Innholdsfortegnelse for May 22, 2024 i Autocar

Ineos Automotive admits that however desirable hydrogen might be as a fuel of the future, there is currently no commercial demand for a hydrogen car, nor the infrastructure to support it – even though the wider Ineos empire includes a hydrogen production company. Should there be new legislation recognising that battery-electric powertrains aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution, a production version of the hydrogen-fuelled Grenadier prototype that the car maker has created could appear in the 2030s, according to CEO Lynn Calder, who reiterated hydrogen’s appeal in mimicking petrol and diesel cars for fill-up times and range. “I believe it can be a strong part of our mix in the future, but we’re some way off that,” she said. For now, the Grenadier FCEV exists as a one-off prototype that took just…

MERCEDES-BENZ IS SET to dramatically reduce its investment in electric vehicle platform development and has reportedly axed plans for a new architecture for luxury cars. The new MB.EA Large platform, planned to be launched in 2028, was earmarked to underpin the successors to today’s EQE and EQS saloons and SUVs. But German newspaper Handelsblatt has reported that development has been cancelled due to poor sales of those existing cars, citing information provided by four separate insiders. The savings brought by halting the development are estimated to be between €4 billion (£3.44bn) and €6bn (£5.16bn). Instead, Mercedes intends to further develop the EVA2 platform, which forms the basis for the existing EQE and EQS models, with an 800V charging architecture, new battery cell technology and more efficient electric motors for increased…

The hot new John Cooper Works version of the petrol-powered Mini hatchback has been revealed in prototype form ahead of its official debut later this year. The overhauled hot hatch is making its first outing at next weekend’s Nürburgring 24 Hours race. It will be entered into the loosely regulated SP 3T class by Mini motorsport firm Bulldog Racing and wear a camouflage livery inspired by Paddy Hopkirk’s Monte Carlo Rally-winning Mini Cooper S from 1964. The full reveal – along with official powertrain specifications and production details – will happen in the autumn, said Mini, but already it is apparent how the hot hatch will be made visually more aggressive than the standard car. Bespoke styling cues include a much more prominent front grille flanked by a pair of…

Drivers deterred from purchasing an electric car by range anxiety and high list prices can now add another item to their list of worries: public chargers having their cables stolen. Since November last year, Instavolt, the UK’s largest operator of rapid chargers, has had 174 cables stolen from 27 of its sites in Yorkshire and the Midlands. With each cable costing at least £1000, it’s an expensive problem – although the company says it’s more concerned about the damage the thefts are doing to public confidence in EVs. “These thefts are extremely frustrating for our customers and for us,” said Instavolt CEO Delvin Lane. “The EV revolution is already under way, with more than one million EVs on the road [in the UK]. Our mission is to make EV charging…

SATURDAY Big learning curve: for years I’ve half-believed that stuff about today’s young people not wanting to learn to drive – now I know it’s rubbish. I took my Dacia Duster to Cheltenham Racecourse to join Ian Mulingani, boss of the huge but oddly unsung Young Driver organisation, which gets kids between 10 and 17 behind the wheel. As Mulingani cheerfully revealed, his network delivers 12,000 lessons a month across no fewer that 70 UK sites, mostly in manual gearbox cars. In Cheltenham’s huge car park, a coned-off course was coping with half a dozen kids at a time in smartly liveried Vauxhall Corsas. I watched, staggered, as a succession of new arrivals coped brilliantly with their first clutch pedal. It’s all in the teaching, apparently. I also witnessed a…

Press presentations for new cars are normally given by someone from marketing with lots of graphs and charts about trim levels and why it’s better than X rival at Y thing. But the presentation for the new Cupra Born VZ was one to really sit up and pay attention to, because it was given by World Touring Car Championship driver turned performance car development engineer Jordi Gené, and it was all about brake pedal feel, suspension changes, drivetrain upgrades – our kind of language, signalling a car to be taken seriously. The Born VZ is the hot version of the Born hatchback, which is already the EV that we rate the highest for handling appeal. It recently won our best sub-£40,000 EV test and last year beat a more specialist…

Getting excited about the BMW M4 CS requires an understanding of its big sibling, the M4 CSL. That was the 1000-off, extra-special M4 that came out a couple of years ago, and while it was hideously expensive, it was also the first product in two decades to which M felt comfortable assigning its most venerated nameplate: the lesser-spotted ‘Coupé Sports Licht’. But the ripsnorting M4 CSL wasn’t a unanimous knockout. With its bonnet stripes it looked OTT and, at £130,000, it cost the same as an Audi R8. The driving experience was also broadly that of the regular M4 Competition. Which, to be clear, is no bad thing. But if you deign to dish out those hallowed letters, then some people will expect a ramp-up in drama akin to that…

Lexus could hardly be happier right now. UK sales are at an all-time high and the new LBX has attracted more than 10,000 interested drivers, two-thirds of them ‘conquered’. Slight issue: the brand already had a £30k hybrid small SUV. Easy fix: it has updated the six-year-old UX to create more points of difference than size (it’s 4495mm long; the LBX is 4190mm), namely dynamics and refinement. So the UX’s 2.0-litre petrol four is now teamed with a new inverter, a new transaxle and a new battery (lithium instead of nickel), taking the total from 181bhp to 196bhp. Improvements of 5mpg and 10g/km are achieved, too. On 4WD E-Four cars, there’s also a 40bhp permanent magnet synchronous rear motor in place of a 7bhp induction unit. New braces make the…

VW PASSAT eHYBRID Price £44,090 On sale Autumn PHEVs with more than 50 miles of electric range remain a relative rarity, but they are coming to the various MQB-platform cars. The Passat will be one of the first to arrive, and it should offer up to 70 miles per charge. It’s not quite as classy as the BMW and Mercedes-Benz, but it’s a good deal cheaper. Comes only as an estate. SKODA SUPERB Price £34,875 On sale Autumn It’s mechanically much the same as the VW Passat but arguably classier inside, with more interesting materials and Skoda’s new ‘Smart Dials’ customisable rotary controls. And unlike the Passat, the Superb will be available as a hatchback. Blows both the BMW and Mercedes-Benz away for interior space, too. PORSCHE PANAMERA 4 E-HYBRID…

MOLLIE’S DRIVE-IN DINER WHERE Bristol and Oxfordshire WHEN 30 May to 22 August WHY Classic films and fun food at sensible prices A drive-in cinema and diner showing beloved flicks such as Back to the Future, Mrs Doubtfire and Jurassic Park. Tickets are £55, giving entry for one car with two people, plus a meal. Extra passengers cost £20 each. There’s also an on-site motel to make a weekend of it. BTCC WHERE Silverstone, Northamptonshire WHEN 21-22 September WHY Tremendous racing at one of the world’s most storied venues Silverstone is a fantastic place, but let’s face it: the British Grand Prix hasn’t produced a properly dramatic race for yonks. Instead, consider the British Touring Car Championship, which visits the circuit for its penultimate round. That raises the stakes –…

In-wheel motors are a bit like solid-state batteries: always on the horizon as the transformative leap for electric cars but never quite getting here. However, Protean Electric thinks it’s about to change that. It has taken a motor that would break after just 10 minutes on a test rig to something that can survive a rigorous durability programme. That included being crashed into potholes to survive a 100g impact and extreme test chambers from-40deg C to 90deg C. After 300,000km of development, it is now ready for major series production. The idea sounds simple: mount the electric motor within a wheel to provide direct drive and do away with traditional axles, driveshafts and subframes. But the reality is that it has taken 15 years and five generations of development to…

WRITE TO autocar@haymarket.com Pest control I agree with Illya Verpraet on almost everything that he writes, but his views on the merits of adaptive versus standard cruise control (Our Cars, 24 April) are absolutely spot on in my opinion. My BMW 5 Series has standard cruise control, and I use it all the time. My previous Volvo S90 had adaptive cruise control, and it was a pain on the motorway, frequently applying the brakes for no apparent reason to my embarrassment and being constantly spooked by traffic in other lanes. In contrast, approaching slower or stationary traffic, it wouldn’t slow down until far too late and then brake very sharply. Consequently, I only really used it in slow stop-start traffic. Toyota’s switchable modes seem the ideal option to me. Nick…

SUV owners like you to believe they lead lives filled with adventure, but owners of the Citroën Berlingo Multispace actually do. Go to any campsite and you’re likely to see Berlingos at the heart of family escapades, doubling as living areas as well as a means of travel. The second-generation Multispace covered here was in production from 2008 to 2018. With traditional MPVs such as the Vauxhall Zafira available, the more utilitarian and separate-looking Multispace was always going to appeal to buyers with very specific requirements. It might explain why there aren’t that many on the used car market – unless, of course, it’s because their besotted owners can’t bear to part with them… The model shared its basic platform architecture and drivetrains with the Citroën C4 and Peugeot 308,…

THE WORLD ENDURANCE Championship recently visited Belgium for a highly exciting Spa-Francorchamps 6 Hours. Victory went to Porsche, but not thanks to one of its works cars, instead the British Jota Sport team – as unlike in Formula 1, here persists a fine tradition of privateer entries. Another such star in that race was AF Corse’s yellow Ferrari – echoing one of the more, well, enduring and prosperous privateer teams of the past, which rather appropriately was proudly Belgian. Privateer teams and drivers often have unexpected origins, and our story here starts with the trumpet-playing leader of a jazz band called the Clay Pigeons. Octave John Claes (how fitting a name!) was born in London in 1917 to a Belgian father who had fled the war and a Scottish mother,…

Automotive flops have featured on this page before. This selection, while by no means a continuation of that theme, represents a herd of sacred cows of which most of motordom thinks in one way while the reality is not quite so clean cut. The majority if not all of these cars have some mega plus points but none are above criticism. Let’s remind ourselves why. Land Rover Series 1 1948 The lovable Land Rover is rightly hailed as the grandfather of all civilian off-roaders, and how these very early vehicles can perform in the rough remains impressive – if you submit your Series 1 to life on the farm. But you’re mistaken if you think an old Series 1 is a true ‘dual-purpose’ machine. There’s no disputing that it can…

“At 3990mm long, 1695mm wide and 1320mm tall, it is almost identical in stature to the MX-5” Toyota is priming a small, affordable sports car to rival the Mazda MX-5 for a launch within the next two years – and it’s tipped to stick with pure-combustion power. Building on the success of its GR Yaris, GR86 and GR Supra sports cars, the company is reportedly developing a new entry-level performance model, evolved from the never-made S-FR concept. According to Japanese magazine Best Car, the diminutive 2+2 has finally been given the green light for showrooms more than a decade after it was shown as a relatively realistic-looking concept, as Toyota seeks to capitalise on strong sales of its other driver-focused models. Toyota declined to comment on the report when approached…

JLR BOSSES ARE confident that “extraordinary interest” in the upcoming Range Rover Electric means it can comply with the UK’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate without buying credits or restricting ICE car sales. The strict rules require all major manufacturers to achieve a certain percentage of electric car sales (22% in 2024, 28% in 2025 and so on) or face a £15,000 fine per non-compliant car. Currently just 1.24% of JLR’s global sales are electric, and all of them from the Jaguar I-Pace, which is due to be retired by 2025. But CEO Adrian Mardell said huge interest in next year’s Range Rover Electric – with 33,000 people on the waiting list so far – will allow the firm to avoid fines, as it can sufficiently exceed the mandate quotas beyond…

Research by Autocar shows car makers are slashing prices of some new EVs by up to £14,000 in a bid to boost their sales of electric vehicles in the face of flagging consumer interest and to counter the impact of the ZEV mandate, which stipulates that at least 22% of their new car sales in 2024 must be EVs. Offered in the form of a deposit contribution with a PCP – the most popular finance product among private buyers of new cars – price cuts are effectively being made by most car makers on selected EV models. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders reported that EV registrations claimed 16.9% of the market in April, compared with 15.4% the year before. However, the increase was driven solely by businesses rather…

CHINESE CAR FIRM Aiways will withdraw from its home market and relocate to Germany to escape the ongoing price war on electric cars. A source close to the company told Autocar it was relocating to its European HQ in Munich because of the “intense price pressure” in China, where the Volkswagen ID 3 has been discounted below £18,000, a Tesla Model Y is around £27,000 and a BMW i5 costs £48,000 – all significantly less than they cost in Europe. Aiways’s cars will still be produced in China, with the company’s factory in Shangrao set to resume production this summer after a 12-month hiatus, but they won’t be sold there. As well as relocating, Aiways will go public with a listing on the Nasdaq and it is working on a…

In principle, I like the idea of an autonomous car. Not for when I get into a sports car or classic car or climb onto a motorbike and want to enjoy driving and riding, which, amazingly, even on today’s roads, are still two of my hobbies. But for when I’m very old and my neck is too stiff to look over my shoulder and there’s still no local bus service, imagine how handy a self-driving car could be for taking me to queue up at the doctor’s. Or for when I’m going to the office or home from the pub, or whenever I’m on a deadline and the M25 is calling, wouldn’t a self-driving car be helpful? Seat back, screen on and let everything else happen. It’s a wonder that…

Arousing Jerusalem, belted out by a full-house congregation in glorious Westminster Abbey, all in honour of our beloved and much-missed Sir Stirling Moss. It has to be the most English moment I will ever experience. What an occasion the service of thanksgiving for The Boy, held on a sunny London morning this month, turned out to be. Moss died aged 90 in April 2020 while the pandemic still held us all in its cold grip, which meant he didn’t get the send-off he deserved. Moss would have been nonplussed by the fuss, of course. But as is the case on such occasions, it wasn’t really for him – it was for us, to show our love and appreciation for a man who exists in the same immortal realm as England’s…

Confirmation bias must be something that car makers account for when they’re doing their market research, mustn’t it? In press material for new cars like this Mercedes-AMG GT and so many others, the feedback from owners of the outgoing model is treated with gospel reverence. “We kept everything they liked but also addressed every absence or failing they identified,” we’re told. But little is said about the opinions and feedback of others. What about David, 59, from East Sussex, for instance? David liked the look of the original GT, but after scaring himself paler than the cream of his favourite cotton slacks when he opened up the taps on a slightly bumpy and damp B-road during a test drive, he duly decided that another Porsche 911 was in order. David…

It’s so quiet in here. Even as I accelerate sharply into the outside lane of Rome’s Grande Raccordo Anulare ring road and the petrol engine wakes from its slumber, the whole car remains eerily hushed. If I hadn’t just sat through an hour-long presentation with a follow-up ‘please explain the gearbox to me like I’m a 10-year-old’ interview, I might even have mistaken it for an EV. It’s not, though – which is important, because the world’s largest manufacturer of EVs is bringing a combustion-engined car to the UK. There’s a common belief that Chinese firms have leapfrogged competitors from elsewhere in the world because they put all their efforts into going electric early. Broadly in the UK, we think that a lot of Chinese EVs are technically brilliant, whereas…

Enabled by Stellantis’s new electric-first STLA Medium platform, Peugeot is going after wealthier buyers and biggerfish EV rivals than it has previously. This e-3008 shows how. A midsized, five-seat, coupé-styled SUV, it competes with the likes of the Tesla Model Y, Volvo EX40 and Hyundai Ioniq 5. Both a seven-seat e-5008 SUV and an e-408 fastback are due on sale in the UK later this year, using the same platform. The advantages that platform does and doesn’t give the e-3008 are interesting to note. Unlike most of its rivals, this is a primarily front-wheel-drive car – and a relatively heavy one (between 100kg and 230kg heavier than key rivals). It would surely have been a challenge to make a rear-mounted motor sit comfortably in a mid-sized, seven-seat car like the…

If you ever find yourself near London’s Wimbledon Common fairly early in the morning on the first Sunday of the month, there’s a good chance you’ll bump into a truly eclectic mix of cars. Everything from Alpinas and MX-5s to Ferrari Daytonas and even colossal classic Rolls-Royces find their way to the Southside Hustle – and with them come the crowds. The Southside Hustle was born, as so many of today’s things were, out of Covid lockdown and the need for socially distanced fun. Cofounder Jamie Wheatley explains: “[Co-founder, the late] Charles Evans and I started meeting up at Wimbledon Village for a coffee, then going for a drive. As time went on, more joined: there would be six of us there, then a couple of months later we would…

ACE CAFE London, all year Historic biker cafe in north London hosts a different event almost every day, so you’re bound to find something you enjoy. GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED Chichester, 11-14 July Annual motoring extravaganza this year celebrates MG’s centenary. HAMPTON COURT CONCOURS OF ELEGANCE London, 30 August to 1 September Expect beautiful machines in even prettier scenery, plus an auction with Euromillion-level bids. F1 ARCADE London and Birmingham, all year Casual night out with food, a bar and full-motion racing simulators. BICESTER HERITAGE OCTOBER SCRAMBLE Oxfordshire, 6 October See out the summer with one final meet-up at the fantastic Bicester Heritage site.…

We first met Bedeo last year after it unveiled its RE-100 Range Extender system: a retrofit hybrid drivetrain that electrifies an axle of large, 3.5-tonne vans. This combines two Protean in-wheel motors with a 37kWh Bedeo battery. Given the long lives of such vehicles and the way they are often converted at considerable expense into the likes of refrigerated vans, ambulances or camper vans, Bedeo CEO Osman Boyner says it is far more cost-efficient to do this kind of ‘Reborn Electric’ conversion to a repurposed van for around £25,000 than for a company to buy a prohibitively expensive new electric van that they would then have to convert for its intended use anyway. Business is going well, with clinical waste management company Medisort the latest to sign a deal with…

FINAL REPORT MILEAGE 6328 WHY WE RAN IT To see if a bright future lies ahead for the Smart brand, reinvented under the ownership of Chinese giant Geely I have just turned 30 and find myself looking at the world in a slightly different way, from getting excited about buying a new iron to suddenly really wanting to do a marathon. Well, maybe a half… So when a car calling itself ‘Hashtag One’ arrived on the scene, I immediately pulled that face people make when they hear someone mispronounce the letter ‘H’. Couple that with the Smart’s key being a glossy white disc that doesn’t really sit comfortably on a key chain and it all felt a little too Gen Z for me. But first impressions can be deceiving. I…

I traded in my immaculate Ford Focus Estate for a four-year-old, 26,000-mile Kia e-Niro. The Focus felt like the epitome of affordable ICE evolution and I loved it but, having recently had solar panels installed at home, I felt it was time to experience ‘the future’. I haven’t been disappointed. The e-Niro has a 64kWh battery that shows no deterioration from new. I’ve so far charged it at home for nothing and am getting more than 4mpkWh on average. Sometimes a 10-mile trip yields 5mpkWh. I do wonder at the number of newer EVs, notably the ones on your fleet that achieve significantly inferior efficiency. The insurance is a bit higher than for the Focus, but zero VED offsets that. The e-Niro is quiet, smooth and very relaxing and its…

An owner’s view ROB DOWNING “My 2010-reg Berlingo Multispace has been in the family since new, at various times owned by me, my dad, my uncle and my brother. It’s a 1.6 HDi 90 XTR and has done 81,000 miles. It looks its age but has always been regularly serviced. It’s had a new engine mount (it still vibrates when accelerating, so perhaps one of the other mounts needs changing), but that’s the only major work. It has passed all of its MOTs first time, bar one. It averages 50mpg and costs £190 a year to tax, so it’s not expensive to run. It’s in XTR trim so has raised suspension, underbody protection and the Grip Control traction system. It also has removable seats. We can’t think of a more…

Morgan and Pininfarina have unveiled an exclusive barchetta-bodied, two-seat sports car called the Midsummer. Based on the underpinnings of Morgan’s existing Plus Six model, it is clad with a magnificent new hand-formed body on which both Pininfarina’s and Morgan’s design teams have cooperated. The two partners say the car is a celebration of their combined 200 years of coachbuilding expertise. It is named after Midsummer Hill, which forms part of the Malvern Hills that tower above the Pickersleigh Road factory, where Morgan has been hand-building its cars since 1914. The Midsummer’s production will be limited to 50 units, which have already been sold to well-heeled supporters and friends of the marque. Tipped to cost between £120,000 and £150,000, depending on the exact specifications laid down by owners, the Midsummer is…

Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato says the car maker will make a final decision on what form its fifth model line will take before the end of this year – with a Porsche Cayenne-rivalling large SUV still the front-runner. The Italian firm recently added the new Junior crossover as its fourth model alongside the Giulia saloon and Tonale and Stelvio SUVs, and it is planning to add a fifth model line in 2027. Alfa has long been linked with an E-segment electric SUV, but Imparato said it is dependent on proving a business case – and he revealed that the alternative could be a C-segment hatchback. “A large SUV will be cool. Really cool. The car for 2027 is done. It’s striking” Imparato told Autocar a final decision would be…

THE MANUFACTURER that brought us the first mainstream EV could also be about to become the first to bring us the next big thing in EVs: a car with double the range for less money. The secret lies in the much-talked-about solid-state battery technology, which, if it lives up to the hype, should yield batteries that are around half the size and weight yet deliver the same range as their conventional counterparts or, on the other hand, provide double the range for the same size of battery. Nissan, which unveiled its game-changing Leaf in Yokohama back in 2009, this month showed off its new all-solid-state battery (ASSB) pilot production line, which is under construction at the Yokohama plant. The firm has also announced plans to have ASSB-equipped production EVs in…

THE WORDS ‘purchasing department’ will set any small supplier twitching. These people push widget makers to knock an extra penny off the price and ensure a deal hasn’t been waved through because the supplier plays golf with the CEO. These admirable goals can save a firm millions, but getting around the inflexible rules is seen as something of a sport in big car makers. For example, one-off items will be bought through approved agencies, who will add a 20% mark-up, while other bits will be bought on a company card to test the limits of the expense policy. At one car maker, engineers needed to buy a very specific component to build a prototype fuel cell. The request went in and they received a curt response saying they needed a…

The Cupra Tavascan is a close relative of a fairly safe bunch, sharing its footprint and hard points with the Audi Q4 E-tron, Skoda Enyaq and Volkswagen ID 4. But whereas those three are the types to hold down 9-5 office jobs and have their haircuts booked on a rolling basis every six weeks, this one is more likely to have never got back from its gap year and be facing questions from the Australian authorities about its visa status. The Tavascan is the third model to be created solely for the sporty, upmarket brand carved out of Seat and the second of those to be fully electric. Following five years after a concept of the same name that was described as “the brand’s dream”, it will go on sale…

Skoda likes to make much of its ‘Simply Clever’ features, from fuel-filler ice scrapers to door-hidden umbrellas, but that description seems to fit the whole ethos of its best-seller, the Octavia. Across four generations, in both hatchback and estate forms, the family car has won more than seven million sales with its blend of understated charm, immense practicality and strong value. The Mk4 Octavia that arrived in 2020 was an altogether more mature offering than its predecessors, with bolder styling and a plusher interior, and this mid-life facelift builds on that with small but significant improvements in key areas: refreshed exterior styling, upgraded infotainment and a revamped powertrain line-up. The exterior styling changes are best described as subtle, largely confined to a new light design (LED as standard, matrix LED…

I wonder whether, if Ineos had launched this Quartermaster variant of the Grenadier first, we would perceive the Station Wagon differently. The 4x4 is sometimes compared unfavourably with swanky SUVs, because it costs as much as them but feels less sophisticated. The pick-up, though, lives in N1 commercial vehicle land, so would a shorter passenger version following it have been cut more slack? And has the Grenadier now found its place as a purer utility vehicle? The basics of the Station Wagon and Quartermaster are the same, as are their front two-thirds. There’s a strong ladder chassis with solid axles front and rear and, as a result, recirculating-ball steering (like in a Suzuki Jimny or Jeep Wrangler), because rack and pinion tends to provoke huge bump steer and wheel kickback…

This match-up feels like a bit of a barometer for the car industry. We’ve done BMW 5 Series versus Mercedes-Benz E-Class many times before – the first instance I can find in the Autocar archive is from 1976, when they were there as supporting characters in a Rover SD1 test. Various trends, types of cars and entire car makers have come and gone, but this pairing has felt like such a constant. It charts not only how cars have inflated in size but also the rate of inflation – like a classier version of the Big Mac Index (both are about 10 times more expensive than they were in ’76). More than anything, it reflects the preferred powertrain of the day. Our original contenders came with straight-six petrol engines, moving…

CATERHAM R400 A vehicle for the committed driver or for nice days only. Always a treat to see one – in the right hands they’re really quite mad. PORSCHE 356 (MODIFIED) The 356 was Porsche’s first sports car and the blueprint for the 911. Some choose to preserve them, others like to leave their mark, change things up and let the accumulated patina shine through. MINI MOKE Something for the beach, perhaps? Or for hopping from bar to bar on the shores of the Med? This one isn’t like other Mokes: packing over 100bhp, it doesn’t hang around.…

Electromods are not to everyone’s taste, it would be fair to say. Take this Land Rover Defender: shorn of all its traditional drivetrain hardware – driveshafts, transfer cases, engine, differential locks – is it even a Defender at all any more? Yet this is an electromod with a difference, because it previews some very real and very relevant technology that could transform electric cars in particular and vehicle design more generally. The Defender 110 conversion is the work of the Farnham-based Bedeo Group, which comprises battery maker and electric vehicle integration specialist Bedeo and electric motor maker Protean Electric. But it’s the Protean part of this story that’s most intriguing, as four of the firm’s in-wheel motors are fitted to this Defender-based rolling technological showcase. The perceived primary benefit of…

MODEL TESTED 1.5 eTSI 150 R-LINE Price £39,695 Power 148bhp Torque 184lb ft 0-60mph 9.4sec 30-70mph in fourth 11.2sec Fuel economy 42.0mpg CO2 emissions 149g/km 70-0mph 46.0m It feels like the uncertainty that, since the early days of largescale electrification, has been shrouding the decision-making of those who design and build, but also buy and consume, new cars ought to be lifting by now – yet it isn’t. Time only seems to unearth bigger obstacles for the industry to overcome, and ever-greater problems to solve before the car can be made fully sustainable. And so, when someone with the influence of Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer seeks to ease that uncertainty, his sentiments strike an instant chord. Schäfer recently did so by guaranteeing that, however the cars of tomorrow are powered,…

“That it has survived at all is a testament to BMW’s continued passion for driver’s cars” FIRST REPORT WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To celebrate the survival – and indeed evolution – of the proper sports coupé Is it possible for a car to be at once gloriously minimalist and excessive and overgrown? Because somehow the BMW M2 that I will be running for the next few months feels like both. In an age when the BMW range has expanded to 17 models and is headlined by brash Teutonic titans such as the iX and XM, there’s real throwback charm to the simplicity of a small two-door coupé. And yet this second-generation M2 isn’t as small or simple as its predecessor. It has grown notably in size and stance, such that…

USED SPECIAL Half-price heroes Everyone loves a bargain, and we’ve picked out 48 mega motors that you can now buy for less than half their original price DRIVEN Citroën ë-C3 All-new supermini arrives with a sub-£20k price and a 199-mile range INSIGHT Skoda goes virtual What the Czech firm is learning from smash racing sim video game Gran Turismo EVERY WEEK ROAD TEST Lexus LBX Japanese luxury brand’s smallest model yet is a hybrid crossover FIRST DRIVE Ford Mustang Latest version of American muscle makes it here with atmo V8 intact SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p18…

“A Boxster is a wonderfully focused driving machine” Pleased to get a lovely picture from a reader, who has ticked one of life’s boxes and treated himself to a Porsche. Instead of going for the obvious 911, however, he knows Porsches come in equally lovely alternative wrappings. A Boxster, then, is a wonderfully focused driving machine that is still relatively affordable. As a cheapskate I would aim for a marginal 2.5 or 2.7 from 30-odd years ago and costing a few grand. Instead, though, let’s prove that for normal-car money you can bag a very tidy example that doesn’t have intermediate shaft issues or plenty of other problems to deal with. However, I still feel compelled to start at the entry level, because a 2003 3.2 example is actually ULEZ-compliant,…

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…