Dr. Andy Palmer

46 years in the auto business. Proud to launch iconic cars as CEO of Aston Martin & COO of Nissan (incl Valkyrie & LEAF). Now on a mission to help the planet🌍

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

My apprenticeship gave me some of the best days of my life & equipped me with the skills needed to lead businesses at the forefront of the auto industry. For employers & employees alike, apprenticeships add huge value. Find out more in this film with @TheTimes & @BizSupportGovUK.

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

June 3 (Reuters) - British new car registrations in May were about 6% higher than a year ‌earlier, driven by strong demand for plug-in vehicles, with battery electric vehicles (BEV) accounting for 27% of all new registrations, data from New Automotive showed on Wednesday.

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

PETL has acquired the Kleandrive bus re-powering operation as a going concern through administration.

The acquisition preserves a specialist British engineering capability in heavy vehicle decarbonisation. Live customer programmes continue without interruption.

Kleandrive's technology converts existing diesel buses to fully electric powertrains, allowing fleet operators to decarbonise without the capital cost or embedded carbon of buying new vehicles. For many regional operators and local transport authorities working under tight budgets, it is the most commercially viable route to zero emission running.

The acquisition extends the PETL group's clean propulsion portfolio. PETL is one of the UK's leading developers of battery and battery management system technology, including through our wholly owned subsidiary Brill Power, a University of Oxford spin-out. Adding repowering capability gives us a direct route to deploy that technology at scale in one of the highest impact segments of UK transport decarbonisation.

Dr Andy Palmer CMG, Co-Founder and CEO of PETL, said:

"Britain keeps losing its industrial base one company at a time. Repowering existing diesel buses is one of the most cost-effective ways for operators to decarbonise their fleets. It deserves to be built here, by British engineers, and we intend to make sure it is."

More information about the acquisition can be found here:

https://t.co/iJfe4Z8CNH

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

TEMPORIS INTERNATIONAL AWARDS ANNOUNCES MASTERPIECE PRESENTED AT WATCHES AND WONDERS 2026 NOMINEES

Public voting is now open for Masterpiece presented at Watches and Wonders.

Ten Extraordinary Timepieces. One Public Choice.

The first public voting category of the 2026 edition is now officially open: https://t.co/3e38wRqQGJ

This year's shortlist showcases ten exceptional creations that represent the very best of contemporary horology. From groundbreaking complications and revolutionary engineering to artistic craftsmanship and technical mastery, each finalist offers a distinct vision of what modern watchmaking can achieve.

The nominees are:
1. A. Lange & Söhne – Lange 1 Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar Lumen
2. Angelus – Tinkler 1958
3. Armin Strom – Minute Repeater Resonance 12:59
4. Arnold & Son – Ultrathin Tourbillon Red Gold Onyx
5. H. Moser & Cie. – Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Concept Tantalum
6. IWC – Pilot's Watch Venturer Vertical Drive
7. Jaeger-LeCoultre – Master Hybris Inventiva Gyrotourbillonà Stratosphère
8. Parmigiani Fleurier – Tonda PF Chronograph Mystérieux
9. TAG Heuer – Monaco Evergraph
10. Ulysse Nardin – Super Freak

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

Lots of controversy in the replies - but let me add that @Ferrari intentionally repeated the same “shock strategy” it used with:

* the FF,
* GTC4Lusso,
* and later the Purosangue SUV.

All were heavily criticised initially — and then sold extremely well.

This car is aimed at the Chinese market - it’ll be judged on it order pipeline and I’m told this extends into 2027!

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

Truly innovative cars are generational; cars like mini change the way we think and they count on revolutions in architecture and technology to enable them.

When I was at Nissan and responsible for the LEAF, we consciously developed a vehicle which utilised the assets and advantages of an EV, but fitted within a relatively conventional design to acclimatise the consumer to a generational change. Nevertheless, I always felt and still feel that car companies needed to be braver and explore the addition design degrees of freedom that an EV platform avails - that thinking, love it or hate it, led to the Nissan BladeGlider

I’m many times on record, calling for car companies to be braver. And so I applaud the new @Ferrari Luce EV direction for challenging the norm and yes it is… going to take some getting used to. One can say the same about the Jaguar Type 00 and the Bentley EXP 15; the Mercedes-AMG GT 4dr and the Cybertruck.

A car’s style is a personal choice; but the more car companies that experiment, the more our image of what a car should look like will evolve. In that sense, I have to congratulate Ferrari for their foresight and bravery and hope that fortune favours the bold.

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

@CarsCommentary BladeGlider I’d buy tomorrow

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

@tiff_tv @IndyCar Actually the F1 racing is great - and they have right turns! (That said I loved the Indy500 as well)

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

Who says @F1 racing isn’t exciting this year! It’s bloody great!

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

The investment in Ellesmere Port and indeed in Sunderland, would not exist without the ZEV mandate. It gave confidence to the OEMs to invest in the U.K. and it was set in agreement with them. The OEMs complied with the mandate in 2024 and 2025 and will comply in 2026. Changing the mandate will further undermine the trust in U.K. Labour need to spend their energy showing leadership through the mandate and encourage inward investment by the OEMs including the Chinese; if not, they will invest in CEE and Spain.

The investment made by Nissan (for which I was responsible) for the Nissan LEAF in 2011 and the investment by AESC (a company I founded between Nissan and NEC) in U.K. against all odds (thanks to a Labour Govt) was a chance for the U.K. to reestablish itself as a manufacturing powerhouse - it was a close decision but it was won on the back of NMUK world class efficiency- don’t go down in history as the party that wasted that opportunity!

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

@hiltonholloway Come and visit us in Oxford!

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

@hiltonholloway @FUDdaily Fair question- in U.K., 51% of EV drivers said they still have a second petrol/diesel vehicle in the household.

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

Interesting article, but I think this depreciation effect is not unexpected. Prior to the arrival of Chinese cars, most legacy manufacturers were trying to charge an unrealistic premium on RRP for an EV. The rational was fairly understandable; EVs were not at scale and they therefore had a higher BoM cost. But the market price is elastic and won’t reward premium pricing. This is largely now solved by the Chinese entrants who have more realistic RRP’s and are forcing legacy companies to follow suit.

Depreciation percentages are from RRP and don’t reflect the actual transaction prices. The actual depreciation from customer TP to 3 year residual price is pretty much the same as you’d expect.

Just on long term durability, while accepting that the market doesn’t know because of the nascent nature of EV, it’s likely that the long term reliability of an EV will be superior to its ICE counterpart- simply based on the number of moving parts between the two.

The market will solve both points over time, but it’ll take a few years of transition.

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

It really isn’t - the F1 battery is tiny 2026 F1 energy store ~1.1 kWh
Typical 12V car battery ~0.5–1.0 kWh

So pretty much the energy of the 12v starter battery in your car.

Compare that to Formula E Gen3 battery: ~38–40 kWh
Or a Tesla Model 3 Long Range: ~75 kWh

It’s less than a road going “self charging “ hybrid

[Greg Jackson @g__j]

Fatih Birol, boss of International Energy Agency:

“Electric cars are now - worldwide - 30% of new car sales. Five years ago, it was 5%”

It’s why fossil fuel lobbyists are so relentless right now. EVs are increasingly cheaper to buy, cheaper to fuel, cheaper to service and better to drive.

“15 years ago solar was a romantic story. Now it is everywhere… wind and nuclear will make a big contribution as well”

If you look outside the UK, these changes are everywhere and huge

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

@renewablesmiffy Utterly nuts - we need to make stuff and even better make stuff that defines a future direction

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

Stellantis entering a JV with Dongfeng to produce EVs in Europe is exactly the model Britain should be adopting to ensure vehicles continue to be manufactured in the UK. This is the same approach we saw when Japanese OEMs were invited to build in the UK. It is a shame that other EU countries are ahead of the UK on this.

https://t.co/08JSvK86q9

[Dr. Andy Palmer @AndyatAuto]

Palmer Energy Technology Ltd, PETL, @PalmerEnergy has announced a significant expansion of its relationship with First Bus, one of the UK’s leading bus operators, with six live projects now underway across the UK. The programme strengthens collaboration between the two organisations as First Bus continues to invest in innovative energy infrastructure to support fleet electrification and operational resilience.

The centrepiece of the expanded partnership is PETL’s largest project to date, a full turnkey delivery of a 4.2MWh, 2.15MW battery energy storage system and transformer at First Bus’s Aberdeen site. PETL is taking end to end responsibility for system supply, civil works, engineering and commissioning, marking an important milestone in the company’s delivery capability.

Central to the performance of the system is Brill Power’s battery management system (BMS) and energy management system (EMS) software, which provide the intelligence layer underpinning the project. The platform enables optimisation of battery operation in real time, maximising usable energy capacity, extending battery lifetime, and improving overall system efficiency. By dynamically balancing battery performance and intelligently managing charging and discharging behaviour, the Brill Power platform helps unlock greater operational and commercial value from the asset over its lifetime.

The Aberdeen project also represents a UK first for PETL, with the installation of an SF6-free transformer, among the first of its kind to be deployed domestically. Alongside supplying the battery system, PETL is designing and manufacturing the transformer, a capability the company is now bringing to market as part of its broader offering. The system will play a role in adding stability to the local grid and is currently under construction, with commissioning expected in early Q2.

The project also supports First Bus’s wider exploration of second-life battery applications, where retired EV batteries can be repurposed for static energy storage.

In parallel, PETL is delivering approximately 500kWh of battery storage at four additional First Bus sites. These systems are designed to capture excess on site solar generation, reduce emissions and optimise exposure to time of use energy tariffs, lowering operating costs. Battery storage systems can also help operators manage grid constraints and optimise depot infrastructure requirements as electrification scales. These sites are expected to go live in May 2026.