Innholdsfortegnelse for October 20, 2021 i Autocar

Was it a challenge updating the Focus and Fiesta at once? “We started with Fiesta and then Focus came along when we had already established a bit of experience with the MCA [mid-cycle action] and how to approach it. We didn’t have to argue on some of the Focus’s content because the same exercise had been done a few months ago with Fiesta.” How did you approach the separate bodystyles? “The Active, especially, we have tried to make look ‘crossover-ish’ – to give it a strong presence on the front end. We played all the tricks a designer has in their playbook to do that in the boundaries of the proportions of the vehicle. At the same time, the ST-Line is much more sporty than today’s car, so each of…

MOTORSPORT specialist Prodrive has developed a new sustainable fuel. Developed in conjunction with Coryton Advanced Fuels, the new Prodrive ECOpower is produced from agricultural waste biofuel and e-fuels created by carbon capture. The firm claims it reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 80% compared with an equivalent petrol fuel. Prodrive has already run its Hunter T1 Dakar Rally car on the mixture. It will now use the fuel in FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies events and the 2022 Dakar Rally.…

AC CARS HAS opened the order books for a limited-run continuation version of the Ace sports car, which, company boss Alan Lubinsky has said, “may well be” the firm’s last new model with a petrol engine. The Ace RS retains a lightweight 2.3-litre four-cylinder petrol engine producing 350bhp and 324lb ft and delivering a 0-62mph sprint of 5.8sec. That is just 0.3sec slower than the Ace RS Electric. The £89,500 new machine features prominent Union Jack-themed paintwork and its 1000kg weight and styling are matched to those of the original Ace, which was first produced from 1953 to 1963. AC Cars already offers electric versions of the Ace, Cobra and Series 1 and Lubinsky said the firm’s switch to battery power “has proved to be more important for the brand…

Hyundai Hyundai is ramping up autonomous vehicle development in parallel with its electrification efforts with a view to ultimately creating a “driverless future”. The Korean company recently partnered technology developer Motional to create a self-driving version of the Ioniq 5 EV, which uses an array of 30 exterior cameras, radar and lidar to detect objects at “ultra-long range” in 360deg. The Robotaxi is planned to go into operation in the US with ride-hailing service Lyft in 2023. Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar Land Rover’s Project Vector involves a selfdriving pod based on an all-new skateboard-style EV platform launched in partnership with Warwick University’s National Automotive Innovation Centre. Trials have already begun and the vehicle is a key part of JLR’s drive towards “destination zero” – its ambitious goal to reach zero…

If you know about the Tesla Model 3, you will already know quite a lot about this, the Model Y. It completes Tesla’s core line-up of S, 3, X, Y models (Ford wouldn’t release the Model E name it owns) and is effectively a crossover version of the junior saloon. It will understandably cost a few grand more, with UK prices starting at £54,990, and deliveries are due to commence early next year. It’s bigger than the Model 3 – only by 50mm in length (so it’s 4.75m long) but a full 181mm in height. Just 27mm of that goes into increasing the ground clearance to 167mm, so the body height is stretched by more than 150mm, which should do head room a favour. How to describe the looks? I…

You could drive this new Ferrari for a month and never find an occasion when the road ahead and your backbone combined adequately for you to send the rightfoot pedal to the floor. The SF90 Stradale is many things: the first-ever mid-engined Ferrari with four-wheel drive, the first Ferrari with true plugin hybrid capability and the first roadlegal Ferrari to possess a thousand metric horsepower. But above all, and for the curious souls who do manage to contrive an opportunity to unleash it, the SF90 is satanically quick. I won’t steal thunder from an upcoming eight-page road test of this novel supercar, but know that when you see the raw numbers, you will find both the car’s lap time at MIRA and its straight-speed performance quite shocking, even on the…

The Leon needs no introduction, offering a brilliant package that many favour over the closely related Volkswagen Golf. Now in its fourth generation, it has been Seat’s UK top seller for quite a while. The hatchback rules the roost, but the estate still has its place, taking 10% of sales – and sporty FR is by far the trim most often picked, at 40%. Its aesthetic differences include sportier bumpers, LED headlights and 17in bi-spoke alloys; the only technical one is a 15mm-lower ride. This helps the estate shine out in the country, entering corners keenly with not much roll and ample grip. Evenly weighted, accurate steering further enhances driver enjoyment on twisty roads and in town, making the Skoda Octavia Estate (another relation) feel wallowy by comparison. Swings and…

1 BMW 545e M SPORT The usual multitalented completeness from the G30-gen Five. Slick, potent, roomy, sophisticated and desirable. Price £60,260 Power, torque 389bhp, 443lb ft 0-62mph, top speed 4.6sec, 155mph CO2 , economy 41-51g/km, 122.8-128.4mpg 2 AUDI A6 55 TFSIe COMPETITION S LINE QUATTRO Beats BMW on electric range but has only four cylinders; 50 TFSIe version is slick if plain to drive. Price £62,990 Power, torque 362bhp, 369lb ft 0-62mph, top speed 5.6sec, 155mph CO2 , economy 31-32g/km, 201.8-217.3mpg 3 PEUGEOT 508 PEUGEOT SPORT ENGINEERED Not as rounded or classy as the 545e, but a more compelling driver’s car in some ways. Price £53,995 Power, torque 355bhp, 384lb ft 0-62mph, top speed 5.2sec, 155mph CO2 , economy 46g/km, 138.9mpg 4 MERCEDES-BENZ E450 AMG LINE NIGHT EDITION 4MATIC The 450 straight-six petrol only just added to E-Class range. Not a PHEV, but still rich…

Six races to go, six points between them. The battle for the 2021 world championship is delicately poised as Formula 1 heads this week to the Lone Star State for the United States Grand Prix in Austin. Max Verstappen has the edge over Lewis Hamilton, at least in terms of points on the board. But in the previous three races (at Monza, Sochi and Istanbul Park), Mercedes-AMG appears to have clawed back a slight performance advantage over Red Bull-Honda, against the grain of form from the first half of the season. It’s fantastically close. In Russia, Verstappen started from the back as Red Bull sacrificed the race to intentionally break the Dutchman’s season limits on powertrain components, giving it greater odds on reliability for the autumn run-in. Verstappen still finished…

It’s incredible that it has taken so long, but finally, at the age of 31, Craig Breen has a full-time ride on the World Rally Championship. Not just in any car, either, but one that’s rumoured to be a benchmark: M-Sport’s new Ford Puma WRC. Until now, Breen was pulling together drives where he could. Even when the Irishman was a Citroën factory driver (from 2016 to 2018), he never quite got a complete programme, missing at least a few events every year. He has still never done Rally Mexico, for instance. It has been a similar story with Hyundai, for which he has driven nine WRC events in the past three years. Here’s the thing, though: on four of them, he ended up on the podium, including the last…

“IT IS SOMETIMES declared that racing is for youngsters only, but I am 42 years of age, and it is 16 years since I last took part in a significant long-distance contest,” said Felice Nazzaro after his fine 1922 French Grand Prix win. “My little Fiat [804] ran perfectly and never gave me the least trouble. I stopped about the middle of the race, according to a pre-arrangement, in order to take on petrol and change tyres as a precautionary measure. I drove without a spare wheel, as did my two companions [his nephew Biagio Nazzaro and Pietro Bordino], but our Pirellis gave such good service that we never had need of one. “Throughout the race, I never found it necessary to run at full speed. I kept my engine…

It’s now a year since I bought my Kia Soul EV, and it has proved to be everything that I could have hoped for: quiet, smooth, easy to drive and cheap to own. The recent queues at the pumps made me think about how many articles about EVs focus on the difficulties of charging on the move. Britain’s national charging system certainly needs improvement, as it’s totally unacceptable to have so many chargers out of order. How many petrol pumps are in a similar state? Surely a charger is no more complex than a liquid fuel pump? Interestingly, I haven’t yet visited a commercial charger. Home charging is a breeze (although I wouldn’t recommend an EV now without this option). It takes seconds to plug in, and modern EVs with…

MILEAGE 5087 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a plug-in hybrid family SUV can justify its eco credentials As anyone with a vague memory of being five will know, curious minds are rewarded when buttons are pressed. And so it is that we find ourselves perched on top of what feels more like a cliff than a steep off-road slope, Kia Sorento primed to descend, with buttons being prodded and Terrain mode knobs being twirled. We’ve reached here entirely silently, creeping through a lower section of the quarry on electricity, with the only sound the crunch of rock under tyre and the occasional ‘bong’ from the car. The Sorento does like to announce itself with plenty of synthesised warning noises. Creep up the slope, watching where the nose and…

Suzuki Alto Around 18 months ago, we featured reader Adam’s £200 Peugeot 107. Let’s catch up with him: “Sadly, electrical issues meant I had to let it go. I then had an unfortunate six months with a Citroën C3 that failed its MOT with tin rot on the sills and a failing gearbox. Hopefully my luck is in with this 96k-mile Suzuki Alto, bought for £1000. It was full of mould, due to a leak filling up the driver’s footwell, but the body was sound and the oil clean, so I took a risk. I’ve since fixed it and valeted it. It has a cracking engine and is fun to drive.”…

Citroën probably isn’t the first word most people type into a search engine when shopping for a hot hatch. Nor most likely is DS, now a stand-alone aspiring luxury brand. Yet a model very much worth considering from the former French alliance is the DS3 Racing. This sporty variant of the DS3 supermini, introduced in 2011, took inspiration from Citroën’s World Rally Championship success at the hands of Sébastien Loeb, and what resulted was a rival to Renault’s Clio RS that even ruffled the feathers of the Mini John Cooper Works. The DS3 Racing’s 0-62mph time of 6.5sec was courtesy of a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that produced 204bhp. Its ride height was dropped by 15mm and it gained a 30mm wider track, while carbonfibre body features and larger…

ECONOMY EXPLAINED Between the various figures produced on the old-style NEDC, transitional NEDC Correlated and new-style WLTP laboratory emissions and fuel economy tests, it has become tricky to compare manufacturers’ claimed efficiency on the latest new cars. When you see a fuel economy and CO2 figure reference elsewhere, it’s often without explanation. So, to provide as fair and clear a basis for comparison as possible, you’ll only ever read WLTP combined fuel economy and CO2 figures in Autocar’s first drive reviews, features and comparison tests – and on these data pages. Those are the aggregated results of four lab tests carried out across as many different cruising speed ranges – although they’re sometimes expressed as a range rather than as one specific figure to show the different results recorded by…

“TUESDAY AFTERNOON LAST, an experiment was carried out which proved conclusively that it is quite possible to get perfectly satisfactory wireless reception in a motor car travelling either fast or slowly along the King’s highway. To the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co, jointly with Daimler Co, belongs this credit,” we said a century ago. “It is to safeguard the modern motorist from the danger of boredom on a long journey, by the reception of speeches, messages and concerts, that ‘wireless’ is being developed for the motor car. “The two 30hp Daimlers with which the experiment was carried out had eight-valve wireless sets installed in the rear compartments. “The aerial consists of a frame, either open or enclosed, of about 3ft 6in diameter, mounted on the roof of the car, and it…

“The Manta could offer a range of up to 440 miles and be fitted with two motors producing in excess of 400bhp ” The revived Opel Manta will arrive in 2025 to spearhead the transition of Opel into an electric-only brand – and it will be among the first in a wave of bespoke EVs from new industry giant Stellantis, alongside a reinvented Lancia Delta. Whereas the original Manta of 1970 was a rear-driven coupé, the new one will be an electric coupé-SUV. Like Ford has done with the Mustang Mach-E, Opel bosses believe that using a classic name will give the new Manta some sporting pedigree. It has yet to be confirmed if the Manta name will be used in the UK. While there has never been a Vauxhallbadged…

THE FORD FOCUS ST has also been extensively facelifted as part of the wider upgrade for the model, although the 276bhp 2.3-litre petrol powertrain remains unchanged. The new style is designed to further mark out the £33,885 ST as the Focus’s high-performance variant, with a revamped honeycomb grille and restyled side vents, skirts and spoilers. There is a new design for the 18in alloy wheels, with optional 19in versions also offered. Inside, the Focus ST gains new performance seats that have been designed by Ford Performance engineers to give greater support. The 2.3-litre petrol engine features a twin-scroll turbocharger, a choice of six-speed manual or seven-speed automatic gearbox and an electronic limited-slip differential. OFFICIAL PICTURES OFFICIAL PICTURES FORD-VOLKSWAGEN PARTNERSHIP BEARS FIRST FRUIT The new Tourneo Connect MPV, the first model…

LAND ROVER’S NEW flagship Range Rover luxury model will be revealed next week. The final look of the new fifth-generation version has been teased with the release of a blurred profile image and a close-up of the Range Rover grille. The model will be revealed online next Tuesday evening (26 October). Jaguar Land Rover design boss Gerry McGovern said the new model will be a “vehicle with peerless character”. He added that it “doesn’t follow fashion or trend but, by a modernist design philosophy, combined with over 50 years of evolution, it is quite simply the most desirable Range Rover ever created”. The BMW X7 rival is the first Range Rover on Jaguar Land Rover’s new MLA architecture and has previously been spied testing in both standard- and long wheel…

The Tesla Model X-rivalling Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV has been spied testing in Germany ahead of its planned launch in 2023. The new SUV will sit beside the recently revealed EQE saloon in the German firm’s rapidly expanding line-up of EQ-badged electric vehicles. Mercedes has confirmed that it will launch the EQE SUV and a larger, range-topping EQS SUV in the near future. It published images of the model in camouflage with that announcement, but our new spy shots show more detail, particularly on the front ‘grille’ panel that will house a number of the car’s sensors and the stylised aerodynamic wheels. Unlike the smaller EQC, the EQE SUV – developed under the internal codename X294 – will be built on the new EV specific MEA platform. The EQE SUV and…

BENTLEY BOSS ADRIAN Hallmark has dismissed concerns that not all nations will be ready to go electric by 2030, the date by which all new Bentleys will be EVs. He said: “It’s possible everywhere by then. Look at the rate of ramp-up [of charging] on motorways and elsewhere: it’s extraordinary. And there will be innovations by then that help, too, such as inductive charging breakthroughs.” VOLKSWAGEN SALES boss Klaus Zellmer says the efforts of the firm’s procurement mean that it’s managing the global semiconductor chip crisis “rather well” at the moment. But he added: “We still have a lot more demand than supply. In a way, that’s good – if people are willing to wait.” Zellmer said that Volkswagen’s UK current order bank is 25-30% higher than usual. THE NEW…

SMART MOBILITY IS likely to become a part of our lives in the next decade or so. And while autonomous vehicles might not hold much appeal for those of us who enjoy driving, electric smart mobility vehicles could make life a lot easier in congested city centres or for short hops. Switching from delivery vans and lorries operating in city centres to autonomous delivery vehicles could likewise do a lot to reduce the irritation of wall-to-wall traffic as well as to improve air quality. In-wheel motors have been prototyped and demonstrated for many years, but Oxfordshire firms Saietta (covered in this column before) and Electrically Assisted Vehicles (EAV) are collaborating to make it happen. Saietta makes axial-flux electric motors, which are the shape of a biscuit tin, rather than conventional…

Production of the eighth-generation (C8) Chevrolet Corvette got off to a slow start at the end of 2019. Much of 2020 was also understandably problematic. Other than for mask makers and online retailers, of course, it can’t have been a good year for anyone. Now, however, Chevrolet’s production lines at the Bowling Green plant in Kentucky are cranked up and running apace, building Corvettes at a rate of some 50,000 per year, most of which are currently being gobbled up by the North American market. Wherever they’re headed, that’s a lot of sports cars: very likely more than all the 911s built by Porsche and all the F-Types built by Jaguar this year put together. But sales volume hasn’t been enough, thus far at least, to make the Corvette a…

Ram doesn’t want to just beat its competition; it wants to embarrass and maybe even humiliate it, too. Why else would the new 702bhp 1500 TRX exist if not as a two-finger salute to Ford’s 450bhp F-150 Raptor? If there’s any doubt, simply lift the engine cover and an embossed image on the engine block will set the record straight: it’s of a tyrannosaurus rex chomping on a velociraptor. With the 6.2-litre Hemi V8 engine from the Dodge Challenger Hellcat underneath its enormous body, the TRX smashes the Raptor in this new game of American muscle truck Top Trumps for engine size, power and torque (650lb ft, compared with 510lb ft). Even the 0-60mph time – usually an irrelevance for a truck, not least one weighing 2880kg – prompts a…

MODEL TESTED 545e M SPORT Price £60,260 Power 389bhp Torque 443lb ft 0-60mph 4.5sec 30-70mph in fourth 5.3sec Fuel economy 48.9mpg CO2 emissions 50g/km 70-0mph 46.6m It may very well already have happened – but if not, this could be the week that the BMW Group sells its millionth plug-in hybrid vehicle. The firm has been anticipating breaking through that barrier since August 2020, when it announced three new PHEV model derivatives for the 5 Series range. As a result of those additions, the popular 530e can now be had in both saloon and Touring estate body styles, and in both rear- and four-wheel-drive mechanical configurations. But there is also the subject of this week’s road test to tempt you to lump a little more on your electrified executive saloon: the…

The 545e recorded a mixed performance on MIRA’s handling circuits, doing slightly better, at least in subjective terms, around the slippery, consistent-radius curves of the wet track than on the tighter and more technical ones of the dry circuit. The car’s Pirelli run-flats certainly took to the wet circuit more naturally and their grip level endured more consistently. In low-grip conditions, the DSC Traction stability control mode works particularly well, allowing you to manipulate the chassis with power and weight transfer and rotate the car usefully, but only up to a point. Here, the rearward torque distribution of the four-wheel drive system was apparent, allowing the car to accelerate out of the slower bends with plenty of traction and a little bit of attitude. On the dry track, the car…

If I asked when you last spotted a Fiat 128 on the road, assuming that you could recall what that car looked like, I’d guess that the answer would have a ‘19’ at the beginning. According to the DVSA, there are just four of them currently registered in the UK, so you would be forgiven if it had been completely wiped from your automotive memory bank. But despite the 128’s virtual obsolescence, beneath the boxy styling of this innocuous-looking car lies the technological template for today’s Fiat 500, Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Astra and pretty much all other front-drivers from the past 50 years – including the current Volkswagen Golf, which you see dwarfing the 128 on these pages. Why have we brought this pair together? To find out if the…

You know it’s going to be a road rally with a difference when the car in front is an orange Bond Bug from which a cheery hand waves an unabashed greeting. It turns out that it (the hand as well as the Bug) belongs to Roy Campbell, an electronics wizard who has converted the 1970s three-wheeler into an EV with the assistance of a couple of Tesla battery modules and a motor making 50bhp – enough to propel all 400kg at a fair old lick for 80 miles. Campbell has sunk around £30,000 into the conversion, but it’s not just an idle project. Instead, he has designed an evolutionary new body – described as “beautiful” by Tom Karen, who designed the original – and plans to sell new electric Bugs…

Andretti poised for Sauber deal Leading US motorsport squad Andretti Autosport is closing on a deal to buy Sauber, which runs the Alfa Romeo-branded Formula 1 team. Andretti Autosport, owned by former Indycar champion and McLaren F1 racer Michael Andretti, already competes in Indycar, Formula E, Extreme E and sports cars and promotes a number of US races. Alfa in no rush to sign second driver Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo team boss Frédéric Vasseur has said the squad is in no hurry to name Valtteri Bottas’s team-mate for next year. Current driver Antonio Giovinazzi could retain his seat, but Alpine-backed Chinese racer Guanyu Zhou and Formula 2 title favourite Oscar Piastri have also been linked to the seat. Formula 1 in yellow-flag clampdown Formula 1 bosses are set to trial a…

Britain’s best-known female racers will go head to head this weekend to decide who will be the 2021 W Series champion. Jamie Chadwick and Alice Powell will travel to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, for a double-header on the US Grand Prix support bill. They’re dead level on points at the top of the standings in the tussle for a prize of $500,000 (£367,000), 15 F1 superlicence points and the kudos of an increasingly prestigious title. Mathematically, Emma Kimiläinen – the only driver other than Chadwick and Powell to have won a race this year – can also still be champion. But the Finn is 34 points behind and so, with 50 on offer this weekend, needs both Brits to do her a massive favour to stand…

FEATURE Lotus Evora: the final drive Steve Cropley goes for one last blast in Lotus’s range-topping sports car of the past decade. How will we remember it? FEATURE Become an HGV driver There’s a shortage of them, so how hard is it to become one? We take the course INTERVIEW Alex Albon The Thai-British racer will be back on the F1 grid next year with Williams. We meet him EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Volkswagen ID 4 GTX The GTI for the electric age starts on this family crossover. Is it any fun? USED BUYING GUIDE Alfa Romeo 147 GTA The GTA is known as fast but flawed, yet there are good ones out there SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p60…

QUESTION My partner has given me private plates for my car, but I’m worried they don’t follow regulations as the numbers and letters are raised. What do I need to look out for? Molly Day, Pembroke ANSWER There are a few rules you need to follow. Black characters must be displayed on a white background at the front and on a yellow one at the rear. The plates must be reflective with no pattern and marked with their supplier. The characters can’t be removable or reflective and, if fitted after 1 September 2021, must be a single shade of black. Raised characters are allowed, as are flags and other symbols. JW QUESTION My children really enjoyed the laser show at Silverstone last Christmas. Is there a similar event we can…

BENTLEY Mk VI The Mk VI was the first model built by Bentley after the war (1946 to 1952), and was capable of hitting 100mph thanks to its 4.25-litre inline six. This Seychelles Blue and Shell Grey saloon has covered 70,000 miles in its 73 years, many of those on continental tours and to Bentley owners’ meetings. It’s largely unmodified and unrestored, retaining its original bay, hubcaps and wheels, plus a clean interior adorned with decorative wood. It even has a sunroof and picnic tables in the back. The buyer paid £21,250, no doubt reassured by the comprehensive pile of accompanying documents.…

My dad bought my mum a Land Rover Defender to teach her a lesson after she kept scraping her car down the side of the house. (It was an awkward driveway.) She was horrified and demanded its immediate return. He lost a wedge but she never scraped her car again. A Landie can have that effect. Some people love them (a family friend had a County that he wouldn’t shut up about) while others loathe them (see above). If you have a proper job for one or just buy into the whole ‘one life, live it’ thing, you’re probably of the former persuasion. We’re considering the Defender here because it’s the version that most buyers are likely to encounter. It was launched in 1990 as the replacement for the prosaically…

The Ford Focus has been given a major mid-life facelift to keep pace with rivals such as the Volkswagen Golf. Changes include a styling overhaul, new gearbox options and upgraded infotainment. The new design for the family hatchback echoes the recent revamp of the Fiesta, with an emphasis on reworking the front of the car. As with the Fiesta, the Ford badge has been moved from the Focus’s bonnet lip down onto the enlarged grille. LED headlights are now standard on all Focus variants and have the foglights built into them, and a darkened rear light effect includes a new “loop light” pattern. The redesign encompasses separate styling details for Titanium, ST-Line and Active versions, including individual grille and fascia designs. ST-Line models feature side skirts and a rear diffuser…

Porsche is investing heavily in research into synthetic ‘e-fuels’ as much to ensure its existing models can continue to be used in the coming decades as to secure a future for new combustion-engined models. The German firm recently began work on a pilot plant in Chile that is due to go into operation next year and will initially produce synthetic fuel for use in the Porsche Supercup racing series. While that plant will have an initial annual capacity of 130,000 litres, Porsche believes it can produce 55 million litres of synthetic fuel by 2024, rising to 550 million litres by 2026. Porsche has committed to becoming CO2 neutral by 2030, by which date it expects more than 80% of new cars to be electrified. But the firm’s e-fuels boss, Jan…

THE REVIVED MINI Moke will become an electric-only model from the start of next year. The firm behind the famous Mini-derived off-roader recently began British-based production of it and has now confirmed the model will go fully electric using a rear mounted 44bhp motor. The Moke EV weighs only 800kg and has a 0-34mph time of 5.4sec and a top speed of 62mph. Moke hasn’t disclosed the size of the battery, but it says the off-roader has 89 miles of range and charging it takes four hours though a Type 2 port. The Moke EV, which will be offered in left- and right-hand drive, is priced at £32,480, including taxes. Customers have until 1 January next year to place final orders for the combustion-engined version. OFFICIAL PICTURE…

THE UK SHOULD become “a safe haven” and “the go- to place” for EV battery production, according to Bentley boss Adrian Hallmark. Speaking at a Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders conference, Hallmark said that, due to tariff arrangements under the current UK-EU trade deal, petrol and diesel cars will still be more favourable to sell than battery-electric cars in 2027. That’s just three years before the UK will ban the sale of all new ICE cars. “A battery for an equivalent car is about three to five times the cost of the engine,” said Hallmark. “And because of those materials coming from all over the world, already difficult to source in Europe and then fully make in Europe or the UK, it puts a new challenge to us.” The…

Volkswagen has outlined plans to within the next four years start a ride-sharing scheme of autonomous-capable ID Buzzes as a precursor to a range of commercially offered EVs with advanced self-driving functionality. A prototype version of the self-driving MPV was shown last month in Munich, which is one of several locations playing host to Volkswagen and partner firm Argo AI’s comprehensive autonomous vehicle testing programme. Trials are currently being held non-stop at a dedicated test track near Munich airport, but the test vehicles will soon be deployed on public roads throughout the city as the firms ramp up to commercialising their new technology. The scheme will be run by Volkswagen’s Moia mobility division, which runs a ridesharing service in Hamburg and Hanover, Germany, using a bespoke electric minibus, and before…

The rise in demand for electric cars has never been more apparent. More than 600,000 plug-in vehicles are now on UK roads and showrooms are crammed full of electrified models ranging from mild hybrids to full EVs. Drivers are almost spoilt for choice but, of course, there is much more to come. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders forecasts that around 300 plug-in models will be on sale in the UK by 2025. One of the significant draws of a pure-electric vehicle is its supposedly greater reliability. EVs have fewer moving parts than cars with conventional, internal combustion engines, so the chances of mechanical failure are reduced. The What Car? Reliability Survey from July 2021 found that just 5% of Tesla Model 3s suffered a fault within a 12-month…

MONDAY By now, you will have seen all the details of how Lotus is ‘retiring’ its three current sports cars in favour of the hugely impressive forthcoming Emira. This is fantastic for the company’s future success and health, but it also marks a bittersweet end to a unique era in which Hethel’s ever-resourceful engineers developed these cars into superb driving machines without ever having the resources that better-funded companies would say were essential to do so. The E-car I’m least familiar with driving is the Evora, even though I wrote many of Autocar’s early launch stories on it (and even penned the then Lotus managing director’s 2008 motor show speech as a favour). Anyway, to mark the model’s imminent departure, photographer Max Edleston and I borrowed Lotus’s last Evora and…

The C40 isn’t the first fully electric Volvo, because it follows the launch last year of the XC40 Recharge, to which it is closely related. But this is the first Volvo to be sold exclusively as a pure-electric model and the first variant of it is the range-topping all-wheel-drive Twin Pro version driven here. The C40 will never have combustion engines, but it doesn’t sit on an EV-only architecture. Essentially, it is as it looks: a ‘coupé-ised’ version of the existing XC40 with a lower roofline but the same Compact Modular Architecture platform. The similarities between the two cars are obvious in their almost identical dimensions. Both share the same 2702mm wheelbase and 1910mm mirrors-folded width, and the C40’s length of 4431mm represents an increase of just 6mm. The big…

Ask anyone at Ford and they will tell you that there’s plenty of life left in the Mustang yet. But given that the firm has promised its entire European line-up will offer plug-in hybrid or electric power by 2026, you can’t help feeling time is running out for the naturally aspirated V8. Best make sure this latest pony car is a corker, then. A combination of transmission, suspension and bodywork upgrades make the Mach 1 the most track friendly hunk of American muscle that Ford has ever sold on this side of the Atlantic. It gets a bespoke front splitter, underfloor chassis tray and rear diffuser that deliver 22% more downforce than the regular Mustang GT, while the Magneride adaptive suspension has been given a unique calibration, plus stiffer springs…

Whenever the history of the modern electrified passenger car is written, it’s likely to dwell for only a sentence or two on the BMW 545e. It’s worth more than a footnote, but much less than a chapter of its own. This is a very complete and versatile luxury saloon with several convincing sides to its character, but much of what it does well is done just as well by other 5 Series derivatives. It is spacious and classy; well stocked with technology; refined and slick in operation; and capable enough as a short-range EV to meet the short-hop needs of a great many owners. So much could also be said of a 530e. The 545e’s opportunity was to add some richness, and to bring extra performance, dynamism and driver reward…

1983 PEUGEOT 205 The 205 turned around Peugeot’s fortunes. With its trailing-arm rear suspension, it was a watchword for class-leading FWD handling, with lots of throttle-off oversteer on tap, too. Its refined and punchy diesel units were also benchmarks. 1998 FORD FOCUS With its ‘control blade’ rear, the Focus combined big-car comfort with a level of dynamic control that destroyed the competition in one fell swoop. Its cutting-edge styling added to the polish. The 212bhp RS version is already a modern classic. 2015 HONDA CIVIC TYPE R Who’d have believed 50 years ago that 306bhp could be sent through a car’s front wheels? With 306bhp, this hot Civic did just that, proving that ever-better differential and traction tech can stop unruliness.…

It’s a Monday morning sometime in the mid-1970s and a teenaged Colin Goodwin is sat in the back of class dreaming about cars, motorcycles and engines. At the front, the teacher is scribbling French sentences on the blackboard. “Why learn French,” I would have said back then. “Am I ever going to live or work in France?” My parents spent a lot of money on my education, but for the return they got from it in terms of exam results, they would have been better off going to the local greyhound track and blowing the lot. The trouble was that I was interested only in grafting in the subjects that interested me, and that was only English. I got good O-level grades in both literature and language. These subjects make…

Sixty years ago this month, a Scot called Ireland made history as the first racing driver to win a Formula 1 world championship race for Team Lotus (Stirling Moss took the British marque’s first victories but as a privateer entrant in Rob Walker’s colours). Already a throwback to more carefree eras, Innes Ireland raced with a buccaneering attitude that put doubt in the mind of Colin Chapman. He repaid Ireland’s victory in the 1961 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen by releasing him weeks later in favour of a rising talent called Jim Clark. Ireland’s career never fully recovered and he remains underrated, despite notable victories in non-championship F1 races and a fine sports car win in the 1962 Tourist Trophy, driving a Ferrari 250 GTO. A popular figure who…

WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com In cyclists’ defence As an Autocar reader of some 40 years, how tiresome it has been to see much space on recent letters pages given to ill-informed nonsense from the likes of David Young (Your Views, 29 September). What is it that makes us British unable to appreciate cyclists for what they are: pedestrians on wheels? Our friends in Europe, where often cycling is as popular as walking or driving, seem to do so just fine. Many of us seem only to see cycling as an activity that inconveniences motorists, as if roads are motorists’ and everyone else should keep out of the way. Mr Young’s most egregious assertion is that “the cycling community should make a contribution to help cover costs, as do I, at £140 per…

MILEAGE 133,748 LAND ROVER SERIES 3 Here’s my one-time-only fuel sitrep, as prepared army types say. One of the advantages of having more than one motor to call on is that they have tanks in which fuel can be stored – in the case of mine, petrol. I do always think apocalyptically, and as such all their quite modest capacities are kept brimmed. So I’m all right, Jack… The 20mpg-on-a-good-day Porsche Cayenne is a problem, mind you, and the Minis’ tanks are tiny – but they will last a month each on my daily local drive to send parcels and answer fan mail. When all that fails, I have my 1972 EG Bates pushbike.…

The Mazda 6 sits in a market segment that has gone rather quiet in recent years: non-premium-badged executive saloons. These were extremely popular when the first two generations of the 6 were on sale, but interest in them has diminished during the Mk3’s lifetime. Nevertheless, this smartly styled car is practical, economical and well equipped, not to mention very affordable on the used market. So, is it a hidden gem? Under the bonnet, the 6 offers a range of petrol and diesel four-cylinder engines. There’s a 2.0-litre petrol in 143bhp and 163bhp guises and a 2.2-litre diesel with 148bhp or 173bhp. In 2018, along with a noteworthy facelift, a 192bhp 2.5-litre petrol was added, while the 173bhp 2.2-litre diesel was tweaked to increase its output to 181bhp. Fuel economy is…

Rover 200 BRM £3995 Just 795 examples of the 200 BRM went on sale in the UK. It was based on the 200Vi but with a sporting bent. Its orange nose was a callback to the British Racing Motors Formula 1 team of the 1960s, as was its Brooklands Green paint. The suspension was lowered by 20mm and a close-ratio gearbox and a limited-slip differential were added. A 142bhp 1.8-litre VVC K-series engine gave 0-62mph in 8.6sec, while the interior had a red theme. The best 200 BRMs cost more than this 1999-registered one, owing to the model’s growing rarity.…

An expert’s view CHRIS BOYER, QUANTOCK CLASSICS “A well-looked-after Defender will look after you, so favour service history and condition over age and mileage. A lot can go wrong if the car is neglected or abused. My pet hate is a roof carrier, as I worry the extra payload will damage the chassis and suspension. I also worry about what kick plates and sill covers are hiding. And don’t get me going on over-size tyres, which ruin what little ride comfort there is and drown out conversation. Parts availability is excellent. Just be wary of poor-quality parts masquerading as official ones.” Buyer beware… ◼ ENGINE Issues include oil and water leaks, hesitancy, turbo smoke, perished or detached hoses, hot-starting issues and blocked catalytic converters. ◼ TRANSMISSION Check for oil leaks…