time being and ‘is available to customers as normal’.

The next generation of Leaf will continue to be produced at the Sunderland plant, too, having confirmed the news back in November 2023, with the creation of three ‘gigafactory’ battery plants expected to aid the production of these new electric vehicles.

At the time, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the investment would ‘no doubt secure Sunderland’s future as the UK’s Silicon Valley for electric vehicle innovation and manufacturing’.

A Nissan spokesperson said: “After 13 years of great success, the current generation of Nissan Leaf, the world’s first mass-market 100% electric vehicle, is approaching the end of its life cycle in Europe.

“Depending on the market’s inventory, European customers will be able to place their orders until vehicle stocks run out.

“Nissan has already announced a new line-up of 100% electric vehicles for the European market to be produced by the Sunderland plant as part of our commitment to sustainability and electrification.”

Former Aston Martin CEO and previous Nissan COO Andy Palmer said in a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was ‘saddened’ that production of the Leaf was ending, adding ‘the fact that these vehicles were built in Sunderland was a great point of pride.’