Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2, 2023 i Autocar

ASTON MARTIN WILL introduce plug-in hybrid versions of each of its core sports car models in the future, using technology from stakeholder Mercedes-Benz. The Gaydon firm’s first PHEV is the Valhalla supercar, due next year, but following that from 2026 onwards will be electrified versions of each model in the ‘core’ line-up, currently comprising the Vantage, DB12 and DBS. Company chairman Lawrence Stroll said introducing new PHEV models “will bridge the customer journey from ICE to full BEV”, with the firm’s first EV due in 2025. Stroll confirmed to Autocar that this hybridisation strategy applies to all sports cars and will be underpinned by electrified drivetrain technology supplied by Mercedes, which has provided engines and infotainment systems to Aston since 2016. The Mercedes-derived V8 used by the Vantage, DB12 and…

LAMBORGHINI SAID ITS new Revuelto super-hybrid has sold out until 2026, as it wrapped up its most successful six months on record. The firm sold 5341 cars from January to June this year, a 4.9% yearly increase, and generated €1.42bn (£1.22bn) in revenues, a 6.7% increase. The Urus and Hurácan are each sold out until the end of their current lifecycles. Hybrid successors to both are due to arrive late next year.…

TWO YEARS AGO, Porsche announced that it would start making almost CO2-neutral synthetic fuel, as a drop-in replacement for petrol, by 2022. Its pilot project in the Patagonia region of southern Chile is now scheduled to make a modest 130,000 litres of its ‘e-fuel’ per year, rising to 550 million litres annually by the end of the decade. The terminology surrounding sustainable fuels can be confusing so let’s clear that up. Porsche’s e-fuel is derived from air and water; it’s not a biofuel like ethanol or rapeseed oil. The difference is that what the engine sees is pretty much the same as it would were the tank filled with conventional petroleum. The e-fuel is a synthetic hydrocarbon, not alcohol like ethanol (the same as in drinks). Neither does it have…

WHEN A NEW MD arrives at a car company in the UK, they will usually make a pledge to go and visit all of the brand’s dealerships within a year. It’s good for relationships in the network and gives the new boss a chance to see what’s going on at the sharp end. As the end of his first year approached, the MD of an Asian brand announced that he was going to visit the last dealer on his list, a small family business in East Anglia. This was met with stifled chuckles from the other managers, who told him to look out for the innovative workshop workaround. As he discovered, the dealership’s service bay car lifts were underneath a low roof. While this wasn’t an issue when working on…

“One 22.4-litre V12 sat ahead of the driver, another behind” MONDAY On holiday this week, I’ve had my nose in the printed newspapers, many peppered with suggestions that the government will soon ease its green agenda to please voters. It seems beyond bizarre that such a debate should ensue while swathes of lower Europe are wracked by fires attributed to climate change: small wonder most car makers no longer seem interested in wholesale rule relaxation. They would rather know exactly what regulations are coming and see them sensibly interpreted. One phrase to arise from the discussions is ‘the Aston Martin exemption’, a plan to ease electrification hurdles for the UK’s unique band of small-volume car companies. This, of course, would be a fine thing. Nothing Ariel and Caterham do will…

You would have thought that of all the things in the world the new Ford Mustang didn’t need, it was a new name tag. After Boss, Mach 1, Bullitt and Shelbys GT350 and GT500, surely there were enough. Apparently not. Welcome, then, the new Dark Horse. I know… And if that’s not confusing enough, there are the differences between Mustangs with Performance Packs, those with Handling Packs and the variants sold in the US and those heading in our direction. I will try my best to clear the fog for you. Right now, the Dark Horse is the only tuned version of the Mk7 Mustang. Shelbys will definitely come, as may some or more of the aforementioned others, but that’s all for the future. And when I say Mk7 Mustang,…

It must be tricky for car makers like Bentley to know how much and how quickly to commit to the electrification of its cars. A battle is being fought between the volume-selling premium brands at present, with new plug-in hybrid SUVs emerging month by month from BMW, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and others with upwards of 60, 70 or even 80 miles of official ‘equivalent all-electric range’. To a certain extent, it’s a battle that Bentley can afford to stand and watch, as nobody buying a Bentayga will be worrying about benefitin-kind tax bills. But it can only stay on the sidelines for so long, because soon enough, the customer is going to start to wonder why that colleague’s Range Rover can do 70 miles between charges while their Bentayga struggles…

The walkers, cyclists and assorted daytripping visitors of the Peak District should have no trouble hearing us coming. It’s an early July day in the middle of the working week (and, yes, this does count as work, although I never cease to be amazed about that), so I’m not too sorry to interrupt their peace. I am, after all, only making the most of the opportunity while I can. Soon enough, the tourists will have nothing to detract from their leisure but electric motor whine and cattle flatulence (watch out, Daisy: you’re next). In front of us is a slightly mixed trio of cars that you might not have expected to appear together in the same group test. But since they’ve been chosen by fate and happenstance, not by me,…

MODEL TESTED PLAID Price £113,480 Power 1020bhp Torque na 0-60mph 2.4sec 30-70mph 1.7sec Fuel economy 3.1mpkWh CO2 emissions 0g/km 70-0mph 43.1m Tesla claims that the new Plaid version of its Model S saloon is the fastest-accelerating production car in the world, so it would be remiss of us not to strap our timing gear to it and subject it to a full road test. We won’t string this out, because the spec figures on the opposite page give it away already: we’ve timed the Plaid from 0-60mph in 2.4sec, which is quicker than our previous record holder, the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. That’s staggering performance by any standard, and it’s all the more impressive when you consider that this isn’t a hypercar but a big five-door saloon that costs from £113,480.…

MILEAGE 3845 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if BMW’s entry EV is as impressive as its range-topper Time is flying with our BMW iX1. In our short time together, it has been all the way to the north of England, into and around London and to two airports at opposite sides of the country. Things got off to a rocky start, though, with some consistent bugbears that very much dampened the experience. My biggest gripe of all is the iX1’s regenerative braking. There are three settings to adjust the level of energy recuperation: Low, High and Adaptive. When I picked up the car, it was set to Adaptive, which uses sat-nav data and the front camera to slow the car automatically with varying strength when you lift off the…

I bought a Porsche recently and, as ever, I had a feedback survey land in my emails shortly afterwards. Not that it was a surprise because the salesperson phoned me beforehand and impressed upon me that I had to say that things ‘exceeded my expectations’. It was important to them that this was what I said. They didn’t actually say that there was a load of dosh in it for them, but I guessed that’s what they meant. Several things occurred to me. The first was that my expectations in buying a Porsche had been pretty high, so even if things had simply matched my expectations, it would’ve been a very good result for Porsche. And that would’ve been my honest response. The second was that I quite liked the…

An owner’s view JACK GARSIDE “My CR-V is a 1.6 i-DTEC SE Navi. It’s only a 2017-reg but has done 170,000 miles! I know: it’s a lot. I’m the second owner and bought it with around 150,000. It’s perfectly reliable and the interior is holding up well. I no longer have it serviced by a Honda agent but it doesn’t seem fussed. The radio and sat-nav are a little awkward to use, but otherwise it’s good to drive and averages 60mpg.” Buyer beware… ENGINE AND ELECTRICS Some low-mileage or little-used 1.6 i-DTEC cars are plagued by clogged DPFs. Staying with this engine, check the oil pressure switch at the back isn’t leaking. On the petrol i-VTEC, listen for a groaning noise from the VTEC actuator on start-up. Don’t worry about…

“We’re working on concepts and have really exciting ideas. But it has to outperform an ICE” The long-awaited successor to the McLaren P1 is set to use electric power when it launches at the end of the decade. Since the P1 was launched in 2012, the firm has frequently said through various different managements that there would need to be a step-change in technology for a successor to follow. McLaren has launched several hypercars since the P1, including the Senna, Speedtail, Elva and Solus GT, but none has been in the same lineage as the 1992 F1 and P1. However, developments now, and ongoing over the rest of the decade, in batteryelectric drivetrains make such a model more likely than it has ever been. When asked if a model at…

“Next year, Toyota will introduce the first electrified Land Cruiser” After nearly 14 years on the market in its current form, the Toyota Land Cruiser has been drastically overhauled in a bid to steal sales from the Land Rover Defender and Jeep Wrangler. Designed with obvious influence from past Land Cruisers and with a chunky two-box silhouette that nods to its “ability to withstand harsh conditions”, the model again majors on practicality, durability and dependability. The go-anywhere 4x4 has long been one of the world’s most competent off-roaders, but the focus for this new fifth-generation car, codenamed J250, is on providing improved on-road refinement and competitive levels of technology. To that end, the Land Cruiser moves from the old J150 platform to Toyota’s new Global Architecture, following the larger J300…

OFFICIAL PICTURES Aline-up of ‘pure-electric luxury’ vehicles from Automobili Pininfarina will be shaped by the striking Pura Vision concept, a rakish new electric ‘luxury utility vehicle’ – or e-LUV, as the company defines it. CEO Paolo Dellachà said the concept is “the bridge from our present to an exciting new chapter”, hinting at the potential for the Pura Vision to heavily inspire future production cars. Autocar first reported Pininfarina’s plans for an SUV in 2020, with then design boss Luca Borgogno suggesting it would ultimately enter production as a Ferrari Purosangue rival priced from around £300,000. Plans to evolve the Pura Vision from concept to customer car have since gone quiet, but it nonetheless hints strongly at what to expect from the Italian brand in the near future. Showing Autocar…

Development of batteryswapping technology has largely centred around the idea of a swift, roadside battery swap for a quicker alternative to conventional charging, such as that pioneered by Chinese electric car maker Nio in its home country. But commercial vehicle manufacturer Iveco has launched a new electric van that showcases a different use for an easily swapped, cassette-style battery. The Iveco e-Daily comes with the option of three battery sizes – 37, 74 and 111kWh, for WLTP ranges of between 74 and 217 miles – and it’s innovative for allowing users to retrospectively remove or add elements to the modular battery pack. This can be hugely useful in various contexts, its creators say, but is most obviously of benefit in a commercial setting. If a van is being used as…

Porsche has celebrated the 911’s 60th birthday with a ‘purist’ special that weighs just 1380kg and pairs a short-range manual gearbox with the 518bhp flat six engine from the 911 GT3 RS. The new 911 S/T is in effect a GT3 Touring with GT3 RS underpinnings. It has been conceived as a tribute to the racing version of the 1969 911 S and above all aims to promote “sheer driving enjoyment”. With the GT3 RS available only with a seven-speed dualclutch automatic gearbox, the S/T becomes the most powerful car Porsche has yet equipped with a manual one. Stringent weight-shaving measures – including the extensive use of lightweight materials and the omission of rear-wheel steering – means it takes the crown as the lightest of the current-generation 911s, weighing in…

Motorsport has a habit of tying itself in knots over rules and regulations, too often resulting in logic-defying self-harm. Take the recent Rally Estonia: at a time when the World Rally Championship (WRC) is facing scrutiny within its own ranks over its future and how it needs to evolve to appeal to a wider audience, one of its biggest stars, on his home rally, was ruled out from competing for victory before the cars were even flagged off for stage one. It wasn’t his Ford’s engine failure on the preevent shakedown that destroyed Ott Tänak’s weekend. Rather, it was the draconian penalty for something that he could do nothing about. It ended his challenge before it had begun and stole the wind for both the event and its local fans,…

“The e:Ny1 felt great around Oslo. Navigating the winding streets was a simple task” As Honda’s first electric family SUV, it’s clear just how important the e:Ny1 (yes, really) is to the brand. We’ve already seen the manufacturer’s first steps into the world of batteryelectric cars with the Honda E, a niche offering that has been on sale since 2020. Honda’s high hopes for the e:Ny1 are vital for its zero-emission goals. As a result of the zero-emission mandate, the brand expects 22% of its registrations by the end of next year to consist of e:Ny1 sales, which is equivalent to around 7500 cars. The firm has selected quite a congested segment in which to launch its first family EV. By Honda’s own reckoning, the e:Ny1 will directly face off…

The Porsche Cayenne line-up is now headed by an even more potent (650bhp) Turbo GT, but tough emissions standards have prevented UK sales. Porsche isn’t just saying ‘tough luck’ to its British customers, though: rather, it has also developed a successor to the old Turbo S E-Hybrid, to be sold in both SUV and Coupé bodystyles, the latter available with a GT package that elevates it to Turbo GT level. The second of three plug-in hybrid versions of the facelifted Cayenne is powered by a reworked drivetrain using the same electric bits as the usual E-Hybrid, including a 174bhp motor and a 25.9kWh battery, combining with the latest version of Porsche’s 4.0-litre petrol V8, with changes such as a better new twin-turbocharging system. Porsche is coy about numbers but says…

A marshal storms over and raps his knuckles against the window, unflappably stern despite my oblivious to our error. “Why is this car here?” he demands, gesticulating at the growing line of guests waiting for me to move so they can negotiate the tight entrance to one of Lake Como’s most famous hotels. Should I tell him my mission is to find out how the Ioniq 6 fits in among the automotive icons that regularly take to the roads here? Instead, I just say: “Sorry, my mistake. I thought this was a different venue.” His eyes roll back so far in his head that he can probably see Switzerland, and he nods to the two photographers I’ve brought with me to capture some artful angles of my Hyundai as they…

MILEAGE 11,427 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To assess DS’s progress as a premium brand and unpick this car’s dual identity To Dorset, then. Having lived with the DS 4 for a few months, I know it’s going to be an easy, comfortable time with the car on our family trip. Except for one thing: fitting all of our luggage in. Keen readers will know that the DS 4’s packaging is my main (and really only) gripe, so I knew the car would be full to the brim to accommodate not only the unknowns of the British weather but also everything required to cart a toddler around and keep it happy. The best technique is many small, malleable bags. I haven’t done a boot test with suitcases but I suspect it…

TWIN TEST Audi RS6 Performance vs BMW M3 Touring They’ve fast, furious and incredibly practical. So which is the best new hot estate, whether for a trip to the tip or a blast on back roads? DRIVEN Porsche 718 Spyder RS 493bhp GT3-engined special marks an end of an era for the Boxster FEATURE Automobili Pininfarina Behind the scenes at the nascent firm that’s wowed the world with the Battista hyper-EV EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Abarth 500e Will the toughest test reveal new depths in this electric hot hatch? USED GUIDE Aston Martin DB9 Living out your James Bond fantasy is now cheaper than ever 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…

Mercedes-Benz’s third-generation CLA compact saloon will be revealed in concept form at the Munich motor show in September. The new CLA, which is due in the UK in the first half of 2025, is the first of four cars earmarked to use the German firm’s Modular Mercedes Architecture (MMA) platform. MMA is a flexible structure supporting both pure-electric and combustion-engine drivetrains, as showcased by the sleek EQXX EV concept. Other new Mercedes models based on the MMA structure include successors to the existing CLA Shooting Brake, the GLA crossover and the GLB SUV, all of which are set to be launched by the middle of the decade. The quartet form what Mercedes describes as its new Entry Luxury line-up, with electric versions set to take the EQC, EQC Shooting Brake,…

SPECULATION OVER the possible pushback or “softening” of the UK’s 2030 ban on new ICE car sales has been branded “unhelpful” following remarks by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who suggested the rules could be relaxed. In a briefing last week with reporters, Sunak said environmental measures made in line with the UK government’s net-zero ambitions mustn’t “unfairly impact the public”. He added that decarbonisation efforts must be made “in a proportionate and pragmatic way” that “doesn’t unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives”. Sunak’s comments sparked widespread speculation that the ban on the sale of new purecombustion-powered cars could be modified or even pushed back beyond 2030. But Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, argues that the industry has already…

DESIGNER TURNED CEO Henrik Fisker has confirmed that his company’s second electric car, the Fisker Pear supermini, was originally conceived as an unofficial pitch for the long-mooted Apple car project. Fisker admitted to Autocar that his early sketches for the Pear were done long before the public unveiling of the Fisker Ocean, in direct response to the media furore around the genesis and development of the Apple car around 2016 and 2017. Speaking at the press launch of the Ocean (driven, p22), Fisker said: “Back then, [the automotive media] were speculating about this Apple car but had nothing to go on: no images or spy photos, no comment from Apple. So I started wondering how I would design an Apple car, and the Pear is what I came up with.”…

JAGUAR LAND ROVER chief Adrian Mardell has emphatically welcomed the news that parent company Tata will build its new gigafactory in the UK. As he rounded up the company’s performance in the first financial quarter of the year (in which it achieved dramatic upticks in revenue and profit, see below), Mardell, now officially JLR’s permanent CEO, having led on an interim basis for nine months, suggested that this longawaited confirmation of a local battery supply would be pivotal for the entire UK automotive industry, rather than just JLR itself. “This will help build a stable, secure battery cell supply with competitive costs and let us deliver our strategic vision of a full range of British electrified vehicles by 2030,” he said, reacting to how the news directly impacts JLR. He…

At last I found myself at the right place and time to drive an Ineos Grenadier. It was only a short drive but long enough to find that I liked it and its off-road capability. All serious modern 4x4s would have completed the chalky course that I drove but not all with such ease. I drove a Utility Wagon, which lacks a Station Wagon’s locking front and rear diffs but still has a locking centre diff, a low-ratio gear set and hill descent and stability control systems. It’s not the full terrain-adjustable gamut you would find on a Land Rover or a Jeep, but the hardware is strong. Still, I wondered whether Ineos would find enough buyers for a £70,000 car that’s not plush enough to be a luxury off-roader…

As the struggles of so many manufacturers t o ignite the sales growth of their electric car lines continue to show, there’s still plenty of need for reassurance among those looking to buy their first EV. While people who have already made the leap may argue it differently, many still see EVs, which cost more than their combustion-engined equivalents, as having potentially problematic usability for those who can’t depend on easy home charging. The Fisker Ocean, the emergent American EV firm’s first production car, engages with those perceptions head on. Designed in California but built by Magna Steyr in Austria (on the same line that, until recently, cranked out the BMW 530e), this is a compact, European-flavoured SUV that leads with its smoothsurfaced, sophisticated design. In the metal, it looks…

Yes, this is an SL with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine. But it’s a lot better than that sounds, and Mercedes has form with this sort of stuff, so stick with me. The precedent is the 190 SL of 1954. Because the legendary 300 SL had a bespoke spaceframe chassis and a cutting-edge fuel-injected engine, it was furiously expensive. So to spread the roadster love, the 190 SL was derived from the Ponton saloon, given a slightly less pretty body and a 1.9-litre four. Despite its leisurely 105bhp, it was a hit. Today’s four-pot SL buyer has to accept far fewer compromises. Save for the round (rather than trapezoidal) tailpipes and slightly less aggressive bumpers, it looks the same as the V8-powered SL 55 and SL 63. Which, with its long…

Remember straightforward hot hatchbacks of asphalt-sniffing stance and turbo brawn? It’s a sad sign of the times that such cars now feel like a novelty. Hot hatches are dying out, with most in a final evolutionary stage and quite expensive. Fifty-grand Honda Civic Type R, anyone? Among the stalwarts is Mercedes-AMG’s A35, which ticks both boxes. As with all of the A-Class range, it’s been refreshed until an EV successor arrives. It inherits the grille and bulging bonnet of the hardcore A45, with Mercedes’ roundel swapped for Affalterbach’s. I suppose the message is that the A35 is a proper AMG. But is it really? Doubts linger. As the most ‘accessible’ AMG, it has always used a modified version of a mainline A-Class motor, not something bespoke to AMG, so questions…

I’m sitting in a white Polestar 2 prototype, listening to the Dave Brubeck Quartet perform a piece called Unsquare Dance. I’ve played it hundreds of times before, because I happen to like Brubeck’s brand of none-too-intellectual jazz and I never tire of this track’s weirdly refreshing 7/4 time signature. Every time I’ve played it before, I’ve heard a performance recorded 60 years ago before a live audience somewhere in the US. But today is different: today I’m in the audience. With the help of a revolutionary, British-made premiumspec car audio system, I can actually hear Brubeck’s fingers on the keyboard, along with the sizzles and squeaks of other players operating their instruments. I’d have sworn I knew this track intimately, but I’m hearing its ultimate detail for the first time.…

Cat’s got my tongue Having had the dubious pleasure recently of selecting a new car, I get where Tim Terry is coming from (19 July); he has my sympathy. You only get to find out a car’s foibles when you use it over a period of time. May I suggest he consider a Ford Puma? It has some welcome oldschool features: a manual gearbox, a manual handbrake, physical HVAC controls, cruise control buttons on the steering wheel and, joy of joys, a lane-keeping assistance function that defaults to off every time you start the car. Stephen Mead Holmer Green, Buckinghamshire R rated My Toyota GR86 has finally arrived after a year’s wait. The online purchase wasn’t the slickest, but we got there in the end after much toing and froing.…

As they might say about art, there are people who don’t know much about SUVs but know what they like. That is, something that looks like an SUV but not offensively so, and one that looks expensive enough without forcing them to save money by changing their supermarket. That’ll be the Honda CR-V, then, and specifically, the Mk4 that ran from 2012 to 2018. It came from good stock. Mk1-Mk3 CR-Vs were capable and wellregarded soft-roaders in a market still getting its head around the breed. By 2012, however, car buyers had completely bought in to the SUV concept and were drowning in choices. The Mk4 CR-V had its work cut out, a task not helped by Honda’s apparent refusal to advance the model much beyond its immediate predecessor. Someone…

ON 2 SEPTEMBER this year, speed trials will be held beside Brighton beach. They won’t be of any real importance or significance – aside from the fact that this is the world’s longest-running motorsport event. The metamorphosis of Brighton from a fishing village into a trendy seaside resort occurred in the late 1700s, but it fell into decline after a bereft Queen Victoria left the Royal Pavilion in the 1860s. An ebullient entrepreneur, Harry Preston, was instrumental in its revitalisation, and in 1905 he succeeded (helped by the RAC) in convincing the local council that a ‘motor week’ would further this by attracting massive crowds to see those exciting new machines – cars and motorbikes – race at unprecedented road speeds. A defensive wall had been built along about 1.5…

Beach cars began as playthings of the rich and famous, to get from one luxury hot spot to another while on holiday. The idea was then democratised by the Volkswagen Beetle-based beach buggy, but what all beach cars share is a simplicity of design and purpose that makes them the ideal on sand. With the holiday season well under way, here are our favourites. Meyers Manx The name ‘beach buggy’ started here, with the Meyers Manx. Designed by Bruce Meyers and on the road in 1964, it used a shortened Volkswagen Beetle chassis and engine. It also made the most of the high-tech new glassfibre material that allowed small companies to make swoopy bodies far more cheaply and easily than with formed metal. Meyers’ end result was intended for desert…