Table of contents for June 12, 2024 in Autocar

Fiat will launch a new hybrid 500 in 2026, securing a long-term future for its big-selling petrol-engined city car. The new 500 Ibrida will arrive by early 2026, Fiat said in a statement, meaning it will arrive 18 years after the current petrol 500 made its debut. Production will move from Tychy in Poland to the Mirafiori plant in Italy that currently builds the electric Fiat 500e. The 500 Ibrida will be powered by the same Firefly 1.0-litre three-cylinder mildhybrid petrol engine as the existing 500 and the related Fiat Panda. However, it is expected to switch from the current petrol 500’s platform, which dates back to the 2003 Panda, onto the 500e’s bespoke architecture. The move to retrofit an EV with an internal combustion powertrain is unprecedented in the…

Renault has partnered with a Chinese engineering firm to develop its sub-£17,000 Twingo city car after talks with Volkswagen about a potential collaboration proved fruitless. The two firms had been evaluating the prospect of co-developing their respective entry-level city EVs. But Volkswagen will now work independently to bring its similarly conceived ‘ID 1’ to production in 2027. Renault will instead be assisted by the unnamed Chinese outfit, which is understood to be a supplier rather than a car maker. “I wanted to show that European industry could work together as a team, so I think this is a lost opportunity,” Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo told Reuters after the talks ended, but work on the Twingo has continued. The retro supermini is scheduled to be revealed in late 2025…

Bulk buyers like Motability are underpinning a sustained period of growth for the UK new car market, the latest SMMT figures have shown. Fleet sales were up 14% last month to just under 87,000, while deliveries to business buyers rose 9.5% to 3355. This made up for a 12.9% year-on-year drop in private sales, contributing to a 1.7% increase for the overall new car market – the 22nd consecutive month of growth. OTHER MARKET TRENDS TO WATCH DEATH OF DIESEL Just 9220 new diesel cars were sold in May, less than half the number of hybrids sold and around a ninth of petrols sold. In May 2019, Brits bought nearly 51,000 diesels. RISE OF KIA The Kia Sportage was the UK’s best-selling car in May, outpacing the Ford Puma by nearly…

PETERSFIELD-BASED engineering firm Lanzante has transplanted a 625bhp Formula 1 engine into a classic Porsche 911 Turbo, creating a fearsome – and strictly limitededition – racer for the road. Based on the 930-gen 911, it swaps that car’s original flat six for the Porsche-developed and Tag-branded powerplant that propelled McLaren’s F1 cars to three consecutive drivers’ titles from 1984 to 1986. The 1.5-litre twin-turbo V6 ex-F1 engine has been upgraded by Cosworth for durability and tractability, resulting in an output of 625bhp and a screaming 10,250rpm rev limit. The powerplant is linked to a reworked version of the six-speed gearbox from the later 993-gen 911, with bespoke ratios that are claimed to enable a top speed of 200mph. As well as the exotic engine, the Lanzante 911 – called the…

ALPINA HAS REVEALED hardcore GT versions of the B3 saloon, B3 Touring estate and B4 Gran Coupé, tipped to be the German firm’s final cars before BMW takes full ownership next year. The new range-toppers eke an additional 33bhp out of BMW’s B58 petrol straight six to take total output to 522bhp, netting a 0-62mph time of 3.4sec and a top speed of 191mph in the B3 GT – the fastest of the three. The GTs are priced from €102k (£87k) in Germany. UK deliveries are expected to begin in early 2025.…

In the eye of a headspinning motorsport storm, I catch up with Callum Ilott during a brief and much needed moment of calm. He’s on a breather in Croatia between appearances in the two biggest races of the year: the Indianapolis 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours, which will play out for the 92nd time this weekend. As you can read on p42, 25-year-old Ilott is among a clutch of British drivers heading to La Sarthe with a genuine shot at overall victory, as part of the squad leading plucky Kent-based privateer Jota Sport into battle in one of two Hertzbacked Porsche 963 hypercars. What a time it has been for the former Ferrari junior. Dropped unexpectedly from his Indycar Series ride last autumn, Ilott was snapped up by…

With all the hubbub around the new electric Mini, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that there is still a normal, petrol-powered one that’s being built in Oxford as before. At a glance, you will struggle to tell it apart from the electric Mini, even though underneath it is a completely different car. While the EV sits on a brand-new electriconly platform, the petrol cars are a thorough revamp of the existing model, using the same architecture as the BMW 1 Series. But they look remarkably similar. The easiest way to tell them apart from the EV is that they retain the black plastic wheel-arch trims. They also keep the more traditional door handles and clamshell bonnet. Despite the different technical make-up between the EV and the piston…

What do airport taxi drivers, sales executives and Tour de France officials have in common? Most of them drive a Skoda Superb hatchback – and now there’s a new fourth-generation model that’s claimed to offer more space, comfort and technology than ever before. Skoda is clear that the hatchback still has a place in its line-up, with fleets being the main customer base, accounting for 85% of sales. The Czech brand is hoping to draw in former lovers of the Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Insignia and Volvo S90 now that all of those are no longer sold in Europe. Even Volkswagen has ditched the Passat saloon, a model once viewed as the king of the business park. Riding on the same MQB Evo platform as the new Superb Estate and indeed…

It’s official: British racing drivers have won the most at the Le Mans 24 Hours over the past century. Since the first race 101 years ago, a total of 34 Brits have been part of the winning crew at the world’s greatest endurance race, racking up 45 victories between them. The next closest is the French: 28 drivers for a tally of 42 home wins. But look down the list since 1923, and from the 1960s onwards British winners become an elite club – especially when you break it down further to those with multiple wins. There aren’t many. So who are the most likely contenders to wave the Union flag once more come Sunday afternoon? JENSON BUTTON, WILL STEVENS, CALLUM ILOTT, PHIL HANSON A quartet grouped together because they…

MILEAGE 9788 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To discover whether this disarmingly straightforward SUV is an anachronism or something to quietly covet Since landing on the Autocar fleet, the Touareg has undertaken not one but two chunky Euro trips. Actually, three, now that I think about it. As I write this, my colleague Illya Verpraet is strapped into the big Veedub’s lofty front seat on his way to the Sachsenring in Germany, near the Czech border. He’s wafting eastward to try out some new Alpinas, in what is – sob – the firm’s penultimate year as an independent entity. New GT special editions of the B3 and B4, to be precise – not that I’m envious at all… My own excursions in our V6 TDI SUV amounted to a rapid there-and-back…

DRIVEN Ford Explorer The Blue Oval’s crucial new electric family crossover arrives at long last. We find out how good it really is INTERVIEW Lynn Calder We meet the car industry newcomer leading ambitious 4x4 maker Ineos ROAD TEST McLaren 750S Heavily updated 720S makes more power while weighing a great deal less. We rate it EVERY WEEK NEWS Alpine A290 revealed Renault’s sporty brand unveils its new hot hatch in full USED GUIDE Ford Focus Production will soon end, but it will be a fine used buy for years to come SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p20…

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…

“The new i1 and i2 are set to become the first BMWs based on the NBx platform” BMW has given the green light to new electric i1 and i2 models, according to sources close to the German car maker. Already in development at the company’s R&D centre in Munich, the two new models will be sold alongside updated versions of today’s combustion-powered 1 Series and 2 Series when they arrive later this decade. The intention is to provide prospective customers with more affordable alternatives in BMW’s EV line-up, which currently opens with the £46,205 iX1. The new i1 is expected to be sold as either a hatchback or a saloon, while the i2 will be a compact crossover with the option of a coupé bodystyle. Insiders describe the i2 as…

DESIGN WORK ON the production version of the Volkswagen ID 2all hatch has been finished – and design boss Andreas Mindt claims it looks “even better” than the concept. The sub-€25,000 EV (roughly sub-£21,300) will be shown for the first time later this year, with sales starting in early 2025. The ID 2all concept was designed in only around six weeks, but Mindt said his team fought hard to make sure the production model closely followed its styling and dimensions. He said: “It’s even better [than the concept]. I really like it and it’s one of the reasons I’m so optimistic for our future.” According to Mindt, the positive reaction to the concept gave them “a lot of tailwind for the production version”. He added: “I could almost force everybody…

CATERHAM WILL NO longer need to “turn customers away”, CEO Bob Laishley has told Autocar, after opening a multimillion-pound new base that will boost the British car maker’s production capacity by 50%. Labelled as a “game-changer” that has “transformed the business in every way”, the HQ is just down the road from the firm’s former Dartford factory. Caterham can now build up to 750 Sevens annually thanks to 33 new build stations at the facility, which is located at the Dartford X industrial centre, up from 22 at its predecessor. Laishley said: “Before, we would have orders for 600 cars, but only be able to build 500, so we would have to turn customers away. “Increasing production to 750 has also allowed us to explore markets we have always suppressed…

ALPINE’S EXHIBITION OF its Alpenglow prototype at the Spa 6 Hours endurance race in May demonstrated that the jury is far from out on the subject of alternative propulsion – as did the announcement a week later from Mazda, Subaru and Toyota that they had together committed to designing new compact combustion engines with integrated electric drive units and compatible with carbon-neutral fuels and hydrogen. However gripped the world is by BEV technology, we’re still in the early stages of a transition away from fossil fuels, around which the entire global economy has been based for well over 100 years. The chances of it settling in any particular direction any time soon are slim, and ultimately it’s the viability, affordability, appeal and effectiveness of individual technologies, rather than any political…

On the ride home from a job in Devon, my motorcycle’s clutch slips. This is annoying. I am busy and its MOT is soon due. But “if you can’t change the situation, change your mind”, my friend Fletcher used to say, so I decide to be positive. It’s a chance to learn a new skill. I’ve written ‘clutch’ in a thousand car reviews without ever taking one apart. Today, that changes. A garage would want a couple of hours to do this. Owners’ forums say it is relatively simple, except for undoing one big nut, for which I’ll need an impact driver. I have one. So I give myself a day to do it. First I need to remove the bash plate, which being aluminium is simple, and the exhaust,…

Yes, it’s an SUV. And it drives like a sports car.” This is the slogan that greets you on Polestar’s website. Hmm. Bold words, Polestar. Bold words… Can it possibly live up to that? We will soon find out. But for a start, the Polestar 3 is quite a good trick of the eye. Here’s an SUV that’s 4.9m long and 2.1m wide yet doesn’t look massive on the road. Even when it’s creeping, like an alien on a scouting party, through a beautiful old village of narrow roads and stone in the mountains outside of Madrid, it doesn’t shout ‘look at me, I’m a big SUV’ in the way that rivals like the Porsche Cayenne, BMW iX and Range Rover Sport do. Maybe that’s just the cleverness of the…

There’s immediately a slight psychological hurdle to clear in positioning the new Renault Rafale. What role does it play for the brand? And who is it for? Well, Renault has lofty ambitions for its all-new flagship to upset the German stalwarts in the SUVcoupé segment (with the likes of the Audi Q3 Sportback and BMW X2 mentioned as benchmarks) and bosses are confident that while it takes the French brand into new territory, there is substantial market demand for such a car. It comes from launch with Renault’s unusual E-Tech Full Hybrid powertrain, which combines a 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine with a pair of electric motors – one to provide supplementary traction power and the other serving as an integrated starter-generator – for a combined 197bhp and 302lb ft of…

The Nissan Qashqai has been popular with UK car buyers for many years – it was Britain’s best-selling car in 2022 and runner-up last year – and it has now been given a new exterior look and revised interior technology. In fact, the Qashqai’s appearance has changed significantly from its predecessor’s. The new version adopts a sharper, more aggressive look courtesy of a new front grille design, which was inspired by samurai helmets, apparently. The headlights and daytime-running lights have also been redesigned to exude greater road presence. Nissan has carried over the same engines for the new version: buyers can choose from two mild-hybrid petrol engines and the full-hybrid e-Power, which uses a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine to power a 187bhp electric motor. Manual and CVT automatic gearboxes are…

The Chinese car market is the biggest in the world. Last year alone more than 30 million cars were registered – three times the number in Europe. That’s not a surprise, of course: it’s why European firms have long flocked to China to sell their wares. What might be news, though, is that China is home to 61 domestic manufacturers. Those brands are split among 18 different powerhouses, from the behemoths of Geely (owner of Volvo, Polestar and Lotus) and BYD (the world’s biggest maker of PHEVs) to the state-controlled Changan and SAIC (MG’s parent). Strong sales in their home market has, over the past few years, resulted in these Chinese companies attempting to go global, and with much success: from 2020 car exports quintupled in just three years to…

Hybrid disaster Unfortunately, although I still have a very big soft spot for the brand, there isn’t a Subaru in our driveway, nor will there be in the near future. Having had a succession of older and new models that all performed faultlessly, a few years back we invested in a Forester e-Boxer. This led to the termination of our family’s involvement with Subaru. It was launched too early, with faulty technology and significantly poorer MPG than the old pure-ICE Forester, and Subaru responded dreadfully to our six (six!) breakdowns. We were told absolute rubbish that we shouldn’t expect the car to hold its charge for more than two days. I found class action lawsuits taking place in the US regarding the same issues, as well as online forum comments…

Here’s an interesting sentiment: if you want something to age well, minimalism is better than maximalism. That was clearly the design premise of the Audi A1, which inside and out is as pared back as small hatchbacks get. It would be harsh to call it featureless, but it’s not exactly the automotive equivalent of Tobermory. This Germanic attention to efficient, neat design has served the A1 well, because even now with the earliest examples more than 14 years old, they still look modern – a good thing, because they’re in a tussle in the classifieds with the evergreen Mini hatchback. If you were to buy a Mini, would you be missing out? Well, unlike that car, the A1 didn’t draw on its maker’s heritage. Instead, it was one of the…

THE HEAVY GOODS vehicles of today are incredibly sophisticated, featuring all manner of electronic systems to keep their drivers and road users around them as safe as possible. Not so in 1964, when an Autocar journalist rode along in an articulated lorry to discover just how different things looked from three metres up with 15 tonnes of cargo right behind, and how hard it was to thread a 22-tonne eight-wheeler through towns and get it to scale hills and safely come down again – all on a freezing December night. The willing haulier was Silver Roadways (a subsidiary of sugar refiner Tate & Lyle), our driver a 44-year-old Cockney called Alf and our tractor a Foden with a Gardner 10.5-litre diesel six that produced 150bhp and 485lb ft of torque.…

A mong the vast number of internal combustion engines created to power passenger vehicles, some have been more controversial than others. Some have undoubtedly been bad from the off, while others have been perfectly competent but flawed in some way, used in the wrong car or introduced before the world was ready for them. Here are 10 of them. Volkswagen EA189 2009 There was nothing wrong with the basic design of Volkswagen’s EA189 diesel engine, known to customers as the 2.0 TDI and fitted to many of the VW Group’s cars, including utterly inoffensive – and indeed forgettable – ones like the Jetta. Indeed, at first it was extremely successful, delivering zestful, refined performance (for a diesel) and impressive economy. But it hid a dark secret that would cost its…

Mihiar Ayoubi is leading the driving dynamics of all BMWs, including those from the Neue Klasse family. He said it will be a step change in the way EVs drive but will be able to deliver linear driving performance instantly recognisable as a BMW. He added that the days of EVs simply being known for delivering huge surges of torque before becoming anonymous to drive at higher speeds are long gone. “We have mechanical systems and electronic systems that deliver uncountable possibilities to put characteristics into the car,” he said. “When you drive Neue Klasse, you will be amazed. The past was driving fast. Now it’s continuous driving characteristics from zero to 220kph.” Ayoubi said he is heartened that China increasingly values driving dynamics and “this is exactly our advantage”.…

Ford of Europe boss Martin Sander has left the company to become sales and marketing boss at Volkswagen. Sander joined Ford of Europe as general manager for passenger vehicles in January 2022, having spent 25 years at the Volkswagen Group, most recently in senior roles for Audi including UK managing director. He will now return to the German giant, this time as board member for sales, marketing and aftersales at Volkswagen Passenger Cars. Imelda Labbé, who currently holds the position, is leaving for personal reasons. In his role as chairman of Ford’s Model E electrification division in Europe, Sander has been instrumental in shaping the American brand’s transition towards an all-electric line-up. His departure was announced just days after Ford began producing its crucial new Explorer EV at the former…

As car makers navigate a sluggish new car market, one enthusiastic bulk buyer is proving very helpful indeed. “The Motability market has just exploded,” Guy Pigounakis, commercial director at MG Motor UK, told Autocar. “None of us have seen anything like it for decades.” Motability is a charity that provides cars for disabled people. It has been a major player in the UK car market since its 1977 foundation, but this year it has taken on a whole new level of importance. In the first quarter of 2024, Motability received a record 112,734 applications from people looking to put the £75.75-per-week mobility portion of their Personal Independence Payment or Disability Living Allowance into a new car. In the six months from the start of October 2023, Motability received a massive…

Mini has unveiled the five-door version of the new Cooper hatchback – the last car the firm is set to offer exclusively with combustion powertrains. It is effectively a stretched version of the three-door Cooper (driven, p28) and swaps that car’s fourseat interior for a more conventional five-seat set-up with a rear bench. At 4036mm overall, it is 160mm longer than the three-door and 31mm longer than the old five-door. This brings an extra 38mm of rear leg room compared with the three-door and 65 litres more boot space, at 275 litres. As with the three-door Cooper, two petrol versions will be available. The entry-level Cooper C has a turbocharged 1.5-litre three-pot that sends 152bhp and 170lb ft through the front wheels and dispatches 0-62mph in 8.0sec. The Cooper S…

Lexus is set to launch a new V8-engined supercar as a rival to the likes of the Aston Martin Vantage and Mercedes-AMG GT and as a spiritual successor to the legendary LFA. Parent company Toyota’s hardcore GT3 GR concept car, revealed in 2022, has now evolved into a prototype that has been spotted running at Spa-Francorchamps, and its Gazoo Racing motorsport division is expected to have it ready for top-flight competition – including the Le Mans 24 Hours – in 2026. FIA homologation rules dictate that any GT3 racer shares its basic body design with a related road car, so a toned-down version of the GT3 GR is expected in showrooms within the next two years. Toyota has previously said that it would continue “commercialising motorsports cars rather than simply…

MONDAY Summer’s coming. A friend, Robin Hall, has just unveiled the perfect piece of seasonal transport: a potent and capable buggy called the Mika Meon that does the full Steve McQueen, looks-wise. But it doesn’t have a single VW component. Instead, it bristles with modern design that includes a 215bhp EV powertrain, a super-rigid chassis and double-wishbone suspension. Its weight is staggeringly low, at 675kg. The price is pretty solid at £75k, but the Meon can deliver a 3.5sec 0-60mph time. The car is on sale now. Hall is well known as the engineer behind the deeply impressive Wells Vertige sports car, plus lots of vehicles that he can’t discuss. What impresses me is his strongly held and growing conviction that electrification will move low-volume manufacture in Britain into “a…

The security guards at Aston Martin’s Gaydon headquarters have it all right. They patrol the campus from the confines of an understated but quite fetching white DBX of 2020 vintage (silver wheels, too). Aside from the fact that their counterparts in Maranello are unlikely ever to find themselves luxuriating behind the wheel of a £313k Ferrari Purosangue, there’s nothing unusual about this. I mention it only because, for a moment, I almost didn’t recognise this old DBX, so demure did it look parked next to the extroverted mass of the facelifted DBX 707 that I had been driving. It’s fair to say that since it was launched in 2019, the DBX has been on a journey. As a driver’s car, it has always represented an unusually sweet blend of comfort…

Engineers at Volkswagen’s R division must be tired of wrestling with the law of diminishing returns. So composed and complete was their high-performance reworking of the seventh-generation Golf that they have struggled to make any big gains since, either through that model’s facelift or its subsequent transformation into the current eighth-generation Golf. Now there’s another mid-life refresh for the Wolfsburg wonder and once again Volkswagen has elected to not really mess with a winning formula. There’s a little more power (at 328bhp, this is the most powerful series production Golf yet) and some tweaks to the driving modes. Plus there’s the option of a new Performance Pack (price as yet undecided) that adds some lightweight forged alloy wheels, an angrier Akrapovic titanium exhaust and a raising of the speed limiter…

Who buys a Jaguar saloon? From about now, nobody will – at least for a while, because this is one of the last of the current four-door Jaguars that will be built, prior to a hiatus for this so-traditional style of car whose replacement still lingers some time off in the future. But who has been driving them up to this point? And what’s the appeal? We know that a four-door Jaguar is coming down the line, but the next one will be electric and, word is, far more expensive than any previous one. Will former customers still want such a thing? To investigate, I’ve got into one of the last of the current breed. The XF is a car we’ve liked very much since the first version was launched…

MODEL TESTED HYBRID+ TROPHY • Price £20,495 • Power 192bhp • Torque 313lb ft • 0-60mph 6.8sec • 30-70mph 6.2sec • Fuel economy 48.2mpg • CO2 emissions 100g/km • 70-0mph 49.3m MG may be making waves with its electric cars – the MG 4 EV in particular – but it isn’t one of those car makers that has already committed to a fully electric range. Mainly, it seems committed to delivering good value cars. As a result, while some are reassessing whether small cars can be made profitably, MG is introducing a second generation of its MG 3 supermini. The old one had been around, in one form or another, since 2013 and went through two facelifts. By the end, it had become rather dated but still offered undeniable bang for…

MILEAGE 5748 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this new saloon makes more sense in much cheaper ICE form I’ve not got long left with our Citroën C4 X, so I’m trying to make the most of its practical nature. Our test car has gone up and down the country on various jobs, including ferrying luggage to Gatwick and Heathrow airports, shipping four people plus their belongings on a family holiday and even a house move. With that, let’s reflect on the positives. I initially thought the sloped rear window would cause me problems, but it has been completely fine: the commodious boot is more than big enough for most occasions, with 510 litres of space (the same as in the ë-C4 X) regularly filled to the brim with…

Picking up a couple of stories from your brilliant columnist-cum-podcaster, Steve Cropley, I would like first to reinforce his support for the now-defunct Renault Zoe. I bought a used one 18 months ago (so I’ve lost a bit of money, but hey ho). It’s superb: cheap to run, comfortable, has a long range and with a small slice of fun. I still feel a bit like a trailblazer with an EV, though: it has its challenges. So, picking up on Steve’s point about public charger reliability (My Week In Cars, 6 March), it’s true that it’s not always easy, but there’s a real hit of dopamine when I get a successful charge. You don’t get that with petrol. WIN Letter of the week wins this ValetPRO exterior protection and maintenance…

An owner’s view JACKIE ROTHENBERG “I bought my A1 Sportback new in 2016. I was looking for a nippy hatchback and chose the Audi for its neat styling and quality fittings. There’s enough interior space to carry four people in a car that’s ideal for driving in town, and having four narrower doors is a boon in car parks. I have some issues with the sat-nav, though: while it’s easy to program and the radio/navigation console is nicely laid out, the maps aren’t very clear. I have driven a lot of BMWs in the past and think Audi could learn something from them. But overall it’s a great little car and not one I want to change yet.” Buyer beware… ENGINE A1s with the 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre TDI engines have…