Table of contents for June 15, 2022 in Autocar

HAVING DECIDED TO get into crossovers, McLaren now has a series of obstacles to overcome. Probably in order of urgency, they go something like this. WHICH PARTNER? McLaren’s financial difficulties have been exposed several times in the past few years, and it will need a major partner to put its SUV plans in motion. This big group will probably need to be willing to contribute a platform (as well as battery and powertrain elements), in the way the Volkswagen Group does to Lamborghini. McLaren has already held talks at group level with VW (ostensibly centred on its Formula 1 activities) and with BMW, and secret discussions with other prospective partners are believed to be under way. One useful contact might be Mercedes-Benz. The new McLaren Artura is understood to use…

AUDI WILL EXPAND its urban fast-charging hub concept to 13 more sites in the next three years, following the success of a pilot project, and hasn’t ruled out bringing it to the UK. Audi opened the first of its semi-permanent sites, featuring six 320kW EV fast chargers beneath a lounge, in the German city of Nuremberg in December last year. The six EV chargers can be reserved for 45-minute slots. The 200-square-metre lounge features toilets, vending machines, a bookable meeting room and a terrace. Ewald Kreml, who leads strategy for the charging hub project, said that it has been developed to offer “a premium experience” and is aimed at the 60% of urban EV buyers with no access to home charging. Since the Nuremberg site first opened, more than 3600…

Cupra is pressing on with a rapid and ambitious electrification strategy by which it will launch three new cars, heavily update its existing models and ramp up global sales to 500,000 per year by 2025. At the unveiling of the new 2025 Urban Rebel, a compact EV with 231bhp and a 273-mile range, CEO Wayne Griffiths also gave a surprise first look at the final version of the longa-waited Tavascan EV, the new Terramar SUV and radically redesigned updated versions of the Leon hot hatch and Formentor crossover. LEON AND FORMENTOR The Leon and Formentor will get a totally new look as part of a push to categorically separate the Cupra line-up from that of parent company Seat. Slimline headlights featuring Cupra’s distinctive triple-triangle motif are the most obvious addition…

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY Thoroughly enjoyable 250-mile weekend in a new Cupra Born, the semi-sporting electric five-door with all the built-in practicalities of its donor, the Volkswagen ID 3, plus sharper responses. It’s lowered and stiffened, and the copper-coloured body accents make it look a bit more special. With 201bhp on tap from a single motor, it also accelerates strongly to 70mph, but reasonable restraint still rewards you with a decent 220-mile range. Despite generally positive feelings, it does strike me that the sporty car sector is one area where manufacturers face challenges. Anyone who tries a standard EV soon appreciates its smoothness and serenity, but in a model with performance pretensions like this one, you do drive along listening to other people’s exhaust notes quite a bit. Mind you, when…

The second-generation BMW M2 Coupé is a car of which its makers are evidently rather proud yet still secretive about. So secretive, in fact, as to invite a bunch of journalists to drive it almost a full year ahead of its global market launch but then to decline to answer certain technical questions about it. A new compact M car is an exciting prospect, though, and the M2 in particular has already gained an enthusiastic following. It’s a base-of-the-pyramid, core-of-the-brand type of model for BMW’s M division. It matters, and the designers, engineers and technicians who have made it clearly know that better than anyone. Unlike the original F87 model, which was related circuitously to the old rear-driven 1 Series hatchback, the new M2 uses BMW’s Cluster Architecture, which is…

For all the brand-bending brilliance of the EV6, it’s the e-Niro that has cemented Kia’s reputation as an electric vehicle force. The second-best-selling EV in the UK last year, it has become like the Volkswagen Golf: the default suggestion for anyone looking to get a mainstream motor that just happens to be battery powered. So it’s a bold step by Kia to reinvent the second-generation machine as significantly as it has – far beyond the Niro EV rebrand that has cost Robert de Niro an endorsement deal. The Niro EV retains the 201bhp front-drive motor and 64.8kWh battery of the e-Niro but it is built on a new platform and has grown in all dimensions. The design has been extensively reworked inside and out, too. It’s a step away from…

Ticking time bomb I own a 35,000-mile 2015 Renault Zoe. The car’s value (with battery lease) is around £6500-£7000. Three months ago, it wouldn’t charge. I phoned my local Renault dealership and their response was that they couldn’t repair it for six weeks due to a lack of trained technicians. Two months later, I got it booked in with a three-week wait. I was ready for perhaps a £2000 repair bill. However, Renault said the inverter needed replacing at £5000, plus labour and VAT for a total bill of £6400. I was stunned, and then I was utterly depressed. This is more than four times the amount I’ve ever paid for a car repair in 25 years of driving. I offered to sell it to the dealer at a cut…

At last we can drive the DeLorean THERE’S AN INTERESTING cultural divide over the DeLorean DMC, defined by age and therefore whether it’s known as Doc Brown’s time machine or a car embroiled in disappointment and scandal. The brand’s rebirth as a luxury EV maker will surely trade heavily on the sci-fi, so let’s retell the reality. Ex-GM bigwig John DeLorean’s grand idea was a sports coupé that would be ‘ethical’ and ingenious, including a rotary engine and key components made from plastic by a new injection-moulding process. Millions poured in, including from the British government for a factory in Belfast, and Lotus came aboard to bring the car up to snuff. After many delays, we met the car – now with a Peugeot-Renault-Volvo V6 amidships – in 1981. “It…

“Only the most perceptive and critical enthusiast will push a Fiesta ST far enough to feel smug that they’ve made the right call” MILEAGE 3020 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To learn if a sporty crossover can ever be as rewarding to own as a hot hatch Do any two performance cars from the same manufacturer tread so firmly and conspicuously on each other’s toes as the Ford Puma ST and the Ford Fiesta ST to which it’s so closely related in platform, powertrain and price? Oh yes, maybe the Volkswagen Golf R and T-Roc R. And then there’s the Hyundai i30 N and Kona N sibling, I suppose. What about the Mercedes-AMG A45 and GLA 45, you ask. Well, yes, quite. A few years ago, the concept of the hot…

An expert’s view JAMES BULL, ELITE CAR CO “I first bought a 12-month-old Monaro in 2006. I love the understated looks of the 5.7 LS1 CV8. The engine is so flexible and pulls from 1200rpm – no need for thrashing an LS unit. Six months later, I bought a 6.0 LS2 VXR. It’s a better-polished car than the CV8 with HSV factory upgrades, but it costs more to buy. Monaros are addictive, like buying a modern muscle car with old-school DNA and charm. Of the many cars I have sold, owners still have them eight to 12 years later. Engines are pretty reliable too, just make sure it’s been well maintained and has the correct parts and upgrades fitted.” Buyer beware ■ ENGINE Generally trouble-free. Throttle bodies on some 6.0-litre…

A road test in any other magazine might well be a short, subjective summary of a new car produced under almost any circumstances, but the Autocar road test is different. Specific, rigorous and detailed, it’s the closest examination we can give of any new model. It appears over at least eight pages and is close to 50 man-hours in the making every week. Most of what the road test process entails is designed to be strictly repeatable and fair. We benchmark standing-start and in-gear acceleration at a purpose-built test facility every week. We carry out both subjective and objective handling tests on both road and track, on the latter up to and beyond the limit of grip, so as to fully assess stability, drivability and limit handling appeal. And while…

“McLaren’s determined to stay true to its traditions of compactness, light weight and sophisticated aero” McLaren is working on a brand-new high-performance crossover – a project that directly contradicts its previously declared intention of only ever building supercars and hypercars. The new crossover, on course to hit the market in the second half of this decade, will be a fully battery-electric proposition, not a hybrid, and will never be available with a combustion engine. McLaren is understood to be eyeing a single model to begin with, but past practice suggests different specifications and power levels will be offered in time, similar to Aston Martin with the DBX. The new McLarens are believed to be relatively low, compact, dual-or tri-motor, four-wheel-drive designs offering exalted performance levels likely to match Aston Martin’s…

New McLaren CEO Michael Leiters will bring a slightly paradoxical skillset to Woking, having spent a combined 21 years at two of the world’s most revered and competitive sporting brands but coming away arguably best known for his work in introducing family-friendly SUVs to their ranks: the Porsche Cayenne and the Ferrari Purosangue. “I’m convinced on this car and the technical concept,” he said of the latter, batting back any suggestion that it wouldn’t be a true Ferrari and thereby demonstrating a keen awareness of the need for sports car manufacturers to diversify. But despite the push to usher in more mainstream models, Leiters remained committed to preserving enthusiast-friendly, highly strung engines for use in specialist performance cars. Speaking to Autocar recently about the future of Ferrari’s hallowed V12 in…

With thousands of new electric charging stations being installed across the country, concerns have been voiced about the safety of drivers when using them late at night. Unlike refuelling a combustion engine, electric charging is not a two-minute job, and there are worries that if drivers need to add more range during darker hours, there is sometimes nowhere to take shelter or keep warm – and, worst case, the charging point is located in an isolated and poorly lit area of a car park, far from any other building or security. Another concern is the reliability of charging stations, which could leave low-on-power drivers stranded if one doesn’t work, adding to the dreaded range anxiety many EV owners face. These issues have prompted calls to the government to make night-time…

ESCAPE HATCH Forget the Ford Puma’s helpful ‘Megabox’ under the boot floor: Fisker says its upcoming Pear EV will have the world’s first ‘Houdini trunk’. Described as “an alternative to traditional rear cargo hatches”, it’s part of a raft of features that aim to make the sub-$29k (roughly sub-£23k) Pear one of the most spacious cars in its segment – and Fisker will tell us more about how it works before the reveal. The Cupra Urban Rebel rival will be unveiled in the second half of 2023 before going on sale in 2024 with a choice of rear-or four-wheel drive and a range of up to 310 miles. SCOOP OF THE YEAR JCB firmly believes hydrogen combustion is a viable alternative to all-out electrification in the battle to decarbonise the…

ALISON JONES HAS been named the overall winner at Autocar’s Great Women in the British Car Industry awards for 2022. The most successful car companies this decade will be those that can hunt down new opportunities offered by the pressing need to reuse and recycle, and it’s therefore a measure of how highly regarded Jones is held within Stellantis that she has been given the responsibility for this within the 14-brand organisation. Her promotion in May to oversee the circular economy strategy at Stellantis is her first global position in the company after a stellar period guiding first the PSA brands of Citroën, DS and Peugeot in the UK and then also Vauxhall and the former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles brands. With her new title of senior vice-president of circular economy,…

It has been a rough few years for McLaren Automotive. Some luxury and sports car brands have weathered the challenges of the past 24 months surprisingly matter-of-factly, relying on the desirability of their cars, the good faith of their customers and no doubt having a few quid in the bank to get them through. But McLaren hasn’t had it so easy. The McLaren Group sold the Applied technology division of its business, not to mention its Woking headquarters (only to lease it back) in 2021. The Automotive division parted with its CEO last year. The Formula 1 race team was even linked with a sale at one stage. And through it all, the company was having a particularly tough time getting its latest crucial new model, the Artura plug-in hybrid…

I always thought an Austin-Healey was quite a big, muscular classic car. But seeing this restomod by engineering firm Envisage’s new brand Caton in the wild for the first time, I’m reminded that old cars are delicately small, even if they are muscular. And this one is beautifully finished. One of Envisage’s strong points is creating body panels for continuation models, like Jaguar’s XKSS and D-Type, costing hundreds of thousands – and the team has done a similarly fine job here. They have cleaned up the original (1953-1955) Austin-Healey 100/4 BN1 look, proportionally very similar but with a few twists, like to the grille and side vents, and removing exterior handles. Inside, the trim and finish are lovely too. Customers of the 25 cars that Caton intends to work on…

Despite the ongoing supply chain crisis and enduring post-pandemic problems, sales of C-segment SUVs continue to rise. The C5 Aircross is a case in point, with 245,000 finding homes in Europe since the original made its debut in 2018. That means the French firm has played it reasonably safe with this mid-life refresh, because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. There are revised trim levels, including a new entry-level Sense Plus model, but the most obvious change is the new nose and headlight treatment, which takes its angular cues from the C4 and C5 X, while revised 3D LED lights feature at the rear. There are no sheet metal changes, but the new elements have been neatly integrated to create a more distinctive look. It’s a similar story inside,…

“There’s so much tension in our lives right now that simplicity has become cool. The more turmoil there is, the cooler our brand becomes.” If Dacia CEO Denis Le Vot is right (and European sales figures suggest he is), the affordable car maker from Romania is about to get glacially cool. Inflation, salary freezes, rising energy and raw material costs, war in Ukraine... The list of phrases you can append the word ‘crisis’ to is growing almost daily and is, says Le Vot, about to be joined by a new one: mobility. He explains: “Since World War II, we’ve seen the cost of cars, adjusted for inflation, staying more or less flat or in some cases going down. That’s no longer the case. The pressures are coming from everywhere but…

In response to Tom Smith’s letter (18 May), I would like to defend Toyota GB and its dealers. I ordered and bought both my GR Supra Pro (2019) and GR Yaris (2021) using Toyota’s online process without a problem, even though there was high initial demand for the GR Supra and the GR Yaris was oversubscribed. I then used the same process to successfully order a GR86 (my seventh new Toyota in a row, incidentally – my second being a GT86). My secret? An extremely close relationship with my local dealer, Parklands Toyota of Truro in Cornwall. At every stage of every transaction, we worked closely together to ensure that I, as a valued customer, achieved the result required. The result for the dealer is one very happy customer with…

Originally a trailblazer for the compact SUV breed, the Toyota RAV4 has grown up to become one of the most rounded cars on the market. It’s also among the more populous cars, which is good news for used buyers because it means plenty of choice. Toyota has sold more than 10 million RAV4s worldwide since its launch in 1994. For its latest and fifth generation, the practical SUV moved to the Toyota New Global Architecture modular platform, which is also used by the Toyota Highlander and the Lexus NX and RX. Although it arrived in early 2019 with a new exterior design, the RAV4’s most significant changes were under the bonnet. In place of a selection of purely petrol and diesel engines, the new car was launched with a ‘self-charging’…

Car factories are hives of industry, with the largest making more than one million vehicles a year. Here, then, are the biggest factories by annual production numbers, based on data from 2019 (figures for 2020 and 2021 were a mess, first due to the pandemic and then the microchip shortage). The world is clamouring for new cars, so let’s hope they are all back to capacity soon. Hyundai Ulsan, Korea 1.53 million cars The Ulsan factory operated by Hyundai in South Korea is the single-biggest car factory in the world, producing 1.53 million cars at peak capacity. Ulsan is so vast that it has five individual plants within its overall footprint, with separate areas to build engines and transmissions before they meet bodyshells. Such is the size of Ulsan, it…

Wilder can carry four soldiers inside, cargo on external rear bed Israeli company Plasan has revealed a groundbreaking light armoured vehicle with a mid-mounted engine and an attack-helicopter-style cabin. The Wilder, designed by Briton Nir Kahn, moves away from the trend for protected military vehicles to grow ever bigger by accommodating four soldiers and a useful pick-up load bay into a footprint similar to that of the modern Jeep Wrangler. Kahn and the engineers in Sasa have thrown out the military vehicle rule book. Taking inspiration from off-road buggies, they have mid-mounted the engine and gearbox in a tubular subframe, which is hung off a monocoque ‘kitted hull’, with a second subframe supporting the front suspension. “The Wilder is like an Apache attack helicopter on wheels,” said Kahn. Key elements…

“HAS YOUR BATTERY integrity been breached?” It’s just one of the examples of technical jargon infiltrating the language since the march of the battery-electric vehicle began. It’s a valid question, though, and while manufacturers go to great lengths to protect battery packs, it would be good to know there’s some kind of electronic sentry keeping an eye on things. Continental – a tyre maker but in a wider sense also one of the largest developers of vehicle technology in the world – thought so. It has developed a dedicated sensing system called the Battery Impact Detection system, or BID, to do just that. Batteries are well protected but Continental reasoned that because they are usually mounted in the underfloor section, there are instances where they could potentially be at risk…

Funny how attitudes change so quickly. Three times last week while out with the Morgan Super 3 (see p30), I was asked if it was electric. It isn’t, although Morgan has had an electrified three-wheeler before, in 2016, and the new Super 3 has been designed with future electrification in mind. Beyond that description, Morgan doesn’t want to talk about it at the moment, but you can see how it’d fit, literally and ethically, with the Super 3. Practically, they could put a modest electric motor where the bevel box for the final drive is, which currently sits and transfers the propshaft’s rotation from the gearbox through 90deg into a shaft for a pinion to which the drive belt is attached. Then there’s the lump of engine and gearbox in…

PENSKE’S WILL POWER scored his third win on Motown’s Belle Isle street circuit and the 41st of his Indycar career as the series took its final bow at the popular venue. The Australian used a three-stop strategy following a disappointing qualifying that left him starting a lowly 16th to pick off many of those ahead of him and beat Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi by little more than a second. The key was Power starting on the ‘primary’ Firestone tyre and running long while rivals, including pole position winner Josef Newgarden, started on the softer red-walled ‘option’ rubber that proved short of life. Power is a master of making tyres last and used that skill to eke out his own set of reds over his final stint. Rossi, who finished on…

It’s easy to get lost in the detail of the new Morgan Super 3. This is the replacement for the 3 Wheeler that arrived about a decade ago and whose success seemingly took its maker by surprise. Morgan expected it to be a niche vehicle even by its own standards. Instead, more than 2500 left the Malvern factory. Owners use them in two distinct ways, Morgan finds. The traditional owner jaunts around the country on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Then there are those who use them like adventure motorbikes: loading them up with kit, cladding themselves in waterproofs and heading towards the horizon with repurposed motorbike bags and luggage, whatever the conditions. The Super 3 is meant to more easily accommodate those people as well as retaining the appeal for…

Yes, I know it’s named after a mid-1980s microcomputer but bear with: the Toyota bZ4X is a bit more modern. ‘BZ’ means ‘beyond zero’, so it’s a battery-electric car; ‘4’ refers roughly to the size – it’s similar to the RAV4; and ‘X’ means it’s an SUV/crossover, because what self-respecting new EV isn’t? Toyota’s latest sits on a bespoke BEV platform called eTNGA, related to the TNGA one but reserved for battery-electric vehicles. You’ll know the outline: big battery beneath the floor and motors at either end, with MacPherson struts at the front and trailing arm suspension at the rear. It will be the basis for Toyota EVs of between 4.3 metres and five and a bit metres long. There will be another platform for smaller BEVs, which Toyota has…

MODEL TESTED 1.6 HEV 2WD GT-LINE S Price £38,655 • Power 226bhp • Torque 258lb ft • 0-60mph 7.3sec • 30-70mph in fourth 9.1sec • Fuel economy 40.1mpg • CO2 emissions 132g/km • 70-0mph 45.7m The Sportage lived a fairly quiet life to begin with as a car known to few outside of Asian markets. But ever since it became one of Kia’s first European-built models in its second-generation form, and then led its company’s transformation into a design-centric brand in its third, the Sportage has taken on special status for the company that makes it. Peter Schreyer’s distinctive ‘tiger nose’ third-generation design drove the car to a level of UK- and Europeanmarket popularity unknown to Kia in the early 2010s, which the subsequent fourth-generation version built on. And now, with…

“It’s not just a new car. It’s a new team. It’s a human exercise.” These words come from Olivier Jansonnie, World Endurance Championship technical director for Peugeot Sport, as he leans against the pit wall at Magny-Cours. The new Peugeot 9X8 barrels past in a hollow, bassy, V6 cacophony every minute or so, a misty rooster tail in its wake as the team racks up some wet testing miles to add to the circa 25,000km (15,535 miles) of testing that it’s aiming for. Jansonnie’s point strikes home. The focus on Peugeot’s resurgence into global motorsport has been on the swoopy, wingless 9X8 that will slide into the WEC later this year, under the new Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) regulations that replaced the Le Mans Prototype (LMP) set last year. The…

SPECIAL ISSUE 50 years of BMW M We remember M’s greatest and drive its latest on an epic road trip to Germany, where we ask the boss about its future ROAD TEST Chevrolet Corvette Our Best Dream Car award winner for 2022 gets the full eight pages PREVIEW Goodwood Festival of Speed The UK’s biggest car show is back. Here’s what to look out for EVERY WEEK FIRST DRIVE Nissan Juke Hybrid Electrified power arrives in this small SUV for the first time. We rate it OUR CARS Ford Mustang Mach-E The Blue Oval’s first bespoke EV joins our long-term fleet SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

MILEAGE 7130 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT We know it’s quick but does the highperformance Stelvio put the U in SUV? My sprocker spaniel is six years old, yet I still can’t get him to walk sensibly on a lead: he pulls until he nearly throttles himself. It’s in his nature to be sprinting after a scent, and he’s never happier than when he’s bounding untethered across fields, long ears flapping in the breeze. The Stelvio is a kindred spirit: it’ll reluctantly put up with dawdling town traffic, but it feels as if it’s straining at the leash, pushing against the brakes when in gear at the lights, and forever seeking a national speed limit sign. So you can imagine its joy when it got a run-out on a test track…

The Monaro was Vauxhall on a night out in 2004. It had grown tired of the monotony of making Vectras and wanted to let loose. So it did: eight cylinders, rear-wheel drive and more horsepower than a black-and-white western. Actually, it was Holden’s doing. Both brands were under GM ownership, so the Aussie muscle car found itself on British shores bearing the Vauxhall badge. It conceals a 328bhp 5.7-litre V8 under the bonnet, or a 376bhp one in the VXR version. With a 0-60mph time of 6.0sec, even a standard Monaro is fast, loud and lairy enough to make you regret not using the dunny before driving – the 5.4sec VXR even more so. Helping its V8 intimidate is a six-speed manual gearbox, simple suspension and lack of driver aids…

VOLKSWAGEN’S GTI BADGE has defined the German car maker’s performance range since 1976. The nameplate has come to represent excellent all-round performance and dynamic ability and it continues to appear on the Golf and smaller Polo to this day. The most recent model to gain the GTI badge, though, was the Up: Volkswagen’s smallest car, which excels in urban environments. Under the bonnet sits a tiny 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine, producing 113bhp, with power sent to the front wheels through a six-speed manual transmission. While those particulars are far from eyebrow-raising, the Up GTI benefits from a turbocharger to help propel the car from 0-62mph in 8.8sec (we achieved 0-60mph in 8.5sec in our 2018 road test) and on to a top speed of 119mph. It also gained some design…