Table of contents for 1872 in Auto Express

I WROTE last week about Renault being a brand with momentum, and you’ll see from our Top Story this week – and the cover! – that Kia is another which is very much on a roll. It’s been a long journey from the Pride (a rebadged Mazda 121) that arrived here in 1991 – but the Korean maker is now one of the UK’s most popular, having had its best-ever year in 2024. It registered more than 112,000 cars, putting it above the mighty Ford and behind only VW, BMW and Audi at the top of the charts. In model terms, the Sportage was beaten solely by the Ford Puma last year, and will get a facelift soon to increase its appeal, while the EV3 appeared in 2024 alongside an…

Jordan.Katsianis@autoexpress.co.uk “A KEY ADDITION TO THE DIESEL IS AUDI’S NEW MHEV PLUS MILD-HYBRID TECH, WHICH CAN ALSO DRIVE THE CAR ON ITS OWN AT LOW SPEEDS” AUDI’S new model offensive is now at full speed, and the next to arrive is the striking new A6 Avant. Launching ahead of a saloon which is due in a few weeks, the full-size premium estate was initially meant to use the A7 moniker, but will instead be sold wearing the traditional A6 nameplate. It’ll sit alongside the all-electric e-tron version, thanks to a U-turn in strategy from the firm. Looking at the car’s aggressive design, it’s clear that the brand hasn’t held back on even the base version of the A6 Avant, because the model features pumped-up wheelarches paired with a very sleek…

THE vast majority of public EV chargepoint issues can be solved via a quick phone call – so says the AA’s latest Recharge Report, which also revealed the most common problems faced by drivers using public chargers. When users encounter issues or have queries regarding charging infrastructure, there is typically a phone number somewhere on the device. The AA has been assisting chargepoint operators with calls for five years and in its experience, 95 per cent of niggles are quickly resolved during a phone call. The association says drivers’ most common complaint is an inability to start or finish a charging session, accounting for 27 per cent of calls combined. Pricing enquiries and stuck cables each make up seven per cent of calls, with one in six issues concerning digital…

Ellis.Hyde@autoexpress.co.uk THE Tesla Model S and Model X are being pulled from the UK, with the current stock set to be the last examples that’ll come to our shores. The Model S was launched here 11 years ago in 2014. It not only established Tesla as a proper car manufacturer, but it also paved the way for the countless premium-brand electric cars available today, such as the Porsche Taycan and BMW i5. The closely related, gullwing-doored, seven-seat Model X did the same thing for electric SUVs. It reached the UK in 2016, and within a couple of years, the Jaguar I-Pace, Audi Q8 e-tron and Mercedes EQC arrived to try and steal some of the Tesla’s thunder. Now, a new electric SUV seems to be launched almost every other week.…

THE Government has responded to calls to back incentives for electric van sales, by extending the plug-in van grant for another year, until 2026. According to the Department for Transport, the grant has helped to sell over 80,000 electric and zero-emission vans since its launch, and £120million has been allocated to extend the scheme. We are still waiting for the Government’s response to its consultation over changes to the ZEV Mandate, at which point we’ll know whether it’s listened to pleas from industry and the Climate Change Committee to boost incentives for electric cars as well. The plug-in car grant, which offered taxpayer-funded cash to EV buyers, was axed by the previous Government in 2022, while the plug-in van grant for business users was due to end this year. Industry…

Thomas.Jervis@autoexpress.co.uk IN the iconography of motorsport, success is often associated with a prancing horse or pony, or perhaps a silver three-pointed star. However, few emblems have found themselves on the bonnet of so many successful competition cars of varying types and breeds than the four sacred rings of Audi Sport. Today, Audi operates under the motto ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ (Progress through Technology) – yet much of the ‘Vorsprung’ over the past few decades has been the result of the ‘Technik’ derived from the brand’s sporting division. As the company prepares to enter the pinnacle of motorsport next year with the formation of the Audi F1 team, we take a look back at the history of Audi Sport, get up close and personal with some of its iconic road and race…

THE relaunch of Alpine as a brand was always going to be exciting. Reviving a manufacturer steeped in motorsport excellence and known for producing lightweight sports cars was a stroke of genius by Renault, and with many of RenaultSport’s engineers – responsible for some of the greatest hot hatchbacks ever created – raring to go after the demise of hot Clios and Méganes, we were looking forward to the result. And it sure didn’t disappoint. The A110 instantly won us over with its fabulous driving experience; that motorsport-like double-wishbone suspension mated to a lightweight chassis makes it feel like it was designed specifically for UK roads. Over the years, the formula has been mildly tweaked and new variants have been launched – as has an endless stream of special editions…

MINI TEST NO sooner had we put the UK’s leading online motor factors to the test (Issue 1,865) than aftermarket supplier NAPA Autoparts announced a tie-in with the world’s biggest online marketplace, eBay. Using eBay’s search and payment systems, the set-up makes it easy to source NAPA parts in one place. To test the arrangement, we gathered a ‘basket’ of parts typically needed for a major service – oil and air filters, an alternator drive belt, front brake discs and a track rod end – for five popular cars (Citroen C3 Airdream, Peugeot 207, Range Rover, Mazda MX-5 and Ford C-Max), averaging out the total price for our models and comparing it to the cost on two other sites. We also rated the delivery time, postage cost and ease of…

Richard.Ingram@autoexpress.co.uk KIA is rapidly expanding its EV line-up, and it shows no signs of slowing down in 2025. Alongside the all-new EV4 and PV5, the firm used its annual ‘EV Day’ to reveal the EV2 concept, pointing towards a small electric SUV due next year. When it launches, the EV2 will, for a little while at least, be the smallest electric car Kia makes. It’ll take on models such as the Citroen e-C3 and forthcoming Ford Puma Gen-E, with prices expected to start from around 30,000 Euros (approximately £25k). It will eventually be joined by an EV1 city-sized electric car (Page 9) that will rival the future Volkswagen ID.1. The concept has lots of giveaways that point us to the production EV2 arriving in 2026. Kia’s executive vice president and…

Philip.McNamara@autoexpress.co.uk JAGUAR boss Rawdon Glover says the firm’s internet-busting electric relaunch reached nearly a billion people – but one of his key priorities is to manage the fallout with the brand’s existing customers. Late last year, Jaguar released a colourful teaser video featuring striking-looking models to announce its transformation, following it up with the Type 00 concept coupé, previewing its new electric design language. But the “delete ordinary”, “break moulds” messaging combined with the current Jaguar range going off sale alienated many owners. “We do need to create and attract a new client base,” Glover told Auto Express. “But what got lost is that we do care about our existing client base. I’ve been investing a lot of time bringing our existing fans, clients and classic enthusiasts along on the…

THE new Volvo ES90 electric saloon will be revealed this week, and the brand has confirmed the BMW i5 rival will have up to 435 miles of range and the fastest charging speeds of any Volvo EV. Volvo claims drivers will be able to add 186 miles of range in just 10 minutes, or 10 to 80 per cent in 20 minutes via a 350kW charging point. Volvo has also shared yet more darkened teaser images of the ES90. These reveal a rear lighting signature similar to the EX90’s (below), and it has a sleek profile, a steeply raked windscreen and a sloped, fastback-style roofline. We can also make out a small nodule at the top of the windscreen, which indicates it will feature the same LiDAR technology as the…

Paul.Barker@autoexpress.co.uk BENTLEY’S first electric model will herald a new design direction inside and out for the British brand when it’s unveiled late next year. A smaller SUV sibling to the petrol Bentayga will hit roads during the first half of 2027, and Bentley CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser told Auto Express that, while not completely revolutionary, the styling will surprise. “A new car should take a little bit of time; if you like it immediately, it loses excitement relatively quickly,” he said. “If it needs a little bit of time to get familiar with it from different angles, and after a year you are still excited to see different things, then it went right.” Although described as a bigger step than previous new Bentleys, the “first part of the transition of Bentley”…

MARCH is here, so in what has become an Auto Express tradition, we’ve put together a list of some of the naughtiest number plates that the DVLA deems too rude for the road. Every March and September, the DVLA issues new numbers, featuring an ‘age identifier’ – in this case, ‘25’. It may seem entertaining – we’d be lying if a couple of the registrations below didn’t elicit a snigger from members of the Auto Express team – but it’s something the DVLA takes very seriously. The organisation holds two meetings per year to ensure that no plates go into circulation that it believes “may cause offence, embarrassment or are considered to be in poor taste”. The main concern for this most recent set of registrations is the number ‘25’…

EV drivers save an average of almost £6,000 over the course of ownership compared with either a petrol or diesel car. That’s according to a study by ElectricVehicles.uk, which evaluated 480 different scenarios across typical four-year and five-year terms of ownership for new and used vehicles, respectively. The electric car advice site took into account mileage and how and where the car was charged, across 15 new and 35 used electric models. And it found that in four years, new-car buyers in 2025 would save an average of around £7,785 over an equivalent petrol model. The study shows that 97 per cent of buyers charging at home save money, thanks to huge EV discounts and the rock-bottom cost of plugging-in at a wallbox. However, this drops to just 60 per…

Alex.Ingram@autoexpress.co.uk IF there’s been a breakout of itchy scalps in the R&D centres of Audi and Mercedes since 2021, we suspect the BMW iX is to blame. The Munich brand’s flagship SUV not only managed to beat its rivals for comfort and refinement, but could handle like a car that weighs half a tonne less, too. The atmosphere must have been so awkward in Ingolstadt and Stuttgart that you’d have been able to hear a pin drop. Or you would have, had it not been for all that head scratching from the engineers… Now, nervous teeth-chattering might be about to join that constant background noise, because the iX has been treated to a mid-life refresh which aims to take things a step further – quite a feat when the Mercedes…

QUATTRO is Audi’s unique four-wheel drive system, pioneered by and fitted to the original Audi Quattro in the early eighties. It differed from other all-wheel-drive set-ups of the time, because rather than using a traditional transfer box, the first-generation system used two driveshafts: a traditional one for the front wheels, and another hollowed-out one, connected to a central locking differential, and powering the rear wheels. The system has been gradually refined and improved upon over time. In 1987, for example, a torque-sensing central differential was added that, rather than distributing power 50:50 all of the time, could send as much as 75 per cent of power to either axle to provide optimum traction. Now, with the advent of Auto e-tron quattro models, power is provided by two electric motors, one…

Jordan.Katsianis@autoexpress.co.uk “MANY OF THE CLEVER SOFTWARE TRICKS HAVE ALL BEEN IMPLEMENTED ON OLDER MODELS” SIX months have passed since this 2019 Tesla Model 3 arrived on the Auto Express fleet, to find out how a six-year-old version has aged, and if it’s still cutting edge. The early Dual Motor Performance was a worthy companion overall, and left us with a good idea of how early Model 3s might feel now there are several on the used market. To further our sense of how the car has evolved, we hunted down the equivalent topspec Performance variant today, even to the point of finding one with the same Deep Blue Metallic paint finish, to compare them. First, the positives… starting off with the powertrain, which is brilliant on both. Tesla knows how…

IF you cannot get mains power to your car, the next best option for a quick cabin clean is a cordless vacuum. Advances in batteries and motors have seen cordless vacs go from the poor relation to the preferred option for many. They may not have the sheer grunt of a mains machine, but they are much more convenient, with no leads to tangle or trip over, plus are easier to carry to your car. But those same advances have made cordless vacs viable options for using in the home as well – particularly when there’s just a small spill to clear up – and that has seen prices rise. So which is the one to grab when your cabin needs a refresh? We charged up eight cordless vacs to find…

Chris.Rosamond@autoexpress.co.uk BUYERS of double-cab pickups who pay company car tax or claim capital allowances have one month to order new vehicles before new HMRC tax rules kick-in on 6 April. Double-cabs are currently treated as commercial vehicles for company car Benefit-in-Kind tax, meaning users have a flat-rate BiK liability of £3,950. From April, however, they’ll be considered as passenger cars, and subject to CO2 emissions-based BiK rates as high as 37 per cent. Capital allowances will also be cut for business users, who will in future be able to offset much less of a double-cab’s price against tax. The changes follow a court ruling that double-cabs are equally suited to carrying goods or people, and therefore can’t demonstrate the required ‘predominant suitability’ for goods, needed for classification as commercial vehicles.…

Chris.Rosamond@autoexpress.co.uk NEARLY 80 per cent of drivers must be driving EVs by 2040, but there’s “no role for hydrogen” on the roads, according to the latest advice from the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC). The CCC is a statutory body of environmentalists charged with setting out a pathway to reach the UK’s 2050 net-zero commitment via its annual ‘carbon budget’. Its advice has previously been adopted, but the CCC’s view that hydrogen should have no place in the UK’s strategy to decarbonise roads is meeting resistance from within the car industry, which is forging ahead with hydrogen-fuelled developments. Indeed, some of the biggest players are making huge investments. “Toyota, globally, has just announced development of a third-generation fuel cell system, as part of its continuing efforts towards realising a hydrogen…

Richard.Ingram@autoexpress.co.uk THE Vauxhall Mokka may not be a household name in the same way as its Astra and Corsa siblings are, but it’s still an immensely important model for the brand. It’s a regular fixture in the UK’s top 10 best-selling cars, with its wide choice of powertrains giving it an edge in a hotly contested part of the market. Yet barely a week goes by without a new B-segment SUV joining the ranks – either from Europe or, more likely these days, China. To keep things competitive, Vauxhall has treated its popular Mokka to a subtle nip and tuck, plus a set of tech revisions, for 2025. The styling is broadly unchanged, with the external tweaks limited to a reprofiled bumper and a new three-block lighting signature front and…

Jordan.Katsianis@autoexpress.co.uk LAST year, Cupra’s Leon hatchback and ST estate models were given substantial updates to more closely align them to their more esoteric range mates, the Born and Tavascan. Yet thanks to the Leon models’ comparatively conservative design and a lack of an EV option, they seem to have been sidelined somewhat. But to write them off would be a mistake, especially on the evidence of the new Leon ST TSI 333. As is tradition, sitting somewhere near the top of the Leon ST range is a high-powered four-cylinder petrol model with an all-wheel drive system. The difference here is that Cupra has been given access to the Volkswagen Group’s latest hardware. So while the EA888 powerplant is similar to the old engine, it now has the same 328bhp output…

WITH powerful performance and just a letter to separate them at first glance, it can be difficult to tell the difference between Audi’s line-up of S and RS models, but they are distinct. An abbreviation for ‘Renn Sport’ (German for ‘Racing Sport’), RS models are the best that Audi Sport has to offer, with chassis and engine upgrades over standard models. S or Sport cars, on the other hand, are more approachable alternatives in terms of both price and performance, still offering upgrades over the standard Audi fare, but optimised for the road, rather than the racetrack. Other than by drilling down into the performance figures, there are a handful of easy ways to spot the differences between S and RS cars, apart from the badge on the boot lid.…

IT’S always a tough task to reimagine an icon, but that is what Ford has done for the sixth time, in the shape of this new Mk7 Mustang. With buyers easily falling for its predecessor’s looks, the aim was clearly to not tinker with the formula too drastically. The latest model is sharper, more menacing and more angular than the Mk6 generation, but it’s still instantly recognisable as a Mustang. At a time when so many cars are using turbos or electrification to improve efficiency, the Mustang has stuck with a big, simple V8 engine, driving the rear wheels only. As before, it’s possible to buy a Coupé model or – for £3,500 more – a Convertible. ENGINES & PERFORMANCE 4.7/5 THE heart of any American muscle car is its…

Alastair.Crooks@autoexpress.co.uk SO far, the LBX has been put through its paces as a motorway cruiser, an urban runabout and even as a van of sorts. That’s given us a fair idea of its capabilities – but it’s always a sensible idea to get the opinions of our passengers, too. So now the Lexus is entering its taxi phase. The good new is that it already has suitable paintwork – if you live in New York – so some stickers and a roof sign were all it needed. Whether it has the other defining attributes to become a viable cab remains to be seen. I took three of my tennis team-mates to a match in Grimsby, North-East Lincs, and the trip took around three-and-a-half hours in all – plenty of time…

Price: From £400 Rating: Contact: viofo.com IF you are involved in an accident, getting the clearest possible images from a dash cam will be crucial to help make out details such as a registration number. The new A329 from Viofo moves the game on with 4K image resolution at 60 frames per second (fps) – this is double the speed of any dash cam we’ve previously tried. It means that high-speed imagery is much clearer. This can be combined with a rear camera that records in 2K and at 30fps, which is a step up from the 1080P of most rivals. As you might expect, this results in the best-quality footage we’ve ever seen in a test. And it’s easy to view the footage on the Viofo app, which transfers files…

THERE’S no way of sugar coating it – buying or selling a car in the UK has become synonymous with aggravation. Whether it’s a private sale that means having to fend off time-wasting tyre-kickers, or trying not to blink first in a tête-à-tête with your local dealer, the whole business feels far more stressful than it should be. Even writing this is giving me a headache; there are just too many variables pulling you in different directions and ultimately leading you to end up with a car that’s at best a compromise, at worst an inadequate money pit that you’ve paid over the odds for – probably via an inflated finance deal that you’re stuck with for three years. So what’s the answer? Well, Auto Express is now offering new…

GOODBYE and good riddance to the lousy winter. Bring on the lighter, less dangerous days and evenings, when we can better spot and deal with increasingly common potholes and kerbside cameras, plus wretched no-notice road closures. Also important is that parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles should be comforted by the fact that more usable daylight hours mean safer bike lanes, pedestrian crossings and pavements for youngsters, many of whom will be revising for and sitting important, potentially life-changing exams. In years gone by, when some teens achieved decent results, a comfortably off elderly relative would generously reward them with driving lessons. And why not? Being a trained, qualified driver (even if you can’t yet afford a car) means you’re blessed with a skill for life and a qualification that’ll be…