Auto Express 1614

FIRSTLY, let me start with a word of thanks to you. At this time every year, we publish our official sales figures – just as the car industry does. The magazine ABCs let you know which titles are doing well, and which aren’t. This year was a particularly good one for Auto Express in what is, let’s face it, a challenging market. We proud to say that we’re still Britain’s biggest-selling weekly car magazine, and by a bigger margin than before. That’s down to you. We’re hugely grateful for your ongoing support and will continue to ensure we’re the best at what we do – for you. As always, please do keep the feedback coming. One thing we’re often getting comments on is the coverage we give to electric cars.…

THE Polestar 2 is the second product to come from Volvo’s luxurious new ‘electric performance’ brand, but it is comfortably the most relevant and important. “Nail the accelerator from a standstill and the Polestar 2 flies away from the mark” You see, with only 1,500 examples of the Polestar 1 being sold worldwide, and a list price just shy of £140,000, that car serves much more as a fanfare for the brand’s arrival, rather than being a serious proposition for your average motorist. There’s something else, too: the 1 is a plug-in hybrid, whereas the 2 – and every other Polestar to follow – is all-electric. So, not only is the 2 much more representative of what we can expect from Polestar in the future, it’s also the first big…

Polestar 2 Price: £46,400 (Incl Govt. grant) Engine: 78kWh battery, two electric-motors Power/torque: 402bhp/660Nm Transmission: Single-speed auto, four-wheel drive 0-62mph: 4.7 seconds Top speed: 130mph (est) Range: 292 miles ONSALE Now Tesla Model 3 Price: £47,000 (Incl Govt. grant) Engine: 75kWh battery, two electric motors Power/torque: 362bhp/575Nm Transmission: Single-speed auto, four-wheel drive 0-60mph: 4.4 seconds Top speed: 145mph Range: 348mpg  ONSALE Now…

Alex_Ingram@dennis.co.uk ● New i20 reveals sharp look ● More efficient and practical THIS is the new Hyundai i20, which is due to hit showrooms in September. The new supermini aims to steal a march on talented rivals such as the Ford Fiesta and Renault Clio by delivering superior safety kit, class-leading in-car entertainment and mild-hybrid powertrains. While the i20 uses a heavily updated version of the current model’s platform, from a design point of view it takes a radical departure from its predecessor. It’s the first Hyundai to use the company’s new design language, which means more sharply defined body surfacing and angular headlights (featuring full LEDs on top models), which blend into the edges of the wide grille. At the back, the new model gets a full-width strip connecting…

IT won’t be too long a wait before Hyundai’s N performance division, headed up by Albert Biermann (above), launches a hot i20 N. Biermann has expressed an interest in developing a small hot hatch ever since he joined the company. “Why would we limit ourselves to C-segment [with the i30 N]?” he told Auto Express. “There are tons of hot superminis out there and there’s a good market out there.” It’s understood that an N hot hatchback was set in the i20’s product plan from the very beginning, in order to streamline the development process. However, a hot SUV in the shape of the Kona N is expected to arrive first, followed by the i20 N towards the end of 2021.…

Alex_Ingram@dennis.co.uk ● Next Golf R will have 328bhp and be revealed later this year ● Expect four-wheel drive, seven-speed DSG, 0-62mph in 4.5 secs THE next Volkswagen Golf R won’t be officially revealed until the second half of 2020, but our spy photographers have already snapped the hottest version of the Mk8 Golf completely undisguised during its development programme. UK buyers are huge fans of the outgoing model; even five years after the Mk7 R’s release, we bought 5,317 of them last year – more than any other market worldwide. So VW hasn’t seen much need to dramatically tweak the winning formula. That can be seen in our latest spy shots. Like its predecessor, the newcomer won’t wear an overtly aggressive bodykit; instead it’ll go for an understated-yet-sporty look. However,…