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EIGHT months into the job, Aston Martin’s new CEO Tobias Moers opened the doors to his firm’s Gaydon HQ last week and gave us an opportunity to find out more on his vision for this great British brand. As you can read on page 12, his Project Horizon plan is wide-reaching, although the surprises are as much about what he’s not doing as what he is. The programmes that Moers has inherited from former CEO Andy Palmer are continuing; first Valkyrie deliveries will be later this year, while mid-engined Valhalla and Vanquish models will arrive from 2023. They won’t be powered by the planned in-house V6 hybrid, though. “What I found was a concept engine,” Moers told us. Hybrid V8 Mercedes power will be used instead, to Aston’s precise specifications.…

James_Brodie@autovia.co.uk @jimmybrods • Large SUV will break budget brand into a new market • Value is still a strong point, but hybrid tech will also appear DACIA is planning to reveal three new models by 2025, with the first coming next year in the form of a bigger brother for the Duster SUV, called Bigster. The new car will catapult the budget brand into a more lucrative market, but it will still deliver on the brand’s core principle of catering to budget-conscious new-car buyers. It’s also part of an important rebranding exercise for the firm, which has recently been incorporated into a new business structure within the Renault Group. The Bigster will be one of the first Dacias to wear the brand’s new, more minimalist badging, which it says is…

ANOTHER one of Dacia’s trio of new models for 2025 will be a versatile seven-seater, which could consolidate the Lodgy MPV and the Logan MCV Stepway estate into one model. It will act as a no-frills alternative to the Bigster. Caught here on camera in right-hand-drive form – hinting that it could be a model destined for the UK – the newcomer will also be based on the Renault Group’s CMF-B underpinnings. When it breaks cover, it’s likely that the new car’s front-end styling will draw inspiration from the current Sandero, sharing the same headlights, grille and bonnet shape. This test car has the same high roofline and boxy rear end as the European-market Lodgy, which means there should be plenty of headroom and storage space inside. We suspect that…

Luke_Wilkinson@autovia.co.uk @LT_Wilkinson “Semi-autonomous driving tech can control the SUV at speeds of up to 130mph, providing the driver’s hands are on the wheel” • Facelifted SUV revealed • Facelifted SUV revealed VOLKSWAGEN has facelifted the Tiguan Allspace, giving the seven-seat version of its top-selling SUV the same round of updates that appeared on the five-seat Tiguan towards the end of 2020. There are new matrix LED headlights, a restyled front bumper and grille, plus new tail-lights. Inside, the updated model gets new seats, fresh door panels, an updated steering wheel and climate controls with touch-sensitive sliders in place of the old car’s buttons. Volkswagen’s latest MIB3 infotainment system is introduced, too, with either an eight-inch screen or the option of a 9.2-inch set-up. The facelift also introduces Travel Assist to…

VOLKSWAGEN has also revealed fresh renderings of another people mover – this time the new T7 Multivan, which will switch to the brand’s MQB platform. The T7 will make its debut this June, featuring sharper styling, including a front LED light bar like VW’s latest models, and an all-new interior inspired by the Mk8 Golf family hatch, including a pair of digital displays. The van-based MPV could offer an eHybrid plug-in powertrain too, likely to be VW’s 1.4 TSI/e-motor set-up, although specifics haven’t been confirmed.…

Steve_Fowler@autovia.co.uk @stevefowler • Facelifts and electrification • Supercars to get Merc power NEW Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers has laid bare his turnaround project for the company, dubbed Project Horizon. Aston only last week announced its first-quarter results, with trading “in line with expectations”, just as Auto Express met with Moers for the first time since his appointment in August 2020. His plan includes ditching an in-house-developed hybrid V6 in favour of Mercedes-AMG-sourced engines, radical facelifts for the Vantage, DB11 and DBS, electrification for the next generation of Aston Martins due from the middle of the decade, and an expansion of the DBX SUV range. Moers also confirmed that there would be no more lucrative continuation models like the DB5 Goldfinger, although specials like the V12 Speedster will continue, while…