Innholdsfortegnelse for March 15, 2023 i Autocar

NEWLY RELAUNCHED BRITISH company Westfield Chesil will begin selling cars again this year and has set its sights on launching its first EV in 2024. Bought by Nigel Trilk after going into administration in June 2022 after nearly 40 years in business, the company will return with the Caterhamchasing Westfield Sport 250 and Westfield Sport 2000, along with two new versions of the Chesil Speedster, a Porsche 356 replica. From 2024, the cars will be sold with a new engine, replacing the current Ford Focus ST-derived 2.0-litre petrol units – although the firm remains tight-lipped on the supplier’s identity. An electric version of the Speedster, already in the works under the previous ownership – and which attracted a lot of interest in the brand during the sale process – will…

THE UK GOVERNMENT has confirmed it has no plans to implement road pricing as a replacement for vehicle excise duty. Road pricing, a telematicsbased system that would charge motorists according to distance driven and the type of vehicle they are driving, has long been mooted as a potential replacement source of revenue for the government as EV uptake continues to climb in the UK and reduces the amount generated from fuel and vehicle excise duties. A decision on whether to approve a road pricing policy was expected in the 2022 autumn budget but wasn’t forthcoming. Now, in an exchange with the Transport Select Committee (TSC), MPs have revealed there are no plans to implement – or to consider implementing – a road pricing system in the UK. Responding to a…

LYNK&CO HAS RELEASED the first images of its upcoming 08 SUV ahead of an official unveiling on 30 March. The seventh car from the Geely-owned brand is set for Chinese sales during the second half of 2023. Plans also exist for the 08 to be sold in selected export markets, including Europe, from 2024. A sibling model to the next-generation Volvo XC60, the five-seat SUV features a number of design cues first seen on Lynk&Co’s futuristic The Next Day concept car, revealed in June 2022, although the 08 swaps that show car’s low-slung, two-door silhouette for a more conventional upright bodystyle. It does, however, carry over the concept’s flamboyant split LED headlights. It will be offered with both mild-and plug-in hybrid petrol powertrains. MERCEDES PULLS WRAPS OFF ALL-NEW GLC COUPE…

Polestar will create a “truly” carbon-neutral production car by 2030 to sell as a limited-run EV. Under the guise of Polestar 0 Project, the aim is to eliminate, “not reduce”, all greenhouse gas emissions from every aspect of the car’s production without the need to offset emissions through other means, such as planting trees. “It’s our moonshot,” said the firm. “Many consider it impossible. We intend to make it happen.” 0 Project head Hans Pehrson said the brand will work with partners and develop new production methods to achieve this. The car’s development is scheduled to commence in 2027. It is not yet known which form this car will take. The project – started in 2021 and still in its research phase – was created because production of an EV…

Parliament’s Transport Select Committee (TSC) is cross with the Treasury for not returning its calls about road pricing. In February last year, the TSC presented a “substantial” inquiry into road pricing, using four witness panels, 148 evidence submissions and 13 recommendations on how the government could implement it. Last week, in a fairly brief statement, the chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the government “does not currently have plans to consider road pricing”. The TSC is upset that he isn’t listening, that his department “has not meaningfully engaged with the substance of [the] report” and that if it wanted to be ignored about something so important, it could have stayed home and talked to its teenage children. The TSC’s concern – and this will matter to all of us – is that…

It remains to be proven what kind of high-performance derivatives EV enthusiasts will be willing to pay for. Most car makers are still preoccupied with more fundamental questions, after all. Can we make an electric car affordable enough but still desirable? Can we make it light enough? Can we make it look good? Can we make it go far enough between charges? For many, going beyond remains a challenge for tomorrow. But EV specialist Polestar is ready to address it right now. Having such little brand baggage, the Sino-Swedish firm will, in the fullness of time, propose several interpretations of what high performance looks like in an EV. The super-aerodynamic, rangy grand tourer; the lowslung, two-seat supercar; the spacious, muscular performance crossover: some are already in the product plan, and…

We have extensively driven the Mercedes-AMG SL 55 in the UK, and now arriving is the faster 63 variant of this new 2+2 roadster. Both use a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 engine, but whereas the 55’s has 469bhp and 516lb ft, the 63’s has 577bhp and 590lb ft. As well as electronic tuning differences, the 63’s unit gets tweaks to the intake manifold, exhaust and cooling. Both drive through a nine-speed automatic gearbox with a wet clutch (rather than a torque converter), with four-wheel drive and fourwheel steering also standard. Both have coil springs too, but the 63’s chassis gains revised active engine mounts, an electronically controlled limited-slip differential at the rear and hydraulic anti-roll bars, rather than mechanical ones. Those should let the suspension, which on the 55 we have…

If Massimo Fumarola’s parents had had a different next-door neighbour in Milan four decades ago, he probably would never have moved to Worcestershire in 2022 to become the fourth-ever CEO of the Morgan Motor Company. That neighbour was none other than the chairman of Italy’s Morgan Motor Club, who Fumarola recalls as “a typical Morgan fan, always talking about how much he loved his cars”. When Fumarola left home, it was to train as an engineer and then join various large automotive companies. He took jobs at Ferrari, Lamborghini and the Volkswagen Group, among others, in an eventful early career that centred in recent years on international marketing. When Morgan’s new owner, the Italian venture capital company Investindustrial, offered Fumarola the chance to run one of the world’s oldest (albeit…

REVEALED Ford electric car Ford executives give us a full briefing on their new mainstream EV, the firm’s most important car since the Focus FEATURE E-fuels Noise about e-fuels is getting ever louder, so perhaps the ICE car still has a future DRIVEN BMW XM M division’s second bespoke car, the XM, has a lot to live up to. Does it deliver? EVERY WEEK USED GUIDE Maserati 3200 GT Fancy the new Granturismo but can’t afford it? We’ve got you covered OUR CARS Citroën C5 Aircross Our high-mileage snapper looks back on his time with a plug-in hybrid SUV SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p42…

MILEAGE 16,150 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the latest VW ’bus has all of the charms of its predecessors I was driving towards Northampton when I heard a loud clack, followed by my instinctive own swear word in response, which indicated that a stone or rock or errant wheel nut had given the Volkswagen Multivan’s windscreen a hefty whack. (And provided a reminder to always wear a full-face helmet in a car without a windscreen.) But what was this? I peered at it to note no sign of any damage. Crikey, that was a result, I thought, and largely forgot all about it. Then three days later, I got a text from a colleague testing the van saying: “Um, Matt, did you know about this crack in the…

An expert’s view CARL HARTLEY, TOM HARTLEY LTD “The Veyron is an absolutely incredible piece of engineering. There’s no car in the world like it, even now, but it needs the full and correct Bugatti service history. Make sure the car has no big gaps in its service history. If the service is every two years, that’s fine. Just don’t let it go over five years. Before buying a Veyron, I would send it to Bugatti for a full inspection for peace of mind.” Buyer beware… ▪ RECALLS You wouldn’t think this would fall victim to a recall, but fuel gauge issues meant some cars were sent back. The gauge would tell the driver they had a full tank even when they didn’t, which is an issue in such a…

What’s the difference between an estate and a shooting brake? A lot has been lost in the mists of time and marketing, but the latter must have some sass to its styling. Practicality isn’t the overriding concern of most shooting brakes, but added load space is certainly handy. At a time when the shooting brake form – like the estate – is in sharp decline in the face of the SUV, surely it’s time to celebrate them. Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake It took Mercedes until the second iteration of the CLS to expand the line-up with a shooting brake. When it did, the new model immediately grabbed attention through its sweeping looks and slight hint of menace. Yet despite those rakish lines, it was still a Mercedes estate at heart,…

“The EV9 heralds a new design era for Kia as it moves towards launching another 13 bespoke EVs by 2027” The new EV9 is the second of Kia’s fast-expanding family of bespoke electric cars, combining compelling performance specs with upmarket design and equipment to enter into direct competition with new SUVs from the likes of BMW and Mercedes. Joining the segmentbending EV6 crossover in dealerships from late 2023, the EV9 heralds the beginning of a bold new design era for Kia as it progresses with its ambitious ‘Plan S’ strategy to launch another 13 bespoke EVs by 2027. Its role is especially important in this regard, according to Kia chief brand officer Artur Martins, who said the EV9 “will help us keep reshaping the image consumers have of our brand”…

The upcoming secondgeneration Tourneo Courier will take on a much more significant role for Ford following the death of the Fiesta later this year (and the subsequent exit of the Focus in 2025), effectively becoming its entry-level passenger car. Due to enter production later this year alongside the Puma crossover in Craiova, Romania, the Tourneo Courier is a boxy small MPV derived from the panel-sided Transit Courier that will be offered with both combustion and electric powertrains. With Ford Otosan (a joint venture between Ford and Turkish firm Koç) taking over ownership of the Romanian plant, the Transit Courier and Tourneo Courier will fill the space left on the production line following the exit of the Ecosport (previously Ford’s cheapest SUV) late last year. The first-generation Courier pair were based…

BMW INCREASED ITS spending on research and development by 5.2% last year compared with 2021 (totalling £5.9bn) as it made significant steps towards launching its next-generation EV line-up. This will usher in a new era for BMW, including the electrification of the long-running 3 Series with a model previewed by the i Vision Dee concept car. The Neue Klasse EVs will major on technology as BMW aims to make connected vehicles a key pillar of its business, controversially locking some premium features (such as heated seats) behind a subscription. The company confirmed in its 2023 financial statement that it had also increased spending on the development of the “digitalisation of the vehicle fleet” as well as autonomous driving.…

LEADING PUBLIC CHARGER provider Fastned has called for greater collaboration across the automotive industry to create a sustainable business around EVs. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders highlighted recently that 100 new chargers will be needed per day to hit the UK government’s minimum target of 300,000 by 2030, yet the current rate is only around 23 per day. Tom Hurst, UK boss of Fastned (which plans to install 1000 fast chargers across Europe by 2030 and has 15 charging sites in the UK today), responded by saying: “What we need if we want to build long-term businesses is collaboration. Manufacturers need to sell these cars, we need to charge them, so we need to work together. “The SMMT has highlighted an interesting line, but it doesn’t reflect the…

BACK IN THE dark ages (that’s the real dark ages, not a couple of decades ago), alchemists sweated over the transmutation of base metals into gold. It was a nice idea, even though achieving their goal would have inevitably rendered the yellow stuff of little more value than the base metal they were making it from. These days, metallurgists and chemists are poring over a less fanciful but otherwise similar sort of problem: recycling materials to the same grade ‘A’ quality they started life in. Recycling steel, for example, may seem straightforward but it isn’t and, according to Audi, few of the materials taken from old cars, including steel, are reused in new cars. So rather than recycled steel from scrapped cars being reused for body skins, chassis, suspension or…

THE UK ISN’T doing enough to keep hold of its “worldclass” engineers, who are being poached by overseas firms to the detriment of the country’s fading automotive industry, the global head of Tata Technologies has told Autocar. Warren Harris also lamented the difficulties the “not very well-managed” Brexit has had within the sector, where car production has fallen from nearly 1.6 million in 2016 to 775,000 last year. Harris said workers are now looking overseas as firms choose to set up shop away from the UK. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of incentives here compared with what is being offered in other countries. He said: “When you look at incentives for things like battery factories and gigafactories, [what is being offered in] mainland Europe, and…

BYD IS TAKING aim at the Mercedes-Benz G-Class with a new hardcore off-roader set to be launched in China this year and globally from 2024. Depicted in prototype form in a video released online, the five-seat SUV is the first in the Chinese firm’s new F model line, which is set to expand to include other SUVs and pick-up trucks. Details of the off-roader, which goes under the internal codename SF, remain scarce ahead of its expected unveiling at the 2023 Shanghai motor show in April. However, BYD officials have said it measures close to 5000mm in length and rides on a 2850mm wheelbase. The firm also said the SF will be powered by a new petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain with a Mercedes-AMG G63-beating 671bhp. The combined range is “more than…

MONDAY In our job, cars collide. I’m not talking about crashing. What I mean is that important models are often launched just as another supreme attention-grabber leaps into the frame. Last week brought the perfect example: competition and tight schedules meant we covered extensively the Ferrari Purosangue and Aston Martin Valkyrie in the same issue. Great but not perfect. The same thing has just happened at my place. A long-wheelbase Jeep Wrangler arrived at the same time as the new V6 Ford Ranger Raptor. Both are machines I’ve been busting to drive. The Wrangler is well equipped, strong enough to drop off a building and satisfyingly Jeepish to look at but fundamentally crude. It’s fine if you need class-leading off-roading and will compromise to get it. The Ranger Raptor is…

For a car that brings a bold new player into the UK market, the BYD Atto 3 is disarmingly unassuming. Given the huge ambition of its maker, you might expect a big, splashy statement; instead, here’s a family SUV that carries itself with quiet confidence. Never heard of BYD? If you own a smartphone or laptop, there’s a good chance this Chinese company made its battery. Been on an electric bus? It might have made that too. Twenty years ago, it ventured into car making when looking for ways to apply its battery tech. Last year, it sold nearly 1.9 million PHEVs and EVs. It’s an incredible success story, yet one conducted with little fuss. And that attitude isn’t changing. BYD may be arriving here quietly, but it’s set on…

One of the modern rear-wheeldrive greats is frustratingly out of reach. We adore the Toyota GR86, but its achingly short UK allocation selling at a pace usually reserved for Taylor Swift gig tickets has dimmed its sheen a bit. Perhaps there’s an alternative, though, and from arguably the leader in accessible rear-driven 2+2s. BMW may have made a few philosophical mis-steps of late, but this new 230i is a slice of good news. Sure, it’s £10,000 more than the Toyota, but with more usable back seats, a significantly plusher interior and more cosseting refinement (all echoed in a respective 324kg ballast), it’s a different car entirely. You’d be forgiven for struggling to navigate today’s 2 Series range, with its front-driven saloon and MPV variants, but BMW has hosted the coupé…

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This is Lunazy Your article on Lunaz’s conversion of classic cars to battery-electric power has me wondering whether the DVSA has been consulted (‘First among sequels’, 22 February). There are strict rules about restoration of classics, which if you aren’t careful will end up with a Q registration plate being required. My main issue, though, is the need for MOT testing. Currently historic vehicles don’t need testing. Putting a modern, high-risk (see battery fires) propulsion system into a decades-old car design strikes me as not being a very good idea. Are these chimeric vehicles actually capable of adequate crash performance? Will they need to be put through an MOT test annually? Phil Drewett Torquay Lunaz said: “You’re right that there are strict rules about modification of classic cars. In the…

Turbo upgrade for MG Metro AFTER BRITISH LEYLAND had killed off the MGB sports car in 1980, the MG brand lay dormant until sports versions of Austin’s new Metro and Montego arrived. Soon after, BL engineers gave the A-Plus four-cylinder engine an innovative turbocharging system that let it hit peak torque at well below then normal turbo engine speeds: 85lb ft at 2650rpm. Other upgrades were made to the engine (raising total output by 21bhp to 93bhp), clutch and suspension, while a second antiroll bar was installed at the rear. Our test started poorly, the MG jerky to drive in traffic, but things improved once we got going. Its delivery was smoother and less laggy than from most turbo cars and its 9.4sec 0-60mph time beat all rivals’ bar the…

MILEAGE 4306 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if an electric SUV is worthy of the Mustang name and, more importantly, if it augurs well for Ford’s future The Mustang Mach-E has a kerb weight of 2218kg in four-wheel-drive spec, like the one I’ve been driving since I swapped to a newer model in order to experience the suspension upgrades introduced last year. Stop and think about that for a moment. That’s a fair bit of heft: about 20-40% more than a Ford Kuga, depending on the model. In many ways, that makes its pace and poise all the more remarkable: a 0-62mph time of 5.1sec (3.7sec on the go-faster GT model, to give some context of what an electric motor can do) is more than fast enough, and the…

FORD HAS REVEALED a new mild-hybrid version of its Puma ST hot crossover, which will go on sale with the firm’s most powerful 1.0-litre engine yet. Named the Puma ST Powershift, it swaps out the 1.5-litre turbo petrol triple of the existing Puma ST for a smaller 1.0-litre version paired with a seven-speed automatic gearbox, a beltintegrated starter-generator and a 48V battery. The standard Puma is already offered with a mildhybrid powertrain, but the Puma ST Powershift produces around 10% more power, raising the output from 152bhp to 167bhp. Torque, meanwhile, increases to 182lb ft. As such, 0-62mph is completed in 7.4sec – slower than the 6.7sec offered by the standard Puma ST. With CO2 emissions of 144g/km and an average fuel consumption of around 37mpg, the new engine…

Lamborghini’s first plug-in hybrid will have a new V12 engine and three electric motors producing a combined 1000bhp, making it the company’s most potent supercar yet. The replacement for the Aventador, codenamed LB744, begins the electrification of the Italian marque’s core line-up while also allowing its signature V12 engine to “live on”, rather than being killed off by increasingly strict emissions regulations. To be fully revealed later this month, the supercar is “completely new from the ground up”, chief technical officer Rouven Mohr has previously told Autocar, with nothing carried over from its 12-year-old predecessor. Here are some of the highlights of Lamborghini’s maiden PHEV powertrain.…

Afeud is brewing over the roll-out of low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), created to provide safer and cleaner traffic-free spaces, as more cities across the country adopt the government-backed scheme. Critics say LTNs generate more problems than they solve – especially affecting local traffic, pushing congestion elsewhere. Meanwhile, supporters argue residential quality of life has improved drastically, with urban streets no longer used as congestion-escaping rat runs. However, there is a suspicion that because many LTNs are policed by number-platerecognition cameras triggering fines of up to £160, they are a revenue-raising tool. Indeed, in 2021, ‘moving traffic offences’ in London – the highest LTN adopter with 100 – increased by 55.4% compared with the year before (from 2.1 million to 3.25 million), a rise due largely to the introduction of LTNs. But…

Nissan aims for its hybrids to cost the same as its pure-combustion cars in around three years’ time thanks to a cheaper and more efficient new approach to electrified drivetrain development. The car maker has revamped its powertrain development process, which will see EV and e-Power hybrid drivetrain parts shared and modularised. This, it says, will slash production costs by 30% compared with 2019 levels by 2026. There are two strains of this new approach: the 3-in-1 model packages the motor, inverter and reducer components together in one system for use in pure EVs, while the 5-in-1 prototype adds a generator and increaser for use in e-Power hybrids. This new system allows core components of all electrified drivetrains to run down the same production line. Nissan currently sells two pure-electric…

A three-way title battle? Well, that was wishful thinking. Formula 1 heads to the second grand prix of the season in Saudi Arabia this weekend in a collective state best described as sober – and that has nothing to do with the kingdom’s ban on alcohol. The big question in Jeddah is not whether Max Verstappen will win again but rather by how much, such was Red Bull’s domination in Bahrain. The double world champion was imperious in the night-race opener as Sergio Pérez recovered from a sluggish start to secure a one-two. Red Bull deserves full credit for the way it has shot out of the blocks this term, but it’s a bitter pill to swallow for rivals Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG, not to mention for F1 as a whole.…

With so many cars spuriously purporting to be sporty or have racing genes, it’s refreshing when the presentation for a new one hardly even mentions sportiness. The RZ is Lexus’s flagship EV, and instead it ought to offer “confidence, control and comfort”. Mind you, it still has 309bhp and will out-accelerate quite a few hot hatches. The RZ is Lexus getting serious about EVs. It’s had the UX 300e for a while, but that has never been a heavy-hitter. This new car shares its e-TNGA platform – which is bespoke to EVs – with the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra (road test, p34), as well as its fairly small battery. Lexus has now confirmed that the quoted 71.4kWh figure is the total capacity, of which 64kWh is usable. 71.4kWh is…

MODEL TESTED AWD TOURING • Price £52,995 • Power 215bhp • Torque 248lb ft • 0-60mph 6.7sec • 30-70mph 6.2sec • Economy 2.6mpkWh • Max DC charging speed 147kW • 70-0mph 48.8m Electrification represents a philosophical obstacle to some car manufacturers as well as a practical one. Subaru’s brand, for example, has long been built on tough, versatile family cars with boxer engines and differentialbased ‘symmetrical’ four-wheel drive systems, and all the benefits they confer. It is a mechanically particular way to define a family of cars but has given the firm its own following for decades. So what happens when it builds a car in which neither of those things can feature? One that has no need of a mechanical driveline at all and uses electric motors rather than…

Lithium ion battery recycling is already established, and it’s something all major car makers are pursuing, along with industrial firms and academic institutions like the Warwick Manufacturing Group. In the EU, the Battery Directive already requires that at least 50% of batteries must be recycled at the end of their lives, but according to the WMG’s David Greenwood, that figure is being bettered, because tougher rules are on the way. “Research is under way at [the] WMG on that, and we’ve filed some patents,” says Greenwood. “We hope to increase the recycling rate from 50% to 80-95% by the end of the decade.” Future regulations are likely to dictate minimum recycled quantities of specific materials like lithium, as well as mandating the use of minimum quantities of recycled material in…

Your article On This Day in 1966 (22 February) was headed with a photo of my brother Stuart driving an Audi that was the subject of a long-term test. Stuart was on the editorial staff at Autocar for many years and had previously been involved in testing the first Audi to be imported to the UK, a Super 90. On his recommendation, I ordered a Super 90 in 1968 and had it delivered to Malta, where I had been posted with the Lancashire Regiment. I had persuaded four other members of the unit to also buy Audis, so there was a 70, a couple of 80s and a Variant estate together with my Super 90. Audi was so pleased with this that it sent an engineer to make sure we…

The Fiesta is being laid to rest but it’s going out on a high. This final generation of the long and loved line is a peach: great to drive, refined and practical. It’s also a really good buy as a used car, which is handy because that’s more or less your only way to get one now. There’s plenty of choice – not just in the sheer numbers on sale but also in the breadth of the model range. Take the engine line-up. The petrols include a 1.1-litre with 69bhp and 84bhp and a turbocharged 1.0-litre three-cylinder Ecoboost in 94bhp, 99bhp, 123bhp and 138bhp states of tune. There’s also a 1.5-litre diesel with 84bhp or 118bhp, which was withdrawn from sale in 2020. Later models incorporate mildhybrid technology in 1.0…

People always gawp at unprecedented inventions that make the world seem like a smaller place. The locomotive, for example, the car and the aeroplane. And then the Bugatti Veyron of 2005. At its world-shrinking top speed of 253mph, you could get from London to Glasgow in two hours. That would be without fuel stops, however; you would actually have to make those every 12 minutes. There’s a good reason for this unrestrained (11mpg) thirst. Totals of 987bhp and 921lb ft come from an 8.0-litre, quad-turbocharged W16 engine, resulting also in a 0-62mph time of 2.5sec. The Veyron pulverised the then record holder, McLaren’s legendary F1. If you had a drag race and gave the F1 a head start to 125mph, the Veyron would still hit 200mph first. An even faster…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…