Electric cars dominated the list of cars that depreciated the most last month.

Used car prices bucked the usual downward February trend by increasing one per cent in the month.

According to car valuation company Cap HPI, which revealed its data to automotive industry publication Car Dealer, the rise was for the benchmark of a three-year-old car with an average of 60,000 miles – only the third time that’s happened in February in 15 years.

But while petrol and diesel car prices went up by an average of 1.5 and 1.1 per cent respectively, comparable electric cars lost 7.7 per cent in the same period, with EVs accounting for all 10 of the biggest depreciating cars.

Here are the used cars that dropped the most in price in February.

1. Volkswagen e-Golf

The e-Golf was one of Volkswagen’s first electric cars and arrived before the firm started its ‘ID’ sub-brand for electric models.

Although it still offers a classy look and well-built interior, its claimed 144-mile range means the e-Golf is now showing its age, with used prices falling by a steep 15.1 per cent, or £2,300, in February.

2. Tesla Model S

Tesla prices have dropped sharply in recent months, not helped by the oversaturation of the market. It was the Model 3 that bore the brunt of the losses, but these seem to have plateaued now.

However, values of Tesla’s larger Model S saloon have continued to plummet, with this EV’s average price for a second-hand specimen dropping by 14.3 per cent in February – the equivalent of £5,617.

3. Tesla Model X

It’s another Tesla in third place, with the Model X SUV’s prices falling by 12.5 per cent, or a steep £6,178, in February. That latter figure is the biggest price loss of any car in the top 10, according to Cap HPI’s data.

Tesla is, however, making this large SUV an increasingly attractive proposition on the used market, with a Model X now available from £40,000. It also remains one of the only electric SUVs with seven seats.

4. Renault Zoe

Renault’s Zoe was an EV that helped to bring electric cars to the masses, and the new model is still an attractive option, particularly with its claimed 239-mile range.

It’s known for its steep depreciation, though, with used prices falling by 10.6 per cent (£1,192) in February. But while still an attractive proposition, it lacks the technology and excitement of many newer rivals.

5. Nissan Leaf

It’s a similar story with the Nissan Leaf, which while remaining perfectly credible, doesn’t have the emotive design and tech-laden interior of rivals such as the Volkswagen ID.3 and Renault Megane E-Tech Electric.

And it meant that used Leaf prices also fell by 10.6 per cent in February, equating to a drop of £1,469.

6. Hyundai Ioniq

Hyundai’s Ioniq remains one of very few cars sold as a hybrid, plug-in hybrid and an EV, but after a successful few years, the firm discontinued it last year to make way for its new line-up of electric-only Ioniq models.

While prices remained firm for quite a while, they’re now starting to drop, with a used Ioniq of this age falling by 10.1 per cent (£1,475) in February.

7. Kia Soul EV

Kia has established itself as a major player in the electric car market, and so far its vehicles have mainly managed to avoid the massive price drops of competitor models. That said, the firm’s Soul EV is listed as one of the biggest-falling cars in February, dropping by 9.7 per cent (£1,400).

The Soul EV does, however, have plenty to offer, including a funky design plus a long 280-mile range, while many used models will still have the remainder of Kia’s seven-year warranty.

8. Peugeot e-2008

Peugeot has dramatically expanded its line-up of electric models in recent years, and one of the most stylish choices is the e-2008 crossover.

But despite the chic design, decent amount of space inside and high-quality interior, used models still dropped by an average of £1,615 in February, mirroring the Soul’s 9.7 per cent fall.

9. MG ZS EV

MG has really made a name for itself when it comes to affordable electric cars, and the ZS EV has proved particularly popular with money-savvy shoppers wanting to go electric.

That said, prices for the ZS EV did fall by more than the average for electric cars in February, tumbling by 8.9 per cent, or £1,275.

10. Audi e-tron Sportback

Audi recently refreshed its e-tron and sleeker Sportback model, addressing two of the weaknesses of the older car – its inefficiency and quite disappointing range.

It’s likely those were the factors that also brought the price of this electric coupe-SUV down by 8.9 per cent (£3,713) in February.

Ford has announced it is returning to the Pikes Peak hill climb in Colorado in 2023, and that it will be competing in a van.

But it won’t be a normal van, rather Ford’s wild electric Transit-based ‘SuperVan 4’. Revealed last year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, it’s the latest execution of Ford’s ‘SuperVan’ concept, and the first EV.

Built by Ford Performance and rally specialists STARD, its four electric motors generate an enormous 1,973bhp, and means this heavily-modified Transit can accelerate from 0-60mph in just two seconds.

Ford has been competing at Pikes Peak for more than 100 years, and was present with its Model T at the first ever event, with the classic model taking 28 minutes and three seconds to reach the top of the 12.42-mile hill climb, which ends 14,115ft above sea level.

Ford hasn’t confirmed that it is hoping to break the overall record with the van, but has jokingly said it is ‘looking to shave more than a few minutes from the Model T’s time’.

At the wheel of the SuperVan will be Romain Dumas, who is the current record holder at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, getting to the top in a fraction under eight minutes at the 2018 event with the electric Volkswagen ID.R race car.

Dumas said: “Ford’s latest generation of electric vehicle technology is the perfect match for America’s Mountain. With high altitudes cutting power in traditional ICE-powered vehicles, the electric powertrain of SuperVan 4 has no loss at elevation and will be a healthy competitor in this year’s race.”

This year’s Pikes Peak Hillclimb takes place on June 25.

Rishi Sunak has been urged by Sadiq Khan to fund a scrappage scheme for the home counties ahead of the planned expansion of London’s ultra low emission zone (Ulez).

The Mayor of London wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to provide financial support for people in locations such as Surrey and Kent who drive into the capital with the most polluting vehicles to scrap or retrofit them.

He also called on Mr Sunak to match the £110 million he has allocated for London’s scrappage scheme.

Mr Khan is planning to expand the Ulez to cover the whole of London from August 29 to boost air quality, with a £12.50 daily fee for vehicles not meeting minimum standards.

This has met fierce resistance from several councils, with five mounting a legal challenge partly based on the scrappage scheme.

In a letter, Mr Khan urged the Prime Minister to “become a doer, rather than a delayer, when it comes to climate action”.

He explained that several areas introducing clean air zones have received Government funding for scrapping non-compliant vehicles – such as Greater Manchester (£120 million), Bristol (£42 million), Birmingham (£38 million) and Bradford (£30 million) – but London and the home counties “have not received even a penny of support”.

The mayor wrote: “I urge you to use some of the unexpected £30 billion windfall in the public finances to not only match the funding allocated for scrappage in London, but to introduce a targeted scrappage scheme that provides help to those based in the home counties.”

He went on: “London, the South East and the East of England make net contributions to the Treasury every year, and Londoners pay £500 million of vehicle excise yearly, which is then spent on maintaining roads in other parts of the country.

“For our regions to pay in so much and not be helped to reduce carbon emissions and make our air safer to breathe is unfair and doesn’t make sense.”

For diesel cars and vans to avoid the Ulez charge they must generally have been registered from September 2015, while most petrol models registered after 2005 are exempt.

London’s scrappage scheme for vehicles that do not comply with the emissions standards includes payments of up to £2,000 for eligible drivers such as those on low incomes or the disabled scrapping a car, and up to £9,500 for charities, sole traders and small businesses scrapping or retrofitting vans and minibuses.

Home counties residents are not eligible for the initiative.

Mr Khan wrote that London is “in the grip of a deadly public health crisis”, with toxic air “causing the premature deaths of an estimated 4,000 Londoners every year”.

He continued: “It is abundantly clear then that the cost of inaction is far too high and that further action is needed to safeguard public health and spare people unnecessary suffering.

“I’m simply not prepared to stand idly by while toxic fumes from highly polluting vehicles choke our communities and leave our children reaching for inhalers and gasping for air.

“That’s why I’ve chosen to expand the ultra low emission zone London-wide.”

A motorist who received a fine after driving through Gatwick Airport’s drop-off area challenged it using ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) and won a much-reduced penalty.

Shaun Bosley, from Brighton, was dropping off a work colleague at Gatwick last November, and received a £100 ‘final notice’ drive-through fine from NCP several months later, despite receiving ‘no previous correspondence’.

Mr Bosley, a sales consultant for Phyron, a Swedish company which produces videos for car dealerships using AI, turned to ChatGPT, which generates human-like conversations. Users simply type a request into a chat box and the system can generate a response almost instantly.

“In the end, I just typed ‘write an appeal to a penalty charge notice for driving through Gatwick airport. I have received final notice, but never received first notice of the penalty’ and straight away it came back with a great response,” Mr Bosley told the PA news agency.

ChatGPT helped him create the appeal which referenced the ‘undue stress and hardship’ that the final notice had caused and also requested that NCP provide ‘information regarding the circumstances’ as to why Mr Bosley had failed to receive a first notice.

In the appeal letter, ChatGPT wrote: “I understand that it is my responsibility as a driver to be aware of the rules and regulations regarding driving through an airport. However, I never received the first notice of the penalty and therefore, did not have the opportunity to contest the charge or pay the fine in a timely manner.

“I believe that the debt collection process has been premature and I request that you reconsider the penalties imposed.”

Motorists dropping off passengers at Gatwick Airport must pay £5 and get a maximum of 10 minutes. They are charged an additional £1 for every minute they stay after that up to a maximum of 20 minutes.

Mr Bosley said NCP replied ‘the next day’ and reduced the fine to £15, which was the original amount.

He added: “It’s insane how it writes like a human. I didn’t have to look at it and think ‘that sounds like a robot, I need to change some of it’, it was so conversational.”

NCP told the PA news agency that it “takes appeals on their own individual merit”.

The ChatGPT written appeal in full:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing in regards to a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) I have received for driving through Gatwick airport. I have received a final notice but have not received the first notice of the penalty. I was shocked to receive the final notice and am appealing the penalty on the grounds that I was not aware of the violation until this final notice.

I understand that it is my responsibility as a driver to be aware of the rules and regulations regarding driving through an airport. However, I never received the first notice of the penalty and therefore, did not have the opportunity to contest the charge or pay the fine in a timely manner.

The sudden receipt of the final notice, without having received the first notice, has caused me undue stress and hardship. I believe that the debt collection process has been premature and I request that you reconsider the penalties imposed.

I would be grateful if you could review the case and take into consideration my request for a waiver of the penalties.

I would also appreciate it if you could provide me with information regarding the circumstances surrounding my failure to receive the first notice of the penalty.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my appeal. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

A Jaguar previously owned and driven by Queen Elizabeth II has been donated by Chris Evans’ CarFest as a prize for Red Nose Day.

The 2009 Jaguar X-Type Estate was first owned by the late monarch, with its original vehicle handbook confirming its registration as ‘PYN 1F’, belonging to the Queen. She was widely photographed using the car too, including at Windsor Castle.

Finished in Emerald Fire green paintwork with a ‘Barley’ leather interior, the car also comes with a Jaguar Heritage Trust Certificate confirming its authenticity.

The Jaguar has now been donated by the X-Type’s current owner, radio DJ and presenter Chris Evans, and his CarFest motoring event as a competition prize for Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day.

Evans said: “I’m so grateful CarFest is able to support Comic Relief and I’m thrilled that we are able to donate this very special historic car, and so pleased to be able to share it with another enthusiast, especially for such an important cause.”

The 2009 Jaguar, which has covered around 73,000 miles, was sold at auction in November 2022 by Historics, with the iconic estate car making £43,000, more than four times what an example without its provenance would go for.

Samir Patel, chief executive of Comic Relief, said: “We are enormously grateful to Chris Evans and CarFest for this generous donation for Red Nose Day – this truly is a prize like no other we have ever been able to offer our supporters. This is an extraordinary opportunity to own a real piece of history and will be such a special prize for the lucky winner.”

CarFest is a motoring event that is the brainchild of Chris Evans, a huge petrolhead. It takes place on the last weekend of August at Laverstoke Park Farm near Basingstoke, Hampshire.

The prize draw is now open, with entries set to close on March 31.

A main road in North Yorkshire frequently closed due to landslides is set to be replaced with a new route.

Announced today (February 23), the A59 at Kex Gill, which is the main route between towns Harrogate and Skipton, is set to benefit from a £68m project that will see a new road put in its place.

The area surrounding Kex Gill has a history of landslips that have caused a ‘number of costly unplanned road closures’. The new route’s location hasn’t been detailed, but the Department for Transport has said that the route has been designed to ‘minimise the impact on the environment and those residing in nearby towns and villages’.

The government is providing £56m of funding towards the project that will replace this section of the A59, with the remainder of the £68m project to be paid for by North Yorkshire County Council.

North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways and transport, Cllr Keane Duncan, said: “It is welcome news that the Government has given us the final go-ahead to begin construction. The re-alignment of Kex Gill will undoubtedly be one of the council’s most ambitious ever highways projects.

“The A59 provides a very important east-west connection in North Yorkshire and is of national significance. We remain committed to completing the scheme as quickly as possible and in the most cost-effective way.”

“Investing in projects like this to provide long-term improvements shows how the government is committed to levelling up transport links with long-term sustainable solutions.”

Work on the new section of road is set to start later this year, with the route set to open in 2025.

The green light for this section of road closely follows last week’s announcement from the Welsh government that it was scrapping all major road-building projects in the country over environmental concerns.

A smart motorway safety system failed across much of England on Wednesday, National Highways has admitted.

The Dynac system – which includes signs, signals and stopped vehicle detection technology – stopped working at around 8.30am on Wednesday.

The fault occurred across the whole of England’s smart motorway network except in the East and South East.

It was not resolved until approximately 10.30am.

The cause of the problem is under investigation.

There have been long-standing safety fears following fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes on smart motorways without a hard shoulder were hit from behind.

National Highways operational control director Andrew Page-Dove said: “We are urgently investigating an unplanned outage of our traffic management system that took place this morning.

“Engineers worked hard to get the system back online as soon as possible and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“We have well-rehearsed procedures to deal with issues which arise.

“We rapidly took steps to help ensure the safety of road users such as increased patrols and CCTV monitoring.”

Smart motorway safety systems reportedly suffered a seven-hour outage on October 26.

Edmund Kind, AA president, said: “So called ‘smart’ motorways cease to be ‘smart’ when the technology fails, and drivers in dangerous live-lane situations are left as sitting ducks.

“Road users can only have confidence in the systems if the technology works. That’s clearly not the case with the outage today. Some 38% of breakdowns on ‘smart’ motorways occur in live lanes as often there is nowhere to go and these situations, with or without technology, are terrifying.

“While somewhat ironic that the systems should fail on the day their safety is debated in Parliament, perhaps it is now time to go back to the drawing board and totally redesign these roads as drivers have lost faith in their safety.”

Bentley will end production of its famed 12-cylinder petrol engine in April next year, the luxury car maker has announced.

More than 100,000 examples of the W12 engine have been built at the company’s factory in Crewe, Cheshire over the past 20 years.

The decision to halt production is part of the business’s move to electric motoring.

Bentley chairman and chief executive Adrian Hallmark said: “Our progressive journey towards sustainable luxury mobility means making changes to every area of Bentley Motors.

“When we first launched the W12 back in 2003, we knew we had a mighty engine that would propel both our cars and the brand forwards at speed.

“Twenty years and more than 100,000 W12s later, the time has come to retire this now iconic powertrain as we take strides towards electrification.”

Jim Holder, editorial director of magazine What Car?, described the W12 as “an icon of combustion engines, famed for its power, smoothness, refinement and more”.

He told the PA news agency: “It should be remembered as one example of the peak of what can be achieved technically with combustion engines.

“But Bentley and its customers are acknowledging that we are entering a new environmentally conscious era, where outright performance and luxury can still be attained, but in a less consumptive manner.”

Bentley said it hopes to “retrain and redeploy” the 30 workers involved in assembling and testing W12s.

All Bentley’s models will be available with the option of a hybrid powertrain when production of the petrol engine is stopped.

The company has pledged that all its cars will be fully electrified by the start of the next decade.

Sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK will be banned from 2030, with new plug-in hybrids outlawed five years later.

Volkswagen Group-owned Bentley made record sales last year.

The company, which dates back to 1919, said it delivered 15,174 cars in 2022.

The 4% increase compared with the previous 12 months was driven by demand in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

F1 star Nigel Mansell has shuttered both his Mitsubishi and Hyundai franchises on Jersey.

The 1992 F1 World Champion had centred his car sales and aftersales operations from The Mansell Collection dealership in St Helier, but he’s now told customers that the vehicle sales side of the business will be closing.

Nigel Mansell and elder son Leo made a splash in 2014 when they said they’d be taking on a Mitsubishi new car and servicing franchise. Despite this latest move, though, Nigel’s younger son Greg has stated that The Mansell Collection’s motorcycle arm would continue.

Making the announcement via its website, director Greg said: “As of immediate effect, The Mansell Collection’s car sales, servicing and parts departments are now closed.

“This has come about due to Mitsubishi’s departure from Europe and two years spent struggling with Covid-19 and a subsequent loss of sales.

“Unfortunately, losing the brand had a knock-on effect with our second car brand, Hyundai.

“We certainly wish Mitsubishi and Hyundai all the best for the future with their new partner in Jersey, and we thank the car department for all their hard work over the years.”

Back in 2019, The Mansell Collection stated that it would be closing temporarily in order to create more space for its new car sales business.

Originally opened in 2013, The Mansell Collection is home to The Nigel Mansell Story – a museum that features some of the F1 star’s trophies and race-winning cars, including the Williams FW14B in which he won the world championship in 1992.

Drivers of electric vehicles (EVs) across England will benefit from thousands of new chargepoints, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced.

A total of 2,400 new chargepoints will be installed in locations such as Cumbria, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and West Sussex as part of £56 million in public and industry funding.

Sixteen more local authority areas will receive money as part of the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme.

The three original pilot schemes – in Durham, the London borough of Barnet and North Yorkshire – will be expanded.

Councils will also be given support to work with private operators towards the installation of “tens of thousands more” chargepoints in the long term, according to the DfT.

Transport minister Jesse Norman said: “The Government is giving local authorities across England additional help today to energise their chargepoint roll-out plans.

“Today’s commitment will lead to thousands of new chargers being installed, and plans for tens of thousands extra in due course, so that more people than ever can make the transition to using EVs.”

Fewer than 9,000 public EV charging devices were installed in the UK last year, leading to claims that the infrastructure is not keeping up with demand.

Recent DfT figures revealed the number of devices available for use increased by just 8,680 from 28,375 in January 2022 to 37,055 12 months later.

The department said the Government has already spent more than £2 billion to support the move to zero-emission vehicles.

More than a fifth of new cars sold in the UK last year had a plug.

Sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK will be banned from 2030.