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Volvo EX60 tested: why it's Volvo's best EV yet

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0100

Important new SUV introduces Brits to Swedish brand’s latest EV technology Volvo’s EX60 has arrived in the UK, bringing a new electric platform, ultra-rapid charging and an enormous range of up to 503 miles. Headline-grabbing stuff, but this new electric SUV will also need to show considerable polish if it is to worry about the game-changing rivals from Germany. At the beginning of the year, the BMW iX3 made its main foes look like amateurs, but instead of having the premium medium-sized corner of the electric SUV market to itself for the foreseeable future, it’s now facing two fierce opponents. First there came the Mercedes-Benz GLC Electric with very competitive specs, and now Volvo is entering the ring with the EX60. In brief, it’s a 4.8m-long electric SUV that sits between the Volvo EX40 and Volvo EX90, and brings a raft of new technology, most notably a new electric SPA3 platform, new batteries and a clever, cell-to-pack construction. The outgoing SPA2 platform that underpins the EX90 and Polestar 3 had a tough launch, with software gremlins and reliability issues making it feel unfinished. Volvo has sought to mitigate these challenges with the EX60, which is basically all new. But does this long-range, rapid-charging new Volvo have the credentials to challenge its main challengers from BMW and Mercedes-Benz? Let’s find out.

Bold new look for reinvented 2027 Hyundai Tucson

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 08:24:09 +0100

Chunky new Art of Steel design language brings Hyundai's best-selling car into its fifth generation

Hyundai has reinvented its best-selling Tucson crossover with a bold new 4x4-inspired look for its fifth generation.

Revealed overnight in Korea, the new Tucson is described as "bolder and more robust" than today's car, which is one of the most popular mid-sized SUVs on sale, ranking in the UK's top 10 best-selling cars for the past four years in a row and becoming the world's seventh-best-selling car in 2025.

The Toyota RAV4 rival's chunky new look is in keeping with Hyundai's new Art of Steel design language, which was introduced with the second-generation Nexo and will be rolled out across the line-up over the coming years.

Defining features include an upright, two-box silhouette that departs from the outgoing car's rounded form, and distinctive lighting signatures including a new H-shaped motif at both ends formed by a slim, wraparound light bar and vertical daytime-running lights.

Dramatically swollen arches, lower body cladding and a prominent skid plate, meanwhile, add an element of off-road flavouring and help to give the "stable stance characteristic of an SUV", says Hyundai.

At 4700mm long, the new Tucson is a significant 180mm longer than the current car, which effectively bumps it from the C-segment into the D-segment, where it will more directly compete with the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq, Honda CR-V and Renault Austral.

It's also around 100mm longer between the axles, with a wheelbase of 2785mm, and 40mm wider, which Hyundai says means it offers "best-in-class interior space".

Head room is also up in the second row by 29mm – most likely a result of the flatter roofline – and the back doors now open wider to make it easier to get in and out of.

The cabin itself is a dramatic departure from that of the current car, following the new Ioniq 3 in adopting a cleaner and more minimalist treatment centred on a substantial touchscreen, with a slim digital display above the squared-off steering wheel said to "minimise driver distraction".

Hyundai has given no details yet on which powertrains it will offer in the new Tucson; the current car offers the choice of mild, full and plug-in hybrids, as well as a cheaper pure-petrol engine.

UK firm's self-driving lorry ditches cab for more capacity, less weight

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 07:00:00 +0100

Voltempo's coach-sized 'smart trailer', to be tested and built in UK, boosts capacity by 15%

Electric vehicle specialist Voltempo is developing a cabless, autonomous rigid lorry that’s 15.6m long, exceeding the current maximum length for a non-articulated lorry, which the company claims will maximise space and payload.

The prototype aims to extend a rigid truck’s proportions and capacity beyond the current maximums of 12m, 32 tonnes and four axles to 15.6m, 42 tonnes and five axles, making it the same length as a coach. Removing the cab frees up weight and space, creating what Voltempo founder and corporate development officer Michael Boxwell dubbed a “smart trailer”.

Berkeley Coachworks is constructing the body and a prominent truck manufacturer is supplying the electric drivetrain. The prototype is scheduled for completion by September 2027 and testing is expected to start later that year at an autonomous vehicle test track in South Wales. The UK’s Automated Vehicles Act allows driverless vehicles to travel on public roads from this year, so trials could extend to the highway. Production is tipped to begin in late 2027, with first deliveries expected in mid-2028.

“If you get rid of the cab, you’ve got a 15.6m-long, longer semi-trailer, in effect,” said Boxwell. “An articulated tractor and trailer unit is about 15-17 tonnes as a diesel vehicle, and as an electric vehicle, it’s maybe 19 tonnes. With this smart trailer, we can get the laden weight down to between 10 and 12 tonnes as an electric vehicle. That means you’ve got 15% more space compared to a standard-length trailer.

“You’ve got a significant amount of extra payload – five to seven tonnes – and, bearing in mind the weight of a cab is two tonnes… we worked out that your typical HGV is carrying 16 tonnes on average. Now, we can make it 18.6 tonnes, because of the extra space. You’ve got something which is 1.5m shorter than an articulated HGV, but your average weight on the road is three times lighter because of the rigid body.”

According to Boxwell, every truck manufacturer in Europe has signed up to approve the prototype as an official vehicle classification and “they are prepared to build vehicles to that specification”. He said production versions would first be built in the UK, then on the continent. “We will get British hauliers in on the act before anybody else,” he said.

Boxwell added that the first vehicles are likely to be deployed on fixed routes, which would first need to be approved by local authorities, and he expects the number of routes to increase if initial attempts prove successful. He also said the prototype’s greater length and capacity could reduce the number of trucks on the road and that autonomy may help to address the ongoing driver shortage.

"You haven't seen the peak yet..." Gerry McGovern on life after JLR

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Exclusive: McGovern addresses "disinformation" around his exit from Gaydon, and maps out next steps

Gerry McGovern is in his element, leaning back in a comfortable chair, clad in a characteristically colourful tailored blue jacket, holding forth on the minutiae of vehicle design and smiling a lot.

It's as if nothing has changed since his Range Rover days. We're in a large meeting room with a bunch of late-build prototypes visible through the glass wall. Just down the hall is a big design studio.

What's different is that this is Norton Motorcycles' HQ on the outskirts of Solihull, not JLR down the road. Once a John Lewis warehouse, it is now repurposed - as part of a £250 million global 'resurgence' strategy - as Norton's design and development HQ. It's where the company's just-launched flagship superbike, the 1200cc Manx R, is being made. A second model, the 585cc twin-cylinder Atlas adventure bike, designed here but made in India, is arriving in dealerships now.

Though we're talking two wheels not four, the similarities to McGovern's former working life are striking. The newly revived Norton company, like Tata-owned JLR, has a well-financed, well-established Indian owner as its backer, the Chennai-based TVS Motor Company that made nearly six million motorcycles last year.

Back in 2020, TVS paid £16m to buy Norton out of administration, after a previous owner had attempted to keep it alive by pillaging its pension funds. Its chairman and managing director today is Sudarshan Venu, who led the acquisition of the outfit and is now very much the driver of Norton's expansion.

Sudarshan has already been described by McGovern as reminding him of "a young Mr Tata", praise indeed since McGovern's own design skills were rapidly recognised at JLR by the late legendary patriarch, Ratan Tata, who was regarded as unusually design-aware among global business leaders. It was Ratan Tata who introduced McGovern to TVS in the first place.

It's 18 months since I've seen McGovern. The last time was at the reveal of Jaguar's Type 00 concept, whose transition to production is nearing conclusion. However, McGovern sensationally left JLR at the end of last year, having allegedly been escorted from the building before returning to leave amicably a couple of months later. There's no polite way of asking exactly what happened, so I dive straight in.

"Such a lot has been written about this," says McGovern wearily, "and is disinformation. The reality was in the formal announcement: I decided to move on and try other things. I'd been at JLR for 24 years and was proud of what we'd done. But there's a point where you start wondering how long you can go on. I'd done three generations of Evoque, two of Range Rover and two of Range Rover Sport. Plus the new Defender. That was a lot. And then there was the Jaguar. Leaving was on my mind and I'd been talking to the company about it for a while. So the speculation about me was pretty inaccurate."

McGovern feels no animosity or awkwardness towards JLR now: "Why would I? I still love those brands. You can't just walk away. I've got a Defender Octa right now. When I'm in London, I love seeing Range Rovers and Defenders. Twenty years ago when I talked about Defenders in an urban environment, I'd get laughed at..."

Foolishly, I make some reference to McGovern's "new roots at Norton" so he reminds me he's known the TVS bosses since well before the Norton acquisition. He was actually at dinner with Sudarshan on the night six years ago when the actual deal was done.

McGovern was soon invited to advise TVS on rebuilding Norton's brand, design structure and products, and in 2025 he joined the company officially as its chief creative advisor. You might reckon his arrival spelled difficult times for Norton's existing head of design, Simon Skinner, a straight-talking motorcycle 'lifer' who admitted in his first meeting with McGovern that, as an engineer first and foremost, he had far less specialist design experience than his new mentor.

Yet the two have bonded well. Skinner finds McGovern easier to deal with than many other design professionals he could name. McGovern is impressed that Skinner's instinct for reductionist, modernist design matches his own.

Skinner, severely short of resources, was previously designing Norton stuff on his own kitchen table; McGovern has helped him establish a proper design structure. And when the current models were mooted, the pair set off to the nearby National Motorcycle Museum to find "salient points" about previous Norton designs that might help.

"What impressed me about Simon was that he recognised immediately I was coming to help, not take over," says McGovern. "Also, I don't believe in retro design, and neither does he. What we discovered from investigating Norton's heritage was that the bikes were very forward-looking against their opposition, which was something we could use."

McGovern says he approached bike design with trepidation but discovered it had much in common with cars: "If you're developing a brand, you've got to consider its perspective first. What's its reason for being? Where was it born? When was it established? What are its values? Defender's an example. It was born in the country and it liberated people. It was purposeful and took them on adventures. That informed the new design."

One challenge to the bike designer with reductionist ideals, says McGovern, is dealing with exposed mechanicals – making components look integrated rather than "like a bag of spaghetti".

But painstaking efforts have worked: the Manx and Atlas look graceful and integrated, not least when artfully parked by Skinner next to a selection of spiky-looking opposition products.

Bikes are all very well but I'm keen to talk cars again, specifically McGovern's latest Range Rover, in my view his greatest design. It's so perfect that I often wonder if he has an idea in his head that would move it into a third generation – and here's a chance to ask.

"Maybe that's why I left," he says, only half joking. "I just couldn't see a new generation. I mean, if you look at the way Range Rover has evolved from the original to where it is now, it does now have a very high level of sophistication. It's pared back to within a fraction of its life. You couldn't refine it any more. Mind you, we would never have reached today's level if we hadn't done the car before it. But another Range Rover like the current one would be a massive challenge."

McGovern is intrigued by the arrival of Ferrari's new Luce EV, given that he knows its star designers, Jony Ive and Marc Newson, well and understands car company politics better than most.

Ferrari was brave to get such fresh opinions on how much the marque's DNA needed to change for an EV project. McGovern is pretty sure that if the firm had given the job to specialist car designers, they would have produced a less shocking result, but probably less polarising.

"What's my own view of the car? I've learned that you never comment on a design until you've seen it in the flesh – and I haven't," he says. "But I look at its interior and I can tell it is built to an extremely high level of quality. Jony Ive is incredible in the way he approaches that."

McGovern reckons Ferrari's mistake was how it communicated the Luce's significance. It needed to make clear whether this was the direction for all future Ferrari design, or just electric models, and it didn't. Understandably, McGovern abhors the personal criticism directed at the designers after the car's launch. "I've had some treatment," he says, "but nothing like that."

Talking about controversial car projects soon introduces the Jaguar Type 00 – McGovern's own time in the firing line – but he seems to have few regrets about how it went.

"Most people hadn't realised that Jaguar needed to be reinvented," he says. "The brand was failing. It had been great in its heyday, but nobody was buying cars. It was losing big money for many years. We needed a complete reimagining of the brand and the product."

Behind the eventual Type 00 stood 17 full-size proposals, says McGovern, but knowing that a prestige brand is much more than a concept car, Jaguar's people recognised that they also needed to build and develop the brand values. That's where the controversial 'androgynous people' video came in, so comprehensively hated by the likes of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and even Nigel Farage.

"It was taken out of context," says McGovern. "What we were trying to say is that Jaguar had to be unique, a copy of nothing. That film took us into a bigger cultural debate about behaviour; at the time I didn't even know what wokeism was. But it did mean Jaguar was the most talked about brand in the world for four months. And it hadn't been talked about at all for years before that..."

McGovern has spent much of our interview being genial and emollient, but when I ask if he reckons history will see the Type 00 as the peak of his design career, he's firm and unflinching in his rebuttal. "You haven't seen the peak yet," he retorts. One car that really is a peak, he will allow, is the latest Defender, surrounded in the beginning by controversy of its own, mainly generated by people who just wanted to keep building the outgoing model, or something a lot like it.

"If you do a car and everybody's instantly comfortable with it," says McGovern, "it's probably going to fail. I can remember people coming onto our stands at motor shows and saying I was killing the brand with the new Defender. I'd ask how they'd like it to look and they'd say 'like the old one'. I'd have to explain about the legislation that stopped it."

McGovern has been designing cars for half a century. What comes next? McGovern's eyes tell me he thinks about this often. "I want to do new stuff," he says carefully, "and I'm aware there are many opportunities out there. I've had a lot of approaches. I'm very particular about what I want, and who I work with. But I'm definitely going to do more cars. They're in my blood."

Strong sales, high costs: Why BMW needs to rethink Mini's future

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0100

Oxford factory is key to Mini's image but also brings high costs

As parent company BMW hits headwinds, Mini's resilience comes into question

Amid all the talk of cost-cutting on BMW's recent earnings call, there was a moment of awkwardness when one analyst asked whether the Mini brand should be given the chop: “It looks to me that Mini is loss-making. Is that a brand BMW really needs long term?”

Unusually, the head of the brand was actually on the call. Stefan Richmann was fielding questions in his other role as group treasurer, but instead of answering he got mock offended. “That hurt me personally,” he said, without clarifying whether the pain arose from an accurate hit or the mere suggestion.

BMW doesn't separate out Mini or Rolls-Royce finances, leaving banking analysts to guess, but questions about Mini's profitability have long swirled. In normal times, BMW has the luxury of a healthy group profit margin, but woes in China have cut that to 3.6% in the first half of the year, putting fresh focus on Mini.

Mini is an enigma, with a negative to every positive. Sales are thriving, rising 12% in the first half year to 149,535 on the back of demand for the Countryman SUV and Cooper hatchbacks. But the brand is tied to high production costs in Britain (ICE hatchbacks and Convertible) and Germany (Countryman). The Cooper and Aceman EVs are built in low-cost China but attract punitive EU import tariffs on Chinese-built EVs.

Mini rules the premium small car market, but true competitors are few and far between, suggesting it's not easy to compete with volume players. Most recently, Audi axed the rival A1.

Mini has also aced the EV transition, 37% of its global sales in the first half of 2026 being electric. But with battery costs still elevated, that success also reduces its profitability.

Perhaps it's telling that, within the BMW Group, Mini is leading the move to direct sales, a key cost-saver. By selling directly to customers, Mini can charge a single, country-wide price and theoretically reduce discounting. Mini rolled this out in China in 2023, and the BMW brand will now move to the so-called agency model from 2027.

A worldwide brand like Mini is just too small to thrive within the new global rules. The newly tariff-imposing US is too niche a market to justify moving manufacturing there. China's future both as a market and an export base is too uncertain. And EU emissions rules threaten its profit margins without a move to lower-cost production locations like Hungary.

BMW is unlikely to drop the Mini brand, but a heavy reworking surely awaits.

Keep your V12s - Porsche's Mezger flat six is my all-time favourite engine

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0100

You need only hear this legendary race-bred lump at full chat to be convinced

From the likes of the 4.0-litre six that powers the 992 GT3 RS to the thunderous dirty dozen in the legendary 917, Porsche knows how to build a boxer engine.

They're all brilliant in their own right, but for me the 'Mezger' flat sixes are the absolute cream of the horizontally-opposed crop - partly because of their outrageous performance but also because of the history behind them.

Named after Hans Mezger (1929-2020), who led the engineering team behind the original air-cooled 2.0-litre '901' engine in the first 911, the unofficial Mezger nickname most commonly refers to a generation of water-cooled units used in the 996 and 997 GT cars, as well as the 996 and 997.1 Turbo models (even if you could technically apply the moniker to any air-cooled Porsche six).

That they have received the surname of the legendary engineer is testament to Mezger's legacy at the company, the fundamental layout of his original 901 flat six going on to function as the basis for every air-cooled flat six that left the Porsche factory over the next three decades, as well as the powerplants used in several of Porsche's race cars. With features like a durable split crankcase and a dry-sump oil system, the engines were, above all else, remarkably tough.

Mezger retired in 1993, and four years later Porsche moved away from his air-cooled design for the first time in more than 30 years with the 996. However, the all-new water-cooled 'M96' engine used in the 996 suffered from big problems: cracked cylinder heads, bore scoring and catastrophic intermediate shaft bearing failures (IMS is perhaps the best-known acronym in Porsche enthusiast circles) to name a few.

So when the time came to homologate the 996 for motorsport and the brand needed a competitive but reliable powerplant, Porsche headed into the archive for inspiration.

Using a derivative of the block from the Le Mans-winning 911 GT1, which itself was derived from Mezger's engine for the 962 Group C racer, Porsche designed a new water-cooled, naturally aspirated 3.6-litre flat six for the 996 GT3 in 1999. It had a split crankcase and was dry-sumped in a similar fashion to its air-cooled predecessors, with a gear-driven IMS rather than the M96's compromised chain-driven one.

Before long it came to be known as simply the Mezger by enthusiasts, in recognition of its links to the legendary engineer and to separate this new engine from the problematic M96.

The M96/7x (used in the 996) and later M97/7x (from the 997), to use their proper code names, went on to become some of Porsche's most celebrated engines. And, especially in their naturally aspirated guises (3.6-litre, 3.8-litre or full-fat, near-500bhp 4.0-litre), they are simply among the greatest combustion powerplants ever used by series-production cars.

They wear their motorsport roots on their cylinder sleeves: the gauges dance wildly and the cam chains rattle around on idle, yet they rev so quickly and freely and produce the most satisfying mechanical howl in the process.

And, despite them being more than happy to go well beyond the heady realms of 8000rpm, there's no sense of fragility: the Mezger has powered race and rally versions of the 996 and 997 GT3s without issue, and there are several cases where owners have done hundreds of thousands of miles on their original block with only the most basic of maintenance.

Yes, there are Bugatti W16s, Cosworth V12s and Lamborghini V10s to consider, but for longevity, history, reliability and character, this Porsche flat six has to be regarded as one of the greatest engine designs produced by any car maker, ever. Maybe the greatest.

Government must ease electric car targets to protect UK automotive

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:53:29 +0100

Nissan's Sunderland factory is a key EV hub, but the current trading environment poses a threat

Consultation on ZEV mandate will hear arguments from both sides, but the need for change is clear – and urgent

Much of the confusion that surrounds the controversy over whether or not the government should ease the terms of the ZEV mandate stems from the fact that the arguments are very convincing, and extremely well rehearsed, on either side.

Car makers and importers cite several years of severe financial pain, amounting to billions, that have resulted from providing the incentives a sluggish EV car market has needed even to get close to meeting the mandate’s required volume of sales.

Providers of charging infrastructure, frequently criticised for tardiness and unreliability as they struggle to turn their investment into profit, are alarmed at the prospect that their flow of customers, and the prices these customers pay, might now be held back by changes they hadn’t expected.

Autocar believes government action is urgently needed – and is perfectly possible – to benefit both sides. First, our legislators must urgently ease the gradient at which EV sales are required to rise. Buyers simply aren’t available in the numbers mandated for our industry to continue coping. It seems obvious that for the overall benefit of our country and its economy, car makers that comprise one of its key industries need help.

And much as any review of the ZEV mandate will likely help, the automotive industry really needs further government action.

We need to be reassured that the electric Mini can be viably made at Plant Oxford. We must be sure that Nissan’s Sunderland plant can continue to set high global standards for making EVs (and not just those of an arriving Chinese partner). We need to know that because of strong demand and containable costs, JLR can keep the manufacture of most forthcoming electric Jaguars and Land Rovers in the UK, rather than wholly exporting projects as it did with the pioneering I-Pace EV, built in Austria.

It’s not as if the industry is anti-progress: its representative body, the SMMT, continues to state in the first line of every utterance that its members firmly embrace a net-zero target for transportation.

Infrastructure providers, especially those who specialise in public chargers, must be encouraged by a dramatic VAT reduction. The massive cost difference between public and home charging – an unfair and undeserved penalty on those who live where home charging isn’t possible – has emerged as one of the most glaring anomalies of modern motoring.

However, the mammoth change that would benefit all sides would be a permanent, substantial cut in the price of electric energy in the UK.

According to The Economist, energy costs here last year were 50-100% greater than those in the prominent countries of mainland Europe, and three times those of the US. The reason? Gas is expensive and sets the ruling power prices; our vaunted renewable sources (though increasing in volume and declining in cost) still can’t provide a steady supply. When there’s a glut in renewables, we’re rubbish at storing it.

The current government came to power promising cheap energy as a top priority. It doesn’t even look like providing it. For the sake of our struggling (and declining) UK motor industry, it needs to do what it promised.

BYD designer Egger: Milan studio to help Denza chase Audi, BMW

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 07:00:00 +0100

Chinese giant will use European base to deploy "new designs and innovation" against established brands

BYD design chief Wolfgang Egger - previously of Alfa Romeo, Audi and Lamborghini - is going after his previous employers on their home soil with a new Europe-centric design approach for the Denza premium marque.

The Chinese giant is ramping up operations at its new European headquarters in Milan, where a dedicated design facility will aim to bring all BYD cars into line with local tastes and expectations.

In an exclusive interview with Autocar, Egger said the new facility will be "the dedicated place for design research, mainly to capture European tastes and trends and translate them into design ideas for Denza and BYD."

The move has particularly significant implications for Denza, which is the first volume Chinese premium brand to launch in Europe.

Its first car, the Z9 GT, is a £100k Porsche Panamera rival and it has recently been joined by the Z, an electric 911 Turbo chaser priced at more than £150k.

Denza faces a fierce challenge to convince European premium buyers to switch from local marques like Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, BMW and Audi to an unfamiliar alternative. But Egger said designing Denza models in the market they are meant to disrupt will be vital to the brand's competitiveness.

He said BYD is "confident" about breaking down long-standing brand loyalty ties in Europe and getting Denza a foothold, adding: "We can compete with traditional [brands] with innovation and new designs."

Denza's technological prowess has been cited as a point of differentiation from legacy rivals. The Z9 GT's 'tank-turning' functionality and the tri-motor U9's trick magnetorheological suspension are among the most obvious examples.

But Egger said the new Europe-centric approach means Denza can boost its competitiveness in terms of design, material appeal, personalisation and brand familiarity as well.

He said Milan is the natural home of BYD's European design operation because it will allow his team to "create contacts at the most important fashion houses" with the aim of exchanging ideas on "trends and materials".

Indeed, Denza's European launch took place at last year's Milan Design Week, exhibitors at which included Prada, Gucci and Fendi.

Setting up in Italy was also important because the country is a "tier-one" supplier for premium and luxury materials - including leather, for example - but also new, innovative materials and recycled materials", said Egger.

He pointed to the Z9's bamboo door cards as an example of how repurposed materials can be deployed in premium interiors and suggested the new studio will investigate further ideas in this vein.

The Milan base will also play a significant role in bolstering Denza's credentials as an upmarket brand by providing a base for an atelier-style "customising boutique", where potential customers can "see and touch these materials and ideas", as they might when specifying an Aston Martin or Bentley.

Egger headed Audi Group design - a role that included responsibility for Lamborghini - for six years, having previously been design chief at Alfa and Seat, so he is well versed in the trials of Europe's competitive premium segment. But he said the new hub provides a platform from which to promote Denza's unique attributes.

"We have the best technology for the new era," he claimed. "We can compete with [traditional brands] with innovation and new designs."

Denza's next European model will be the Bao 5, a Land Rover Defender rival that's already on sale as the Fangchengbao 5 in China.

Future candidates for export to Europe include the large N8 and N9 SUVs, the D8 4x4 and the Z9S saloon - each of which could be in line for adaptations in Milan.

From Alfa 8C to BYD Seal U DM-i

Wolfgang Egger doesn't often speak to European media, so his recent visit to the UK was a rare opportunity to ask him what it was like to go from designing some of Europe's most aspirational cars - such as the Alfa Romeo 8C - to managing a 1200-strong global team designing some of the world's most affordable and popular cars, like the Seal U DM-i crossover.

"The best advice I had in my life was from Walter de Silva," he said, referencing the former Alfa, Fiat and Volkswagen Group designer.

De Silva told him: "Don't fall in love with your designs, because then you get too involved and you don't have any distance."

Egger said: "You need to take the distance and then come back every day. Then you learn to appreciate [everything] from a city car to an off-roader to a sports car."

"It's so characteristic..." Audi mulls options for five-cylinder future

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Sport division is "well aware" of engine's significance and "evaluations are still running"

Audi could keep its venerable five-cylinder turbo engine alive for another generation despite forthcoming emissions regulations threatening the existence of the unique motor configuration, which has featured in the brand's portfolio for 50 years.

Audi introduced its first in-line five in 1976 for its flagship 100. It has kept a five-pot in its line-up ever since, deploying the arrangement in sporting legends including the Quattro and RS2.

Today it only uses the engine in the RS3 now the TT RS and RS Q3 have been retired, but it also supplies the 'EA855' 2.5-litre lump to sibling firm Cupra for the Formentor VZ5.

Audi recently launched the RS3 Competition Limited as a swansong for its hardcore hot hatch, and there were suggestions it could serve as the final outing for the engine that powers it. CEO Gernot Döllner said at the time that he was unsure the firm would be "able to refinance the investment in EU7 regulations", which come into effect from November.

As previously reported, the engine would need substantial modifications to its filters, emissions sensors, injection system and catalysts to remain compliant, which would be especially costly given that the engine is used by just two low-volume cars.

Now, however, Audi Sport boss Rolf Michl has suggested the five-pot could remain in Audi's future range as the firm commits to maintaining a broad line-up of performance models and seeks to double down on its strong sporting heritage.

"We're well aware about the historical meaning of the five-cylinder," he told Autocar. "Evaluations are still running, and people who know me know that I also have a personal relationship to the five-cylinder engine.

"It's so characteristic and also deeply rooted in history - so let's see."

Michl has been responsible for all three generations of the RS3 so far - all five-cylinder-powered - in his various positions within Audi's sports car division. He said the model plays an important role as the most affordable car in the RS line-up, and that could strengthen the business case for renewing both it and its engine.

"The entrance into the RS world is important because having a brand statement like that is amazing," Michl said. "Emotion starts in the compact segment."

No decision has yet been made on what a successor might look like, he added: "Negotiations are ongoing, so we're not at the decision point yet. Everybody really knows about the meaning, and therefore we're still evaluating with our colleagues from Audi AG."

Hybridisation could be one means of reducing the five-cylinder's emissions output and keeping it compliant, as Audi has done with the RS5's V6, but doing so also comes with significant cost and weight implications.

Whichever path it chooses, Audi is likely to chase higher volumes from any future five-cylinder-powered cars in a bid to recoup the necessary investment on the engine. The firm does not break out individual sales figures in its annual reports, but Audi Sport shifted 36,000 cars globally last year, and the RS3 will have accounted for only a small percentage of that.

Making the powerplant more widely available across the Volkswagen Group portfolio would help to generate a higher return on investment.

The RS3 and Formentor are the only cars to employ the engine currently, but they each use the MQB platform that underpins every mid-sized Volkswagen Group model. Autocar has previously reported that an extreme special edition of the Golf R could use the motor next year, potentially creating the most powerful iteration yet of the hatchback.

LFP or NMC: How is my electric car's battery made - and do I care?

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Behind the acronyms lies a simple truth: all EV batteries work the same - but there are key differences

By far the most most important part of any electric car is the battery. It’s also one of the youngest technologies because, while first conceived in the 1800s, the first commercial lithium ion batteries were made by Sony in 1991.

And another thing: we hear lots of confusing names for them, but how different are they? For instance, is a lithium-iron-phosphate battery a lithium ion battery or something else?

Despite the fancy names, they are all lithium ion batteries, they all work the same way and they all have the same basic components in them.

Batteries are actually hundreds of battery cells, each producing a few volts and packed together in a casing to provide the energy an EV needs.

Each cell contains two electrodes: a positive cathode and a negative anode. There’s a non-conductive separator between them, made of plastic or ceramic, and a thin layer of liquid electrolyte.

Cells can be thin and flat like an oversize After Eight mint or rolled up to make a cylindrical or prismatic format, but they all contain those four things.

The one thing that does change in a lithium ion battery is the formulation of the cathode. Nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP, with the ‘F’ standing for ‘ferrous’) are the two most common types of EV battery.

Both names describe the mix of chemicals used to make the cathode; the anode is always carbon-based and usually made from graphite.

The battery industry likens the mixing of chemicals to baking a cake, but the truth is that fewer ingredients are used in a lithium ion battery cell than a Bake Off show-stopper.

The cathode is made by mixing the chemicals into a paste, which is spread onto aluminium foil and dried; the carbon anode is made with a graphite paste spread on copper foil. Different formulas give different battery characteristics.

NMC batteries can store more energy for range and cobalt is good for power density, but the cheaper LFP battery has no expensive nickel or controversial cobalt. It’s more stable, too.

They all work the same way, though. During charging, lithium ions in the cathode travel through the electrolyte and separator to the carbon anode. When the battery is in use and discharging, the ions travel back to the cathode.

Should you be worried about which chemistry is used by the EV you’re about to buy? If sustainability is a criterion, batteries free of heavy metals such as nickel and cobalt have arguably better environmental credentials.

But what matters day to day are the and performance figures, not how the manufacturer arrived at them.

Monterey Car Week is over – but the car park is still full of amazing metal

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 16:25:55 +0100

Hyper-rare Ferraris and priceless Porsches abound as I take one last stroll around the world's classiest car park

California’s annual festival of expensive supercars, collectible classic sports cars and the super-wealthy owners of both – which has become known as Monterey Car Week, culminating in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – just took place at Monterey’s Pebble Beach golf resort.

The concours itself was won by a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ and show debuts were given to the Gordon Murray S1 supercar, the Defender Dakar, the Lamborghini Revuelto SV and the Ruf Ehra.

Now, it's the day after the week before, in the car park of the Inn at Spanish Bay, a hotel right on the Pebble Beach golf course. Car Week is wrapping up. The show cars spent yesterday being wheeled off the links and loaded into trucks. But the show-goers are still around – and their cars are lending a disproportionate amount of visual interest to the hotel’s spacious car park.

In a half-full parking lot, I count 11 Ferraris; five Mercedes G-Classes; four V12-powered Mercedes-Maybach S680 limousines; an obligatory Porsche 911 GT3 Touring; a few eye-catching custom creations, to which we’ll come; and no fewer than seven Lamborghini Revuelto hybrid supercars all in one place (that’s around a full day’s production at Sant’Agata).

So Ferrari was well represented in our unofficial Pebble concours. Honourable mention goes to the bright blue Ferrari F355 Challenge car from Ferrari Silicon Valley, with its bright white Speedline five-spoke wheels, but also to the 849 Testarossa, in white with a red roof stripe, which gave us Miami Vice flashbacks. There were 12Cilindris and Purosangues too, and a rather nice 488 Pista.

No Pebble Beach hotel car park could be complete without some collectable old Porsches in it. Ours was a mid-1960s 356 SC convertible, in typically doted-on condition.

Among the more esoteric attractions was a black Mercedes 'W126' S-Class on whitewall tyres, which had been rechristened 900 SEL by its owner. There was also a very special-looking custom Porsche '993' 911 Speedster creation, with a cut-down windscreen, which sadly I could only gawk at under plastic wrapping.

Among all of these exotics were so many hulking Lincoln Navigators, Ford Expeditions and Cadillac Escalades, of course – and a number of Lexus demonstrators, clearly still lingering after some customer event, that made us pine for the days when UK buyers could still enjoy the likes of the LC convertible and IS 350.

Calls for MOT test cap to be raised from £54.85 to £95

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 16:15:42 +0100

MOT test price cap has been unchanged since 2010, but garage industry says costs make it "unsustainable"

UK garages are calling for the maximum cost of a car's MOT test to be raised by almost 75%, saying huge increases in their operating costs make the current amount "unsustainable".

The current maximum cost for an annual MOT test, as imposed by the Department for Transport (DfT) in 2010, is £54.85 – but the Independent Garage Association (IGA), which represents more than 4500 businesses across the country, says the cap "needs to increase significantly".

It is campaigning for the price cap to be raised to £95 – an increase of 73.2%.

The industry body says "inflation alone makes the current MOT fee unsustainable" – indeed, £54.85 in 2010 equates to more than £87 today – but cites a raft of headwinds battering the garage industry, which mean "the issue now needs to be addressed urgently".

Other cost pressures faced by garages include increased labour, rent, equipment, fuel, energy, compliance, administration and training costs, says the IGA.

The IGA and other industry bodies will meet with the DfT on 21 October to discuss the fee.

The MOT is mandatory for any vehicle more than three years old (four in Northern Ireland) and government data shows that around 66,000 testers are employed at 23,000 garages around the country to carry out the test.

Roughly 33 million cars undertook the MOT test last year, although it is not possible to ascertain a gross revenue figure for the garage sector because many businesses charge a discounted rate.

The body said it has "strong support" among its members for an increase in the fee and "a growing number" are already reducing MOT test capacity in light of the cost constraints.

If action is not taken to redress the balance, the IGA warns that motorists will experience extended wait times and reduced choice as garages scale back their MOT offering.

IGA chief executive Stuart James said: "“It is a fact that the current MOT fee has remained static for 16 years. We are being advised by garage owners that without a significant increase to the MOT fee, they cannot continue to sustain this ever-increasing cost burden.

"As the representative body for the independent garage sector, the IGA will continue to challenge the government to deliver an acceptable resolution to this issue before it causes a level of consumer detriment.”

His views were supported by Nick Connor, boss of the Institute of the Motor Industry, who said upcoming changes to annual vehicle inspections will only increase the cost demands: "The MOT test is fundamental to road safety and it is critical that it remains accessible to motorists. However, with MOT garages increasingly facing greater demands, such as the EV mileage checks when the eVED comes into force in 2028, a review of MOT fees is urgently overdue."

ICE Mercedes C-Class gets fresh look – and keeps diesel power

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +0100

Petrol, diesel and PHEV powertrains get more power as they are updated to meet Euro 7 emissions requirements

The Mercedes-Benz C-Class lives on with petrol and diesel power after gaining revised engines to meet harsher emissions standards as part of a refresh that also includes visual and tech updates.

Described by Mercedes as a “mini S-Class”, it gets the three-pointed-star lights seen on the electric version of the C-Class, as well as additional lighting around its grille. However, the estate version does not gain the new brake lights.

The revised look brings it into line with the electric C-Class and ends an era of bespoke styling for Mercedes’ EVs, after disappointing sales of the EQE and EQS.

Notably, BMW has taken the same strategy with its next combustion-engined 3 Series and the electric i3. However, the revised C-Class remains more obviously distinct from its battery-powered counterpart. It sits lower than its EV equivalent and has a less raked roofline.

Mercedes said the new styling is meant to emphasise its sporting character compared with the chunkier GLC SUV and more restrained E-Class and S-Class.

Inside, the update brings a new steering wheel that reinstates a physical rocker switch and dial for the cruise and sound systems respectively.

The 12.3in digital instrument panel and 11.9in infotainment touchscreen remain, but these now run on the fourth generation of Mercedes’ MBUX interface. This adds a voice-activated assistant that taps ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Microsoft Bing AI to enable it to answer more complex questions than before.

Although the engine line-up remains superficially the same, each powerplant has been reworked to meet the forthcoming Euro 7 emissions standard. They gain a new electric compressor for the turbocharger that is powered by the 48V mild-hybrid system and is claimed to reduce lag.

Power and torque outputs are up across the board and the range-topping C300e plug-in-hybrid is capable of driving 71 miles on electric power alone. A punchier C400e will be sold in other markets but not the UK.

Pure-petrol and diesel options, as well as the oil-burning ‘de’ PHEVs, remain in the range.

The C-Class’s chassis has also been tweaked, with stiffer dampers that are claimed to improve its agility without compromising its ride at motorway speeds.

The new C-Class will be priced from £46,995 – £800 more than the outgoing car.

Although the saloon has taken a back seat to the GLC in recent years, it remains one of Mercedes’ most important models.

In the UK, it is the brand’s second-best-selling saloon, behind the cheaper CLA. More than 12 million examples of the C-Class and its predecessor, the 190, have been sold globally since 1982.

Mercedes-AMG GLC 53

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 14:00:00 +0100

Straight-six SUV aims to banish memory of four-cylinder plug-in hybrid Just about anywhere must be up, you might well say, from where Mercedes’ mid-sized fast SUV - the Mercedes-AMG GLC - used to be. Along with the more prominent C63 super-saloon, this was one of the AMGs in which Affalterbach so contentiously succeeded a burbling V8 with a highly strung, plug-in hybrid four-pot back in 2023.The resulting GLC 63 S E Performance was certainly powerful on paper (671bhp). But, as far as experiments in the potential for the effective gaslighting of wealthy performance car buyers go, it also proved reputationally chastening for Mercedes.So now, where there used to be two four-pot GLC AMG models, we have just this one: the new Mercedes-AMG GLC 53 4Matic+.The move mirrors changes already seen with the CLE 53 Coupé and Cabriolet, where AMG has begun moving away from heavily electrified four-cylinder powertrains in favour of larger-capacity six-cylinder engines with a more traditional character. The first-generation GLC 63 used a turbocharged 4.0-litre V8, however – still one of the defining engines of the modern AMG era.

An SUV you can buy with heart and head: get a Mazda CX-5 for £6k

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0100

The Mk2 CX-5 is a slick, premium alternative to German SUVs – and yours from just £6000

Mazda has sold more than five million CX-5s since its plush family crossover was launched in 2012 - and more than 100,000 of those went to UK buyers, the vast majority being the second-gen car that came here in 2017.

This right-sized SUV has in fact accounted for 25% of Mazda sales. It's a car that does almost everything well, being comfortable, pleasant to drive, luxurious and economical-and now it has value on its side, with used examples starting at £6000. And what if we told you it might even be a better all-rounder than the third-gen CX-5, which has just arrived?

The Mk2 CX-5 is really a heavy facelift of the Mk1, but it came with some useful improvements that make it well worth the extra cost.

Its MX-5-influenced 'Kodo' design still looks sporty and modern, with sharp creases that are especially eye-catching in Soul Red; a 2023 facelift added distinctive LED headlights and fashionable flat paint finishes.

Inside, the CX-5 is the measure of contemporary German rivals. The material quality, from seat trim to switchgear, is to be appreciated, while the ergonomics and driving position are spot on.

The standard 7.0in infotainment set-up from earlier cars looks a little dated now, but the 10.25in version fitted from 2019 is more comparable to those found in a new equivalent - with the advantage that it can be operated via a satisfyingly clicky rotary dial, like in an old BMW.

In terms of practicality, a long wheelbase makes the CX-5 as roomy as a Ford Kuga and Volkswagen Tiguan, and it's got a relatively high ceiling so even tall adults will be fine in the back. Plus there's a two-step reclining mechanism that allows the seatbacks to be canted, trading some boot space for extra rear-seat comfort. With 506 litres of boot capacity up to the beltline, a usefully flat floor and individually folding rear seats, you can take bulky loads without ditching the back seats entirely.

With everyone and the kitchen sink on board, the CX-5 continues to impress. It's an enjoyable thing to thread down a B-road, thanks to direct, chatty steering and a capable chassis with good body control in corners, plus a fantastic manual gearchange should you wish. It is also surprisingly cosseting on the motorway, with well-suppressed wind noise and suspension that settles down to minimise fidgeting and vibrations. Only the slightly lumpy low-speed ride is a disappointment.

Petrols outnumber diesels on the used market, but an oil-burner is probably the one you want for family-hauling duties. While smooth, both the 163bhp 2.0-litre and 191bhp 2.5-litre petrols are thirstier than hybridised rivals: expect 40mpg from the front-wheel-drive 2.0-litre and 35mpg from the four-wheel-drive 2.5.

Out of town, the naturally aspirated petrols can also feel a bit gutless in a family-size SUV, so the 2.2-litre diesel is far nicer to drive. The 148bhp front-wheel-drive version is torquey and good for 55mpg on a longer run, while the 181bhp four-wheel-drive version will give more like 50mpg.

Crossovers of this ilk are so often bought with the head, but the CX-5 is one of those rare examples that appeals to the heart, too. It's not quite an MX-5 on stilts, but it is impressive for blending hatchback-like driving dynamics with stylish looks, a cosseting interior, decent running costs and useful practicality credentials.

What we said then

28 June 2017: "This CX-5 is great to look at, better to sit in, good to drive, cost-effective to run and brilliantly sized. It comfortably eclipses the bulk of a running order that previously outranked it, and in doing so it provides buyers with arguably the most compelling mainstream alternative to the segment's current benchmark."

An owner's view

Sergei Pokrovskii: "I had heard about the problems with the 2.2-litre diesel engine in the first-generation CX-5, so I stretched my budget to an early second-generation Sport Nav. I'm pleased I did because the interior is far nicer - the white leather trim in my car looks and feels particularly upmarket. I haven't had any problems 50,000 miles in, and I'm consistently getting more than 50mpg."

Buyer beware

Engine: Historically troublesome 2.2-litre diesel engine was mostly sorted out by the time it found its way into the Mk2 CX-5, but it still has a tendency to suffer costly diesel particulate filter problems if driven exclusively in town or on very short journeys.

Vehicle Excise Duty: Most CX-5s will be £200 per year to tax, but the flagship Takumi diesels and 2.5-litre petrols will be £620 until they hit five years old, when it will reduce to £200 annually.

Infotainment: It's a very intuitive system to use, but the rotary dial might take some getting used to. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto were added in 2019.

Gearbox: Both manual and automatic transmissions are mechanically reliable, but the latter can be sluggish and will knock off as much as 5mpg. It was standard on the 2.5-litre petrol but optional on other models.

Electrics: Mostly holding up well, but watch out for phantom bugs such as the electric door mirrors not working or continually folding in and out. Mirrors have also been known to work themselves loose.

Air conditioning: Check the air-con blows cold - sensors, stuck buttons and dodgy coils can stop the system working properly.

Also worth knowing

In 2018 the high-powered diesel went from 173bhp to 181bhp, then in 2023 the petrols were boosted with mild-hybrid assistance without a noticeable change in fuel consumption.

Trims ranged from SE-L to GT Sport Nav, with SE-L Nav, Sport and Sport Nav in between. All had lots of kit, but Sport and above give a real premium feel.

In 2023 the range was restructured to Centre-Line, Newground, Exclusive-Line, Homura and Takumi - Homura being the sporty-looking one while Takumi is more blinged-up.

Reasonable insurance groupings (14-27) should help to keep running costs down.

How much to spend

£6000-£9999: Higher-mileage (80k-plus) early cars, mostly low-spec diesels.

£10,000-£14,999: Later, higher-spec models with a choice of powertrains, including the rare 2.5-litre petrol.

£15,000-£19,999: 2023 facelifts with a more modern exterior and better-insulated interior.

£20,000-£39,999: Late, low-mileage CX-5s, with the last cars still unregistered on dealer lots.

One we found

Mazda CX-5 2.2 Centre-Line, 2023, 57,000 miles, £15,990: You don't get leather seats or big wheels with base-level Centre-Line trim, but it's significantly cheaper on the used market. This one has a full Mazda service history and six months left on the manufacturer's warranty.

Hyundai Ioniq 3: Renault 5 rival to offer 208-mile range for £22k

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 08:05:34 +0100

Small EV offers up to 309 miles of range and features 441 litres of boot space

Hyundai's new electric supermini, the Ioniq 3, will be priced from £22,245 when it arrives in the UK in the coming weeks.

It has been positioned to rival an array of electric hatches, from the small Renault 5 to the larger Volkswagen ID 3 – and at 4.15m long and 1.51m tall, it sits right between them in size.

Its unusual shape is described by Hyundai as an ‘aero-hatch’, a sleek new form conceived with the goal of maximising aerodynamic efficiency.

This approach has resulted in a raked roofline, similar to that employed by the old Hyundai Veloster, ending with a prominent duck-tail rear spoiler. The rear lip is moulded into the leading edge of the boot, but range-topping N Line cars get an extension for a sportier look. The front end, meanwhile, has been sculpted to have the smallest frontal area possible.

Its efforts have yielded a drag coefficient of 0.26, which is better than the smaller but chunkier Renault 5 (0.29). As a result, the Ioniq 3 is said to be capable of driving 208 miles between charges when fitted with the standard 42.2kWh battery.

The long-range version, whose 61kWh pack enables a range of 309 miles, will start at £25,745 – or £24,245, should it qualify for a £1500 discount from the UK government's Electric Car Grant.

Lead exterior designer Manuel Schöttle said Hyundai began with the most efficient shape in aerodynamic terms for the Ioniq 3, but added it was “important to make sure it didn’t look like a soap bar”.

He said it was Hyundai’s first electric car designed in Europe, and it has been shaped according to Hyundai’s new 'Art of Steel' design language.

Yet the radical silhouette also brought several compromises inside the Ioniq 3. For example, the roofline’s rake ate into the boot space, and the small front end combined with the model’s front-wheel-drive configuration meant there was no space for a frunk.

The workaround was to create a large cargo space below the floor, similar to the ‘Gigabox’ in the Ford Puma Gen-E increasing load space from 322 to 441 litres.

The raked design also ate into rear cabin space, so Hyundai carved into the car’s headlining to free up a few millimetres more head room.

The Ioniq 3’s cabin was designed to free the driver of as much distraction as possible. Lead interior designer Victor Andrean said the “hands on the wheel, eyes on the road” philosophy brought a rethink of the dashboard’s layout.

That resulted in a thin new digital instrument panel that is set notably higher than in existing Hyundais; it is paired with a smaller steering wheel, resulting in a similar set-up to Peugeot’s i-Cockpit.

“We place it above the steering wheel, not inside the steering wheel, as in a conventional car,” said Andrean. “That is a huge statement on lifting your eyes and your head up; you are looking a couple degrees higher [when looking at the panel]. This is way closer to the road.”

The Ioniq 3’s 12.9in infotainment screen is also the first to use Hyundai’s new, Android Auto-based Pleos operating system. This will allow new functionality, such as installing apps natively in the car rather than using smartphone mirroring – although that is still included. Positioned below the screen is an array of physical climate control and media switches.

“The tactile feel of buttons is very important, and I think [the European] market really needs that,” said Andrean.

Standard Range cars will use a 145bhp motor, for a 0-62mph time of 9.0sec, while Long Range cars get a more efficient 132bhp variant. The former's charging rate peaks at 119kW while the latter can accept 110kW, giving 10-80% refill times of 29 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively.

It is not yet known whether a hot N version will join the line-up as a rival for the Alpine A290 and Volkswagen ID Polo GTI, although Schöttle said he “always sees potential for something more sporty”.

How Hyundai has reinvented the cupholder

Wary of customers carrying ever-larger flasks, Hyundai has come up with a novel cupholder design that allows for particularly tall receptacles to be stowed in the centre console.

The modular cupholders continue through the lower shelf of the centre console, allowing their size to be changed depending on how large a drink the driver or passenger wishes to carry.

“We had this question from the very start,” said lead interior designer Victor Andrean. “Where do you put your huge Thermos? These days, everyone is walking around with 1.5-litre-plus bottles – I’m one of them.”

55 electric cars tested: Exclusive real-world data reveals most efficient EVs

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 07:00:00 +0100

Efficiency is becoming increasingly important as the EV conversation moves away from just range – but who's best?

It’s almost two years ago now that we gave the century-old Autocar road test its last major facelift. Our 2024 re-jig was significant for changes in many parts, but none more significant than to the road test itself, which we adjusted so it had more to say about electric cars and PHEVs, more scrutiny in the way it tested them and more flexibility to address the relevant facets of any given new car.

One of the tests we added was an extra efficiency test schedule intended to give EVs and hybrids a fairer way to demonstrate one of their key strengths. We call it the ‘everyday’ economy test. Two years into its life, I thought now might be an interesting time to review which cars have excelled at it – and which have disappointed.

Before we added the ‘everyday’ bit, electrified cars had only the same efficiency tests that we habitually put all of our test subjects through as a way to show their potential. Those included a ‘track’ efficiency test schedule, showing the economy of a test car while actually being performance tested; a ‘touring’ test schedule done on the proving ground’s high-speed bowl for the sake of repeatability but designed to reproduce the economy returned on a 70mph motorway cruise; and an overall test average – what the test car returned over the entirety of its test loan with us, irrespective of type of usage.

None of these really gave electric cars or hybrids a fair chance, because the efficiency of EVs rises above others when they’re running at lower speeds (because they lose much less energy to waste heat than combustion-engined cars do) and when they have a chance to regenerate energy when slowing down.

The ‘everyday’ economy test, therefore, is made up of four concurrent laps of Horiba MIRA’s ‘Number Two’ circuit (in effect a 2.2-mile, two- or three-lane, equilateral triangle). These are taken at 10mph increments from 20-50mph, with two full stops per lap made for the test car to regenerate and redeploy energy.

As with all of the road test’s economy schedules, we depend on the car’s trip computer for the data we record. The trip is reset before every test, and the cars cover hundreds more miles away from the test track in the hands of our testers. That extraneous use gives us plenty of time to keep tabs on whether those trip computers are accounting accurately.

We’ve tested 55 new electric cars since that reinvented road test issue. Only one of them failed to post a better result in that ‘everyday’ test than it managed in the 70mph-typical, longer-distance ‘touring’ test, and given that was the 2013bhp Lotus Evija, we can consider it the exceptional outlier that proves the validity of the test.

To the cream of the crop, then. Nine of those cars posted a result of 5.0mpkWh or better. Some were the small, light kind of EVs you would expect to be capable of running efficiently – but one or two, not so much.

The Renault 5 and Hyundai Inster both just nudged over that particular 5.0mpkWh line, for example, but the Honda Super-N and BYD Dolphin Surf both eased over it with room to spare, at 5.6mpkWh each.

Earning all the more credit allowing for the bit of extra bulk they carried, take a bow the Renault 4 E-Tech (5.6mpkWh), the MG 4 EV Urban (5.5), and the only car yet to breach six miles per kilowatt-hour: the Ford Puma Gen-E (6.2).

Which leaves two genuinely outlying cars that show that efficiency can come in unexpected places where electric vehicles are concerned. One is the Volvo ES90 Extended Range Single Motor, which posted 5.0mpkWh exactly despite weighing more than 2.3 tonnes; the other is the Cupra Born VZ, which cruised its way to 5.1mpkWh despite having 20in wheels, 402lb ft and a pretty overt performance brief.

Among the cars you might have expected efficiency from but which didn’t really deliver it were the Volvo EX30 Single Motor Extended Range at 3.6mpkWh, the Citroën ë-C3 (4.0) and the Mini Aceman SE (4.3).

Big, fast, heavy electric cars are, of course, always unlikely to use power parsimoniously, but even some of the smaller, simpler ones can surprise you with how quickly they burn through their battery life. You can always depend on the Autocar road test to name names when they do.

Next Mini Cooper to be inspired by 2001 'R50' – and could go RWD

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Autocar's artist impression showcases what a new Mini inspired by the 2001 car could look like

Shift to BMW's Gen6 platform would be a landmark moment for the Mini; brand will choose "optimum" layout

Mini has started work on the next-generation Cooper, which is due in the coming years bearing the most significant transformation since BMW took charge of the marque three decades ago: a shift from front- to rear-wheel drive.

Bosses promise, however, that the new car will remain rigidly true to the brand's roots.

The current hatchback arrived in 2024 with the choice of both petrol and electric power - the latter then one of the few small EVs on sale. Its only true rival was the Fiat 500e, but it was also priced to compete with larger alternatives such as the Peugeot e-208 and Cupra Born.

A whole swathe of electric superminis have arrived since, however, with many - such as the Renault 5 and Fiat Grande Panda - offering comparable style, dynamics and kit plus more range for similar money.

Mini has responded with price cuts, and a facelift is due in the next couple of years to freshen up the Cooper - but the pressure is piling on as a wave of new entrants muscle in on the small EV segment, with models including the Volkswagen ID Polo, Cupra Raval and Kia EV2.

Combined with the might of Chinese newcomers such as BYD and Geely, that competition has forced the most radical rethink of Mini's trademark model in generations.

"We have started to work on the next generation of Mini, and what follows now is a look at the entire portfolio," new design chief Holger Hampf confirmed to Autocar, explaining that he will use a wave of facelifts and new derivatives in the meantime to set the tone for the British brand's future.

Technical reinvention

Every iteration of the Mini to date has been front-driven, with agility and smart interior packaging key to the car's identity over the past seven decades, but now that's set to change.

The current Cooper Electric is built by Mini joint-venture partner Great Wall Motor in China, on a bespoke front-driven platform that it shares with the Aceman crossover.

For the next generation, the hatchback is being lined up for a move onto parent company BMW's new, natively rear-driven Gen6 platform, which underpins the firm's new Neue Klasse electric cars - beginning with the iX3 SUV and i3 saloon.

The Gen6 doesn't currently accommodate front-driven cars. The rear motors used in the iX3 and the forthcoming i3 saloon have gearboxes, but the smaller drive units mounted on the front axles of those cars' four-wheel-drive variants don't.

BMW Group engineers told Autocar at the launch of the Gen6 that the firm had no plans to develop a viable front drive unit and that could force the Mini to make the landmark shift.

As previously reported by Autocar, the BMW 1 Series hatchback - which currently shares the petrol Mini's UKL platform - is set to return to rear-wheel drive as it gains an electric option on the new platform, and BMW's development boss Joachim Post has previously told Autocar the Mini could follow suit.

"We will see what the future is," he said, when asked about scope for a rear-drive next-generation Cooper. He suggested the company would choose "the optimum for the package" and said "sheer driving pleasure" is the priority for future models.

The decision would also have significant ramifications for the petrol Cooper, which is expected to carry on through the 2030s - possibly with the addition of hybrid powertrains, still driving the front wheels.

Although they share a fundamental design, the current petrol Cooper is an overhauled version of the previous-generation car, while the electric Cooper is based on the Chinese JV platform; opting for the new BMW architecture could bring a bigger gulf between the look of the two models.

Familiar look

Regardless of any technical revolution, Hampf is resolute in his commitment to maintaining the brand's signature look.

"You can ask a Brit or a German or an Italian, you can ask a five-year-old, and they will recognise a Mini based on the proportions of the car," he told Autocar.

"Especially when it comes to the three-door hatch, it's a very short car with wheels at its corners, short overhangs, with some signature elements such as the facial impression. This is the most important to me: the combination of round headlights and grille."

Referring to future versions of the flagship hatch, he added: "Every five-year-old will know this is a Mini. It's my job to treat it with respect."

Hampf said his "number-one" priority is maintaining the Mini's proportions and "this is non-negotiable".

Mini's long-running commitment to retro design will also become a virtuous circle with the next generation of the hatchback. Hampf suggested this will take inspiration from the 'R50', the first of the BMW Minis.

He said: "Many people out there don't actually have a recollection of the classic Mini but they do have a recollection of one of the Minis we have done in BMW's ownership in the past 25 years. I will make sure to connect to this past.

"And this isn't to say that we will become vintage, not at all. It's an interpretation in the modern way of what we've done: a clever use of space or some smile-creating surprises in the car. Certainly some Britishness."

Hampf also hinted at a desire to shrink the Cooper. Asked about 2011's Rocketman concept, a three-door just 3.4m long, he said: "The size discussion about Mini growing smaller, bigger and so on, we have that every day."

He added that the existence of the larger Countryman SUV covers the brand's bases "where a Cooper falls short in some use cases".

However, the Cooper must still be able to accommodate the safety structures and driver-assistance technologies required of today's cars and can't entirely compromise practicality for design flair.

"Maybe this is my personal belief, but a Mini was always good for going out to the market in the morning, driving your kids to school and going to the opera in the evening," Hampf said. "I'm not saying going smaller isn't a possibility, but it has to fit into today's lifestyle as well."

He suggested that Mini's commitment to compactness means the three-door body option - one of only a few such superminis left on sale in Europe - will continue into another generation.

The smaller car is "the product we always care about as much as possible", he said, adding that "it will always be our anchor".

Top of the Europa league: I've owned 14 examples of this rare Lotus

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0100

How to Europa correctly? There's one man who knows them better than anyone else

Is John Rand the world’s most dedicated Lotus Europa owner? He’s owned 14 of them and loved each one.

“My parents wouldn’t buy one for me so I bought my own, my first one, for my 21st birthday in 1975,” he says. “Mum and Dad were right to refuse me because I smashed it up the next day. I put it into a telegraph pole then had to learn how to work with fibreglass to repair it because I couldn't afford to have someone else do it.

“Unfortunately, I kept clouting things with it. Subsequently, I decided why not buy a Lotus Europa that’s already broken and repair it, rather than buy a good one only to smash it up? So I started doing them up and wheeling and dealing in them. I raced one for a long time and, amazingly, never crashed it.”

John has two Europas: the one you see here, a 1969 S2 with the later Renault 1600 crossflow engine that he bought 10 years ago, and a lightweight Lotus Type 47 powered by an engine producing 250hp.

“That one’s very quick,” he says. “Still, weighing just 700kg, the S2 is no slouch, either. It was restored in 1979 by a guy who used to build GT40 chassis at Brooklands. He knew what he was doing and did a beautiful job, including uprating the engine. The standard engine was a 1470cc Renault unit but the one he fitted is much better. It's never missed a beat.”

For a 57-year-old car, the interior, which is original, is in excellent condition and has refinements including electric windows, wall-to-wall carpet and a polished wooden fascia. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine it looked any better when new.

The Europa is extremely low. In fact, it’s just 42.5in tall, or not much taller than those GT40s whose chassis the car's previous owner used to fabricate.

“It's a little bit claustrophobic inside. You don't want to be taller than 5ft 10in,” says John. “It’s warm and cosy on a winter's day but a bit hot in the summer. At least Lotus got the ride right. It's compliant and you don't get smashed about.”

John says people either love or hate the shape, their attention usually drawn to the buttresses that flank the mid-mounted engine. To aid access to the Renault motor, there’s a large removable, lightweight boot box, which John easily lifts out. The glassfibre body is mounted on spars extending from a steel backbone chassis.

He says: “It’s a very nimble car but you must make sure the rear transmission is in good order, because if it gets loose, it can really make the car slide around.” Somehow, I don't think John would ever let things get to that point.

Since buying it, he's done only a few thousand miles. “It just comes out for a tootle at weekends,” he says. “It’s worth between £20,000 and £25,000. I wouldn’t take less than £20,000 and I wouldn't expect to get more than £25,000.”

He's talking theoretically, of course, since he has no plans to sell.

Horse reveals methanol-powered range-extender for electric cars

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 07:00:00 +0100

Horse D20 uses clever motor tech and an extremely efficient methanol-burning engine to slash emissions

Alternative powertrain progress may have swung inexorably in favour of BEVs, but there's a big wide world out there where liquid fuels are still in demand.

This month, Toyota, BMW and Repsol began a pilot scheme in Spain to demonstrate how existing vehicles can run exclusively on Repsol's fully renewable petrol, Nexa 95. Bosch is also a collaborator in the project, contributing its 'digital fuel tracking solution'.

Liquid fuel is big in China, but rather than petrol or diesel we're talking about methanol, of which China accounts for around 60% of the world's production. The bad news is that, so far, most Chinese methanol has been made from coal, but the country is investing in e-methanol production.

It began supporting the use of M100 (100% methanol) fuel in cars in 2019 and is now the world's largest market for methanol-fuelled vehicles.

It's not surprising, then, that Horse Powertrain's latest creation is the D20 Methanol, a range-extender EV powertrain featuring an M100-burning 2.0-litre turbo engine and an axial-flux motor-generator.

Axial-flux motors are the biscuit-tin type in the sense they are larger in diameter but very short. This one is almost half the length of an equivalent radial-flux motor (of the conventional cylindrical shape), with 63% greater energy density by volume, so it can produce 63% more power in kW per unit of volume it occupies.

The motor is also yokeless, which means the stator doesn't use a large, heavy iron disc (a yoke) on which to mount electrical coils. Lightweight materials and design features do the job instead.

Electrical efficiency is rated at 96.4%, thanks in part to features such as an embedded silicon-carbide power module to minimise electrical losses.

The D20 is claimed to achieve a 47% energy conversion ratio of the fuel, which is extremely efficient.

A high-energy ignition system contributes to that by enabling ultra-lean burning of the M100.

Cold starts can be tricky, one of the intrinsic drawbacks of methanol fuel, but the new ignition system also means the engine can be fired up in temperatures as low as -35deg C.

NOx emissions comply with China's CN6b standard of 35mg/kWh and the EU's Euro 7 limit of 60mg/km.

In 1999, DaimlerChrysler launched the Mercedes A-Class-based Necar 4 hydrogen fuel cell EV, which ran on hydrogen reformed on board from methanol. The company reasoned that existing filling stations could easily be converted to methanol rather than petrol and diesel by installing liners in underground tanks and swapping out pumps.

In 2005, Nobel Prize-winning chemist George Olah wrote an essay promoting an economy based on methanol derived from hydrogen or CO2, both of which can be produced sustainably.

Perhaps that may never happen, but it seems that methanol still has a major role to play in making vehicular transport more sustainable.

What Alpina did next: How Bovensiepen will keep building ultimate BMWs

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

BMW has taken control of Alpina, so what's next for the family that established the name?

Andreas Bovensiepen sweeps into a deserted canteen at the Salzburgring, six minutes late for our interview. I'd planned to hit him with some pithy enquiry as to the emotional toll of flogging the company his father Burkard founded, but he triggers a vibe-shift.

He reports, with some relish, that the Bovensiepen Zagato he's just leapt out of nailed 265kph on the back straight. This makes it as quick as the slick-shod B6 GT3 they used to hammer here at Alpina events, he continues almost to himself, smiling as he pulls out a chair.

Disarming enthusiasm for the product: it affirms the notion that 63-year-old Andreas and his brother Florian were never going to take the money and slip off to yachts in the Med. The details won't be made public, but one assumes selling Alpina to BMW, in a deal that came to fruition last year, made both men rich. Certainly it was enough to fully capitalise the new venture.

That venture is Bovensiepen Automobile, and it has an uncannily familiar feel. Home will remain the storied Buchloe site that until recently was Alpina HQ, with its workshops, saddlery, warehousing for nearly a million bottles of wine and a chalet whose swimming pool is heated by test-bench waste gas. Burkard always was a stickler for efficiency, hence the preoccupation with supersonic diesel saloons.

The firm will still provide engineering services to BMW, just as Alpina did. And it will continue to make fast, lavish, BMW-based cars, starting with the Zagato (an M4 under the carbon). The branding is new, the engineering has adapted, revenue streams will diverge and headcount will drop. But the Bovensiepens are sticking with the programme.

So why sell dear old Alpina at all? "It's only once in a lifetime you get an offer from a company like BMW," says Bovensiepen.

Sharpening that offer was his belief that the traditional Alpina philosophy and purely electric propulsion are wholly incompatible. It meant that, in 2020, when then BMW CEO Oliver Zipse first approached the family and everyone from Lamborghini to Bentley was pursuing an electric goal, Alpina's future was uncertain even in terms of the basic product. Square peg, round hole.

Zipse, meanwhile, needed a brand with some star power; one that could "exploit the field" between BMW and Rolls-Royce. The deal took 18 months and was shaped by market sentiments.

"At the start, BMW's board were considering buying the whole company," said Bovensiepen. "But the M&A people were of the opinion that, with everything going electric, it didn't make sense to have the Buchloe facility with its five dynos. So they came to the conclusion to only buy the market rights, which is the Alpina brand name, the history and the wheels, Deko Set, colours - this kind of thing."

Would BMW today have elected to pick up the whole show, at a time when luxo-EV demand is stalling and regulatory deadlines are creaking? We'll never know, but the mood is different and those five dynos don't seem so redundant now.

"There's still higher demand for diesels than manufacturers anticipated," says Bovensiepen, to illustrate the point. "BMW's home of diesel is in Austria, in Steyr, where they've trained a lot of engineers in an electric direction and don't want to train them back. So they've turned to us."

This sort of white-label work is one pillar of the Bovensiepen Automobile business, which will have 25 engineers fine-tuning powertrains, suspension and chassis electronics for BMW.

Another pillar is Alpina Classic, the brand rights for which have not been relinquished. It will restore and supply parts for all Alpinas of the pre-BMW era.

Buchloe will also return to being a service centre, with an emphasis on specialist cars such as the Z8 and V10-engined M5, though there will be nothing to stop locals from bringing along a 2 Series Active Tourer for oil and filters. As well they might, Alpina having engineered the suspension for BMW's little MPV back in the day.

Then there is the wine, for which the ornate brass 'A' handles of the warehouse will survive (more than can be said for the charming green and blue workshop tiles). And finally there are the new and very powerful Bovensiepen cars.

The Zagato is the "lighthouse" model, but the meat of the output will be cars like the 05 GT, pictured below. This takes a 5 Series and adds power and comfort, albeit with a lighter touch than was the case with Alpinas. There is also the upholstery, of a calibre beyond the usual BMW fare. But the real story is that the donor is not an M550, as an Alpina B5 would have used, but a proper M5.

"With Alpina we were able, with the works integration [on the production line], to change a lot to our liking," says Bovensiepen. "Now we need to take the best car in the portfolio. I won't say every car will be an M base - for some niches a mainline BMW [is more suitable] - but we're more in the M direction because of the power."

Buchloe has capacity for 100 conversions annually across the board. It means the cars will be rarer than Alpinas were, and they will also command higher prices. When the last of the B5s was launched in 2018, it cost roughly £21,500 more than the BMW it was based on. Today an 05 GT will set you back £44,000 more than an M5.

But Bovensiepen believes that, even at this level, there is enough demand for an M5 with more subtlety and sophistication. And power, of course. He clearly enjoys the fact the 05 GT shades the donor car in this respect.

This is unsurprising from a man who, if pushed, will tell you his proudest achievement as Alpina boss was shoehorning a 4.6-litre V8 into the tiny E36 shell. The £320,000 ask for the Zagato has also raised eyebrows, but this is just a case of reality biting.

"You wouldn't believe it, but it is at least as hard to earn money on a Zagato [as it is something like an Alpina B5, because it's more than 400 new parts and up to 400 hours assembly," he says. "Then there is the development cost, which has to be split over 99 units. The business case is tight."

It was ever thus with cars. But it's nice to know one of the more likeable operations in modern times will live on, if not in name then in soul.

My ultra-efficient Leapmotor C10 has got me out of the slow lane

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0100

Must you drive like a saint to get heavenly economy? This range-extender says not

There I was, cruising along the inside lane of the M4 at my usual circa-65mph, congratulating myself on the energy I was saving, when another Leapmotor C10, metallic green just like mine, steamed past in the overtaking lane, briskly dispatching all the quicker traffic as it went.

It made me wonder what I was doing. I have been driving electric cars and plug-in hybrids most of the time for the past four years or so and have become used to easing along motorways in the inside lanes, telling myself (usually accurately) that there's only a minute or two's difference in journey time on my average 100-mile drives between cruising easily and clogging it.

I have no way of knowing whether this much faster C10 was a purely battery-driven version or another range-extender like mine (the latter's exhaust pipe is hard to spot), but it looked pleasantly purposeful forging along, rather than somewhat apologetic like the crawling versions I've seen, so I decided to try driving a fair bit more quickly over distance to see whether I would enjoy it and what damage this would do to the economy.

So I set off at a decent lick, using the smooth and easy torque without my usual qualms and taking no significant account of the down slopes that I've instinctively learned to turn into charging opportunities. It felt a bit irresponsible but rather bold, and the car felt eager as you'd expect of a machine that puts 236lb ft of torque under your right foot without even having to idle to do it. A fast cruise was smooth and easy to maintain (that torque keeps you speeding easily up long slopes) and there was very little vibration.

As it happens, the C10 generates very little wind noise, even if road noise is inclined to make up for it on the older, noisier bitumen surfaces that seem to abound in the UK.

Going even quicker, the C10 felt well planted and directionally stable through its wheel, probably because, even though it's a big car in which you sit higher than in a saloon, the overhangs are short, the wheelbase is long and the centre of gravity is low. Steering corrections are small and hardly necessary.

I kept this up for about 80 miles, eyeballing the trip computer on the straight-ahead driver's screen. I'm used to seeing about 4.2mpkWh and 48-52mpg as the powertrain swaps between petrol and electric; on this mainly flat motorway the battery contributed very little and the petrol engine returned about 10mpg less, still promising around 400 miles from a tankful before the battery (maintaining a potential contribution of 60 miles) chimed in.

Of course, I knew that as soon as I reached a town or a B-road the MPG would climb again to erase any impression that quicker cruising is costly; in this 'Hybrid EV' it isn't.

Many drivers are impervious to consistently good economy, possibly because many fuel bills are paid by employers. But I find it consistently pleases me, which makes driving the C10 a particular pleasure. It never seems to get truly thirsty. In fact, the bong warning for low fuel or low charge takes me by surprise, just as refuelling always seems pretty cheap.

Chuck in the long range (the promise of 605 petrol-electric miles seems truthful) and you have a seriously economical all-rounder - however you choose to drive it.

Concours restorations? I prefer to save a banger on a budget

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0100

Barn find rescues are big business on Youtube - is it time to have a go at your own classic resurrection?

The YouTube pros make it look so easy. One of my favourite channels is Vice Grip Garage, wherein charming Minnesotan mechanic Derek Bieri ventures into the undergrowth to extract long-forgotten classic cars, remove the rat nests, replace the requisite fuel lines and tyre stems and nurse them several hundred miles back to his ranch - often several decades since they last turned a wheel in anger.

Customarily, he can take a rusted-out, moss-covered hunk of junk from abandoned to animated in the space of a day, using the most basic of tools.

If only it were so easy. As the most casual of mechanics, and with a budget sadly uninflated by generous big-name sponsors, I find such ambitious rescues to be rather more challenging - but no less romantic.

The prospect of discovering a neglected classic - in a lock-up or sinking into the weeds at the back of a farmyard - and coaxing it back to a state of something approaching utility is a heart-warming ideal that is surely the dream of any car lover.

When I was a kid, my local garage had a ratty Volkswagen T25 Transporter that sat for years by the bins around the back and slowly sank into a state of heart-rending destitution.

My best mate and I sauntered down and dangled a few fivers under their nose for the privilege of winching it out and towing it back down the road to his place. We had grand, internet-fuelled ambitions of bashing its forlorn bodywork back into shape, reupholstering its knackered bench seats, replacing the rotten chipboard floor and zhuzhing up the wheezy boxer engine in the space of about a week.

But such is the way with these things, it would be about six months before the cleverly named 'Blistery Machine' would make its grand debut in the sixth-form car park.

What the videos never show you is the three-week wait for replacement wheel arch panels, the bitter disputes about which spark plugs to use, or the long period of inactivity that comes with a rainy winter. But eventually, there it was: back from the dead and purring like a kitten (or sounding like a shabby old Impreza).

We had outrageous fun trundling around Kent in that thing for a year or so, doing 12mpg and choking on exhaust fumes. About five years after it moved on, I spotted it parked at the side of a road in London, looking about as good as we'd left it.

It's a glorious feeling to know you've given an otherwise condemned classic another stab at life - to say less of the obvious environmental benefits of recycling an old banger, rather than scrapping it in favour of a new alternative.

I'd later do it again with a tired Peugeot 405 whose previous owner had passed away some years prior and which would otherwise have been turned into coat hangers. It gave me a year of supremely comfortable, 50mpg commuting and even a trip to the south of France before it finally gave in and gave up its usable components to sustain other healthier 405s.

My first car - a classic Beetle - was another such 'barn find', having lingered untouched in a Warwickshire shed for 15 years before being lightly recommissioned and pressed into service as a daily driver once again at the ripe old age of 40.

Pleasingly, it popped up on eBay recently with its mileage heavily augmented since we parted ways. Its original raison d'être was to provide dependable, no-frills daily transport, so why should it have ended its days as a grime-covered garage ornament?

Cars are not designed to live forever, of course, but that doesn't mean they have to die before their time. That ropey old Rover 25 you spotted on a driveway down the road? Go and knock on the door with a few notes in your hand - you could be its last chance at resurrection.

National Motor Museum confusion proves we need plain speaking

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 07:00:00 +0100

Conflicting comms and corporate jargon can miss the point and confuse the people who really care

I didn't realise the National Motor Museum and the Beaulieu Estate were anything other than the same thing, and that was fine. In fact, I imagine that was part of the idea when the estate-owning Montagu family established a museum trust in 1972 to be responsible for the car collection housed there.

This week we've learned they're not one and the same. Beaulieu doesn't own the National Motor Museum – at least not everything in it. Does that matter? To us it doesn't, but clearly it does to them. They each got their own thoughts, those aren't the same and hence now it matters to us too.

As our story (below) shows, clearly they weren't getting on very well during negotiations about what to do when the trust's lease ends in 2030.

Beaulieu exclusive: Funding feud behind National Motor Museum exit

It was the trust that broke that news, by releasing a statement saying it was looking for a new home. It was sufficiently vague on the Beaulieu front, though, deliberately or otherwise, that a 'clarification' statement from the estate followed, to say that it still owns plenty of the collection itself and that whatever happens to the vehicles and objects the trust removes, motoring events and displays will stay in the New Forest as part of the estate's remit.

What a pickle. Ultimately, though, also what a shame that a lack of clear communications has led to people thinking that Beaulieu will cease to be as a motoring destination or that the museum is going to close. It smacks of parties looking rather too inwardly, without really realising that beyond their daily world people aren't aware of – and usually don't care about – what's going on at their detailed level.

The trust, for example, led with this: "This marks the next stage in the Trust's long-term strategy to secure the future of the National Motor Museum. This strategy is focused on reimagining and reinvigorating the Museum, engaging with new generations of motoring enthusiasts and diverse communities, while developing and preserving the Designated collection for generations to come."

What does that mean, exactly? Any idea? Why won't organisations speak more clearly?

I understand that this might seem like a trivial complaint when the future of more than 250 important cars – and, more concerningly, 1.9 million archive items that aren't exactly profitable to have to look after – need to find a new home. But it isn't trivial when you see the number of below-the-line comments and reactions from people who now think there will be no cars at Beaulieu or that the whole collection is going to go under.

And those are the people interested enough to notice. Beyond those are the people who will look no further than the headlines but who, when thinking about having a day out in a year or more's time, might vaguely remember something about that car museum not being there any more and just decide to go somewhere else.

It's tiresome to have to decipher vague-speak, yet so many organisations use it. Last week my gas supplier wrote to tell me that "over recent months, we've used a Market Volatility Surcharge to help manage uncertainty in global energy markets. While markets remain unpredictable, gas costs are beginning to stabilise, although at a higher level than previously. We're therefore simplifying your pricing by resetting your base cylinder prices and reducing the Market Volatility Surcharge to £0.00."

I had no idea what that meant. The '£0.00' bit sounded good. It took them going into another paragraph before they told me the thing that I suspected in the first instance, which is that my gas cylinder prices are going up. It would actually have been kinder, mates, and I'd have felt more charitably towards you, if you had just admitted that in clear English at the start.

Anyway, while my natural thought is that the National Motor Museum should be at Beaulieu, I don't know if there's anything inherently bad about either side finding they disagree (presumably about money, because when isn't it?). But there doesn't have to be a moral victor in every argument, and it might not be so bad to just admit as much and say that at some point there will be two car museums.

That could ultimately work out just fine for both parties and museum-goers. Shame, then, that this unspoken acrimony will linger in the memory for more time than a bit of plain-speaking clarity would have.

JCB Hydromax: inside the quest to set a 406mph hydrogen record

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Andy Green's run to a hydrogen land speed record looked easy – but things weren't nearly that simple

The Bonneville Salt Flats were named to recognise explorer Benjamin Bonneville. But to the special, wonderful breed of individuals drawn to this quiet corner of Utah to drive extreme vehicles as fast as they possibly can in a straight line, it’s simply known as The Salt.

The definite article is used because The Salt isn’t simply the remnants of a long-dried up lake. It’s vast, other-worldly and barren yet simultaneously evocative and steeped in history. Hot, dry, exposed and, yes, very salty, it’s a hostile, challenging environment to spend any time in. And that’s exactly why it’s irresistibly alluring to speed record chasers.

The expanse of Bonneville makes it the ultimate blank canvas: with an ambitious dream, you can write your own story here. The possibilities are endless, although it helps if that dream involves going very quickly in a straight line. And 18 months ago, JCB chairman Lord Bamford dreamt up a story.

Strictly, this was a sequel: 20 years ago, the JCB Dieselmax came to Bonneville and set a new 350mph land speed record for diesel-powered cars. This time, Bamford wanted to showcase his firm’s burgeoning hydrogen combustion technology.

He summoned Ryan Ballard, JCB’s engineering director, and Lee Harper, its chief engineer, and asked them to take two of the firm’s hydrogen-combustion digger engines, stick them in a slipstreamer and smash both the hydrogen speed record and Dieselmax’s time.

Ballard walked away from that meeting thinking this was a dream too far for Bamford, that it simply couldn’t be done. But then he and Harper thought about it, crunched some numbers and realised it could work, “which meant we actually had to go and do it”.

Eighteen months later, soon after Andy Green had powered the JCB Hydromax across The Salt at an average speed of 406.320mph, Ballard sits down in front of me, looking tired, relieved and very satisified. Bamford’s dream has been realised.

The preparation

It takes less than an hour to set a land speed record – and only 18 seconds or so of that really matters. Under FIA rules, cars must complete two runs on a course in opposite directions; they have 60 minutes from the start of run one to passing the finish on the return.

The JCB team used a 10-mile course, leaving an extra mile of run-off in either direction.

The crucial bit is the measured mile, which at 406.320mph took Hydromax less than nine seconds to cover.

“The run itself was relatively drama-free,” says Ballard. “But while it may have looked calm, there was an awful lot going on.”

That has been true of the project from the start: while it was only publicly announced in May this year, Ballard and his team had been working intensively for a year or so before that.

This was a true JCB passion project: Ballard, Harper and numerous other members worked on Hydromax and its innovative powertrain alongside their day jobs, developing and refining the engineering firm’s construction machines. Several members also worked on Dieselmax, and that car provided a basic template.

Another key holdover from Dieselmax was driver Green, the holder of the outright 763mph land speed record with the Thrust SSC jet car in 1997. Now 64, Green underwent physical tests to prove he could still deliver behind the wheel; in return, JCB had to convince him about the fuel source.

“I started by saying ‘you want me to strap into a car with how much pressurised hydrogen?’” he says. “They utterly convinced me about its safety. I’d now rather be in a hydrogen car than a petrol or diesel one.”

While much of the project was done in-house, specialist help was recruited.

Ricardo was tasked with taking JCB’s production-spec 4.8-litre hydrogen-combustion engines and turning them from a 74bhp lump used by diggers into 800bhp race units. The firm fitted special radiators, intercoolers and turbochargers, lightened them by 100kg and modified them so they could run on their side to lower Hydromax’s centre of gravity. Six engines were hand-built.

Prodrive developed the tubular steel frame chassis and multi-link suspension, Xtrac provided a six-speed gearbox (each engine was attached to its own gearbox and its own axle), while Goodyear – which has pretty much cornered the market in speed record tyres – developed custom sets for the project.

Dieselmax was essentially limited by its tyres; Ballard says the new Goodyears were “stress-tested to beyond 400mph, and we were quite close to the upper limit”.

Aerodynamics were a focus, the design being honed to produce 10% less drag than Dieselmax. Features specifically for Bonneville include sculpted salt spray extractor channels, designed to force salt off the car’s underside, where it would otherwise get stuck and create drag.

What the team lacked before the record attempt was mileage: there was a single test at RAF Wittering, where Green barely pushed past 200mph, before travelling to Utah. The bulk of Hydromax’s testing would come in the public arena of Bonneville Speed Week.

Getting up to speed

Speed Week is Bonneville Speedway’s crown jewel event, drawing hundreds of brave teams and thousands of spectators to The Salt.

The nearest town is Wendover, which straddles the border of Utah and Nevada. Most of the hotels are on the Nevada side of the state line and contain massive casinos; think Las Vegas with all the glamour of a truck stop.

The Hydromax workshop was located in a hangar on Wendover Airfield, famous for being from where Enola Gay departed the US in 1945. Thankfully, JCB was there to tell a far more positive story.

Given the effort that goes into developing a speed record challenger, it’s hard to comprehend how little running they do.

“When we arrived, we’d done the equivalent mileage of seven laps of Le Mans,” says Green. “Imagine turning up to that race with a car that had done seven laps of testing.”

The challenge of The Salt is that, like any natural surface, it’s always changing. Much of the vast white surface is pockmarked with a crusty top layer.

Officials from the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) repeatedly drive the course in a fleet of pick-ups dragging big metal blocks, creating a flat, smooth surface.

The thickness of the salt varies along the course, creating different grip levels. And the wide changes in heat cause massive variance in how much moisture is near the surface. You learn about the salt by driving on the salt.

Speed Week was one long learning experience: adjusting gearing and traction and power delivery and steering. The course was run in a single direction, going north towards Floating Mountain.

Traction off the start was an issue: because of the gearing length, Green couldn’t engage first gear until Hydromax was doing 55mph, so a Defender Octa was used to push it up to speed, but even pro driver Darren Turner struggled to find enough traction in the 4x4.

The most crucial learning experience of Speed Week: how to stop. The two determining factors in how fast a land speed record car can go: its tyres and how quickly it can brake.

For Hydromax, first Green lifts off the throttle to allow any remaining hydrogen to be purged from the car, then deploys two parachutes that slow the car before the friction brakes can be used.

Ensuring the parachute system worked as intended and refining the parachutes themselves was key. Green chose to pack them into the car himself.

By the end of the week, the Hydromax had clocked 368.347mph – a new class record.

That had been done with the same two engines used for the UK testing, tuned for around 600bhp each. Over the weekend, JCB’s engineers switched them out for two fresh engines, each producing closer to the 800bhp maximum.

Record time

With Speed Week over, by Monday JCB had The Salt to themselves. The only sign of the mass gathering on this vast landscape just days before were rows of Honey Bucket portable toilets, still awaiting collection.

This was a test day, with Green making three runs and slowly learning what difference that extra power made.

“The course had changed too,” says Ballard. “Even after a few days, the salt was completely different, so we had to make some changes to the power deployment.”

Another challenge: this was Green’s first chance to drive the course in the reverse direction, running south from Floating Mountain.

Working out how to stop the car in this direction was particularly crucial, because if he exceeded the run-off area, he would end up on Interstate 80.

That brought the total runs Hydromax had completed to just 47. Only two remained. But there was plenty to sort before them.

“We were making changes to the car into the night,” says Ballard. “Then we found the rear motor had ingested some black plastic and wrecked the turbocharger. So we had to change that, and the air cooler as well.”

Despite that late night for the mechanics, Tuesday required an early start: the optimum time for a record run is after early moisture has burned off but before the heat rises too sharply. Thankfully, conditions on Tuesday were perfect.

The same couldn’t be said for Hydromax. When the team unloaded the machine from its custom trailer at the start line, there was an oil leak from the rear turbo.

“We can’t really work out why, given we had changed the whole thing,” says Ballard. Still, the only option was to fit an entirely new one on the salt flats. “We said a little prayer, fired it up and it worked.”

Entering history

Once settled, Green clambered into Hydromax while the engineers shoved in the 250kg of ice necessary to keep the car cool during its run, fired up the engines and waited for 'Octa-pushy' – with Lord Bamford in the passenger seat – to shove him up to 55mph.

From there, Green worked up through the gears until exceeding 400mph. For the first run, his goal was to go marginally faster than 400mph – a solid base to work from.

“We hit the first mile at 230mph,” says Green, “still accelerating through fourth and fifth. Mile five is the go/no-go for whether we’re going to make 400 – and we’re over-performing, doing 410mph going into the measured mile. It’s the fastest I’ve ever gone in this car.”

The crucial part of the course ran from mile 5.5 and, paradoxically, Green lifted and turned off the engines as he entered. This allowed the engines to purge ahead of the 3.5-mile slowdown.

“The aim is to control the speed,” Green says, “although I actually lifted off about 100 yards too early.”

Green passed through the mile at 400.623mph, cutting it finer than anticipated. Parachutes, brake and steer off the course – as much as a car with barely any steering can – and then it’s turnaround time. Change the tyres, refill the ice, refuel and more.

“We’ve got 50 minutes, so it’s an absolute race,” says Ballard. While there was a receiving team at the far end of the course, engineers in the JCB pits are already analysing telemetry data sent over 5G.

One of Ballard’s jobs was to pull a physical memory stick with the high-fidelity data from the car and hand it to an engineer who would speed back to the pits five miles away in a Defender Octa with more data to check.

“We were a bit worried about the high temperatures,” says Ballard. “The car got so hot it burned the paint and carbon on the side and was really close to triggering an alarm that would have meant aborting the second run. So we had to make an instant decision to change the calibration for the engines over the airwaves with minutes to spare.”

Still, the team had planned for this. “You think it’s simple, given it’s a straight line, but the team is split across 10 miles of salt flat," says Ballard. "The logistics have taken some figuring out.”

With the turnaround complete, it was back over to Green. This time, Lord Bamford and his family were at the side of the course waiting to see Hydromax shoot past. When it flashed past with an engine whoosh that sounded more Spitfire than digger, it looked fast. Well, faster than any other run.

And it was: Green’s speed for the return leg was 412.135mph. Job done. The team’s incredible efforts across 18 months and a frantic hour of intense activity were repaid in less than 18 seconds.

The world has a new fastest-ever hydrogen car. In fact, Hydromax is the fastest zero-emission car on the planet.

Lord Bamford spoke of how the records proved that hydrogen must be part of a low-carbon future, especially for heavy machinery. His dream had been emphatically delivered on The Salt.

For Ballard, though, “the overwhelming emotion is ‘thank goodness we’ve done it’. There have been many times in this process I’ve sat there thinking ‘how are we going to do this?’. My wife and family are here, and they’ve pulled me through a few times.

“We took it to the edge of the performance envelope. And to think all that’s coming out the back is H2O. It’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.”

GMA S1: New Murray supercar is the McLaren F1 reborn for 2026

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 20:00:00 +0100

Toned-down take on S1 LM majors on long-distance refinement; keeps howling V12 and manual gearbox

Gordon Murray has revealed the S1 as a modern-day tribute to his seminal McLaren F1 supercar.

The latest limited-run creation from Gordon Murray Automotive's Special Vehicles division is a "more touring-focused" take on the S1 LM revealed last year.

While that car took inspiration from the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR, this new arrival is pitched as a follow-up to the 250mph F1 road car.

As such, it has been completely rebodied with less fearsome styling, "optimised for mechanical grip, rather than high downforce".

It loses the massive rear wing, race-style front splitter and deep side skirts, while a new active aero system at the rear helps to keep it stuck to the road at high speeds.

The headlights are new, too, with integrated running lights to give a different signature to the S1 LM, while the new lightweight wheels are inspired by an early design for the F1 that Murray showed in 1992.

The S1 also rides 10mm higher than the S1 LM, on suspension that has been tuned for more compliance - at minimal penalty to steering precision and feedback, according to GMA.

Like the S1 LM, it's fundamentally based on the GMA T50, using the same 681bhp 4.2-litre Cosworth V12 and manual gearbox – reconfigured with a broader torque range for "effortless touring".

Despite the less hardcore remit and a higher-spec cockpit with three leather seats, a beefier sound system and more sound deadening, the carbonfibre-bodied S1 weighs less than the T50.

The S1 will be a less exclusive proposition than the five-off S1 LM, with 64 units planned to be built.

GMA hasn't given a price, but one of the S1 LMs achieved a £16 million hammer price at auction last year, so expect the S1 to cost several times the £2.8m T50.

Defender Dakar racer goes road-legal as 626bhp limited edition

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 20:00:00 +0100

Rally-raid weapon hits the road as an extreme four-seater with wild chassis tech – and Flight mode

The Defender Dakar racer is now available as a highly exclusive off-road supercar with a 626bhp V8, a desert-ready suspension package - and numberplates.

The road-legal version of JLR's works Dakar Rally entry is an uprated version of the extreme Defender Octa, featuring a suite of upgrades used in the formidable D7X-R rally raider, which won the new Stock category of last year's event.

Previewed by a concept at Monterey Car Week, the Defender Dakar rides on a hardcore specialist suspension package that includes bespoke coils and motorsport-honed Bilstein Advanced dampers - and huge 35in All-Terrain tyres wrapped around forged 20in wheels.

It also comes with new rally-ready drive modes including Dunes, Gravel and, excitingly, Flight, which is designed to ensure smooth landings on "extreme and varied terrain".

It's powered by the same 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged BMW-derived V8 engine as the Octa, pumping out 626bhp and 553lb ft of torque.

The Octa has been downtuned slightly in the name of emissions reduction, but it's understood that the Dakar can retain the full output, because it will be sold in the UK via Individual Vehicle Approval.

The extreme off-road potential is signalled by a Dakar-flavoured makeover that adds roof-mounted light pods; carbonfibre air intakes and bonnet; extended wheel arches with exposed rivets; chunky mud flaps; and a blanking plate at the rear end instead of the traditional boot-mounted tyre.

That's all supplemented by a choice of race-inspired paint schemes that includes a beige-and-turquoise livery modelled on 2025's race winner.

A rock-bashing skidplate running front to rear underneath completes the overhaul.

The interior of the concept hasn't yet been revealed, but it will be a more spartan arrangement than that of the Octa, with just four individual race seats – optionally equipped with racing harnesses – and dedicated storage space in the back for helmets, the spare wheel and an on-board compressor.

JLR hasn't announced pricing nor how many units it will build, but the Dakar is sure to command a hefty premium over the £147,000 Octa when reservation slots open early next year.

Extreme new Lamborghini Revuelto SV storms in with 1051bhp

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:00:00 +0100

Super Veloce treatment turns V12 Lambo into a warp-speed track slayer with titanic power

The new Revuelto SV brings even more firepower to Lamborghini's PHEV hypercar, and is the "essence of Lamborghini's DNA", according to CEO Stephan Winkelmann.

Taking inspiration from its GT3 race cars, Lamborghini has transformed the Revuelto into its fifth Super Veloce model with a long list of upgrades that boost mechanical grip and downforce in addition to the extra power.

At the car's heart is the same 6.5-litre V12 that the regular Revuelto uses, but the SV gets a bigger, 7.3kWh battery to power its three electric motors. This boosts the total output by 50bhp to 1051bhp, outmuscling its 1036bhp Ferrari 849 Testarossa rival, and cuts its 0-62mph time to 2.4sec.

The SV also brings 80% more downforce than the standard car and 10% more than even the strictly limited Aventador SVJ. That's thanks to a new front splitter, which has its air-splitting vanes highlighted in red, as well as a fixed rear spoiler that sits in place of the regular Revuelto's active unit. The rear diffuser remains but its underside has been flattened to improve downforce.

The SV's suspension set-up is inspired by that of Lamborghini's Squadra Corse race cars, with new dampers that can be manually adjusted for compression and rebound. There are 14 'clicks' of stiffness or slackness at each corner and Lamborghini engineers will provide owners with recommended settings for road, track, and wet-weather driving.

Stopping power is improved by way of new carbon-ceramic brakes with diameters of 420mm up front and 410mm at the rear.

The SV also gains the 6D sensor tech that was introduced in the Temerario, which calculates the car's pitch, roll and yaw to allow finer control over its dynamic state.

Lamborghini claims these measures improve the rate of deceleration by 11% under high loads and cut stopping distances by 10% across the board. The brakes are said to better resist fade too.

Bridgestone Potenza Race R semi-slick tyres are fitted as standard, but owners can also choose the less aggressive Potenza Sport for use in variable conditions.

Inside, the cockpit has been tweaked to emphasise the motorsport influence behind the SV. Each bucket seat is made from a single piece of carbonfibre and has been inspired by design of the seats in the limited-run Fenomeno. The door panels are also carbon.

However, the weight loss achieved by using exotic materials in the SV is offset by the mass added by the bigger hybrid battery.

While pricing has yet to be revealed, it is likely that the Revuelto SV will be more than £500,000. Production will be limited to just two years, with the first cars arriving in early 2027.

Slantnose Porsche 911 back as 691bhp supercar

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 19:00:00 +0100

Exclusive new Porsche Flachbau RS turns 911 GT2 RS into a very special tribute to a 1970s legend

Porsche has paid tribute to its famed 'Moby Dick' 935/78 race car, giving the previous-generation 911 GT2 RS its signature slanted nose.

The latest commission from the firm's Sonderwunsch (‘special request’) division is a one-off created in collaboration with tuning and racing partner Manthey.

It represents a dramatic transformation of the GT2 RS, which was already among the most focused road cars yet produced by Porsche.

The conversion project took three years from start to finish, despite being concentrated on a single example of the 911.

Among the main challenges in the car’s development was to integrate the ‘Flachbau’ flat nose of the 935/78 while remaining within the confines of road legality.

The conversion was shaped by veteran designer Grant Larson, who retired at the end of 2025 after 36 years working for Porsche – including penning the reborn 935 unveiled in 2018.

Key changes from the underlying 911 include lower-set front wings with slatted air ducts, which reduce air pressure in the wheel arches. The revised arch design required Porsche to modify the fuel filler flap and its mechanism.

In tribute to the race car, the Flachbau RS is stripped of creature comforts including its infotainment system, speakers and sound deadening. Even individual cables in the wiring loom were removed to save weight.

Consequently it weighs 31.6kg less than the GT2 RS on which it's based.

The powertrain is unchanged, however, the twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre flat six putting out 691bhp and 553lb ft of torque.

“Our aim was to reinterpret the iconic look of the 935 without compromising on safety, technology or road legality,” said Alexander Fabig, Porsche’s vice-president of product offering and individualisation.

Spyker returns with C8 supercar – and plans to finally finish SUV

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 18:40:00 +0100

C8 Preliator XXV has 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 that kicks out 800bhp, plus Coventry-built chassis

Dutch sports car maker Spyker is back after years in the woods, having revived its C8 supercar – and it plans to finish the development of its SUV, two decades after first showing a concept.

Following bankruptcy and a long-running legal dispute, company co-founder Victor Muller reacquired the rights to the historic brand name in October 2025.

This June, a large stake in Spyker was sold to Ukrainian-born cryptocurrency magnate Volodymyr Nosov, prompting the comeback.

The first car of the firm’s new era is the C8 Preliator XXV Coupé, a development of the C8 Preliator that was shown at the 2016 Geneva motor show.

It references Spyker’s heritage as an aircraft manufacturer in the early 20th century, with propeller-style wheels and rear lights shaped to resemble jet fighters’ afterburners.

The XXV is based on an aluminium spaceframe chassis assembled by a contractor in Coventry and powered by a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8. This puts out 800bhp and 737lb ft of torque, pushed to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox.

The car is capable of more than 217mph but, Spyker said, is intended to maximise engagement rather than pure pace.

Its interior largely forgoes screens: the only digital surface is a head-up display. The switchgear and gauges are “deliberately analogue”.

There's also a ‘butterfly mode’ that opens every panel for display at the push of a button, including the engine bay.

A total of 25 examples of the XXV are planned to be built. Prices have yet to be disclosed, but Spyker is targeting multi-millionaires and billionaires in its new phase.

To that end, it has made its debut at The Quail gathering, an exclusive event hosted as part of Monterey Car Week in the US.

In addition to the new supercar, Spyker said it's considering a return to endurance racing in the GT3 class and “is expected” to finish development of the D8 Peking-to-Paris SUV.

This was first shown in D12 concept form (pictured above) at the 2006 Geneva motor show, but a production version has never materialised.

Wild new Aston Martin Valen is a V12 brute with 838bhp

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:00:00 +0100

Vanquish-based hyper-GT is priced from £1.5m and offers almost unlimited personalisation

Aston Martin has transformed the Vanquish into a V12-engined hyper-GT called the Valen that has more power than any other front-engined road car on sale.

The radical new Valen is the latest ultra-exclusive model from Aston Martin's Special Vehicles Operations division, which created the Vulcan track car, DBR22 speedster and the one-off Victor hypercar.

The new hyper-GT packs the 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 from the Vanquish but ramps the power output to 838bhp, making it more powerful than any Aston apart from the mid-engined Valhalla and Valkyrie.

Torque stands at 738lb ft and the Valen can dispatch 0-62mph in 3.1sec, the same time as the Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

The Valen's Vanquish origins are clear from its silhouette but it has been extensively overhauled inside and out in line with its heightened performance and exclusivity. High levels of personalisation will mean no two of the 150 customer cars will look the same.

Although the Valen's striking appearance nods to the original DBS and its successor, the Vantage, Aston Martin creative chief Marek Reichman said it is a significant departure from past models.

"Valen gave us the opportunity to explore and express more extreme emotions through a new form language and surface treatment," he said.

Defining features include the brutish new snout—which takes the signature Aston Martin grille motif and expands it across the entire front end—as well as the chunky ducktail spoiler, the aggressive slimline LED lights and, most obviously, the GT3-style carbonfibre aerodynamic addenda, including a huge rear diffuser and downforce-boosting side skirts.

There's an eye-catching new exhaust set-up too, with two exits in the diffuser and two through its centre. The uppermost exits are always open, while the lower set is valved, opening in the raciest drive modes.

The use of carbonfibre, aluminium, titanium and magnesium has helped to make the Valen as much as 110kg lighter than its Vanquish counterpart. The optional lightweight pack alone saves 16.9kg, bringing machined-aluminium suspension arms and knuckles, plus titanium chassis bolts.

Meanwhile, the gearbox has been remapped with the software from Aston Martin's Vantage GT4 race car, giving more aggressive shifts. The throttle pedal's behaviour has also been modified so it is more sensitive in the road-focused Sport and Sport+ drive modes, while the throttle's travel is extended in Track mode for "when on-limit precision is the priority".

The suspension has also been stiffened by way of new springs and the steering response has been quickened for improved responsiveness—completing the Vanquish's transition from super-GT to no-holds-barred performance weapon.

Simon Newton, Aston Martin's director of vehicle performance, suggested the ambition was to unleash the latent sporting potential of the Vanquish.

"Valen channels the more overt dynamic purpose of a true sports car," said Newton, who added that the revisions "intensify the character of Aston Martin's signature GT."

Each of the 150 examples of the Valen will be priced at £1.5 million—before buyers delve into an extensive catalogue of optional extras. These include an exposed-carbonfibre exterior finish that can be tinted to whichever colour the customer wishes, through Aston Martin's Q division. The Valen also makes extensive use of 3D printing, such as around the centre console.

McLaren's manual revival shows the art of stick-shifting isn't dead

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:25:37 +0100

Row-your-own sports cars are endangered, but they give so much more engagement than an auto

There is no longer any objective argument to be made for the manual gearbox or, by extension, against the automatic gearbox. Automatics, whether dual-clutch or of the conventional planetary type, are faster, smoother, more convenient and more efficient than the old-fashioned H-pattern transmission with a lever and a clutch pedal.

This, then, is not an objective argument but an emotional one. I love a good manual gearbox, and I'm extremely pleased cars like the new McLaren McL 6GT are bringing them back in a big way.

Once upon a time, automatic gearboxes were slow and wasted energy with their slushy torque converters, while automated manuals were slow and jerky. Some are still a bit like that, but many now operate with clinical efficiency.

Even so, at best automatics bore me. They go about their business smoothly and quickly but, even if they have a responsive manual mode and some tactile paddles, as a driver I don’t feel like an essential part of the equation.

As a result, any driving satisfaction is necessarily derived from winding the engine out and pushing the chassis. Everything else is just transit. But those delights require a certain level of commitment and speed, which isn’t always possible, let alone advisable, on the road.

Add a good manual gearbox into the mix and everything changes. ‘Good’ is an important caveat, it must be said. What constitutes ‘good’ varies by personal taste, but it’s uncontroversial to say that long-throw, baggy shifts are no good to anyone. If the action is precise and mechanical, however, with a predictable and manageable throw on the clutch pedal, a manual adds a huge extra dimension to driving.

Straights, boring A-roads and jaunts through town become an opportunity to interact with the mechanicals of the car, to hone your skill. Every manual car has a certain speed and cadence of gearchange where the lever slips effortlessly out of one gear and then almost gets sucked into the next. Finding it can take a bit of time and attention, but it’s very satisfying when you do.

It’s the same with rev-matching on downshifts. Of course, you can just slip the clutch a bit and lurch into a lower gear. The driving test doesn’t require anything more sophisticated and it works fine for most people. But once you master the art of heel-and-toeing to match engine speed and gearbox speed for seamless downchanges, it’s a game you can play over and over again, no matter whether you’re on a track day or going between third and second in traffic.

I can see how that’s perceived as a chore if you’re just trying to get from A to B, but I’m never just going from A to B: I’d like to enjoy the driving while I’m at it, even if it’s not a special journey. I don’t care that the auto is faster: you can’t go very fast on the road anyway and I’m not in a race. I want to savour the mechanical interaction.

McLaren gets this. In creating the new six-speed McL 6GT, it says it has strived to achieve the strongest link between man and machine possible, to give "a form of driving connection that is increasingly rare: tactile, analogue, and deeply mechanical".

"Every shift, throttle movement and steering input is intended to feel deliberate, physical, and rewarding, connecting the driver to the machine," it says. "This mechanical character extends beyond the drivetrain. Hydraulic steering, tactile switchgear, and visible engineering details all contribute to a sense of purity of involvement for the driver." Promising.

With hybrids, electric cars and combustion engine bans, things are only heading one way for the manual, and I find the idea of simulated gearboxes – like that in the new Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale – a bit too ‘vegan sausage’ to be more than a whimsical gimmick.

Perhaps surprisingly, then, the EV transition doesn’t bother me too much, because I find having no gearbox preferable to an automatic one, since it can afford instant responses and I like the mechanical purity of an EV.

As a result, a two-car garage of an EV and something old with a really special engine and a manual gearbox would probably keep me happy.

What would it be, though? The Frontline MGB restomod that I drove last year, with its Mazda MX-5-sourced six-speed, had my favourite manual shift so far – not a bad place to start.

ZEV mandate consultation launched: review could soften electric car sales targets

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 14:14:35 +0100

Review will look at softening EV sales targets from 2027-2035 as industry argues they aren't achievable

The UK government has launched a review that will consider whether to soften the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate targets for electric car sales from 2027 to 2035.

It will look to consult with car makers, the wider industry and other stakeholders to reduce the proportion of EV sales that brands need to make between 2027 and 2035, at which point all new vehicles must be zero-emissions under the current plan.

The government said it aims to ensure the EV sales mix targets outlined in the ZEV mandate "remain pro-business and grounded in the real world".

Launching the long-promised consultation today (14 August), the government is inviting manufacturers, suppliers, charging companies, retailers and consumers to contribute their views on how to achieve the planned phase-out of pure-ICE vehicles by 2030.

The move comes just after the best month for EV sales in the UK since 2019, with registrations up 45% year on year in July to give them a market share of more than 25%.

The government said that growth is partly testament to the effectiveness of its new Electric Car Grant scheme, but also that the review will look to adapt ZEV sales rules in light of "challenging and complex global economic conditions, including supply chain disruption and tariff and trade uncertainty".

Saying it wants to "give industry certainty on the outcomes as quickly as possible", the government has imposed a 23 October end date on the consultation, meaning it will last just over two months. Sources had earlier suggested it would be capped at six weeks.

There is a fear within government that the ZEV mandate will begin to impact the viability of car makers operating in the UK, putting jobs at risk.

This will be a significant consideration of the review. However, it's also possible that no changes will be made, or just minor edits, with all options said to be on the table still.

Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said: "The UK EV market is strong: sales are up, British manufacturers and charge point operators are investing billions, alongside our backing of £7.5bn, including our Electric Car Grant that has helped over 160,000 people make the switch.

"It’s right we keep targets under review to ensure they're practical and back British industry. The end goal hasn't changed – but we need to take business with us on the journey, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today, by making sure industry has the chance to shape how we get there."

Whatever the precise changes may be, the review will undoubtedly be welcomed by nearly all 'legacy' car makers, which have long argued that the targets aren't reachable and don't keep pace with market interest in EVs.

This will be their chance to have their say on the record and try to influence a change in the policy.

The ZEV mandate was introduced in 2024, when 22% of sales had to be electric. It rose to 28% in 2025 and is at 33% this year. Next year’s target, the first impacted by the review, is at 38%. From there it rises sharply to 52% in 2028, to 66% in 2029 and to 80% in 2030. There are no set target for the years between 2030 and 2035 (100% electric) at this stage.

The wider view of industry is that this is simply not achievable. The most recent set of car sales data published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders revealed that EV sales rose 44.5% year on year from July 2025 but the current run rate of EV sales this year is still only one in four, when one in three is needed.

One review has already taken place on the ZEV mandate. This lowered fines for non-compliant cars sold from £15,000 to £12,000 and allowed a greater degree of flexibility between banking and borrowing EV sales against future years, as manufacturers introduced EVs as different rates.

Low-volume car makers were also given more time to apply and certain exemptions applied, while hybrid cars were confirmed as being allowable for sale from 2030 until 2035.

The review will be the first major policy intervention into the industry by the Andy Burnham administration.

There is a genuinely held fear about what impact the ZEV mandate will have on car makers that have invested in facilities and people in the UK over many years and what it will do to their viability and therefore jobs.

There is also awareness that new Chinese entrants to the market aren't suffering in the same way as the 'legacy' car makers in having to make a pivot towards EV. They won't lose out on jobs or cancel any market investment into the UK in the way that existing stakeholders will.

The full scope of the review isn't yet known, but it’s possible that targets for the years 2031 to 2034 could also be set. There’s no indication yet if the 2035 deadline itself is up for review.

However, given the role that the UK car parc plays in the wider net-zero legislation for 2050, it has long been anticipated and accepted that an overwhelming majority of new car sales must still be electric by 2035 if the legally binding net-zero by 2050 will be realised.

Writing last week in a blog post, the SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said that despite record sales for EVs demand was tracking some 10-13% below levels needed for the industry to be ZEV mandate compliant in its current form.

He argued that the mandate can force supply but it cannot force demand, and as such car manufacturers were being forced into spending billions on the likes of discounts to artificially stimulate demand to bridge the gap.

"This is not a sustainable business model," he wrote. "Every pound spent on discounting is a pound diverted from the investment needed to keep the UK competitive.

"It also matters for decarbonisation itself, since EVs built in the UK typically carry less embedded carbon than many of those from elsewhere – a point often ignored or dismissed as 'out of scope', despite climate change being a global issue. And if selling vehicles in the UK becomes increasingly costly as a result, the case for investing here is thereby weakened, irrespective of where those vehicles are sold."

Hawes added that not one single manufacturer selling in the UK, be it ZEV mandate-compliant or not or domestic or importing, believes the UK is on track to hit the 2030 target of an 80% market share for EVs.

"Urgent reform of the mandate is therefore needed, alongside renewed commitment from all stakeholders to build consumer confidence," he concluded.

Porsche Taycan to be discontinued by 2030, report claims

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 14:06:26 +0100

Sales of seminal electric saloon have faltered; replacement expected to join next-generation Panamera range

Porsche plans to discontinue the Taycan by no later than 2030, according to a report by German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche.

Citing insider sources, the publication claims that Porsche originally considered relocating Taycan production from its Stuttgart plant to Leipzig, where capacity utilisation had been significantly lower than expected. An alternative option of an immediate discontinuation was also examined.

The decision to phase out the electric saloon over several years rather than ending production abruptly has reportedly been agreed with the Porsche works council but has yet to be formalised.

Production of the Taycan is expected to remain in Stuttgart until the planned phase-out.

Porsche CEO Michael Leiters was non-committal when asked about the Taycan’s future in a July interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "In the short term, we are not planning to discontinue the Taycan. We have invested a lot in the model and want to observe how demand develops."

Porsche didn't respond to Autocar's request for comment on the reported discontinuation by 2030.

The Taycan was launched as Porsche's first electric model in 2019. When the company floated on the stock market in 2022, then chairman Oliver Blume said it was targeting 80% of sales from EVs by 2030.

That has yet to materialise. After peaking at 40,960 in 2023, Taycan deliveries fell to 16,339 in 2025. In the first half of 2026, Porsche sold 6219 Taycans. In this time, production has been paused multiple times due to dwindling sales.

Despite the reported phasing out of the Taycan, Porsche isn't expected to abandon the electric performance saloon market. A successor could form part of the fourth-generation Panamera line-up in a strategy similar to that of the Macan and Cayenne, where combustion-engined and electric models coexist under a single model name with distinctly different exterior designs.

Porsche's Leipzig plant is well-equipped to support such a consolidation. The facility already produces the Panamera and Macan Electric on a single production line capable of building petrol, plug-in hybrid and electric models.

With the Taycan currently built at Porsche’s Zuffenhausen plant in Stuttgart alongside the 911, relocating production of a Panamera-badged successor to Leipzig would consolidate saloon manufacturing and improve economies of scale.

Porsche has already written down €1.8 billion related to delayed platform development.

Stunning new McL 6GT is first manual McLaren since the F1

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0100

"Tactile, analogue and deeply mechanical": V8 tribute to Bruce McLaren enters production in 2028

McLaren has revealed the new McL 6GT as a highly exclusive tribute to its first road car – and its first model with a manual gearbox since the F1.

Shown as a concept in near-production-ready form at Monterey Car Week in California, the McL 6GT will go on sale in 2028 as a spiritual successor to the M6GT, the only road car built by company founder Bruce McLaren.

The production car will be the first of a new line of limited-run models separate from the core McLaren line-up and with a different focus from extreme, highly performant Ultimate Series models like the Speedtail and W1.

Our view: McLaren's manual revival shows the art of stick-shifting isn't dead

“It is presented as an unmistakable signal of how the maverick spirit within McLaren can inform a future-facing approach to McLaren cars that will captivate with character,” said the company.

With a completely new design approach to any of McLaren’s current models, the 6GT is a 1960s-inspired, lightweight, carbon-bodied supercar with a V8 driving the back axle through a six-speed manual gearbox - Woking's first in more than three decades.

In silhouette, it nods to the M6A Can-Am racer, which was so instrumental in putting McLaren on the global motorsport map and provided the basis for the original M6GT (below).

McLaren highlights the clean, low-drag surfacing and distinctive Kamm tail as features influenced by its forebear. Meanwhile, there are subtle nods to Bruce McLaren – including his signature in the engine bay and the original ‘Speedy Kiwi’ company logo etched into the filler cap.

The company remains tight-lipped on technical specifics, but the McL 6GT is thought to be at least partly based on the outgoing 750S supercar, which follows a similar format, albeit with an automatic gearbox.

That car weighs less than 1400kg, achieves 0-62mph in 2.8sec and tops out at 206mph. But rather than bidding for performance supremacy, the focus of the 6GT is to “celebrate a form of driving connection that is increasingly rare: tactile, analogue and deeply mechanical”, said McLaren.

It added: “Every shift, throttle movement and steering input is intended to feel deliberate, physical and rewarding, connecting the driver to the machine.”

The company said this approach is evident in not just the fitment of a manual gearbox but also in the use of “tactile” switchgear, visible engineering details and, in true McLaren fashion, hydraulic steering.

While a limited-production car, the 6GT is the first new McLaren model line revealed since the company merged with start-up Forseven in spring last year and pledged to substantially renew and expand its model line-up.

This promised range of collector-friendly supercars in the vein of the 6GT will play a key role in this reinvention. But the company has yet to shed any firm light on future mass-produced cars, which are thought to include sports cars, SUVs and possibly even saloons.

More details are expected in the coming months.

Ferrari SF90 reinvented as supercar of the future

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:59:32 +0100

New CZ26 special reinvents the PHEV supercar with cues inspired by 1970s industrial design

Ferrari has reinvented the SF90 as the supercar of the future – and it could provide a hint at the brand’s next styling direction.

The new CZ26 represents a total transformation of Maranello's previous plug-in-hybrid flagship, which has since been replaced by the 849 Testarossa.

The new look was penned by Ferrari’s design boss Flavio Manzoni, working with a special client based in the US.

It's said to have a “technological” design with a “forward-looking vision”, suggesting it may serve as a testbed for ideas being considered for the next generation of Ferrari supercars.

Most notably, its front end is a near total departure from that of the SF90 on which it was based, replacing its C-shaped lighting signatures with thin LEDs set into a gloss-black panel that runs across the width of the front end.

The treatment is also reminiscent of the Luce EV, although it remains to be seen whether that car – designed by Jony Ive and Marc Newson – will have a greater influence on mainstream Ferraris in the years to come.

Ferrari said the new look draws on Italian industrial designers of the 1970s, producing a cleaner, more minimalist aesthetic.

It also boosts downforce, thanks to new ducts in the front end, a redesigned rear diffuser and a more prominent rear spoiler.

The CZ26 is the latest in a run of one-offs built for Ferrari’s most special clients, following the SC40 and HC25.

The Italian firm doesn't disclose prices for these models but, given their exclusivity, they're likely to run into the millions.

The CZ26 is making its debut as part of Monterey Car Week in the US, a hotbed for rare and high-value cars.

Lucid Gravity GT-S revealed: A seven-seater with 911 GT3 RS pace

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:19:12 +0100

Extreme new version of Lucid's big electric SUV picks up the flame from Tesla Model X Plaid with 1070bhp

American EV firm Lucid has cranked up its Gravity SUV to 1070bhp, creating a seven-seater that can keep up with most full-blown supercars.

The new Lucid Gravity GT-S, revealed today at Monterey Car Week, follows a similar recipe to the warp-speed Sapphire version of the Lucid Air saloon and is said to "demonstrate how Lucid continues to expand the boundaries of what a luxury electric vehicle can be".

With a 0-60mph time of just 3.1sec, this new range-topping version of the 2.7-tonne Gravity is comfortably the quickest seven-seater in the world (after the retirement of the Tesla Model X Plaid) - and roughly as quick off the mark as the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Ferrari Amalfi and BMW M3 CS.

The Kia EV9 GT is currently the only performance-focused electric seven-seater available in the UK, but with 'just' 501bhp it needs another 1.4sec to complete the sprint.

Lucid claims that beyond pure straight-line speed, the Gravity GT-S is also about offering improved handling and agility over the standard car.

To that end, it comes with a Dynamic Handling package that brings independent rear-wheel steering and adaptive three-chamber air suspension that lowers at speed for optimum efficiency and stability.

Lucid hasn't given full technical details, so it remains unclear whether the GT-S has a dual-motor powertrain like the standard Gravity or the tri-motor arrangement from the Air Sapphire.

Chief creative officer Derek Jenkins said: "With Lucid Gravity GT-S, we've created a more expressive and exhilarating interpretation of the Gravity SUV.

"It combines extraordinary performance with the comfort, space and versatility that define Gravity, delivering an exceptional experience for our customers that is uniquely Lucid."

The GT-S is exclusive to the US market, where it will cost the equivalent of £93,000.

Lucid sells the Air and Gravity in small volumes in Europe but won't offer them in right-hand drive. Its first UK-bound model is set to be the mid-sized Cosmos crossover, which was previewed earlier this month ahead of a production start in 2027.

Czinger 21C Spyder: extreme drop-top is 1250bhp hybrid

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:01:00 +0100

New convertible version of supercar can out-accelerate Bugatti Mistral and brings braking innovation

American firm Czinger has removed the roof from its 1250bhp tandem-seat hypercar – which can outsprint a Bugatti.

It claims the 21C Spyder generates the most downforce of any open-top road car, producing 1482kg at 150mph – or 1500kg with the roof panel in place.

The V8 hybrid is even quicker in a straight line than the Bugatti Mistral, taking 1.9sec to hit 62mph from rest, compared with 2.5sec for its W16-engined rival.

The 21C Spyder also introduces a new braking system, produced using the same ‘BioLogic’ 3D-printing technique as for its extraterrestrial-looking suspension arms and chassis braces.

This, Czinger claims, reduces unsprung mass while improving rigidity and cooling and reducing stopping distances by 15% compared with the 21C’s existing system. It's also said to reduces brake squeal.

The 21C Spyder is powered by the same 2.9-litre twin-turbocharged V8 as the existing 21C, which produces 750bhp on standard unleaded petrol. This is matched with two electric motors on the front axles and one connected to the crankshaft, which unlock the full output.

Czinger said the 21C Spyder didn't require additional structural reinforcement to make up for the lack of a roof, because such a variant had been planned when the carbonfibre tub was originally designed. However, there is extra bracing in the A-pillars to provide greater roll-over protection.

This makes it only 10kg heavier than the 21C High Downforce coupé.

Prices start at $2.75 million (£2 million), although they will vary: each example will be personalised according to its buyer’s wishes. A total of 30 will be produced.

Family car or luxury saloon? A bargain BMW 7 Series does it all

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0100

You could bag a used BMW limo for just a bit more cash than an equivalent 3 Series. No brainer, right?

Hunting for a decent used BMW with proper luxury credentials? Chances are you're only considering a 3 Series or 5 Series, but what if we told you that you could step up to a 7 Series for only a little extra cash?

A 3 Series or 5 Series estate won't cost much less than a comparable 7 Series saloon: a 2018 730d with 52,000 miles is stonking value at £20k, for example, while a 530d of similar vintage and condition could nudge £17k.

It feels a good bit more special, too. Open the driver's door and you will see a badge on the B-pillar proclaiming a 'carbon core'. It's not a full, i8-style tub but a steel and CFRP structure that, together with a mostly aluminium body, keeps rigidity up and weight down (to as low as 1755kg) - which is great news for dynamics and efficiency.

Admittedly the interior could have been a bit jazzier, but liberal use of leather and metal throughout still bolster the 7 Series' premium cachet-and it has aged well too.

Even in short-wheelbase guise the 7 Series is a whopping 5.1m long, and it's commensurately capacious inside, with a boot that rivals many estates' for outright capacity, at 515 litres, and a mile of rear leg room.

The long-wheelbase car (badged L) is 140mm longer, and all of that is felt in the rear seats. It is even more spacious than the equivalent stretched Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Two options are key to maximising the richness of the passenger experience: the Executive Package and the Rear Seat Comfort Package. You will often find them specified together, in which case look forward to heated and massaging 'comfort seats', multimedia screens and a tablet to control just about everything you might need from the back, from the ferocity of your massage to the channel of the digital television - which can also be used to browse the web.

On the road, the biggest weakness of the 7 Series is exposed. It's no S-Class, that's for sure, producing more wind, road and suspension noise and serving a less cosseting ride. It's still deeply impressive, but the disparity is big enough to notice.

However, if you're not being chauffeured, you might prefer the extra poise offered by the BMW's stiffer suspension. Cars with Active Steering have a rear axle that turns against the fronts at low speeds for better agility or with them on the motorway to improve stability.

Most sixth-generation 7 Series (codenamed G11 or G12 in L form) are 730d (261bhp) or 740d (315bhp) variants, which is handy because this is a cruiser that's best served with a diesel engine. The 3.0-litre 'B57' turbo straight six is a quiet and torquey lump, and owners reckon 45mpg is achievable, making for a range of more than 800 miles.

The 2.0-litre four-cylinder 725d (228bhp) is very rare and hardly any more efficient, while the quad-turbocharged straight-six 750d (395bhp) never made it to the UK.

Petrols are less common but worth seeking out if you don't do big mileages. The V8 750i (444bhp) and V12 M760i (610bhp) are effortlessly quick but have the running costs to match; the 'B58' six was available on its own but more commonly sold in conjunction with a battery and electric motor in the plug-in hybrid 745e, which allowed for a real-world electric range of 25 miles.

The G11 may not have the bling to match today's G70, but if you're after a luxurious BMW, it could be the most sensible option of all.

An owner's view

"My short-wheelbase 7 Series is surprisingly brilliant to drive on UK roads. I stuck to the 18in alloys and paired them with the upgraded Adaptive Drive dampers, and I have no qualms with the ride. The 315bhp, 500lb ft 740d is fabulously fast while returning 40mpg, it even makes a reasonable noise and the Active Steering really works at keeping the big girl manoeuvrable without changing the BMW feel of the dynamics at speed." Tony Cole

Buyer beware...

Engine: Watch out for coolant leaks, hot running or a blown thermostat. These issues are usually caused by poor-quality plastic pipes. We recommend replacing them with aftermarket metal items.

Gearbox: ZF's widely used eight-speed automatic torque-converter handles shifting work for all engines. It has a great reputation and needs a service only every five years or 50,000 miles to keep it smooth.

Electrics: Failing seat occupancy sensors throw up airbag warnings. Air-conditioning evaporators have failed - an expensive job that requires the removal of the dash. Some seat massage buttons have got stuck in the off position or stopped working entirely, with BMW dealers having to replace the unit to fix the issue.

Suspension: The standard air suspension is starting to fail on the oldest cars out there. BMW will charge you £4000 to renew it all round, but a specialist should be able to do it for as little as £1000. The compressor costs another £2000 from BMW or half that from a specialist.

Drivetrain: BMW's xDrive four-wheel drive system has a good reputation, but without a service every four years or 50,000 miles the differentials will wear.

Also worth knowing

A 2019 facelift introduced a controversial new face featuring massive kidney grilles, while extra sound-deadening measures improved refinement. The slow-selling 2.0-litre 740e PHEV was swapped for the 3.0-litre 745e, boosting electric range slightly in the process.

Trims were either the luxury-focused Exclusive or more common M Sport with cosmetic upgrades. Both are well equipped but buyers had to dip into the options list to level up their cars with everything from night vision and laser lights to Adaptive Drive, which greatly improves the ride.

All engine options are ULEZ-compliant and cars registered after 1 April 2017 that are more than five years old are just £195 per year to tax.

How much to spend

£11,000-£15,999: The lower end of this budget will buy you something with 200,000 miles, but find a no-expense-spared service history and you're looking at a potential bargain.

£16,000-£24,999: Pre-facelift cars with anywhere from 100,000 miles to less than 50,000. Most are diesels.

£25,000-£29,999: Wide choice of facelifted cars, V8 petrols and later plug-in hybrids.

£30,000-£45,000: V12s and last-of-the-line models. Remember, the current 7 Series can't be had in pure-ICE form.

MG 4 Urban road test: A Golf-sized EV for Polo money

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:00:00 +0100

MG switches to a next-gen front-drive platform for its latest value EV It might have been wild, unfenced territory to begin with, but manufacturers of electric cars are slowly converging on certain important conventions. Having experimented here and there, they are now tacitly agreeing what the best routes are towards efficiency, drivability, driver appeal and more in a modern electric passenger car.Fundamental drive layout is one area where difference still exists, however. Some brands started with front-motor, front-wheel-drive cars and later moved to rear-drive, finding efficiency gains on the way. Others have progressed in the opposite way and somehow found matching gains in the process.And some car makers see a case for both front-motor, front-drive and rear-motor, rear-drive EVs. MG owner SAIC is one of them. While most of MG’s electric cars to date have had rear-axle drive, SAIC’s latest new platform – called E3 – switches the layout around.The first car off that platform, the MG 4 EV Urban, is not a replacement for the popular MG 4 electric hatch, but a kind of sidekick for it. Yielding the packaging benefits of the latest battery technology and a front-drive layout, it dovetails with the regular MG 4 range, reaching downwards into value-car territory – and giving customers who thought they could only afford an electrified supermini something much more practical to consider.

Listen: Why Gerry McGovern left JLR, and what he's doing next

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:02:00 +0100

McGovern joins the Autocar podcast to set the record straight on leaving JLR – and tell us what comes next

Gerry McGovern has spoken exclusively to Autocar for the first time about his shock departure from JLR – and pledged to return to car design in the future.

In his 24-year stint at the British firm, during which he rose to the role of chief creative officer, McGovern led the design of the reborn Defender and several generations of Range Rover and Discovery models. He was also responsible for the controversial Jaguar Type 00 electric concept.

Autocar exclusively reported McGovern’s abrupt departure from JLR last December, but it took until March this year for the move to be officially announced by the firm – prompting speculation about whether he had quit or been sacked.

McGovern is now serving as an advisor to Norton Motorcycles, and spoke exclusively to Autocar for the My Week in Car podcast (listen below).

As well as explaining the reasons for his departure, describing the rumours as “all pretty inaccurate”, he insisted that his car design career isn't finished.

“I want to do new stuff,” he said, “and I’m aware there are many opportunities out there. I’ve had a lot of approaches. I’m very particular about what I want and who I work with. But I’m definitely going to do more cars. They’re in my blood.”

McGovern also spoke to Autocar’s Steve Cropley and Matt Prior about his career and rise through the car industry, the challenge of developing brand identity and the shift from designing cars to designing motorbikes.

You can listen to the full chat above or read the interview exclusively online on our Apple News+ channel. You can also read it in this week’s Autocar magazine, which is available on news stands or as a digital edition.

Where should I charge my electric car? We tried UK's top 10 fast chargers

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0100

What are EV charging sites really like? We test some of the best to find your next pit stop

There are more than 30,000 rapid and ultra-rapid EV chargers in the UK, across more than 7000 locations.

Capable of delivering up to 480kW of power, they're key to the uptake of electric cars, but what are they like to use?

To find out, I visited 10 charging stations, a mix of large 'hubs' near major routes and one or two smaller ones, whose operators tend to favour more local sites. I wanted to know how easy the chargers were to use, how suitable the locations were, how easy they were to find and what state the toilets were in. There were surprises and disappointments…

Instavolt

Test location: Stroud Park, Banbury, Oxfordshire

Charging speed: 160kW

Cost: 92p/kWh

We like: Easy to find and to use

We don't like: Missed out on the summer tariff

Instavolt's special summer tariff of 70p/kWh (65p for subscribers) was available at Winchester but not here..

Still, that felt immaterial when my selected charger wouldn't recognise my credit or debit cards. A fellow user suggested I do a chip and PIN purchase to 'reset' one of them. At the nearby Costa, I bought some water with the credit card and was back in business. My Kia EV9 was at 79% so I just gave it a top-up to 81%, which took five minutes. A 'how to charge' info board made the process pain-free.

The site was well signed from the access road but hard to miss anyway, being essentially a large car park with 32 rapid chargers in bright white. It was EV driver Keith Kelsey's first time there. "I saw the other chap helping you," he said. "We EV drivers stick together at times of crisis. Contactless doesn't always work."

Tesla

Test location: Brookfield Shopping Centre, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire

Charging speed: up to 250kW

Cost: 36p-58p/kWh for non-Tesla owners; 26-42p/kWh for Tesla owners

We like: Great value, all makes

We don't like: Not obvious to see, non-EV parkers

Located just off the busy A10 and only a few miles from the M25, this 16-charger station sits within a vast shopping centre complex at the back of a car park. In Tesla terms, it's pretty standard, discreet and no shelter but plenty of room to manoeuvre. It is an all-makes site (not all are), and with one tap of the card, my Kia was drawing around 85kW. There were six cars present when I visited.

Polat was charging his Kia Niro and told me the site could get busier and not just with people charging their cars. "Because it's a shopping centre, at peak times people just park in the charging bays if the car parks are full," he said. On the upside, he told me that with his £9.99 monthly Tesla subscription, he paid from just 26p/kWh.

Osprey

Test location: Halfway House restaurant, Brentwood, Essex

Charging speed: up to 180kW

Cost: 87p/kWh (82p/kWh using Osprey app)

We like: Attractive canopies, easy to use

We don't like: The signage could be clearer

Just off the busy A127 London-Southend road, this charging station is indicated only by a small sign that is easy to miss. More obvious are the notices warning visitors of a £100 fine if they break the parking rules, which include logging your EV with reception within 15 minutes.

The charging station was spacious and attractive, with sturdy wooden canopies offering users decent shelter. An information board told us how to charge: "Choose charger, tap card, plug in." My EV9 drew power at around 79kW.

There were six ultra-rapid chargers but only two other users, both charging vans. "It's a nice, quiet spot," one said. "I come here a lot and there have only been two occasions when the chargers were down." In the Halfway House itself, the toilets were clean, and a latte was £1 cheaper than in the Double Tree (see Ionity, overleaf).

Shell Recharge

Test location: Southam, Warwickshire

Charging speed: 150kW Cost 79p/kWh

We like: Location, facilities

We don't like: Confusing to use

At this charging station, not far from the M40 and located in the countryside, I was struck by just how right Keith had been at the Instavolt site.

This would have been a lovely place to relax with a meal deal from the forecourt shop, except that two of the eight chargers I tried wouldn't recognise my cards. Was it me? I couldn't work out which buttons to press on the charger and in which order, so I was left wondering if the cards were actually okay. I tried resetting them again but the shop had just gone offline and couldn't do transactions. I settled for a toilet assessment (clean) and a general site survey (smart and tidy).

The next day I tried a different Shell Recharge, at Folly Hill, Farnham, Surrey. It couldn't have gone better. The 180kW charger (there were two) was much easier to use (plug, tap, charge) and had a clear 'Stop' button (not all chargers do). The tariff was 79p/kWh.

Fastned

Test location: Redbridge Park and Ride, Oxford, Oxfordshire

Charging speed: Up to 300kW

Cost: 79p/kWh or 55p/kWh with 30% Gold membership discount

We like: Powerful, easy-to-use chargers

We don’t like: Parking rules, grubby facilities

As the UK's first park and ride, this place knows how to charge and how to fine. A small sign beside each charger tells users to register their car for a free ticket. What it doesn't say is that you have 10 minutes to do so or face a £100 penalty. Eleven minutes in and I was still queuing at the pay machine...

It took the shine off an otherwise seamless charging experience plug in, choose a connector on the screen, select payment method, tap and wait as your 300kW charger (one of 10) gets to work. Behind us was what looked like the UK's first public lavatory. However, the Fastned site itself was clean and tidy, with users protected by solar canopies.

The driver of a Volkswagen ID 5 was happy. "I never queue and the chargers are quick," she said. She had just paid £54 for a charge but could have saved 30% by subscribing. "I can't be bothered," she said.

BP Pulse

Test location: NEC Gigahub, Birmingham, West Midlands

Charging speed: Up to 300kW

Cost from 63p/kWh for subscribers up to 93p/kWh ‘pay as you go’

We like: Powerful, easy-to-use chargers

We don't like: Parking rules, grubby facilities

This charging hub is well signed from the M42. That said, on the approach I nearly entered the long-stay car park next door, with its slow chargers.

Once in the hub, notices warning drivers they would be fined for parking on the red routes reminded me that the threat of punishment is never far away.At least the chargers (30kW, 150kW and 7kW) were reasonably easy to use and backed up by instructions: press Start, choose charger and then what? I decided to plug in and then tap. It worked but some chargers require you to tap first and then plug in.

A fellow user was unfazed. "Chargers can be such a faff," he said, "but with these, the order you have to do things in seems logical." There was good weather protection, although, with it being close to going home time, most of the bays were taken. The nearby Starbucks was doing good business and the toilets were cleanish.

Gridserve

Test location: Electric Forecourt, Braintree, Essex

Charging speed: 360kW

Cost: 59p-85p/kWh with 25% off for holders of Gridserve Plus membership at £7.99 per month

We like: Easy to use, good facilities

We don't like: It would be helpful if the totem pole displayed tariffs

No trouble finding this charging station thanks to a large totem pole on the roadside advertising 10p off a kWh with the Gridserve app.

The forecourt is home to 32 charging bays including 12 high-power ones sheltered by two huge solar canopies. Each bay has enough room to park side-on, handy whether your car's charge port is at the back or the front. There are also six unsheltered Tesla Superchargers to the side.

Plug and tap and the EV9 was soon drawing 85kW. The refundable pre-authorisation charge was £10 compared with an average of £40. Music was piped around the forecourt and in the main building, with its shops and bookable meeting rooms. "I've been coming here for four years and never had to queue," said one user. The following day, I called into Gridserve's M4 Reading services location. It was harder to find but the chargers (uncovered) dispensed up to 350kW and the EV9 was soon gulping 93kW for the same 92p/kWh.

Ionity

Test location: Double Tree Hilton, Dartford, Kent

Charging speed: Up to 350kW

Cost: 81p/kWh, 77p/kWh with Ionity app or 46p/kWh with Ionity subscription

We like: Tidy and efficient

We don't like: Tricky to find, parking notices

There were no signs directing me to this charging station but there were plenty warning me of a £100 fine if I broke the parking rules. Reception assured me the first two parking hours were free and I didn't have to log the EV9's registration.

The charging area was clean and tidy, there was lots of room to manoeuvre my big Kia (there were only two other cars present on the 24-charger site) and the chargers and the contactless payment system worked smoothly. At 19% full, my EV9 was drawing 129kW and still doing so at 73%.

"The location is very good and it's always very quiet," said one driver. "With a subscription, I pay just 49p/kWh." There was no shelter while I hooked up but, fortunately, the weather was kind. Inside the hotel, the toilets were spotless but, at £4.25, I skipped the latte in the bar.

MFG

Test location: Ilford, Greater London

Charging speed: 150kW

Cost: 59p/kWh (promotional summer rate until 30 September 2026, down from standard 79p)

We like: Unpretentious, good customer service

We don't like: Not easy to use at first

The dreaded parking notices were present at this station but this time to deter non-EV drivers.

Unlike the other sites I visited for this survey, it is by no means a major location but it is close to the busy A12 and M11. It is a classic MFG site, with just enough manoeuvring space, good weather protection and a well-stocked forecourt shop. There were four 150kW CCS chargers. However, I had to call MFG to understand how to operate a charger, which wasn't obvious (using buttons, you have to select your connector, tap, then press continue).

Plugged in, my Kia drew power at around 75kWh. Later the same day, I called in at a 300kW MFG station at a Morrisons in Fleet, Hampshire, with more space and where, at 60% full, the EV9 drew an impressive 150kW. This time I knew which buttons to press.

Applegreen

Test location: Welcome Break, M40, Warwickshire

Charging speed: 180kW

Cost: 79p/kWh

We like: Low refundable pre-authorisation charge, reasonably easy to use

We don't like: Charging time restriction

The traditional parking notice had a fresh twist here: "£100 fine if not charging in bay for longer than 10 minutes." I hoped the allowance included operating the charger, which was one of 16.

Fortunately, it was a straight plug and tap. Drawing 133kW, the Kia's battery went from 79% to 92% in just nine minutes. But how to stop: tap my card? It wasn't recognised. Customer services said it happened occasionally, so just unplug. The session cost £12 a reasonable sum for 10 minutes' parking, surely? The refundable pre-authorisation charge was only £1.

There were no canopies offering shelter but, as an alternative to waiting in the car, there was a Starbucks. Directions to the site were good off the motorway but soon became confusing. This was first-time EV driver Philip Major's second experience of charging. "Twice now, I've had to second guess which button to press to charge. The machines don't tell you!" he wailed.

Conclusion

When it works, being able to pay contactlessly has made life easier for those EV drivers who have no allegiance to any of the charging firms and prefer to pay directly for their charge.

Of course, by not paying via a subscription app, they are missing out on sizeable tariff reductions. Meanwhile, the new generation of rapid and ultra-rapid chargers are so fast that most drivers I saw were happy to wait in their cars rather than in the local cafe killing time with a £4.50 coffee. In any case, almost without exception, the charging stations were pleasant places with clean charging cables.

However, to that old complaint about range anxiety (still an issue in some parts of the country including North Yorkshire, as one Scarborough-based driver told us) must be added charger anxiety.

Often during my two-day survey, I found myself worrying how easy the next charger would be to operate. A control interface common to all chargers would be a huge step forward. And then there are the parking notices.

I appreciate that many sites are on third-party land and non-EV drivers must be deterred from parking in charging bays, but the signs are intimidating and create uncertainty for users simply wishing to charge their cars.

Our 205 GTi survived 10 years outside – but what do we do with it?

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 11:00:04 +0100

It cost £150 and spent a decade in the elements; now it's time to decide this iconic hot hatch's future

When you’ve left a car under a sheet on a driveway for a decade, you will probably assume that peeling back the cover will reveal an unsalvageable heap of metal.

Happily, this wasn’t the case last weekend when my dad and I uncovered his cherished Peugeot 205 GTi, parked outside a friendly neighbour’s house since 2016.

He bought it back in 2003 for the grand sum of £150 – an outrageous figure when you consider that tidy 1.9 GTis regularly fetch well over a hundred times that figure today.

When I was a kid, it was a cheap, practical runaround that he used for commutes and school runs.

As I got older, my dad started using it for amateur motorsport and took part in various autosolos and autotests, with me gleefully riding shotgun. It may have been getting on in years, but this little Pug was well at home on these tight, twisting courses, where its taut body control and tactile handling helped us to outshine some of the more modern modified cars we were competing against.

In the late 2000s, the 1.9-litre lump started to show its age, and the head gasket eventually gave up. It was soon replaced and the 205 was back on the road - until it failed again in more dramatic style while competing in an autosolo at Donington Park, with water pouring out the front of the engine.

Rather than mend what was clearly an expired engine, my dad sourced a second-hand lump from eBay and fitted it himself. But only a few years later, the newer XU9 engine blew, the white smoke billowing from the exhaust suggesting it too was terminally damaged.

The 205 duly sat in the garage for a few years before its space was commandeered by my 1990 Mini Cooper (cheers, dad). Unceremoniously relocated to our neighbour’s driveway, it sat parked under a cover, where it has remained for the past 10 years, hunching ever lower as its time-worn tyres gradually flattened off at the bottom.

Which brings us up to today - and for various reasons, the Peugeot now needs to be stored elsewhere, so my dad and I warily headed over to go and inspect it. Given the propensity of old French cars to rot and the sub-optimal British weather conditions it has been exposed to since 2016, we expected to find no more than a twisted, unrecognisable heap of rust that even the scrap man would turn down.

But as we carefully prised back the tarp, it became clear that we didn’t need the dustpan and brush after all, as the Pug wasn’t in as bad a condition as we had feared – far from it, in fact.

Remarkably, the body is free of any terminal corrosion and won’t need any structural work. There’s a bit of surface rust on the lower wheel arches, the roof and around the windscreen, but all the important parts like the sills, boot floor and bulkhead are all in good health.

Our neighbour clearly has some sort of Mediterranean microclimate going on around the side of his house.

Less happy (albeit more predictable) news is that the rear axle has seized and will need to be replaced, but these are fairly easy to source and can be picked up for less than £500. The engine will also finally need that inevitable full rebuild; the initial diagnosis is that the rubber O-ring seals that sit at the bottom of the cylinder liners have failed. We’re pretty sure the block is cracked too.

The colossal spider that greeted us when we opened the boot and the mouse that has torn the back seats to shreds (let's call it lightweighting) will both need to find new homes too.

But before we get the spanners and the Waxoyl out, there are choices to make.

Seeing as it isn't a crumbling mess and is certainly a project worthy of restoration, we could feasibly sell it on and let someone else give it a new lease of life.

My dad is tempted by the idea of turning it into a competition car for road rallies, targa rallies and hillclimbing. Of course we could go for a full nut-and-bolt restoration, but I like the idea of morphing it into a bit of a restomod, with a spruced-up engine, power steering and a Blaupunkt stereo. The cut-price Tolman treatment, if you like.

So what do we do? Should we sell it on in the hope that someone else will rescue it; transform it into a stripped-out rally car for some grassroots motorsport; or explore the restomod route with OEM-plus upgrades for modern usability?

Whichever we choose, this seminal hot hatch is returning to the road - and not before time. It has a decade of frantic, flat-out antics to catch up on.

Beaulieu exclusive: Funding feud behind National Motor Museum exit

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0100

National Motor Museum eyes move to better-placed site before 2030 amid row over future at Montagu estate

The future of one of Britain’s best-known motoring attractions has been thrown into uncertainty after the National Motor Museum announced plans to leave its long-time home at Beaulieu, with behind-the-scenes tensions over funding, governance and the museum’s long-term future emerging.

The National Motor Museum Trust this week confirmed it has begun searching for a new home as the lease on its Beaulieu location approaches its end, saying a move would allow it to transform the museum, expand its educational role and better fulfil its national remit. The trust stressed that visitors will see no immediate change, the current lease having four years remaining.

Meanwhile, Beaulieu Enterprises Limited, the commercial business that owns the grounds, issued a separate statement seeking to reassure visitors that the attraction will continue to operate a motor museum regardless of the trust’s decision. It said the day-to-day visitor experience will remain unchanged, motoring events will continue as planned and “a significant amount of the vehicles” on display are either owned by or on loan to the Montagu family.

However, a source knowledgeable of the subject has revealed a far more complex picture behind the public statements.

According to the well-placed source, the trust spent several years developing an ambitious strategy to modernise the museum and secure major investment through the National Lottery Heritage Fund. That funding was said to depend on a revised collaboration agreement between the trust and Beaulieu, including changes to the financial relationship between the two organisations.

“The situation is that there was no new lease to be granted,” the source said. “And the split of gate receipts is such that the trust couldn’t continue there in a viable fashion, and they couldn’t get the lottery money without changing the fundamental structure. So they decided to move.”

Autocar understands that only a very small proportion of the £27.56 Beaulieu entry fee went to the trust. The entry fee not only gives access to the motor museum but also Palace House, its gardens and Beaulieu Abbey.

The source claimed the museum generates around three quarters of Beaulieu’s visitor numbers and doesn't receive a fair split of the admission income, while also alleging that negotiations over a new lease and revised commercial arrangements broke down last month.

The disagreement also appears to extend to ownership of the museum’s collection.

While Beaulieu has said that “a significant amount of vehicles in the museum are either on loan or owned by the Montagu family”, Autocar understands that the estate owns just 48 of the 185 cars (48) and 23 of the 114 motorcycles on site.

The breakdown in relations between the two parties is also likely to result in the trust moving the National Motor Museum away from Beaulieu far sooner than the end of the current lease in 2030.

However, due to the sudden split, no new location has yet been found.

The source said that any new location “needs at least 50,000 square feet” and is likely to be better geographically placed to serve more of the UK population.

When contacted by Autocar, Beaulieu Enterprises disputed the claim of a sudden end to negotiations, saying "an ongoing review has been under way for some time".

British firm WEVC to build car and van at new factory in Qatar

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0100

Cornish firm's innovative PACES platform to underpin pair of Qatar-bound EVs, developed in UK

Watt Electric Vehicle Company (WEVC), winner of Autocar’s 2026 Innovation Award, has struck a deal with JTA, a major Qatari-based investor, to build two models in Qatar’s first dedicated EV manufacturing plant.

The new factory will initially build a new passenger car and a medium-sized delivery van along the lines of WEVC’s own recently developed eCV1. It is expected to be ready for manufacturing to start in early 2028.

Production will run initially at around 5000 units a year but will expand considerably beyond that.

Vehicle design and engineering for the project will be led by WEVC, from new premises it plans to open soon in the Midlands, in addition to bases it also occupies in Cornwall and Worcestershire.

Both of the initial Qatari vehicles, and others to be launched later, will be made entirely in Qatar but based on WEVC’s highly versatile PACES aluminium skateboard chassis, which uses a series of patented extrusions and joining pieces to greatly simplify jigging and slash manufacturing costs.

WEVC founder and CEO Neil Yates said the Qatari deal will help accelerate his company’s existing plan to establish its own EV manufacturing capability in the UK and will be the forerunner of similar satellite operations in the US and Asia.

“We want to be a partner in local manufacturing operations around the world,” he said. “Our way of making cars is being seen as a very effective way of coping with geopolitical difficulties like the rise of tariff barriers. It’s also very cost-efficient because it requires low capital expenditure."

Why factory robots can't completely replace humans

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0100

Rear axles are one of the most complex assemblies in a Porsche – and still require a human touch

How cars are assembled may not be the first thing that springs to mind when entering a car showroom but it might further down the line if unreliability strikes.

Robots have played a part in production since the early 1970s and ad agency Collett Dickenson Pearce broke new ground in the UK in 1979 with what became a famous TV commercial for the Fiat Strada, rejoicing in the tagline: 'Handbuilt by Robots.'

Porsche has, perhaps unknowingly, echoed that sentiment at the Leipzig plant where it produces the Macan and Panamera, using robots for checking the rear axle assembly while retaining a human touch.

Rear axles are complicated and the type of complexity varies depending on whether the axle is passive, as in front-wheel drive, or 'live', as in rear-wheel or four-wheel drive. EVs add another layer of detail with rear-mounted drive motors and associated electronics.

However unglamorous they may be, rear axles are precision components that play a crucial role in driving dynamics and comfort. They're one of the most complex assemblies in a Porsche, says the maker, and once assembled they undergo thorough checking before being fitted to a car.

Porsche has developed the 'automated end-of-line inspection' for the job that combines human expertise with robot assistance.

Robots handle the repetitive inspection tasks, scanning the entire axle assembly, identifying connectors, measuring distances and checking components are installed correctly based on stored information.

Each inspection point is photographed and analysed and the image data stored for three years, so if anything goes wrong, the condition of the axle at the time of its production can be checked.

The effectiveness of such validation work during the manufacture of a new car will have a bearing on how reliable it's going to be and it's a key part of the quality control process. Yet in most cases, what those checks look like is largely invisible to the buyer.

Porsche says this system was developed during series production and each inspection point was deliberately "manipulated" to ensure faults would be corrected and the number of false alarms reduced. If the image processing system incorrectly flags an error, the system is fine-tuned to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Despite the march of AI, Porsche still considers humans indispensable in this role. Human technicians work in sync with the robots and perform the jobs that, says Porsche, "require experience and human sensitivity. Not everything can be checked visually and, for example, the robotic system is unable to pick up a rubbing noise from a brake disc.

So although much of car production is automated it's perhaps comforting to know there are some aspects of a new car for which only a good old-fashioned 'spanner check' will do.

Mercedes-AMG priming "insane" new AMG GT Black Series

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Mercedes CEO offers his guarantees that Autocar readers will love new hardcore V8 AMG

The forthcoming Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series will offer "insane" performance, according to Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius - who has given his personal guarantee that Autocar readers will love it.

Due to be revealed next year before going on sale in 2028, the new supercar is a road-legal twin of the next-generation Mercedes-AMG GT3 racer, likely to be powered by a highly tuned version of the firm's new flat-plane-crank V8.

In its conception and positioning, the GT Black Series closest rival will be Toyota's new track-honed GR GT supercar.

Mercedes reserves the Black Series badge, first used in 2006 for an extreme iteration of the SLK 55 AMG, for its most hardcore performance road cars.

While it hasn't confirmed the engine or performance details, AMG has said the latest Black Series car will produce significantly more power and torque than the 603bhp and 627lb ft of the current GT 63 Pro.

Speaking exclusively to Autocar, Källenius said: "Sometimes you must allow the engineers to go crazy, and the next car like that is in the making."

Pressed for details, he added: "The next AMG Black Series will be insane, and it will be something completely different that nobody expects. And I can guarantee that Autocar readers will love it. You have my personal guarantee.

"I know I'm talking to a constituency that knows what they're talking about, and I have full confidence we won't disappoint."

While Källenius wouldn't give any further details of the project, he noted that the new flat-plane-crank V8 engine was a key part of its investment strategy in combustion technology, saying: "We're going to need that for years to come, especially for sports cars."

He revealed that he personally owns a V8 SL and so appreciates the appeal of such engines for enthusiasts.

The push to fit the mildly hybridised V8 into AMG models in place of plug-in hybrid powertrains is a notable change in strategy.

Källenius insisted the firm will continue to develop PHEV systems, which can be used to boost efficiency in some cars and power in others.

But he said there would still be demand for non-hybrids from people who "prefer the lower weight..."

He linked the spirit of the forthcoming GT Black Series to the AMG One hypercar, which essentially put the V6 turbo hybrid powertrain from Mercedes 2015 title-winning Formula 1 racer onto the road.

Källenius joked that "we should have been put in an asylum" for approving production of that car but added: "I'm very happy we did, because it will be one of those moments in time that a bunch of engineers received an impossible task and found a way to do it. For enthusiasts, that will be one of those milestones for decades to come."

You can read the full exclusive interview with Ola Källenius exclusively online on our Apple News+ channel. You can also read it in this week’s Autocar magazine, which is available on news stands or as a digital edition.

The best estate cars 2026 – driven, rated and ranked

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Our list of the very best load-lugging wagons you can buy new today, with something to suit all budgets

Seven of the 10 best-selling cars in the UK are SUVs, and their dominance over the UK car buying public only looks set to continue.

But what if there was an alternative that meant you didn't have to bow down to current automotive trends – another type of car that offered the same level of versatility and family capability?

Step forward the estate car. While their popularity has waned in recent years, wagons, tourers and shooting brakes – whatever you like to call them – still have a strong presence in the UK.

Alongside their load-lugging capabilities and everyday versatility, they offer something high-riding SUVs can’t match: a lower centre of gravity for a more engaging drive.

Pleasingly, and much like in the SUV market, there’s a diverse range of powertrains and silhouettes to choose from. You can have anything from a soft-riding cruiser for seamless long-distance travel to a performance derivative with hot-hatch-baiting performance and handling.

While the market is rich with choice, our expert team of road testers – whose job it is to evaluate and scrutinise every new car on sale – believe the Skoda Superb Estate is the best wagon you can buy today. Its varied selection of powertrains, vast boot and pleasing dynamics makes it one of most complete cars you can buy.

But there’s a plethora of talented models all vying for your attention, so read on as we rank the ten best estate cars on sale in the UK today.

The Best estate cars at a glance

Rank	Model	Starting Price (OTR)	Boot Capacity (Seats Up / Down)	Autocar Rating
1	Skoda Superb Estate	£38,135	690L / 1920L	4.5 / 5
2	BMW 3 Series Touring	£44,625	500L / 1510L	4.5 / 5
3	Volkswagen ID 7 Tourer	£52,240	605L / 1714L	4.5 / 5
4	Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo	£86,500	446L (+84L frunk) / 1212L	4.5 / 5
5	Toyota Corolla Touring Sports	£31,500	598L / 1606L	4.0 / 5