Autocar RSS Feed

MG S9 review

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:01:00 +0000

MG’s new flagship SUV combines seven seats, a 62-mile electric range and a £34k price tag MG’s product assault continues. In autumn 2020, the Chinese brand offered five models here; now it’s 11, seven of which are EVs and two, including this new S9, are plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). The oldest car in the range was refreshed just two years ago.The S9 is the first with seven seats, an SUV just under 5m long and offered exclusively with the PHEV powertrain from the HS.

Toyota C-HR+ review

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:01:00 +0000

EV-agnostic Japanese giant’s bZ4X electric SUV spawns a smaller but confusingly named offspring While it’s hard to keep up with Kia’s relentless launch schedule (there appears to be a new, differently numbered EV every week), Toyota takes things more steadily.Its approach has the slow but relentless momentum that comes with being the world’s largest car maker. And with momentum also comes inertia – and that complicates changes of direction, in particular the one needed to do electric cars well.Toyota loves its hybrids but has been very slow to come up with the EVs that it does need in Europe. The new Toyota C-HR+ is only its second mainstream EV, after the bZ4X. There is also the Urban Cruiser, but that’s a Suzuki underneath.Didn’t Toyota already have a C-HR? Well, yes: the regular C-HR is its Volkswagen T-Roc- and Nissan Qashqai-sized, sensible but supposedly stylish hybrid SUV. The ‘+’ in the new car's name indicates that it’s the completely unrelated electric equivalent of roughly the same size – obvs. At least with a new Kia, Hyundai or VW, the name gives you a good idea of what powers it and where it sits in the range…

Ariel Nomad 2 review

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Follow-up to 2015’s mixed-discipline special is said to be better in every way – and much more powerful A little over a decade has passed since Ariel revised the Atom for off-road duties and created not just a legend but a new trend. We will never know for sure, but is it not a coincidence that, shortly after the Nomad 1 appeared, the likes of Lamborghini and Porsche began to mutter about making dirt-track versions of their own cars?With plenty of demand for the Nomad 1, along with Ariel’s talent for iterating its products (the Atom is on its fourth generation and going strong), it was no surprise when a Nomad 2 appeared in 2024. It is fundamentally the same as its predecessor, although in truth nearly everything has changed (only the filler cap, pedal box and steering wheel are carried over).We’ve driven the new car before, on the roads near the factory deep in Somerset and on the rally trails at Sweet Lamb in lush mid-Wales. Descriptions of those experiences ranged from “riding a mechanical spider” to the Nomad 2 being “on a different plane of motoring existence”. It is clearly a unique proposition. But only now do we find ourselves with an opportunity to run the road test rule over this extrovert Ariel at Horiba MIRA. So how fast is the Nomad 2? How efficient is it? How much does it weigh? What exactly is new? Is there enough here to warrant an upgrade for Nomad 1 owners? Let’s find out.

BMW i4 production to end after arrival of new i3 saloon

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:19:26 +0000

EV has been on sale since 2021 and was originally positioned as an electric alternative to the 3 Series

The BMW i4 will be discontinued next year, with its place in the line-up absorbed by the newly launched i3.

The i4 has been on sale since 2021 and was, alongside the iX, among the first volume EVs launched by the German brand.

However, its place in the line-up has effectively been made redundant by the launch of the similarity sized and much more technically advanced i3, which was revealed in Munich today.

Now, sources at BMW have told Autocar that production of the i4 will end next year. It is built at BMW’s main Munich plant, where production of the i3 is due to begin imminently.

Speaking on the sidelines of the i3’s unveiling, BMW Group product boss Jochen Goller said axing the five-year-old i4 to give the electric 3 Series more breathing space in the line-up was always part of the plan.

“When you look back on the last 20 years, you always had new models coming in and old models phasing out,” he said. "So I think this is part of the history of our industry.

"And what you will always see is the volumes of the existing cars, in this case the i4, phasing out, and then [the new car], the i3, clearly ramping up. But as with every model, that was already factored into our planning.”

While Goller confirmed that the current i4 won’t be immediately replaced, Autocar previously reported that BMW is working on a new 4 Series positioned as a more style-focused and dynamic alternative to the 3 Series.

Development boss Joachim Post told Autocar earlier this year that the 4 Series “is an important car for us” and confirmed that there is a place for it in BMW’s emerging Neue Klasse line-up. "It will play an important role also for the future.”

Goller confirmed today that BMW’s future strategy is to offer each model with a mix of powertrains and the same design regardless of powertrain. As such, the new 4 Series will be sold with the same mix of powertrains as the 3 Series – a new ICE saloon will join the i3 later this year – meaning an electric 4 Series will return.

The Chevrolet Volt story: GM's brilliant PHEV failure

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Discover the untold and slightly chaotic story behind the Chevrolet Volt

It’s not often that one can feel a little sympathy for an industrial giant like General Motors.

But you might feel a shred or two when you consider the pioneering effort, and hard cash, that was sunk into the unsuccessful Chevrolet Volt project. This was a car that was intended to take on the mighty Toyota Prius, not by merely matching that car’s technical and ecological ambitions, but travelling well beyond them.

Essentially it was a plug-in hybrid, a common enough machine today but back in 2011 this was technical adventurism.

Indeed, when the project to build the car was well under way, there were elements of it that had yet to become technically feasible for mass production, not the least of them its lithium-ion battery pack. These were among the many obstacles facing the Volt’s development, some predictable, like the need for lithium-ion technology, others entirely unforecast, such as General Motors’ post-2008 bankruptcy.

The inspiration for the Volt was in large part the Toyota Prius, a hybrid that has enjoyed success well beyond its maker’s dreams and a car whose popularity increasingly irked high-ups at General Motors and one Bob Lutz in particular. Lutz was then one of the US car industry’s most famous “car guys” and, having been persuaded to join GM as number two at the age of 66, nursed the idea of leapfrogging Toyota with an all-electric car.

This despite the wave of adverse (and largely unfair) criticism GM had earned when it terminated the semi-experimental, two-seat EV1 project (picured below). Lutz would soon be persuaded by colleague Jon Lauckner, who was in charge of all GM’s vehicle lines, that the energy density of batteries was insufficient for a realistic range, and that a plug-in hybrid was needed.

Lauckner sketched the electro-mechanical architecture of this vehicle on a notepad, Lutz recalls, using a gold-nibbed fountain pen. “Pushing that abused pen against the rake of the nib when necessary (resulting in a spray of ink droplets) Jon sketched the chassis,” writes Lutz in his highly entertaining book “Car Guys vs Bean Counters”.

“The sixteen kilowatt battery goes down the middle and out like a T under the back seat,” explained Lauckner. That’s nominally good for 80 miles, but we’ll only use eight kilowatts; that’ll make the battery last forever. This way, it’s good for 40 miles, and then we’ll cut in this little 1.4 litre engine, which will drive a generator to keep the battery supplied with juice for another, say 300 miles.”

That was the concept for the Volt, predicated on the fact that 80% of American drives are of less than 40 miles. On a 60 miles trip, this drivetrain would achieve the equivalent of 150mpg. At a time when the US was importing growing quantities of oil, this was highly attractive. So was the smaller, less expensive battery pack, and the car’s overall range of 300 miles, which could easily be extended at a petrol station.

“I was sold,” wrote Lutz, but it took many presentations and much persuasion to get the company to back his proposal, which was usually killed by arguments around the shortcomings of lithium-ion battery technology, not the least of them the occasional self-immolation of lithium laptop batteries.

It was only when a tiny Californian start-up developed a 140mph sportscar with a 200-mile range that Lutz began to make headway. The start-up was called Tesla Motors, its sportscar was the Lotus Elise-based Roadster and it was propelled 6835 lithium-ion laptop batteries.

Lutz used Tesla as a lever to develop a concept car, which duly appeared on January 7th 2007 at the Detroit Auto Show, where it caused a sensation. Enough of one that Toyota’s PR machine would question its viability, while GM sceptics (and there were plenty) began to suggest that the company had neither the intention nor the means to realise it.

Less than four years later the much-altered Volt had entered production, the team putting into production led by the inspirational Frank Weber from Opel, the task of sourcing a reliable battery pack falling to Denise Gray, GM’s head of rechargeable energy systems.

Your columnist vividly remembers being told by her, at an early Volt press briefing, that GM did not yet know whether it would be possible to engineer the battery pack necessary to make the Volt work. I was amazed that anyone would admit to such jeopardy in such a high profile project. But that jeopardy was genuinely there, even if Gray was perhaps predictably confident that that the goal would be met. Other goals were met too, including the start of production in 2010.

All the way through the development GM would regularly update journalists on the project, explaining in increasing detail how the car worked, and the thinking behind it. And also the fact that in Europe, not only would there be a Chevrolet Volt but Opel and Vauxhall Ampera too, these European versions featuring distinct styling variations.

There were so many presentations that I doubt the ratio of press briefings to units actually sold has ever been surpassed. Regrettably that’s not merely because there were so many briefings, but because in Europe, so few of these cars found buyers.

It wasn’t that the Volt and Ampera duo didn’t deliver on the road. Autocar’s testers Ampera managed 33.4 miles of electric range, 60mph in 10.1sec and estimated a £1 cost to recharge the battery. It was easy to drive, quiet and comfortable enough, even if its handling and ride were nothing remarkable.

The biggest drawback, by far, was the £32,995 price, which even after subtracting the £5000 government subsidy available at the time, still left you with a car costing nearly double the price of an Astra. Which could carry five passengers rather than the Volt’s four.

During the three years from the Vauxhall Ampera's launch sales amounted to no more than 1350 units, the Volt (slightly) swelling the figure to 1475. The high price, the difficulty of explaining the concept to buyers and a market not quite ready for plug-ins conspired against it, as did the fact that yet to be vilified diesels could quite easily match its economy for substantially less money, and with no need for a wallbox charger.

Sales in the US were better, but not so much when you consider the hype, the bigger market and the fact that this was America’s largest domestic car company. Just under 90,000 of the first series Volts were sold in the US over the first four years, a number that was not going to worry Toyota too much. In the meantime the US had discovered domestic shale fields from which to extract oil, massively reducing its dependence on imported energy, keeping fuel prices relatively low. American drivers could stick with their SUVs, and not worry about gas prices.

All was not lost, however. GM reestablished its reputation for technical prowess, and learnt huge amounts about battery technology and EV hardware, these gains allowing it to introduce the 2015 all-electric Chevrolet Bolt, a small hatchback notable for its impressive range.

The original Volt, though once seen as a car that might change the ways cars were made and rob Toyota of sales, will likely be seen as no more than an interesting footnote in automotive history.

First new-era BMW Alpina models to be based on 7 Series and X7

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 14:18:54 +0000

First products to wear new BMW Alpina badge will be based on flagship luxury cars – and EV power is possible

The first models launched by Alpina under BMW ownership will be based on the X7 SUV and 7 Series limousine – and the brand is considering both ICE and EV variants.

The Munich manufacturer officially took control of the 60-year-old BMW tuning firm on 1 January after acquiring it from its founders, the Bovensiepen family, in 2022.

The first models to wear the new BMW Alpina badge will start “from the top of the [BMW] brand, with 7 Series and the X7,” BMW Group R&D boss Joachim Post confirmed on the sidelines of the new electric 3 Series' unveiling.

In its previous iteration as an independent brand, Alpina's line-up was capped by versions of the 7 Series and X7.

The 7 Series and X7 will both be heavily overhauled later this year, in line with BMW's strategy of rolling out its Neue Klasse design and technology elements to all model lines, and the first new-era Alpina models will follow.

Asked if this meant Alpina would also offer EV variants, with the 7 Series currently offered with either ICE or electric power, Post said “we are technology-open”.

Further details of the cars – and the brand strategy in general – remain under wraps, but Post said they will be designed and configured with the same philosophy in mind as before.

“Alpina will talk not about sport but speed, comfort and luxury,” he said.

Despite now being in-house, Alpina will not overlap with the M division but rather operate as “an exclusive standalone brand” with its own distinct attributes.

Post said: “[Alpina] is completely different from a level which other people like from M, which is the performance.

“That fits very well [in the BMW brand]. You have the very sporty side of M – born on the race track, made for the road – and the other, which is speed, luxury, comfort on the way and also individualisation."

This is also the case with design, M design boss Oliver Heilmer told Autocar.

“We wondered in the beginning if there is anything that might overlap,” he explained. “We were looking into the energy based on the past and then looking into the M projects and what they're standing for - and they are so different in their work.

“Alpina, as you know it now, is more like having something mature, whereas M is always purpose-driven in terms of the best performance.”

BMW previously said that Alpina would offer a “remarkable portfolio” of bespoke options, with a focus on high-quality materials and craftsmanship.

It added that would make each Alpina car “an exclusive object for connoisseurs in pursuit of the extraordinary, without compromises on performance, comfort and individuality”.

BMW confirms new i3 to gain Touring estate variant

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:54:02 +0000

Autocar render shows what the finished i3 Touring could look like

Teaser image flashed during i3's reveal confirms the 559-mile EV will get the estate treatment

BMW has confirmed the i3, its new electric 3 Series with a range of 559 miles, will be offered in Touring estate form.

A silhouette of the new model was briefly shown during the unveiling for the i3, showcasing its different roofline and hatchback boot.

"Business customers and families will be particularly delighted: the Touring has always been a favourite with them," said BMW Group chief Oliver Zipse.

For reference, the current petrol 3 Series has 480 litres of boot space as a saloon and 500 litres as an estate. BMW has yet to publish a capacity for the new i3, however.

Zipse said that the i3 "marks a new beginning" for BMW.

The i3 and related iX3 SUV are the first models of BMW's Neue Klasse era – a complete rethink of how it designs and engineers cars for the electric age, inspired by the original Neue Klasse cars that brought the brand into the mainstream 60 years ago.

To that end, the i3 saloon is the longest-range EV available in the UK, using a 108kWh nickel-manganese-cobalt battery and new-generation electric motors on its front and rear axles.

The current petrol 3 Series will be heavily updated to bring it into line with the new EV, so it "is basically a new car", BMW engineers told Autocar.

Electric 3 Series revealed: BMW i3 brings 559 miles of range

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

i3 saloon finally unwrapped as UK's longest-range EV, with bold Neue Klasse look; Touring estate and M3 coming

BMW has brought electric power to the 3 Series for the first time, giving the popular saloon a radical new look and the longest range of any EV currently on sale.

The second model of the Neue Klasse era, the i3 has been revealed six months after the larger iX3 SUV, with which it shares most of its technical make-up, including the EV-first 800V Gen6 platform.

The i3 inherits its name from the seminal electric hatchback that went out of production in 2022 and is the smallest EV in the BMW line-up.

Notably, BMW has beaten rival Mercedes-Benz in bringing the i3 to market ahead of the C-Class EQ, which is due in the coming months. The pair will be joined later in the decade by an electric Audi A4 E-tron.

Despite offering the similarly sized and shaped i4 since 2021, BMW delayed introducing an electric 3 Series until technology could match the performance of its combustion-engined equivalent.

Alongside the i3, BMW will continue to sell the current CLAR-based ICE 3 Series. It will soon be heavily updated to bring it in line with the eighth-generation car both in terms of design and technologies, meaning it "is basically a new car”, BMW engineers told Autocar.

Although it will initially be sold in saloon form, the i3 will also spawn a Touring estate variant.

A hot M3 EV, previewed by the M HP BEV test mule, is due in 2028 and promised to “set new standards" for electric performance.

The i3 will be offered exclusively in 50 xDrive form at launch, but other variants are planned.

At its centre is a 108kWh nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery that helps achieve a range of 559 miles – the most offered on any EV in Europe, notably beating the Mercedes-Benz EQS (although the 511-mile variant of that car isn’t sold in the UK).

Despite using the same battery as the iX3, the i3’s range is 59 miles longer. Engineers said this jump in performance is primarily down to the more rakish profile of a saloon.

The Gen6 platform allows for a car's front seats to be bolted directly onto the battery pack, meaning the roofline can be kept as low as possible, improving aerodynamics. Another key attribute of the saloon is that it has a completely closed, smooth underbody that aids airflow.

When that range is depleted, the i3 can complete a 249 mile top-up in just 10 minutes when charging at its 400kW maximum DC speed. AC charging is rated at a maximum of 22kW.

Grunt comes from two sources: a 322bhp electrically excited synchronous motor at the rear and a 165bhp asynchronous motor at the front. These combine for 463bhp and 476 lb ft of torque.

BMW hasn't yet disclosed a 0-62mph sprint time, but it's expected to be around 4.0sec, despite the car weighing 2.3 tonnes.

While the i3 shares its platform with the iX3, there are significant technical differences. For example, the i3’s springs are softer, the stiffness of the top mount bushings have been reduced and it's fitted with different anti-roll bars, resulting in less yaw and roll inertia.

“It's easier to get good rolling behaviour and comfort” from the i3 than the iX3, engineers told Autocar, adding that a quicker steering ratio and a focus on improved aerodynamics at higher speeds creates a "distinctive character of the new 3 Series”.

The i3 also achieves the same 50:50 front-to-rear weight distribution as the SUV.

At 4.76m long, 1.87m wide and 1.48m tall, the i3 is an all-round bigger car than the current ICE 3 Series, but it still offers “typical BMW sedan proportions”, with a long body and short overhangs, BMW's compact car design chief, Oliver Heilmer, told Autocar.

Its key addition is the new nose design, which is a "fresh interpretation of 3 Series face”, said Heilmer. Drastically differing from the current car, the design follows the same Neue Klasse philosophy as the iX3, combining the headlights and kidney grilles into one element. Yet whereas the SUV’s grilles are tall and narrow to showcase the car’s height, the i3’s are set wider to emphasise its width.

Designer Felix Staudacher told Autocar that the i3 brings "a whole new design language" to the 3 Series for its eighth generation, because the team “are allowed to play with our icons”. Despite its drastic new look, BMW said it's still “immediately recognisable as a 3 Series”. Staudacher added that it sets “the standard for a whole new generation of BMWs", because the 3 Series is the “original measure of what defines BMW".

The interior too has been overhauled and mirrors that of the iX3. It's centred around a slanted 17.9in infotainment touchscreen that houses the controls for most of the car’s functions and runs BMW’s latest iDrive software.

There is no instrument cluster, with a 43.3in-long ‘Panoramic iDrive’ display being fitted in its place. As in the iX3, this runs across the length of the dashboard just under the driver’s eyeline and displays key details such as vehicle speed and state of charge.

The loss of the instrument panel “gives us the possibility to rethink steering architecture”, so the wheel offers "the best ergonomics” of any BMW has offered, said Staudacher. Indeed, it's much thicker than before and, for the first time, adopts haptic controls.

The updated ICE 3 Series will mirror these changes.

The i3 will be built at BMW’s main Munich plant. Prices have yet to be announced, but BMW said it will be around the same price as the hybrid 3 Series, which starts at £47,185.

Peugeot 308 SW

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:54:09 +0000

Unfairly forgotten estate should be on family car shopping lists more The average family car has changed in shape dramatically over the course of the 21st century. Once dominated by hatchbacks and estates like the Ford Focus and Mondeo, families began gravitating towards MPVs like the Renault Scenic. Now you’re more likely to see child seats in the back of a Hyundai Tucson or similar SUV. While Peugeot's range is stacked full of crossovers and SUVs, it still makes room for more traditionally shaped family cars, such as the recently revised 308 hatchback and 308 SW estate reviewed here. The biggest visual change is a new nose, which to our eyes looks fantastic. It wasn’t half bad before, but it now wears one of the most striking faces in the segment. That said, it only has the Seat Leon, Cupra Leon, Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla, Vauxhall Astra and BYD Seal 6 estates to count as direct rivals. Despite it not being a big seller in the UK, Peugeot has endowed its C-segment estate with a broad range to suit almost any buyer. Prices start at just under £28,000 (roughly £1200 more than the hatch), for which you get well-specified Allure trim and a mild-hybrid petrol powertrain. A diesel costs about £1000 more. An electric version with 275 miles of range starts at £31,500 (see our separate Peugeot e-308 review), while a plug-in hybrid tops the range at £35,500.

First ride: £200k R5 Turbo 3E is a 533bhp electric drift monster

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:33:55 +0000

We strap into the passenger seat at Goodwood to see if it justifies its supercar price

Here it is: the most expensive Renault to date. Prices for the slightly awkwardly named Renault 5 Turbo 3E will start at £140,000, rising to £220,000 once options are ticked.

In truth, it is vastly different from the standard Renault 5 with which it shares its name. Only the mirrors, door handles and tail lights are carried over. It sits on the Alpine Performance Platform, which will also underpin the new electric Alpine A110.

It has been designed from the outset to look like a supercar – and it succeeds. Before taking to the passenger seat for a lap of the Goodwood circuit, I had to fight through throngs of awestruck influencers and journalists who'd been drawn to its cartoonish silhouette.

Being a passenger in an EV can often induce a specific kind of nausea, stemming from the sensory conflict between fierce acceleration and a distinct lack of noise. Conversely, riding shotgun on track in a fast petrol car can overwhelm for the opposite reason: too much speed and too many sensory inputs to keep track of.

It speaks volumes about this electric hooligan that it is too visceral to trigger the former, yet raw enough to provoke the latter.

The 533bhp EV was piloted by long-time Renault test driver David Praschl. It is a hugely important halo car for the Renault Group. Only 1980 examples will be built – a nod to the original car’s launch year – and they are already close to selling out.

Slipping into the cabin, you appreciate just how low and tightly formed the car is, giving a cocooning sensation that is amplified by six-point harnesses and a beefy roll cage. It is not your mum's Renault 5 Campus.

This is an unfinished pre-production model, but what struck me most were the interior's contrasts. The seats are bespoke items with a steampunk, retro-futuristic quality. Their shape, fit and feel resemble a professional video-gamer’s set-up, finished in an upmarket, GTI-aping tartan. Yet the screens are lifted almost directly from the standard Renault 5.

Alongside the obligatory fail-safe switches, mysterious control boxes and general prototype addenda, a bright yellow hydraulic handbrake springs proudly upright like the first daffodil of spring. Joy.

We pull away in silence, as you would expect, and at low speeds the car settles into a restless chunter reminiscent of every other piece of specialised hardware that resents travelling slowly – before zipping out of the Goodwood pit lane with just a touch of wheelspin. Praschl tells me the car isn’t operating at full power owing to a low battery percentage, but from the passenger seat, it certainly feels like 533bhp of instant EV muscle. The 0-62mph sprint is expected to take about 3.5sec, which feels entirely plausible.

The pit-lane chunter is replaced by an eerie cacophony of whirrs and buzzes as this pre-production car attempts to rattle its fixtures loose. As we reach Madgwick, Goodwood’s first corner, the chassis movements beneath my seat make it instantly apparent that the car has a tremendous ability to turn in with minimal inertia. Its carbon-composite structure keeps the kerb weight to around 1450kg – just 1kg more than the standard Renault 5. It's not exactly light compared with a Lotus Elise, but in EV terms it's a featherweight.

The fast sweep of Fordwater demonstrates the car’s rock-solid high-speed stability, while the left-hander at St Mary’s requires a firm stamp on the brakes. There is a prodigious amount of stopping power, though I can tell it demands an equally mighty effort from Praschl’s racing boot. Not that it deters him: at Lavant, a long right-hander, Praschl elegantly yanks the hydraulic handbrake.

I laugh out loud as the rear wheels lock and we slide into a drift. Production-spec cars will feature a dedicated drift mode, and I can only begin to imagine its effectiveness.

Goodwood’s tight chicane reaffirms the car’s ability to change direction rapidly and without fuss before we return to the pit-lane chunter. By now, my laughter has subsided, slowly replaced by a creeping queasiness. But it is a queasiness earned in a bona fide race car, rather than just another fast EV.

Hyundai Ioniq 6 N

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:18:35 +0000

Hyundai comes up with a saloon version of the five-star Ioniq 5 N The idea for a Hyundai Ioniq 6 N has been floating around for a while – from before the regular Ioniq 6 saloon had been revealed.Back in 2022, Hyundai presented the RN22e concept – clearly an (at that point still unrevealed) Ioniq 6 in signature Hyundai N blue, with huge power and simulated gears. I remember asking whether it was going to make production and getting a “maybe”.That tech went into the Ioniq 5 N and garnered praise from almost everyone (including a five-star road test from Autocar), which showed that the formula has legs, so now it’s time for it to spread to the rest of the Ioniq range.

Jaecoo 7 gains 221bhp, 52mpg hybrid powertrain

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

New SHS-H variant of popular Chinese SUV will rival Nissan Qashqai e-Power and Kia Sportage Hybrid from £29k

The Jaecoo 7 has gained a 221bhp hybrid variant priced from £29,195.

Named the SHS-H (standing for Super Hybrid System – Hybrid), it matches the turbocharged 1.5-litre petrol engine found in other versions of the 7 with a single electric motor.

This yields a 0-62mph time of 8.3sec, an official fuel economy figure of 51.8mpg and official CO2 emissions of 125g/km.

For reference, the rival Kia Sportage Hybrid is priced from £34,475. Its uses a 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine and a single electric motor for 145bhp, a 0-62mph time of 7.9sec, 50.4mpg and emissions of 126g/km.

The new 7 SHS-H is available in two trim levels, Pure and Deluxe. The former gets tweed upholstery, a 13.2in infotainment touchscreen, dual-zone climate control and a six-speaker sound system, among other kit. The latter, priced from £32,795, adds faux-leather upholstery, expands the touchscreen to 14.2in and adds an extra two speakers.

As well as the new hybrid option, Jaecoo has added a Black Luxury trim to the 7 range (pictured above). Blacking out the standard wheels and chrome elements, it's priced from £36,500.

Omoda 5 review

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Chinese budget brand addresses criticisms of its Nissan Qashqai rival just a year after launch The dearth of low-priced petrol cars on sale today can’t have escaped many of us, so it's no wonder that after just a year on sale, the Omoda 5 is already a common sight on UK roads, being a decently powerful Chinese answer to the Volkswagen T-Roc and Nissan Qashqai that costs from just £24k.If you’ve not yet heard of Omoda, there’s a chance you will know of its parent company. State-owned Chery was founded in 1997 and is China’s most prolific exporter of cars, even if BYD has now overtaken it domestically.Chery now has a whole four brands in the UK: Chery, Omoda, Jaecoo and Lepas. It's hard to keep track, but Omoda is supposed to offer crossovers with “statement” designs. Make of that what you will.They're sold entirely conventionally through a growing network of dealerships. More than that, while Omoda’s cars are currently made in Wuhu, eastern China, discussions are taking place as to whether a UK plant would be advantageous. The company has already committed to taking over an old Nissan plant in Barcelona, and the 5 itself has been tuned by a team based in Frankfurt – one led by a former JLR engineer.

DS 3 reborn: Retro-styled Renault 5 rival coming "in near future"

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 08:43:18 +0000

Autocar's vision for a new DS 3, inspired by the original

French brand taps spirit of original 2010 DS 3 for new premium supermini, due within months

DS will shift its focus to smaller, cheaper models following the launch of the new No8 and No7 SUVs – and will soon give a “concrete” look at its plans for a successor to the DS 3 supermini, inspired by the 2010 original.

The French brand is in the midst of a rapid-fire renewal of its line-up, having not launched any new models for four years prior to the No8 late last year, and with that rakish SUV flagship now in dealerships – along with the refreshed No4 hatchback and, soon, the mid-sized No7 – CEO Xavier Peugeot has strongly hinted the next priority is launching a premium city car to rival the Renault 5 and Mini Cooper.

Asked about a timeframe for the next-generation DS 3 – the current car having been on sale for seven years – Peugeot suggested an unveiling could come within the coming months. “Having launched No8, then No4 and now No7, we’ve launched quite big-sized cars – so you understand where our thoughts are going to continue this development, and we will be able to show you some concrete elements in quite a near future,” he said.

He said DS plans to “shake” the small car market with a model that gives “a good balance between being iconic and in line with our roots”, and rational commercial appeal – in keeping with the brand’s ambitious growth plans.

The Paris motor show in October is a likely venue for a new DS to make its debut – possibly in concept form – but Peugeot would only say that was a “very clever” suggestion when asked for confirmation.

As previously reported by Autocar, the next DS 3 is tipped to take heavy design influence from the first-gen car, which was launched in 2010 as the first model from Citroën’s new DS sub-brand – before it was hived off as a marque in its own right in 2015.

Citing the strong commercial success of the Mk1 – which rode lower and was more overtly ‘sporting’ in its positioning than today’s SUV-shaped Mk2 – DS designer Thierry Metroz recently said: “We want to take inspiration from the Gen1, but in a very futuristic way. And what I don't want to do is retro design, but we’d like to keep some design elements which are very strong from the Gen1.”

Peugeot doubled down on this rhetoric, explaining that there’s more flexibility to draw inspiration from the past on smaller cars than larger ones. Notably, DS’s sibling brand Peugeot is employing a similar tactic for its own next-gen supermini, the 208 – which will be closely related to the DS 3 underneath – by channelling the spirit of the 1980s 205.

“If you look at this kind of ‘retro’ – this capacity to start from an iconic product such as the Mini or the R5 – we see that the biggest successes when car makers try to regenerate these iconic products were based on small cars rather than large ones, so that’s something we’ve been working on,” said Peugeot.

He went so far as to suggest that, in this context, the Mk1 DS 3 is as influential as the classic saloons that defined the brand’s early years: “If we look at our portfolio, the DS from 1945 was iconic, the SM was iconic, and the more recent DS 3 was also iconic – these kinds of thoughts are in our mind.”

The brand’s intention to tap into its heritage more overtly with future products will not, however, extend to a production version of 2024’s striking SM Tribute concept – which reimagined the eponymous V6-engined sports saloon for the electric era – because the role of flagship has been filled.

“The initial SM was to me an iconic product, but you understand that it is a big car – highly iconic, no doubt – but I joined this brand just one year ago and I was quickly connected to the launch of another big car, the No8,” said Peugeot.

“And we’ve got No7, so it’s quite complicated to give priority to another big car in all the work we’ve been doing – but I agree that when we’ve got such strong roots, such a strong DNA, we should ensure that we can extract the key elements and put them into all of the product launches.”

He did not write off the prospect of one day reviving the SM in some form, but said it was “not a top priority” for the brand.

Peugeot also confirmed that the No8 will be the largest and most expensive model DS launches: “We must play our premium cards – so there is always a pricing impact – but we also need to do volumes, so we should get the balance right, and the priority is not to put in the range a car which is larger than the No8.”

He also said there is “no need to go as low” as a notional No1 or No2, so the No3 will be the smallest DS model.

There will not be a No5, either, as French fashion house Chanel has the rights to that name for its iconic perfume range, leaving just ‘No6’ as the final potential gap in the DS line-up – one that could possibly be filled by a model that’s positioned between the No4 hatch and No7 crossover.

The trustiest Landie, the Manosphere, Aston F1, buying a Tesla?

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Will new show The Manosphere impact luxury car appeal? Aston Martin F1 and more...

In the latest episode of the Autocar podcast, My Week In Cars, Steve Cropley and Matt Prior talk about the trustworthy Land Rover Freelander 2, and the potential effect of new Louis Theroux show The Manosphere on luxury car appeal.

Plus, Aston Martin's F1 troubles, does the zero emissions vehicle mandate need an urgent rethink and would Steve ever buy a Tesla?

Make sure you don't miss an Autocar podcast by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts, and if you'd be willing to rate, review and share this pod, we'd appreciate it more than you know too.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts or via your preferred podcast platform.

Bentley won't re-engineer debut EV to take combustion engine

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:25:54 +0000

Crewe’s first electric model, dubbed Luxury Urban EV, will be revealed in the second half of this year

Bentley won’t retrofit its incoming debut electric car with a combustion engine like rival Lotus has done in response to a lack of buyer interest in the luxury EV segment.

Crewe’s first electric model, dubbed Luxury Urban EV by Bentley, will be revealed in the second half of this year. It was previously slated to arrive in 2025.

CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser said the car would be positioned solely as an EV and so re-engineering the platform to accommodate combustion power in the form of a range-extender powertrain – mirroring what Lotus has done with the Eletre X – was not being considered.

This was despite the drop in buyer interest for premium EVs, which was what prompted Lotus’s decision. Walliser said that “one of the tricky tasks that we are heading for” is determining “who is really interested and how big is the market” for premium EVs.

Regardless, he said Bentley has “no intention to put an ICE engine in or to put a plug-in hybrid drivetrain in” and also admitted that it was also “technically not feasible” to do so with the car’s PPE platform, but did not explain further.

Walliser added that it was also “not part of our strategy” as he sees the plug-in hybrid Bentayga as the combustion alternative to the incoming EV.

“Part of the Bentley strategy is not to replace a car,” he said. “So Bentayga will continue, so we don’t have to, let me call it, force people to change from a combustion engine or plug-in hybrid car to an electric car.

“So we are targeting and looking for new customers [with the EV].”

Little has been revealed about the EV to date, but Walliser described it as “a different proposition” to what “other competitors are doing”, adding: “I strongly believe we have a very interesting offer.”

Ahead of its arrival, its capabilities can be gauged by looking at the incoming Porsche Cayenne Electric with which it will share much technically. That SUV is offered exclusively with dual-motor, four-wheel-drive powertrains putting out as much as 1140bhp. A 113kWh battery helps achieve a range of up to 398 miles.

Bentley R&D boss Matthias Rabe previously said that the EV – whose official name has yet to be announced – was “very comfortable like a Flying Spur and agile like a Continental GT” while also possessing “very fast” 0-100mph and 0-200mph times. He added that it will be “the best Bentley on the road”.

Audi boss hints at 'rugged SUV' to rival G-Class and Defender

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 14:55:47 +0000

Luxurious off-roader – possibly based on Scout 4x4 underpinnings – is set to top Audi's new-era line-up

Audi CEO Gernot Döllner has again hinted the firm is working on an electric off-roader to take on the Land Rover Defender and Mercedes-Benz G-Class.

As previously reported by Autocar, the German firm has been considering a new flagship 4x4 for several years, as such a machine would push into a new market segment.

While Audi has yet to officially acknowledge work on an off-roader, Döllner didn’t deny the prospect when asked about it during Audi’s annual media conference.

“There has always been speculation in the media on various products, and the good news is the Audi brand can do everything from an entry-level electric vehicle to sports cars all the way to rugged SUVs,” he said, adding that “in the future you can expect a lot from Audi”.

A luxurious off-roader would be particularly appealing to the vital US market and would fit into Audi’s new strategy of more localised products for that region, with a particular focus on SUVs.

That is best shown by the forthcoming Q9, pictured below, which the firm has confirmed will arrive later this year as Audi’s largest and more opulent SUV to date.

Döllner added: “At the moment, we are very excited about the Q9, and this is really a product developed for the US market. We’ve really listened to what customers there want, and for the first time will be launched in the US first, which really shows what ambitions we have there for our customers.”

It first emerged that Audi was considering a flagship 4x4 in 2023, when then design boss Marc Lichte suggested such a model would build neatly on the brand’s legacy of Quattro cars and tap into a highly profitable part of the market in which Audi was unrepresented.

“There is potential because there are only two premium players” in the segment, he said, “and I think there is a space for a third one.”

Lichte left Audi shortly after and was replaced by Massimo Frascella, whose role of shaping the Defender in his previous job at JLR reinforced speculation that Audi was gearing up to launch a similar car.

Launching a relatively low-volume model would seem at odds with Döllner’s wider objective to simplify the Audi line-up, but he previously said it remains important to have flagship cars that serve as technology showcases for the brand and can influence other models.

He said: “There is no niche banner; it’s just the opposite. It works perfectly to have a more focused line-up in the core and in addition to that have some niche models to build the brand and to also transfer new ideas from a niche segment into the core products. That works perfectly and this is part of our strategy.”

On the potential for a Defender-rivalling Audi 4x4, he said: “Don’t give up on that dream.”

Previously, it was thought that Audi’s luxury 4x4 could be aligned with the similarly conceived debut models from new Volkswagen Group brand Scout – the Traveler SUV and Terra pick-up – and built alongside them at its new factory in South Carolina.

Döllner told Autocar that the US’s new import tariffs have prompted Audi to consider building cars locally there, and this new 4x4 would seem a viable candidate for US production, given the popularity of such cars in the US.

“At a group level, we are right now discussing and investigating whether or not we should have a factory for Audi in the US,” he said. “But that’s dependent on a stable tariff situation and also on other regulatory boundary conditions that we would need to take [into consideration for] a decision like that.”

He added that it could be “logical” to build Audi models in an existing Volkswagen Group facility in the US but said: “The big question is if we want to have a specific Audi factory or not, and that decision is absolutely open and dependent on how we are we aligned with the US government.”

New DS No7 SUV revealed with choice of petrol or 460-mile EV

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Successor to French premium brand's best-selling model will be crucial to its growth plans

DS has revealed the new No7 as the replacement for its best-selling 7 SUV, the French premium brand's first bespoke car.

Taking its lead from the design of the new DS No8 flagship, the No7 will offer a choice of hybrid and electric powertrains when it launches later this year - as do the Peugeot 5008, Citroën C5 Aircross, Jeep Compass and Vauxhall Grandland with which it shares a platform.

Slotting between the heavily updated No4 hatchback and No8 crossover, the No7 is DS's entrant in the crucial mid-sized SUV market, in which premium contenders include the hugely popular Audi Q3 and BMW X1.

It's the most important model in the new DS line-up, taking over from a model that was consistently its strongest seller – and CEO Xavier Peugeot has told Autocar that its launch will be pivotal in the brand's plan to dramatically increase its market share and its EV sales mix.

"The current DS 7 represented up to 50% of our sales," he said. "That's a blockbuster for which we are preparing the launch of a successor - in a quite different context, with more weight of electric sales, and so this is really an important moment and product launch for us."

The No7 is a complete departure from its predecessor both inside and out - and, at 4.66m long, slightly larger, with five centimetres more metal between the wheels to the benefit of interior space.

It's more conventionally SUV-shaped than the No8, which heralded a new era of DS design, but retains the defining cues, including a distinctive V-shaped front light signature, the prominent illuminated grille and the options of two-tone paint and large 21in wheels.

The electric version is equipped with the same chunky 97.2kWh battery that endows the No8 with a class-leading range of 466 miles – but, because it has a more traditionally upright silhouette than its larger sibling, it tops out at at 460 in single-motor Long Range form.

That figure is still comfortably one of the longest ranges available in this segment - a feat achieved by what DS refers to as "exceptionally careful aerodynamics". It claims a drag coefficient of just 0.26, which it says means the No7 can travel more than 280 miles even at motorway speeds.

There's also a four-wheel-drive version, which adds a motor on the rear axle to boost power from 242bhp to 370bhp and returns a range of 422 miles.

Meanwhile, a cheaper variant equipped with a 73.7kWh battery and a 228bhp front motor offers 337 miles per charge.

Every electric No7 can charge at up to 160kW – a speed that it will maintain between 20% and 55% capacity to give up to 118 miles in as little as 10 minutes, promised DS.

Unlike the No8, the No7 will also be offered from launch with a hybrid powertrain, combining a 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engine with a small electric motor in the gearbox for 143bhp and 53mpg.

Around town, this powertrain can run with the engine off up to 50% of the time, using energy generated under deceleration, said DS.

The striking interior is modelled on that of the No8, with a wide, 16in touchscreen in the centre of the dashboard (so shaped for easy access by both driver and passenger) supported by a 10in driver's display and a smattering of physical controls arranged around the centre console.

It also has the same unusual X-spoke steering wheel and an intricately detailed dash panel that extends into the doors to create a cocooning effect.

DS highlighted the upmarket materials and finishes used for all key touchpoints as a primary differentiator in this segment.

Deliveries of the No7 – which is expected to be DS's best-seller – will get under way later this year, with prices expected to start at around £40,000 for the hybrid and £45,000 for the EV.

It will be built at Stellantis's factory in Melfi, Italy, alongside the closely related Jeep Compass and a similarly sized new Lancia SUV for European markets that reprises the hallowed Gamma name.

While the No7 is a close technical relation to several more affordable models in the Stellantis portfolio, Xavier Peugeot said it can justify commanding a premium by virtue of its focus on more upmarket design, technology and performance credentials.

"This is one of the strengths and assets of large car maker like Stellantis: you've got the opportunity to capitalise on an existing platform, and then to have some synergies in terms of everything which is not so visible to the customer, and try at the same time to stay consistent and coherent with your DNA by capitalising on your real assets," he explained.

"So what you would expect from a DS car is really elegance, comfort and technology. In terms of design, we believe that we've got a striking offer, but journalists and customers will decide that one.

"In terms of technology, we capitalise on, for instance, DS Active Scan suspension, which enables the car to adjust the level of comfort really live when you're driving - and this also provides a direct connection with technology."

KGM Musso EV due in May with 240-mile range for £42k

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 10:54:10 +0000

Korean brand’s new electric pick-up truck promises 690kg payload plus plenty of standard equipment

The new KGM Musso EV will arrive in UK showrooms in May, offering 240 miles of range and a 690kg payload capacity.

The electric pick-up truck will be priced from £42,495, including VAT and the government’s £2500 Plug-in Van Grant.

It's powered by an 80.6kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery supplied by Chinese giant BYD, plus two electric motors (one per axle) that combine to send 206bhp and 250lb ft of torque through all four wheels.

The traction battery can be recharged from 20-80% in 31 minutes, KGM said, and can be used to power external devices such as lights or power tools.

Inside the Musso EV, there's a large digital screen split into two 12.3in displays – one for instrumentation and the other for infotainment functions – plus heated and ventilated front seats.

Paddles are fitted to the rear of the steering wheel to provide control over the strength of the regenerative braking, plus there's a 'smart' function that automatically adjusts retardation based on conditions such as the gradient of the road, traffic and approaching speed cameras.

The cargo bed can be fitted with partitions to secure smaller loads, while the tailgate can be used as a seat when the truck is parked, supporting up to 150kg.

The Musso EV arrives as one in a burgeoning class of electric pick-ups. Until recently, the only option was the rear-wheel-drive Maxus T90EV, but it has since been joined by the 4WD Maxus eTerron 9, Isuzu D-Max EV and Toyota Hilux Electric.

New Q9 SUV to replace axed A8 limousine as Audi flagship

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 10:04:34 +0000

Luxury flagship will prioritise rear passenger comfort and is expected to offer option of V8 petrol power

The new Q9 SUV will serve as an indirect successor to the A8 limousine as Audi's luxury flagship when it arrives later this year.

The new model, already spied testing but officially announced during Audi’s annual media conference, will be the German firm’s largest and most luxurious model to date.

Sitting above the Q7 in Audi’s SUV line-up, it will be offered as a seven-seater or with a six-seat layout featuring luxurious separate rear seats.

The Q9’s focus on rear passenger comfort is intended to help it take on the role of the A8 – which has just gone out of production – as an upmarket executive car.

It's primarily focused on the American, Chinese and Middle Eastern markets but will be offered in the UK too.

"The Audi Q9 will be the new flagship of the Audi portfolio," said CEO Gernot Döllner. "This is a particularly important model for the US."

Audi has given few technical details of the Q9 yet, but spy shots show that it will have a large bonnet and a big new version of Audi’s 'single-frame' grille.

It's believed to be based on an extended version of the Volkswagen Group’s Premium Platform Combustion (PPC) platform and will offer a range of powertrains, likely including a twin-turbo 4.0-litre petrol V8 in the flagship SQ9.

The Q9 will also form the basis of sibling brand Porsche's flagship SUV, codenamed K1. That car, tentatively scheduled for a UK launch in 2028, is expected to be built on the same line at the Volkswagen Group's factory in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Audi A2 name officially confirmed for new electric hatchback

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 10:01:53 +0000

We've imagined new A2 based on official teaser - which shows strong influence from original

First look at replacement for A1 and Q2, landing this year with VW ID 3 innards and sub-£30k starting price

Audi will revive the A2 name after a break of more than two decades later this year as an electric crossover that will evoke the spirit of the original supermini.

The German firm officially confirmed the revival of the A2, previously reported by Autocar, at its annual media conference, where it also showed a preview image of the new car for the first time (below), ahead of its unveiling this autumn.

The new EV, to be made in Audi's Ingolstadt hometown, will serve as an indirect replacement for the soon-to-be-discontinued A1 and Q2 at the bottom of Audi’s line-up. Pricing is tipped to start from under £30,000.

CEO Gernot Döllner said the new A2 comes as part of a strategy to make the Audi EV line-up accessible to a wider market: “We’ve listened. Our customers want electric mobility that impresses in everyday life.

"The A2 E-tron is our promise to deliver exactly that: efficient, compact and confident. We’re making entry into the electric Audi world easier and more relevant than ever."

The A2 will be based on the Volkswagen Group’s MEB EV platform and will be close in size and specification to the Volkswagen ID 3 hatchback.

However, as spy shots of test mules show, it will have more of a crossover-influenced design, with some MPV elements, giving it a profile that closely resembles that of the original A2, which was produced from 1999 until 2005.

"It’s a highly efficient entry-level car into the Audi universe, and positioned within the core of the A-segment [Audi's term for A3/Q3-sized models]," said Döllner. "It’s compact on the outside, yet very spacious on the inside. We’ll inform on price positioning at the given time ahead of launch, but it’s going to be our electric entry-level car, so it will be below what we’ve offered so far on electric cars in the Audi universe."

Inside Audi, the new A2 is seen as an indirect successor to that seminal supermini, which majored on efficiency thanks to a lightweight aluminium architecture and a slippery one-box bodystyle.

It's understood that the similar shape of the new car was driven by a similar push for aerodynamic efficiency.

Audi said the redeployment of the A2 name is a "deliberate nod" to the EV's 1990s forebear and pledged that the new car will continue the "mission" of the original.

DS No8

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

French brand's segment-bending flagship goes after Audi and BMW with plush cabin, strong refinement and and 466-mile EV range If you believe the grande fromages at DS, then we are now entering the third act of the luxury French brand’s near twenty year existence. From its rebirth as an upmarket Citroen supermini in 2009 through to its launch as a standalone brand five years later, this is the moment everything has been leading to: the point at which it’s finally ready to go toe-to-toe with the luxury elite.There’s certainly a sense of ‘now or never’ about the firm, which has struggled to capture the imagination of well-heeled punters who, attracted to Audis, besotted with BMWs and mad about Mercs, are proving hard to win over. As a result, it's launching a raft of new models at once, including a compact hatch tested elsewhere in these pages. But it’s perhaps this, the No8, that is its most ambitious addition.On first encounter with this genre-bending saloon-fastback-crossover – with its lofty ride height, fastback roofline and limo-like rear doors – rivals don’t immediately spring to mind, but the Polestar 4, Mercedes GLC and Audi Q6 E-tron are cited as key benchmarks.However, while the Q6 E-tron is named as compeition in terms of size, price and capability, DS No8 more in line with the smaller Q4 E-tron to give it a significant advantage when it comes to value-for-money. Yet it is a truth universal that the premium segment is a notoriously tough part of the market, and that's before you consider the EV angle. For DS this is compounded by the fact it's still a new-ish brand that’s still yet to demonstrably crack the UK in the same way that, say, Polestar and Cupra have despite being around for longer and having a the benefit of a long history (the original DS of 1955) to leverage in its quest for credibility. So, what have we got? well, the No8 indirectly replaces the plug-in hybrid 9 saloon as DS’s flagship exec, and if that car’s UK performance is anything to go by – nine sales last year, and just 139 in the four years it was available – it’s going to have a tough time luring fleet buyers down the road to the diamond-clad DS dealer on design and equipment alone.It’s got more than a fighting chance on paper, though, courtesy of its more crowd-pleasing crossover-ish styling, plus some properly compelling performance and equipment attributes. But can it prove itself more than a recommendable left-fielder?

Mercedes C-Class EQ: First impressions of crucial new saloon

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Brand's best-selling model goes electric with a range of more than 435 miles – and it feels like a true Benz

Mercedes-Benz will unveil 40 new or facelifted models this year, but arguably the most important is the C-Class EQ.

Having until now concentrated its electric efforts in luxury segments with the EQE and EQS, this is the first time the brand is targeting the area dominated by the Tesla Model 3 – and it's doing so with an EV version of its best-selling model.

It arrives at a time when its key rivals are doing the same: the BMW i3 (an electric 3 Series) will be revealed tomorrow and Audi is planning to launch an electric A4 E-tron later in the decade.

Before the new C-Class EQ is unveiled next month, Autocar has been given a ride in a development prototype at Mercedes' Immendingen proving ground in southern Germany.

The pre-production prototype is heavily disguised, but the differences to the ICE C-Class are clear: the front end is more upright, it sits lower and the rear window is set at a much steeper angle (likely for aerodynamic purposes). Inside it is bigger, too, thanks to its longer wheelbase and wider tracks.

The EV is the second Mercedes to use the company’s 800V MB.EA architecture. Several battery sizes are planned, ranging from 64kWh to 94kWh. Range will be “beyond 435 miles”.

During my first laps, it quickly becomes clear how agile the new car is. There is impressive resistance to body roll and particularly strong front-end grip. The effect of the optional rear-wheel steering becomes evident through tighter bends.

We then move to a road similar to what you would find in the UK, used to expose weaknesses in suspension tuning. Yet the cabin remains strikingly calm. Road noise is subdued.

“We wanted a car that feels light on its feet but still delivers the customary comfort of the current C-Class,” explained engineer Ewald Dirks. “The goal was that the driver should not really sense the added weight brought by the switch to electric power. Compared with the ICE C-Class, it is another level. There is also a much broader spread between the sportiest and most comfortable settings.”

The road deteriorates further. Small, sharp bumps ripple through the surface. But the prototype absorbs the impacts with impressive composure and control.

Throughout my time as a passenger, one characteristic stands out above all: refinement. Mercedes appears to have replicated the dynamic qualities that have long defined the C-Class.

We await our time behind the wheel in the coming months.

Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric review

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:13:31 +0000

Meet the ingenious, British-made, all-electric, nine-seater MPV that costs less than a family hatchback The big, boxy, high-sided monocab MPV is suddenly right back in fashion. Cars like the Kia PV5 and VW ID Buzz have done their best to make them cool again; and Lexus and Mercedes (with the Lexus LM and Mercedes VLE) are also doing their bit to add some luxury sparkle.But what if you want something enormous, commodious, super-versatile - and also electric - but aren’t so fussed about the fripperies? If you just need a lot of space, and a lot of seats, for a bit less outlay? Well, more humble options with clearer commercial-vehicle connections have existed for some time, albeit out of the spotlight that these late-arrivals have brought. And one of them - made in the UK - is the Vauxhall Vivaro Life.The Vivaro has a reputation as one of Britain’s best-known and best-selling medium-sized vans. It switched from a shared Renault platform to a Stellantis-nee-PSA one with the third generation vehicle in 2019, still being assembled at Vauxhall’s old Luton factory at that time; and immediately becoming available as a ‘Life’-branded passenger car MPV alongside the regular panel van.Since then, however, the Vivaro has both moved home and had a radical powertrain shift. Having been introduced with combustion engines, the Vivaro Life passenger version is now available in electric form only (unless you happen to be a producer-converter of wheelchair accessible vehicles; in which case you can order a diesel). And - like all of the electric-powered, monocab-style MPVs that Stellantis makes for its various in-house brands, as well as for joint-venture partner Toyota - is produced at Vauxhall’s old Ellesmere Port plant.So the question here is: just how many seats, and how much electric-powered versatility, do you need? And exactly how much Vauxhall can you make room for on your driveway?

Car park operator NCP appoints administrators

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:26:22 +0000

Administrators are prioritising "continuity of service" while considering site closures or a sale of the business

National Car Parks (NCP), the operator of 340 car parks across the UK, has appointed administrators to help “stabilise” its business.

Big-four accounting firm PwC has been brought in to rescue NCP after its performance “deteriorated over a number of years post-Covid 19”.

Reduced numbers of commuters following the Covid pandemic have meant “demand for parking has not recovered to historic levels”, said PwC, while “inflexible” ground leases have prevented NPC from cutting costs by closing less popular sites.

According to NCP’s most recent accounts, covering the financial year ending 30 September 2023, it was “reliant on the financial support of [Japanese parent company] Park24 Co”, having lost £26.8 million.

PwC said: “[NCP] now has insufficient cash available to meet its financial obligations and the directors have therefore taken the decision to appoint administrators.”

Administrator Zelf Hussain added: “NCP has faced a challenging trading environment over several years, with changing consumer behaviours impacting volumes and a high fixed cost base leading to trading losses.

"Our priority on appointment is to ensure continuity of service while we undertake a detailed review of the business.”

That means NCP will for now retain its 682 staff while PwC weighs the impact of site closures or a sale of all or part of the business.

BMW M3 Touring racer revealed: April Fools' joke made real

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Last year's viral 1 April gag becomes reality, as GT3-spec wagon heads for the grid next weekend

BMW has made an April Fools' joke into reality, unveiling a racing version of the M3 Touring estate ahead of its competitive debut next week.

The firm 'revealed' an M3 Touring GT race car on social media as its annual 1 April gag last year but never gave any indication that it could actually build the outlandish GT3 racer - until now.

Making its competitive debut in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie next weekend at the Nordschleife, the M3 Touring 24H is the product of a rapid-fire eight-month engineering programme to create a race-ready version of the hot wagon, in response to the "overwhelming" social media reaction it garnered.

BMW said it had already considered creating a competition-spec M3 Touring and the huge response to the digital renderings it put out last April gave bosses the confidence to finally approve the project.

There's no word on whether the off-road-ready M2 Dakar that BMW also revealed last April Fools' Day could be bound for reality.

Underneath, the racing estate is technically identical to the existing M4 GT3, with its 3.0-litre straight six – an uprated version of that used in the road car – sending 586bhp to the rear wheels.

BMW hasn't given any performance figures, but considering the race-prepped version packs 86bhp more and should weigh a couple of hundred kilograms less than the road car, it will be significantly quicker.

Described as a "car for the fans", the M3 Touring 24H is decorated for the preparatory races with a livery that features a selection of comments that followers left under the original April Fools' post last year.

When it takes to the grid for the first time next weekend, it will wear another special livery.

German race team Schubert Motorsport will field it in the special SPX category, so it won't compete directly with the three M4 GT3s that race in the top SP9 category.

BMW hasn't given any plans for further competitive outings for the M3 Touring 24H, nor said whether it plans to sell it to privateer racers, as it does with the M4 GT3 for around £500,000 a pop.

Andrea Roos, who runs BMW M's motorsport operations, said: “A project like the BMW M3 Touring 24H has never existed at BMW M Motorsport before. Many thanks to everyone who put their heart and soul into this unique car and brought it to life.

"I am thrilled – and at the same time, I am certain that our fans, who are never closer to us than at our second home on the Nürburgring, will be just as excited. I promise all fans a great show and look forward to an event of superlatives.”

Volkswagen ID Cross prototype review

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 11:00:00 +0000

VW’s ID range goes back to basics with sensible, small SUV with a big boot - and buttons VW has listened and it has changed. Buttons, glorious buttons – you’ll find them pretty much everywhere you and I both might want them in this new VW ID Cross.For years now, owners, journalists, internet commenters, my mum and probably your mum have taken issue with the haptic sliders and touch-heavy interfaces used by Volkswagen’s ID models. The cabins of the ID 3 and ID 4 in particular became a convenient shorthand for overzealous minimalism: capacitive steering wheel pads, fiddly temperature sliders and a general absence of tactile bits, knobs and switches.With the new ID Cross, VW has rowed back – and is happy to admit that. The ethos behind Wolfsburg’s new affordable compact electric SUV is very much one of ‘back to basics’.

Leapmotor A05 coming as cut-price Volkswagen ID 3 rival

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:27:54 +0000

Electric hatchback will be key in establishing Chinese company as a value-focused alternative to European mainstays

Leapmotor’s rival for the Volkswagen ID 3 has surfaced ahead of its official unveiling later this year.

Named the A05, the electric hatchback will form a key part in the Chinese brand’s ambitious plans to cement itself as a mainstream player in Europe.

It measures 4.2m long, 1.8m wide and 1.6m tall, thrusting it into competition with cars such as the Cupra Born, Renault Megane and MG 4 EV.

Images published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) show it bears a strong resemblance to the B03X crossover that Leapmotor revealed last year, with squinting headlights up front and a blocky rear end.

The MIIT filing also reveals the A05 will be powered by a single front-mounted motor with either 94bhp or 121bhp. There will be a choice of two lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, although their capacities have yet to be disclosed.

Given Leapmotor’s models have thus far undercut their European competitors, pricing for the A05 is expected to start at around £25,000 when it arrives in the UK later this year.

Speaking to Autocar in January, Leapmotor UK MD Damien Dally suggested that the rapid expansion of the brand’s line-up will be key in securing its position against long-established rivals.

“Versus 2025, we will go from about a third of the market covered to almost 90% of the market covered,” he said – although he admitted that “when you get bigger, life gets more complicated”.

Dally said that maintaining Leapmotor's approach of offering one trim level for each of its cars would be “key” in helping customers to understand its range and offering “no compromise” in kit.

“We’re almost positioning Leapmotor as the ultimate non-materialistic brand," he explained. "I’m saying to you 'spend less on your car, spend more on life, spend more time with your family'.

"We give a product that is specified to the nines at a [great] price. There’s no compromise. The only compromise is you’re gonna have to get your head around a new badge on the front – which is backed by [Stellantis], the world’s fourth-largest vehicle maker.”

Kia EV9 GT

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Kia's performance sub-brand reaches the EV9 electric SUV The Kia EV9 GT is an unusual kind of car, a ‘grand tourer’ with 501bhp and 546lb ft and interior highlights appropriate for a hot derivative; but also a plus-sized 2.7-tonne family SUV with six or seven seats. It’s Kia’s most expensive car at over £82,000, an electric 4x4 that can tow 2500kg, but which has a limited-slip rear differential, fake gearshifts and can do 0-62mph in 4.6sec.This feels an odd combination of facets to me, but why? European and American car makers have been producing large performance SUVs for decades. Why should it feel weird because it’s a Kia?

MG mulls positioning shift as European production to lift prices

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Chinese firm is planning to build a European factory, but that will inevitably undermine its cost advantage

MG has built up a formidable market share in the UK and Europe thanks to its broad range of appealing models priced to undercut European competition.

That has been possible due to parent company SAIC’s manufacturing base in China, which works to a much lower cost than local rates.

Now the brand is getting closer to long-planned European production, but it has to work out how to persuade customers to pay more for local built models to offset the higher production cost.

“To build in Europe, you cannot sell on price, because the manufacturing cost will be a lot higher,” William Wang, head of MG in Europe, told Autocar in a rare interview. “You need to sell on your brand and your value.”

Unlike BYD, MG has yet to finalise its European production location, but the process is ongoing, with Wang regularly flying to locations within the EU along with MG’s European production manager.

Wang said the UK is still an outside possibility for MG's first full-scale production facility in the region under SAIC ownership but an EU location is most likely. If everything goes smoothly, production could start as early as next year, he added.

Wang gave no indication which countries were on his shortlist of five, but southern locations like Spain or eastern ones including Hungary (the location of BYD’s new plant) are most likely, given lower costs and EU membership.

Being within the EU also means the end of punitive tariffs on Chinese built-EVs, which hit MG the hardest after SAIC was given the highest rate of 45% after refusing to comply with the EU’s investigation into the level of state subsidies it receives.

Production will focus on EVs, rather than the biggest-selling ZS and HS combustion-engined SUVs, Wang confirmed.

Building in Europe will help cement the idea that MG is a British or European brand, rather than a Chinese one, Wang hopes. “Under my team, we’ve always treated MG as British,” he said.

This brand solidity versus new Chinese names is one weapon in MG’s battle to persuade customers to pay a bit extra to cover the cost of European manufacturing. “The best backbone for our development is the brand,” Wang said.

The other is that Chinese strength: the latest technology. “MG should represent constantly evolving, affordable technology,” Wang said.

Competing on both price and tech has proven a winning combination for Chinese car makers, which hit a market share of 14% in January in the UK, thanks to a broad mix of plug-in hybrid, hybrid and electric cars. But winning on electrified tech when you’re subject to similar production costs as your European rivals is harder; the competition is tougher.

Wang likened automotive competition to a vengeful bear out to attack the weakest. “You must make sure you run faster than the others, otherwise the bear will catch you first,” Wang said.

Without the price differential, the bear moves that bit closer. Wang didn’t say exactly which cars will be produced at the plant, but one technology that MG is looking to deploy in Europe and could possible localise is the semi-solid-state battery, used first in the new 4 EV Urban on MG’s latest electric platform, dubbed E3, due for launch in Europe at the end of the year.

Co-developed by SAIC and Qingtao Energy, its has manganese-based chemistry and uses a less volatile, gel-like electrolyte, which is said to increase safety and preserve range in cold temperatures. “The car can go to -10, -20deg [C], but the performance is still there,” Wang said.

MG has yet to decide where to source batteries from for its European cars, with a lot riding on the details of new ‘Made in Europe’ feature of the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act. Local production with the right level of local parts sourcing could unlock incentives that MG is currently frozen out of, for example the UK’s Electric Car Grant, the lack of which is forcing MG to offer discounts to match.

Other technology mentioned by Wang that MG could bring to the fore to lift its brand power included intelligent chassis advancements. “In the future, more of our cars will use CDC [continuous damping control],” Wang said. “All those premium car technologies will go to normal cars.”

MG will have to tap into a new supply chain that’s likely to be considerably more expensive than the one in China, but plenty of Chinese suppliers are already in Europe, including SAIC-owned Yangfeng, which makes cockpits and bumpers among other parts.

The other advantage of building locally is that the car is tailored exactly for the European market. Europe is MG’s biggest market globally, even compared with China, and that's influencing the cars that SAIC develops. However, there’s nothing quite like building locally.

“If we make the right model, the right mix, the right local content, we can put more value on local,” Wang said. “For example, if it's local, I can act or react at least two months quicker.”

Right now cars like the 4 EV Urban appear in China first mainly because they don’t have a long boat trip and haven’t yet been calibrated for the European market at MG’s engineering centres in Longbridge and Frankfurt.

Not everything will be built locally of course, preserving the value-for-money element of Chinese production. “We want to be seen as a local but also source globally,” Wang said. “For example, not all Nissans come from Sunderland: some of them come from Japan. It's a global world.”

Hot Panda inbound as Abarth plots return to petrol power

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Poor sales of hot EVs have prompted Italian performance brand to rethink – and a new Panda is first in line

The Fiat Grande Panda will spawn a hot Abarth spin-off – and it could see the performance brand return to combustion power.

The Italian firm has only two models in its European line-up: high-performance versions of the 500 city car and the larger 600 crossover – both exclusively electric.

However, both have struggled to find sales success. Despite expanding its potential reach with the launch of its first SUV, Abarth sold just 291 cars in the UK last year, down from 1027 in 2024 when the combustion-engined 595 was still available.

Fiat has also faced faltering demand for its EVs and reacted accordingly by reverse-engineering the platform of the new 500 – originally designed as an electric architecture – to accept a hybrid powertrain.

Meanwhile, the Grande Panda that arrived last year, using parent firm Stellantis's cost-conscious Smart Car architecture, is offered with petrol, electric and hybrid powertrains, depending on the intended market.

Fiat is aiming to expand its line-up of Panda-derived models as part of plans to grow the brand, and that could present an opportunity for Abarth to break into a new market.

In the meantime, Autocar sources understand that the company is already working on a hot version of the Grande Panda, although it has yet to be fully signed off for production.

Asked about the prospect of a hot Grande Panda, Abarth and Fiat Europe boss Gaetano Thorel told Autocar: "Certainly we will leverage the Abarth legacy on something else. That's all we can say right now."

While it is understood that a design concept for the model has been developed, there are no firm details on what powertrain it would use. No model on the Smart Car platform – including the Vauxhall Frontera and Citroën C3 – has been offered with a performance variant. However, the architecture's similarity to the STLA Small platform used for the likes of the next-generation Peugeot 208 – which itself will spawn a GTi model later this year – suggests that it could accept beefier powertrains.

Fiat has previously shown a concept for a Grande Panda 4x4, and although no details of that car's powertrain have been given, Abarth bosses have suggested it features an "electrified innovative rear axle". That could allow for a combustion engine driving the front wheels, with a small electric motor adding extra power when required, and it hints at the flexibility that could be employed to give an Abarth model suitable performance.

Both Thorel and Fiat and Abarth CEO Olivier François were open about Abarth considering a return to offering combustion-powered versions due to the continued demand for such models from buyers.

"When it comes to offering high performance, electric cars are the best you can offer," François told Autocar. "But we are very aware that Abarth customers also want the sound and the raw driving experience, so we are looking at ways to satisfy those customers."

Thorel added: "When you talk to the Abarth enthusiast, it's more than a performance brand: it has always been a tune-up brand. People who bought Abarths in the past love to put their hands on the engine to improve it – and with electric cars you cannot do that.

"The electric Abarths are super performance cars, but an Abarthista cannot touch them, cannot put their hands on them. So we are studying the possibility to make an Abarth again with a thermic engine – but only if we are able to give it the right DNA. If it's technically possible and we are able, we will do it."

'SBTi': Four letters that have got every car company rattled

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Who would have tipped engine maker Horse to be leading the race to net zero?

Some of the world’s biggest car makers are finding themselves on the 'naughty step' of a new emissions watchdog

One of my favourite amusements when attending new car launches at the moment is to mention something called the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), just to see what kind of facial expression is pulled by the particular industry executive to whom I happen to be talking.

I get the whole smorgasbord: from smug and superior right the way through to aggrieved and indignant, via a wonderfully varied mix of bemused, resigned and dismissive gurning.

The SBTi is the body that guards the gateway through which manufacturers must pass in order to qualify for the UK government's Electric Car Grant.

It's an initialism that I've read often on manufacturer communications without having a clear idea myself of what it is, where it's based or who's behind it.

It seems, in short, to have sprung to prominence almost from nowhere and suddenly be wielding rather a lot of power.

In actuality, the SBTi was set up back in 2015, in a collaboration between the United Nations, the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Carbon Disclosure Project and a couple of other 'global non-profit' organisations.

Its brief remains to engage global big businesses to set and then commit to hitting targets for the and near longer-term cutting of carbon emissions.

It has an associated 'services' arm, which would seem to take a more hands-on role in guiding businesses through the process for a fee, I would bet. But the organisation's main bit certainly seems to be run on a charitable basis.

The SBTi website (sciencebasedtargets.org) includes a 'target dashboard' section with a distinctly global list of corporate and SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) registrants.

Filter it for 'automotive' and you will find a chart of some 494 companies many of which you will probably never have heard of.

The Anhui Zhongding Sealing Parts Company of China is one of them, as are Happy Forgings Ltd of India and Sumitomo Rubber Industries of Japan.

It includes lots of car brands, too, of course. So which, according to this particular system, have the clearest, strongest commitments to cutting carbon, not just in their own manufacturing but concerning power generation and component supply as well?

Take a bow, Mahindra, Horse Powertrain and the Aston Martin Formula 1 team. All have both short and long-term SBTs, short 'road maps' that could - should, even take them - all the way to net zero (some admitting a few pretty big conditions, you would imagine).

Most car makers - BMW, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, JLR, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Volkswagen and more - have registered only short-term reduction targets, extending perhaps to 2030 or 2035, not committing all the way to reaching net zero.

But one of the best things the SBTi site does is to allow you to directly compare these near-term targets - and not only between particular car makers.

You can tell, for instance, that Volvo is working slightly harder - or rather faster - to cut its 'scope one and two' emissions (CO₂ coming directly from its own manufacturing processes and its power consumption) than Renault, and also harder, slightly, than Airbus.

Neither is working quite as hard as either Apple or Unilever, however. I had assumed quite wrongly, as this reveals that car makers had to do more than other businesses to make their operations sustainable.

Because they just happen to make cars, which, until quite recently at least, have been painted as the arch-villain of the climate change narrative. But most car makers actually seem to be doing only about as much as the average Western corporate entity.

The SBTi site is also good at flagging brands that initially committed to at least some targets but have since failed to follow through. On the naughty step here (and it's not our step, your honour) are Porsche, Ferrari and Tata, but also Geely, Nio and Tesla.

Some EV-only brands have called the SBTi system loaded in favour of 'legacy brands'. It's much easier, so they claim, to set and meet a short-term carbon emissions reduction goal if you have at least fairly recently been making hundreds of thousands of combustion-engined cars per year than if you have only ever made electric ones (and pretty sustainably at that).

Quite what excuses there are from Stuttgart or Maranello for absenting themselves from the heart of the SBTi carbon-cutting crowd, however, I couldn't say - although I don't doubt they will have some good ones.

Illegal mileage blockers could be used to duck pay-per-mile EV tax

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Hard-to-detect tech is used illegally on UK roads – prompting fears about its use with incoming eVED

The government's pay-per-mile scheme for electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which is due to start in two years' time, faces a major threat from devices called mileage blockers that are easy to buy and to fit and freeze a car's odometer, an investigation by Autocar has found.

Pay-per-mile charging, officially called eVED, is scheduled to start in April 2028 as an extra tax placed on EVs and PHEVS to recover income lost from fuel duty, given these cars can run fully or partially on electricity. The tax will start at a rate of 3p per mile driven in an EV and 1.5p per mile driven in a PHEV and drivers will need to self-declare their mileage annually.

Concerns are growing that when the scheme is introduced, drivers will fit mileage blockers as a means of avoiding or reducing this levy.

The devices, which range in price from around £200 to £900, are not illegal to sell and are marketed for use on cars being tested or developed away from the road. It is, however, illegal to use a car on the road fitted with one.

Autocar's investigation has found that hundreds of drivers and businesses are buying and fitting these devices each week, with the aim of reducing or avoiding paying a mileage penalty at the conclusion of a PCP or a lease.

Mileage blockers are available for many popular petrol and diesel vehicles and, increasingly, for electric and hybrid ones. Suppliers claim that when installed in a car's on-board computer, the device prevents a vehicle from adding mileage data to any ECU or module as well as, where enabled, to the ignition key. They claim a blocker is easy to install but difficult to detect.

Given that difficulty to detect, there are additional fears that increasing numbers of EVs and PHEVS previously fitted with the devices will enter the used car market (potentially without the current owner knowing), boosting the number of clocked cars already in circulation.

Posing as a customer, an Autocar reporter contacted a leading supplier of mileage blockers. The reporter said he owned a Volkswagen ID 3 registered in 2022 and was interested in buying a mileage blocker for the vehicle. A salesperson said the firm could supply a device that was safe and reliable. The salesperson added that each month his business sold 500 blockers to retail customers and 250-300 to the trade, and that new devices were becoming available each month.

"Our supplier in Germany has just cracked the post-2024-model VW Passat and hopes to have cracked the rest of the 2024 VW range within the next few months," he said. "Also, they are just about to finish developing blockers for Omoda, Jaecoo and Chery vehicles."

The law makes no mention of mileage blockers but simply states that selling a vehicle whose mileage has been altered and not disclosing that fact is illegal.

The company that Autocar contacted states that a mileage blocker is a "legitimate tool for research and development purposes" and warns that driving a car on the road fitted with one is illegal. However, it also explains that mileage blockers are popular because "they have the potential to save drivers from big fines and higher insurance quotes" and "are becoming increasingly popular in the UK as more people look for ways to save money on their motoring costs".

Commenting on the availability of mileage blockers for the VW ID 3 and other Volkswagen Group vehicles, a spokesperson for VW said: "Mileage blockers are available to buy online for most vehicle makes but are designed for specific circumstances only. It is illegal to use them on public roads and anyone installing one risks safety and a criminal conviction if they subsequently sell the car without telling the buyer the mileage has been altered. If our technicians discovered a blocker when inspecting a vehicle, they would alert the customer to its presence."

Autocar shared the results of its investigation with Cap HPI, a vehicle data checking service.

Wendy Swaine, the company's expert in vehicle provenance, said: "The only reason people tamper with a car's mileage is for financial gain – for example, to avoid paying the mileage penalty on a PCP or lease contract and, from April 2028, perhaps also to reduce their eVED liability."

Peter Golding, CEO of FleetCheck, a fleet software management company, said the introduction of eVED will greatly increase the temptation to clock a car. "If you're covering 20,000 miles a year in an EV, your eVED bill will be £600. For a few people, the ease with which that amount can be reduced will be difficult to resist. This is an issue that has very real potential to increase the number of clocked vehicles on the used market."

Presented with Autocar's findings, a spokesperson for the Treasury, which is responsible for the implementation of eVED, said it is "considering further options to mitigate against odometer tampering and intends to engage with manufacturers, the leasing industry and insurers to minimise fraud". The spokesperson added that "any necessary legislative, regulatory and technical steps will be taken to widen existing law and strengthen enforcement".

"No excess": This 'EV Stratos' shows China cares about enthusiasts

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 07:00:00 +0000

The JMEV SC01 is supposed to be "the first electric sports car done properly"

More evidence that car people are the same the world over. In the way that some Chinese engineers recently thought a flat-eight engine was perfect for a motorbike, others have decided to make a niche, smaller-than-an-Alpine-A110 and (relatively) lightweight electric sports car.

The 1365kg JMEV SC01 is "the first electric sports car done properly", they say.

The engineers are making noises about it having "no excess" and wanting to "prove that electric cars can still be raw [and] mechanical in feeling". Those are the same noises that engineers from anywhere could make.

In decades past, the Western car industry was terrified of companies from Japan and later South Korea arriving to eat everyone's lunch, what with their properly made if cheap and boring cars.

Yet now look: Hyundai knows that enthusiasts are the last to be emotionally moved by electric cars and launched the Ioniq 5 N to remedy that.

The Japanese have been into lightweight sports cars for much longer still. When Honda wanted motorcycle enthusiasts to take it seriously, it knew it had to enter the Isle of Man TT races (which it soon won, obviously).

When it boils down to it, true car people want largely the same thing: entertainment.

On an industrial level, the threat of Chinese manufacturing, owing to the ambition of the state and its scale, is probably bigger than any of those that have come before. It really could do to this continent's car industry what Japanese bikes did to the British motorcycle industry.

Yet on a smaller, more personal level, there are just car people out there doing car people things.

Notwithstanding the fact that I haven't even seen it, let alone driven it or weighed it, the SC01 suggests they get fired up by exactly the same things as us.

On some social media disgrace or other, I follow the adventures of a guy from Aso who keeps a polished Lotus Mk6 in a tiny city garage and spends his weekends driving it into beautiful Japanese hills to meet his mates who also have lovely British classic cars.

What chance that, in a few years' time, I will be doing the same with someone from Nanjing?

Cybertruck hits the UK: Can EV beast win over London's car fans?

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000

It's Elon vs Elan as we rock the Southside Hustle in Musk's 833bhp monster

You might have read about sightings of a strange alien craft on Wimbledon Common earlier this month.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, the Southside Hustle, which takes place in Wimbledon Village, south-west London, on the first Sunday of every month, has in the few short years it has been running become a mecca for petrolheads keen to show their cars—everything from wheezy classics to the latest exotics—to an admiring throng of fellow enthusiasts.

It was to this quasi-religious gathering that Sam Seppälä drove his Tesla Cybertruck a four-wheel-drive, tri-motor Cyberbeast variant, specced in limited-edition Foundation trim. Autocar joined him for the ride and the experience of showing his 833bhp Musk monster to the combustion faithful. How would it be received? Would they cheer or sneer?

Seppälä imported the Beast from California in January. Very few Cybertrucks have made the same journey because, for a variety of reasons, including concerns about its drive-by-wire steering system and safety standards, the DVSA won't grant the model Individual Vehicle Approval, the final obstacle that a vehicle must clear before it can wear UK numberplates.

"No Cybertruck has passed IVA and so cannot be driven on UK roads as a DVLA-registered vehicle," a DVSA spokesman told Autocar.

'DVLA-registered' is the important bit here. If the vehicle is taxed, registered and insured in its home country, it's permissible to drive it in the UK for a maximum of six months.

In fact, when I meet Seppälä at his home not far from Wimbledon, he explains that he can have the vehicle here for 12 months and during that time drive it for a total of six months. As a result, he's under no pressure to get a return on his not-inconsiderable shipping costs by driving the Beast solidly from January to July. In fact, he tells me that today's drive to the Hustle will be the first time he's driven it on UK roads.

Of course, the question uppermost in my mind is: why? Why bother to bring his Cybertruck here only to have to return it to the US in December? Seppälä explains that, as a tech entrepreneur living here and in California, the Tesla fascinates him.

"I love the reactions, both good and bad, that it provokes," he says. "It drives and handles really well, too—not at all like other American cars. And it has a wealth of safety tech. In fact, it's a very safe car."

In the US he uses the Cybertruck to, among other things, tow his Bruder off-road caravan, when its range falls from 300 to 100 miles. (For other days he has a Ferrari 488 Spider, a Ford F-350 pick-up, a Volkswagen Type 1 split-screen van and a John Deere 4066 tractor.) It has full autonomous functionality, too, so it can chauffeur him to a friend's home, two hours away, elsewhere in California. The feature doesn't work in the UK, of course.

What did the enthusiasts think?

“It’s too big. Yes, it looks different, but I wouldn’t have one. I think you’ll struggle to get anyone who likes it here.” Dave Selby

“It’s different. It’s a crazy car – the size and the weight – but I wouldn’t want to see thousands of them on the roads.” Chris Amos

“The fact that someone has made this car and put it on the road is incredible. It’s like the Nissan Cube and Fiat Multipla: individual designs in a sea of uniformity.” Lucas Cochrane

“I saw the Cybertrucks at the International Concours of Elegance in St Moritz recently, where they looked better than this one does here on a dreary March morning. Still, it does look amazing, although the sharp corners make me worry for pedestrians.” Matthew Robinson

“I’ve been here a few times and the Cybertruck has attracted the biggest crowd I’ve seen. But it’s just straight lines and straight edges. It’s cool but not cool.” Edward Whitehouse

The best sports cars – driven, rated and ranked

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 13:27:54 +0000

Here is the definitive top 10 list of the best sports cars currently on sale. Only one can be the very best...

Sports cars remain the ultimate benchmark for any petrolhead. Originally conceived to bring the speed and excitement of racing machines to the road, sports cars have been a key pillar of the automotive industry for decades.

Today, it's one of the most varied segments: you can have a lightweight, two-seater convertible that stays true to the original sports car recipe or a four-seater coupé with grand-touring capabilities.

While many other car classes are navigating the shift towards electrification, sports cars still maintain their traditional petrol power and searing yet accessible performance. The very best major on handling dynamism and engagement without sacrificing on everyday usability.

Ultimately, a sports car is judged by how it feels and how fun it is to drive. Developing such cars is a challenge, hence why big players – including Porsche, BMW and Alpine – continue to invest so heavily in this space.

In such a competitive segment, it’s the Alpine A110 that truly stands out from the rest of the field, offering a masterclass in lightweight agility few cars can match.

Want to know which other cars made our list? Read on as we rank the best sports cars you can buy in 2026.

Clean, fast and 1000 miles to a tank – so why is diesel a dirty word?

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000

By turning our backs on the black pump, we've abandoned one the most sensible solutions for the modern motorist

30 years ago, diesel cars were a bit rubbish.

They were loud, clattery, vibrating, smelly and usually appallingly slow. But politicians thought they were the bee's knees, because they were marginally lower emitters of greenhouse gases than petrols.

They were generating some genuine interest from the public too, because they had higher torque at lower revs, which made driving easier, and they could go much farther on a fill-up than was customary.

So, somewhat against the odds (and with some short-lived governmental backing), oil-burners took off in popularity, and the technology was nurtured and improved over generations to the extent that some of the best-rounded cars in recent memory supped from the black pump.

Nowadays diesels are fabulous things. Using fewer resources and carrying less weight, they can outperform the efficiency of the plug-in hybrids to which the taxman has switched his allegiance while bringing little in the way of compromise to refinement or performance all while costing less outright.

Some of them even sound pretty good. For many drivers who cover long distances regularly, a diesel simply can't be beat.

Yet the Dieselgate scandal turned buyers and governments against them, causing sales to slump.

They're now an endangered species and that won't change, due to low-emissions zones, unfavourable taxes and higher fuel prices. That's despite modern diesels complying with the exact same emissions standards as petrols and hybrids.

In fact, a few years ago, German motoring body ADAC found that a Mercedes-Benz C220d emitted no NOx whatsoever in real-world use, unlike any of the petrol cars it tested.

Nonetheless, the tide is well beyond turning in the UK, where diesels now hold less than 5% of the new car market and few manufacturers even bother offering them any more and in my view, that's a great shame.

Diesel just makes so much sense. On a recent 500-mile journey from Kent up to Glasgow, via an overnight stop in Market Harborough and a scenic detour over the Derbyshire Dales, my 2007 Alpina D3 cracked a whopping 55mpg without even really trying.

Then we managed the way back down in just six hours, stopping for no more than a five-minute break halfway for us, not the car, which never needed a top-up.

And that's nothing: last year, Skoda drove a Superb 2.0 TDI an astounding 1759 miles without stopping, achieving an average of 108.2mpg at an average speed of 50mph.

Could any other energy source get you from Poland to Paris and back on just £92? It's clear to me that diesel should still have a place in modern motoring: despite its Dieselgate-damaged reputation, it is still a clean power source for a certain type of motorist who travels long distances regularly.

But while the demand continues to be there (in its last year on sale, a quarter of 3 Series buyers still opted for a 'd'), the world has changed and there won't be another generation of oil-burners.

All the more reason to pick up an old diesel from the classifieds and give it one last blast to the moon and back.

There's a 2003 Peugeot 406 HDi with plenty of life left in it that I can't stop looking at. Get there before I do

Stellantis demands government begins UK EV targets review 'now'

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 10:09:03 +0000

Car makers say they are being left in limbo as they wait to see if Westminster will relax UK's ZEV mandate

The boss of Stellantis UK has demanded the government begin its planned review into EV targets “now”, as current legislation means the firm doesn't know what type of vehicles it can sell past 2030.

“At this point in the UK, you don't know what technology we can use yet [from 2030], let alone whether you're able to make any money in the UK market,” Eurig Druce told the SMMT’s Electrified conference on Thursday.

Despite the government relaxing its zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate last year to permit the sale of hybrids into the next decade, the mandate's 80% EV registration target for 2030 effectively ensures that most cars on sale will be electric.

The long-awaited review has the potential to change this, however, particularly if it mirrors the alterations proposed in other markets, such as by the EU earlier this year.

While decarbonisation minister Kier Mather told the conference that the review would begin at some point this year, he confirmed it wouldn’t be published until the beginning of 2027 at the earliest.

“We feel it is the right point to make sure that we can test properly where the pressure points lie in this ZEV mandate,” he said.

However, Vauxhall owner Stellantis and fellow car makers JLR, Ford, and Volvo told the conference that this would be too late.

Druce said: “We are coming up towards a fundamental crossroads in this pathway where we need to make some very quick decisions, and review [published] next year is too late.

“The review needs to happen now in order for us to make the right decisions on investments. We're not deciding on investments for 2027 now, we're not deciding on investments for 2028, 2029 or 2030 now; our decisions on investments now are post-2030 and quite a few years in advance of that. This is taking the industry to a position of unsustainability in the UK.”

Ford UK boss Lisa Brankin echoed Druce's points on the review, telling the same conference that the government needs to "get on with it". "Start the review, get it completed and make a decision, and make the announcement this year," she said.

Elaborating on the difficulties the ZEV mandate is having on car makers, Druce said the heavy discounting of EVs by manufacturers in order to boost demand and comply with the mandate means that “you're not able to profit from making and selling electric vehicles in the UK market today”.

He added that this could have an impact on future investment in the UK: “There will be the odd exception, but the majority [of manufacturers] will be in a situation where they’re investing so heavily that most of the vehicles sold will probably be loss-making.

“We are businesses, and so businesses want to invest, of course, but you decide to invest where you can make a return, and if you cannot make the return in that country, then the ability of the company to invest and create the growth – that the government is looking for in the UK – is absent.”

His comments come days after Stellantis’s European chief Emanuele Cappellano warned that the firm will shrink UK operations without ZEV mandate changes, because it can’t meet future government targets on EVs without losing money.

Thirsty work: Fixing the most annoying thing on my Alpine A290

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 09:22:47 +0000

Electric hot hatch is a blast to drive but missing one crucial component - here's an easy 3D-printed fix

"A large black Americano, please," I cheerily say to the woman at the till. "To go!" I add loudly, beaming.

Clearly at a loss as to why someone would be so chipper at seven o'clock on a Wednesday morning at a motorway service station but none too bothered about finding out, she blinks, stares coolly and replies: "Do you mean venti or grande?"

Well, actually, my frappucino-frothing friend, I can have whatever the heck I like. The world is my oyster when it comes to choosing the size of my coffee. There's no cup too capacious, no drink too daunting, no beverage too... Four pounds?! Forget it, I'll make one when I get home.

Economic considerations aside, though, I'm enjoying the new-found sense of care-free liberation that comes from finally being able to take a drink along for the ride with me in the Alpine A290 we're living with.

The lack of a cupholder had quickly become one of my prevailing bugbears about this electric hot hatch (second only to its frustratingly short range), and I was finding long journeys a particular chore without a hot coffee or tea to make the miles slip by more pleasurably.

But that has all changed now, and I find myself quickly warming again to the A290's charms, because this glaring utility shortcoming has been addressed. My thanks go to design engineer and sometime motoring writer Tim Oldland, founder of home EV charger company Bespoke Chargers (check them out: they turn old wheels into cable reels).

Like me, he had borrowed an A290 for a while and quickly become frustrated by the lack of anywhere sensible to put a drink on the move. Unlike me, though, he had the skills and tools to do something about it, so produced the ingenious 3D-printed prototype shown above.

The bracket simply clips onto the side of the centre console, and the basket itself has flexible arms inside that clasp your vessel to stop it knocking and bouncing around. I've tested it with takeaway coffee cups, flasks and big metal bottles and haven't been disappointed yet.

It came in particularly handy when I nipped down the road on Saturday afternoon to grab a bottle of wine, the door pockets having previously proven too narrow to comfortably stow a sauvignon.

It's a fantastic solution to a problem that shouldn't really exist, given that the Renault 5 on which the A290 is based has a pair of cupholders in the central cubby. The only problem with this design is that it protrudes into the front passenger compartment, so it's a bit awkward to have in place when you've got someone with you-but then I suppose you could just ask them nicely to hold your drink for you until it's finished.

There are universal, off-the-shelf alternatives available (some for just a few quid on Amazon, for example), but I'd either have to clip it to a vent - so my drink would block the flow of air into the cabin, getting colder or hotter than I want it in the process - or install it in the centre cubby itself, which would mean I'd have to have the lid open all the time and be unable to access a useful storage compartment.

I found one website selling the 3D-printing template for a clever free-standing design that fits neatly over the top of the A290's wireless phone charging pad. I'd be tempted by this if I owned a 3D printer, but then where would my phone go? Welcome to the frustrating and complex world of modern car interior design.

In any case, my A290 now feels like a more well-rounded daily driver (amazing what a little piece of plastic can do) and, with warmer weather on the horizon, I'm looking forward to gaining a few miles per charge and more readily being able to take a spontaneous road trip for the sheer sake of driving.

Leiters' challenge: reshaping Porsche for a different world

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 09:15:49 +0000

Tariffs, softened EV sales targets and threat from Chinese brands have forced a total rethink for Porsche

Present-day Porsche was built for a world that no longer exists, a world in which trade was largely free, regulations were converging towards electric and its Germany-centred technological superiority allowed it to charge higher prices than its peers.

Now all these conditions have been challenged or changed. Tariffs imposed by US president Donald Trump cost Porsche €700 million last year, while his determination to reset all environmental regulations means the country is no longer on the electrification path.

Meanwhile, rapid technological advances made by Chinese brands forged in the white heat of competition have eroded Porsche’s pricing power in China. Back in 2022, this was Porsche’s biggest market with almost 100,000 cars delivered. Last year that number had halved to 41,938.

All this upheaval has had a catastrophic effect on Porsche’s operating profit, down from €7.3 billion in 2023 to €413 million last year.

Profit margin stood at just 1.1%, down from 18%, after Porsche was forced to write off €3.1bn to reverse advanced electrification plans, including kicking a high-tech EV platform (dubbed SSP 61) into the long grass.

Reinventing Porsche for this new era is former McLaren boss Michael Leiters, who replaced Volkswagen Group head Oliver Blume on 1 January.

He will get to lay out a fully formed plan in the autumn, which he hopes will rebuild Porsche into a company that can ride out the global shocks and get back to margins of around 15%.

However, time isn’t on the side of CEOs of listed companies that have lost their profitable mojo, and on 11 March Leiters had to persuade financial analysts that he at least had a grasp on the situation.

After laying out his bona fides (CEO of McLaren, CTO of Ferrari for eight years, 13 years at Porsche), he was blunt about the size of the job. “Our clear priority is to fundamentally realign Porsche,” he said.

Almost immediately it was obvious how tough this would be. Leiters clearly doesn’t want to shrink Porsche's sales further from the 265,663 recorded last year, down almost 50,000 from the year before. But he also stressed ‘value over volume’, ie keeping prices high. “That doesn't mean I don't care about volume, so please understand both are important, but value is more important than volume,” he said, carefully threading the needle.

In China, however, that strategy will inevitably result in volumes falling further as Porsche defends its pricing. The company expects to take a €200m hit in 2026 because of this. “China is a market we continue to believe in, especially in the higher segments and for internal combustion engines,” Leiters said. However there’s no push to beat competitors, especially on EVs. “We are not willing to play that game on the discount side,” Leiters said. Porsche will cut its number of dealers in China from 100 to 80.

Competition in China has now got so tough that sending over global products doesn’t cut it: you need to spend more to design for local requirements. And Porsche is bowing to the pressure, starting with a new locally developed infotainment system, due to be rolled out later this year.

Lower volumes globally are going to be the norm until new products arrive. Porsche’s “more selective product offering”, with the new 718 Boxster/Cayman in limbo and the Audi-based ICE Macan replacement not arriving until 2028, is going to have an effect. “We expect significantly lower vehicle sales this year,” CFO Jochen Breckner warned on the call.

Finding profits in a period of lower volumes means cost-cutting, and Leiters warned of more job losses on top of the 1900 already promised by 2029. He spoke of arriving to find an organisation sized for a different world. “One of the challenges we have is to reduce a significant bureaucracy I found here,” he said. “Under the changed conditions, the previously planned [headcount] reduction will not be sufficient.”

Another delicate operation will be Leiters’ stated aim to use more Volkswagen Group technology, platforms and modules to save money without diluting the 'Porscheness' of Porsche's products. The €1bn paid to Audi doesn’t just secure it the Q5’s Premium Platform Combustion (PPC) platform for the new Macan but also other models going forward, Leiters said.

He didn’t mention which ones, but Porsche’s new ‘K1’ ICE SUV, which will sit above the Cayenne, likely due in 2028, is twinned with the upcoming Audi Q9.

“We are analysing where we can unlock additional synergies across our models,” Leiters said. “It is very important to use these commonalities and synergies, [but] we have to make sure that this is a real Porsche.”

The danger is that an Audi-based Macan is too dilutive to Porsche pricing, given the reduced levels of aristocratic blood in its fuel pipes. Indeed, one analyst wondered if the model should be scrapped altogether. Porsche, however, wants to continue to have its cake and eat it. “The Porsche brand is characterised by exclusivity and approachability,” Leiters said. “The Macan is an excellent example of this.”

Porsche’s average selling price is already enviable, at €121,000, up from €117,000 in 2024, helped by the continued success of the 911 sports car family. Leiters wants to boost this by adding more models at the top end, confirming plans to launch new flagship two-door sports cars above the 911 as well as the more expensive SUV.

What he has to hope is that this boost in average selling price covers the higher cost of doing business in the new world order. For example, he said that Porsche is looking into building cars in the US, which Leiters described as “compelling” while also warning that it would be incredibly expensive.

Porsche has previously denied reports that it would shift some production from Europe to the US, but €700m of annual tariff punishment and the ability of Mercedes-Benz and BMW to sell their American-made SUVs more cheaply might finally swing the decision, especially given the fact that the US is now Porsche's biggest market.

Porsche 911 Cabriolet

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 08:28:50 +0000

The 911 coupe gets plenty of attention so here we focus on the cab – in 534bhp, four-wheel drive GTS form Not often, in the realm of full Autocar road tests, do we focus our attention on the convertible version of a performance car. On the weighbridge these derivatives are invariably heavier, against the clock they are guaranteed to be slower and in subjective handling terms they will almost always be less rewarding.In short, it’s better to test the coupé if you want to know what a car is really capable of. This explains why it has been 12 years since we last tested a convertible Porsche 911, and even that is stretching the reality of the matter, because that 2014-model-year test car was not even a Cabriolet but a Targa.So why now focus our attention on the new 911 Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet? First, the popular Cabriolet makes up a significant proportion of annual 911 sales worldwide, so it demands attention from, ahem, a public interest standpoint. Also, we have yet to affix our VBox telemetry gear to any four-wheel-drive variant of the eighth-generation 911, which is another oversight given the popularity of the format in the UK.Third, we are curious to see what the humble 911 Carrera is like when shorn of its roof and taken to extremes of performance and grip. Convertible 911s today are not like those of the 1980s and 1990s, and the compromises made in comparison to the coupé have shrunk over the years. Is it now the case that you can buy the 911 Cabriolet safe in the knowledge that there are no discernible dynamic drawbacks when you want to enjoy a great stretch of road? Even if that car has comfortably more than 500bhp and also the traction to deploy it?

Torque vs tread - do EVs tear through tyres faster?

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 08:23:29 +0000

We explain why your driving style – and high-tech compounds – might just save you a fortune at the fitters

With their hefty kerb weights and instant torque delivery, EVs will suffer from faster tyre wear than a traditional ICE car - at least that’s the received wisdom.

In many respects, it's simple physics. You don’t even have to get behind the wheel and put the theory to the test: just get the calculator out and do the sums.

Yet as with everything in life, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Dig a little deeper and you will find that, yes, in many circumstances EVs do chew through rubber and an accelerated rate. Even Michelin has admitted that battery-powered cars can wear out tyres up to 20% faster than petrols and diesels.

However, tyre manufacturers are quickly coming to terms with the issue and developing EV-specific rubber that’s more robust, matching and even exceeding longevity of ICE cars. Moreover, it’s not just the tyres that can be changed in an effort to reduce wear: the driver can too.

So read on as we take a closer look at how these cars work their rubber, as well as offer a few tips on how you can tread more carefully to make the most of the covers on your electrified wheels.

Putting the power down and dealing with the mass

As we’ve already mentioned, the basic physics suggests that an EV will wear out their tyres more quickly than equivalently sized and specified ICE cars.

The extra mass off these heavy cars puts extra stress on the tread even in steady state cruising, while the instant spike in torque from the electric motor means the rubber is working harder to maintain traction.

When it comes to mass, respected automotive testing organisation Emissions Analytics reckons that for every extra 450kg you add to a car’s kerb weight, tyre wear increases by 20%. Given that most ICE family cars tip the scales at around 1400kg and an equivalent EV is around 2000kg, that’s a big chunk of extra wear.

Then there’s an EV’s stronger acceleration: their motors’ ability to deliver 100% torque the moment you put your foot on the throttle puts the tread under increased stress as it tears into the road surface in an effort to translate all that energy into forward motion.

Yet what is true for going also applies to stopping and going around corners.

EVs use regenerative braking to help slow the car and feed otherwise lost energy into the battery. This is great news for the range and the traditional braking set-up, which doesn’t do as much work and so you save pad and disc wear, but the tyres are still under a fair amount of stress. Bringing 2000kg to a halt, particularly in a hurry, requires the rubber to work significantly harder than if it were 1500kg.

Attack a series of corners, even at moderate speed, and the tyres of an EV will experience greater lateral loads. Modern stability-control and torque-vectoring systems do a great job of disguising the mass from the driver, but ultimately the tyres are still trying to stop a great deal of mass from heading to the scene of the accident.

Many EVs feature a wider-section tyre for a greater contact patch, increasing overall grip, but the tread blocks and compound are working harder – and therefore wearing faster – than they would on lighter cars.

What’s the answer?

Tyre manufacturers are racing to find solutions to the specific challenges of EVs. The cynical among us might think that faster wearing tyres would be causing the bosses of rubber companies to be rubbing their hands with glee at the potential increase in revenues, but business doesn’t always work like that.

As a cash-strapped punter, are you going to fork out for the same set of boots when the previous set appears to have worn out prematurely or instead shop around for a potentially harder-wearing option? Exactly.

EV-specific tyres are already gaining traction (pun very much intended), but so far the emphasis has been on reducing rolling resistance for greater efficiency and increased sidewall strength to cope with heavier kerb weights. Engineers have also been working on reducing noise levels, with the lack of an internal combustion engine’s machinations resulting in occupants' ears turning their attention to road noise and tyre roar.

A lot of work is now being done in the highly secretive area of compound technology, with tyre makers mixing different blends of rubber to improve longevity. Many brands are even looking at the application of nanocarbon and nanosilica, both of which have the potential to increase EV tyre life with no loss in performance.

As a result, almost every major tyre brand has an EV-specific tyre on its books, each claiming an increased lifespan. In fairness, this is often a comparison with standard, off-the-shelf rubber that could be fitted to any car regardless of motive power. Even so, the big hitters – such as Continental, Michelin and Pirelli – all claim to sell EV tyres that have pretty much eliminated that 20%-increased wear rate compared with an ICE car.

What can I do?

Much like fuel efficiency or electric range realisation, tyre wear is in some respects relative. Drive everywhere like your hair is on fire and, well, you’re likely to be rolling up to a tyre-fitting establishment rather sooner than Miss Daisy’s dedicated driver. As a result, there are things you can do to make your rubber go further.

As with driving quickly, smoothness is the key to increased tyre life. Caressing the controls is always going to put the rubber under less strain, especially when it comes to accelerating and braking. Just because an EV can do 0-60mph in 0.3sec and gives you every pound-foot of torque in the blink-of-an-eye, doesn’t mean you should summon all its efforts in one go.

And if you can’t resist, then consider engaging the car’s Eco drive mode, which softens the throttle response and, more often than not, reduces the power delivery.

The same is true of braking and cornering. By relying on greater anticipation and using the softer regen modes, you can slow the car more gently and so put less strain on the tyres.

Smoother and more precise steering inputs will also help reduce the load on the tyres. Sudden inputs on turn-in will put more instant stress on the tread, likely forcing it to scrub across the surface in an understeery state. And even with modern traction-control systems, a bootful of throttle mid-corner is going to have the tread blocks straining to maintain grip.

Then there’s the sensible stuff, like keeping an eye on tyre pressures. If you run them under- or over-inflated, you’re going to be promoting premature tyre wear. The same is true of poorly aligned suspension and steering, which will accelerate the reduction in tread depth – an issue that will be exacerbated by an EV’s extra mass compared with an ICE car.

Ultimately, EVs in their current form put more demands on tyres and, apart from a handful of pricier EV-specific tyres, do wear out their rubber quicker than many electric cars. However, the difference isn’t as great as it used to be and is reducing all the time. So choose carefully and alter your driving style a little and there’s no reason this could become a deal-breaker when looking to make the switch to electric power.

I went to buy a family car and came home with a 54-year-old Marcos

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Meet the owner who swapped domestic bliss for a V6-powered, fiberglass Marcos GT 3-Litre

When you and your wife have agreed you need a new car big enough for the family and the pet dog and one week later you present her with a 54-year-old, two-seat British sports car, you’re either very brave or very foolish and probably both.

“As instructed by my wife, I had been looking for our next family car when I was sent a link to a Marcos GT 3-Litre advertised on Facebook,” explains Mark Edwards.

“I told her I was going to look at it simply out of curiosity, because I’d not seen one before, and the next thing I’d put down a deposit on it and the following week went to the West Country from our home in London to pick it up. When I arrived back in it, my wife exclaimed: ‘It ’s only got two seats!’ I had to go and get a family car after that – an Audi Q5.”

‘GT’ was the name Marcos gave all of its cars prior to the Mantis of 1970. It was launched in 1964 with a wooden chassis, a glassfibre body and an engine from the Volvo P1800. More powerful versions followed, culminating in the 3-Litre of 1968.

By then, the wooden chassis had been replaced by one made of steel, but otherwise the model remained a front-engined, rear-drive, two-seat coupé so low that the driving position approaches the horizontal.

With its large headlights, thrusting bonnet and classic profile, it’s easy to understand why Mark’s family car shopping trip went awry.

“I just fell in love with it,” he says, almost apologetically.

His GT was built in 1969 and sent to South Africa to drum up business – which, sadly, it failed to do. So back it came, being registered in 1970. Only 196 GT 3-Litres were built, 130 of them for the UK.

When Mark bought his car in 2019, its odometer was showing 69,000 miles. Driving it away from its former home, he decided it needed major surgery.

He says: “First, I handed the car over to a specialist to have the engine bored out to 3.1 litres and given a stage-four makeover. That cost £9000, but now it makes 180bhp and loads of torque. Next, I had the four-speed Ford Type 5 gearbox (the one that served in more powerful Ford Capris) and the fourth-gear selector fork rebuilt. That and having the electrical system refurbished came to £5000. So yes, I’ve spent £14,000 on a car that cost me £12,000 to buy.”

Of course the glassfibre body is rust-free, but it’s remarkable that the steel underside and outriggers are too.

“I was tempted to take it to a company that strips the body down to the fibreglass, sprays on a new polyester gel coat and repaints it, but it would have cost £12,000, and I’ve already stretched Mrs Edwards’ tolerance levels to breaking,” says Mark.

So far his GT 3-Litre has been reliable, and even in heavy rain it’s reasonably waterproof, although he has replaced the window rubbers.

Future plans include a drive to his other place in the south of France. He could trailer it there, but the prospect of those smooth French roads is irresistible.

“I’ll have to go out of season, though,” he adds. “Forty degrees in a car with no air conditioning isn’t my idea of fun.”

From ‘what on earth’s that?’ to world-beaters: the Chinese hierarchy

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:19:55 +0000

Once curiosities, now class-leaders: we rank the Chinese cars that have officially become contenders in the UK

There was a time, not so long ago, when a Chinese car was little more than a punchline with four wheels and a questionable crash rating.

Twenty-five years back, the pinnacle of Beijing’s automotive ambition was the Lubao CA6410 - a Frankenstein’s monster that grafted the snout of an Austin Montego onto the rear of a Maestro, powered by a Toyota engine and held together by little more than hope.

How times change. Today, the joke is firmly on the establishment. After two decades of frantic economic expansion and a ruthless, laser-eyed focus on electrification, the copycat era has been consigned to the scrapyard.

The traditional logic suggests that if you buy Chinese, you're buying on price alone - the automotive equivalent of a supermarket own-brand digestive. But the new wave of metal landing on our shores suggests otherwise.

While they remain aggressively priced, the budget label no longer fits. In terms of tactile interior quality and, crucially, driving dynamics, some of the latest exports are now hounding the heels of the European, Japanese and Korean elite. The plastics are soft, the screens are gargantuan and the waft is becoming waftier.

The era of the cheap and nasty import is ending and the era of the genuine contender has arriving.

Below, we’ve curated the cream of the current crop from China.

Ferrari Amalfi Spider revealed: 631bhp V8 cruiser gets drop top

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 14:15:46 +0000

Replacement for Roma Spider is as quick off the mark as its coupé sibling, despite extra weight

Ferrari has revealed the Amalfi Spider as the latest iteration of its front-engined V8 drop-top.

Evolved from the Roma Spider, the new-look Aston Martin Vantage Roadster rival packs an upgraded twin-turbocharged 3.9-litre V8, which is good for 631bhp and 561lb ft of torque.

It matches the Amalfi coupé's 0-62mph time of 3.3sec despite the inevitable added weight of a folding roof mechanism, which here makes the Amalfi Spider 86kg heavier than its sibling, at 1556kg dry.

The Amalfi Spider has been designed so that its silhouette and aerodynamic credentials were as close as possible to that of the hard-top car's with the roof closed - which is why the hood now extends over the rear deck, having previously stopped at the base of the rear screen.

There's also a new active rear wing that adjusts automatically according to aerodynamic load. It's said to generate up to 110kg more downforce than the previous item at 155mph while reducing drag by 4%.

That combines with a suite of wind-cheating bodywork tweaks already introduced to the coupé.

"Particular attention has been paid to passenger comfort when the roof is open," Ferrari said, highlighting the installation of an electric wind deflector behind the rear seats, which can be raised or lowered while the car is in motion.

The roof can be raised or lowered in just 13.5 seconds, making it one of the quickest electric soft-tops on the market, and at vehicle speeds of up to 37mph.

Ferrari hasn't yet announced pricing for the new roadster, but the coupé starts at around £202,000 and this will command a small premium over that.

Deliveries are due to get under way in the coming months.

Honda scraps radical 0 Series saloon and SUV in EV U-turn

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:40:34 +0000

Duo are cancelled just months before launch as Honda announces huge EV investment write-down

Honda has canceled the 0 Series SUV and Saloon just months before production was scheduled to begin, as it restructures its EV strategy in the face of an “extremely challenging earnings situation”.

The Japanese firm announced on Thursday that the two EVs had been scrapped, just a few months before they were planned to enter production in the US. The US-market Acura RSX has also been cancelled.

The SUV and Saloon were the first of seven planned 0 Series models that Honda previously said would arrive before the end of the decade. But the company said uncertainty and increased competitiveness in the global EV market has prompted it to cancel the programme and write off the heavy costs associated with its development.

These futuristic-looking EVs were to sit on a new bespoke platform developed from a clean sheet of paper. The saloon, first shown in concept form in 2024, was pencilled to go on sale first, followed by the SUV, which was previewed last year.

The write-down decision will result in losses of ¥340-570 billion (£1.6-2.7bn) this financial year (ending at the end of this month), Honda said.

It warned that further losses in the next 2026-27 financial year are expected to result from this decision.

In a statement today, the company said: “Honda determined that starting production and sales of these three models in the current business environment where the demand for EVs is declining significantly would likely result in further losses over the long term."

Explaining this decision, Honda pointed firstly to major changes in the US, where president Donald Trump recently rolled back a string of legislation, brought in by the previous administration, that incentivised both the buying and building of EVs.

This has created an “unfavourable impact” on Honda's business. It added that before the laws were changed, it “pursued EV adoption with strong determination” in the US.

Honda has also struggled in Asia, where there has been a “decline in the competitiveness of Honda products”. The company blamed consumer wants “shifting from hardware features, such as fuel efficiency and cabin space, to software-based features that will continuously advance according to customer preferences”.

It said it was at a disadvantage to react to this, due to new EV manufacturers in China that can “leverage their short product development cycles” to shift scope quickly depending on demand, which has “intensified the competition”.

It concluded that its “automobile business has fallen into an extremely challenging earnings situation due to various factors, including its inability to respond flexibly to these changes in the business environment, compounded by a decline in the profitability of gasoline and hybrid models due to the impact of newly imposed tariffs”.

“Honda is undergoing significant changes, and the outlook remains uncertain,” it added.

To counter the losses, Honda will reorganise its businesses in key and emerging markets in an effort to “re-establish its competitive strengths”.

As such, Honda will now look to be more competitive in the US and Japan, through enhancing models and lowering prices. It will also focus on introducing more hybrids in Asia, especially in the growing market of India.

It will also restructure its business around EVs, implementing what it calls a more flexible approach to future electric model launches.

It added that it will be “monitoring the balance between profitability and market trends", suggesting it will prioritise updating its most profitable and in-demand models over launching new EVs.

Some Honda executives will also forfeit part of their bonuses planned to be given at the end of the financial year.

I accidentally drove 200 miles in my Ford Capri – but learned a lot

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000

A last-minute cancellation gave me the chance to test how flooring it affects my Capri's touring legs

It was the closest thing I can remember to a completely wasted journey. I set off in my Ford Capri from home in Gloucestershire midway through a Sunday afternoon – when I could instead have been watching an absorbing Six Nations game on TV – in order to position myself in good time for an early Monday morning meeting in London.

Such was the importance of this meeting that the sacrifice seemed justified, and so it remained until I reached the outskirts of London – to be dead accurate, that raised a bit of the M4 just east of Heathrow airport.

That was where I learned that (a) not only was this crucial London meeting now no longer happening but (b) I'd have been better off staying at home in the shires because something just as important was now happening there early the following day.

The only sensible thing to do was to pull a U-turn at the roundabout where the M4 meets London's North Circular road and retrace my route home, spending another two hours and 94 miles getting home. Nothing else made sense. It's normally quite hard to be creative at a brain-stretching time like that, but I'd had an enjoyable trip.

Traffic had been light and I'd amused myself by driving in an economy-minded manner, cruising between 55mph and 65mph to see if I could maintain the tailwind-assisted power consumption rate of 3.7mpkWh that had initially appeared on the dashboard.

I had also been able to have some cheery conversations with several friends and family members on the easy-to-operate hands-free phone, so I was in decent spirits when it dawned on me that a reversal of direction made sense.

For a second my mood threatened to descend into the doldrums, until it occurred to me there might be something to gain from this return leg. How about returning to Gloucestershire as fast as the law would allow adding the 2-3mph of built-in speedo error, and not sparing the right foot when acceleration was needed to maintain pace into what was now a headwind.

It took 1 hour 58 minutes to reach this point in light traffic: how would journey time and economy differ as I tried hard on the return run? A brief but convenient traffic light stop on a roundabout allowed me to reset the trip and flip the driving mode from Eco to Sport to make the comparison as realistic as possible.

I accelerated briskly back up the ramp and onto the M4, noting immediately the extra noise of the headwind as I headed west, cruising at the limit. Instead of simply allowing the car to roll I kept it going, eschewing cruise control because I always think I can do a more efficient job of keeping a car going by better anticipating its need for acceleration or braking. This was not a very scientific project.

I can't be sure the traffic provided the same lack of interference as on the way out when the speed reading was usually 15mph lower; I certainly spent more time in the outside lane. Yet it felt like a pretty good, uncorrupted test. I arrived home in 1 hour 55 minutes, with the consumption readout showing 3.1mpkWh – quite a poor time saving, given that the fuel consumption was 16% poorer.

A good proportion of the loss, I surmise, was the fault of a breeze the Met Office said averaged 6-8mph, assisting on the way out, impeding on the way back. Two other observations: the seats, in which I'd never spent four hours at a stretch before, were still unimpeachably comfortable.

There is no doubting this Capri's built-in comfort. Last, having travelled 188 miles from home to London to Heathrow and back, the car's range meter was still promising 92 miles. In half-careful give-and-take driving, I have little doubt that Ford could deliver 280 miles before the 'charge battery' warnings became hysterical – a fine performance.

UK car makers beat EV sales targets in 2024, new figures reveal

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 11:13:09 +0000

EV sales mix in first year of ZEV mandate was 19.8%, but credits trading pushed industry past 22% target

Car makers beat their electric car sales targets in 2024, the first year of the UK's ZEV mandate, according to new figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT).

As a whole the industry hit a 19.8% EV mix against a target of 22% but added the equivalent of an additional 4.7% through CO2 credits on the Vehicle Emissions Trading Scheme (VETS), taking the total to an equivalent of 24.1%.

This overachievement enabled manufacturers to bank EV credits for future years, in which the EV target will become increasingly higher.

It also meant credits could be traded between manufacturers under the Car Registration Trading Scheme (CRTS).

On top of this, some manufacturers 'forward-borrowed' 1.2% worth of EV registrations in order to avoid fines.

The DfT revealed that EV credit trading prices were running at a much lower cost than £12,000 per-car fine that the government would impose for failure to reach the EV target.

Around 39,000 CRTS allowances were traded between manufacturers – equivalent to 2.1% of the total market in 2024 – at an average of approximately £4000 each.

It was a similar story in the van market: while only 6.8% of new LCVs registered in 2024 were electric, CO2-related reductions boosted the figure by 5.3% to 12.0%, against a 10% mandated target.

A further 0.2% was forward-borrowed by van makers against future targets.

In the van market, only 200 credits were traded at “substantially less than their respective compliance costs”, according to the DfT, with manufacturers preferring to bank their excess credits rather than sell them.

The fines associated with vans are more punitive than for cars, at £15,000 per vehicle over the permitted total.

Since the introduction of the ZEV mandate, manufacturers have fought to have the targets and fines watered down, claiming the cost of meeting them isn't sustainable.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has said that across 2024 and 2025, the collective cost of hitting the targets was more than £10 billion.

The government has stated it will start a review of the ZEV mandate later this year, with the results to be published in the first half of 2027, but it will surely see the 2024 figures as a vindication of its system to ensure its net-zero goals are achieved.

The industry has already started to push back, though, citing the financial unsustainability of heavily discounting an increasing proportion of vehicles to artificially drive EV demand.

The latest figures are already a year old and were achieved before a revision to the ZEV mandate that lowered the fine level from £15,000 to £12,000 per car.

The revised regulations also mean credits can be traded between cars and vans, and all credits can now be banked until 2029; originally this allowance was due to end this year.

Tristan Young

VW sales boss: ZEV mandate will increase ICE car prices in UK

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 10:57:33 +0000

Martin Sander warns that manufacturers will need to compensate for heavy EV discounts by hiking ICE prices

The price of ICE cars in the UK will increase if the government’s electric car sales targets aren't redrawn, Volkswagen’s head of sales has warned.

Martin Sander said that immense discounting on EVs by manufacturers in order to boost demand and comply with the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate is unsustainable.

Last year, the average discount on a new EV was £11,000, as car makers offered a collective £10 billion in discounts to UK buyers, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Manufacturers are offering discounts to drive EV sales and thereby avoid being hit by a £12,000 fine for each ICE car sold over the mandated EV sales mix target. For 2026, that target is 33% of total registrations, and it will incrementally rise to 80% by 2030.

However, this discounting will result in increased ICE car prices as manufacturers look to recapture lost profits, Sander warned on Thursday at the SMMT’s Electrified conference in London.

“I believe that the cost of individual [ICE] transportation will go up significantly, because I can't believe that by 2030 there will be natural demand that takes us to 80% electric vehicles - because prices [of EVs] and costs [of parts and public charging] are still too high,” he said.

“So we are unable to offer [EVs] at the same price level as vehicles with combustion engines – not today, not three or four years from now. And there is a limit to how much we as the car industry are willing and capable to incentivise electric vehicles to get to a certain [target] number. And if we have to get to 80% [electric], this will not only happen by incentivising even more, but if we do that the cost of ICE vehicles will go up.”

Sander (pictured below) also warned that when the mandated EV limit is reached, discounting will stop and prices for EVs will rise rapidly.

The pot for discounting is also “not bottomless”, Volvo UK boss Nicole Melillo Shaw warned at the same event.

She said: “We have invested so much to make sure that we're on this [EV] journey. The cost of that, the tech, all of that was done years ago, so now we're at the peak of our investment curve. [The market is also] hyper-competitive, so spending more [via discounts] just to stand still, that can’t go on.

“In the short term, we're going to get to a point where those two things don't work, and it will just combust - where it won't be possible. So we need to get more people on the [EV] journey. But again, we need to do that together. That's with the government, with the manufacturers. And we need to make sure that we're incentivising in the right way, because the pot is not bottomless.”

Sander was confident that there “will be change” to the ZEV mandate: “I’m very confident that this will be looked at for a simple reason: who is going to benefit from these stringent regulations by 2030? And in the light of how things are going at the moment, the industry is not and consumers are not, so why should the government not be willing to discuss changes?”

Sander argued that the best way of driving sales of EVs in the UK is to simply stop talking about the ZEV mandate: “Do we really believe we can encourage consumers to get their heads around electric vehicles, all the benefits of electric vehicles, get excited about electric vehicles, if we are always talking about mandates?”

He said that if consumers are told “you're going to be mandated to do something because the government wants you to do”, it's difficult to position that thing as a positive, and sales will be negatively affected as a result.

He therefore uged the industry to “change the language we're using in trying to manage this transition”.

“Let's talk about the benefits of electric vehicles and let's try to tackle real hurdles like charging infrastructure, for instance," he said. "And then it doesn't matter whether we want to be at 80% in 2030, but we manage the whole transition successfully from a consumer perspective. We always talk about a mandate when nobody really wants to be mandated anything.”

Volkswagen ID 3 gains new name as part of major update

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:42:07 +0000

German firm's first bespoke EV rebranded ID 3 Neo as part of brand's shift from numbers to names

The Volkswagen ID 3 electric hatch will be rebranded the ID 3 Neo when it receives an extensive facelift later this year.

The model was released in 2020 as the brand’s first bespoke EV and has already had a substantial overhaul in a bid to improve the perceived quality. As previously reported by Autocar, the car will receive another substantial makeover this year, with a bolder front-end design and a focus on higher-quality interior trims.

The ID 3 Neo title has some history for the model: Neo was the development codename for the machine when it was under development.

Volkswagen says that the update will include switching the car to the firm's latest software, which will allow for the addition of new functions including travel assist and a one-pedal driving mode. It will also gain a vehicle-to-load outlet that will allow the machine's battery to be used to power external devices.

Kai Grünitz, VW's technical chief, said that the new software would bring "more performance and an even better customer experience". The software has already been rolled out on the ID 4, ID 5 and ID 7.

The car will also gain a new digital key option so that owners can use their smarthone to control it.

The slight rebrand for the ID 3 Neo is a surprise. While Volkswagen has previously confirmed it moving away from the numbering system originally used on its ID line-up in favour of a return to model names – as seen by the forthcoming ID Polo and ID Cross – it had been expected that the ID 3 would keep its title.

But speaking to select media including Autocar, VW sales boss Martin Sander confirmed that the new ID 3 would arrive later this year and said: “We’re going to release the name of the next ID 3 generation shortly."

The retention of the ID 3 title in some form suggests VW feels the machine has built up some brand equity, though. The ID 4 SUV will receive a more extensive facelift this year and, as Autocar has previously reported, is set to be rebranded the ID Tiguan to position it alongside the firm’s best-seller.

Retaining the ID 3 title also ensures the machine does not get confused in VW's line-up. While the model has broadly been positioned as the electric equivalent of the Golf, VW has already ruled out it taking on that crucial title, especially with development of a dedicated electric ID Golf under way.

Speaking about the initial decision to move away from product names in favour of a numbering strategy with the initial ID models, VW sales boss Martin Sander said: “Back in the days there was a notion of doing everything differently across the whole industry, with new names, new design, new sales models – and the industry has learned that not all the old things have been bad. Not everything needed to be changed, and things are moving a little bit back into a more reasonable path.”