At least he shouldn’t suffer from range anxiety.
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Volkswagen’s 70th anniversary in Australia has been marked in extraordinary style, with adventurer Rainer Zeitlow capturing a Guinness World Record for the largest GPS image created by a vehicle. The feat was achieved during an epic 23,849km journey around Australia, supported by Kumho Tyres and its HP71 EV tyres.
Driving the all-electric Volkswagen ID.4 GTX, Zeitlow and co-driver Marius Biela traced “70 years of VeeDub” across the map of Australia before completing a full circumnavigation of the country. The journey showcased the performance and durability of the Kumho HP71 EV tyres, which are standard equipment on the Volkswagen ID.4 in Australia. Remarkably, the entire trip was completed with just one minor, easily-repaired puncture.
The $100 discount for registration of electric, plug-in hybrid, and hydrogen vehicles will end on 1 January 2026.
Parking costs in Melbourne will also increase from January 2026 – said to contribute to a ‘congestion levy’ – while the boundary for the higher parking fees will be expanded to include more suburbs.
The levy, which applies to off-street parking spaces in the Central Business District (CBD) and surrounding areas, will jump from $1750 to $3030 for category one zones, while those in category two zones will see the tax go from $1240 to $2150 annually.
ABC News reports these measure are part of the government’s mid-year budget update which also shows the state is $1.4 billion further in deficit this year than forecast in May’s budget.
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“Continue for 2.8 billion km”
I hope Google gave them info on recharging points along the way 
Perth’s new Mitchell Freeway southbound upgrade including ‘Smart Motorway’ will open next Sunday just ahead of Christmas, after commencing construction a couple of years or so ago. It is currently in a testing phase this and last week.
It includes extra lanes, traffic flow/incident detection, ramp metering signals, new CCTV, overhead electronic signs to reduce speeds/merge/close lanes & relay information and refreshes to support infrastructure, bitumen, signage, shoulders/medians, plantation and conduits for electrical & communications.
It is essentially a larger rollout of the Kwinana Fwy northbound project a few years back. Improvements and data will be interesting to see. It is the largest and busiest section of road in Western Australia and actually apparently carries some of the largest traffic volumes in Australia, said to be over 190,000 vehicles per day. Linking the north of the state and populated northern suburbs to the CBD including sport arenas, east including airport and south. It is regularly quite congested during peak hour.
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Speaking of ramp metering signals, the M80 Ring Road upgrade currently underway in Melbourne’s west will include such a set for the ramp from Princes Freeway citybound to M80 northbound at the massive Laverton North interchange. While ramp metering signals may be needed for traffic coming from a suburban road to a freeway, I don’t think they are needed when travelling from a freeway to another, as it defeats the non-stop, free flowing nature of the road.
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The New South Wales Government is partnering with the Australian Border Force to put an end to international licence holders skirting the law.
Officials allege many foreign drivers have been fraudulently nominating other drivers to avoid demerit points and fines.
In a statewide crackdown to close the loophole, the government has established the Demerit Point Integrity Taskforce – which includes representatives from NSW Police, Revenue NSW, and Transport for NSW.
In cases where a foreign national has been nominated as the driver, the Demerit Point Taskforce will check passport and border records to establish whether the person was in the country at the time of the offence.
A review conducted by officials found as many as 40,000 drivers nominated for offences were unknown to Australian authorities – with no record of these ‘ghost drivers’ arriving into the country – with evidence their details were likely to have been taken from the dark web.
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Strata owners are increasingly banning electric vehicles (EVs) from charging in apartment basement carparks, citing a perceived risk of battery fires.
EV fire safety researchers say the risk is no greater than for petrol and diesel cars and such concerns are fed by misinformation, but state fire authorities urge caution.
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My apartment complex doesn’t have any EV charging either.
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Scam Alert
People in SEQ have a received an email purportedly from Cell O Park requesting them to click on a link or links to transfer their account to a new platform called O Park.
While Cello Park is rebranding to O Park, it is reported that somehow a third party managed to send out emails to their customers that are fraudulent and the links suspicious.
Advice is do not click on the links.
At some point you will need to download from an App Store a new O Park app.
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They’ve been active for a number of years at other junctions now though and seem to work quite well, including:
-Bolte Bridge (CityLink/Tulla Fwy/M2) inbound to West Gate Fwy inbound.
-EastLink northbound to Monash Fwy inbound.
-EastLink southbound to Monash Fwy outbound.
-Western Ring Road Greensborough bound to Calder Fwy inbound.
-Calder Fwy inbound to Western Ring Road Greensborough bound.
-Calder Fwy outbound to Western Ring Road Altona bound.
-Hume Fwy inbound to Metropolitan Ring Road Greensborough bound.
-Western Ring Road Altona bound to Tullamarine Fwy inbound.
-Western Ring Road Greensborough bound to Tullamarine Fwy outbound.
And other jurisdictions:
Sydney:
-M7 to M4 eastbound (from both directions)
-M7 to M4 westbound (from both directions).
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A number of them in Brisbane too. I’m not exactly sure how long it’s been in place but the one on the Klump Rd entrance to the M3 in Brisbane has been there for at least 20 years, maybe longer.
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Melbourne’s first one (on the Eastern Freeway) goes back about 20-25 years too. Then a few years after were ones on some Monash Freeway ramps (later upgraded) and the Calder Freeway at Keilor Park Drive outbound. But the current modern ones go back about 10-12 years and continue to be installed periodically.
I believe Sydney also had a few on freeways in the inner-south going back decades too, before they were disabled. Until the new ones on the M4 and Rozelle.
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Received today - this one is official I believe but the poor wording and punctuation make you dubious.
Saw the 30 second version of Don’t Let a Car Change Who You Are during the BBL tonight.
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