Auto Express 1751

THE UK’s rapid shift towards EVs means we often hear from entrepreneurs, the energy establishment and investors, with business goals underpinned by the seemingly genuine desire to make ‘Planet A’ work better. EV charging infrastructure is a case in point, where innovation and investment are often inspired by forward thinkers on a mission to change the world. The industry’s progressive instincts have, until now, sat uncomfortably with the reality of EV ownership for many. Across the past year, Auto Express has campaigned on the difficulties faced by less able drivers when confronted with weighty and unwieldy charging cables, and challenged public chargepoint providers and government to address the issue. Providers pushed back. Guidance might have emerged in April’s draft of the British Standards Institute’s PAS 1899 for Accessible Public EV…

sean_carson@autovia.co.uk • Renault 4 to be rebooted as small family-friendly all-electric SUV • Chunky-looking show car marks 4L Trophy rally’s 25th birthday FOLLOWING the rebirth of the Renault 5 hatchback in concept form, the French manufacturer has reinvented yet another icon from its back catalogue in the shape of the Renault 4Ever Trophy concept car, revealed at the Paris Motor Show. A concept – for now – the 4Ever directly previews a future production car from Renault. A reborn 4 will go on sale in 2025 as a compact family SUV with an all-electric powertrain, and it will feature many design cues from this striking-looking prototype. According to Laura Gregoire, product leader on the 4Ever project, the silver-coloured parts of the body are very close to the production-ready Renault 4’s…

LAURA Gregoire was at the sharp end of the 4Ever’s design and development. We quizzed her on the challenges of bringing such funky design to market. Q How do you reinvent a car like the 4 for the modern era without it being a total pastiche of the original? A We wanted to keep that iconic silhouette and the DNA of the original 4. However, it’s easier to modernise a hatchback like the 5, which we showed at the start of the Renaulution; the 4’s shape and volumes are more difficult to reimagine with what we need for today, but with these cars we achieved it twice! Q Who will the new Renault 4 production car be aimed at? A We want the 4 to be more versatile. The 5…

Steve_Fowler@autovia.co.uk @stevefowler • Coupé is first of a fully electric Rolls-Royce line-up by 2030 • Prices upward of £300,500 and first cars delivered in 12 months AN electric car has been a long time coming for Rolls-Royce. Back in 1900 the company’s co-founder, Charles Rolls, bought himself an electric vehicle and said, “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.” Charging points may be out of Rolls-Royce’s control, but the Spectre arrives with the aim to be the pinnacle of electric motoring thanks to, the company claims, the most exhaustive testing procedure of any car it’s ever launched – the equivalent of 400 years’ use for a Rolls-Royce. Although the Spectre is…

THE overriding impression from our spin in a Spectre prototype – at BMW’s Miramas test facility in France and on twisty country roads nearby – is that even by the standards of previous Rolls-Royces, the Spectre is an astonishingly refined creation. The test mule chosen for our experience was one of the ‘durability cars’ – so a car that had racked up plenty of hard miles. And yet even as a prototype, it seemed to possess a remarkable mix of EV shove (we’re not surprised to see the final torque figure is a whopping 900Nm) and whisper-quiet noise suppression. Indeed, Rolls’s engineers admitted to us at Miramas that at some point during development, the decision had to be taken to feed noise back into the system – using small air…

Yousuf_Ashraf@autovia.co.uk @ashrafoncars • All-new electric SUV revealed • Up to 379 miles on a charge THE high-end electric SUV market is contested by the likes of the BMW iX and Audi e-tron, and now the Polestar 3 has joined the ranks. It heralds the firm’s next generation of models, and features a new EV platform, plus revised interior tech. It’s on sale now, with prices from £79,900. Under the skin, the Polestar 3 shares Its SPA2 platform with the upcoming Volvo EX90, although the Polestar has a slightly smaller footprint than a BMW iX. There are dual electric motors for a total of 482bhp and 840Nm, while Polestar is targeting a 0-62mph sprint time of five seconds. The Performance Pack increases the output to 510bhp and 910Nm for an extra…