Innholdsfortegnelse for April 12, 2023 i Autocar

Audi’s plans for a go-anywhere electric rival to the Land Rover Defender, as scooped by Autocar earlier this year, are taking shape ahead of an expected launch by 2027. Set to be based on offroad-ready architecture supplied by new VW Group brand Scout and built in the US, the unnamed SUV will draw on Audi’s affinity for four-wheel-drive performance while taking design cues and top-rung technology from its more road-focused models in a bid to crack the high-margin luxury 4x4 market. R&D boss Oliver Hoffmann would not go so far as to officially confirm the new model is incoming but strongly hinted at its commercial viability: “In the US market, there is a big market of rugged SUVs, and we’re looking at how a rugged SUV can look based on…

Other car makers have confirmed that they’re looking at more affordable, entry-level EVs. Would this work for Audi? “For us, it doesn’t make sense to offer a car like the ID 2all, which Volkswagen has. We will instead offer an A-segment car, under the Q4. [It will be] comparable to the [current] A3. We will also increase our portfolio in the C and D segments. This is a clear vision for us.” The R8 and TT will bow out this year. Is there space for replacements? “There is space. We made a lot of concept work regarding a sports car follow-up, but there’s no decision yet. I think the [original 1998] TT was for our customers surprising, and we will surprise also in the future. We have a clear idea…

O100 Eye-catching pick-up is planned for the first half of 2025. It will be based on the upcoming Torres EV-X. F100 SUV is a rugged and futuristiclooking off-roader. Design cues nod to the Toyota FJ Cruiser. KR10 Smaller crossover “inherits the heritage of the Korando” and is considered its spiritual successor. Torres EV-X Also at the show, KGM confirmed its upcoming SUV will offer a 310-mile range via a 73.4kWh battery. RENAULT CLIO TO GET LIFE-SAVING UPDATE The future of the Renault Clio will be safeguarded by a dramatic update in the coming months, making it one of a select few ICE superminis to remain on sale in the face of industry-wide commercial headwinds. The French hatchback will receive a radical styling overhaul, and any upgrades to its powerplants –…

CHARGING EVs, and particularly how fast EVs can be charged, is seen as a major barrier to their uptake. Speed is going to become an ever more pressing problem because, unlike petrol and diesel cars, EVs need a dedicated parking spot for a significant period when charging, so the less time they spend doing it the better. However, faster charging and higher power being transmitted will mean cables become heavier, thicker and more cumbersome. That will make conventional handling difficult or impossible, especially for people with mobility problems. It may also make things trickier in the dark, simply in terms of presenting a charger plug to the charge port and plugging it in. Hyundai’s answer to all this is the automatic charging robot (ACR). The ACR was revealed in CGI…

MONDAY Do you realise it’s well over a decade since Ariel put its mighty 850bhp-per-tonne Atom V8 on the market? I didn’t – until I happened to contemplate how much water has passed under the bridge in the meantime. Typically, Ariel were the only people to make a true success of that Hartley flat-crank 3.0-litre engine producing 470bhp – and were duly able to charge £150,000 for each of the 25 Atom V8s they made. I was thinking these thoughts the day Ariel founder Simon Saunders dropped the last V8 off at the British Motor Museum, to be exhibited for a while. I’m not sure the BMM has anything more powerful. Or more eye-catching. Saunders tells me the precious space in their little Crewkerne museum is now taken up with…

The Bentley Continental GT range has become more streamlined but also more nuanced and less obvious. That said, the easiest way to identify a flagship Mulliner example remains via its wheels. Painted, polished and partially skeletonised, they would be unmistakable even at 15in in diameter, let alone at 22in, and are unique to the derivative that sits at the top of the Continental tree. There’s also the Double Diamond front grille, whose blindingly bright lattice overflows into the lower air intakes. Somehow it manages to be noticeably more noticeable than even the catch fencing of the standard car. Your next task is to count the exhaust tips, to work out said Mulliner’s calibre. A quartet means the presence of Bentley’s Porsche-derived 4.0-litre twinturbocharged V8. It makes 542bhp and is a…

Up until last year when news dropped of how energy prices were about to go sky high, installing solar panels may have seemed like an expensive luxury to most of us. Now it seems like a way out, and demand for domestic and industrial solar systems has shot up. I had made the switch to EVs in 2021, and although it wasn’t part of a master plan, suddenly the idea of turning the house into a mini power station became strangely compelling. If a solar system is producing more energy than can be used there and then, EV batteries are an ideal place to store it. Solar systems come in various types. The most popular option is to install a hybrid system, integrating inverter, solar panels and battery storage together.…

Used G20 3 Series are rich pickings now, with four years of production elapsed, and there are some great examples out there. Prices start at less than £18,000 now, although you will be looking at high mileage to get a G20 for that sort of money. While that’s not a huge problem, as the G20 has a good reputation for reliability, it is worth checking that any recalls have been carried out, including one that was for a crankcase-bearing bushing on cars built between March and July 2019 and another for an issue with the battery on 300e plug-in hybrids built between March and September 2020. Some creaky plastics inside and connectivity issues with the infotainment are also common complaints. As for which version to buy, well, I can’t help…

MILEAGE 6984 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if the vRS badge can make an electric car exciting Such is the way with the UK’s charging infrastructure that I’ve had two vastly different experiences recently, one at Hopwood Park services just south of Birmingham and the other at Rugby services on the M6. The former is old infrastructure, the latter is new. At Hopwood, there’s a vast bank of Tesla Superchargers, naturally, but only two 50kW Gridserve units: one with two CCS charge cables, the other with one CCS and one Chademo. The thing I never realised, in my ignorance, is that the current is split at some of these older charger stations, so if you have two cars plugged in, you’ll only get 25kW of juice. So even once…

It was very interesting to read your excellent article about the future of Ford (22 March). Unfortunately, the phrase including doors and horses bolting comes to mind, as I firmly believe that Ford has lost the plot altogether. No amount of smooth marketing speak can cover the fact that Ford in the past had three, four or even five of the top 10 best-selling cars in the UK, but now it has only two and is about to discontinue one of them. As a salesman who drove Fords all through the 1980s and 1990s, I can say the company’s ability to produce cars that were perfect for the moment was unrivalled. Escorts, Cortinas, Granadas, Mondeos, Fiestas, Focuses: all great at what they do. Now Ford has produced a box on…

An owner’s view SIMON MAHONY “I used to own a Mulsanne, but I just saw the prices tumbling, so I replaced it with the Brooklands. I love its coupé styling. It’s just a wonderful car, quite sporty even. I’ve enjoyed taking it up to north-west Scotland, among other road trips. I have even seen 18mpg on long runs. Servicing costs are quite expensive. I take it to my local Bentley dealer, but you just have to accept it’s an expensive car to run. The only real problem I’ve had were the rear suspension dampers, which was not a cheap fix, but I’ve loved owning the car, nonetheless.” Buyer beware… ENGINE The Brooklands’ engine never exceeds 4500rpm in normal use and few examples have covered mileage high enough to reveal problems…

There are plenty of twoseat cars in the world, but only a select few place them in a tandem formation. Whether you want the feel of a fighter plane or just like a snug cabin, tandem-seat cars are unusual, and most have not exactly made prime time in the world’s car markets. Still, as automotive oddities go, they are right up there, and deserving of close inspection. Yamaha OX99-11 1992 One of the rarest and most exotic supercars from an era when makers were pushing boundaries in every direction, the Yamaha OX99-11 borrowed heavily from Formula 1 technology. That included a central seating position for the driver, but unlike the forthcoming McLaren F1, Yamaha placed the passenger right behind the driver. Engineered with help from the UK’s IAD, the design…

“Early indications suggest it could be the most powerful Audi on sale” The new, electric Audi A8 will go on sale next year as a highly luxurious, technologically advanced and extremely powerful rival to the Mercedes-Benz EQS and BMW i7. Arriving at the crest of a wave of more than 20 new Audi cars due over the next three years, the Audi A8 EV will be crucial in providing the foundation for the brand to overhaul its positioning and differentiate itself more clearly from its Volkswagen Group siblings with a focus on high-margin premium cars in all core segments. Due to be unwrapped exactly 30 years after the 1994 unveiling of the first A8 – notable for pioneering an aluminium ‘spaceframe’ platform – the new flagship is set to once…

As with the Audi A8, the electric successor to the Audi A6 will be a totally new car from the ground up, related to its predecessor in no more than its general silhouette and market positioning. Due in dealerships next year, the new A6 E-tron will arrive first in saloon-shaped Sportback guise, adopting a much more rakish, coupéinspired roofline that will effectively give it a second role as an electric alternative to today’s A7 Sportback. The roomier A6 E-tron Avant estate will arrive a few months later, touting similar load-carrying capacity to its forebear (courtesy of a slim, spread-out underfloor battery and a ‘frunk’ in place of an engine). This will give Audi an answer to the similarly conceived BMW i5 Touring. Also as with the A8, the A6 will…

Before Audi ditches internal combustion power completely, it will launch a new line of petrol and diesel engines compliant with the latest Euro 7 emissions regulations. This is part of a move to continue developing ICE vehicles “in parallel” with electric ones, Audi R&D boss Oliver Hoffmann told Autocar, ahead of the German firm’s move to launch only EVs from 2026. “We will bring a completely new family of engines to the PPC, our [new and final Audi] ICE platform,” he said. Although Hoffmann wouldn’t divulge more information on the new powerplants, they will extend the life of the firm’s ICE offerings in Europe until the new car sales deadline of 2035. The updated A4 – set to be renamed the A5 – will be the first to offer the…

The all-new Mini hatchback has been seen for the first time, having shed its camouflage ahead of a launch early next year. The second generation of Mini’s small EV – now called the Cooper – will be built in China atop a new front-wheeldrive platform engineered by Spotlight Automotive, BMW’s joint venture with Great Wall. A petrol-engined version, evolved more obviously from the current car, will be built in Oxford, sitting on an entirely different platform but taking the same design direction. Autocar has already reported in-depth details of the long-awaited 2024 Cooper, following a briefing from Mini boss Stefanie Wurst and a prototype ride in Sweden, but this is, at long last, our first look at the final production design. The resemblance to today’s car is evident, and indeed…

Ford’s all-out electric reinvention is gathering pace as it introduces the new E-Transit Courier, the crucial electric variant of its smallest van. The second-generation Courier arrives hot on the heels of the new Explorer SUV to join the mid-sized E-Transit Custom and full-sized E-Transit. It will be built at Ford’s Craiova plant in Romania alongside the Puma crossover, with which it shares a platform. Turkish joint-venture partner Ford Otosan has taken ownership of the Craiova plant and invested some £430 million in adapting the second production line, on which the Ecosport crossover was previously built, to produce the new small van. Combustion-engined variants – 1.0-litre petrol and 1.5-litre diesel units shared with the Puma – will arrive first, in the third quarter of this year, followed by the EV around…

Motorists anxious to save money are being advised to shop around for servicing after a major survey found huge variations in garage labour rates around the UK. The survey, by What Car?, compared the hourly labour rates of 279 independent garages around the UK, all of them members of the Independent Garage Association. It revealed that where some garages are only a few miles apart, their labour rates can differ by more than £50 an hour. For example, the most expensive region to have a car serviced is within the M25, where hourly labour rates among the areas surveyed average £105. However, motorists who shop around can save £51 by driving just 10 miles from south-west London – at £141, the UK’s most expensive area – to Sutton, where an…

As with Premier League football, a weekend of Formula 1 can’t pass without questionable refereeing decisions overshadowing the state of play. Take the Australian Grand Prix, where the FIA stewards once again found themselves thrust centre stage as they suspended the race three times and still couldn’t prevent an anticlimactic safety car finish, more than two and a half hours after the original start. THE FIRST RED FLAG Only one of the three red flag calls was clear-cut. The first, after Alex Albon had lost his Williams and scattered gravel and debris across the track, immediately opened debate. Couldn’t the marshals have cleaned up under a safety car, some asked. Not without the chance of leaving some detritus that could cause a puncture. In the past, F1 races were never…

I’ve occasionally wondered how long it was from when The Autocar was first published in late 1895 to when one of its journalists asked the question: “How much does it matter if an everyday car is really good to drive?” Now, this seems like a non-question to us, because we consider it critical how well a car drives. But as car makers become more focused on technology and connectivity, it’s easy to see why some might argue that people don’t care about finer dynamics. So long as the car is safe and easy to drive, it will be fit for purpose. Head to almost any manufacturer’s online configurator and you’re nearly always asked about trim selection before you’re asked what engine you want. Such is the priority order of style…

Every great sports car has at least one outstanding characteristic, an attribute that makes driving it that bit sweeter. For the Alpine A110, everything stems from its light weight. Alpine returned to the market with the A110 six years ago, and this was instantly heralded as one of the best sports cars of its generation, including earning a five-star rating from Autocar’s road testers. Since then, the one-car French firm – owned by Renault and led by Laurent Rossi – has established itself as a serious player in the performance car scene and started racing in both the World Endurance Championship and Formula 1. Now for the next step, as Alpine transforms itself into an electric-only brand over the next three years, with three all-new EVs arriving by 2026: a…

MILEAGE 4161 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if Volvo’s smallest batterypowered SUV can be a motorway commuter and weekend companion It’s now three years since we were first told to lock our doors and stay two metres away from everyone. Wow, that flew by. Gone are the days of looking out the window at your unused motor, longing for an escape from the onceloved home you suddenly despised. Well, kind of. The start of 2023, with its freezing temperatures, battering wind, endless rain and intermittent snowfall has proven difficult for those who like to spend their time outside doing outdoorsy things when the working week ends. With spring now here, though, the XC40 Recharge outside my flat is really pulling me to join them and do more than go…

SHOOTOUT Ford Focus ST vs Toyota GR86 Thought the affordable driver’s car was dead? Well, not quite. Matt Prior delivers the verdict on who offers the most bang for your buck FEATURE Inside Pirelli No longer just rubber rings, tyres are flying into the future. What will that mean for us? NEWS Shanghai motor show Latest developments from the hotbed of innovation that is current-day China EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Bentley Continental GTC S Summer is on its way. Is the best way to spend it in a drop-top Bentley? USED GUIDE Suzuki SC100 ‘Whizzkid’ is no less talented in old age if you know what to look for SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p44…

Dacia is gearing up to reveal the reinvented, third-generation Duster, which will be one of the most affordable and capable SUVs on sale. Due in 2024, the new Duster will swap from the ageing B0 platform to the CMF-B architecture used by its crossover cousins, the Renault Captur and Nissan Juke. As well as promising substantial gains in rolling refinement and packaging, the new mechanicals will also accommodate the Duster’s first hybrid powertrain. The Duster will be reimagined with greater emphasis on its activityfocused potential, to strengthen its edge over electric newcomers like the chunky Jeep Avenger, Mini Aceman and Ford Explorer. While Dacia has yet to preview the new Duster, the first images of a prototype testing on public roads give strong clues as to its design. Here’s everything…

THE THIRD PROJECT from Gordon Murray Automotive could draw its power from a non-electrified V12 engine, pushing back the young firm’s first hybrid unit until Project Four. Speaking to Autocar, founder Gordon Murray said recent European exemptions to the 2035 new combustion cars ban – which allow car makers producing fewer than 1000 cars per year to continue sales (GMA plans to make around 100 cars) – opens the door to “squeezing out” another pure-V12 model. “When we launched T33 [after T50], we said that was absolutely and categorically going to be the last non-hybrid car that we would make,” said Murray. “But, of course, with these rule changes, we might even squeeze out another with Project Three.” However, there are obstacles in its way. One is here in the…

THE NEXT STEP in Genesis’s model expansion has been previewed with the new GV80 Coupé Concept at the New York motor show. As the name and styling suggest, the concept is a coupé version of the brand’s GV80 SUV and is set to go into production late this year or early next year. It follows the Genesis X Speedium Coupé Concept that was unveiled at last year’s New York show, although this time the production intent is clear. Genesis says the concept serves as “a statement of intent for the future, hinting towards more emotional and performanceoriented models”. To that end, it is notably sportier in its styling than any Genesis model to date and will line up alongside the likes of the Audi RS Q8 and Porsche Cayenne Coupé…

An animal rights group once erected a billboard featuring photos, scanning left to right, of various pet-like dogs and cats, a rabbit, a horse, a chicken, cows, a pig and a duck. The caption read: “All animals want to live… where do you draw the line?” A wag scrawled a line between the horse and chicken and wrote: “Right about here.” The truth is that we all have lines, uncrossable moral thresholds, for virtually everything and make judgements on them tens of times a day. When it comes to cars, would you, for example, buy one from the Taliban? It’s unlikely that you will get the chance, I know. But in case you missed it, in January a Taliban spokesman announced Afghanistan’s first supercar, the Entop Mada 9. It’s sleek…

Aiways is unusual in that, unlike any other Chinese EV manufacturer, it has chosen to establish itself in export markets before building a fundamental sales base and widespread recognition at home. It was founded only six years ago yet is already represented in 15 markets. Up until now, the Shangrao-based firm’s volumes have been fairly limited. But with the launch of the U6, it is looking to build on its existing operations and enter more markets, including the UK. There’s pedigree in the styling of this notchback SUV. It was overseen by Ken Okuyama, the ex-Pininfarina chief who is credited with celebrated cars including the Ferrari Enzo, plus some of Japan’s bullet trains. As such, the U6 has an eye-catching look as well as a classleading drag coefficient of 0.25.…

MODEL TESTED BST EDITION 270 Price £68,990 Power 469bhp Torque 502lb ft 0-60mph 4.5sec 30-70mph 3.4sec Economy 2.5mpkWh Max DC charging speed 150kW 70-0mph 45.6m Geely’s Volvo-offshoot, EV premium brand Polestar is about to undergo a rather hectic expansion. In another 18 months, when the Polestar 3, 4 and 5 are all on sale, it should look like a much more fully formed car brand than it has so far. But will it also still look like a natural home for keener drivers who have already made the switch to electric motoring? This week’s road test subject is a stake in the ground for Polestar on that score. The 2 BST Edition 270 is an extra-special performance version of what we might now consider the ‘pre-facelift’ 2 crossover hatchback. It…

“This is going to be a stress test for the very concept of an all-electric GT” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Audi’s inceptive performance EV is a class act, but what’s it like to live with? A pologies for the state of this filthy Audi. As regular readers will know, when a car is inducted into these pages it is customary for it to be gleaming, having been washed then nursed to the photoshoot location with not a morsel of grit acquired en route. Things went differently for our new E-tron GT – a Tango Red example of the Porsche-engineered jewel in the crown of Audi’s rapidly expanding range of electric cars. The very first day of our time together was christened not with an easy crawl across London…

It doesn’t add up Part of Steve Cropley’s 1 March update on his Vauxhall Astra plug-in hybrid had me going: ‘No, no, NO!’ This was his acceptance of ‘clearminded’ guidance on converting the cost of charging the battery into a petrol equivalent to get a net MPG. The purpose of a PHEV is to cut your carbon-burning miles as far as possible, so the only meaningful measure is how far you can stretch the petrol you do burn. Pretending some equivalence to create a “true” figure is therefore like eating some biscuits for lunch and arguing it’s as healthy as a chicken salad because it contains the same calories. In addition, Cropley got this MPG using his energy price of around 30p/kWh. But what if I charge on an 11p/kWh…

It was hardly a fairytale start. The Brooklands took on the role of Bentley’s flagship model in 2008, but this thumping great two-door coupé couldn’t have arrived at a worse time. Launched straight into the jaws of a global financial crisis, it cost the best part of £230,000. As a result, only around 400 of the intended run of 550 cars found homes, 97 of those in the UK. It shared much of its design with the convertible Azure. Its long sloping roof formed a graceful profile and the muscular stance was anchored by huge, 20in wheels shrouding beefy brakes. The addition of the fixed roof (and resultant stiffening) impressed road testers, creating a sporting brute that captured something of the spirit of the Blower Bentleys of the 1930s. A…

First-ever BMW M3 blows us away… IT ISN’T HINDSIGHT that makes the BMW M3’s arrival historic: we were sure it was such at the time. Not much remained from the regular E30-generation 3 Series, the chassis being totally revised, the body superbly redesigned and a 2.3-litre 16v straight six making 200bhp fitted. Sounds puny today, but this car weighed just 1252kg. On a damp track, we hit 60mph in 7.1sec; the power delivery was never peaky, unlike some might have suspected; and mid-range punch was very impressive. “Handling is very predictable,” we said. “The overall feel is of a very well-balanced car, one which can be turned through corners deceptively quickly and one which also feels very safe at the limit of adhesion.” Plus the steering was precise, responsive and…

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…