Table of contents for March 16, 2022 in Autocar

Audi Landjet Audi’s 2024 EV replacement for the A8, previewed by last year’s Grand Sphere concept, is described as a road-going private jet. Lamborghini four-door New details of Sant’Agata’s 2+2 EV, due in 2025, suggests it will place more of an emphasis on space and luxury than its range-mates. Rolls-Royce Phantom The Phantom will be reborn with all-electric power by 2030, bringing the torque, refinement and silence to match the current V12 car.…

Mazda is deploying its new rear-driven platform and straight-six engines for the CX-60 SUV and three more models to follow, but a production version of the admired Vision Coupé concept looks increasingly unlikely, five years after its reveal – and it’s no surprise that SUVs are to blame. Mazda Europe’s Joachim Kunz said: “This SUV trend is continuing, and even more for Mazda. It’s what’s selling best. “It would be very nice… to have the FR [front-engine, rear-driven] concept and sixcylinder engine for a Mazda 6 successor or a large sports coupé. We would like to have it, but at this point in time, it’s most important to sell SUVs.”…

ANOTHER GEELY-OWNED marque, Lotus, is preparing to usher in its own landmark electric SUV, and its exterior design has been newly outed in a series of design patent renderings just weeks ahead of its official unveiling. Known as the Type 132, the Chinese-made Lotus SUV will place more of a focus on pace and agility than its Volvo and Polestar cousins, as evidenced by its rakish silhouette and aggressive styling, but an integrated lidar sensor on the roof hints at a similar emphasis on autonomous functionality. An active aero panel, flush door handles, slim cameras in place of wing mirrors and a prominent rear spoiler look to boost aerodynamic efficiency and therefore its range potential; while various cues including the crescent-shaped headlights draw a link to Hethel’s new Emira sports…

A NEW MITO is on the cards as Alfa Romeo prepares to rapidly expand its line-up over the next few years. Brand boss Jean-Philippe Imparato has confirmed that there will be a new car every year until 2030 under new owner Stellantis. A small SUV, dubbed the Brennero, will arrive by 2025, plus there will be replacements for the Giulia saloon and Stelvio SUV, as well as the anticipated return of the GTV coupé. A new supermini is also being primed to give a new entry point to the brand while sensibly utilising technology available from elsewhere in the Stellantis empire. The original Mito, launched in 2008, went off sale in 2019 in light of declining demand for three-door models. At the time, European boss Roberta Zerbi explained: “The Mito…

MG FOR A MILLIONAIRE Footballers and cars, eh? Cristiano Ronaldo owns an £8.5m Bugatti Centodieci, Neymar a Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita and Heung-min Son a LaFerrari. However, Thiago Alcântara has just collected a MG ZS EV from Holdcroft Cheshire Oaks MG. “I really wanted to try an EV,” the dad of two said, adding that the sub-£30k SUV promises “versatility and comfort for every day”. Appropriately for a Liverpool player, he chose top-end Trophy trim. THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE The GV60 gives strong clues to future EVs from Genesis, but chief creative officer Luc Donckerwolke is keen not to use the same quirky features in each. Take the crystal-ball gear selector: “I think it’s great, but I believe in other segments it will be interpreted in another way. It would…

The 2025 launch of the first Sonda (or should that be Hony?) is a long way off, but we have early clues as to how the car will look. The exteriors of Sony’s Vision-S 01 saloon and Vision-S 02 SUV concepts are svelte, aerodynamic and unmemorable. The interior of the 02, with three screens stretching the width of the dashboard, is probably more central to its appeal, being a grown-up version of what’s seen today in the Honda E. Honda and Sony have said their first car will “be centred around safety, entertainment and adaptability”, all of which point to self-driving ability. Honda is working on a new EV platform, e:Architecture, to arrive in the second half of this decade, which could be made to fit the timescale, but it…

THE COMPETITION AND Markets Authority (CMA) has agreed legally binding commitments with EV charger provider Gridserve, aimed at incentivising investment in the UK’s charging infrastructure and promoting competition. The watchdog in July 2021 began investigating Electric Highway (which Gridserve had purchased from Ecotricity two months prior), due to concerns about its chargers dominating the motorway network. Tesla Superchargers aside, Electric Highway was found to operate 80% of motorway chargers and had long-term (10-to 15-year) exclusivity agreements for two-thirds of motorway service stations. The investigation aimed to determine whether these agreements with service station operators Moto Hospitality, Roadchef and Extra MSA were in breach of the Competition Act 1998. The CMA concluded that by preventing the installation of devices from rival firms, the long-term contracts were depriving EV drivers of the…

NEW CARS TESTED AND RATED TESTED 8.3.22, BARCELONA, SPAIN ON SALE APRIL PRICE £27,990 The first question was about how to list the new Citroën C5 X under one of the online menus we have. How do we categorise it? Is it an estate, an SUV, a hatchback, a crossover, a large family saloon, a compact executive car or what? And in answer: yes, yes it is. Citroën, prolific maker of many small cars, has also made some great big ones in the past, but it’s fickle about how often it does so – mostly, one suspects, because while they’re often cool, they’re also not universally popular. And the market for big cars from conventional (by which I mean non-premium) brands is shrinking. They call it the D-segment. That which contains…

The new DBX 707’s place in the world might seem obvious: a brawnier version of Aston Martin’s fine-handling SUV to put some clear water between it and its rivals in this ultra-competitive class. But it has another role, one that causes Aston boss Tobias Moers to crack a predatory grin: proving itself the world’s fastest production SUV. The proof will doubtless come at the Nürburgring, where Aston plans to use the 707 to break the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT’s 7min 39sec lap record. And that’s break as in smash. But while that’s the target, the revisions haven’t been allowed to compromise the DBX’s gentlemanly manner. Moers spends far longer talking about the new chassis settings than the revisions that have delivered the headline power figure (new ball-bearing turbochargers and a…

A Jeep that starts up silently is not something many drivers will be used to, but this Renegade does just that, thanks to an e-Hybrid powertrain that marks the latest step in Jeep’s move towards an allelectrified range in most of Europe. The model, as with the larger Compass e-Hybrid, joins the Jeep line-up alongside a new 4xe plug-in hybrid variant. Unlike the 4xe, the e-Hybrid is front-wheel drive only. It commands a £7000 premium over the entry-level, petrol Renegade and is slightly cheaper than the PHEV. The new powertrain consists of a 128bhp 1.5-litre turbo petrol, a 20bhp electric motor and a 0.8kWh 48V battery. A second electric motor is attached to a new seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. Jeep claims emissions and fuel consumption improvements of up to 15% over…

In the main, the NX 350h proved impressively sure-footed on Millbrook’s daunting Hill Route. It develops good levels of grip, and through tighter turns you can really sense the rear motor coming into play and helping to rotate the car. Key to the NX’s sense of safety and stability is its fine body control: heave, pitch and roll are curtailed earlier than you would expect in this kind of vehicle, and with a level of finesse that is usually reserved for out-and-out performance cars. It means the NX performs well, should you find yourself carrying more speed into a bend than you intended to, and the steering possesses a heft that feeds into the sense of stability. Of course, the Hill Route also shows the hybrid powertrain at its revvy,…

“The first car I was driven in, as a baby in 1966, was a Giulia,” declared Alfa Romeo boss Jean-Philippe Imparato at the recent unveiling of the Tonale crossover. His Alfista father followed that with an Alfetta in 1972, then a 2.0 GTV and a V6 GTV. If that upbringing wasn’t enough to qualify Imparato for the job of leading Alfa Romeo into a new era under Stellantis, his proven track record at Peugeot certainly is. Before being appointed Alfa Romeo boss in January 2021, Imparato had run Peugeot for five years. It is now the second-biggestselling brand in Europe, with some of the healthiest profit margins in the business. It is no surprise, then, that Stellantis overlord Carlos Tavares put Imparato in charge of the ailing Italian marque, which…

ROAD TEST Tesla Model Y This electric compact crossover has already proven a sales smash hit, but how good is it really? The full eight pages await COMPARISON Bronco vs Defender We don’t get Ford’s funky 4x4 in the UK. Just how much are we missing out on? DRIVEN Porsche Cayman GT4 RS This could be GT’s wildest car yet. Matt Saunders straps in EVERY WEEK DRIVEN Nissan Ariya Has the decade-long wait for a second Nissan EV been worth it? DRIVEN Volkswagen Golf R Is the hottest variant of the estate still a top-tier Q-car? SUBSCRIBE autocar.co.uk/subscribe or see p22…

MILEAGE 4422 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT Can the Defender’s breadth of appeal really cover everything from disaster zone to congestion charge zone? However fond I may have been of the old Land Rover Defender, the prospect of covering any kind of long-distance journey in it was not one to savour. I know colleagues who have owned and driven them as far as the Iberian Peninsula on holidays (hello, Matthew Prior). But no, not for me. Clearly, any car designed and engineered by Land Rover to go on sale in the 2020s is going to be immensely capable of devouring long distances, and the new Defender is no exception. But just how capable it was of doing big miles blew me away recently, when I racked up more than 500 miles…

enerally speaking, large, luxurious and G very expensive fourdoor saloons, larded thick with avoirdupois, don’t grab driving enthusiasts by the lapels and slap them around the face with desirability. Yet there’s something almost universally appealing about the Bentley Arnage. Initially conceived under Vickers ownership but launched in 1998, when Bentley was under the Volkswagen Group umbrella, the Arnage had a heart originally from a BMW: the 4.4-litre V8 in turbocharged 344bhp form. To avoid the obvious embarrassment after its takeover, Volkswagen in 1999 added the old 6.75-litre V8 from the Bentley Turbo R, taking the opportunity to stiffen the Arnage’s bodyshell in the process, and then a year later dropped the more efficient BMW unit. A little tweaking of the nomenclature to distinguish between the two resulted in the BMW-engined…

HOW DO YOU make a hot hatchback even hotter? You uprate the turbo, add a new exhaust, replace the ECU and name it after one of the world’s most extreme race tracks, of course. And the performance makeover that Vauxhall gave the original Corsa VXR didn’t end there. The Nürburgring model also gained inverted monotube Bilstein dampers and specially selected progressive springs, leaving it 20mm closer to the ground. It looked slightly different, too, with stainless steel exhausts, Nürburgring badges and a more aggressive bodykit featuring air scoops, funnels and a rear diffuser. It also received a set of lightweight forged alloys, 30%-lighter Brembo brakes and a torque-sensing mechanical limited-slip differential, all of which meant it was far more than just a run-of-the-mill small hot hatch. In the snout sat…

Bentley is readying an all-new Mulsanne, due to arrive before the end of the decade, for its radical electric era. The new flagship model will be part of the firm’s recently announced five-in-five strategy, in which it will launch five electric models between 2025 and 2030. The first of those Bentleys, expected to be previewed later this year, has been described as a Mulsanne replacement because it will be the most expensive model in the marque’s line-up at that time, as the Mulsanne once was, but it will not share similar proportions. Instead, it will be a smaller saloon, riding higher to accommodate underfloor batteries. Ultimately, though, a modern-day flagship, which will elevate pricing far beyond that of the former Mulsanne, will stand at the top of the lineup before…

The retro-styled ID Buzz has officially been unveiled five years since it was revealed in concept form, taking Volkswagen’s line-up of bespoke EVs to five. Due on sale in the UK in May in passenger and commercial guises, the compact van shares its MEB underpinnings with the ID 3, ID 4, ID 5 and ID 6 and will ultimately be available with the same array of batteries and drivetrains. First to arrive is the rear-wheel-drive version with one motor giving 201bhp and 228lb ft of torque and a 77kWh battery providing around 250 miles of range. More powerful, dual-motor, four-wheel-drive models with up to 295bhp will be added to the line-up in 2023, as will a 168bhp rear-wheel-drive base model and a shorter-range version with a 52kWh battery. An eventual…

Among the crucial models in development as part of Volvo’s EV onslaught is the all-new, all-electric and all-important successor to the XC60. The SUV has been the Swedish brand’s best-selling car for the past four years running. Due in 2024 to fill the gap between the XC40 Recharge electric SUV and the longawaited electric replacement for the XC90 SUV coming later this year, the XC60 successor (which will have a name rather than a numerical designation) will play a core role in taking Volvo to its goal of all-out electrification by 2030. EVs accounted for just 6.5% of Volvo’s global sales last year (its best on record), but the Swedish company aims to boost that figure to 50% by 2025 on the way to ditching combustion entirely by 2030. A…

“We can afford to invest in sports cars and take a long-term view” The Cyberster roadster will arrive before 2024 as an affordable halo car for MG and one of three new models arriving by that date. It will build on the Chinese brand’s recent phenomenal success in the UK: sales grew 66% last year, from 18,415 in 2020 to 30,600. The MG 4 hatchback will arrive first, before the end of this year. The value-driven rival to the Volkswagen ID 3 is expected to become MG’s biggest seller beside – or even surpassing – the ZS small SUV. MG UK commercial director Guy Pigounakis said of the MG 4: “The car stays true to our values of getting more from an MG. It represents cutting-edge technology, it needs to…

MOST OF THE headlines surrounding EV technology relate to advances in battery technology, performance and range. But one of the most important bits in an EV’s drivetrain, the inverter, is often overlooked. McLaren Applied Technology, Nio, Equipmake and BorgWarner have all recently announced new, compact 800V inverter technology that’s capable of significantly increasing the range and charge speed of EVs. Inverters convert the DC current from the EV battery into three-phase, AC current to drive the EV’s AC traction motor and also back again, from AC to DC, during regenerative braking. In addition, they control the speed of the motor in response to the accelerator pedal. The new generation of inverters all substitute SiC (silicon carbide) MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor) for the traditional, silicon IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar…

They know, you know. The data. It’s all there. If you buy a new plug-in hybrid Citroën C5 X (driven, p24), it will ping head office every now and again to grass you up about how often you’ve plugged in the car – or haven’t. It’s all anonymised, they say, and GDPR-compliant. But Citroën CEO Vincent Cobée explains: “We know, based on 200 million kilometres of results, the fuel economy and what we need to influence the number of people charging.” Your Citroën PHEV will send you reminders if don’t plug it in regularly. “The less often you charge it, the more often you get a reminder,” says Cobée. Now, the car knows to do this even without sending data to head office. But data referencing the car’s VIN can,…

NATIONAL HIGHWAYS IS focusing on the environment more than ever before with the creation of an environmental division under sustainability director Stephen Elderkin. BALANCING ACT Elderkin believes England’s roads must sit within a wider environmental framework. “There’s no question that roads are part of the future of the UK’s transport system and will continue to cater for the vast majority of passenger miles and freight movements,” he told Autocar. “But what’s really critical is that we’re able to meet that demand in a sustainable way. “One of the things that will be a measure of success will be National Highways seeing the environment as an integral part of our deliverables. “There has always been an importance placed on the environment, and I don’t want to discredit the work that has…

ALEX BOWMAN GAVE full credit to his crew chief Greg Ives for his seventh top-tier Nascar Cup Series victory in the recent Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Bowman jumped from fourth to second in the final round of pit stops before an ‘overtime’ restart, as Ives gambled on fitting just two fresh tyres to the Chevrolet. It paid off as Bowman faced off against Hendrick team-mate Kyle Larson, the former heading the inside lane, the latter the outside. The pair remained abreast as they started the last lap, with Bowman striking for home out of the final turn four. “This thing was so fast all day, I just never really had the track position we needed to show it,” said Bowman. “But man, what a call by Greg…

This undisguised cold-weather prototype is our first taste of Mercedes-Benz’s all-electric alternative to the E-Class. Specifically, it’s a four-wheel-drive EQE 500 4Matic, and a car at a more advanced stage than the rear-wheeldrive EQE 350+ that I sampled from the passenger seat in February. It’s also a good deal more powerful. With a dual-motor driveline using hardware similar to that seen in the even longer, more opulent EQS 450 4Matic, the most powerful of the planned ‘mainline’ EQEs develops around 402bhp. That’s 114bhp more than for the EQE 350+, although still 67bhp less than the AMG-fettled EQE 43 4Matic and a way off the 617bhp of the AMG EQE 53 4Matic. Bookending the range at the lower end is the EQE 300+, meaning the EQE line-up will be five models…

Considering the unabating popularity of EVs, SUVs and SUVs that want to be coupés, it’s only natural that myriad mash-ups should appear, and the latest is the Skoda Enyaq iV Coupé. Is it just a quick cash-in, then? Not exactly. Work started on the Coupé in 2017, before the square-backed Enyaq we know today, originally intended as a quirky alternative to the cookie-cutter SUVs of the day. Of course, it’s not alone these days, but that doesn’t stop it from heading the Enyaq family, even getting the honour of being the first EV to wear Skoda’s vRS performance badge. That’s the most exciting version, officially getting from 0-62mph in 6.5sec, thanks to 295bhp from two motors and four-wheel drive. No one will ever say that it’s slow, but if you’ve…

MODEL TESTED 350H PREMIUM PLUS PACK AWD Price £48,800 Power 241bhp Torque na 0-60mph 7.1sec 30-70mph in fourth na Fuel economy 41.0mpg CO2 emissions 144g/km 70-0mph 49.1 m Cast your mind back to 2014 and the launch of the first-generation Lexus NX. At the time (and mostly in a positive way), we found the car quite shocking to behold. Even the TV advert, which featured an origami fox along with other creased creations existing in an abstracted urban environment – Facet City – might have induced tension headaches in the viewer. Just how many angles, we wondered, was it possible to design into the body of a car before the result resembled a ball of tinfoil? The NX stopped well short of that point, but still. Clearly, given that this new…

Pre-season testing is the first chance for F1 fans to see the new cars in action, but more importantly it’s the first chance for the engineers to see whether or not their ideas are the right ones. And this year that was even truer than it has been for four decades, due to the vastly different rules. It’s never wise to read too much into testing lap times, as teams will test various configurations and fuel loads and push more or less than their rivals – or even ‘sandbag’ to hide their pace. The best insight you can really get is by watching and listening to the drivers, engineers and race crew – which I did in the Alpine garage in Barcelona a few weeks ago. “I’d say the new…

Fire away John Evans’ article ‘How much of a fire risk are EVs?’ (9 February) left me with some questions. What percentage of fires occur after accidents involving damage to the battery? If the percentage is high, at least it minimises the risk of being trapped by fire without any warning. Do the “highly toxic vapour clouds” and “highly directional jets” break into the cabin, and do the former knock out occupants? Is there any advance warning system, such as a thermostat that indicates the battery is overheating? My reaction to your article is that if the occupants can in most situations get out of the car quickly enough to get a good distance away, at least they will be safe while experts fret about what to do with the…

An exceptionally beautiful Geneva motor show FOR THE THIRD year running, the Geneva motor show – the car industry’s biggest annual bash – has regrettably been cancelled, so let us look back on a happier time. The 1956 salon was “noteworthy for the fine array of coachwork art from Italy”. These included Ghia’s Jaguar XK140 (“a car to delight every enthusiast”), a “severe but distinctive” two-door based on the Mercedes-Benz 300 and a Jaguar Mk VII coupé from Farina, and an “unusually beautiful little coupé” made by Abarth and Bertone on a Fiat 600 (seen above in gold). And we really did mean little: the 215A was a hardly believable 3ft 8in tall. More handmade beauties came from the only native firm present, Graber: two soft-top versions of the TC…

MILEAGE 3994 WHY WE’RE RUNNING IT To see if Lexus’s first EV can compete with established premium electric SUVs It is now four months into life with the Lexus UX 300e and my commute is just as comfortable as ever. The EV has excelled in most environments, with effortless acceleration and helpful regenerativee braking that efficiently brings it to a near-stop in crawling traffic and at junctions. The bulk of my driving is on motorways and A-roads, with short distances in town. It is very good in built-up areas and the compact, precise turning circle proves particularly useful in multi-storey car parks and on roundabouts. The UX clearly enjoys being in its natural habitat – something that was confirmed to me after I handed the keys over to Autocar’s prepress…

An expert’s view NIGEL SANDELL, BENTLEY SPECIALIST “The main problem with the Arnage is that the factory didn’t have enough money when they started making it. All its DNA is BMW, basically. It’s so different from older Bentleys and Rolls-Royces that we had to throw out the rule book. Changing the head gasket on the BMW V8 is an engine-out job and the twin turbos in some engines are really inaccessible. Maintenance can be very expensive and problematic, because we can’t always get the right parts now. We’ve had to have many bespoke parts made. Buy one that has already had money spent on it, else it could cost a fortune. It’s like a house: always get a survey by an expert before buying.” Buyer beware… ■ ENGINE Arnages like…

MAZDA IS COMMITTED to keeping the formula of its venerable MX-5 sports car intact even as it embarks on a strategy to heavily overhaul, expand and electrify its line-up in the coming years. The firm has confirmed that it will launch a range of electrified SUVs atop its new rear-driven platform and three new pure-electric cars on its smaller, front-driven architecture, as used by the 3 hatchback and MX-30 EV. However, it has so far said little about how the 33-year-old roadster fits into that strategy. Now, though, Mazda’s head of product development and engineering in Europe, Joachim Kunz, has given strong hints that the MX-5 will be considered completely separately to the more mainstream models that underpin the firm’s growth, with a view to maintaining its enthusiast appeal. “It’s…

As well as electrifying its existing models, Volvo will extend its line-up at the bottom end to cater to the growing demand for compact EVs. “There will be more variants on the big car platform – the 90 size – but then there will be something in size 20 coming additionally, and that will be a big volume contribution to our line-up,” confirmed outgoing Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson. The ‘XC20’ is set to use Volvo parent company Geely’s SEA platform, as used by the Chinesemarket Zeekr 001 shooting brake, making a 430-mileplus range and charging at up to 360kW possible.…

MG has acquired a car-sharing business and plans to launch an offering this year, as it seeks to diversify beyond the traditional car retail structure. MG UK commercial director Guy Pigounakis said that the details are still being finalised but that the venture is unlikely to be branded as MG. He said the scheme would be a natural home for the 3 supermini, currently the least popular model in MG’s line-up, as car sharing best suits urban areas and thus smaller cars. “We are just going through the acquisition at the moment and are looking at programme options,” said Pigounakis. “We already have a considerable car-sharing business in China. “We see car sharing playing well into A-segment cars, which are more popular in large metropolitan areas. “It works particularly well…

Alpine’s upcoming electric cars will draw heavily on engineering from its Formula 1 team as the marque seeks to optimise efficiency while reinforcing its enthusiast-targeted brand positioning. Three all-new Alpine EVs will be launched over the next four years, meaning Dieppe requires expertise in electrified powertrain technology and, in order to maximise range, aerodynamics – which is in abundant supply at the UK-based race team. “The A522 aerodynamics group at Enstone has just finished a particular project for Alpine road cars, and we’re about to embark on another,” Alpine F1 technical director Matt Harman told Autocar as the all-new groundeffects racer began testing. “We’re linking those two [groups of] people together, both in physical testing and in computational fluid dynamics. It’s a really nice collaboration, and it’s good for…

Honda has dreamed the impossible dream and agreed to do something established car makers have resisted for years: be a contract manufacturer. The agreement between Honda and Sony to jointly create a new EV brand “aligns the technological assets of both companies”, according to Honda, as they work to launch their first car in 2025. In doing so, the Japanese pair have made a bold move to marry the skills of a technology giant with the engineering and manufacturing know-how of a vehicle company. The combination is one that is being investigated globally as cars become more defined by software than hardware. Most notably, it’s happening in China. Examples include Geely’s link-up with tech giant Baidu to create the Jidu brand for selfdriving EVs, with Geely taking the lead on…

‘Car maker’ is a common term, but the truth is that today’s car companies are more assemblers of bought-in parts than actual manufacturers. That was highlighted in a recent comment by Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who said that the value of a car once it has emerged from the factory is “85% bolt-on parts”. These parts are sourced from thousands of lesserknown suppliers, but as we shift from internal combustion engine cars to electric cars using ever-more sophisticated software, car makers are trying to recapture some of the value lost to suppliers. The process of making parts in-house is called vertical integration, and car makers are going further down that route in specific areas – most notably batteries but also computer chips and software. This is happening for a number…

FRIDAY Headed eagerly out of The Smoke for a weekend update in Autocar’s electric Fiat 500, because EV life keeps changing. Paused my usual London-Cotswolds trip at Membury services to try the Gridserve chargers that last year replaced those woeful Ecotricity units on motorways. Mine worked well: it connected quickly, read my credit card without drama and boosted the battery 30% by the time I’d downed a coffee. SATURDAY AND SUNDAY Lots of local zipping about, the Fiat’s speciality. It’s amazing how a semi-rural life advances your car’s odometer in 30-mile chunks, but our home charger obliterates short-haul EV problems. Still, I wasn’t confident we’d pull off a 127-mile round trip to meet a son for Sunday lunch – not least because Fiat has always been hopelessly optimistic at forecasting…

THE PLUSH SEVEN-SEAT EQS SUV is the third car based on Mercedes-Benz’s EV-specific EVA2 platform. Stretching to over 5.2 metres, it sits at the very top of the EQ line-up and is planned to form the basis of an even more luxurious Maybach variant. The proportions are quite different from those of Mercedes’ combustion-engined SUV models, with a shorter bonnet and a longer wheelbase affording a large cabin. “It’s not a conversion design,” says Holger Enzmann, head of vehicle integration for EVA2-based cars. “Rather, it has been developed from the ground up without the compromises that you eventually run into when backing [an EV] onto an existing [ICE] platform.” The prototype I’m driving at Mercedes’ winter-testing facility in Sweden is an EQS 580 SUV, which the manufacturer says will have…

With the UK launch of the new Jogger, Dacia has confirmed the numbers that matter the most. They are £14,995 (the seven-seat MPV’s scarcely believable starting price) and £195 (the monthly fee that will get you one on finance, after a deposit of… wait for it… £195). In a market in which the compact MPV has faded into obscurity, this car stands to do rather well at that money – especially since it is almost impossible to find a seven-seat rival that doesn’t cost twice as much. A car in such a position doesn’t need to be especially well packaged, refined, versatile or nice to drive in order to find a receptive market – it just needs to exist. The Jogger, however, does better than that. It is ostensibly a…

It would seem that they’ve removed the massive rear wing. But as the good people of Prodrive unload their curious new car from a trailer into the depths of central London, I’m not sure that has left it much less conspicuous. Heads turn. Cyclists stop. Runners take pictures. Questions come. What? How many? How much? How fast? Has Fisher-Price made a 4x4? First, then, to what. This sand-coloured blob, this “Ferrari of the desert” (as per Prodrive boss David Richards), this 1:1 Tamiya fever dream turned reality is the Prodrive Hunter, and it barely fits onto the trailer it has arrived on. Length isn’t its problem: at only 4.6 metres, it’s shorter than the BMW 3 Series. Nor is height: at 1.85 metres, it’s lower than the Range Rover. But…

Lower parking fines, permitted grace periods and a single appeals service are among the measures contained car park operators. Intended to clean up the sector, the code outlaws opaque parking rules and heavy-handed demands for payment, and permits innocent errors such as incorrectly entering a car’s registration to count as grounds for appeal. Launched in February, operators are expected to fully adhere to the code by the end of 2023, by which time the new single appeals service is expected to be operational. “Parked in Padstow on 19 December and paid for a full day’s parking. Received PCN [parking charge notice] as ticket not fully displayed on screen (caught by wind when closing door?); however, 50% visible. Appeal rejected, not because of non-payment but because ticket only partially visible.” “Received…

“Last season was one of the best in the history of Formula 1. It’s just a shame that the final 10 minutes undid 10 months of brilliance.” Karun Chandhok, former F1 driver and now Sky F1 pundit, is typically outspoken as we look out from Silverstone’s new Interactive Museum over the circuit. We’re here to talk about the upcoming 2022 season and how the biggest changes in the sport’s regulations for four decades will bear upon it. And since a significant chunk of those regs will have a direct effect on the cars’ dynamics, we’ve also brought along Rob Wilson, driver coach to some of the world’s best. Wilson’s techniques have been adopted by around 75 drivers over the past four decades, including nine on this year’s grid, so will…

My perfect MPV I read your item on a used Vauxhall Zafira VXR (Take It Or Leave It, 23 February) with interest. The assumption too often made by Autocar and others is that MPVs are bought just for the school run. I bought a Mazda 5 MPV for long trips to the Mediterranean. As a 2.0-litre petrol, it felt underpowered for six people and a roofbox on a 600-miles-per-day target, so I swapped in a 2.5-litre engine and gearbox from a Mazda 6, which helped significantly. I’ve since also added Mazda 3 MPS anti-roll bars and stronger dampers, which helps in high-speed corners. The sight of a fully loaded MPV surging up a steep autoroute climb surprises many other drivers. It’s also easier to maintain long term than the issue-prone…

Is it a good idea to revive hallowed model names? Toyota certainly thought so in 2019, when it roused the Supra sports coupé after 20 years of dormancy. Mind you, this fifth iteration also wore the Gazoo Racing badge, being the first bespoke car produced for the global market by Toyota’s performance division. Somewhat controversially, the GR Supra was built in collaboration with BMW, being based on the fifthgeneration Z4 roadster. It’s also built at the same Magna Steyr factory in Austria as its German counterpart. It wasn’t just a Bimmer in disguise, though, because Toyota gave the car bespoke tuning. The first GR Supra model was powered by BMW’s ‘B58’ turbocharged 3.0-litre straight six, which makes 355bhp and 368lb ft of torque. As a result, it achieved a 0-62mph…

We don’t need to tell you that the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ is quick. It would still look like a fast car even if it were powered by a lawnmower engine. But at the other end of the spectrum, there’s a whole group of cars that conceal powerful drivetrains beneath the metal of a normal car. So let’s take a look at some of the best ‘sleepers’ ever sold and check up on how easy they are to buy today. Mercedes-Benz 500E 1991-1994 It took a well-trained eye to tell the Mercedes-Benz 500E (W124 generation) apart from its cheaper, less powerful siblings doing taxi duty. It received a powertrain-specific front bumper, flared wheel arches and, of course, a model-name badge on its rear. Enthusiasts knew what they were seeing, but everyday…