Innholdsfortegnelse for 1723 i Auto Express

• Fresh EV sampled in the UK • Rivals Tesla Model Y, Audi Q4 GENESIS launched in Europe last year with a flurry of ‘new’ products – mostly cars it had been selling elsewhere, but that were new to the UK. The brand isn’t new to electric cars either, but this GV60 EV is where the upmarket Korean brand really gathers pace – and we’ve tried a preproduction car on UK roads in £65,405 Sport Plus trim to judge Genesis’ chances of challenging premium EVs such as the Tesla Model Y and the Audi Q4 e-tron. The GV60 is based on the E-GMP platform also used by the impressive Kia EV6 and our reigning Car of the Year, the Hyundai Ioniq 5. So, it packs a 77.4kWh battery within its…

THE global oil price dropped by $5 (£3.80) a barrel when US President Joe Biden last week announced plans to release 180 million barrels from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). At up to one million barrels per day, this will potentially represent the largest-ever release from the SPR. The plan aims to ease price pressures on the back of predictions that daily global demand for oil could outstrip supply by 800,000 barrels as part of the fall-out from Russian sanctions. The SPR can store up to 730 million barrels of crude oil at full capacity. The US keeps its reserve deep underground in huge salt dome caverns on the Gulf Coast.…

DESIGN agency Duku has revealed a world-leading, fully accessible public charger for electric cars, complete with a range of features intended to remove barriers for less-able drivers. The new 7-22kW charger design has a patented fully assisted cable feed that is operated by buttons on the plug, so it can be deployed one-handed. A motorised drum delivers only the length of cable required, removing the effort of coiling and uncoiling. There’s an accessible user interface designed to meet guidance on optimal graphics, information and colour use, and the charger features contactless payment so it doesn’t need a touchscreen, buttons or a mobile phone app to operate. The unit rotates 90 degrees so you can swivel it out of direct sunlight or point the cable towards your vehicle. The cable, and…

@AxleIngram “We reckon that many four-wheel-drive hot hatches are more credible rivals to the Macan T than SUV alternatives, which is credit to the Porsche” IN Porsche’s vernacular, ‘T’ stands for ‘Touring’. It’s a title that’s been applied in the past to the brand’s sports cars that might not have the most power or the lowest 0-62mph time, but aim to give the keen driver a pure, engaging experience. For the badge to now appear on an 1,865kg SUV might seem like an oxymoron. But this is the Macan T, and Porsche reckons that for similar money to premium SUV rivals from BMW and Jaguar, there’s genuine Porsche DNA for keen drivers to enjoy. The T is priced from £53,970, £5,000 more than the entry-level Macan, but just £660 less…

MODEL TESTED: Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost 125PS mHEV Titanium PRICE: £20,940 ENGINE: 1.0-litre 3cyl petrol, 123bhp Running costs 58.9mpg (official) £69 fill-up/£155 or 26% tax Practicality Boot (seats up/down) 311/1,093 litres Performance 0-62mph/top speed 9.4 seconds/124mph ONE thing that hasn’t changed with the facelifted Ford Fiesta is the extensive range of variants on offer. Here we’re testing the 123bhp Titanium model, which costs £20,940. However, the car in our pictures is a high-spec ST-Line Vignale variant with a 153bhp version of the EcoBoost petrol engine, which costs £28,135 including options. Design & engineering SINCE this is a mid-life facelift, the updated Fiesta treads a familiar path in terms of its changes. The basic car remains largely untouched, so it’s the same size, shape and layout as before, but Ford has…

Ford Fiesta SYNC 3 Navigation Standard Key features: Ford Pass Connect IT’S a shame that Ford hasn’t upgraded the Fiesta with the same large 10-inch touchscreen that’s now offered in the Focus, because it could’ve been a game-changer. However, the Fiesta would have needed a wholesale redesign of its dashboard to fit it, which was probably unfeasible within the time and budget constraints of this facelift. Something else the Focus has benefitted from is the addition of SYNC 4, but the Fiesta makes do with the most recent version of SYNC 3 on its eight-inch touchscreen. That’s no hardship, because the system has enough functionality built in to be useful, but it does look like an older system when compared with the high-resolution screen of the Skoda’s set-up. The graphics…

@rsp_ingram C02/tax 41g/km 12% BiK Performance 0-62mph/top speed 5.9 seconds/140mph Practicality Boot (seats up/down) 410/1,420 litres REGULAR Auto Express readers will have followed my trials and tribulations as I’ve learned to live with electric cars. The journey started more than two years ago when I tried editor-in-chief Steve Fowler’s Jaguar I-Pace. Since then I’ve had three of my own EVs back-to-back, culminating recently with a top-spec Volkswagen ID.3. EV ownership isn’t without its issues, but for me, the pros far outweigh the cons, especially if the car has a long-ish range of 200 miles or more. I’ve got another EV on the way, but needed a car for the interim. So, when Auto Express deputy editor John McIlroy suggested I run the BMW 3 Series Touring seen here, I was…

Peugeot 308 boosted by 3D-printed extras A RANGE of 3D-printed accessories have been introduced for the Peugeot 308. Available in the Peugeot Lifestyle shop, the sunglasses, can and phone holders sit in the existing cup-holder slot to offer flexible storage options. The 3D printing offers Peugeot more freedom in design and structure, with the capacity to print on demand rather than having to produce in advance. The accessories will be available to buy from boutique.peugeot.com soon, and the company plans to expand its 3D printing from accessories into the more technical parts of its future cars. Bridgestone gets the nod for Grecale tyres BRIDGESTONE has been chosen to supply OEM tyres for Maserati’s new Grecale SUV. Potenza Sports will be fitted to all Grecale models, including the performance-oriented Trofeo. The…

Search more than 50,000 cars with competitive finance Order online, delivered to your door, 14 day money-back guarantee CO2/tax 119g/km £30 Running costs 55mpg (2.0 Sky-G 120) £83 fill-up Performance 0-62mph/top speed 8.9 seconds/121mph COMPARED with many of its rivals, Mazda is a relative newcomer to car manufacturing. It didn’t produce its first passenger car until 1960, but since then the company has built a reputation for making high-quality cars that are reliable and great to drive, plus they tend to look great, too. All of this is true of the Mazda 3, and although the small family car segment is hotly contested, the Mazda manages to stand out from its rivals in many ways. Entry-level models feature a rather ordinary cabin, but posher editions feel much more premium. Whatever…

Formula E gets back to action in Rome THE 2021/22 Formula E season gets back under way this weekend in Rome, Italy, after a longer-than-planned break since the previous round in Mexico City in mid-February due to the cancellation of a previously planned race in China. Venturi Racing’s Edoardo Mortara leads the drivers’ standings after the opening two rounds, with 43 points to Mercedes man Nyck de Vries’ 38. Porsche pair Pascal Wehrlein and Andre Lotterer, who finished first and second in the Mexico City race, are equal third on 30 points apiece. Formula E is currently gearing up for the public reveal of its all-new ‘Gen3’ car design for next season, which is set to take place in the leadup to the Monaco ePrix on 30 April. US rallycross…

@johnmcilroy • Alfa plans new small SUV, built in Poland, to rival Audi Q2 • Work also started on successors to Giulia saloon and Stelvio SUV ALFA ROMEO is about to kick-start its range recovery with the new Tonale – and the firm will build on this with a baby SUV due in 2024, with the company’s boss promising that even this smallest of models will still “drive like an Alfa”. The Italian brand is gearing up to push its Tonale family SUV into showrooms in the second half of 2022, but the management is already turning its focus towards a smaller model that will arrive around 18 months later. Plans for this new car were confirmed in Polish media late last year, when it emerged that the Stellantis plant in…

@johnmcilroy • Fresh-faced Kia Niro revealed • Hybrid, PHEV and EV options THE Niro kickstarted Kia’s transformation into a leading EV brand. And now, five years since its debut and after more than 300,000 sales, a new Niro goes on sale this month before deliveries start in August. The new Niro – which will again be available in hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pureelectric versions – is the first Kia to use the latest generation of its mid-sized K platform. The car shown here is the new Niro EV (the name changes from e-Niro). The front looks cleaner, with a central socket for the charger and a frunk offering about 20 litres of storage. The big change really comes at the side, with a much more dramatic look. On the EV…

ONE of two companies that are claiming the rights to the classic Hispano-Suiza sports car name has unveiled its new performance model, called the Maguari HS1 GTS. This production car shares its lines with a concept from the 2010 Geneva Motor Show and is powered by a 5.5-litre twin-turbocharged V10 engine that produces 1,184bhp and 1,100Nm of torque. Drive is sent to the rear wheels through a seven-speed automatic gearbox and the HS1 GTS can sprint from 0-62mph in less than 2.8 seconds, according to claims. An aluminium chassis and carbon-fibre body panels help peg the car’s kerbweight to a quoted 1,890kg. Hispano-Suiza hasn’t outlined the cost of the GTS, but the firm offers a bespoke tailor-made option for each customer, including unique interior upholstery and paintwork, plus what it…

BMW’S 7 Series luxury limousine is the German brand’s flagship, so every successive generation points towards the technology we might see on the smaller 5 and 3 Series models. And the same is true of this latest seventh-generation 7 Series, which we’ve tried in prototype form. We tested an i7, which will come in three editions. Our ‘middle’ model (no specs are available yet) should offer more than 400 miles of claimed range and felt smooth and swift; you’d never need more performance in a luxury car – and the refinement here really suits the car’s brief and character. We also tried BMW’s new V8 (again, specs unconfirmed), which sounded great and pulled hard. But it feels as if the age of electrification now better suits a luxury car’s brief…

“You sense that there’s the character of an entertaining SUV wanting to break free” MASERATI may be going all-electric, having outlined its ‘Folgore’ strategy, but the Grecale mid-size SUV is where the brand’s renaissance really starts. To make money – and the company will need to prove itself viable under the Stellantis umbrella – you need to compete in this class. After Porsche released its Macan SUV (the new Macan T version is driven on P30), a direct competitor for the Grecale, in 2014, it became the German brand’s best-selling model. It highlights the market’s appetite for this kind of car, which has only grown over the last eight years. Being based on an updated version of the Giorgio platform already used by the Alfa Romeo Stelvio SUV is a…

@JPBrods FOR many members of the millennial generation, the Toyota Aygo has been a trusty first car. But now we’ve reached the Mk3 of this city class stalwart, and the Aygo – like its customer base – has grown up. It’s now called the Aygo X (pronounced Cross), and it turns to its bigger brother, the Yaris supermini, for its technical basis. It sits on Toyota’s GA-B platform and keeps to the confines of the city-car segment, but is now 3.7 metres long. Ride height is up by 11mm as part of an SUV-inspired makeover, while the driver’s seating position is 55mm higher. We’ve driven a pre-production car, but this is our first encounter with the finished product, which is now on sale in the UK, with first deliveries coming…

MODEL TESTED: Skoda Fabia 1.0 TSI 110PS SE L PRICE: £19,730 ENGINE: 1.0-litre 3cyl, 108bhp Running costs 55.4mpg (official) £66 fill-up/£155 or 27% tax Practicality Boot (seats up/down) 380/1,190 litres Performance 0-62mph/top speed 10.0 seconds/127mph WE’VE already been impressed by the Fabia, but this will be another stern test for Skoda’s latest supermini. It gets off to a good start, though, because this 1.0 TSI model in SE L trim undercuts both rivals here by more than £1,000, at £19,730. Design & engineering SKODA sticks with an evolutionary design ethos for the exterior of the Fabia, so while the latest car is all-new underneath, the bodywork looks largely the same as before, save for the Octavia-inspired grille up front and LED lights. It’s handsome enough, but not a car that…

Mazda 2 115PS GT Sport Tech PRICE: £20,945 ENGINE: 1.5-litre 4cyl, 113bhp WHILE the recently introduced 2 Hybrid is a rebadged Yaris, Mazda’s in-house supermini is still being sold alongside the newcomer. It’s a match for the Fiesta in terms of entertaining handling, while the top-spec GT Sport Tech undercuts the Fiesta Titanium. Renault Clio TCe 90 R.S. Line PRICE: £20,985 ENGINE: 1.0-litre 3cyl, 89bhp OUR favourite supermini can’t match our trio here for straight-line performance, but it makes up for that by offering more space, fantastic refinement and an upmarket cabin that feels more expensive than its £21k asking price suggests.…

@jimmybrods Running costs Official range/tax 199 miles/£0 Practicality Boot (seats up/down) 185/550 litres OUR time with the new, all-electric Fiat 500 has come to an end. But not without a little pomp and circumstance. On its departure, I’ve decided to hand the Fiat the Key to the City, but it’s an award that certainly comes with some caveats. For the past six months, the 500 has lived a varied life. We’ve driven it long distances, testing out the UK’s growing EV charging network in the process, and it had a stint as a rural runaround for deputy consumer editor Tristan Shale-Hester. It’s in the city that the 500 has impressed us the most, though, and while that’s not surprising, it does lay bare some home truths. When I took delivery,…

Got a query? products@autoexpress.co.uk Q Must I register my trailer? I’M planning to take a trailer tent to Europe this summer, but I’ve been told I need to register the trailer before I go. Is this right? Paul Mosley, E-mail A THE need to register a trailer depends on its size and how it’s to be used. You don’t need to register the trailer if its gross weight is less than 3,500kg and it’s being used privately. But commercial trailers weighing more than 750kg must be registered. Registration costs £26 and can be done online through the DVLA. Q How to stop brakes rusting? EVERY time I wash my car, the next time I start driving it, the brakes have jammed on and there’s a clunk as I drive off.…

BEING the victim of car crime is bad enough, but when it happens outside your own home it really does rub salt in the wound. That’s why more and more of us are fitting CCTV cameras to keep an eye on our cars. Besides providing vital evidence to help catch criminals, any footage could be invaluable to help settle an insurance claim. The price of systems is falling fast, and if there’s a WiFi connection, they are easy to install, too – outside or internally, viewing through a window. They alert you via an app if they sense movement and start recording automatically. We tried two cameras that will appeal to the typical DIYer. The Wansview IP Camera costs less than £25 and if you can keep it inside within…

AS crazy as this sounds, I sometimes wonder if some greedy firms in and around the car world are hell-bent on committing corporate suicide. I’m talking here about a handful of companies who first spend years (sometimes decades) and untold millions (occasionally billions) trying to attract consumers. Then – after they’ve gained access to our custom, cash and cars – they often spoil it all by treating us with the disrespect we really don’t deserve. At best, it’s complacency and laziness on their part. At worst, it’s arrogance and utter contempt. Either way, some firms out there seem perilously close to pressing their respective self-destruct buttons as they rip off or seriously alienate the very clients they fought so hard to win in the first place. I know all this…

New Toyota EV has 300+ miles of range TOYOTA’S bZ4X electric SUV will offer up to 317 miles of range, official tests have confirmed. The front-wheel-drive model will make the most of what the car’s 71.4kWh battery can offer, while the four-wheel-drive car (fitted with the same battery) serves up a claimed 285 miles of range, making both variants competitive against rivals. With 150kW rapid charging, an 80 per cent top-up will take less than 30 minutes. Charger rollout aims at higher education AT least 50,000 electric vehicle charge points are to be installed by eEnergy by 2030, as the firm partners with EO Charging to provide accessible EV charging for 32,000 schools, colleges and universities across the UK. The companies believe that the 225,000 staff and 2.66 million students…

THE Toyota GR Yaris isn’t available in the US, but the brand has revealed an all-new GR Corolla hot hatch that will be sold there. The car uses the same 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbocharged engine as the GR Yaris, but power is increased from 257bhp to 295bhp. It has the same four-wheel-drive system, while the Circuit Edition model features Torsen limited-slip differentials on the front and rear axles. Drive is transmitted via a six-speed manual gearbox. Performance figures are yet to be confirmed, but the GR Corolla’s extra power when compared with the GR Yaris should mean a 0-62mph time of around five seconds. The visual makeover for the GR Corolla is extreme, featuring a deep front bumper with a large mesh grille to aid engine cooling. There are also more…

@AutoExpress HOT TOPIC Ford Fiesta facelift FROM: Levent Taskan IT looks like a small van, which I actually mean as a good thing given the size restrictions in this segment. The trouble is that it seems to have barely changed with this facelift and is therefore starting to look long in the tooth. FROM: Adam Gorse I SAW one of these facelifted models on the road recently and I thought it looked rather gormless. I don’t think this facelift has done any favours for the exterior design, and I say that as a Fiesta fan. I hope the next one is better. Join the debate at www.autoexpress.co.uk “No accounting for taste, but I think this looks infinitely better than the Vauxhall Corsa.”Steve Michael “Fiestas do seem a good choice for…

MODEL TESTED: Toyota Yaris 1.5 VVT-i Icon PRICE: £20,820 ENGINE: 1.5-litre 3cyl, 114bhp Running costs 68.8mpg (official) £59 fill-up/£145 or 22% tax Practicality Boot (seats up/down) 286/947 litres Performance 0-62mph/top speed 9.7 seconds/109mph NOW in its fourth generation, the Toyota Yaris is an established member of the supermini class. The current car’s arrival in 2020 brought with it refinements to the way the Yaris handled, plus greater efficiency from its hybrid drive system. Here we test the £20,820 entry-level Icon model, although the car in our pictures is a top-spec Excel version, which starts from £23,780 Design & engineering OF the three cars tested here, the Yaris is the one that sticks closest to the ‘mini’ part of the category name. It’s 168mm shorter than the Skoda, although it’s taller…

NEW PRODUCT Laser eight-size ratchet ring spanner and brake pipe bender Price: from £27.76 Contact: lasertools.co.uk IF you like to carry an emergency tool kit in your car or storage space in your tool box is tight, then Laser Tools’ latest addition should be on your shopping list. The eight-in-one Ratchet Ring Spanner (8143) combines, as the name suggests, eight sizes in one slim tool. So instead of carrying a selection of spanners, this one covers 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 and 19mm fasteners. There are two ring sizes at each end; flip it over and there are two more. Finished in fully polished chrome vanadium, the bi-hex spanner also has 90-tooth ratchet mechanisms at each end. The fine-toothed ratchet makes the tool, which is 242mm long, ideal for…

What’s on the grille? Michael Burgess (Amberley Publishing, amberley-books.com) Price: £15.99 Rating: THIS book gives the history and meanings behind different car badges, but it goes for breadth rather than depth – even Mercedes and Peugeot only get a few paragraphs. We’d have liked more emphasis on the iterations some of these brandings have been through. Max: The Dutch Master Andrew Hoogeboom (Evro Publishing, evropublishing.com) Price: £25 Rating: THIS unauthorised biography of F1 driver Max Verstappen is well researched and written. It’s loaded with interviews from people close to him and his family. It makes an interesting telling of the Max story in the words of people who know him well. It’s also nicely broken up with period snaps. Steel Rage Available for: iOS, Android Price: Free Rating: THERE are…

Got any car queries? Tristan_Shale-Hester@autovia.co.uk Q Must I get a new engine after the timing chain failed? I WAS driving my 120,000-mile 2011 car when it made a loud rattling noise and the engine cut out. My garage said the timing chain had gone and nothing short of a new engine would fix the problem. What can I do? NS, E-mail A IF the timing chain has gone and the engine is damaged, then your mechanic is right that a replacement engine is the only feasible solution. Even if you were able to get a good deal on a reconditioned engine, parts such as the clutch and dual-mass flywheel may also need replacing. This, plus the cost of labour, will probably bring the bill to several thousand pounds, which may…

● Street-circuit plan for the Strip ● Joins Miami and Austin races FORMULA One has announced a new Saturday-night race in the US city of Las Vegas, with the inaugural event set to take place in November 2023. A street circuit will be laid out to include the Las Vegas Strip, going past many of the Nevada gambling hotspot’s famous landmarks, hotels and casinos. The track design is 3.8 miles long and it’s estimated the cars will reach more than 212mph in the fastest section. The race will comprise 50 laps, with three main straights and 14 corners, including a high-speed cornering sequence and a single chicane. A 10pm local start time is being mooted for the event, which would mean the race beginning at 6am for fans watching in…