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LAST week’s Budget statement from Chancellor Rachel Reeves felt like a beautiful example of using a big, shiny thing to distract from some other bits and pieces you’re trying to sneak through unnoticed. Keeping fuel duty frozen for another year was the shiny surprise, and went counter to pre-Budget predictions that the Government was planning to hit drivers at the pumps by raising duty that had been frozen for more than a decade. But that headline-grabbing flourish, incredibly welcome as it was, hid some less good news, and deflected attention from things that were left out completely. “THAT HEADLINE-GRABBING FUEL DUTY FLOURISH HID SOME LESS GOOD NEWS, AND DEFLECTED ATTENTION FROM THINGS LEFT OUT COMPLETELY” Firstly, not mentioned in the speech and only to be found in the accompanying Treasury…

“THE UPCOMING ELECTRIC M3 WILL BE COMPLEMENTED BY A MILD-HYBRID PETROL-POWERED ALTERNATIVE” BMW is hedging its bets and developing two versions of the new M3 side-by-side, rather than picking one powertrain option over the other. Auto Express has learned that the upcoming all-electric M3 will be complemented by a mild-hybrid petrol-engined alternative. The reveal of both cars is scheduled for 2027, before they go on sale in 2028. A senior official within the project told us that the two versions should look pretty similar to each other. Rather than two different editions of the super-saloon, we’ve been told to expect the same car with different powertrains. Both will be made available in the UK at the same time, with BMW able to increase or decrease production of one powertrain or…

RENAULT has dropped a strong hint that its radical Embleme concept will make production. Speaking at Renault’s “ElectriCity” Douai Plant in France, Luca de Meo, CEO of the Renault Group, said, “If you know me, you know that whenever I put something on a stage, I tend to do it.” The brand had previously said the concept would inform future design, rather than become a production model in its own right, but the firm’s boss has indicated a change of tack. The Embleme is a VW Passat-sized car that looks wildly different from the retro-inspired Renault 5 and newly revealed Renault 4. It has a hydrogen range-extender powertrain, but if it makes production, a more regular electric set-up is likely, given the absence of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. Rather than utilise a…

SUZUKI is one of the last mainstream brands to not yet have an EV, but the Japanese firm is about to get in on the action with its new e Vitara: an electric compact SUV that’s arriving next year to rival the Kia EV3, Skoda Elroq and others. This is not a pure-electric version of the existing, hybrid-powered Vitara, though. At 4,275mm long and with a wheelbase of 2,700mm, the e Vitara is 100mm longer than its sibling and has an extra 200mm between the wheels, to give more interior space. The new EV is wider and taller, but unsurprisingly, is also much heavier. The lightest version weighs 1,702kg, while a top-spec, dual-motor car tips the scale at 1,900kg. The petrol Vitara weighs between 1,075kg and 1,325kg, depending on the…

IT was thought the upcoming Micra supermini would be the starting point for Nissan’s new range of pure-electric vehicles, but Auto Express has learned there will be an even smaller model beneath it. The unnamed EV will use tech from Ampere – a subsidiary of the Renault Group set up a year ago with the aim of lowering the costs of electric-car development and supply, not only for Renault, but also for its wider alliance with Mitsubishi and Nissan. Nissan will partner with Ampere to develop the new car, and while there are very few confirmed details about this new EV, we can assume it’ll share plenty with the upcoming Renault Twingo, which is on track for a 2026 launch. With this in mind, we expect the Nissan to have…

THE Hyundai Ioniq 9 has been teased ahead of a likely unveiling at the LA motor show this month. The electric seven-seat SUV, a sister car of the Kia EV9, looks to retain its concept car-like design, mixing distinctive Ioniq detailing with a sleek and slightly more rakish silhouette than the Kia. This new image comes after spies had a peek at the Ioniq 9’s minimalist interior earlier this year, revealing that the upcoming SUV will borrow a few elements from other new-age Hyundai models, including the latest Santa Fe. Both have the same dual-display set-up, blocky steering wheel and gear selector on the steering column, plus similar shortcut buttons and touch-sensitive climate controls.…

LABOUR’S Budget missed the chance to make good on the party’s pre-election pledge to deliver “multiyear funding settlements to local leaders”, which would allow local authorities to develop proper schedules for road maintenance. While the party previously called for an end to the “sticking plaster” approach to fixing the UK’s pothole plague, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has instead announced a £500 million cash injection into maintenance. Announcing her Budget measure in the House of Commons, Reeves told MPs: “For too long, potholes have been an all-too-visible reminder of our failure to invest as a nation. Today, that changes, with a £500million increase in road-maintenance Budgets next year.” The cash has been welcomed, but there’s disappointment at the lack of a long-term funding programme. Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation charity,…

IT’S hard to think of a car that contains more ability under one roof than the new BMW M5 Touring – fast in a straight line, but as practical and spacious as any estate car, and full of tech. This is only the third time BMW has produced an estate version of the mighty M5, despite the saloon on which it’s based being in its seventh generation. It weighs just 40kg more than the four-door, which seems impressive, until you realise that at 2,475kg, it’s still a very heavy car, even compared with rivals such as the Audi RS 6, which is over 300kg lighter. Yet, says BMW, the M5 Touring’s weighty hybrid powertrain gives it a depth of dynamic flexibility that no rival can get close to. Despite its…

“NOT HAVING AN ACCURATE RANGE ESTIMATE IN FRONT OF ME WHILE I’M DRIVING SEEMS COUNTERINTUITIVE” FIRST, a disclaimer: I have not been driving around blindfolded recently. The picture you see here was taken with the car in Park, on a quiet airfield in Oxfordshire. This is just a metaphor for how it feels when I hop into our Peugeot E-2008 after charging it to full. While most EVs base their remaining range figure on driving style or historical data, the Peugeot always shows 248 miles at 100 per cent; that is the car’s official WLTP range and very much a best-case scenario. As we all know, you have to be driving like a saint on a sunny day to get anywhere near that number. This isn’t really an issue in…

SMART will expand its line-up to four models next year, with the new addition to be known as the #6. It’s likely to be the first hatchback to join a currently SUV-only range. A replacement for the baby ForTwo and ForFour models is still some way off, though, with the brand unable to make the costs stack up for small cars. But it has held back the #2 or #4 nameplates while it seeks a partner to help make the project profitable. This means the larger car comes first, and speculation has it pinned as a hatchback, although it’s described only as “surprising and exciting from a design and technology point of view” by insiders. It’s expected to be revealed in the second half of next year, before hitting the…

VOLVO has announced prices for its revitalised XC90 SUV, which will offer buyers a choice of two hybrid powertrains. Kicking off at £63,790 for the entry-level B5 model and £72,650 for the plug-in T8, it’s considerably cheaper than the electric EX90, which costs from £96,255. The new XC90 will be offered in three trim levels: Core, Plus and Ultra. Standard equipment even on the Core model is decent, with LED-matrix headlights, a new 11.4-inch infotainment screen, 20-inch wheels, wireless phone charging, heated seats and a heated steering wheel. Plus models add luxuries such as a panoramic roof, a Harman Kardon sound system and active air suspension, as well as aesthetic upgrades including a dark trim package and a fabric interior option to replace the standard faux-leather. Top-spec Ultra models feature…

AUDI has added a brand-new smaller-battery, single-motor model to its all-electric executive A6 e-tron line-up. The A6 e-tron was initially revealed with just a 94.9kWh battery, but Audi has introduced a 75.8kWh battery to the range. This brings pricing down to £62,500 for the Sport trim level, rising to £66,000 for the S line, and £71,000 for the Edition 1. Audi offers two bodystyles of A6 e-tron – Sportback and Avant estate – and high-performance S6 versions of both. The RS 6 arrives next year as the line-up’s flagship. The new edition of the A6 e-tron has a single electric motor, producing 321bhp and 435Nm of torque – enough for a top speed of 130mph and a 0-62mph time of around six seconds. Range stands at 382 miles in the…

DRIVERS breathed a sigh of relief as the freeze on fuel duty introduced in 2011 was retained, along with the previous government’s 5p ‘cost of living’ reduction, in Labour’s first Budget last Wednesday. Against a challenging economic background Chancellor Rachel Reeves introduced a package of measures she described as “restoring economic stability and turning the page on 14 years”. But while drivers escaped the fuel-price hikes that pundits were predicting, the car industry was less happy with a huge rise in Employer National Insurance Contributions – in effect a tax on jobs. Welcoming the Chancellor’s commitment to a £2bn automotive transformation fund, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders chief executive Mike Hawes said the strategy depends on the UK being globally competitive. “Additional National Insurance Contributions will put massive pressure…

“The EV powertrain’s instant torque make the Inster feel faster than the numbers suggest” IT is notoriously difficult for companies to make money building affordable small cars. Many have tried and most have failed – it’s the reason so many superminis have been consigned to the history books in recent years. That issue is only exaggerated when you start to factor in the added cost of electrification; it’s no coincidence that we’ve got so much choice when it comes to big, heavy SUVs, yet there are so few EV options in the city-car segment. But Hyundai has never been one to conform to industry trends, and as such, is about to launch a brand-new sub-£25k small EV to hit the new Renault 5 and MINI Cooper exactly where it hurts.…

SUVs are designed to suit families with an outdoor lifestyle, but Nissan has taken things further with an addition to the X-Trail line-up that’s aimed squarely at those who like to get dirty, be it through muddy dog walks or filthy football kit. The N-Trek sits just below the top of the X-Trail range, between the N-Connecta and Tekna spec levels, adrift of the top Tekna+. Visually, it’s subtly different to other X-Trails, with attempts to make it more rugged including a protruding protective lower front bumper encasing the foglights, and a bespoke rear inlay, both in a gunmetal finish. Less obvious is the fact that the N-Trek also gets gloss black door mirror casings and roof rails, as well as smart 18-inch gloss black alloy wheels. But it’s inside…

POLESTAR 2 THE Polestar 2 has ‘glitched’ a handful of times in the last few weeks – including the central touchscreen strobing rapidly on and off on one journey, while on another the navigation system showed us stuck in the Heathrow long-term car park for the entire 30-mile drive home. Normality returns after a simple system reset, so for the moment it’s merely an occasional frustration that hasn’t dented our overall enthusiasm for the car. CHRIS ROSAMOND GENESIS GV60 ONE of the things that has impressed me most about my GV60 has been its economy. It’s averaging almost four miles per kWh, which is pretty much the same as the BYD Dolphin I ran previously. However, a trundle through suburbia one Sunday evening showed just how good it could be.…

WITH rising motoring costs, swapping your car for a retro classic could save you money, and make driving more fun. Commuting can often feel like a bit of a grind. The early alarm calls and cold-morning starts are dreary enough, but just take a look around the next time you’re sitting in yet another traffic jam, and the insipid design of many of today’s modern cars will do little to lift your spirits. When you add in growing costs such as road tax and congestion charges, along with fees in low-emission zones, perhaps it’s time to add a little spice to your motoring life. While the latest electric cars are good at getting you from A to B, many lack that special something to stir the soul and put a…

NOT everyone is ready for a fully electric car, so plugin hybrids (PHEVs) are a great halfway house. They combine an internal-combustion engine with electric power to offer some of the benefits of each in one package. Our experts have evaluated every PHEV on sale in the UK, and these are what they consider to be the best plug-in hybrids. 1 BMW 530e Prices from £62,500 THE BMW 5 Series has long been a staple of the executive car world, and its loyal buyers can reap the benefits of plug-in power. The 530e may be partly electric, but it’s as fun to drive as any 5 Series. It’s equally impressive inside, where you’ll find an interior that’s very well put together, ergonomically designed and filled with top-quality tech. Unfortunately, the…

NEXT year’s arrival of the bulky #5 SUV will be a “milestone” for the Smart brand, according to European boss Dirk Adelmann. “We have reinvented ourselves a couple of times, most recently in 2019 when Smart went all-electric, and now with the #5 we are going into a segment that we have never dared to touch,” he told Auto Express. He revealed Smart had plans to enter the mid-sized SUV market under previous ownership, but it never came to fruition. “It’s unexpected, it’s unconventional, the design language that we use with the #5, but it’s still Smart,” Adelmann continued. “And for me, the cool thing to see is that you can give Smart a form, shape and size that are unexpected, but people still see the family, still see the…

THE Nissan Leaf will be completely reimagined for its next generation, which will arrive in showrooms in 2026, dropping the existing car’s hatchback form for something more sleek and stylish. Spotted testing with a production-close body and styling features visible under its camouflage, Nissan’s new EV could be quite a head-turner. That’s because the next Leaf will take inspiration from the Chill-Out Concept from 2021, a high-riding fastback featuring large wheels, expressive lighting and a more distinctive silhouette. As with most concepts, the Chill-Out takes the styling elements to an extreme, but new images of Nissan’s prototypes reveal many will be carried across. The overall proportions are more conservative, with smaller wheels and a taller body and driving position. But Nissan will likely carry across the bi-colour bodywork, separating the…

CAR dealers and finance companies are reeling from an appeal court ruling that says they must now disclose how much cash brokers are pocketing in commission on the car finance deals they arrange for their customers. Previously car dealers had to share commission figures only if asked, but the appeal court decided consumer law demands full disclosure. Car dealers also have a responsibility to obtain customer consent for that commission to be paid, it said. The decision has forced a number of lenders to temporarily suspend activities in order to reconfigure or assess their processes. Some customers buying on finance were left in limbo, after being told they couldn’t have the new cars they were expecting to collect while the suspensions remain in place. Lenders including Close Brothers Finance, Honda…

ELECTRIC car charger operators have resorted to using private security patrols because crooks have begun to cut cables to sell copper for scrap. Delvin Lane, the CEO of Instavolt, the UK’s largest rapid charging network, has told Auto Express that public EV chargers “need to be seen as critical infrastructure” amid a rise in the number of cable thefts across the country and industry. So far the firm has suffered 218 cable thefts across 31 sites in South Yorkshire and the Midlands, with fellow chargepoint operators (CPOs) reporting thefts nationwide. Criminal gangs and opportunist thieves are cutting the cables of rapid EV chargers in order to sell the scrap copper inside them for cash. Lane explained, however, that “while [they] might get £25 or so per cable, it costs us…

THE Chancellor has doubled the cost of the first year’s Vehicle Excise Duty (VED/road tax) for buyers of many new models, in a measure the government says increases the differential between fully electric and internal-combustion vehicles. With effect from April, the standard rate of annual road tax will increase only by the rate of inflation, but anyone buying a car will face a much bigger VED bill if their car emits more than 75g per kilometre of CO2. From that 75g threshold, and across every higher CO2 charging band, the government is doubling the rates for first-year road tax. Obviously, the worst affected are buyers of high-performance and luxury cars emitting more than 255g/km, but buyers of even small superminis such as a 1.2-litre hybrid Vauxhall Corsa emitting 102g/km of…

ABARTH has been competing in motorsport and turning up the wick on Fiat’s models for 75 years now. Today, it’s best known for making souped-up, loud-mouthed versions of the Fiat 500 city car. However, just as the petrol-powered Abarth 595 and 695 are being laid to rest, the performance outfit has launched its most powerful road car ever: the new 600e. It sits on the same e-CMP2 platform as other small electric cars, such as the Alfa Romeo Junior, Jeep Avenger and Peugeot E-2008, but Abarth has fitted a new electric motor that produces 235bhp in the standard 600e, or 278bhp in the limited-edition Scorpionissima. The brand has also added a Torsen mechanical limited-slip differential, a new brake system designed to offer better fade resistance, liquid cooling for the battery,…

RUNNING TYRES FOR LONGER CAN HELP SAVE CASH – AND THE PLANET LOSING grip on a wet road can be a terrifying experience, especially if you’re not expecting a skid. If you are expecting a skid, and you’re driving on a public road, you probably ought to have a word with yourself. On the other hand, when you’re at a test track, it’s very entertaining to explore the limits of wet weather handling – and especially here at tyre manufacturer Michelin’s impressive test centre in Ladoux, France, where the twisty handling circuit on which we’re practising our car control has wide grass run-off areas and barely a barrier to hit within spinning range. Not that we’re thrashing around Ladoux at high speed in a feisty sports car - far from…

WHAT WE WOULD CHOOSE AUDI Q6 E-TRON Individual options are limited for the Q6, but the Sound and Vision pack boosts tech with an augmented-reality head-up display, a Bang & Olufsen sound system, extended ambient lighting and more powerful USB charging. POLESTAR 3 The £5,000 Plus Pack includes the Bowers & Wilkins stereo, and introduces a range of other upgrades including a head-up display, acoustic glass, soft-close doors and heated steering wheel and rear seats.…

WELL, this isn’t how I wanted to end my time with our BMW iX1. If you saw my last Fleetwatch report (Issue 1,852) you’ll know I, rather embarrassingly, managed to break two of the plastic undertrays on the car after going through some standing water during September’s flooding. Much to my relief, the undertrays are only for aerodynamic purposes, so once a piece that was hanging down had been removed – more on that in a second – the iX1 was perfectly fine to hit the road again. Nevertheless, this incident should serve as a cautionary tale for drivers out there who have considered tackling any sort of road obstruction like I did, and thought, “what could possibly go wrong?” Now you know. But an unforeseen benefit of me wounding…

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MOST of the XC40 owners who took part in this year’s Driver Power survey run a petrol-engined model, although a significant minority own plug-in hybrids. Across the board, highlights include the styling of the exterior (20th) and interior (12th). There’s an 11th place for quality inside and out, while front-seat comfort is rated fourth (which is the highest individual score that the XC40 achieves), and rear legroom is sixth. Seating flexibility and interior storage earn high praise (these are rated seventh and fifth), and there’s a 10th spot for the number of safety features, while boot capacity is ranked a respectable 15th. When it comes to the driving experience, it’s the brakes that fare worst, with a 39th place, whereas owners are impressed much more by the ride quality and…

YOUNGER readers may find this hard to believe, but even two or three decades back, people in modestly paid jobs had the wedge to buy affordable homes. And they’d still have enough left over to pay for reasonably priced British Grand Prix tickets. And a budget of around £1 a day really could cover the cost of car insurance plus road tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) on their humble cars. “WITH SOME VED PRICE HIKES FROM 100 TO 1,000 PER CENT, HOW LONG BEFORE THE TOUGHEST UNIONS START DEMANDING WAGE RISES OF SIMILAR SIZE?” My, how things have changed. Many of today’s youngsters seeking to purchase ‘places of their own’ are forced to live in DIY motorhomes equipped with bench-like beds, iffy showers, pongy portaloos and not much else. Exorbitantly priced…