Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i CAR UK

Illustration: Avarvarii 1 PUT IT ALL ON BLUE Two things had to happen for Alpine to survive: make an SUV, and make an electric car. This new crossover does both, as Group Renault, led by Luca de Meo for a year now, puts all of its performance car chips into Alpine. 2 A BIG TOY BOX Given the growing importance of EVs in the Renault-Nissan Alliance, it makes sense that Alpine has confirmed the new SUV will use the same CMF-EV powertrain as the Nissan Ariya and the upcoming production version of the Renault Megane E-Vision. And as all of the group’s sporty eggs now go in the Alpine basket, expect this newcomer to have more power on offer than either. 3 RATHER SPORTING Alpine says it’ll ‘benefit from F1’s…

1 They’ve found even more power from the V12 The last-ever V12 Aventador from Lamborghini is the LP 780-4 Ultimae. Lambo will build 350 coupes and 250 roadsters, and then that’s your lot for the 60° naturally-aspirated 6.5-litre V12. The Ultimae is intended to take the best of the high-performance SVJ and the marginally more refined S, and blend them in a distinctive new look, priced between the two (which will make it somewhere in the high £300k region). Its peak output is 770bhp, up 40bhp on the S and I0bhp over the SVJ, achieved by optimised valve timing and breathing. 2 It comes with all the technology. All of it The engine may be 10 years old, but the Ultimae is crammed with trick tech, most of it aimed…

THE GREATER GOOD Arrival knows that services like Uber are key to reducing congestion in cities, so designing a bespoke car for this market will help push along the transition. ‘It’s also addressing the global need to shift ride-hailing services over to electric to reduce emissions and improve air quality,’ adds Arrival’s Tom Elvidge. SHARING’S CARING The battery cells and platform use the same componentry as the van and bus, albeit scaled to size for a passenger car. This reduces costs, and modular construction allows Arrival to build its vehicles in the same production ‘cell’ with only minor tweaks to the overall toolkit. ‘The durability, comfort, functionality and purposebuilt design of Arrival’s vehicles all lend themselves to ride hailing,’ says Elvidge. FROM THE SOURCE Arrival is calling on Uber drivers…

THE WORLD’S BEST WRITERS IN THE NEW CARS THAT MATTER The changes aren’t night-and-day obvious, but they make a real contribution to the driving experience No orange lightbar on the roof, no Lewis weaving in my mirrors, but the Vantage F1 Edition I’m driving is officially the next best thing to Aston Martin’s Formula 1 safety car. Complementing Aston’s new F1 team on track, the road version has been developed quickly – Aston engineers discovered they’d be doing the 2021 safety car (and DBX medical car, both for 12 of this season’s 23 grands prix) in August last year, and the road car – this car – followed shortly thereafter. Significantly, it’s also new boss Tobias Moers’ first series-production Aston, and the compressed timeframe means he’s had input into development,…

The biggest difference is the new ability to drive smoothly at seven-tenths or less in auto mode For anyone who has driven it, the original Ferrari Portofino with its 592bhp 3.9-litre V8 is anything but slow. Yet as we arrive at the customary midlife update three years on, Maranello can’t help but squeeze that little bit extra out of its ‘entry-level’ car. So in comes this replacement, priced at £175k and badged Modificata, signalling the introduction of a bunch of Roma-sourced tweaks; more performance, an eight-speed ’box and Race mode on the manettino. The M also gets new cam profiles and speed sensors in the turbos, again from the Roma, helping bump output to 612bhp. The 0-62mph sprint flashes by in a fractionally quicker 3.45sec, while top speed is just…

‘HEATHEN!’ I hear you scream. Yes, I take your point: removing the iconic flat-six from a 911 and replacing it with batteries and an e-motor is as scandalous as putting milk in your cuppa before the teabag. But I’m sold. Bicester-based engineering company Everrati was set up in 2019 to prolong the life of classics for the electric age, ensuring they can still be driven even if something as drastic as a blanket ban on cars with combustion engines ever comes into force. Everrati is keenly aware of what it’s doing, promising its projects are designed to be fun, not logical. To the team, the estimated 150(ish)-mile range is fine for short blasts and it’s a bonus that you’ll escape emissions zones, not a selling point. So, while this 964…

Aero-first design… Like the 72, the Evija’s shape has been designed from the get-go with aerodynamics at its heart. The Evija is a ‘porous’ design, shaped by taking things away rather than adding on. Airflow through the nose pushes down on the front suspension, and venturi tunnels duct flow through the car to its wake to reduce drag. …but grip-led handling Although lead dynamics engineer James Hazelhurst says the Evija’s aerodynamics are crucial to its performance, he adds: ‘We want to start with getting the mechanical grip right. Electric power opens up a whole new box of tools [traction management, torque vectoring] but we don’t want to use them until the grip without them is just right.’ Thinking space Where more mainstream EVs floor-mount batteries in a ‘skateboard’ chassis, and…

Tuesday morning, 6am, and the traffic around London’s Parliament Square is sparse. Serendipitously, an original Nissan Qashqai pulls into the vortex, and to get close I’m going to have to lunge for the fleetingly green traffic light marshalling the next corner. This third-generation Qashqai runs a 1.3-litre four-pot with mild-hybrid torque boost, and hitting 1900 revs is like firing the start gun of the dad’s race at sports day. Suddenly there’s a fair amount of bulk gaining rapid momentum, and I swing the steering wheel – meatier than you’d expect, obedient off the dead-ahead – and dive into the right-hander. The front end grips, the Qashqai leans through the corner then settles quickly, and we can carry on after our quarry. It’s clear that this all-new Qashqai is dynamically sharper…

Abarth 595 Sounds like a de-cat Ferrari on startup, handles like a runaway rollerskate (in a good way). Alfa Romeo Alfasud A hot hatch before the Golf GTI. Shame they’re mostly rust now. Audi S1 Not a rally-rep. But with all-wheel drive, a short wheelbase and lusty 2.0-litre engine, it feels like one. Mini Cooper S A wheel at each corner and Cooper/Hopkirk alchemy created a gigglesome ’60s legend. Renault 5 GT Turbo Mk2 version of Renault’s hit hatch gained a turbo; power now a giddy-for-the-mid-’80s 113bhp. Renault Clio Williams No actual input from the Williams F1 team, but Renault Sport did a great job. Suzuki Swift Sport Its agility honed in grassroots rallying, 2012’s was both swift and sporty, unlike some Swift Sports. Peugeot 106 Rallye Light? Check. Revvy?…

HELLO CITROËN C4 + GOODBYE BMW M8, LAND ROVER DISCOVERY SPORT & PORSCHE CAYENNE S COUPE Alex Tapley BMW M8 Gran Coupe Month 8 The story so far BMW M5’s slinky alter ego has plenty of presence, takes up plenty of space + Presence; interior; performance; rear room - Expensive; ride could be better Logbook Price £123,950 (£144,950 as tested) Performance 4395cc twinturbo V8, 617bhp, 3.2sec 0-62mph, 155mph Efficiency 26.4mpg (official), 23.5mpg (tested), 256g/km CO2 Energy cost 23.6p per mile Miles this month 882 Total miles 8520 Very occasionally you’ll come across a BMW M5, an already uber-stealthy machine, whose self-assured driver has opted to leave off the model badge, resulting in there being little more than the quad tailpipes as a clue to the firepower under the bonnet. The…

Alex Tapley The C4 floats on roads other hatchbacks and crossovers have trained me to brace for After 11 months with the Ford Focus ST, it was time for something different. And ‘different’ is exactly what the Citroën C4 is good at. It may look like a jellybean with the back end of an old Honda Civic grafted on, but the Citroën is one of the most disruptive cars on the road today. Jacked up and reborn as a crossover for its third generation, the new C4 is a key part of Citroën’s plan to make comfort cool. ‘This is the Citroen I love,’ Vincent Cobée, Citroën chief executive told CAR editor-in-chief Phil McNamara earlier this year. ‘It takes a traditional segment, family hatch, and says, “I don’t like the…

When I’m between Lamborghinis – or if my Koenigsegg test car runs out of petrol – the Family Walton gets around in a slightly battered 2012 Subaru Forester. It’s not glamorous or fancy, but it’s our faithful workhorse and I love it. One of the reasons we own a decade-old car with no sat-nav or working air-con is the cost of replacing it, of course; but the other reason is I can’t quite find the next car to fill its shoes. New Foresters have got too ugly; SUVs generally have got too big; plus, it’s that feeling that your car has to fit your personality. Our Forester feels tough and go-anywhere, but it’s not an over-the-top 4x4 – you know, all jacked-up, aggressive styling and a rope wrapped round the…

Late in their feisty relationship, the missus and the Octavia are back on speaking terms. This entirely welcome volte face may be attributed to two small incidents... Firstly, the younger hooligan emerged from the disturbingly sticky swamp of his bedroom for long enough to accidentally find out how to switch Laura – the onboard assistant – off. What else he may have inadvertently switched off in the process is anyone’s guess. Secondly, the missus has discovered the tab on the climate control screen labelled ‘Fresh Air’. ‘Now THAT,’ she growled cheerfully, ‘is what a menopausal woman wants to see...’ Trust me, it’s what a menopausal woman’s husband wants to see too. Nothing highlights the shortcomings of exciting touchscreen control replacing simple knobs more than a need for the driver’s side…

CARS, PEOPLE, SCOOPS, MOTORSPORT, ANALYSIS – THE MONTH ACCORDING TO CAR Hands up: we got it wrong. It happens. However well connected you may be, however good your sources (and in most every other regard, from the engine’s detail engineering to the design, the Dino-free badging to the electric-only range, we nailed it), mistakes happen. Earlier in the year our four-page scoop story on Ferrari’s V6 plug-in hybrid supercar made mention of a 700bhp system total. The truth is an astonishing 819bhp, or more than 100bhp beyond the twin-turbo V8 F8 Tributo. That alone is your first clue that this car matters: that Maranello is only too aware of its ‘epoch-making importance’. It has built hybrids before, of course, but where the LaFerrari and SF90 e-boosted known quantities (the V12…

It has next to nothing in common with other 2-series. Think of it as a junior M4 Welcome this visitor from a parallel universe. A universe in which BMW still values straight-six petrol engines and rear-wheel drive. Where the design direction flows from the 02 series. Where the M performance division calls the shots, not the need to sell large quantities of blobby hatchbacks to corporate fleets. So here, against the odds, is the all-new 2-series Coupe, arriving in the UK in January at prices yet to be confirmed but expected to be above the 2-series Gran Coupe and below the 3-series. And despite the name, it has next to nothing in common with other versions of the 2-series, which use the front-and all-wheel-drive platform from the current 1-series. Think…

In a neater version of history, Audi Sport would have entered the 1985 Dakar Rally with the Quattro and after nearly 9000 miles – from Versailles, through the Sahara and into Senegal – they would have filled the podium. Audi had recently transformed rallying with the Quattro, scoring its first wins in 1981. And the VW/Audi all-wheel-drive system had already proved itself in the second ever Dakar, in 1981, when the VW Iltis had finished first, second, fourth and ninth. But full works entries were not the done thing in those days. So the official Audi Sport effort stayed focused on World Rally, switching to the stubbier S1 version, and the French importer was given three long-wheelbase rally Quattros. Sponsored by real-estate company Malardeau, and prepped by ROC, the cars…

Three new limited-edition chronographs this month, all with a retro look and a wide range of motoring inspirations, from the most glamorous of Grands Prix via the ‘most beautiful race in the world’ to an Aussie motorcycle customiser. You don’t need to buy into the inspiration to buy the watches: all three are particularly good-looking and desirable in their own right. With numbers strictly limited, you might need to be quick. 01 | Chopard Mille Miglia Race Edition 2021 £6640 This limited-edition Chopard, made as part of its sponsorship of the annual Mille Miglia historic rally, has an exuberant 44mm case, a circular-turned grey dial and big chrono pushers designed to be operated with gloves. A thousand are available in stainless steel, and another 250 in ethical rose gold for…

The MC20 supercar is the product of a boldly binary electrification strategy. Maserati will happily sell you one with an engine, a unique twin-turbo V6 with F1-style pre-chamber combustion tech. Or, if you’re happy to wait, in time you’ll be able to buy an electric one. There is no half-and-half hybrid. Crossing the streams, to Maserati’s mind, just adds weight and smothers purity under an unwanted pile of compromises. And you can see its point. BUT THE LEVANTE’S AN SUV… Indeed it is, and a very different proposition, obviously. SUVs love a bit of electrification. Jaguar, Audi and Merc all strode into the battery-electric arena with an SUV first. Maserati’s yet to go that far. Its new crossover, the Grecale, will be available as an EV. But in the meantime,…

More wing, less stiff Unlike the F1 Edition road car, the actual safety car’s suspension is comparable to the standard Vantage’s, if with less understeer to suit track driving and Bernd Mayländer’s considerable abilities. Aerodynamic performance is greater, possible because its wings don’t need to meet road-legal requirements. The wings protrude more, making them less pedestrian-friendly. Keeping its cool With the demands of track driving, some very hot climates and the fact that the car has to sit idling in the pits for the duration of the race, the Vantage safety car gets a GT4-spec cooling pack. Aston support Development was done on the Silverstone GP circuit with feedback from medical car driver Alan van der Merwe (because Mayländer was unable to travel). Aston technicians support every GP, responding to…

A nine-month lag gave the Czech operation time to learn from the ID.3’s mixed reception, and adjust the details The mocking laughter faded away years ago, but there was a lingering suspicion that Skoda was still under team orders to keep the styling a bit dowdy and the cabin materials a bit tacky. Former chief executive Bernhard Maier may have lost his job in the course of trying to buck the hierarchy, but it looks like he’s won the war. The Enyaq iV, a car developed on his watch, is in some ways superior to the VW-badged product it most closely resembles, the ID.4. In fairness, Skoda has also benefitted from the nine-month lag between VW’s launch of the first member of its bespoke EV family, the ID.3. That gave…

Look and learn Having read the great review of the virtual mirrors on Ben Pulman’s long term test car – the Audi e-Tron – I cannot agree more with him in his findings in regard to cyclists and bikers in London, and specifically knowing they have been spotted by eye contact in rear-view mirrors (Our Cars, June). He is the first person I have come across to comment and acknowledge how important this is. There are more and more trucks – nearly all Mercedes – with rear-view cameras instead of mirrors, and as a coach driver overtaking HGVs on a dual carriageway or motorway at only a few miles per hour quicker than them, I am keen to see the driver checking his mirrors, which I can’t do with cameras.…

This feels like being in a moving painting. Arms stretched out ahead, hands grasping a tiny steering wheel alive with vibration and information. Capri-blue sky with speed-line clouds overhead. Red-white kerbs flickering under fat slicks. The throttle pedal is heavy, long, a kind of mechanical test of willpower. Override friction and instinct and push it to the stop: those speed lines intensify to a strobing blur; hands seem to move away as the acceleration heaves my body backwards, a dead weight harnessed into an aluminium missile. How can a 50-year-old car be this fast? The Cosworth DFV just behind my shoulder blades is singing, singing, singing up a never-ending scale, revs soaring for the sky – and we’re still only two thirds of the way to its redline. Tilt head…

Like every good performance car, sound is a big part of the GR Yaris experience. Three cylinders rarely make for a sonorous-sounding engine, and the GR’s snargly, gargly engine note sounds better on the outside than in the cabin (where it’s amplified through the speakers). Much more appealing is the sound of the little engine’s big-lunged turbo, which you can hear huffing and puffing between gearchanges. There’s some kind of funky metallurgy going on with the brake discs that makes them particularly noisy if you leave the car standing for more than a couple of days. A gritty sound accompanies each touch of the brake pedal for the first few miles. You can also hear gravel clatter in the arches like a rally car-when you pull away, which gives a…

The Formentor is an easy car to live with and the interior is family-friendly. Part of the advantage of its on-tiptoes stance is that it’s easier to slide in and out of than a low-slung hatchback, without being quite as high-riding as an SUV. It’s comfy in both rows, but watch out for a chunky transmission tunnel bisecting the rear footwell owing to the all-wheel-drive hardware. The latest VW Group infotainment has been pilloried in some quarters and I agree some aspects are fiddlier than they need to be (it’s slow to boot up, the destination history defaults to weird longitude/latitude if you’ve used UK postcodes) but the tech is pretty easy to use on the whole. So many features are operated by that screen that the rest of the…

1 VW CALIFORNIA The best, without a doubt. VW’s been doing this for years, and builds them in-house. Loads of clever solutions and variants. Prices start at £54,665. 2 VW GRAND CALIFORNIA The best, but bigger. It’s Crafterbased, not Transporter, so it’s enormous and a tad unwieldy at times, but this is the ultimate manufacturer camper full of tech. Yours from £74,711. 3 MERCEDES MARCO POLO A higher starting price of £63,425 and no obvious advantages over the VW, but very similar in concept and execution. 4 FORD TRANSIT CUSTOM NUGGET A Brit best-seller as a van, now converted by Westfalia with in-house help. Let down by some fiddly bits inside that sit oddly with a £59,010 starting price. 5 VAUXHALL VIVARO ELITE CAMPER Elite-spec Vivaro has loads of toys…

The M240i, driven in pre-production form, is the best of all worlds this side of the more expensive M340i. And unlike the four-door 3-series saloon, which can be had as plug-in hybrid, electrification of the smaller model is restricted to the starter battery. Since the circa-450bhp M2 Competition due next summer will share the same physique, the R&D team prioritised instead a beefed-up body structure and a stiffer chassis. It works brilliantly. It was raining cats and dogs on my drive, which took us at full gallop over back roads north of Munich, riddled with radical surface changes. Unperturbed, the M240i tracked like a slot-racer on suction-cup tyres. Although its steering felt heavier than the 220i sampled in the dry, there was no trade-off in terms of precision and feedback.…

Illustration: Chris Rathbone Thirty years ago, John Hennessey launched a tuning business from home. Today Hennessey Performance Engineering cars have beaten Bugatti speed records, sold to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Ford’s Jim Farley, and routinely blitz the drag strip outside Hennessey’s 51,000sq ft Texas headquarters. Dreaming big and working out details later has put some speedbumps in the road, but there’s a likeable freewheeling style to how Hennessey does business: he decided the Dodge Demon needed a rival called the Exorcist before he knew what the Exorcist was (answer: a 1000bhp, 217mph ZL1 Camaro). The Exige-based Venom GT was a mere sketch when a customer ordered one. The real thing hit a world-record 270mph. The Venom F5 celebrates Hennessey’s three decades in business. The hypercar has been designed from the…

Strapping into Cranfield Simulation’s latest simulator is a bit like getting your blood pressure taken, only with a five-point racing harness instead of an air-inflated armband. Featuring high-end components and the company’s military-focused innovations, the Axsim is the closest you can get to driving a high-downforce car short of paying for a go in a Williams or Haas. And it’s all down to how it conveys g-forces. Most moving sims – often on a sled or hexapod – give the initial feeling of g-forces, but they’re unable to sustain them. The result? You end up losing that feeling of five times your body weight trying to escape the cockpit. And that feeling is exactly what the Axsim nails. The Axsim sits on a directional sled and uses a D-Box seat…

There’s little here to make the 01 stand out from the many other above-average compact crossovers New brand, new business model: the Lynk & Co 01 is a plug-in hybrid sharing some of its hardware with the Volvo XC40, and it will be offered at an all-inclusive flat rate when it comes to the UK in 2022. Sharing is expressively encouraged. Like Volvo, Lotus and a small portion of Daimler, Lynk & Co belongs to Geely. Within that Chinese-owned network, Lynk is positioned as a cool non-conformist brand for young urbanites and hip digitalos. Although it is possible to buy the Lynk 01 for €42,000 (that’s €5k below the Volvo XC40 T5 Recharge), 90% of buyers are opting for the open-ended fixed-price rental rate of €500 per month. This fee…

Fish out of water Mr Kacher’s article on the Porsche 911 GT3 (First Drives, June) was an elegant and erudite exposure of the folly of a car meant for the track on the road. Only perfect conditions, weather, road, and tyre warmth can provide a level of consistency to safely experience the GT3’S undoubted enormous capabilities. His diagnosis of the greatness of the GT3 was put in measurable perspective when on test it had a range of 143 miles and returned I2.1mpg. Rather less efficient than the range of the still evolving electric cars, so often considered insufficient. The car was not the hero; Georg Kacher was – thank you, Georg. By the way, 1 still love my 911 GTS. YOUR DREAM CAR AWAITS! 2 GUARANTEED WEEKLY WINNERS ALL CARS…

Aero-first design… Before this car, wings were bolted onto F1 cars after the chassis had been created. The 72 was the first to incorporate aero into its design from the start, leading to that iconic low-drag, winged-wedge profile. …but grip-led handling The 72 was an aerodynamic car, but downforce was in its infancy. ‘With the later ground-effect cars, it was all about aero; this car was all about maximising mechanical grip,’ says Classic Team Lotus boss Clive Chapman. To that end, its springless torsionbar suspension was designed to look after the tyres as carefully as possible, and its inboard brakes kept heat away from softer, faster tyres. Thinking space As well as slashing unsprung mass by moving the brakes inboard, the 72 boxed clever with its radiators. Instead of one…

HYUNDAI i20N (NEW) We loved the i20N when we drove it solo; now it meets the benchmarks PRICE £24,995 (£26,545 as tested) POWERTRAIN 1598cc turbo four-cyl, six-speed manual, front-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 201bhp, 1190kg, 6.7sec 0-62mph, 143mph FORD FIESTA ST (NEW) It’s been the best small front-drive hot hatch for a decade. Can the i20N top it? PRICE £21,955 (£25,045 as tested) POWERTRAIN 1499cc turbo three-cyl, six-speed manual, front-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 197bhp, 1262kg, 6.5sec 0-62mph, 144mph TOYOTA GR YARIS (NEW) Yes, it’s 4WD and pricier than the rest, but it’s CAR’s reigning hot hatch champion PRICE £33,495 (£34,375 as tested) POWERTRAIN 1681cc turbo three-cyl, six-speed manual, all-wheel drive PERFORMANCE 257bhp, 1280kg, 5.5sec 0-62mph, 143mph VW GOLF GTI (1991) Mk1 GTI defined the class but feels slow now; Mk2 nearly as stylish,…

YOU SIT HIGH AND EXPOSED, BUFFETED BY AIR AND ASSAILED BY THE ROAR OF THE BEEFY 4.4-LITRE ENGINE This must surely be the oldest ‘new’ car ever built; an extraordinary project that’s resulted in a car that’s extraordinary to drive. The ‘continuation series’ Bentley Blower is a faithful facsimile of a 1929 Blower, using new components. Twelve customer cars will be built, at £1.5 million plus taxes. All are sold. It’s the latest new ‘old’ car, or old ‘new’ car, after similar ‘continuation’ efforts from Jaguar (XKSS, Lightweight E-Type, C-Type and D-Type) and Aston Martin (DB4 GT, DB4 GT Zagato and 25 reproductions of James Bond’s DB5, complete with 007 gadgets). Now, these ‘continuation’ cars are loved by some and loathed by others, including many owners of the original cars.…

Alex Tapley These aren’t seats that need more padding, or a massage function, or ambience-enhancing smells Let’s talk about the seats. Not their colour or their showy logo-embossed headrests. But their performance as seats. Which is, in a word, tremendous. If Porsche seats get talked about at all, it tends to be in terms of support during high-g cornering. That’s maybe less of a concern in the Cayenne S Coupe than with some other Porsches, or at least it is when I’m the driver, especially when I’m doing a 500-mile day. Because at the end of my (one and only) 500-mile day in the Cayenne S Coupe, I realised I hadn’t given the seats a single thought, except to wonder if the water I’d spilled on the front passenger seat…

A 140-mile round trip sums up both the benefits and the challenges of EV ownership. I need to deliver birthday presents to my sister-in-law and godson, and a look at my route on Zap-Map shows I will be able to complete the journey with range to spare. Excellent news, because despite the E’s official 209-mile range, I’ve never seen more than an indicated 160 miles after a full charge. Still, that gives me 20 miles of leeway to play with… So leaving home near Bognor Regis late in the afternoon on a full charge, I set off to Portsmouth in stop-start traffic around Chichester and then near-silent 50mph cruising along the A27 into Portsmouth. Twenty-five miles covered, a very happy sister-in-law, and an accurate 135 miles of indicated range. So…

Audi driver tries Merc… The night before meeting up with Phil and his EQC, disaster strikes – I trundle the e-Tron round to the nearest set of Source London chargers only to discover they’re occupied by a Tesla, a plug-in BMW 5-series and a Jaguar i-Pace. There are more on-street plugs not too far away (I end up alongside a Porsche Taycan for the evening) but a 10-minute trip out of the house turns into a half-hour one by the time I’ve walked the mile home. It’s no better the next morning at our service-station rendezvous on the M40. The two Ecotricity chargers are occupied by a pair of Nissan Leafs, and Phil and I gaze longingly at the row of 16 Superchargers, with seven Teslas humming away having their…

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