Best Western Hotels rolling out EV charging points in the UK

We’re electric car sceptics – or at least sceptical about their ability to replace the ICE car as our principal form of personal transport – although EVs do have their place as runarounds in urban areas, where their limited range isn’t really a factor. But taking your EV off for a weekend jaunt does pose logistical problems when the average range is probably no more than 80 miles, and something worth making the effort for a weekend away is almost always going to be further away than that. But a bit of smart marketing by Best Western Hotels – a group of 270 or so independently run hotels round the UK – means EV drivers will soon be able to plot their weekend away on the basis of Best Western Hotels en route, with Best Western planning on fitting EV charging points in their car parks, with half their hotels having free charging points by September.

Beijing Designers Night

This year's Designer's Night took place on April 21, the second evening of the recent Beijing International Auto Show. Hosted by Autodesk and supported by Car Design News, the event took place in Beijing's famous northeastern 798 art factory district and attracted over 200 designers and design leaders from around the world, from well-known international companies as well as the design leaders from the Chinese automotive design industry. As the world's leading 2D and 3D digital design and management software provider, Autodesk used the event to showcase their latest modeling and visualization software that help fulfill the dreams of designers to reality.

Chris Economaki was one of the good guys

I'm really going to miss Chris Economaki, who died this morning around midnight, 91 years young. Elsewhere on this site, you'll find writer Leo Levine's excellent tribute to Chris. In it, he pays compliments to Chris such as “he left a hole in the motorsports firmament that can never be filled.