Latest news with #MorrisMotors
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Morris Motors boss may have inspired Tolkien villain
The fascist-sympathising founder of Morris Motors was demonised as a soulless industrialist in an unknown story by JRR Tolkien that is to be published for the first time. William Morris, Viscount Nuffield, is thought to have inspired the Lord of the Rings author to create a villain for a satirical fantasy in which he vented his loathing for the motor car and its devastating impact on his beloved Oxford. Morris made his fortune by mass-producing small cars at affordable prices and, although he donated millions to worthy causes, he also supported Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. Morris Motors became the major employer in the region during Tolkien's lifetime, providing a pull for workers and businesses supporting the car industry. A dramatic rise in Oxford's population between the wars was driven partly by the growth of the industry. The businessman is thought to be the inspiration for a character known as the Daemon of Vaccipratum in the never before published story, The Bovadium Fragments. It is thought Tolkien also took inspiration from a planning controversy that erupted in the 1940s, when he was the University of Oxford's Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College. A bid to alleviate traffic by building a dual carriageway across Christ Church Meadow, an ancient open space in the heart of Oxford, sparked a protracted public debate well into the 1960s, when the plan was eventually aborted. The Bovadium Fragments reflects Tolkien's mastery of Latin. Bovadium was the Latinised name for the village of Oxford, and the Daemon of Vaccipratum translates as 'the demon of the cow pasture', or Cowley – where Morris had established his motor manufacturing plant. In one passage of the unearthed story, Tolkien writes: 'But it came to pass that a Daemon (as popular opinion supposed) in his secret workshops devised certain abominable machines, to which he gave the name Motores.' The Bovadium Fragments was among Tolkien manuscripts either donated or deposited posthumously by his estate to Oxford's Bodleian Library. It will be published in October by Harper Collins. Chris Smith, the Harper Collins publishing director, described it as 'a sharply satirical account of the perils of allowing car production and machine-worship to take over your town, where things ultimately all go to hell, in a very literal sense'. Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher, had edited the text before his death in 2020. The book will include an essay by Richard Ovenden, Bodley's librarian, who has conducted extensive research into the planning controversy, having established its inspiration for Tolkien's story. Mr Ovenden said it is about a scholar in the future looking at evidence of a society that is now lost, having 'worshipped the motor car', adding: 'Tolkien was deeply affected by the way that the motor industry was changing his city, and that shines through.' Asked why The Bovadium Fragments had not been published before, Mr Ovenden said: 'Christopher's priority in publishing his father's unpublished works was on the Middle Earth-related material. This material didn't really fit with that or with his father's more scholarly pieces, and so it got left. 'I would visit Christopher and his wife Baillie in France every year. On one of those visits, he drew this to my attention and said, 'What's all this about, what do you think the background of this was?'' Mr Ovenden described it as 'a contribution to environmental literature and the conservation of historic cities'. 'It was written in the late 1950s and 1960s, but it has this extraordinary contemporary resonance,' he said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Morris Motors boss may have inspired Tolkien villain
The fascist-sympathising founder of Morris Motors was demonised as a soulless industrialist in an unknown story by JRR Tolkien that is to be published for the first time. William Morris, Viscount Nuffield, is thought to have inspired the Lord of the Rings author to create a villain for a satirical fantasy in which he vented his loathing for the motor car and its devastating impact on his beloved Oxford. Morris made his fortune by mass-producing small cars at affordable prices and, although he donated millions to worthy causes, he also supported Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. Morris Motors became the major employer in the region during Tolkien's lifetime, providing a pull for workers and businesses supporting the car industry. A dramatic rise in Oxford's population between the wars was driven partly by the growth of the industry, which in turn had a dramatic impact on traffic. The businessman is thought to be the inspiration for a character known as the Daemon of Vaccipratum in the never before published story, called The Bovadium Fragments. It is thought Tolkien also took inspiration from a planning controversy that erupted in the 1940s, when he was the University of Oxford's Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College. A bid to alleviate clogged-up traffic by building a dual carriageway across Christ Church Meadow, an ancient open space in the heart of Oxford, sparked a protracted public debate well into the 1960s, when the plan was eventually aborted. The Bovadium Fragments reflects his mastery of Latin. Bovadium was the Latinised name for the village of Oxford, and the Daemon of Vaccipratum translates as 'the demon of the cow pasture', or Cowley, which was where Morris had established his motor manufacturing plant. In one passage of the unearthed story, Tolkien writes: 'But it came to pass that a Daemon (as popular opinion supposed) in his secret workshops devised certain abominable machines, to which he gave the name Motores.' The Bovadium Fragments was among Tolkien manuscripts that were either donated or deposited posthumously by his estate to Oxford's Bodleian Library. It will be published in October by Harper Collins. Chris Smith, the Harper Collins publishing director, described it as 'a sharply satirical account of the perils of allowing car production and machine-worship to take over your town, where things ultimately all go to hell, in a very literal sense'. Tolkien's son and literary executor, Christopher, had edited the text before his death in 2020. The book will include an essay by Richard Ovenden, Bodley's librarian, who has conducted extensive research into the planning controversy, having established its inspiration for Tolkien's story. He said that it is about a scholar in the future looking at evidence of a society that is now lost, having 'worshipped the motor car', adding: 'Tolkien was deeply affected by the way that the motor industry was changing his city, and that shines through.' Asked why The Bovadium Fragments had not been published before, Mr Ovenden said: 'Christopher's priority in publishing his father's unpublished works was on the Middle Earth-related material. This material didn't really fit with that or with his father's more scholarly pieces, and so it got left. 'I would visit Christopher and his wife Baillie in France every year. On one of those visits, he drew this to my attention and said, 'What's all this about, what do you think the background of this was?'' Mr Ovenden described it as 'a contribution to environmental literature and the conservation of historic cities'. 'It was written in the late 1950s and 1960s, but it has this extraordinary contemporary resonance,' he said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Electric car rules are pushing Britain towards disaster
BMW is stalling plans to restart production of electric Minis at its factory in Oxford. The Cowley plant, an auto-building site since 1913 and the original home of Morris Motors, was bought by the German carmaker 20 years ago. The future of this iconic manufacturing hub is now in doubt. And a big part of the reason is the over-zealous imposition by Labour of net zero rules originally introduced by the Tories. BMW has halted a £600m overhaul of Cowley, it emerged last weekend, amid slow demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and the UK's zero emission vehicle (ZEV) regulations – which are even more punitive than those operating across the European Union. I'm astonished this move by BMW hasn't attracted more attention. It calls into question not only production at Cowley, a site employing well over 3,000 people, but is a moment of truth for mass carmaking in Britain per se – a sector providing upwards of a million jobs, and many more in related industries and activities. The UK's switch away from petrol and diesel cars and towards EVs has now descended into chaos. Carmakers previously happy to take subsidies to facilitate the huge upheaval of shifting from internal combustion engines to battery-powered cars, now bemoan weak consumer demand for EVs and the extremely punitive fines manufacturers face as a result. Either ministers get beyond virtue-signalling and ease net zero rules, quickly and significantly, or what remains of UK carmaking will be decimated, as production becomes economically unviable and the market is overwhelmed by a flood of heavily subsidised Chinese-made EVs. UK carmaking is, of course, dominated by foreign companies. Jaguar Land Rover is owned by Tata, Bentley by Volkswagen, Vauxhall by Stellantis and Rolls-Royce by BMW. The top 10 UK carmakers are all foreign-owned. Yet automotives are still a vital part of British manufacturing and the broader economy, turning over tens of billions of pounds each year, while providing relatively well-paid jobs in parts of the country, such as the the Midlands and North East, where such jobs are scarce. A sector-wide collapse would be an economic, political and societal catastrophe. But that's where we're heading unless these ZEV rules rapidly change. British carmaking last year hit its lowest level (outside of lockdown) since 1954 – and the slowdown is continuing. Just 71,104 vehicles rolled off our production lines in January 2025, down from 82,997 during the same month the previous year, a shocking 14.3pc below what was already a low base. A major reason is that carmakers endure massive ZEV mandate fines which actively discourage them from producing cars, makes it financially ruinous if they do. From January 2023, UK carmakers faced fines if 22pc of cars they sold in Britain weren't fully electric – paying an astonishing £15,000 for every vehicle by which they fell short. But the reality that EVs are expensive, unreliable and drivers have 'range anxiety' – given our patchy and often expensive charging network. EVs also depreciate sharply and the second-hand market is slow. That's why, despite large tax breaks on fleet vehicles, just 18.7pc of new vehicles sold last year were EVs, well below the ZEV mandate – with take-up stuck stubbornly below 20pc for several years now. And since the start of 2025, that ZEV cut-off has ratcheted up 28pc, increasing steadily to 80pc by 2030 and 100pc, outlawing new petrol and diesel cars completely, by 2035. That's why UK carmakers are slowing down production of new petrol and diesel cars – because EV sales aren't yet strong enough to match even a 22pc market share, let alone escalating looming targets in years to come. That's why conventional cars are being 'rationed', leading to soaring prices, as low EV sales mean manufacturers can only avoid ruinous fines by curtailing petrol and diesel car production. Both the UK and EU have a 2035 headline ban, but the UK's rules are tougher, with a steeper ramp-up of fines, making Britain an increasingly less attractive place to make cars. Oh – and Labour has a manifesto pledge, popular among trendy urban-voters, viewed with disdain by trade unionists and across our manufacturing heartlands, to bring forward the complete ban by five years to 2030 – where, by the way, it was originally, under equally naive rules implemented under the Tories. Stellantis recently announced its long-standing Luton plant is closing, in part due to ZEV rules. Ministers, meanwhile, insist that BMW remains committed to upgrading its electric Mini production facility at Cowley, as does the carmaker itself. Will that happen? I suspect it won't. Policymakers in the UK and EU have bet the ranch on EVs. But the market, rather than public sector bureaucrats, should decide which is the best technology. When bureaucrats 'pick winners', it nearly always goes wrong. The renewable lobby is powerful, as are the companies both building and financing the rollout of the UK's charging network. Huge vested interests are at work to maintain an iron grip over the 'EVs or bust' narrative, as this insane ZEV mandate comes into force. This stranglehold needs to be broken – there are other technologies that may well work better, rendering such a cumbersome and costly charging network rollout unnecessary. Many senior car industry executives believe, for instance, a much better solution lies in the use of hydrogen-hybrids – hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines which charge smaller, lighter batteries that need no plugging in and far less lithium and rare earths. Heavily subsidised Chinese-made EVs account for 76pc of all EVs sold worldwide. Plus China controls 90pc of global production capacity of the rare earths used in EV batteries. Why are we unilaterally destroying our car industry on the altar of net zero? Ministers need to face reality, slacken the rules and give UK-based carmaking at least a fighting chance to adapt. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
02-03-2025
- Automotive
- Telegraph
Electric car rules are pushing Britain towards disaster
BMW is stalling plans to restart production of electric Minis at its factory in Oxford. The Cowley plant, an auto-building site since 1913 and the original home of Morris Motors, was bought by the German carmaker 20 years ago. The future of this iconic manufacturing hub is now in doubt. And a big part of the reason is the over-zealous imposition by Labour of net zero rules originally introduced by the Tories. BMW has halted a £600m overhaul of Cowley, it emerged last weekend, amid slow demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and the UK's zero emission vehicle (ZEV) regulations – which are even more punitive than those operating across the European Union. I'm astonished this move by BMW hasn't attracted more attention. It calls into question not only production at Cowley, a site employing well over 3,000 people, but is a moment of truth for mass carmaking in Britain per se – a sector providing upwards of a million jobs, and many more in related industries and activities. The UK's switch away from petrol and diesel cars and towards EVs has now descended into chaos. Carmakers previously happy to take subsidies to facilitate the huge upheaval of shifting from internal combustion engines to battery-powered cars, now bemoan weak consumer demand for EVs and the extremely punitive fines manufacturers face as a result. Either ministers get beyond virtue-signalling and ease net zero rules, quickly and significantly, or what remains of UK carmaking will be decimated, as production becomes economically unviable and the market is overwhelmed by a flood of heavily subsidised Chinese-made EVs. UK carmaking is, of course, dominated by foreign companies. Jaguar Land Rover is owned by Tata, Bentley by Volkswagen, Vauxhall by Stellantis and Rolls-Royce by BMW. The top 10 UK carmakers are all foreign-owned. Yet automotives are still a vital part of British manufacturing and the broader economy, turning over tens of billions of pounds each year, while providing relatively well-paid jobs in parts of the country, such as the the Midlands and North East, where such jobs are scarce. A sector-wide collapse would be an economic, political and societal catastrophe. But that's where we're heading unless these ZEV rules rapidly change. British carmaking last year hit its lowest level (outside of lockdown) since 1954 – and the slowdown is continuing. Just 71,104 vehicles rolled off our production lines in January 2025, down from 82,997 during the same month the previous year, a shocking 14.3pc below what was already a low base. A major reason is that carmakers endure massive ZEV mandate fines which actively discourage them from producing cars, makes it financially ruinous if they do. From January 2023, UK carmakers faced fines if 22pc of cars they sold in Britain weren't fully electric – paying an astonishing £15,000 for every vehicle by which they fell short. But the reality that EVs are expensive, unreliable and drivers have 'range anxiety' – given our patchy and often expensive charging network. EVs also depreciate sharply and the second-hand market is slow. That's why, despite large tax breaks on fleet vehicles, just 18.7pc of new vehicles sold last year were EVs, well below the ZEV mandate – with take-up stuck stubbornly below 20pc for several years now. And since the start of 2025, that ZEV cut-off has ratcheted up 28pc, increasing steadily to 80pc by 2030 and 100pc, outlawing new petrol and diesel cars completely, by 2035. That's why UK carmakers are slowing down production of new petrol and diesel cars – because EV sales aren't yet strong enough to match even a 22pc market share, let alone escalating looming targets in years to come. That's why conventional cars are being 'rationed', leading to soaring prices, as low EV sales mean manufacturers can only avoid ruinous fines by curtailing petrol and diesel car production. Both the UK and EU have a 2035 headline ban, but the UK's rules are tougher, with a steeper ramp-up of fines, making Britain an increasingly less attractive place to make cars. Oh – and Labour has a manifesto pledge, popular among trendy urban-voters, viewed with disdain by trade unionists and across our manufacturing heartlands, to bring forward the complete ban by five years to 2030 – where, by the way, it was originally, under equally naive rules implemented under the Tories. Stellantis recently announced its long-standing Luton plant is closing, in part due to ZEV rules. Ministers, meanwhile, insist that BMW remains committed to upgrading its electric Mini production facility at Cowley, as does the carmaker itself. Will that happen? I suspect it won't. Policymakers in the UK and EU have bet the ranch on EVs. But the market, rather than public sector bureaucrats, should decide which is the best technology. When bureaucrats 'pick winners', it nearly always goes wrong. The renewable lobby is powerful, as are the companies both building and financing the rollout of the UK's charging network. Huge vested interests are at work to maintain an iron grip over the 'EVs or bust' narrative, as this insane ZEV mandate comes into force. This stranglehold needs to be broken – there are other technologies that may well work better, rendering such a cumbersome and costly charging network rollout unnecessary. Many senior car industry executives believe, for instance, a much better solution lies in the use of hydrogen-hybrids – hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines which charge smaller, lighter batteries that need no plugging in and far less lithium and rare earths. Heavily subsidised Chinese-made EVs account for 76pc of all EVs sold worldwide. Plus China controls 90pc of global production capacity of the rare earths used in EV batteries. Why are we unilaterally destroying our car industry on the altar of net zero? Ministers need to face reality, slacken the rules and give UK-based carmaking at least a fighting chance to adapt.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Mini delays EV production in UK, citing industry uncertainties
Mini's China-based EV production strategy was always a bit of a bold move. With mounting global tensions and citing "multiple uncertainties facing the automotive industry' in an Autocar UK interview, the BMW-owned automaker has pressed pause on gearing up production for EVs at its Oxford, England plant. Mini is the latest automaker to alter a formerly clear-cut electrification 2023, Mini had a clear path forward for electrification. EV production for their EV Cooper and Aceman models would begin in China. Meanwhile, the Oxford plant—the original home of Morris Motors and where the brand has built vehicles for decades—would be retooled, an endeavor that has already cost over £600 million ($760 million). Mini targeted 2026 as a goal for European production to supplant the Chinese factories. Production in China allowed Mini to manufacture vehicles quickly and inexpensively, but it couldn't serve as a long-term solution if Mini wanted to sell their iconic Cooper models in the US. When you consider faltering EV sales, taking time to 'review' the timeline certainly makes sense. Also important to note is that while Mini left a significant grant on the table, the brand reportedly remains 'in close dialogue' with the government, according to the the Aceman never had a planned US arrival, the latest developments seriously call into question whether the US shores will ever see the current generation of electric Mini Cooper. A planned introduction to the market coinciding with Oxford production implied that we would see it stateside for the 2027 model year, already nearly halfway through the product's life cycle. Any later than that and skepticism regarding profitability becomes reasonable. Stateside Mini shoppers looking for an electric MINI are forced to consider the only one available: the Countryman EV. Those vehicles are produced at BMW's Leipzig plant, where the model will remain in production as it has since January 2024. Mini's electric future in the US is even more muddled when you consider the current president's penchant for tariffs. Oxford production may have already been a long shot with speculation that Trump could implement a 25 percent tariff on EU-produced cars. That would spell bad news for the Countryman EV, too, which is already the most expensive in its segment. After delivery fees, the little SUV touts a supersized sticker price of $46,375, around $200 more than the Volvo EX30, its closest irony that Mini's only electric offering in the US is an SUV can't really be understated. Never say never, but the electric Mini Cooper is all but kaput for us, which is a tremendous shame. Since the Aceman coming stateside was never on the table, Mini's current electrification strategy – particularly in the US - can be essentially summed up with a shrug emoji. It's disappointing, especially for a brand that made its name on small, light, and engaging cars that seemed the perfect candidates for electrification. Love reading Autoblog? Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get exclusive articles, insider insights, and the latest updates delivered right to your inbox. Click here to sign up now!
