Innholdsfortegnelse for May 17, 2023 i Autocar

MG, the famous British sports car marque that has been under Chinese ownership since the collapse of MG Rover in 2005, has taken a giant step towards reconnecting with its centuryold roots by staging a London unveiling of the Cyberster, an electric roadster that’s due in showrooms next summer. Launched as a nearproduction-ready concept at last month’s Shanghai motor show, it is the first new sports car to bear the iconic octagonal badge since the F of 1995. MG claims it will be the world’s first “affordable” roadster EV, dramatically undercutting existing electric performance cars with a twomodel structure that is likely to begin at around £55,000 for a single-motor, rear-wheeldrive version with 309bhp and stretch to around £65,000 for a dual-motor, four-wheel-drive model with 536bhp. It was originally planned…

Honda will launch three crucial new electrified SUVs in Europe by the end of 2023 as it presses ahead with a bold plan to both reduce its fleet emissions and boost its competitiveness in key market segments. The new-generation CR-V crossover, the smaller ZR-V and the electric e:Ny1 represent nothing less than the start of a new era for Honda in Europe, setting the tone for a rapid-fire global product onslaught, with the brand launching 30 EVs globally by 2030 and ditching combustion entirely by 2040. Continuing with a “multipathway” powertrain approach because “not everybody is ready to make the switch” to an EV, according to European vicepresident Tom Gardner, Honda is in the second phase of its transformative electrification programme and now ramping up to phase three, when it…

A NEW V8 hybrid powertrain will propel McLaren’s nextgeneration halo models as the company confirms 90% of its line-up will be hybridised within the next five years. Developed in-house and built by engine supplier Ricardo in Shoreham, Sussex, the powertrain will “form an integral part of McLaren’s next-generation product line-up”, deliver “best-inclass performance” and offer “thrilling driver engagement”, said boss Michael Leiters. This new engine opens the door for hybrid variants of both the McLaren 765LT flagship and the recently revealed McLaren 750S, which are powered by a turbocharged V8 petrol engine. “All the models we see today will have a [type] of hybridisation” by 2028, Leiters said at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car event. These incoming hybrid cars will also continue to focus on lightness and be…

ittingly, I can’t now remember who told me that they had forgotten They had first studied a subject at college, but when some time later they needed to demonstrate it at work, they realised that in the interim they had forgotten it entirely, so they were having to learn it all over again. I paraphrase, but they basically said: “What exactly was the point of learning it the first time?” Interesting. ‘Knowledge is memory’, the saying goes. Or is it ‘memory is intelligence’? I can never quite remember. But whichever it is, the idea is that the more things you remember, the smarter you will be. I tell myself that when I’m reading the newspaper or some obscure technical literature, I’m not prevaricating but learning – expanding my mind. “Sir…

Jeep takes a curiously small portion of the British SUV market, given that it’s the world’s biggest 4x4 company. Selling only a few thousand cars here per year, Jeep CEO Christian Meunier refers to its 0.3% share as “virtually non-existent”. However, it’s seeking to change that, with the super little Avenger electric crossover being followed by another all-new Jeep, albeit a more old-school one, in the shape of the fifth-generation Grand Cherokee – a full-size, premium off-roader. It’s 4.91 metres long and 1.97 metres wide, so about the same size as the Land Rover Discovery. There’s an even longer, seven-seat version in the US, badged the L, but we won’t get that here. The Grand Cherokee lands in the UK with only one engine option, a 2.0-litre plug-in hybrid badged…

The Maserati MC20 lends itself to al fresco motoring really rather well. It has a carbonfibre tub to deliver the necessary rigidity without any punitive measures; an unusually easy-striding dynamic character that moderates your want for speed and encourages you to just enjoy the ride; and catwalk-model styling. It really is a supercar made to be admired, compared with rivals much more savage on the senses. There’s already a year-long queue for the new Cielo variant, which has a compact folding metal roof with an electrochromic glass panel and is about 10% pricier than the coupé. It weighs only 65kg more than the coupé, too (the penalty is almost double that with the Lamborghini Huracán Evo), and its performance statistics are uncompromised. Dihedral doors, cutaway sills and a stowed roof…

There’s passion and then there’s obsession. Precisely when someone crosses from one to the other is hard to say, but in the case of Marian Gradus, it was probably when he instructed his wife to stop dusting his collection of model cars. “Dust is part of the ageing process,” he told her. Unfortunately, when we meet and in my eagerness to hold and admire one of his 5000 models (mostly in 1:43 scale), I accidentally disturb the dust on its roof. Marian needs me to tell his story – the coverage will help him sell the collection, he hopes – so he resists giving me the Mrs Gradus lecture. The retired automotive and aerospace engineer was born in Poland 75 years ago. He’s selling his models now because, well, 5000…

MILEAGE 16,211 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To crystallise our opinion of what we’re all going to lose when the Focus retires When it comes to cars packed with all sorts of clever features, that used to be the preserve of French MPVs. Those are almost all gone now, short of the van-based ones, but I’ve been surprised how much of that kind of stuff the Ford Focus Estate does. I’ve previously talked about the head-up display. It’s not the fanciest system of its type (it’s projected onto a little pop-up screen, for instance), but it is very useful for keeping an eye on my speed in average speed camera zones. My car is in Active specification. I’m not convinced the black body cladding does much for its looks, but I…

Sorry for the pun, but it’s time for a revolution regarding the device that connects vehicles to the road. In reality, the design of the pneumatic tyre has changed little in the past 150 or so years since it was invented. It still contains a hefty percentage of natural and synthetic rubber, still tries to contain air and still wears out so quickly that you have to replace it multiple times during a vehicle’s lifetime and still contributes significant amounts of particles into the environment, which is detrimental to plants and animals, including us. Yet we still accept that this is the optimum solution for keeping the two-tonne metal box on the road and not banging into other two-tonne metal boxes or other, less energy-absorbent objects. Isn’t it time for…

An owner’s view KIERON MAUGHAN, ROCKSTARSCARS.CO.UK “I own three Interceptors: a Mk1, a Mk2 and a Mk2 FF. The whole look of the car is Italian; the inside of a Mk1 feels like an Iso Grifo. You’ve got these lovely proper switches, beautiful big dials and the space. The earlier cars feel lighter and brighter inside, because the dashboard is further back – and more classically styled, too. “Having an understressed 6.3-litre engine means you turn it on and it purrs like a cat and it’s nice to drive from cold – unlike an old Ferrari or Lamborghini, which will need 10 minutes to warm up. It’s a very good alternative to anything that ends with an ‘i’, and it’s going to be more reliable. Over 25 years, I’ve had…

“It has now been confirmed that the Velar, Evoque and Disco Sport successors will be electric only” The Range Rover Velar will be reinvented as a slick, luxurious electric SUV, targeting the upcoming Porsche Macan EV with vastly improved endurance, performance and practicality. It will be the first of several new electric Land Rover models to run down the firm’s revamped production line in Halewood, Merseyside, followed soon after by EV successors to the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport (see overleaf). Work to convert the factory into an EV production facility will get under way next year and the electric Velar is expected to enter production before 2025. Until recently, the future for the Velar had been unclear. Launched in 2017 as a Macan rival, the luxury…

Renault is working on a sub-£20,000 EV in an attempt to make electric car ownership more mainstream and affordable in Europe. The proposed model, set to go up against the forthcoming Volkswagen ID 1 when both reach production, was announced by Renault Group boss Luca de Meo at the FT’s recent Future of the Car event. “It’s one of the things that will enable democratisation of EVs that will, potentially, boost volume,” he said, suggesting that the model will help to drive mass electric car ownership in both the UK and mainland Europe. A big inspiration for the baby Renault, added de Meo, is Japanese-market kei cars. These affordable microcars, which are strictly regulated in terms of size and power, accounted for more than one in three of the 4.2…

THE FLYWHEEL AS a form of energy storage is making a comeback and could be the thing to save us from long queues at EV rapid chargers on busy routes. Flywheels have been around since the year dot. Their most common use is for smoothing out the power source in a reciprocating engine. They do that by storing kinetic energy, guaranteeing a smooth stream torque as an engine takes those millisecond breathers between the pops and bangs that make it go. Bigger or much faster flywheels act as mechanical batteries, and again their use in various forms of transport (such as railway locomotives and trams) and in stationary applications isn’t new. They were nearly used by Williams during the KERS period in Formula 1, but Williams Hybrid Power was set…

SUNDAY I’ve spent more time driving off road lately than for years, mainly because I’ve had access to another Jeep Wrangler, this time a white long-wheelbase Rubicon with a folding tent on the roof. I didn’t seek the mobile house (I prefer B&Bs) – it just arrived. The Jeep had high-tech Goodrich off-road tyres, too – noisy on the road but fantastically grippy in mud or on wet grass. I decided to drive a few easy local byways, a regular pursuit in far-off days when we owned a pair of Land Rovers and our boys were learning to drive. What simple fun it is, easing along sloppy tracks at walking pace, squishing through mud holes in peacefully unimproved locations and treading as lightly as possible. For several hours, I didn’t…

We have the Urus to thank for the existence of the Huracán Sterrato, the last and perhaps most entertaining variant of Lamborghini’s staple supercar. While developing its SUV, the company’s engineers thrashed a development car around a sterrato (Italian for dirt road) at the Nardò test facility, had a great time, then decamped for a team dinner and wondered how much fun a Huracán could be in the same circumstances. A tired durability prototype was resuscitated and given raised suspension, and everyone who drove it, initial sceptic or otherwise, became a convert. So here we are. Of all the Huracáns still to be built before the car goes out of production at the end of next year, a third – 1499 – will be Sterratos. The basis is a regular…

There’s a tale from the 1980s when Suzuki sent a team of engineers to investigate building cars for the Indian market, with one particular element of their subsequent report going down in legend. “Must fit robust horns.” Because what the engineers discovered is that Indian drivers are not afraid of using their cars’ horns. Suzuki could jump through all the regulatory and government hurdles it wanted to, but without reliable horns fitted to its cars, the project would flop. ‘Robust horns project’ duly completed, Suzuki now sells 1.62 million cars a year in India. Sitting on Mohammed Ali Road in southern Mumbai and not having moved for 30 minutes, I can confirm that the habit is alive and well. A market of around four million new cars a year and…

An old Land Rover is like a trusty sheepdog: an essential tool for those who work with one, and a cutesy part of a countryside scene for everyone else. But, as with our furry friend, there comes a time when its dependability fades and retirement beckons. So if you run an old Defender, what do you replace it with? If you work for the one-percenters at the Gleneagles golf course, the answer is a brand-new Defender 110 75th Edition, at a cool £90,200. Others might stump up £55,000 for a new Ineos Grenadier, whereas smaller businesses or individuals might look at a sub-£30,000 Ford Ranger. What none of these solutions addresses is the growing pressure on industries to cut their CO2 emissions by all possible means. A single-cab Ranger chucks…

MILEAGE 8984 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if a vRS badge can make an electric car exciting Don’t worry: you haven’t stumbled across a wellthumbed edition of Dogs Monthly in the dentist’s waiting room. This is still Autocar. Only this week we’re mostly modelling dogs, specifically my two. That’s Tatty on the left and Himba on the right (a West Highland terrier and Miniature Schnauzer respectively), and part of the reason I’m parked outside a freezing-cold NEC is to visit Crufts and get the two mutts assessed by one of the esteemed judges. There is a car link, I promise. In one of those slightly off-the-wall brand tie-ups, Skoda has embraced the world of dogs and launched a range of products that help keep your precious cargo safe in…

FEATURE The ultimate ride test Can modern cars still do true comfort? We test the greatest from Bentley, BMW, Land Rover and Rolls-Royce to find out DRIVEN Abarth 500e We run the rule over the celebrated Italian hot hatch specialist’s first electric model ADVICE Second-hand EVs Make sure you read our definitive analysis before taking the electric plunge EVERY WEEK OUR CARS Volkswagen Multivan How much will we miss our Autocar Award-winning MPV? USED GUIDE Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 Go maximum ’80s with bewinged, Cosworth-engined super-saloon SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p18…

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…

“The electric Evoque and Disco Sport will initially serve as the entry point into the Land Rover line-up” The next-generation Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport will also be offered exclusively with electric power, together taking JLR into the heart of one of Europe’s fastest-growing and most competitive vehicle segments. These two mid-sized crossovers will again be substantially differentiated but closely related under the skin, serving effectively to rival the likes of the Lexus RZ 450e and Volvo XC40 Recharge respectively. They are expected to launch close together within the next two years, following the arrival of the electric Velar, and will play a fundamental role in helping JLR achieve its lofty electrification goals. By 2030, 60% of all Land Rovers sold will be pure-electric, and six years…

THE SECOND-GENERATION Tourneo Courier will arrive later this year, effectively taking on the role of Ford’s entry-level passenger car as production of the Fiesta and the Focus will cease in 2023 and 2025 respectively. The Tourneo Courier will be sold in combustion-engine form from this summer and with an electric powertrain from late 2024. Ford’s five-seat MPV, which is slightly bigger than the outgoing model, will be produced alongside the panel-sided Transit Courier (from which it is derived) and the Puma crossover in Craiova, Romania. The zero-emissions variant of the Tourneo Courier will point to “the future of Ford in Europe” as a “fun electric vehicle fuelled by a restless need for adventure”, according to the company’s president, Jim Farley. Full technical details of the EV will be revealed closer…

Jeep is looking to turn around its fortunes in the UK – a market that “we screwed up twice”, boss Christian Meunier has admitted to Autocar – with a significant push into electrification. The American company has identified EVs, including the warmly received Avenger, as the key to making significant inroads in Britain – where it currently holds a “virtually non-existent” 0.3% stake of the SUV market. Here, in a candid interview, the Frenchman speaks about a new future for Jeep in Europe, its image and the enthusiast strength of the UK market. What does electrification mean for Jeep capability? “For me, there’s nothing more exciting than driving electric in a 4x4, and the reason is torque on demand, the one-pedal feel and the brake regen. You accelerate and brake…

Sergio Pérez swallowed a bitter dose of reality in the Miami Dolphins’ stadium car park. He’s still only 14 points behind Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen heading into the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix this weekend at Imola, but in the US, recent talk of him offering a serious challenge for the Formula 1 title suddenly seemed like the fanciful wishful thinking that it probably always was, such was the emphatic nature of his defeat. Yes, Pérez had beaten Verstappen fair and square a week earlier in Azerbaijan. In his 13th season in the top flight, the 33-year-old Mexican deserves hard-earned respect as a very good grand prix driver. The trouble is that Verstappen is at 25 already a great one. For F1 watchers desperate for a title battle, Miami was…

With a wealth of engineering changes underneath and visual updates to the body and interior, this Porsche Cayenne facelift isn’t one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it surgeries. It’s an impressive effort, especially when the all-new electric Cayenne is only two years away and will ride on a completely separate platform (albeit with the ICE car continuing to be sold alongside it). The Cayenne remains Porsche’s best-seller, with sales running to more than 1.25 million since launch in 2003, so it isn’t a car on which to sacrifice its hard-won reputation. To that end, the looks have been tightened up and the model range updated. The V6 petrol remains the base Cayenne and the E-Hybrid PHEV should continue to account for about 60% of UK sales. As for the S, its V6 has…

“I thought he was kidding!” One day Koji Sato was a senior executive at the Toyota Motor Corporation, company lifer and engineer of much renown, head of its Gazoo Racing performance and Lexus luxury divisions and holder of numerous nose-bleedingly senior management titles. The next he was stood at a race track in Thailand, chatting and testing cars with the incumbent president and CEO, Akio Toyoda, when he was asked if he fancied running the world’s largest car maker at the most pivotal point in its history. Even after his stellar career advancement, it came as a total shock. Laugh. Smile. Gulp. At the last count, Toyota had 372,817 employees, sold 10.5 million cars (making it the world’s biggest car and commercial vehicle company by volume for the third straight…

MODEL TESTED LIGHTNING PLATINUM • Price $98,074* • Power 563bhp • Torque 775lb ft • 0-60mph 4.5sec • 30-70mph 3.7sec • Economy 2.2mpkWh • Max DC charging speed 150kW (claimed) • 70-0mph 51.2m Ford is banking on some bold decisions to make much-needed headway on electrification. It’s the kind of boldness that resulted in an electrically powered Ford Mustang, the Mach-E of 2019, and that more recently gave rise to the zero-emissions reimagination of the world’s biggest-selling pick-up truck – arguably Ford’s greatest commercial asset of them all. The F-Series – the most popular and best-known version of which is the F-150 – has a history going back to the 1940s. More than 40 million have been made to date, almost all for American and Canadian buyers, but none has…

MILEAGE 6145 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if Volvo’s smallest batterypowered SUV can be a motorway commuter and weekend companion Getting out the route planner seems like a faff long forgotten. Nowadays, the destination is entered, start button pressed and away you go. No thinking needed. Bliss. But, in 2023, it was required once more for a 300-mile-plus trip from Hampshire to Essex. Why? Because my range anxiety has got the better of me, and I don’t trust charging stations planned into my Google Maps route automatically. I’ve been burnt before by blocks that are either not working or have only one cable (usually taken by someone pushing for 100%) on site. So I put in my route and went full Formula 1 strategy boss: will I need a…

Not my Lotus Another week goes by and still no full Autocar road test of the Emira, never mind a long-term appraisal (likewise other publications). Your special relationship with the new Lotus appears to be non-existent. Forgive me for being cynical, but if Audi or BMW so much as change a grille design, there’s a road test. As a pre-Geely Lotus fan, I’m very uncomfortable with the trajectory that Hethel has decided on. The Emira being Lotus’s final combustion-engined GT with its sporting credentials, it’s a dishonour to all those who follow Lotus that the current management are chasing the money with high (for Lotus) production volumes. Albeit I question if targets have been met aside from the past years’ hiccups with supply and Covid. One of them, the cost…

For the classy customer who wanted unbeatable style, outstanding performance and a generous helping of that famous American V8 grunt, the Jensen Interceptor was a very welcome addition to a vast array of grand tourers when it arrived in 1966. There was also a slightly longer and pricier version, the FF, which had the double distinction of being the first production car equipped with four-wheel drive (instead of the standard rear-wheel drive) and an anti-lock braking system. With a 6.3-litre big-block Chrysler engine giving it more than 250bhp and a top speed of nearly 140mph, Jensen’s Interceptor must have seemed as fast and modern as the RAF’s own interceptor, the BAC Lightning, when blasting past breathless little Morris 1100s and Ford Anglias on the motorway. Throttle response was lazy and…

BL presents the key to its future success THE RISIBLE REPUTATION of Austin’s Allegro precedes it with the certainty of day and night. As such, people forget that it arrived in a period when British Leyland was feeling good and succeeded the fondly recalled 1100/1300. The Allegro was a saloon with an all-new look (if not the stylish one its designer had originally penned) and new rubber and fluid suspension, plus the familiar A-and E-series four-pot engines. So how was the Allegro viewed without prejudice? Of 12 launch variants, we tried the 1300 Super 3dr, likely to be the most popular. Although it equalled the Morris Marina on 60bhp, it didn’t match that fellow BL saloon for on-road performance – which we blamed on grim weather. Still, it felt eager…

The sport utility vehicle (SUV) has been replacing the car at an alarming rate over the past decade or two. And that rate only looks to be rising as the industry electrifies, because it turns out that a tall and bulky body is perfect for storing big batteries (if not for aerodynamic efficiency). How did we get here? We have charted the history and evolution of the SUV, looking at the models that pioneered the format. Willys MB 1941 The Willys MB is pretty much where the SUV story begins. Bantam won the contract for producing a new light 4x4 for the US Army, but the small Pennsylvania firm couldn’t build its design in the numbers required, so Willys-Overland stepped in. It built around 360,000 in Ohio, making the MB…