On December 18, the UK government announced the plans to introduce laws requiring vehicles sold in Great Britain to have both GB and EU type approval and markings, so they can also be sold in Northern Ireland. The call for evidence on this proposal has been launched and will remain open until February 12, 2026.
Manuf

On December 22, Geopost Vision announced a partnership with Nextbase for high-frequency street-level imagery. They will unveil their combined camera and fleet-data innovation at CES 2026. The partnership is already active in 10 European countries and will expand to 20 countries by 2026.
Geopost Vision is leveraging N

On December 16, Donut Lab and WATT Electric Vehicle Company (WATT) announced a partnership. It combines WATT’s ‘module-to-chassis’ integrated battery platform with Donut Lab’s in-wheel motors. The two companies will show a functional prototype skateboard platform at CES 2026.
WATT’s PACES (Passenger and Commercial EV

On December 24, bp announced that it has reached an agreement to sell a 65% shareholding in Castrol to Stonepeak, at an enterprise value of USD 10.1 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals. 
The sale is part of bp’s previously announced USD 20 billion d

On December 22, Baidu, in a social media update, announced that Apollo Go and Uber are planning to pilot autonomous vehicles in London in 2026. Apollo Go will bring the benefit of autonomous driving to more people with Uber, with testing expected to begin in the first half of 2026.
Following Apollo Go's partnership w

On December 18, Qualcomm Inc. announced that it has completed its acquisition of British semiconductor firm Alphawave IP Group plc, approximately one quarter ahead of schedule, for an implied enterprise value of around USD 2.4 billion. The acquisition of Alphawave Semi aims to further accelerate and provide key asse

On December 11, Arm announced that the Rivian Gen 3 Autonomy Computer is using a new custom autonomy chip, the Rivian Autonomy Processor (RAP1), which leverages the Arm compute platform. Built on Armv9, this custom chip gives Rivian a powerful foundation for next-generation autonomy. 
Rivian Gen 3 Autonomy Computer i

On December 19, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) announced that the number of UK vehicle production for November decreased 14.3% over the previous year to 65,932 units. Passenger car production was down 1.7% to 63,126 units and commercial vehicle production was down 78.0% to 2,806 units year over

On December 16, Nexeon announced that its production facility in Gunsan, Korea, has reached production-ready status. This milestone establishes the Gunsan plant as the first volume production facility globally for silicon-carbon materials dedicated to enhancing lithium-ion battery performance.
The location provides N

On December 16, AESC started production at its new 15.8 GWh electric vehicle battery gigafactory in Sunderland, UK. The plant will supply lithium-ion batteries for UK-made electric vehicles, including the new Nissan Leaf.
Once fully operational, AESC’s UK workforce will grow to about 1,000 people. The company has inv

On December 10, the SOAFEE initiative (Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge) announced that Tech Mahindra joined SOAFEE as a voting member to help shape the global transition toward software-defined vehicles. With deep engineering expertise and a broad OEM and Tier-1 customer base, the company aims to co-deve

On December 8, AB Dynamics, UK, launched the GST 120 Plus, the first ADAS target platform able to meet the higher speed requirements of Euro NCAP’s 2026 tests. It is a self-driving platform that carries a full vehicle target for ADAS and autonomous testing and works with DRI’s Soft Car 360 target.
It is based on the

On December 16, Nissan announced that the third-generation LEAF has begun rolling off the transformed production line at its Sunderland plant, bringing the company’s EV36Zero plan to life.
The first new LEAF is a two-tone Luminous Teal Evolve model with a 75-kW battery, offering up to 622 km of range (WLTP) and 150 k

On December 12, Lotus Technology Inc. announced that its new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) model made its public debut on December 5, 2025, through inclusion in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the PRC’s new-vehicle catalogue. As the first PHEV in Lotus’ 77-year history, this marks a key milestone in th

On December 11, Ilika shipped its new 10Ah Goliath battery prototypes to customers across multiple industries, including automotive companies. These new prototypes offer five times more capacity than the 2Ah P1 prototypes delivered to customers in July 2024.
The 10Ah cells feature a proprietary oxide coating that off

On December 11, Gelion plc announced that its wholly-owned UK subsidiary, OXLiD Ltd, has changed its corporate name to Gelion Europe Ltd, effective immediately. The rebranding of OXLiD Ltd to Gelion Europe Ltd represents the final step in the post-acquisition integration process. 
It is designed to consolidate the br

On December 11, JLR announced that it has redesigned the crosscar beam, an important safety part inside a vehicle but carbon intensive components within its future vehicles. The beam sits behind the dashboard and supports key safety functions such as mounting airbags. It also reduces noise and vibration in the cabin.

On December 9, Anaphite raised GBP 1.4 million in funding via the Innovate UK Investor Partnership Programme. The sum comprises GBP 700,000 in grant funding from Innovate UK, alongside GBP 700,000 of aligned investment from venture capital funds Elbow Beach and World Fund.
Anaphite will expand its DCP technology plat

UK passenger car sales fell 1.6% yoy to 151,154 units in November 2025, according to the data released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) on December 4. Year-to-date sales increased 3.4% with 1,874,271 cars registered in the January-November period of 2025.
November sales for VW rose 4.9% to 13,