Table of contents for February 26, 2025 in Autocar

Ferrari is readying high-performance variants of its best-sellers as part of a product offensive that will almost completely refresh its line-up in 2025. Incoming are aggressive versions of the Roma, 296, and SF90 sports cars, which will arrive alongside the already revealed F80, a LaFerrari successor. They will join the new V12-powered 12Cilindri and Purosangue SUV – the latter of which, as it currently stands, will be the sole Ferrari not to receive a new variant in 2025. The performance push comes as the Italian firm enters the final stages of the build-up to the launch of its long-awaited first EV, which will make its debut on 9 October at Ferrari’s Capital Markets Day. The onslaught of new models represents a change of strategy for Ferrari, which is not aiming…

The more aggressive version of the Ferrari 296 – a sports car that earned a five-star Autocar road test rating instandard guise – has much to live up to, following in the footsteps of the 488 Pista and the 458 Speciale. It’s expected to adopt broadly the same formula as those cars, with a smidge of extra power and notable weight reduction to improve its raw pace. For reference, the 458 Speciale gained 35bhp and shed 90kg compared with the Italia on which it was based, improving its power-tow-eight ratio by nearly 50bhp per tonne, or 13%. A similar treatment would give the harder-hitting new 296 around 630bhp per tonne. That compares with the existing car’s 557bhp per tonne and, coincidentally, almost exactly matches the ratio of the now-discontinued SF90…

Mercedes-Benz is testing a solid-state battery that could unlock a range of more than 620 miles on a single charge, with the first production car to use it scheduled to arrive before the end of the decade. Preliminary trials are being carried out to evaluate the efficiency, durability and performance of the new battery, which has been jointly created by the German car maker and American specialist Factorial Energy. Mercedes is using an EQS saloon to test the battery, which first took to the road earlier this month. It has been lightly modified for the task, with work mainly focused on revising the battery housing. Within the housing is a floating cell carrier featuring pneumatic actuators developed by Mercedes’ Formula 1 engineers in the UK. This system manages the expansion…

TOYOTA IS WORKING on a third-generation hydrogen fuel cell system yielding twice the power output – about 260kW – and 20% longer range yet no increase in size. Designed for production from 2027, it’s primarily aimed at Japan’s heavy-duty commercial vehicle class, comprising machines such as diggers, but will also feature in passenger vehicles, suggesting that Toyota is readying a third-generation Mirai FCEVfor around the same time. Last year, Thiebault Paquet, Toyota Europe’s hydrogen boss, said he believed the company “can rebuild the story” and “hydrogen will come; this is something we’re convinced about”. Toyota claimed its new fuel cell system will be twice as durable as its current one, aiming for it to be on a par with diesel engines, while costing significantly less to produce. The Japanese firm…

THE VOLVO XC60 has been updated with a new look and an upgraded interior in a bid to maintain the appeal of the brand’s best-selling model. Thatthe petrol-powered XC60 has received an update so close to the release of its EX60 electric counterpart (duenext year) indicates it will remain onsale for the foreseeable future. It follows a suggestion from Volvo bossJim Rowan that the larger XC90 could remain on sale into the next decade. The key visual change to the XC60 is its new grille, which brings it into line with the XC90. Inside, the car gets a larger, 11.2in infotainment touchscreen and higher-quality materials. Powertrains are unchanged, meaning there is a choice of a 248bhp mild hybrid or two plug-in hybrids with outputs of 345bhp and 449bhp. Prices are…

MORE CAR BRANDS than ever are competing for fewer new car sales in a UK market well down on its peak, yet new entrants are not being deterred. February marks the formal arrival of Jaecoo, sibling brand to Omoda, which itself entered the UK market only last autumn. Both are export-only brands from Chinese giant Chery. According to design boss Steve Eum, Jaecoo is positioned as a stable, more mature SUV maker while Omoda is more youthfuland playful. The reason we’re getting both at once is a mix of economies of scale around shared architectures and giving buyers a choice, according to UK brand director Victor Zhang. “It doesn’t mean we’re testing the market to end up choosing one or the other. We want to build these brands together,” he…

“The roof is a shell that suits speed. You wouldn’t go to space with a soft top” Ferrari’s 12Cilindri coupé is a more relaxed-feeling car than the 812 Superfast that preceded it because of the existence of the SF90. With the SF as the brand’s performance leader, it meant that, when developing the 12Cilindri, Ferrari was able to lean into its grand touring capabilities more than it had in the recent past. It didn’t need to be the most powerful, most focused coupé in the range. Now, then, to the 12Cilindri Spider, the folding-topped version of Ferrari’s grandest tourer, which will go on sale this autumn and cost from £366,500 before you specify a single option, and you can bet a Ferrari retailer will encourage you to do that. In…

What a difference a new model generation can make, eh? The previous Maserati Granturismo, with its 4.7-litre naturally aspirated V8, was one of the rortiest-sounding cars in existence. Indeed, were an owner to fire up their sleek Italian GT on a cold start round the back of Harrods, the more keen-eared pedestrians outside South Kensington tube would just be able to make out the engine’s rip-roaring gargle. Superb. But now the V8 has been retired on emissions grounds. The latest Granturismo, which looks similar to the old one but is more or less entirely new, now carries a 3.0-litre V6, but the platform has been engineered also to facilitate a purely electric set-up. The Granturismo has thus gone from having one of the most extroverted sonic signatures in the car…

Ruggedly purposeful utilitarian 4x4 joins the Autocar fleet WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see whether the spirit of the classic Land Rover Defender really does live on here “I feel the same about the Grenadier as I do the Alpine A110” Following a solid showing in our hardcore off-road test last month (Autocar 29 January), the very same Ineos Grenadier has now joined our long-term fleet. Ineos makes a thing of how rugged and dependable it would like the Grenadier to be, so it arrived with 10,000 miles on it. We’ll add as many as we can for the full ownership experience. I’m to be its custodian, for a couple of reasons. First is because I live in the sticks and keep some animals, so the other people here think…

MILEAGE 3703 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Is the OG hybrid luxury SUV still the best? Our expectations of what a luxury car should offer have evolved since Toyota’s upmarket Lexus brand was launched in 1989. The original LS 400 was exceptionally comfortable and refined, but it was resolutely an executive express: all work and no play. It was brilliant at it, though, and Lexus soon became a fixture of the motoring landscape. These days we demand that our luxury cars are a little less one-dimensional. They must be as adept at family life – the school run, muddy weekend dog walk, tip run or holiday road trip – as they are at the commute or a motorway blast to a meeting. All of which explains the rise and rise of…

“The new R8 could become Audi’s most powerful and fastest road-going model to date” Audi is preparing a dramatic return forthe R8 as a plug-in hybrid supercar that in its most extreme form could become the brand’s most powerful and fastest road-going model to date, after a rethink about its transition into an all-electric era. The new R8 is tentatively slated for a debut in late 2027. Development of the Mercedes-AMG GT and Porsche 911 rival has progressed beyond the feasibility stage, understands Autocar, and engineering is under way with the backing of Audi chairmanGernot Döllner. The new two-seater-will be twinned with the Lamborghini Temerario, reigniting Audi’s supercar alliance with its Italian Volkswagen Group sibling. This partnership was forged in 2006 with the launch of the original R8 and its…

Production of the Roma coupé ended last year, but it’s being revamped and revived for 2025. Prototypes of its successor look remarkably similar in silhouette, suggesting it’s less revolution and more evolution for the new model. It’s set to follow the Portofinoconvertible in getting the Modificata (M) treatment, with revised styling, a more aggressive chassis set-up and an extra dose of power. To that end, it’s possible Ferrari will look to make up the shortfall to the more powerful Aston Martin Vantage and the Porsche 911 Turbo by taking it to around 650bhp. It’s expected to be revealed in the coming months and the first cars are likely to land in the UK before the end of the year. A Spider version will follow after that.…

THE RENAULTSPORT subbrand may return despite the Renault Group’s focus on Alpine for performance machinery, CEO Luca de Meo has said. “Officially, the Renaultsport badge we put in the fridge, and everything sporty would be building on Alpine, but it didn’t mean that sometimes this thing wouldn’t be revived,” he told Autocar last week. “I’ve been asked why the new 5 Turbo 3E [electric mega-hatch] is not an Alpine, and I said: ‘Sorry, because the 5 Turbo was never an Alpine, it was a Renault, and if you want to do something authentic, you’ve got to respect the history of the thing, so it’s going to be a yellow car.’ Of course, you can customise the product, but this is the thing. So I don’t limit necessarily to Alpine.” There…

The UK’s biggest fleet, whose “explosive” growth in June last year was creditedwith helping car makers through a tricky period, has reported losses of more than half a billion pounds – saying this highlights the growing cost of car ownership and volatile resale values of EVs. Motability Operations, the company behind the Motability charity, buys cars and leases them to people with a qualifying disability allowance for £75.75 per week. The package includes road tax, servicing, insurance, breakdown cover, and tyre and windscreen repair. It has become a major player in the UK car market since its 1977 foundation and now has a fleet of 815,000 cars. Despite a 15% rise in the number of people joining the scheme last year, the firm posted a £564.6 million pre-tax loss for…

I read with disappointment in Autocar’s response to the ZEV mandate consultation (News, 5 February) that it “supports the electrification of the UK car parc”. I’d have hoped a magazine for car enthusiasts would have taken a more balanced approach to what seems like a government obsession with forcing the public into EVs. I’m not convinced that the policy of simply banning ICE cars has been well thought through, even if it’s solely looked at through the lens of environmentalism, or has substantial majority support from the public. The UK is a small country, so its emissions will always be negligible on a global scale, yet it has among the most aggressive EV policies in the world – and yet the motoring establishment has no appetite for pushing back. Any…

Of all the BMW 2 Series variants on sale today, you would be forgiven for regarding the Gran Coupé as the oft-forgotten middle sibling. It sits alongside the 2 Series Coupé and the chunkier 2 Series Active Tourer, but it also occupies a difficult market position of being just below the remarkable 3 Series, a shining gem that it has previously struggled to match. Like its forebear, the new one sits on the UKL2 platform, shared with the X1 SUV and 1 Series hatch. In its basic 220 form, the Gran Coupé sends power to the front wheels but our test car, the range-topping M235 xDrive, is four-wheel drive. The most obvious differences concern the Gran Coupé’s exterior. It was never considered much of a head-turner, but changes introduced for…

IN A CROWDED family SUV market featuring such cars as the Nissan Qashqai and Dacia Duster, the KGM Torres is a niche choice – and this new four-wheeldrive version fills a niche within that niche. But with the Korean brand registered as a small-volume manufacturer in the UK, offering models with a very specific appeal is likely to be a route to success. A brief recap on the Torres: it’s a new SUV built on KGM’s newest platform, although its development predated the KG Group purchasing Ssangyong. It’s powered by a 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine producing 161bhp through a six-speed automatic gearbox. The new 4WD version uses the same engine and the same gearbox, offering the same 0-62mph time of a slightly ponderous 10.8sec; the only difference is the…

Who brought a crossbow to this laser-powered gunfight? Before we get overexcited about the future of driver’s cars being saved, let’s take a step back. The Alpine, the lightest and, as it turns out, best car here, still weighs nearly 1.5 tonnes – for something that counts as supermini. What if you could have an electric driver’s car that weighs less than half that? The Alpine’s steering, as good as it is, is still influenced by a couple of motors (one for the power steering and one doing the driving) having their say before any feel reaches the driver’s fingertips. What if you could just do away with all that? Why not send the drive to the rear and do away with power steering? And while SUVs are mercifully absent…

MILEAGE 14,896 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Does being the basis for an ICE model compromise the G80 as an EV? I’m a sucker for some automotive incongruity, but that’s not why I took the ambassadorial and opulent G80 to the rather less salubrious council recycling centre. Well, it’s not the only reason… Does it look out of place? Like seeing an opera singer in a KFC. Funny. Anyway, the G80’s usual custodian, Steve Cropley, had whisked away the Mini Cooper S for a few days, and while I was quaking at the prospect of threading his comparatively gigantic Genesis down my cul de sac, I was relishing the opportunity to empty my shed of the accumulated detritus that had failed to fit in the supermini. Squeezing all of my broken…

Steve Collis likes his Ford Mustang Bullitt so much that he bought another. Well, not another exactly, but certainly a Mustang that the great detective himself would recognise: a 1968 convertible. Sadly, he has not driven it to this particular meeting of his car club, because there’s too much salt on the roads. “It’s not a performance car: it’s a piece of theatre, like the modern one, but it needs protecting,” he says. ‘The modern one’ Steve refers to is his 2020 Bullitt coupé, purchased second-hand showing 18,000 miles from Hendy Performance two years ago and the car he has chosen to drive today. “The weird thing is I had no intention of getting anything like a modern Mustang,” he says. “I was actually in the queue to buy a…

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Ferrari’s first EV, which will do away with the critical element that has defined every one of the marque’s road cars for 80 years: an engine. Prototypes spotted so far have used old Maserati Levante bodies, which suggests that the new model could be a higher-riding proposition in the mould of the Purosangue, Ferrari’s first SUV. Indeed, electrification suits this configuration because the fitment of batteries under a vehicle’s floor requires additional ground clearance, raising it to an SUV-typical height. Of course, Ferrari may not use the typical ‘skateboard’ design but instead centralise the mass around the front or rear axle. This would provide a distribution of weight to mirror that of its existingfront- and mid-engined models. Regardless, the brand’s priority is for…

A Peugeot hot hatch revival is on the cards, new CEO Alain Favey has revealed. In his first interview since taking over from Linda Jackson earlier this month, Favey saidthat bringing back the GTi badge was “a question I’ve been asking myself very much”. It has yet to appear on the second-generation 208 supermini, launched in 2019, and has been dormant since the 308 GTi went off sale in 2021. The Peugeot Sport Engineered (PSE) sub-brand, effectively a successor to GTi in the Peugeot line-up, was only everattached to the 508 and 508 SW and was effectively killed off in the UK in December last year after those models were culled. But when asked at the brand’s recent ‘E-Lion Day’ if there were any plans for an electric 208 GTi,…

VOLKSWAGEN WILL REVEAL a supermini-sized electric crossover called the ID 2X at the Munich motor show in September. Previewed by a sketch last year, the ID 2X is a taller sibling of the Polo-sized ID 2 hatchback, which is due later this year, and will effectively serve as an EV alternative to the T-Cross. It will sit on the same shortened version of the MEB platform as the ID 2 and be about 4.1m long, with a 2.6m wheelbase. Volkswagen design chief Andreas Mindt has described it as a “safe, confident, bold” design that is “simple, like the ID 2all” concept. The ID 2X is set to be offered exclusively with a single motor on the front axle, giving 223bhp, and a choice of 38kWh and 56kWh batteries, the latter…

Car makers, already under the cosh to sell more EVs, are concerned that sales could be further impeded “at a crucial time for the industry” by new rules to include EVs in the so-called expensive car supplement (ECS) from 1 April this year. The changes will scrap EVs’ long-standing exemption from road tax, and EVs costing more than £40,000 will also be hit with a further £3100 in tax. This means that all new EVs will now be affected, incurring a first-year rate of £10, rising to £195 from year two. New EVs costing over £40,000 will also incur the ECS of an extra £425 annually (which rises from the current £410) from the second until the sixth year. The idea behind the ECS when first imposed by the Conservative…

THE RENAULT GROUP has developed a fire suppression system for EVs that drastically reduces the time and water needed to extinguish battery fires. Called Fireman Access, it allows fires to be extinguished in roughly the same time as on a combustion vehicle. It achieves this by using an adhesive disc that dislodges under pressure from a fire hose, allowing water to quickly spread to all the cells inside the battery. Renault is making the patents freely available to the wider automotive industry.…

COMPARISON DACIA SPRINGvs LEAPMOTOR T03 Britain’s cheapest EV takes on a closely matched new UK arrival – a Stellantis-backed Chinese-brand competitor that’s madein Europe ROAD TEST PORSCHE 911 GTS Does hybridisation enhance its appeal or dilute it? Our testers reveal all FEATURE LIFE IN THE SAAB LANE Colin Goodwin opens up about the reality of running a 9-3 Convertible EVERY WEEK LIVING WITH A… CUPRA TAVASCAN Electric crossover has a tough act to follow in the brilliant Born. Will it rise to the challenge? USED GUIDE ASTON VANTAGE How to get hold of this achingly beautiful and addictively entertaining sports car for less…

Cupra’s line-up has been transformed over the past year, with the Tavascan electric SUV being launched and the Leon and Formentor getting comprehensive overhauls – and now the Terramar arrives as the brand’s final ICE car before it goes EV-only in 2030. Unlike the slant-roofed Tavascan, the Terramar is a traditionally shaped SUV. It’s essentially a sportier take on the Volkswagen Tiguan. There’s no electric version, with the engine line-up consisting of familiar petrol and plug-in hybrid powertrains. For Car of the Year award testing last year, we drove the PHEV and higher-powered petrols. This is the first time we have been behind the wheel of the entry-level 1.5-litre petrol in the UK. It offers 148bhp and 48V mild-hybrid assistance that Cupra claims boosts both economy and off-the-line performance. Power…

It probably won’t surprise you that the creator of the car pictured here, the Xpeng G6, is something of a Far Eastern imitator of Tesla. The brand has yet to assume anything like a comparable growth path but its expansion to European markets – including, very recently, the UK – may well be another key step along the way. Xpeng was founded in Guangzhou, China, in 2014 by former senior executives of stateowned GAC. The enthusiasm for advanced automotive technology that those two executives, Xia Heng and He Tao, put at the core of their new enterprise can be read as a reaction against the presumably conservative attitudes of their former employer. Xpeng had US offices in Silicon Valley, California, within a few short years of its formation and was…

It’s 18 months since we first collected a field of affordable electric cars together along with a similar number of Autocar road testers. The aim was to perform some proper back-to-back testing and decide if any – or perhaps how many – of the former could be considered genuinely good fun to drive. Back in 2023, then out of a field of six cars, we found several that were enjoyable to drive, but only one or two of those felt like they existed primarily for the purpose of driver entertainment. Our winner then was a car that would go on to scoop other Autocar group test honours and, in revised form, is likely to set a stiff pace even for this one: the Cupra Born. Now look how the electric…

MILEAGE 2042 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if this veteran is actuallythe pickof Volvo’s growing, tech-first EV range Shortly after starting life with a new car, it’s become a ritual for me to take it on a south-westerly trip across the country to get properly acquainted. Our Volvo EX40 comes with the larger, 79kWh battery that is claimed to offer a range of up to 340 miles, so there was initially some hope that I’d make it the full 302 miles from north London to Lizard Point without stopping. The plan never stood a chance, however, once a meagre ‘220 miles’ appeared on the range display as I set off. That was enough to get me to my usual stopping point of Exeter services, where a Gridserve charger replenished…

Any list of spacious family shuttles for buyers to consider will have a Skoda featuring high up in it. Nine times out of 10, that Skoda will be the Octavia, thanks to its all-round ability, pleasing road manners and unwavering durability. Whether you’re loading up the estate with your kids and clobber or filling the passenger seats with riff-raff from the town centre to taxi them home, the Octavia is like an old friend: it won’t let you down, whatever the circumstances. Early versions are pretty leggy and show their age rather poorly, so it’s the third-generation car we’re championing here. It’s smart-looking (the post-2017 facelift particularly so), ticks the family car boxes and costs from around £3000. From launch you had a choice of 1.2-litre and 1.4-litre petrol fours,…

The AA today is a widereaching organisation whose services range from insurance and breakdown cover to giving driving lessons and general advice. It’s perhaps hard to believe, then, that this trusted body has its origins in a law-dodging activist group. The story begins in the pages of Autocar, dated 25 March 1905, with a delightfully sardonic letter from a motorist named Walter Gibbons, entitled To Circumvent Police Traps. These Edwardian equivalents of speed cameras were stopwatchwielding policemen “hidden in hedges or ditches by the side of the most open roads in the country”, as motoring pioneer Earl Russell later put it to the House of Lords. Police traps had sprung up after the passing of 1903’s controversial Motor Car Act, which introduced driving licences, car registration, the offence of reckless…