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Toyota Celica set to be revived as AWD hybrid

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Long-running – and long-absent – coupé poised for a comeback as GR's new entry model

Toyota is poised to bring back the Celica for an eighth generation, more than two decades after the last version went off sale, as an entry model for its new GR performance brand.

The sports coupé is set to return as part of chairman Akio Toyoda's ambition to resurrect the "three brothers" - his affectionate nickname for the Supra, MR2 and Celica. With the Supra revived through a partnership with BMW several years ago, and plans taking shape for an imminent resurrection of the mid-engined MR2, the Celica is tipped to be next down the line.

The firm has not yet committed to a timeline, but a test mule for Toyota's 2027 World Rally Championship contender was recently spotted with a radical new two-door body. Next year's WRC rules no longer tie bodywork to a current road car, but it would make sense for Toyota to use it to promote a new Celica.

Swapping from the GR Yaris the firm currently fields in the WRC to the Celica would be a return to form for Toyota, which has used several iterations of its coupé as the basis for factory rally cars over the years - winning the 1993 and 1994 WRC with Celicas.

As with previous generations, the new Celica road car is expected to be based heavily on more mainstream underpinnings - and logically those would be supplied in its next outing by the rakish new Corolla, which was previewed by a futuristic, mould-breaking concept at last year's Tokyo motor show.

A two-door, sporting-oriented take on its big-selling family hatchback would provide Toyota with a direct rival to the similarly conceived Honda Prelude - based on the Civic - and provide a less extreme entry point into the expanding GR line-up, which will be topped by the new V8-engined GR GT supercar.

The new model, which is being referred to internally as the Celica Sport, is expected to use the same 2.0-litre engine as the GR Yaris M concept that's being used as the mule for the new MR2, but here mounted at the front (as it has been for all seven previous generations), and forming part of a hybrid powertrain, à la Corolla.

The WRC's 2027 regulations mandate a 1.6-litre engine, so the rally car is expected to use an evolution of the current GR Yaris's engine, but Mikio Hayashi, marketing manager for Toyota's GR division, previously told Autocar that the three-pot "cannot meet emissions regulations, so we have to consider the possibility of a 2.0-litre" in the road-going derivative.

He said the firm was "not at a stage where we can tell you exactly what size it is" and that no decision had been made about whether to use a hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrain. The Corolla will be available with both and, like the MR2, will use a new engine that is as small as possible to allow for a low-slung body and spacious cabin.

Irrespective of its exact powertrain, the new Celica is expected to be four-wheel drive - in rally and road-going forms - although there's no indication of plans to revive the GT-Four name.

New 2028 Lotus Esprit to offer V6 in addition to hybrid V8

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 16:55:00 +0100

Lotus has released an official image of the supercar's rear – and Autocar has imagined what the rest of the car will look like

New ICE supercar will be built alongside Emira at Hethel and offer choice of powertrains

Lotus will also offer a V6 version of the new Esprit supercar, along with the already-confirmed hybrid V8, as part of a pledge to keep to the lightweight ethos of the brand, the company’s CEO has said.

Lotus has set a target weight of 1.5 tonnes for the V8 version of the car, which is codenamed Type 135 and planned for launch in 2028, Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng told investors on the company’s second quarter earnings call August 27.

The hybrid drivetrain will allow the company to conform to global emissions regulations “while preserving essential Lotus DNA of lightweight engineering and extreme track focus driving dynamics” Feng said.

Lotus has previously the replacement for Emira sports car will use a V6 hybrid, but this is the first confirmation that the drivetrain will also go into the ‘Esprit’ flagship, creating a lighter weight model with a more accessible entry price.

Both the V6 and V8 engines are being developed by Horse, which is jointly owned between Lotus parent Geely and Renault.

Feng acknowledged the challenge off keeping the weight low in a complicated electrified drivetrain. “Achieving that target with an 800-volt architecture, a hybrid system, a V8 engine and electric motor in just is not easy,” he said.

One solution will be an ultra-lightweight electric motor. “A typical 150-kilowatt (201bhp) motor weighs between 75 and 95kg. We have leveraged Formula 1 technology to bring it down to just 20kg,” Feng said.

Maximum horsepower will exceed 1000bhp, Lotus has said.

The car will be engineered with an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox “designed to handle high torque while keeping weight to a minimum”, Feng said.

The car will be a flagship model linking Lotus’s electric expertise with its strategic reversal back into combustion engines, which begins with the Eletre X plug-in hybrid version of the electric SUV due in the UK next year.

“The Type 135 will fill the gap between the Emira and Evija, preserving the emotional connection Emira owners have with the Lotus mechanical handling, while leveraging V8 hybrid technology to approach the technical benchmark set by the Evija,” Feng said.

The new supercar will be built alongside the Lotus Emira sports car at Hethel, in a boost for Lotus’s historical base in Norfolk.

This is part of a wider plan to put ICE sports cars back at the heart of Lotus’s future after the company abandoned a plan to go all-electric by 2028.

The new Esprit takes inspiration from 2024's Theory 1 electric supercar concept. A teaser shot of the rear of the production car released by Lotus (below) shows the striking similarity with the concept, with the addition of two massive exhaust pipes.

Lotus has been collaborating with Horse in the development of the turbocharged V8, which is expected to set a new benchmark in power-to-weight ratios.

“Since we will be starting from scratch with this engine, we will make a lot of effort to improve the volume and also the weight of the engine,” Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng said in a statement.

The engine will also be used by another, as-yet-unknown Geely brand for a V8-powered off-roader, improving the economies of scale, Feng said.

The new supercar will be a hybrid rather than a plug-in hybrid in order to save weight, bucking the recent trend to shift to PHEV drivetrains for supercars in cars such as the Aston Martin Valhalla, Lamborghini Temerario and Ferrari 296 GTB. Removing the need to plug in to charge allows Lotus to reduce the size of the battery and not fit charging-related componentry.

Lotus head of design Ben Payne told Autocar that the new supercar will be influenced by the Theory 1, saying: “You make concepts as an exercise to gauge reaction and give a future direction of travel, and [the Theory 1] was very positively received.”

The Esprit name hasn’t been confirmed but is a strong option, Payne confirmed.

“When the Esprit went out of production [in 2004], it had a V8 engine, and it’s something people have asked to come back ever since," he said. "It’s still in the hearts of minds of many of our customers."

The production model could feature the same McLaren F1-style three-seat arrangement as the Theory 1.

“That could be an option," Feng said, "because in the past you needed to develop left-hand drive and right-hand drive, but if you put the driver in the middle, then there is no need.”

The 4490mm-long Theory 1 was designed to be an approachable supercar, rather than a hypercar, like the wild 2011bhp electric Lotus Evija. For example, weight was reduced by using a carbonfibre tub.

At the time, Lotus said 85% of the technology displayed in the model was ready for production.

The news of the supercar is part of a wider shift within Lotus towards a mixed powertrain strategy after the company abandoned its plan to go all-electric by 2028.

Feng said that, based on current trends in the global market, there should not be "a single solution when it comes to power; the power solution should be diversified".

How Autocar imagines the new Lotus supercar could look

Parent company Geely’s original plan for Lotus was to pivot to EVs only by 2028, but the plan was abandoned in 2024 after it proved harder than expected to convince customers to make the switch.

"In the luxury segment, customers simply enjoy the thrill of driving a car with powerful big engines,” Feng said. “They somehow just don't like the smoothness of the EVs.”

The new supercar has the internal model name Type 135, which was previously reserved from the since cancelled electric sports car due to replace the Emira.

The ICE Emira will now continue, first with a chunky update next year that is promised to produce “the most powerful and lightest Emira built”, and then, Lotus confirmed, it will be overhauled further and adopt the Horse V6 engine; this model is likely to arrive before the end of the decade.

Under Lotus's new plan, sports cars will account for a third of its targeted 30,000 sales per year, up from 6520 sales last year.

With the Evija still being made at Hethel at a rate of around eight to 10 units a year, the 'Esprit' will take over as the ICE halo model.

No price has been revealed, but Feng singled out the 849 Testarossa as its main rival, suggesting a figure close to the Ferrari’s entry price of £407,617.

'I love my Toyota Supra - so I'm planning to give it 1000bhp'

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0100

Too fast? Too furious? Not yet, says this ambitious Supra owner with Veyron-baiting ambitions

If you want something badly enough for your birthday, it's often best just to buy it yourself.

That's what Reece Atherton did, only it wasn't a pair of socks he bought but a Toyota GR Supra 3.0. "Two of my mates have one, and when I saw them, I thought I just have to have my own," says the 28-year-old. The manual version was tempting but Reece instead opted for the eight-speed automatic. "I like the flappy paddles and, in any case, used autos are cheaper than the manuals," he says.

On that point, Reece paid £40,000 for the 2019-reg approved used car, which had done 6000 miles. That was a year ago. "I negotiated a £2000 discount so felt pretty pleased with myself. I then signed up to Toyota's service plan, which for just £30 per month buys servicing, an MOT and breakdown cover. Also, each time I have the car serviced at a Toyota dealer, a year is added to the car's warranty up to a maximum of 10 years or 100,000 miles," he says.

Not that he's too concerned about his Supra's future reliability, as he explains: "I love the fact that Toyota stripped down the car's BMW engine to check it was up to its engineering and quality standards. They also stress tested it with a higher power output. That's good because I plan to have the engine uprated to 1000bhp."

If he does, it will be a smidgen more powerful than the cars he previously owned: his first was a 2004-reg Fiat Punto Activ and his second a Vauxhall Mokka 1.2. "We've all got to start somewhere but even I'm surprised how quickly I've gone from those to my dream car," he says. One thing's certain: they won't have cost the same to insure. For the Supra, Reece is paying £800. "It's a bells and whistles policy with every conceivable extra. And yes, if I do uprate the engine, I'll be sure to tell my insurer," he says.

I hope he's already told them about the more minor modifications he's either done himself or had done, including carbonfibre detailing in the cabin and a large rear spoiler reminiscent of that fitted as standard to the fourth-generation Supra.

Reece isn't sure how much fuel the car gets through and, I suspect, he's happy to keep it that way. "It's definitely thirstier in Sport," he says, "but so much fun too!"

It's his only car, although in the 12 months that he's owned it, he's done only 5000 miles, many of them visiting local club meets and car shows. "I also drive a works van" is his excuse. No matter he's driven it far enough to know what he likes most and least about the car. "I love the design. It's a beautiful car," he says. "Of course, it's great to drive too. It sticks to the road." Its least attractive feature? I sense Reece is struggling. "I know: the way the wind buffets the interior when the windows are lowered at 50-60mph."

With a 1000bhp conversion in prospect, Reece has no immediate plans to sell his Supra. In fact, he reckons that now the model has been discontinued, prices of the remaining cars may rise. Personally, I think that day is some way off. What I wouldn't do is muck about too much with the engine. 'Keep it standard, Reece!' is my advice. I'm not sure he's listening...

Feels like a Bentley: On the road in the 370-mile Torcal EV

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:30:00 +0100

Bentley's electric era begins next month with the debut of the 370-mile Torcal - but we've had an early ride

The rear passenger door motors itself noiselessly closed. Here we are, in the back seat of what company CEO Dr Frank Walliser has described as “perhaps the most considered car” in the 107-year history of his employer: the new Bentley Torcal.

The wheels beneath us begin to turn - gently, smoothly, but not without an accompanying soundtrack. And in an instant we become among the very first people in the world - aside from those who actually made it - to begin to learn what it is like to travel in an all-electric Bentley.

Despite this being a car both shorter and lower-roofed than the Bentayga SUV, Crewe has aimed to match the bigger car’s cabin package for things like leg room and head room; so there’s plenty of both. There’s a heavy disguise over almost all of the fittings and upholstery of our late-model prototype, but Bentley has already made it known that this car will bring plenty of developments on those fronts. Merino wool upholstery. ‘Ombre veneer’ wood trim. Plenty of other lavish materials and special effects, too, never before seen on a Bentley.

From my back row-seat I can see just enough up front to pique my interest as Torcal product line director Martin Page, who is also our chauffeur, starts peeling back the covers just enough to see instruments and access controls.

From the tone of Page’s explanation of his surroundings, I get the distinct impression that at least some of the potential customers that Bentley canvassed might have preferred a more traditional ambience and a bit less digital tech. What they are getting has loads of familiar Bentley gloss and richness, mind you. But there’s no rotating multimedia display, no ‘organ stop’ ventilation controls (these ones have vent airflow controlled via the multimedia display) and a great many twinkly, indirect ambient lighting effects running the full width of the dashboard and over the door panels.

The vivacity of the twinkling in question - together with the backlighting of the digital instruments and multimedia touchscreen - are controlled by the car’s ‘Curation Engine’. This is Crewe’s forgivably grandiloquent term for the central drive mode controller, which is large, glassy and ornate-looking. Cycling through the car’s mostly familiar settings (Bentley, Comfort and Sport, and introducing Refresh) changes not only suspension, powertrain and steering calibration but also the heating and ventilation, seat massage, lighting and display settings.

Above that sits the sizable multimedia touchscreen display. It’s trapezoidal (with slanted, rather than parallel, sides), and while it is curved, it is not actually the same screen that you’ll find in Porsche’s related Cayenne Electric; instead it is one with a less curtly radiused corner running horizontally across its middle, so it follows the arc of your wrist and fingertip more naturally as you swipe up and down.

It flashes up a full-screen, colourful, attention-grabbing animation every time you change the drive mode, though. I suggest to Page that might become a little distracting - annoying, even. “Don’t worry,” he replies: “if you prefer, there’s a Pure setting that keeps things simpler and lets you configure the suspension and powertrain settings without the visual song and dance.” Of course there is.

By the time I look back up through the windscreen, we’ve travelled half a mile through Pebble Beach’s residential streets. I’ve hardly noticed any commotion or disturbance at all.

You wouldn’t call the ride pillowy-soft, because there’s more discipline and balance to it than that. There’s just a little bit of low-speed road noise from the 22in wheels to let you know you’re in motion. The merest shuffle under your backside, also, as the axles cross transverse ridges and raised bits of ironwork – but only enough to keep the wheels under control, the isolation levels consistent and the body control level and even rather than wallowy or reactive. This is ride comfort as Bentley has always done it, in modern times at least.

The Torcal uses the Volkswagen Group’s PPE platform (Porsche Cayenne Electric, Audi Q6 E-tron). There is two-chamber air suspension at both ends (using slightly modified hardware compared with the Cayenne), as well as four-wheel steering and ‘dynamic ride’ active anti-roll bars.

Page explains that the powertrain combines the drive motor from a Cayenne Electric at the rear with one from an Audi Q6 E-tron at the front, for on-paper peak power of “around 850 horsepower”. It uses the same 113kWh drive battery and 800V architecture as the Cayenne, for a WLTP range of about “370 miles” even on 22in rims. And it weighs “about 2.7 tonnes”. Not bad considering the new Jag EV is set to be a 2.8-tonne car and a Rolls-Royce Spectre weighs 2.9 tonnes.

The Monterey traffic is too heavy, here and now, to get any sense of this car’s performance potential. Apparently it doesn’t have ‘manual regen’ paddles. There are, instead, three modes for energy regeneration: automatic (in which the car blends it up and down by itself), 'fixed on' (a constant strength) and off (in which the car coasts on a trailing accelerator).

It sounds just right, however. There’s no ‘spaceship noise’ from this EV, inside or out. Instead, Bentley spent a lot of time and money recording and studying actual V8 engine noise - and, uniquely, getting musicians to imitate its rhythms and cadences.

By doing so, it has created for the Torcal a ‘V8-alike’ synthesised engine noise whose tempo, pitch and volume changes with throttle load and speed. It’s understated in ‘Bentley’ mode, a little more forthright in ‘Sport’ and genuinely convincing either way (although you can turn it off, if you prefer). And there’s a speaker that broadcasts it, discreetly enough, externally as well as to passengers riding onboard.

Driving this car will be another level of insight again - but I don’t imagine it’ll feel cumbersome or heavy. It doesn’t look that way. Our driver seems to be living almost as charmed a life as us as our circuitous route returns us to the hotel lobby, where the Torcal’s automated parking aid effectively brings the car to rest automatically, exactly where we started.

I’ve got a few lingering questions about some of that digital tech ahead of the driver; I'm also keen to know whether this will be a Bentley that lets you shut out all of the electronic noise and interference of modern life quite as brilliantly as, say, a Flying Spur does.

The Torcal certainly rides - and sounds - like a Bentley should, however. And that’s a strong start.

Bentley Torcal technical specification

Price	from circa-£180,000 (tbc)
Engine	Two permanent magnet synchronous motors
Power	850bhp (tbc)
Torque	tbc
Gearbox	1-spd reduction gear, per axle; 4WD
Kerb weight	2700kg
0-62mph	circa-4.0sec (tbc)
Top speed	tbc
Battery	113-/108 kWh (total/usable)
Range, economy	circa 380 miles, tbc
CO2, tax band	0 g/km, 4%
Rivals	Ferrari Luce, Rolls-Royce Spectre S2

Lepas L6 coming to UK as 214bhp, 279-mile VW ID 4 rival

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 12:11:04 +0100

Jaecoo sibling brand's first UK-bound electric car goes big on standard kit and interior space

Chinese newcomer Lepas is going after the Volkswagen ID 4 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 with its first UK-bound EV, the L6.

The electric SUV has a 65kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack that yields a range of 279 miles between charges and can be topped up at up to 120kW. That allows a 30-80% refill in 22 minutes.

The L6 is powered by a single front-mounted motor that puts out 214bhp and 203lb ft of torque, giving a 0-62mph sprint time of 7.9sec – par for the course.

Effectively a rebadged version of the Fulwin T7 sold by Lepas parent company Chery in its native China, the L6 is based on the LEX platform. This is a rebranding of the T1X structure that also underpins the popular Jaecoo 7 and Omoda 5, among several other models.

Pricing has yet to be announced, but the L6 is likely to be distinguished by its standard equipment offering rather than undercutting rivals.

It will have a 13.2in infotainment touchscreen, a panoramic sunroof and '540deg' parking camera as standard, and the range-topping Elevate trim will bring heated and ventilated front seats.

Order books will open early in the fourth quarter, Lepas said. As such, customer deliveries are likely to begin just before the end of the year.

Rally is the best spectator motorsport - even when it's freezing

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0100

Trekking into cold forests late at night is worth it when you get to see fantastic cars at full tilt

It's a wintry night and I'm perched on a Welsh mountaintop, about 500 metres above sea level, somewhere near Llanidloes. Darkness fell some time ago, and it took the last remnants of the day's limited warmth with it: the temperature has now dropped to the wrong side of zero.

I walked a few miles to find this spot, trudging through the Cambrians to find a vantage point that looks just right. In the day, the view was amazing: I could see all the way down a wide valley of bogs. But now I can't even see my thickly gloved hand in front of my face.

This might sound like a less than ideal way to spend an evening, but I'm happy. Ecstatic, in fact. And it's all because I've just heard the first echoes of a high-revving engine make their way over the distant hills, announcing the arrival of what can only be a Lancia Stratos.

Beams of yellow from the headlights appear not long after, dancing across the valley as the car navigates the technical gravel track. The shrill scream of that Ferrari V6 is catching on the wind now, filling the air with one of the greatest noises of all time. The sound is ragged, reflecting the bursts of acceleration needed to keep the car pointing the right way as it traverses a twisty but steep downhill section.

I hear the revs hold a steady note as it negotiates a sweeping right-hander, followed by a sharp burst as it rounds an acute left-hand hairpin. A short burst on the limiter signals that the car has briefly become an airborne object; a rush of water tells me the driver has made it through a short flooded trough; and then it passes a metre or so under the steep bank atop which I'm shivering.

The course is fast and straight from here, so the car screams past at full chat, making a noise that's simply unholy as the driver keeps his foot firmly pinned to the floor. All I can see are the beams of light turning the pitch-black valley ahead of it into daylight and the pinpricks of red from the rear lights as it speeds away.

It's a sight and a sound I will simply never forget. That said, the ranks of Ford Escorts that followed were almost as impressive, and it's why my memories of the Roger Albert Clark Rally are still vivid several years later.

This is rallying, good and proper, and it's possibly the best spectator motorsport in the world. There's something so special about being left almost to your own devices, being trusted to find somewhere safe, far away from civilisation, to watch some of the most skilled drivers in the world slide their way along impossibly tight forest tracks.

The typical lack of phone signal means you're cut off from the stress and worries of day-to-day life and you end up forming a nice camaraderie with your fellow spectators. No other motorsport allows you to create your own little world in quite the same way.

But it's the sound that really makes it. Head into a forest and you get the wonderful effect of highly tuned engine notes bouncing off hundreds of trees at once, creating an all-encompassing shriek that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up like nothing else.

Even off the stages, back in the bustling paddocks, it's still a wonderfully open motorsport. Paddocks aren't off limits; drivers and mechanics are happy to chat once they've fulfilled their service obligations; and there's typically an almost carnival-like atmosphere in the air, because everyone is there simply for a good time.

'Who signed this off?' The truth about infuriating capacitive buttons

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Capacitive buttons are a bugbear of many modern interiors – but also an innovation that simply didn't work

Who signed this off? You might well ask, as once again you accidentally trigger a capacitive button on your car’s steering wheel. It is a prime example of when the customer voice, engineering curiosity and financial targets become misaligned.

Jeff Bezos is credited with using an empty chair in Amazon board meetings to represent the customer view. A superb mindset, because all too easily decisions can be overly influenced by internal factors. That could be the pride of an engineering department which has developed a novel concept, or the finance execs chasing reduced costs.

One company CEO has publicly admitted that capacitive switches cost less, but this won’t be the only reason they crept into many car interiors. The theoretical advantage of packaging multiple functions within a single switch offers parts count reduction, too. There is also a consistency advantage. While OEMs strive to source similar components from one supplier, this isn’t always possible. In a car with push-push switches from different Tier-1 suppliers, harmony in travel, force, and tolerance is required to deliver a common brand ‘haptic’. That's also true for capacitive alternatives, but removing the physical movement makes the job simpler.

There are many practical reasons, then, to opt for the innovation that makes a programme simpler and more profitable. But what does the customer want? Will they appreciate the ‘progress’? Manufacturers will often run a customer clinic, but with new technology there is a risk that respondents get swept up in the excitement of the newness and give their support to something, only to find that the novelty quickly wears thin.

Naturally there will be internal research: interior bucks, HMI rigs and eventually driving prototypes. The pros and cons will be weighed, but here is where bias can enter. Enthusiasm to develop something new, or to achieve a target, can be powerful motivators. Concerns may be voiced at early stages, but these can be lost in the momentum of positive energy.

But when the technology is finally in a road-drivable prototype, the problems emerge. Real-world driving is unpredictable, and drivers don’t always follow the logical process path set out in the lap tests. Now it’s clear that the exciting new technology has real downsides, and perhaps a rethink is required – which is exactly when it becomes clear that this will not be without consequences. Not because the technology has been purchased, nor because the old approach is no longer available, but because unless the programme has developed packaging designs and sourcing solutions for both options, the decision not to go with the new tech now risks a delay. Often the definitive Go/No-Go decision point can be opaque.

Avoiding such calamities requires a client-first mindset and a laser focus on who the car is being engineered for and how they will use it. Every person on the project needs this mindset, but the product manager is the cheerleader for the customer voice. They must think like the client, challenge internal agendas and constantly ask why a specific development is being pursued. This isn’t about killing ideas; it is encouraging teams to solve the problems that matter most to the client. When a team has a unified common goal, it makes the inevitable decisions on priorities easier to agree on.

Car development is long and incredibly complex, and that the buyer has so many high-quality options is testament to the teams that constantly challenge themselves to put the client first. To innovate without the occasional misstep would be unrealistic; capacitive buttons are simply the industry flight of fancy that got away.

Open and shut case: Why you should buy a £5k Mini Convertible

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

A stylish drop-top that's fun to drive and easy to live with? No-brainer - but get in before winter

Eyeing a convertible for summer? You won't find a lot on the new car market: waning profit margins for niche models and the popularity of crossovers mean the drop-top market has... dropped off.

A few stalwarts soldier on, such as the Mini Convertible. But with prices nearing £30,000, why not consider its predecessor, which you can now pick up from about £3000?

When the fourth-generation Mini arrived in 2014, it proved to be the most mature yet. The doe-eyed face, posh chrome detailing and bulbous retro lights cloaked a deeply modern 'UKL' architecture from the BMW Group, Mini's parent.

It is a little larger than its predecessor, at 3.8m long and 1.7m wide, a lot more refined and more substantial in its feel. This is true of all variants but is felt most acutely in the Convertible as its new roof is far more thermally efficient and quieter than the Mk3's. With it up, you're hard-pressed to tell it is fabric over your head, rather than metal. The roof folds into a neat pile atop the derrière in only 18 seconds and up to vehicle speeds of 19mph too.

Step inside and you're greeted by a different layout from that of past Minis. Instead of a speedo in the middle, a small cluster of dials (or an elliptical screen from 2021 onwards) sits behind the wheel. A head-up display was a reasonably common option when new too.

Replacing the central speedo is a circular bezel with integrated ambient lighting to match the selected drive mode, and a 6.5in infotainment screen with rounded edges or an 8.8in screen as an option (standard after 2021).

The rear only really has space for kids, but even that's a win because two-row drop-tops are few and far between. A saloon-style bootlid means the boot isn't as practical as a Cooper hatchback's, but its 215-litre capacity is decent enough for a couple on a weekend away.

On the move, there's little dynamic sacrifice in opting for the Convertible. True, it's 115kg heavier than a three-door tin-top, but it still moves with 95% of the enthusiasm, the suspension staying firm but well damped and the steering direct. It's a bit of a stretch to say it has the clichéd 'go-kart feel', but it certainly offers more charisma and fun than most alternatives, resisting the chassis flex and scuttle shake that sometimes blight the open-roof driving experience.

It's eminently drivable in town too. Rear visibility is decent and standard rear parking sensors further aid easy manoeuvring.

The engine line-up consists of three petrols, a diesel and an EV. We'd stick with petrol. The diesel is very economical (60mpg isn't hard) and yearly tax is just £20, but an oil-burner's rattle just doesn't suit the romance of open-air motoring. The EV is extremely rare (only 199 came to the UK) and the 100-mile real-world range isn't very useful.

The 134bhp Cooper, 189bhp Cooper S and 228bhp John Cooper Works (JCW) are more numerous and their petrol engines are better suited to the car's fizzy personality. The 1.5-litre Cooper is adequately powerful and economical (50mpg is in reach) while the 2.0-litre Cooper S suits a more sporting demeanour. The JCW isn't significantly faster, but it is quite a lot less comfy.

Both the six-speed manual and eight-speed auto (or seven-speed DCT after 2018) are enjoyable to rub along with-as, indeed, is the open-air Mini experience as a whole. It's the kind of drop-top you might buy with summer in mind and then end up using all year round.

What we said then

6 April 2016: "BMW could have got away with phoning one in with this car-but it hasn't. The Mini Convertible feels like a much better-engineered car than it needs to be, one of integrity and attention to detail, improved significantly over the car it replaces."

An owner's view

Sharon Knight: "I've had my Mini Cooper Convertible for three years after buying it through the approved used scheme. I really enjoy how it drives, especially with the top down, and appreciate how much smaller it is than most other convertibles. All it's cost me so far is routine servicing and brake pads."

Buyer beware...

Engine: Be wary of Cooper S models built between 2014 and 2015, because a recall was issued to repair a defective crankshaft bearing and engines were either rebuilt or replaced. Check that the whole engine has been replaced because other parts may have been damaged by the faulty crankshaft. High oil consumption is common on the more performance-focused models so check oil levels and make sure the car is serviced every year.

Exhaust: Ensure the Pro exhaust on the John Cooper Works cars is fitted properly. You'll know if it isn't because the heat shield underneath the car will rattle.

Suspension: Listen out for a knocking noise from the front suspension because the control arm bushings like to make a racket when they're worn. A new bushing is around £30, plus fitting.

Body: Door seal rubber can rub away the paint on the inside. You can buy door-shut paint protection film to stop the issue from recurring. Also check for clouding in the wing mirrors. New glass is around £20.

Roof: Ensure it operates smoothly and quickly. They don't commonly fail, but if they do, repair bills could be in the thousands. The optional wind deflector is a must-have, but easily available online.

Water leaks: Again, not a common issue, but if the roof is not sealing properly and letting water in, there is the potential for big bills.

Interior: Don't be surprised if the dashboard trim rattles, especially on higher-mileage cars.

Also worth knowing

Wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto were added as an option in 2018 (look for the widescreen nav) but can be retrofitted on earlier models.

Options push up the price of used examples. The Harman Kardon sound system and leather seats are particularly desirable.

Trim designations weren't added until 2018, and even then the Classic, Exclusive and Sport packages could still be loaded up with options.

Power dropped a little in 2021 for the Cooper S (to 176bhp) but you'd be hard-pressed to notice.

Insurance is reasonable, with groups ranging from 11 to 33.

How much to spend

£3000-£6999: High-mileage cars (mostly wearing it well). Lower-spec Coopers and Cooper Ds with fewer than 100k miles too.

£7000-£9999: Early cars, with Cooper Ss and JCWs available at a four-figure premium.

£10,000-£14,999: Desirable 2018 facelifted cars with the Union flag rear lights.

£15,000-£30,000: 2021-facelift models with the larger touchscreen and digital dials. Low-mileage two or three-year-old cars still command nearly new prices.

One we found

Mini Cooper Exclusive Convertible, 2019, 40,000 miles, £12,895: This smart-looking car comes in a desirable spec with the right options and has the 134bhp 1.5 petrol. It's also got a full service history and a 12-month MOT.

Mazda MX-5 1.5-litre gets more power as 2.0-litre dropped in UK

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 14:19:28 +0100

New updates bring a small bump in power and torque for the 1.5 MX-5, plus extra kit from the 2.0

The 1.5-litre Mazda MX-5 will receive a small bump in power and new kit, the brand has confirmed after it pulled the range-topping 2.0-litre from the UK market.

The MX-5 will now put out 134bhp and 114b ft in 1.5-litre form, a mild increase of 4bhp and 3lb ft. Nonetheless, it remains far off the performance potential of the now-axed 2.0-litre, which put out 181bhp and 151lb ft.

Mazda is keen to emphasise, however, that the 1.5-litre is the engine the current-generation MX-5 was designed around. In a statement supplied to Autocar, it said the 1.5’s “light weight, responsive and accessible performance perfectly reflect [Mazda’s philosophy of] Jinba Ittai [‘horse and rider’]”.

Alongside more power, it has revised the engine’s sound for what it claims to be better driver engagement, and it emits 1g/km less CO2 than previously.

The range-topping Homura and Homura Plus trims levels also gain the Bilstein dampers and front strut brace that were previously exclusive to the 2.0-litre. These sharpen the roadster’s handling. However, the asymmetrical limited-slip differential fitted to the 2.0 – which further adds to its appeal as a driver’s car – is gone.

The updated 1.5-litre MX-5 is due in the UK in January, which is also when Mazda UK forecasts that it will run out of stock of new 2.0-litre MX-5s. Pricing for the updated 1.5 model has yet to be announced, but Mazda emphasised that the MX-5 is “one of only three sub-£30,000 convertibles on sale in the UK”, committing to the model’s affordability.

Why the 2.0-litre MX-5 is gone

As first reported by Autocar yesterday, the 2.0-litre was dropped due to stricter emissions regulations.

A spokesperson for Mazda UK told Autocar: “The 2.0-litre was dropped from the European markets in 2024 due to changing emissions regulations. However, due to different derogation timings in the UK, we were able to continue with an extended sales period. This period has now ended and we will cease sales of the 2.0-litre Mazda MX-5 in the UK once the existing stock has been sold.”

It remains to be seen how much longer Mazda can continue to sell the MX-5 in the UK. Although it is effectively the marque's halo model, the current-generation version is now more than a decade old and sales have dwindled in recent years, falling from around 4000 in 2019 to roughly 1500 in the years thereafter.

Autocar this year awarded the 2.0-litre MX-5 a rare five-star rating in its road test, dubbing it the “definitive sports car”.

Hyundai and Genesis to launch 41 new cars in Europe by 2030

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:41:29 +0100

Big rollout will include a Europe-specific small SUV, a new i20 and much more

Hyundai Motor including its premium Genesis division has promised to launch 41 new or refreshed models in Europe by 2030 as it commits to a region that other Asian brands have begun to deprioritise in the face of Chinese competition.

New models will include a region-specific small electric SUV, a mid-sized electric SUV and commercial vehicles, Hyundai executives told analysts at the firm’s annual investor day on 26 August.

The company wants to sell almost four times more electric cars in Europe by 2030, with the goal of hitting more than 420,000 units annually, up from 116,000 in 2025.

Hyundai has lagged sibling brand Kia on electric launches, contributing to a widening sales gap between the two marques.

However, the company aims to reverse that with an EV push that starts with the new European-built Ioniq 3 later this year, followed by the Europe-specific small SUV. New combustion-engined model launches include the new i20 hatchback based on a version of the recently revealed Brazilian model as well as a larger replacement for the Tucson compact SUV, the firm’s best-selling model in Europe.

The brand could also decide to import the newly announced extended-range electric version of the Santa Fe SUV, which will be built in the US and is promised to “drive and accelerate like an EV”.

Hyundai’s continuing bet on Europe in the teeth of strong rivalry from fast-growing Chinese brands contrasts with the strategy of Japanese brands such as Nissan and Honda, which have shifted investment away from the region to concentrate on other, more profitable global markets.

“Europe is one of the most competitive regions on the planet,” CEO José Muñoz told analysts and journalists at the event.

Car companies are struggling to match Chinese competitors on cost, particularly in electrified segments, but Hyundai says it has cut 30% out of the battery costs of its next-generation EVs. Combustion engine sales also remain a crucial part of Hyundai’s profit strategy in the region. “Every EV credit we earn protects the ICE and hybrid business alongside it,” said Muñoz.

The company will also continue to build its Genesis brand in Europe, despite subdued market interest since its launch in 2021, with sales below that of Bentley so far this year.

Globally, Genesis will launch a new extended-range EV model in 2027 that promises a range of more than 640 miles thanks in part to a new high-performance battery. A new hybrid version of the GV80 large SUV is also on the way, along with the newly revealed GV90 luxury electric SUV. No announcements have been made about markets for these products, although Europe is likely to be a target destination for new electrified models.

Genesis has expanded its limited market coverage in Europe this year with launches in Italy, France and the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, in the US Hyundai will expand its market coverage with new off-road-focused body-on-frame vehicles that include a pick-up, with styling influenced by April’s Boulder concept, a take on the Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco.

New Volvos now able to warn other cars of animals, cyclists in road

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0100

EX60, EX90 and ES90 upload hazard data to the cloud, pinging other connected cars close by

A new software update has given the Volvo EX60, EX90 and ES90 the ability to alert drivers of other such Volvos to animals by the roadside.

It uses the car’s sensors and cameras to detect larger animals, such as deer or sheep, in order to warn drivers before they may have spotted such hazards themselves. The car then uploads the positional data of the hazard to the cloud, which pings other EX60s, EX90s and ES90s within the vicinity to warn them as they approach, potentially preventing a collision.

The update adds a similar system to warn of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians or cyclists, and roadworks ahead.

Other cars connected through the European Data for Road Safety programme will also be able to read the alerts.

Volvo safety chief Åsa Haglund told Autocar that such systems are enabled by the improved computational power of the new models compared with the brand’s previous models.

Haglund added that a key consideration in adding such systems was to ensure that drivers are not overwhelmed by information, and that the warnings are "trustworthy". Otherwise they may fall on deaf ears.

“We need to make sure that whenever we warn you, it makes sense to you," she said. "If every second time it doesn't make sense, that's when you're going to stop trusting the system.”

Haglund said the new cars’ technological platforms are key to ensuring that reliability: “Now, when we have this data, the new [technological] platform with the capability of collecting that amount of data and being able to analyse and train [software models] on it, that's when we are mature enough to kind of train the system to be very precise and alert people when relevant and leave them alone when not."

She added that “we [have launched it now] we know the quality and the preciseness make sense to people” because “only when you know drivers trust the system will it actually have an impact”.

To that end, Haglund said Volvo will not aim to be first to the market with new functions but instead only roll them out once it is confident in their reliability. “If we acted on any idea and just sent it out there, could we be quicker? For sure. Would it make the world safer? I doubt it,” she said. False positives “deteriorate trust” in driver assistance systems, she added.

More broadly, she suggested Volvo’s ambition is not to wrestle control of cars away from drivers but instead to provide support when their standard of driving slips. She said: “We’re human – we are prone to making mistakes. A machine can stay vigilant at all times. It does not get distracted, it does not get tired, and it can keep its eyes all around the car at the same time, right? That's the move we have to make; what we need to train [systems] for and make sure that we can cover all those situations that come up. What we need to look out for is that as long as the driver is in the loop, it's very clear what is needed and what is expected from them.”

ZEV mandate review could give a hybrid lifeline to UK car factories

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Aggressive sales targets were meant to give the UK a head start on EVs, but that hasn't panned out

What is the future for volume car manufacturing in the UK? Toyota, BMW (via Mini) and Nissan are in a tricky situation right now.

As in Germany, build costs are high compared with eastern Europe or China, meaning margins are tight. For BMW and Toyota the decision now is whether or not to spend big to adapt the factories to EVs, as Nissan has already done in Sunderland and JLR has in Halewood and Solihull.

Electric is clearly the way forward, but how fast and from where to source is giving planning managers headaches.

The cost to convert Toyota in Derby from hybrid to electric will run into the billions, I've been told. BMW initially planned to switch Mini Oxford to electric but then dumped that to continue to source EVs from China, presumably also due to cost concerns.

Nissan has invested to convert Sunderland to build the new Leaf and related Juke EV, but it has backed away from a planned electric Qashqai and instead is talking to China's Chery to take over factory space it can't fill itself.

The SMMT is pushing for "meaningful" changes to the ZEV mandate to slow the push to electric. Otherwise it warns of "reduced investment in domestic manufacturing". Reading between the lines, this is likely to mean Toyota, BMW and possibly Nissan are hinting they might leave town if they aren't allowed to carry on building combustion-engined models in existing plants until 2035 or beyond.

Labour could heed this warning and carve out a special derogation on selling combustion-engined cars for those makers with established plants in the UK. This would buy time to tackle some of the cost issues, including high prices for energy and batteries.

The aggressive EV timetable the UK has set under the Conservatives and Labour was partly to give manufacturers a head start on a technology that was clearly going to become the dominant propulsion source globally.

But there's only one country setting the pace on EV costs, and that's China. While JLR waited for the new Agratas battery plant in Somerset to come on stream, it was supposed to source batteries for upcoming EVs from AESC in Sunderland. Instead, the batteries are coming from AESC in China, presumably with cost at the core of the decision.

Allowing Toyota et al to carry on building hybrids until EV build costs match those they currently have on ICE models could save UK plants. Or at least give them another 10 years or so before the closure order comes.

The truth about electric car holidays: 1400 miles in the BMW iX3

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

It's the ultimate EV test: two weeks of autoroute-bashing with the kids and the dog. How did we do?

Electric cars are ideal for short commutes, but the prospect of endless charging stops made me nervous of the trek to south-western France for a family holiday – particularly with a long-suffering dog aboard. However, the BMW iX3's claims of more than 400 miles made it far more realistic, and I decided to mitigate my mileage by taking an overnight ferry to St Malo.

The plan was to blast down to Portsmouth for a quick top-up in the UK, but as we reached Brittany Ferries' check-in we had barely made a dent in the range so decided not to bother. The car was slapped with a sticker identifying it as an EV – they can't go alongside lorries inside the boat – and we boarded at 8.15pm, leaving time for a leisurely dinner then a good kip before rolling out on the other side.

It's a very civilised way to travel, although I was lucky to get the last pet-friendly cabin for the desirable overnight sailing. Note to self to book early next time.

I haven't got my head around BMW's Neue Klasse styling yet; it works well on the i3 saloon but is a bit ungainly on an SUV. That said, we struggled with Chris Bangle's Flame Surfacing when it arrived...

The doors shut with a rather un-BMW clang and the ride around town can be jittery, with plenty of wheel thump. As soon as you hit an autoroute, though, the iX3 comes into its own. There's a touch of wind rustling around the A-pillar, but it's otherwise serene. The ride settles beautifully, the seats are superb and it makes fast, unruffled progress.

We reached our overnight stop in Tours, 278 miles in, still showing 16% battery, and while I walked the dog it took on 81.58kWh for a very reasonable €28.63 (30p per kWh).

Usefully, as well as signage on the motorway telling you how far away the next charger is, there are petrol station-style boards at the stations announcing (very cheap) prices.

From Tours it was another fast autoroute run down to the beautiful Dordogne. On sweeping, undulating country roads, any doubts about whether the iX3 is a 'real' BMW were wiped away. It breathes with the sinuous and often rutted Tarmac, making it easy to get into a rhythm, the head-up display warning of upcoming corners like a silent rally navigator.

Sport settings made the ride too hard for my passengers, but the chassis composure even in Efficient mode is superb, the steering being beautifully weighted and fluid.

Only after a shopping trip was there a hitch, when the car gave a few random warnings and my phone was reluctant to tether. I thought nothing more of it, but this led to a stressful evening trip to Bordeaux airport to collect my daughter, accompanied by all manner of electrical glitches.

'Driver assistance restricted' flashed up and the sat-nav said 'Function only available when stationary' (I was), so I had to rely on Apple CarPlay.

Both the main touchscreen and the (otherwise excellent) Panoramic iDrive display kept going black, usually on approach to a junction on dark, remote country lanes.

Fortunately, it still drove fine...

After a final panic on the outskirts of Bordeaux when I couldn't find a charger, eventually paying a steep €31.90 for 51.4kWh at an autoroute services, I scooped up Elsa and got her safely back.

A software update the following morning appeared to cure whatever ailment the car had been suffering.

The iX3's breadth made it tricky to navigate the tight town-centre car park of Périgueux, but fortunately we escaped unscathed this time.

On the way back we stopped at a Tesla Supercharger. Oddly, it claimed to provide 329kW but the car wouldn't take more than 91kW for a lethargic 47-minute charge. But, like so many in France, this charging station was in the car park of a hypermarket – ideal for a spot of shopping.

With bags and dog taking up most of the boot, the iX3's frunk was a revelation. Ideal for temporarily stashing our pet's more aromatic rubbish, on the way home it also proved exactly the right size for wine bottles to stack neatly, taking a case and a half with room to spare.

Only in rural areas was charging an issue. Out for dinner in nearby Verteillac, we plugged in at a car park, but in over an hour the iX3 took on only 5.8kWh.

After that we decided to stick to out-of-town industrial parks, such as the Plug Inn near Poitiers, which offers 320kW charging and a key code for a lounge alongside, with super-fast wi-fi, air-con, clean loos and a coffee machine.

So good – and cheap – is this network that we opted for one more stop to brim the battery outside Caen before boarding Brittany Ferries' MV Guillaume de Normandie to Portsmouth.

This faster route is slightly less relaxed than the St Malo crossing but better for the return, because the 11.30pm sailing docks at 6.15am, so we were home in time for work.

A final top-up took our energy use to 450kWh across 1353 miles, or a round 3.0mpkWh – not bad for a fast cross-continental run, fully laden, in 40deg C heat with cold air blasting.

I've come away with two main conclusions. First, France is doing better than Britain with its EV infrastructure; and second, if the brilliant iX3 represents the future of electric motoring, bring it on.

Giulia Quadrifoglio Luna Rossa driven: Ultra-rare special is a V6 ace

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:01:49 +0100

Sailing-themed super-saloon is a 10-off collector special from Alfa's new special projects arm

What to do with Alfa Romeo? It’s a storied and beloved brand, but due to various factors – not least the notable absence of any convincing new products – it’s not doing the numbers. Clearly it needs some good new cars, but for the time being there is also a more entertaining option: lean into making ‘few-off’ models.

That’s the idea behind Bottega Fuoriserie, which loosely translates to ‘special projects workshop’. Aside from really special stuff like the Alfa 33 supercar we drove a few weeks ago, Bottega Fuoriserie is planning a series of few-off limited-number special editions of existing Alfa Romeos and Maseratis. Because why prop up one struggling brand when you can do two at once?

This car is the first of that series. It’s a Giulia Quadrifoglio, decked out to celebrate the Luna Rossa sailing team. A strange combination? Perhaps, but Alfa is a ‘technical partner’ of the Luna Rossa team, and sailing-themed special editions are nothing new. In 2017, BMW did an M760i inspired by a Finnish sail boat, and for many years Volvo had ‘Ocean Race’ versions of a bunch of its cars. Having said that, a 513bhp Giulia Quadrifoglio is rather more exciting than a diesel-powered XC60 with a fancy parcel shelf.

Instead of just some badges and trim, the Giulia Quadrifoglio Luna Rossa has had an aerodynamic makeover. Alfa says it’s the most ‘aerodynamically efficient’ Quadrifoglio, which is a bit of a nebulous concept, but the idea is that it makes the most downforce for the least amount of drag. Which, I suppose, is also the kind of thing you’d want in a high-end sail boat. Here, it’s the result of front-bumper canards, underbody profiles, side-skirt winglets and a rather striking rear wing that’s faintly reminiscent of the original Pagani Zonda’s. The black and matt silver paint supposedly looks like a boat deck.

Inside, it has been treated to a sailing-themed retrim, with the Sparco carbonfibre-back bucket seats getting upholstery that’s inspired by a ‘personal floatation device’ – a life jacket to you and me. The trim piece in the dashboard is made not from carbonfibre but from actual sails. It also has the car’s build number on it – they will only make 10 (well, 11 if you include this number 0 development car). They’re all sold, by the way.

I sure hope the customer cars will be put together with a bit more care than this prototype, though, because it had various pieces of loose trim, a seat adjustment button that hadn’t been put back properly and fabric loosely attached with Velcro, plus the new red Alfa badges had already started to fade. That said, the grey life jacket fabric is novel and interesting and brightens up the cabin. Otherwise, the interior is familiar: a bit dated and not super-solid-feeling, sure, but it is pleasingly designed, with lots of physical controls.

Those aero mods supposedly produce 140kg of downforce at 186mph (300kph), but I’d be lying if I said I could feel the effects on my test drive around the Midlands’ greatest driving roads. Apart from that, there are no mechanical changes from the standard Giulia Quadrifoglio. That may come as a disappointment, but only to those who have never driven a Giulia Quadrifoglio, because it remains a sensational super-saloon.

I recently drove the new Audi RS5 for an upcoming road test, and although they are nominally rivals and both have turbocharged V6 engines, they couldn’t be more different. The Giulia is remarkably analogue and old-school. The steering is very quick, not because of variable-ratio trickery, but because it’s just very quick, and you get used to that soon enough. It has the front-end bite and body control to back up those lighting responses, too. It sends all of its 513bhp to the rear wheels only, through a simple mechanical locking differential.

Initially it doesn’t feel that lairy, because unless you’re in Race mode it seems to hold back the engine even before the traction control engages. To engage Race is also to turn off all the driver aids, which I’m not sure is a good thing, but it’s again quite old-school and it certainly raises the pulse to jump straight into the deep end with no personal floatation device. It proves to be beautifully progressive, though, the rear axle gently slipping sideways when powering out of a corner, like a big Toyota GT86. Rides nicely too, for something so sporty.

The engine is fine. It’s powerful and decently responsive, but all these high-performance six-cylinders are a bit gravelly and shouty, which the Akrapovic exhaust only accentuates. The eight-speed automatic ’box does what you expect of it, but as a pretty traditional super-saloon the Giulia is crying out for a manual. A six-speed was briefly offered at launch, so the mechanicals do exist. Now that would be a special edition I would like to see.

Clearly, the Luna Rossa isn’t going to turn Alfa Romeo around. It’s a bit of fun, though, a nice footnote, and it’s good to remind ourselves how brilliant any Giulia Quadrifoglio is.

Verdict: Slightly strange special edition reminds us that the Giulia Quadrifoglio is still a great-looking, great-driving super-saloon

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio Luna Rossa
Price	£120,000 (est)
Engine	V6, 2891cc, twin-turbocharged, petrol
Power	513bhp at 6500rpm
Torque	443lb ft at 2500-5000rpm
Gearbox	8-spd automatic, RWD
Kerb weight	1660kg
0-62mph	3.9sec
Top speed	191mph
Economy	28.2mpg
CO2, tax band	227g/km, 37%
Rivals	BMW M3 Competition, Audi RS5

How to charge an electric car at an apartment or flat

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:01:00 +0100

Potential EV owners shouldn't be put off because they don't have a driveway. Here are the solutions

When it comes to electric cars, almost every day brings fresh innovation that boosts both usability and desirability. From performance through to range, efficiency and pricing, the best all-electric cars no longer have to make excuses. Even dyed-in-wool internal combustion advocates are making the switch.

However, while the cars themselves get ever better, the process of charging still remains a stumbling block for so many. It’s not just a question of range anxiety or even of cost, especially when it comes to public chargers: there’s also the issue of access. For users with a driveway, charging an EV at home makes lots of sense, which is why around 90% of owners refill their car batteries this way. Not only is it cheaper thanks to lower rates for domestic electricity, but it’s also more convenient because you can charge when the car would otherwise be doing nothing, such as overnight when you’re asleep.

So, what’s the problem? Well, when you consider that over 40% of households in the UK don’t have access to off-street parking, it becomes clear that plenty of potential EV converts are being put off making a purchase. Yet dig a little deeper and you’ll find that driving an electric car and having to park on the road shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. In fact, read on and you’ll find that it could be easier to do than you think.

Can I run a cable across the pavement?

In theory, the easiest solution is simply to run a cable from your property, across the pavement and then plug into your car at the kerbside. Yet there are some hazards – literal tripping ones as well those of the legal kind – to be aware of if you're considering this option.

On paper there’s nothing wrong with doing this, but there are some guidelines you should follow. First off, you should make sure the cable is laid as flat as possible, and when charging is complete, the cable needs to be removed immediately. You should also only plug into a ground floor or basement power supply. Hanging a cable from a first floor window is very much frowned upon.

If there’s no other choice to do this, then you can consider a raised cable protector, like those often used on pavements where roadworks are being undertaken. It’ll need to be made of tough non-slip plastic and be finished in contrasting colours, such as yellow and black, for maximum visibility. Bear in mind, however, that you’ll still need to take the protector and cable up every time you finish charging, which is a bit of a faff.

From the point of view of the charger itself, it’s also worth considering the length of the charging cable, especially if you’re using the three-pin domestic unit. Most won’t have cables that are long enough to stretch from the house to the car, and using an extension cord is forbidden by most EV manufacturers.

In terms of legislation, it’s not illegal to run the cable across the pavement, but you must ensure it doesn’t cause a danger or nuisance to pedestrians. Perhaps most importantly of all, if someone does trip and injures themselves, you will be held legally responsible. As a result, councils will caution against this practice, although only a few ban it outright.

However, over the past couple of years, an increasing number of councils and companies have started offering services to install dedicated channels for routing charging cablings underneath footpaths - like that from Kerbo Charge below. Essentially running from the boundary of a property to the kerbside, these systems virtually eliminate trip hazards, allowing you to plug in and power up even if you haven’t got a driveway.

The actual installation is fairly straightforward, but you’ll have to jump through a few bureaucratic hoops before the electricity can start flowing. First you’ll need to get permission from your local council. (Some only allow connection to houses rather than flats, while almost all stipulate you must have access to legal on-road parking directly outside your property – so no restrictions such as double yellow lines.)

For most authorities, the price for installing it is around £1200, which doesn’t include the admin fee of a few hundred pounds for considering your application. Then, depending on your council, you could face an annual licence or upkeep fee, usually of around £100.

That said, some councils, such as Enfield in north London, will offer to subsidise some of the cost – in this case providing a £480 incentive, bringing the job down to £750. The London Borough of Richmond is even more generous and is currently knocking a £1000 off its usual £1250 fee.

Crucially, by having a charging channel installed, you’ll also be eligible for a separate government grant of up to £500 to cover the cost of buying and fitting a wallbox charger at you home.

What about public charging?

Perhaps the most straightforward answer to the problem is to plug into a public charger. You don’t need to run cables across pavements or park inconsiderately to make the plug reach: simply roll up to a space and let the electricity flow. Obviously this will involve some research of your local area to find out where the most convenient sites are and you’ll pay more for the energy than you do at home, but it should be largely hassle-free, more so when you consider that the range of EV cars is improving all the time, meaning fewer requirements to top-up the battery.

So what are your other options?

For the quickest charging you’ll need to find a rapid-charging hub, where in many cases you can get a full charge in a compatible vehicle in under an hour. For most people doing lots of short hops, this should mean you won’t need to top up again for a week or two.

However, most of these sites tend to be out of town, so you’ll need to make a special trip just to plug in. It’s also worth considering the health of the battery, because frequent rapid charges will result in a quicker degradation in the cell’s efficiency. And of course this sort of charging costs more, with companies such as Ionity charging up to 83p per kWh – a figure that starts to make you think a traditional petrol or diesel car might make more sense, even at today’s inflated fuel prices. Most of the public fast charging network operators offer subscription models that slash the kWh pricing in return for a fixed monthly fee. For drivers racking up the miles all over the country, this could make sense, but do your sums before committing.

The next option is on-street chargers, which look a little like high-tech parking meters. There are providers to choose from and finding them is straightforward thanks to smartphone apps such as Zap Map, which not only highlight their location but also tell you whether they are working and available. On the whole, these tend to be 3kW slow chargers like the three-pin domestic type, meaning something like a Tesla Model 3 would take 24 hours to charge. And although there don’t tend to be any time restrictions on remaining plugged in, EV etiquette dictates a few hours at most – so you can’t leave your car charging overnight or while you’re at work in the day.

Further opportunities to charge are offered by lamp-post chargers, which are as straightforward as they sound. Simply put, these feature a transformer with a socket and control unit that are bolted straight to the street lighting and take its electricity feed. Accessed by using an app, they usually offer between 3kW and 5kW slow charging and are relatively cheap and easy to install.

Brighton & Hove council led the way with these types of chargers a few years ago and plans to have 6000 units in operation by 2027. Many councils across the UK have followed suit, gradually rolling out these low-powered chargers. However, unlike dedicated roadside chargers, a number of these units are not attached to dedicated EV parking bays, so you may find a combustion-engined car parked there instead. On the plus side, there will be less pressure to move on once hooked up to the mains.

In terms of cost, prices vary depending on the provider, but like everything in life, you’ll pay a lot more than you did only a few years ago. Currently, most providers charge around 55p per kWh, which is around double the rate of just four years ago. As a result, a few councils have got in hot water, with Bristol being singled out earlier this year for charging prices that were around 10 times that of charging at home.

Whatever the cost, there are different ways to fork out for the electricity. Some units are pay as you go, allowing you to simply arrive, plug in and then use a contactless bank card to pay. Others require a monthly or annual subscription but with a lower price for every kWh used. Most now can be accessed using a smartphone app, but there are a small number that still require an RFID card (radio frequency identifcation – essentially a card or fob that allows you to unlock the charger). Also, be aware that most on-street chargers are untethered, so you’ll need to remember to keep your own cable in the boot. However, this does mean most will accept any sort of charging plug.

Another option is to keep the cells topped up when you do your weekly shop or head off for an evening out. Many supermarkets are now installing chargers in their car parks, allowing you to plug in while you get your household essentials. In the early days retailers such as Tesco even offered free charging, but now almost all require payment. So at Tesco you’ll pay 44p per kWh for its basic 7kW chargers, while faster 75kWh units are 75p per kWh.

What if there are no public chargers near my apartment?

If all the above options aren't possible or don't appeal, you could consider a charger sharing scheme. There are more than million home charging points in the UK and they’re not all being used at the same time. Smartphone apps such as Co-Charger and Plug-Share highlight locations with domestic wallbox chargers and off-road parking that are close by and are owned by fellow EV drivers who are willing to let others use them for a fee. Prices vary as hosts can set their minimum price per kWh, but it’s often cheaper than public charging and you can compare the pricing of different venues on the app.

Updated Renault 5 gains extra range, red paint and Williams style

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 11:19:53 +0100

Aero tweaks, LFP battery chemistry and fresh options for retro electric supermini's second birthday

The Renault 5 has received a range boost and a choice of new colours as part of a light update aimed at boosting its competitive edge against new rivals.

After two years on sale, the retro electric supermini has been made more efficient by slicker new mirrors and lower body trim, which means both versions now crack slightly more miles per charge.

The entry-level Urban Range variant, with a 40kWh battery, now manages 196 miles officially (up three miles), while the more popular 52kWh Comfort Range version has had its range boosted from 255 to 267 miles.

Renault has also announced that the entry-level car will swap its 40kWh battery for the smaller Twingo's 36.5kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) pack in the coming weeks, as previously reported by Autocar.

This is said to be more energy-dense than the current nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery, so the car will concede just six miles of range.

It will be capable of charging at up to 6.6kW domestically or up to 80kW on a public fast charger - slightly slower than the other variant.

LFP batteries are cheaper than NMC ones, but Renault has yet to confirm whether this new entry-level model, dubbed Five, will cost less (if it comes to the UK) than the current cheapest 5, which starts at £21,495.

The technical tweaks come alongside the addition of new personalisation options, including a new shade of red borrowed from the closely related Nissan Micra EV, alongside which the 5 is built in Douai, France.

Buyers can also now specify a star-patterned roof and have the choice of a grey roofline, in addition to red.

Techno and Iconic trims also come with the option of gold wheels, which in combination with the midnight blue paint (above) are reminiscent of those fitted to the 1990s Clio Williams hot hatch.

Inside, the seats in Iconic cars are now finished in blue and grey, rather than yellow.

There's also a new wireless phone charger, said to be capable of adding 50% of battery to your phone in an hour while preventing overheating.

Plus, the Multi-Sense drive mode selector button has been removed, as the 5 now gets a Smart function that adjusts the driving mode according to throttle inputs.

You can still change between Sport, Eco, Comfort and Individual modes using the touchscreen or voice control.

A Renault spokesperson told Autocar that plans to launch the updated 5 in the UK remain "under review", with no timings or specific trim details given at this stage.

Opinion: should it matter if you say Skoda or 'Shhhhkoda'?

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

The Czech firm has been present in the UK for more than a century, and finally wants you to know how to pronounce its name. But why?

My mum was watching television the other day when an advert for a car firm caught her eye and prompted her to contact me with a question: ‘Are Skoda really trying to tell me how I should pronounce Skoda?’

Well, yes, mum, it turns out they are, and I think you’ll find you should actually be calling them Shhhkoda. Once I’d convinced Professor Attwood that I wasn’t trying to shush her but employ the ‘correct’ pronunciation of Skoda, she still had questions. Is Shhhkoda really how you’re supposed to pronounce it? Does it really matter? And why is Skoda, sorry, Shhhkoda telling people now anyway?

After all, Skoda celebrated its 130th birthday last year and has been selling cars in the UK since the early 1900s (you can read more about the brand’s history here). It feels slightly odd to not worry about people pronouncing your name wrong for more than a century before deciding to try and politely correct them.

And yet, here is Skoda with a minute-long TV advert, accompanied by media and marketing campaigns, billboards and social media posts, trying to push the sssh into Shhhkoda. And perhaps Autocar has to admit a small bit of guilt here. After all, the reason Skoda seems to be mispronounced here involves the háček that appears above the S – you know, the little wiggly thing that appears above the S in Škoda, but which Autocar house style means we don’t use for capital letters. But in Czechia, that little squiggle changes the pronunciation of an S to a sh. Hence Shhhkoda. Look, just do an impression of Sean Connery saying shurely shome mishtake and you’ll be halfway there.

In a statement, Skoda UK marketing director Kirsten Stagg said: “The Š has always been part of our identity, but we've never really given it centre stage before.” Trying to push its use is designed to help the firm celebrate its Czech heritage, while “creating something playful, memorable and unmistakably Škoda”.

If this seems an odd move by Skoda, it isn’t even the first car brand to try this in recent years. Not that long ago, Hyundai launched an advertising campaign explaining that Brits should be saying ‘He-oon-day’ and not ‘High-oond-aye’. And there aren’t even any weird accents to blame in Hyundai.

Really, apart from questioning if trying to tell potential customers that they're not always right about pronounciation is actually a good thing, it's the timing of these campaigns that feels a bit odd. Why now? After all, the Skoda campaign is being done at a time when loads of new car brands that nobody has any idea how to pronounce are flooding the UK market. Plenty of people still wouldn’t even know that Jaecoo, Geely, Lepas, Changan and Xiamomi are car firms, let alone know how to pronounce them. Is now the time to make people question your brand's name?

But I think that’s the real genius here: it feels like Skoda is doing a bit of a power flex. People know Skoda and they like Skoda, so the fact the firm can expend its marketing effort correcting pronunciation shows how far ahead of all those Chinese brands it is. People care about Skoda, even if they haven't been saying the name of the brand right.

By contrast, the challenge for firms like Geely isn’t getting Brits to says its name correctly – jee-lee, for the record – but actually making sure they’ve heard of the brand at all. New car firms can’t afford to worry about how many people pronounce their name correctly. They just want people to know they exist. Geely simply wants people to buy its cars; it can teach people how to pronounce its name in a century or so.

But everybody knows Shhhkoda, so Shhhkoda can have some fun with that. And the key is that the campaign is fun and lighthearted, rather than being stern or instructive. It plays into Shhhkoda’s reputation as a relaxed, warm, friendly and likeable brand. Much like its recent sponsorship to rebrand the Peak District as the Peaq District, after its forthcoming EV flagship, raised plenty of smiles. Well, apart from with a handful of slightly po-faced protestors.

Crucially, I don’t actually think Shhhkoda really cares how my mum, or anyone else, actually pronounces Shhhkoda. The important thing is that my mum noticed the TV advert, and knows about Shhhkoda, is thinking about Shhhkoda and has now prompted me to write several hundred words about Shhhkoda. For any brand, it’s important to be talked about, and this campaign is making sure people are.

Will it make anyone more likely to buy a Peaq or an Epiq or a Superb or a Fabia? When so much of modern marketing is about reinforcing brands rather than selling products, I’m not sure that matters. But if people are looking to buy a new car, customers might just be more inclined to buy one from a firm that can laugh about its name, rather than one with a strange name they've never heard of.

EVs and SUVs not to blame for pothole crisis, say experts

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Climate change and poor maintenance cited as real culprits for the UK's pockmarked roads

SUVs and EVs are being unfairly blamed for being a major cause of road damage, experts say, as the state of Tarmac across the UK continues to deteriorate.

Over the past nine years, the mean average kerb weight of new cars has increased by almost 400kg, from 1553kg to 1947kg.

Last year, the average weight of cars road tested by Autocar was 2024kg. Of the 73 cars tested, the most common body type by far was SUVs and the most common fuel type electric.

This increase in weight, allied to the growth in the numbers of SUVs and EVs, has led critics of the vehicles to accuse them of damaging roads, and some city councils, including those of London and Cardiff, to consider imposing additional parking charges on them.

In a recent blog published by the Institute of Civil Engineers, Elizabeth Orchard, director of infrastructure consultancy Endelevu, claimed that EVs are a factor in the formation of potholes.

"Roads are designed to withstand a certain number of heavy vehicles during their lifetime," she wrote. "As vehicles - especially EVs - become heavier, the wear per vehicle increases. More damage occurs more quickly, reducing the lifespan of the road."

However, Ali Rahman, assistant professor at the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Leeds, believes some criticism overstates the damaging effects of such vehicles.

"We don't want to blame only heavier cars for the damage," he said. "The fourth power law shows that road damage increases proportionately with axle load. If, for instance, a vehicle's axle load doubles, the damage to the road doesn't double but increases by about 16 times.

"Heavy goods vehicles [HGVs] are the principal cause of road damage. One HGV can cause the same damage as many thousands of car journeys.

"Combined with other factors acting together - climate change, water ingress and delays in road maintenance - it is why SUVs and EVs cannot be singled out for damaging roads."

In March, the Asphalt Industry Alliance said local authorities in England and Wales faced a record £18.62 billion backlog of carriageway repairs that would take 12 years to clear.

It added that 16% of local roads - equivalent to more than 32,500 miles - were reported to have less than five years' structural life remaining.

Later in the year, the government announced a £7.3 billion spending package for roads maintenance over four years to 2030. It also tightened the rules around how councils spend the money to ensure it's used effectively.

In her blog post Orchard explained that the most common cause of potholes in the UK is the action of vehicles passing over the road in combination with the annual freeze-thaw cycle.

"The UK's climate is perfect for pothole formation," she wrote. "Winter temperatures often sit around 0deg C - warm enough for rain but cold enough for freezing soon after. This means the freeze-thaw cycle can repeat many times in a single week, sometimes several times in one day.

"When rainwater seeps into these cracks and freezes, it expands, pushing stones apart and weakening the 'icing' [top] layer. Furthermore, the bitumen becomes brittle and snaps at cold temperatures. As vehicles pass over the weakened area, the material breaks away and a pothole begins to form."

Rahman said "climate change is causing the most damage at the moment", as increasingly hot weather also melts the top layer of bitumen below the road surface.

The Electric Vehicle Association England, which has 7000 members, said claims that EVs damage roads more than ICE cars are inaccurate and based on myth.

CEO Vicky Edmonds, a former head of the governmental Office for Low Emission Vehicles, said: "I do not accept that EVs are destroying roads. They're still passenger cars and not heavy trucks. It's traffic volume that destroys the roads."

Edmonds added that with the continuing development of batteries, EVs are expected to become lighter in the future - while smaller and lighter new models are already arriving.

These include the Renault Twingo E-Tech, with a kerb weight of 1200kg, and the Dacia Spring 100 Expression, at 976kg.

"EVs are still an emerging technology which is constantly evolving," said Edmonds.

First look at Suzuki e-Sky: sub-£20k EV due in UK next year

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 14:35:08 +0100

Boxy kei car will rival the Renault Twingo and Honda Super-N as the brand's entry-level EV

Suzuki has taken the wraps off its e-Sky, a new electric city car that is coming to the UK next year as a rival for the Renault Twingo and Honda Super-N.

It is Suzuki’s first electric kei car, meaning it has been developed according to the Japanese class’s strict limits on size. This has resulted in a boxy upright shape, which is designed to maximise occupant space in a minimal footprint.

The car is little changed from the concept version displayed at last year’s Tokyo motor show. The most notable visual revision is a swap from the concept’s futuristic LED lighting to more a chunkier and more conventional set-up.

Technical details remain under wraps until the autumn but, in keeping with kei convention, it is likely to use a single front-mounted motor with an output of 63bhp.

Japanese media has reported a range of 193 miles, which would put the e-Sky ahead of the rival Super-N (128 miles). However, the Super-N is not actually a kei car: it is based on the Honda N-One E but modified to suit export markets such as the UK with a more powerful 94bhp motor and a wider, more aggressive body. It remains to be seen whether Suzuki will follow Honda in modifying the e-Sky with extra power to suit the preferences of UK buyers.

Regardless, this model will form a crucial part of the brand’s future plans in the UK. Suzuki UK boss David Kateley previously told Autocar that “the A-segment BEV is vitally important” and that he was “very excited about its prospects”.

To that end, pricing is expected to start at below £20,000 – around the same money as the combustion-engined Suzuki Swift supermini.

The e-Sky is due to arrive next spring and its sales will provide the Japanese brand with a useful boost toward its qualification for the UK’s zero-emission vehicle mandate.

It will be followed a year later by Suzuki’s third EV, which, Kateley said, “definitely won't be an electric Swift”.

Volvo pledges long-range PHEVs that can be “used as intended”

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0100

Volvo set to expand line-up of PHEVs as EV adoption slows, warning that the ZEV mandate needs a “reality check”

Volvo will double down on long-range plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) in the UK over the coming years, in response to slower than expected demand for pure-electric models.

Speaking to Autocar, Volvo UK boss Nicole Melillo Shaw said PHEVs will continue to serve as a “stepping stone” for buyers who aren’t yet ready to take the leap into an electric car. However, Melillo Shaw noted that hybrids need to offer a very long electric-only range in order to help Volvo buyers transition smoothly to pure-EV models.

“The important nuance here is not the number of hybrids we sell: it’s whether people are driving them as a hybrid rather than just as a petrol car,” said Melillo Shaw.

“In the past, when plug-in ranges were very low, drivers rarely charged them. Volvo has invested heavily in making sure our hybrids offer a long range so that people can use them as intended. So then it becomes a true stepping stone, and we’ll make sure we have that range available to our customers.”

While Volvo UK's pure-electric sales have increased significantly in recent years – going from 4556 in 2022 to nearly 18,000 in 2024, and 9000 in the first seven months of 2026 – its combustion-powered cars remain vastly more popular. Petrol has powered around 75% (31,000) of the brand's UK sales so far this year, and of those almost 7000 were plug-in hybrids.

Volvo currently offers plug-in hybrid versions of the XC60 and XC90 SUVs, offering a maximum EV range of around 50 miles. However, the new XC70, launched in China and planned for Europe soon, is the first of its so-called ‘long-range’ PHEVs and offers a claimed engine-off range of 124 miles - longer than any PHEV on sale in the UK today (albeit that figure is according to China’s generous testing cycle).

Automotive News recently reported that an upcoming refresh for the XC60 will add a similarly capable long-range PHEV option, with a larger battery set to more than double its EV range.

While Melillo Shaw highlighted the ongoing need for hybrid models such as these, she reaffirmed the brand’s commitment to electrification. However, with EV adoption lagging behind initial forecasts, she called for a “reality check” regarding zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate targets, which are currently under review by the government.

“If everyone decided to drive an electric car tomorrow, we are set up to support that, so there are no concerns from an innovation standpoint,” said Melillo Shaw.

“But If consumer adoption isn't moving at the expected speed, then how can we work together, industry and government, so the outcome isn't just punitive? We need to step back, assess the reality, and partner to keep moving forward.”

Melillo Shaw added that the mandate needs “to examine the facts and data” and assess the consumer adoption curve, not just “EV registration numbers driven by heavy discounting”.

The UK government launched a review last week that will consider whether to soften ZEV mandate targets for electric car sales from 2027 to 2035.

Under the current guidelines, new combustion cars must feature some form of hybrid element in order to remain on sale beyond 2030, with all new UK cars going fully electric by 2035.

'Catalyst', '16V', '800V'? Bring obscure boot badges back for the EV age

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Cars once shouted about their tech spec – in such a fast-moving era, we should return to gratuitous badging

I spotted a badge on the back of a new car the other day that took me right back to the good old days, when car manufacturers assumed that owners cared enough about the technology in their products that they would actually advertise it a bit. Two badges, actually, both wonderfully incomprehensible.

The Denza Bao 5, newly arrived in Britain, is a tough-looking, Chinese-made, plug-in hybrid 4x4. I would hesitate to call it an SUV, because it's clearly intended to actually go off road and looks a bit like a discount-shop G-Wagen. There's lots about it that might make you smile, but nothing better, for me, than two badges on its barn-door tailgate that proudly read 'DiSus-P' and 'DMO'. Erm, yerrwhat?

Those rather ambitious initialisms are references to the Bao 5's active hydraulic suspension system and its hybrid-specific 'Dual Mode Offroad' platform respectively. And I reckon the average dog walker who spots one of these cars on a Sunday morning would have about as much chance of guessing that as their Norwegian Lundehund might of digging up the Ark of the Covenant on Greenham Common.

When was the last time you saw such a bizarrely obscure badge on a car? There was, fairly recently, the Renault Kadjar Bose Edition, which actually managed to use the specification of its stereo as its derivative identity, with Bose badges on its wings and everything. I mean, you won't believe it: this Renault has stereo speakers. My ghast is truly flabbered.

But that's not really technical enough to count on this score. This took me back to my old man's dubious lineage of Rover 800 company cars, which at the turn of the 1990s introduced me to both 'Catalyst' and '16v' boot badges (phwoar, etc).

The catalyst thing I remember quite clearly across all sorts of stuff. Google tells me it appeared, either as a badge or a decal, on Volkswagen Polos and Ferrari 328s.

To us today, it would seern about as banal as putting WHEELS!' on a boot badge and then expecting customers to point, coo and go all weak at the knees. But at least it was evidence that car makers expected car buyers to speak roughly the same technical vernacular as them; to have an interest.

That has been missing from mainstream car culture for the past decade or so, it strikes me. Just as the likes of Audi, BMW and Mercedes have started issuing model nomenclature badges that don't actually describe engine capacity the way they used to, makers of electric cars have thrashed around trying to find meaningful reference points to make a more expensive model's identity distinct from a cheaper one.

That's something we need to find a way to reconnect with and rediscover. Car owners need reassurance that it's okay to be geeky about their pride and joy.

We need a new vocabulary, of course. As engines get either less or less important in, or else just plain absent from, our cars, there's chance of 'EFI', 'VVTI , "Turbo D'or "Twin Cam' making a comeback. In the version of the future where we've all been forced to adopt EVs by tax bands, global fuel pricing and social pressure, perhaps there will be a case for simply putting 'Engine' on the bootlid of the one combustion-powered model that any given manufacturer can afford to produce. And then selling tickets to hear it run.

Moving away from the engine bay, I was amused to discover that both the Triumph TR4A and Holden Commodore came at various times with 'IRS' badges - for independent rear suspension', of course. Plenty of the former were indeed sold in North America, apparently; I can't imagine their owners having been popular at dinner parties.

At any rate, batteries, inverters and electric motors have their proprietary innovations and technical distinctions too: it's simply that too many car makers think owners don't care. Well, I reckon they do. I reckon 'X-Pin' (stator winding), 'SiC' (inverter) or '800V' on the back of an EV would be great. I'd like nothing better than boring on about what it referred to.

Car designers seem to like putting lettering on the back of new cars at the moment; it might as well say something useful.

Reborn Toyota MR2: Full story on mid-engined sports car for 2028

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Autocar rendering shows how the new MR2, influenced by the FT-SE, could look on the road

Mid-engined model primed with 2.0-litre engine that could offer as much as 600bhp

Toyota is poised to relaunch the MR2 and Celica as part of its transformation of the GR sporting arm into a full stand-alone performance brand.

The GR division is effectively Toyota's equivalent of BMW M or Mercedes-AMG and has its roots in the Gazoo Racing motorsport outfit that created Toyota's most recent crop of sports cars: the GR Yaris, GR Supra and GR 86. It is now being expanded and turned into its own brand, joining Lexus and the Japan-only Daihatsu and Century in Toyota's portfolio.

The new GR GT supercar and its racing GT3 sibling are the first models to be branded purely with GR badges. With the GR 86 and GR Supra now off sale and the GR Yaris set to follow suit before long, the supercars will be the only models in the GR range when they are launched next year.

But plans are fast progressing to expand the line-up at the bottom end and create a family of dedicated sports cars at a range of price points in a segment rivals are exiting en masse.

It's all part of a wider initiative to embrace more enthusiast-focused models under the guidance of company chairman and keen racer Akio Toyoda, who has long made clear his "no more boring cars" mantra and commitment to performance models - particularly those powered by combustion.

GR's new sports cars are being developed in parallel with Gazoo Racing's motorsport activities. The Celica is expected to be the basis for Toyota's next World Rally Championship challenger and the mid-engined MR2 is being developed in plain sight, with a development mule actively competing in one of Japan's biggest race series.

Tomoya Takahashi, president of Toyota's motorsport division, said the move indicates a shift in the company's mindset that places more emphasis on niche models that play a halo role, rather than one of particular commercial significance.

Speaking about the GR Yaris M concept being used to develop the MR2, he said: "In the 2000s, we had what was known as the 'global master plan' and Toyota had become a company that only built cars that made money. Since midship models don't sell in large numbers, they naturally fell by the wayside.

"If we were the old Toyota, I think the response to this project would have been: 'What are you talking about? Forget it!' But under chairman Akio Toyoda's presidency, the company came to embrace new challenges.

"In the past, a newly built car would never have been driven like this and I don't think you would have seen a vehicle at this stage of completion entered in a race, with 'Master Driver' Akio Toyoda behind the wheel testing it out.

"I hope our efforts here demonstrate that we are dedicated to continuing to make cars through motorsports."

MR2 to get punchy 2.0-litre engine

The reborn MR2 will be one of very few mid-engined sports cars on the market by the time it arrives - with the Lotus Emira now the only such model offered by a mainstream manufacturer.

Alpine says its next-generation A110 - another natural rival for a new Toyota sports coupé - could accommodate an engine if needed, but it will be launched as an EV.

The MR2 is expected to use a new 2.0-litre engine that Toyota is developing specifically for hybrid sports cars. The firm has been trialling its new 'G20E' four-cylinder engine in an adapted, mid-engined GR Yaris - going so far as to enter the prototype in Japan's Super Taikyu endurance race series as a hardcore test of its performance and reliability.

The G20E is based on the 1.6-litre unit that powers today's GR Yaris and is said to "push the limits of performance and efficiency". It has been designed to take up as little space as possible, to enable compact vehicle dimensions and a low centre of gravity - crucial attributes for a mid-engined sports car.

It is said to produce in the region of 400-450bhp in standard tune and upwards of 600bhp in the race car, making it potentially one of the most powerful four-cylinder engines yet created. Mercedes-AMG's 'M139' engine is the most powerful four-pot in a production car to date, making 416bhp in the A45 S hot hatch.

While the mid-engined GR Yaris M prototype is powered purely by petrol, the engine will be compatible with hybrid and PHEV powertrains, taking advantage of a shorter piston stroke than today's engine, which means it takes up less space.

Toyota moved the engine behind the cockpit in a bid to address the dynamic shortcomings of a front-engined performance car. It said: "Vehicles such as the GR Yaris have a front-mounted engine, concentrating the load on the front tyres during all driving operations of braking, steering and acceleration.

"In circuit environments, this significantly affects tyre wear and leads to a tendency for understeer when cornering at the limit due to reduced grip."

The mid-engined arrangement, devised and engineered in collaboration with chairman Toyoda, is said to address those issues while allowing "drivers to control [the car] exactly as they intend".

The M concept - named in reference to its mid-mounted engine and as a nod to 'Morizo', the name under which Toyoda races - drives both axles like the standard GR Yaris, but it is unknown if that would be the case for a small sports car using the same engine.

The original MR2's tail-happy handling was intrinsic to its dynamic character and a successor would be likely to follow suit - especially if it is to retain the name, which is often interpreted as meaning 'mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive two-seater'.

However, the drivetrain in the GR Yaris M is capable of splitting power equally across both axles, or channelling it all to the back. This could allow the MR2 to remain true to its roots while benefiting from the enhanced stability and poise of a 4WD set-up.

Toyota has trademarked the GR MR2 name and the new car is likely to go without Toyota badges entirely as the GR GT does - to cement the sporting brand's positioning as a stand-alone marque.

Testing of the eventual road car is thought to have ramped up recently with the deployment of a new sports car prototype at the Toyota-owned Fuji Motor Speedway.

Wearing a mish-mash of body parts from existing Toyota models - Lexus LC doors and GR Yaris lights among them - the two-door test mule is clearly mid-engined (based on its huge side air intakes and vented hood) and, in video taken from the side of the track, can be heard to emit a purposeful turbo four-pot soundtrack.

Even though it gives clues to the size and engineering of Toyota's new entry-level sports car, the test car is not thought to closely preview its styling. Instead, the new Emira rival is expected to be heavily based on the bold FT-SE concept Toyota revealed in 2023.

While it was originally destined to use an all-electric powertrain based around Toyota's new-generation energy-dense battery packs, the FT-SE was unmistakably 'mid-engined' in its proportions and could make production relatively unchanged by virtue of the new G20E engine's compact proportions.

Since the FT-SE was revealed, Toyota has doubled down on its commitment to a 'multi-pathway' energy strategy, investing in new petrol and hybrid powertrains, as well as hydrogen combustion, in parallel with the expansion of its EV line-up - and paving the way for a new generation of combustion-engined sports cars.

What the Yaris M test car tells us

Toyota is aiming to eradicate "prayer time" with its new mid-engined platform. That's what chairman Akio Toyoda calls the moment when a high-output front-engined car understeers into a sharp bend: "It's time to pray to God."

The firm touts the success of the standard GR Yaris in motorsport - having competed in the World Rally Championship, Super Taikyu and Nürburgring 24 Hours - but says characteristics inherent in its drivetrain layout ultimately limit its performance potential.

"The front-engine 4WD packaging means that all of the vehicle's functions - stopping, turning, accelerating - are concentrated around the front section," said Toyota. "This layout places a heavier load on the front tyres, which wear out more easily and must be replaced three times as often as the rear. Increased wear can also result in understeer."

Moving the engine to the middle of the chassis in the GR Yaris M concept helps to address these shortcomings - plus, said Toyota Gazoo Racing boss Tomoya Takahashi, it makes "cars that are fun for customers to drive".

He referenced the original MR2 as an example of a car with "incredibly well-balanced weight distribution between the front and rear" but acknowledged its notorious reputation for snap oversteer in fast bends. "What made the car turn so well also let it spin out easily on corners," he said.

However, by combining the mid-mounted engine with a four-wheel drive system, said Takahashi, "you transform the power that causes the vehicle to spin into a force that pulls the car forward, improving stability through corners".

He added: "When you get behind the wheel, we hope the first thing people notice is how well the car turns."

After taking to the wheel for a practice stint ahead of the car's competitive debut last year, Akio Toyoda was cautiously encouraged by the prototype's potential: "It's a fun drive, but there's still work to be done, isn't there?"

He added: "If I don't improve my driving skills, I won't be able to handle this car."

People have been complaining about noisy cars for 115 years

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 16:00:00 +0100

"Unsuitable devices for unnecessarily intensifying the volume" of cars have been around for a century

"The Commissioner of Police thinks it advisable to call upon all owners and drivers of motor vehicles to do what is in their power to reduce the annoyance caused, especially at night, by the use of unsuitable devices for unnecessarily intensifying either the timbre or volume of the sound emitted."

Anyone who has ever been woken at 3am by the droning and banging of a modified Audi RS3 or somesuch would second that plea – yet it's one that was circulated 115 years ago.

At that time, the only regulation governing vehicle noise compelled use of a horn at hazardous junctures. Little wonder there was a "growing volume of complaints against the nerve-racking, strident noises" of Britain's fast-growing motoring set.

We felt "the seriousness of car noises was greatly exaggerated", but regardless just five months later "the agitation culminated in the issue of a further regulation by the Local Government Board, prohibiting the use of cut-outs" – devices that let a car's exhaust gas avoid its silencer to boost power.

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This was "fairly sweeping, as it not only prohibits use of cut-outs but practically insists upon the use of silencers which shall deaden the noise of the exhaust blast very considerably" – all caused by those few "of caddish propensities".

Moreover, we complained, no curbs had been placed on the far greater irritants that were "lumbering traction engines that shake the very foundations of the houses they pass" and "iron-tyred horse vehicles of all sorts".

By summer 1928, traffic noise – described by one MP as "inflicting considerable suffering and being a general menace to health" – had come to the fore again. In just the past year, some 10,600 drivers had been prosecuted for excessive noise, and consequently a broad-based committee was set up to investigate. Its recommendation, delivered the next spring, was more regulation.

Thus, from August 1929, "use of any car which causes any excessive noise either directly or as a result of any defect, lack of repair or faulty adjustment or loading" was illegal.

There remained one big problem, though, as reader EJ Burrow noted: "Unless some method is invented for its reasonable enforcement, the law is likely to become a futile absurdity, more honoured in the breach than in the observance. The police seem utterly at a loss as to how to approach the subject."

Clearly not all of them, though, as by the end of the year, 1282 people had been prosecuted under the act, despite noise being unquantifiable. That would soon change: in 1937, by which point "silence had rather fallen away from the golden standard", we enjoyed our first try of a sound measuring machine.

Already two units of sound had been devised: the decibel, a pure measurement of mechanical energy, and the phon, one of loudness to the human ear, accounting for variables in how it perceives differing frequencies.

The Ministry of Transport had recommended that no car should exceed 90 phons – slightly above the potency of sitting by an open window on an express train. The Wolseley saloons that we tested peaked at 77 when cruising at 30mph in top gear, 18ft from the microphone.

More regulation was introduced in 1955, as car ownership became democratised: "Every [ICE] vehicle shall be fitted with silencer, expansion chamber or other contrivance suitable and sufficient for reducing as far as may be reasonable the exhaust noise."

Yet, as an MP argued in 1959, "many vehicles are particularly obnoxious in this respect, especially motorcycles and sports cars. They probably do not make an excessive noise when they come from the manufacturers but, after having been improved in the view of the owners, a hellish noise is created which is completely unnecessary."

That winter we joined Southend Police as they employed a decibel meter to "remove the arbitrary nature of the assessment of the sound defined in the regulation". They set their threshold for warning or prosecution at 95dB – "slightly above the level inside a tube train". But the loudest we heard was 92dB, from a "notoriously noisy sports car driven at full bore in second gear".

Still, another government report on the issue was commissioned in 1960. An MP scoffed: "When I hear a sports car going through our streets with the tremendous roar which accompanies it, my main feeling is one of almost embarrassment that a grown-up should seek to show off in such a childish way." Well, quite.

It was 1970 when 'excessive noise' crossed the boundary of objectivity in British law, being defined at 87dB.

Home improvement: The mechanics turning your drive into a garage

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0100

The RAC is one of many firms offering services at home or a place of work, and the idea is catching on

In most jobs, gratification is rooted in hard metrics: leads, customer conversions, sales and such. But for the RAC's army of mobile mechanics it comes from something altogether more tangible.

Sean Kimberlin, the RAC's mobile mechanic of the year and guest speaker at the Autocar Drivers of Change awards, says the true marker of a job well done is, in fact, whether the customer offers tea and biscuits.

"You get the 'thank you so much, you don't know how much you've helped me out'. And for me, that's enough. It's a bit corny, but I always think about the customer as a member of my family, and it's important to me that I deliver the sort of service I would want my wife to get or my elderly parents to get," he says.

Kimberlin represents the spearhead in a new era for the RAC. Its bright orange breakdown patrols are a familiar sight on the nation's roads, but in 2023 the RAC launched a new mobile servicing arm to help increasingly time-strapped motorists maintain their cars.

The concept is simple: you book a service as you would with a garage, then a mechanic comes out to you - be it on your driveway at home, or in your office car park as you work. Paul Coward, head of the RAC's maintenance and repair arm, says the mobile servicing tackles "everything from simple stuff to brakes and starter motors".

He adds: "We're probably the biggest buyer in the UK of rotating electrics - starters and alternators." That's a good indication of the scale of the work a mechanic can do on the move.

Convenience is by far the service's biggest draw. "The coffee in my local dealer is lovely," jokes Coward, "but you have to get there at 8am and then you don't know how long it's going to take when you drop it off. Then you have to leave work early and ask your boss whether you can get away before 5pm to pick the car back up."

The ability to have your car worked on from your front porch saves such hassles, because you can see what work is being done and therefore how much longer it might take.

The ability to see what is being done also means you can be confident that you're getting what you've asked for, says Coward. Most dealers or big garages encourage you to go elsewhere while work is carried out - "and then you get the phone call saying it's going to be expensive".

But that isn't the case when having your car worked on at home. Coward adds: "We price up front. If that's what it is, that's what we charge. Obviously, if it [becomes more complex] and your ECU or head gasket is broken, we're not going to fix that for the price of a service. We'll have a conversation with the customer to say it's probably not worth doing a service: you need to go to a garage and get it done. So you know exactly what we've done with your car."

But what of the 40% of the nation that doesn't have a drive? "We are working on that," says Kimberlin. "We've got a couple of partners with facilities that we can, in some areas, use. We have business partners all over the UK with areas we can work in." He adds that there is more to come on this front and highlights London as a particular problem area, but the RAC hasn't quite finished working on a solution just yet.

We can expect such services to become a mainstay in the years to come. As our lives get busier and rents get ever higher, which forces independent garages out of business, mobile mechanics might just become the lifeline that the nation's car parc needs.

Indeed, some newcomers to the UK car market are using mobile mechanics as a lifeline for getting customers' cars serviced while they expand their nascent dealer networks.

Chinese brand Aion has partnered the AA's rival service, which it views as vital to building customer confidence.

What's in a mobile mechanic's van?

The RAC's recovery vans are a familiar sight on our roads, liveried in bright orange and fitted with all manner of important gear. But while they may look superficially identical, the mobile mechanics rigs actually carry a completely different payload.

Sean Kimberlin drives a Ford E-Transit Custom. He admits he was "sceptical" about driving a short-range electric van every day when it was first assigned to him, but he has come to admire its easy-going drive. With frequent charging forcing him to pause for 40 minutes every so often, "it's actually a much healthier lifestyle" than quickly refilling a diesel van and getting back on the road, he says.

Chief among the mechanics' kit is a gateway tablet. This allows Kimberlin to tap into a car's software and carry out diagnostic tests or software updates, as if it were a main dealer doing the work. This is not something for which every independent garage is certified, and it gives the RAC a crucial leg up against the competition.

Otherwise, there is a comprehensive set of hand tools used for dismantling cars - screwdrivers, wrenches and such - and parts that might be required, including filters and oils. Completing the package is a large ground sheet, which is placed below the car being serviced before any work begins, to prevent any spillages onto a driveway.

Why you need a used Honda Civic Type R – even if it costs £40k

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

It's still £40k, and for maybe the zenith of hot hatches worth every penny

In 2022, jaws dropped when Honda announced the starting price of the 'FL5' Civic Type R as £46,995 - £15,000 more than the 'FK8' had cost six years earlier.

It was an example of supply economics: numbers were limited in Europe due to CO2 emissions regulations (the Type R emits 186g/km), so even at that inflated price demand outstripped supply.

Even now, used cars start from around £35,000, or similar money to the equally acclaimed swansong Ford Focus ST Edition.

Beneath the FL5's calmer styling are fundamentals from the FK8, but this was more than a mere reskin. As for the chassis, the wheelbase is a touch longer, the track is 15mm wider and torsional rigidity is 15% greater.

Moving to the turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder VTEC engine, the flywheel is lighter and the air intake capacity greater, resulting in slightly stronger peak outputs of 325bhp at 6500rpm and 310lb ft at 2200rpm (up 9bhp and 15lb ft).

As before, all of that is sent to the front axle via a fabulous six-speed manual gearbox and a mechanical limited-slip differential, while the brakes are four-piston Brembos.

The only disappointment was that the Type R gained weight between its generations, primarily due to the mandated addition of a petrol particulate filter - which also had a negative effect on the exhaust note.

Nonetheless, the FL5 feels like a racing homologation special on the road - like the FK8, only more so. To get the best out of it - the most satisfaction and feedback - you need to drive it hard, so it's a hot hatch for a serious driver who wants to extend it on challenging roads.

When you do uncork the Type R, you will find beautifully fluid suspension, which in combination with communicative steering makes pushing on intuitive and natural. It sticks to the road like no front-driven car has a right to - and has the power to really shoot you out of corners.

You soon get into a rhythm, with a real driver and machine relationship building, just like in any of the other all-time performance car greats.

You can choose from Comfort, Sport and +R modes; Comfort is all you really need in the UK, but there's also an Individual mode (unlike in the FK8) that lets you separately tweak things such as the engine note, steering weight, damper stiffness and more.

Whichever way you go, the FL5 is particularly good at making you feel at ease. The driving position is near enough spot on and the control weights feel just right. The comfortable and supportive seats locate you low enough to give a sports car feel, while offering plenty of adjustment, and other familiar touches like an aluminium gearknob and Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel are pleasing to touch and amp up the engagement factor.

Otherwise, it's all pretty familiar from the standard 11th-generation Civic, which is to say well built and easy to use - with what might be the best balance of physical switchgear to digital screens in the class.

In terms of practicality, it's on the larger side for a hatchback, so the cabin is roomy in both the front and the rear (although the Type R does lack a middle perch) and the boot is impressively capacious, at 410 litres.

If a hot hatch is to be your only car, that will make this Honda more usable than an equivalent Focus or Volkswagen Golf, at no penalty to your driving enjoyment.

What we said then

10 August 2025: "The 'FL5' Type R is a tribute to the skill and commitment of the people behind it, and a riot to drive as they intended. But they also intended it to be driven flat out: to set front-drive lap records. If you like a car that entertains at lesser speeds, it might feel like it's missing something. In the grander scheme of things, however, it will be the hot hatchback market that's missing something when Honda sells the last of these cars."

An owner's view

Steven Baker: "Having owned many a performance car over the years, I've come back to the Type R. It was a scary price to spend on a front-wheel-drive hatchback, but I have no regrets so far. It's definitely hardcore: the ride is firm and the road noise is obvious. But it's never uncomfortable to spend long periods of time in, because the steering, gearchange and driving position are spot on."

Buyer beware

Reliability: So far, most FL5 owners have reported flawless reliability, in typical Honda fashion. In the future, watch out for rattles and cracked or buckled wheels from the stiff suspension and low-profile tyres. Many cars will have been ragged and taken on track, so ensure the service history is bang up to date and the car has been generally looked after.

Modifications: Many modifications will be purely cosmetic, but some owners have fettled their cars' mechanicals. Make sure that any such mod was done by a reputable company with history. Aftermarket 18in alloys are often fitted for improved performance and ride comfort rather than simply for aesthetics, because the standard wheels are quite heavy.

Aloof character: Owners liken the FL5 to serious Porsche 911 variants. It's extremely capable and rewarding when you're pushing on but much of the time lacks excitement and personality. The preceding FK8 had a more aurally interesting soundtrack (blame legislation) and more torque steer with which to entertain drivers.

Refinement: This may be a fantastic all-rounder, but if you're looking for a quiet motorway cruiser, look elsewhere. Road noise in particular is pronounced, if not overbearing. The Volkswagen Golf R and Ford Focus ST are quieter. Owners report that lining the boot with sound-deadening material makes a big difference, however.

Also worth knowing

Honda sold the FL5 in just a single well-equipped specification in the UK and offered only three optional extras. These were paint colours other than grey, the Illumination Pack (comprising puddle lights and red ambient lighting inside) and the Carbon Pack (carbonfibre mirror caps, rear spoiler and diffuser, plus some interior bits).

In 2025 the UK received 10 of 40 Ultimate Edition cars, priced at £57,905. These were painted in signature Championship White with red racing stripes and gained extra carbonfibre, including for the rear wing, door sills and centre console.

Americans can buy the DE5 Acura Integra Type S, which is basically a rebodied FL5. It's probably a better car more of the time, with a fruitier exhaust, nicer interior and more sound deadening. It will be going on sale in Japan soon, so expect some to arrive in the UK not long after as grey imports.

How much to spend

£35,000-£38,999: Cars that have previously been written off or damaged.

£39,000-£43,999: Two- and three-year-old cars with 10,000 to 30,000 miles. Some Japanese-market grey imports are available for a little less, like for like.

£44,000-£50,000: Nearly new cars, around a year old and with fewer than 10,000 miles. Ultimate Editions will be at the top of this range or possibly even above if you can find one.

One we found

Honda Civic Type R 2.0 VTEC Turbo, 2023, 22k miles, £38,995: This is as cheap as a clean FL5 gets. This Championship White car is still owned by its original buyer and has had three services. It also comes with 18 months' worth of a Honda service plan.

I kerbed a wheel – but are car designers really to blame?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0100

I feel bad, but I wasn't being careless - are car design trends putting wheels needlessly at risk?

I have kerbed a wheel. Quite notably. This is something that deeply irritates and embarrasses me from a point of professional pride: not to blow my own trumpet, but I’m pretty good at parking cars. You probably are too, or you certainly would be if you had to shuffle them around a tight office car park as much as your Autocar correspondents do.

I wasn’t good on that morning, though – not two and a half hours into what would be a four-hour drive, when what I needed was a quick break.

For context, the road in question has marked parking bays along one side, empty, so I was just easing into one as I approached forwards. But it is a narrow road, so a parked car leaves enough room for just one car to pass it, and then without much generosity.

It is lined, as country town roads often are, on both sides by old-fashioned, rough-hewn, brick-shaped kerb stones – attractive and rustic but unforgiving.

I needed to be close to the kerb so that I wasn’t poking out into the road where my mirrors might receive a whack from a passing car or so that I didn’t squeeze one too far towards the kerb on the opposite side. I wanted to not be a bother.

My Skoda Kodiaq vRS is 1864mm wide across the body, 2133mm across the (extended) mirrors, so it isn’t a narrow car. Hence I wanted to park as close to the kerb as possible. These, then, are the excuses.

That’s not bad, a bit closer, a tiny bit, closer… graunch. Urgh. This is going to be a faff, and expensive. These kerbs really are unforgiving. And I feel terrible.

Should I, though, really?

I used to feel guilt when the shower cubicle in my hotel room leaked, say if its door or curtain didn’t secure properly or was located in the wrong place, so that when I got out of the shower I’d notice a pool of water on the bathroom floor. I’d diligently mop it up with towels while feeling like I’ve let the side down, of course. Very British: apologies, chaps.

But actually I’ve come to realise that this isn’t my fault at all. My shower at home doesn’t throw water over the bathroom floor, yet it was decorated and is maintained by me, and I’m not a bathroom expert. Hotel bathrooms are designed and made by people whose job it specifically and literally is, yet some of them still leak everywhere. Sort it out, hotel bathroom people. (Also if you could design it so I could turn on the water from outside without it splashing all over my arm, that would be super-helpful, thanks.)

Anyway, likewise, should I be tired of feeling that bad for kerbing an alloy wheel when I wasn’t being careless? I didn’t design the car to be two metres wide. I didn’t design it with 20in, black, polished alloy wheels that protrude from low-profile tyres. And is it realistic to expect that the people who built the original track during the medieval period could have anticipated and designed for its later conversion into a two-lane road and then, a er 600 years, the arrival of two-metre-wide cars with diamond-cut alloy wheels?

And should I be better at knowing to the nearest millimetre (I wanted to park within 100mm of the kerb, really) where my wheel is, when it’s maybe two and a half metres away from me and I can’t see it?

There is a limit, I think, to quite how guilty I should feel about that. What I could (and I acknowledge should) have done is stop ahead of the bay and reverse for the last few moments, with a lowered door mirror to help me, but you don’t get an excellent view of the Kodiaq, the focal length is maybe six metres and it still wouldn’t have shown me the front wheel (protruding more, on lock, than the rear one). The risk would still have been evident.

I don’t want to single out the Skoda here, by the way. It could – and would – have been anything that day. As previously with the bodywork of supercars, wheels are being increasingly placed in harm’s way needlessly. I still feel bad, but modern car design has got a case to answer.

MOT price hike: why it's worth paying more to your mechanic

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

The Independent Garage Association has called for MOT prices to rise to £95 – and it makes perfect sense

I know what you’re thinking: motoring hacks get paid too much. What other credible reason could there be for one of their number (me) supporting a rise from £54.85 to £95 – or 72.7% – in the price of a standard annual MOT car test.

This dramatic move is about to be proposed in all seriousness by the Independent Garage Association when it holds talks with the government aimed at lifting the current MOT test price cap. I reckon it’s not just a thoroughly good idea: it’s long overdue.

There are many good reasons, but two stand out. First, the current test price has been in place since 2010. Twenty-ten! Which of us in other walks of life would tolerate doing something without a price rise for 16 years? Seasoned British MOT testers must have '£54.85' engraved on the insides of their skulls.

Second and most important, many of the small garages of this world are far less solvent than they used to be. MOT testing stations disappear with regularity because their proprietors can’t afford to stay in business. And if you consider – as industry stats show – that of the UK’s 35 million cars in regular use, 85% are more than three years old and thus need annual testing, it’s easy to see why we need healthy test stations, preferably staffed by contented, even-handed testers.

Further arithmetic shows that every year, 29.75 million cars, between three and 39 years old, need testing. Assuming testers don’t work Sundays, around 95,000 MOT tests are needed in this country every single day. It’s a serious business.

But there’s much more to this than statistics. It is inside the independent garages of Britain that most of our practical car knowledge reposes. It’s also where lifelong car enthusiasm burns brightest. I’m not knocking big-note dealerships; most are professional and ethical. They’re needed too. But as their Taj Mahal estates show, they’re often more motivated by a love of money than a love of cars.

Everyone has a small garage story, but here are a couple of mine. When I was young, working in the far north of Australia, I was offered my first job interview as a motoring journalist. This entailed an 1800-mile drive in my old Merc, broken beyond my means to repair it. There was one mechanic in town, Tom Brown by name, who said he’d fix it as long as I sent him the cash “when you can”. He also made sure I had £100 “to pay for the petrol south”. It took me five months to pay him back – and when we met again and I pressed the notes into his hand, he smiled so widely you’d have reckoned it was me doing the favour.

Much more recently, I enjoyed a continuing soap opera starring a master mechanic near Farnborough that our little community knew as Gerry the Genius. He was forever getting difficult cars back on the roads, casually discovering, for instance, that a super-expensive starter motor for an Alfa Romeo could actually be sourced at £20 from a crashed Vauxhall; that kind of thing.

Gerry was a genius with wiring too, having been involved further back in his career with intricate, secret work for a nearby defence supplier. He was amazingly dextrous; locals who couldn’t get a new headlight bulb to fit (many are impossible these days) would bring it for Gerry to sort with a twist of the wrist. Any cost? Nah.

His finest hour – that I saw, at least – was the repair of a well-used but much loved Audi. The car had been rear-ended at low speed by a tractor, and the damage to its tailgate and driver’s side rear pillar was horrible. The owner knew that telling his insurers wouldn’t work. They’d write it off over the phone. Gerry set to work, finding a new tailgate on eBay, drilling holes in the damaged pillar, adapting jacks as pullers, thinking and banging and beating and filing. And filling too, but not too much of that. He hated filler. All the time the banter continued, as it always does in these places, with Gerry’s amazing hands refusing to be distracted by the jokes.

In a few days, the Audi was done, including perfect painting, which Gerry seemed able to pull off behind a few sheets of plastic in his old barn without needing all the modern gubbins. History doesn't record the cost, but it won’t have been as much as £1000.

All of which is why I believe in these people, and thoroughly support anything that helps them stay in business.

As it turns out, I’ve got a test booked for a motorbike tomorrow at 7.30am. The tester, another sole trader and one of God’s good men, happened to hear that I was under time pressure so he offered what he calls “an emergency appointment”. He’ll be no pushover as a tester but I know that if the chain needs lube or one of the hydraulic reservoirs looks a bit low, he’ll sort it as he goes. It will be fine. So here’s to next time. And I hope it costs more.

Exclusive: Mercedes boss on why car fans will love its future EVs

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

Its cars are becoming more electric and digital, but Merc's CEO won't lose sight of the brand's spirit

Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius is clearly proud of the new C-Class Electric saloon. Proud enough to travel from Stuttgart to Helsinki to pop into the launch event and, after spending 20 minutes fielding questions from a buying pack of eager reporters, take me on a private 45-minute drive of the Finnish countryside. He wants to show off this car and is keen for Autocar readers to understand what it can do.

“It’s nice and quiet and feels more like an E-Class,” says Källenius, as we glide along in notable tranquillity. “We’re doing 80kph [50mph] now, but if we were on the autobahn doing 200 [124] you’d have the same feeling…"

At this point Källenius is interrupted, not by me with a probing follow-up question but by the C-Class itself: “The feeling of driving at high speeds on the autobahn can be exhilarating.”

Having his own car vocally interrupt an interview is a first for Källenius, but this surreal moment encapsulates the complex, balanced transition that Mercedes is undergoing, as it adds huge digital capabilities to its vehicles while still maintaining the traditional premium strengths that have underpinned them for 140 years.

With its first generation of electric vehicles, Mercedes kept the two strands separate – for example, selling the EQE beside the combustion-engined E-Class. But the new C-Class and closely related GLC mark a distinct shift in offering you the choice of powertrain – albeit with the ICE and EV versions built on different platforms.

“We had buyers enter the brand with those first electric models in the market. They learned to love Mercedes later in their life, maybe,” says Källenius. “The traditional Mercedes customers are now coming into this. But if they still want a high-tech combustion engine, we can do that. It’s not a problem. Customers will decide when to switch at their own convenience.”

The introduction of the new MMA and MB.EA electric platforms (which respectively underpin the new CLA and GLA and new C-Class and GLC) has kick-started a rapid rollout of new EVs, along with heavy updates to keep their ICE equivalents in line. Mercedes is midway through launching 40 models in three years by the end of 2027. Even for an industry giant, that’s a huge undertaking.

“The key is a thought-through architecture strategy,” says Källenius. “If every nut and bolt on every one of those cars was new, you could never do it, but if you have a modular strategy and an operating system platform strategy – the whole brain and central nervous system of the car – you don’t have to fundamentally develop a new each time.”

Thus the MB.OS operating system of the C-Class Electric in which we’re currently sitting is also used in the new GLC and CLA EVs as well as the new ICE S-Class and forthcoming ICE C-Class. As Källenius notes, it’s not only Mercedes’ new generation of EVs that will be ‘software-defined vehicles’.

Källenius has been chairman and CEO of Mercedes-Benz since 2019, when he took over from the much-admired Dieter Zetsche. Having worked for the company since 1993, he was an establishment choice, but the Swede was still a notable appointment as the first non-German to lead Mercedes (his wife is German and he now holds dual citizenship).

Automotive CEOs usually come from either a business or engineering focus, but Källenius’s 33-year career has spanned every aspect of the firm.

“I started my career as a trainee on the management side and meandered over to the engineering side,” he laughs. He initially worked in procurement (“if you work in procurement and supply, you’re like the wingman of the engineers”), eventually being made executive director of operations for McLaren in 2003, when Woking was developing the SLR McLaren. From there he had stints running Mercedes’ Formula 1 engine division in Brixworth and its US arm, then in 2010 returned to Germany to lead Mercedes-AMG. He joined the board of management in 2015, leading sales then engineering before becoming CEO.

“I went through production, management and sales and then ended up as engineering director for the whole company,” says Källenius.

“But I do believe that fundamentally, if you’re working for a car company, whatever you do centres around the product and the technology. You must have that constant curiosity to look at what’s happening with the product. Technology remains at the centre of Mercedes’ strategy.”

Electric cars and software remain hard sells to some car fans – especially the sort Källenius tried to appeal to in his AMG days. So how do you make people who grew up debating V8 and V12 engines excited about improved inverters and faster computer chips?

“For traditional car nuts it feels like you’re learning a new language,” he acknowledges, “but are you really? When I was in uni, it was: ‘Do you have a 386 or a 486 processor on your massively heavy laptop?’ The technology race has always been there as a combination of hardware and software, but now you have that in cars too, and you’re then talking about: ‘Okay, how many tops [trillion operations per second] do you have?’

“Why do you need tops? Well, you need tops to power very sophisticated generative AI-based end-to-end software models, and if you don’t have the ‘horsepower’ to do that, you don’t have the driving features. The horsepower of the digital side is provided by chipsets.”

So how much of Källenius’s time as Mercedes CEO is spent debating tops and chipsets and how much is spent sitting, like he is now, behind the wheel of a new car for evaluation?

“The board drives and evaluates everything, because at the very end the buck stops with us,” he says. “But I’m the first to admit the excellent engineers we have are better trained than us to do that. It’s not our job to do their job. But we are customers too. When I test a car, I put myself in customer mode. How would I feel if I’d spent €60,000 [£51,000] or so to buy this? Is it really delivering? Then we debate that.

“The fine-tuning of the chassis and handling and so on is vital, because it’s a Mercedes, right? But now we spent a lot of time working on the UI [user interface] and digital side.”

But don’t think that the firm is now so focused on technology that the human element is lost because, well, it’s a Mercedes, right?

“It’s a science and an art,” says Källenius. “You can measure everything, such as the hertz frequency of the movement in the chassis, but it’s the experts who ultimately sign off the car and set how it rides and drives.

“There’s a human component to that: it’s like they have sensors in their bodies somehow that translate into the perfect set-up. Different brands have different characteristics, and Mercedes customers have an expectation to feel safe and in control and comfort but to know they can push it if they want to.”

With his experiences at McLaren and AMG, Källenius maintains a particular interest in ensuring that Mercedes continues to deliver when people want to push their cars. He recalls fondly taking part in track days with friends during his six-and-a-half-year stint in the UK (“my favourite circuit was Goodwood, which is just fantastic to go round”) and is clear that he wants the Affalterbach division to keep growing.

“Our intent is to over-proportionally grow the performance side of the business,” he says – something that he’s sure will appeal to, well, you. “Having been more or less a lifelong Autocar reader, I know that Autocar readers know their stuff about sports cars,” he laughs.

AMG is now beginning to develop cars atop bespoke platforms to maximise their performance, albeit using the wider synergies of the company (“the way a climate control system works, do you need an AMG version? No, you don’t”), but Källenius insists that there will remain “cross-fertilisation” between those models and the wider Mercedes line-up.

Exclusive: Ola Källenius promises next AMG GT will be "insane"

One example of that is the new AMG CLA 45, which features an electric powertrain that can simulate a V8 engine, down to pops and bangs and feedback on the virtual gearchanges.

“When I first drove the CLA 45 with that system, I was like a born-again Christian,” says Källenius. “It was the best V8 I’d ever driven: it had all the feeling of a V8 but with more power and torque.”

Not that a virtual, electric V8 is about to replace the real thing: while Källenius thinks that the industry has “turned a corner” on the road to electrification, he admits that “the consumer is not quite there yet”.

He says that Mercedes “didn’t wobble” from its ultimate goal of becoming electric-only but nor did it abandon its commitment to “high-tech electrified combustion engines”.

Another area where Mercedes has maintained a singular focus is in its commitment to keeping its knowledge in-house. Aside from Smart, now a 50:50 joint venture with Geely, the company has eschewed the general industry trend of forming partnerships with other manufacturers.

That, says Källenius, is because “if you have the ambition to be a global leading player, you have to know the whole thing. So we have deep partnerships with tech companies and traditional suppliers but we remain the architects of the cars.”

Sadly, with Källenius turning the C-Class back into the entrance for the launch venue, it’s time for us to leave this comfortable house on wheels. But, I wonder, with electrification now mainstream and software-defined vehicles on the road, will car development start to slow down soon?

“I think it’s going to speed up,” counters Källenius. “With AI, who knows what’s going to happen? And the process of development is also speeding up.

“[Our company founder] Karl Benz once said: ‘The love of inventing never dies.’ It’s like in F1: every time you believe you have found the last nine-thousandths of a second, there’s always a new idea. It just never stops.”

GM reviewing plans to relaunch Cadillac in UK

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:00:00 +0100

US brand planned to launch cars in the UK this year, but is reconsidering as market "evolves rapidly"

General Motors is reconsidering its plan to relaunch Cadillac in the UK, citing uncertainty in a "rapidly evolving" marketplace.

Speaking to Autocar last year when he was CEO of GM Europe, Pere Brugal said the brand would return "soon", starting with the Lyriq - a rival for the BMW iX5 and Mercedes-Benz EQE SUV. He called the UK "one of the [markets] that we're focusing on" and said a launch was "coming close".

But the company has yet to make a firm commitment on a launch date and, a year later, has set up only one dealer for right-hand-drive Cadillacs: Charles Hurst in Dublin, Ireland, which offers the Lyriq alongside the smaller Optiq and seven-seat Vistiq.

Just 20 Cadillacs were registered in the UK between July 2025 and March 2026. Of these, 16 were the new EV models. GM-authorised and London-based dealer Clive Sutton continues to import left-hand-drive Cadillac Escalades.

A GM spokesperson told Autocar: "As the UK market and EV landscape continues to evolve rapidly with new competitors emerging, we are actively reviewing our future Cadillac plans to ensure they remain aligned with market conditions and customer demand, and we will continue to assess future opportunities accordingly."

The threat of new Chinese brands in the premium sector has left little room for Cadillac to break ground in the UK. Many newcomers have launched electric SUVs comparable to those of the US marque. Also, Europe's biggest premium brands - chiefly BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo - have recently launched new and upgraded models.

The reappraisal comes as Cadillac adjusts its wider global strategy. The brand had originally planned to go electric-only by 2030. However, on its recent first-half earnings call, GM CEO Mary Barra said: "Starting next spring and continuing into 2028, we will begin launching the next generation of Cadillac ICE vehicles." A new generation of the CT5 - its BMW 5 Series rival - is among these models.

Aion to Zenvo: Every new car coming to the UK in 2026 and 2027

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:10:51 +0100

This is your handy guide to every new car coming in 2026 and 2027

This year has already been one of the busiest yet for the car industry, with plenty of models – and entirely new brands – making their debuts.

And the momentum will only keep rolling as 2027 approaches, bringing high-profile arrivals from all corners of the world.

From the baby EVs that didn't seem possible only a few years ago to rip-snorting V8 supercars and VIP-hauling vans, there's something here to catch the eye of everyone.

Here's our breakdown of every new car coming to the UK in 2026 and 2027, from Aion to Zenvo.

Every new car coming in 2026

Aion UT

On sale October

New to the UK but long established in China, Aion is adding this Volkswagen ID 3 rival to its line-up in the coming weeks. Due to be priced from £28,950, it has 204bhp and a range of 268 miles.

Everything you need to know about the Aion UT

Alpine A110 EV

On sale 2027

The long-awaited follow-up to one of the best sports cars in decades will be electric – and, Alpine's bosses claim, even better for it.

The new Alpine Performance Platform will allow similarly low-slung proportions to those of the old A110, thanks to its use of two battery packs: one under the front bonnet and the other where an engine would traditionally sit.

Everything we know about the Alpine A110 EV

Aston Martin Valen

On sale 2027

Crikey. This £1.5 million limited-run supercar is the most powerful front-engined car yet, boosting the Vanquish's 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12 to 838bhp. It also introduces more aggressive design cues that could influence future Astons, including an angry snout.

Everything you need to know about the Aston Martin Valen

Audi A2 E-tron

On sale December

New EV riffs on the cult-classic, MPV-aping supermini. Just like the original, it is focused strictly on efficiency: even the sidewalls of its tyres are shaved down to reduce drag.

It will be the new entry-level Audi, indirectly replacing the A1 and Q2 that went out of production earlier this year, with pricing tipped to start around £30,000.

Read our review of an Audi A2 E-tron prototype

Audi A6 Allroad

On sale October

Allroads lead to this: a comeback for Audi’s 4x4-lite sub-brand. This jacked-up, bulked-out take on the latest combustion-engined A6 estate is the first in a new line of rugged executive cars.

Everything you need to know about the new Audi A6 Allroad

Audi Nuvolari

On sale 2027

Surprise replacement for the R8 – at least in spirit – puts striking new bodywork on the Lamborghini Temerario's underpinnings. It is the first car to wear Audi's new look, and it serves as a "statement for the future".

Everything you need to know about the Audi Nuvolari

Audi Q7

On sale September

Audi reinvents its seven-seat SUV with clever interior tech which includes MagSafe wireless phone chargers that prevent your mobile from going flying as soon as you approach a slight curve. It keeps diesel power, too.

Read our Audi Q7 review

Audi Q9

On sale December

Indirect replacement for the A8 saloon is a towering SUV – so wide that it won't fit through a great many of the UK's urban width restrictors. European cars will be offered with a diesel V6 at first, while the US and Middle Eastern markets get the option of a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8.

Everything you need to know about the Audi Q9

Bentley Torcal

On sale 2027

This is a big moment for a mainstay of the luxury market: it's Bentley's first electric car.

Closely related to the Porsche Cayenne Electric, it could pack north of 1000bhp in its most potent form and will offer a range of more than 300 miles. And, rather than replicating the roar of a big combustion engine, its acceleration will be soundtracked by drums.

Everything we know about the Bentley Torcal

BMW 7 Series

On sale December

New look shrinks the limousine's mahoosive front grille, and there are big changes inside. The electric i7 will now be capable of covering 457 miles between charges.

Everything we know about the new BMW 7 Series

BMW i3

Read our Denza Bao 5 review

Denza Z

BYD goes Porsche 911 hunting with this sleek electric sports car packing a big punch: its three motors combine for 1584bhp, allowing it to hit 62mph from rest in 1.96sec.

Read our Denza Z review

DS No7

On sale October

Couture rebrand is intended to drag the French firm back into the fray with an edgier design and the addition of an electric model with a range of 460 miles.

Read our DS No7 review

Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale

On sale 2027

The first manually shifted Ferrari in 14 years – and the first with a V12 since the 599 GTB – is a £508k special edition of the 12Cilindri. Curiously, it retains the existing 12Cilindri's dual-clutch automatic gearbox: gears are rowed not through a physical linkage but by wire, meaning it can still be used in automatic mode if so desired.

Everything you need to know about the Ferrari 12Cilindri Manuale

Fiat 500 Hybrid

On sale September

The petrol-powered 500 returns. Sort of. A beardy 64bhp 1.0-litre engine has been crammed into the 500e's EV platform – just don't mention the 16.2sec 0-62mph time.

Read our Fiat 500 Hybrid review

On sale 2027

The drop-top G-Class returns after more than a decade.

Everything we know about the new Mercedes G-Class Cabriolet

Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupé

On sale September

The future of Mercedes' performance arm is a car of big numbers: 1169bhp, £150,000 and 432 miles of range, to name a few. The range-topping GT 63 also replicates the sound and vibration of AMG's signature V8s, but, curiously, the lower-rung 53 variant has a straight-six character instead.

Read our first drive review of an AMG GT 4-Door Coupé prototype

On sale 2027

Based on the Renault Twingo, this electric city car is expected to become Nissan's most affordable model when it arrives next year. It will draw on the brand's 'Pike Cars' from the 1980s and ’90s for a cute retro design.

Everything you need to know about the Nissan Wave

Omoda 4

On sale November

Yet another Chinese SUV, but this time a pretty eye-catching one that draws inspiration by outer space. Expect both ICE and electric versions.

Peugeot e-208 GTi

On sale June

The first Peugeot GTi in yonks is unashamedly inspired by the legendary hot 205. It has the mettle to back it, too, with a 277bhp electric motor and a limited-slip differential.

Everything we know about the new Peugeot e-208 GTi

Polestar 4 SUV

On sale 2027

Swedish brand's strange coupé-crossover gets a rear window as it becomes a more traditional family SUV. It will be vital for growing sales as Polestar faces financial struggles.

Everything we know about the Polestar 4 SUV

On sale 2027

Like the Honda Super-N, the e-Sky will be based on one of Japan's diminutive kei cars. To that end, expect a low price and outsized practicality for such a small car.

Everything you need to know about the Suzuki e-Sky

Toyota GR GT

On sale 2027

After years of rumours, teasers and concepts, Toyota's thoroughbred is finally here. Packing a hybridised twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8, the GR GT puts out 641bhp and 627lb ft, although Toyota has said these numbers could increase as development continues. It's targeting a top speed of 198mph.

Notably, there isn't a single Toyota badge on it. We're keenly awaiting our first go, but we expect it to become a mainstay of the race track before hitting the road in significant numbers.

Everything we know about the Toyota GR GT

Toyota Yaris Cross

On sale October

Big-selling hybrid crossover gets a light retouch with a honeycomb grille and new headlights. The entry-level 116bhp model has been dropped, but prices across the rest of the range aren't expected to change significantly.

Everything we know about the updated Toyota Yaris Cross

Vauxhall Corsa GSE

On sale September

Vauxhall hot hatches are back! The new Corsa GSE is the brand's first spicy supermini since the Corsa VXR was discontinued more than eight years ago, and it packs nearly twice as much power as the regular Corsa Electric. It also gets an overhauled chassis and styling inspired by the classic Nova GSi.

Everything we know about the Vauxhall Corsa GSE

Volkswagen Golf Hybrid

Autobots, roll out - meet the androids changing car factories for good

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:00:00 +0100

BMW last year used its Figure 02 robot to support the production of more than 30,000 X3s

Autonomous features are turning cars into robots that nag you into paying attention, flash speed limit warnings and slam on the brakes if you’re about to hit something.

Fully autonomous taxis and delivery vehicles are on the way, and before long we may see fully autonomous private cars.

On top of all that, the way cars are produced is also becoming increasingly robotic.

Robots have been used to build cars for more than 40 years. In the past they didn’t resemble the two-armed, two-legged sci-fi variety, but that’s changing, and humanoid robots are already working alongside real people – and the drive to increase their cognitive ability is under way.

The Hyundai Group liked what pioneering robot manufacturer Boston Dynamics was doing so much that it bought the company. And Ford is using a Boston Dynamics Spot robot under the watchful eye of its handler at the Halewood plant. It’s fitted with thermal cameras and microphones for detecting heat changes and air leaks to prevent equipment failure and downtime. Spot uses lidar to help it navigate the factory, and it knows to give people the right of way and to stop should anyone get within two metres of it.

The use of those two-legged machines is on the rise. Boston Dynamics’ latest creation, Atlas, is a 6ft 2in, 90kg, ‘general purpose humanoid’, and Hyundai intends to mass produce it for use across industrial sites.

By 2028 Atlas will be deployed at the Hyundai Group Metaplant America, a new EV plant that makes the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 9 and Sportage Hybrid. The robot’s AI-driven ‘brain’ will be directed to perform ‘sequencing tasks’, which in manufacturing means selecting components and delivering them to a production line in the right sequence, at the right time.

BMW introduced a humanoid robot, Figure 02, in collaboration with tech company Figure AI, at Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina last year. Figure 02 supported the manufacture of 30,000-plus BMW X3s over 10 months in the body shop, inserting sheet metal parts for welding. BMW is now moving to Figure 03, which has wireless charging, soft components for safety and speech-to-speech communication. It also has more human-like hands with tactile sensors and cameras to increase precision and dexterity.

Elsewhere, scientists at Queen Mary University, London, have come up with a new sensor that generates an array of different colours when pressure is applied. Mounted in robotic fingertips, along with a camera inside each finger, this will allow robotic hands to ‘see’ touch and respond with greater sensitivity. Applications for it could include prosthetics and surgery as well as precision manufacturing.

How long will the battery last in my electric car?

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:54:33 +0100

Should you be worried about the battery life of an electric car? Not if you pay close attention to our guide

For many car owners, the electric car represents an entirely new way of driving and brings with it many queries and worries. One of the largest concerns is how long the battery life is on an electric car.

You may well have read horror stories about electric car owners facing hefty bills for replacements or contemplating cutting their losses on cars that are otherwise worthless because they literally don't work.

And it’s not hard to see where these rumours and anecdotes come from, because our extensive experience of mobile phones, tablets and laptop computers has shown many that, even over a relatively short period of time, the batteries powering them can quickly lose efficiency, resulting in the need for more frequent charging.

In extreme cases, the degradation is so severe that the device won’t even fire up unless it’s permanently on charge, which is obviously no use for an EV.

There’s also no denying that battery technology doesn’t come cheap, and should the cells ever need replacement, it’s quite likely that they will cost more to swap than the car is now worth - which is why we tend to replace mobile phones in their entirety rather than replace the battery pack.

Battery swapping stations, where depleted electric car batteries can be changed for fully charged ones in mere minutes, are beginning to crop up in Europe and may offer an answer to battery life queries.

But how bad is the electric car battery problem really? The good news is that the more electric cars that are out there and the longer they are run for, the more evidence is produced to show that the power pack will often last the lifetime of the car.

Better still, there are plenty of tips and strategies you can follow to make sure your car’s batteries will survive better than most.

Battery life for electric cars

Generally, electric car batteries last for as long as the rest of the car. But like with your phone or laptop battery, they degrade over time.

Ultimately, the cells should still have at least 70% of their capacity even after 200,000 miles, which is the sort of mileage that few cars ever reach, whether they’re combustion-engined or electric.

As an example, a number of Tesla Model S taxis operating from Gatwick airport racked up more 300,000 miles each over three years and all retained at least 82% battery health.

Why does an electric car battery lose charge or degrade?

The truth is that batteries degrade over time and with use, meaning they become less efficient as they age and provide a shorter range.

Continual advances in battery technology mean that issues surrounding degradation of performance are being reduced all the time. However, even the latest lithium ion cells aren’t completely immune to losing performance over time, with a number of factors playing a role.

Perhaps the biggest single contributor to the decline in efficiency is the cycle of use and charging. Frequent draining of the cells followed by a full charge can over time damage the battery’s ability to maintain its optimum energy storage. That's why manufacturers typically recommend charging only to 80% and never letting the range drop to zero miles.

Rapid charging also plays a part, because channelling so much electrical energy and so quickly generates much higher temperatures in the battery pack.

Liquid cooling of the cells helps mitigate this, but use a rapid charger frequently and over time these extreme heat cycles will cause damage to the lithium ion packs.

In a similar but less extreme way, cars that are used in hotter climates tend to suffer a subtly greater reduction in performance than those used in cooler conditions.

How long do Tesla batteries last?

Tesla claims its batteries last between 300,000 and 500,000 miles. For a Tesla Model 3 Long Range with a 436-mile WLTP range, that makes for between 700 and 1500 battery charge cycles.

We have experience running used Teslas on our fleet, including a four-year-old used Tesla Model 3 that had covered roughly 40,000 miles. Despite this, its battery had degraded only 2%.

Hundreds of other examples point to our findings too, so it's safe to say that Tesla batteries can last for a long time and hold their all important percentages.

How can I care for my electric car battery?

Happily, there are ways you can help preserve the power and efficiency of your battery over time. One of the major ways of protecting the cells is by carefully managing the charging and discharging of the cells, which in an ideal world means trying to avoid the charge dropping below 20% and not adding more than 80% when charging - above the latter figure is when batteries tend to get hottest, which takes a toll on the cells’ delicate chemistry.

Happily, most EVs now give you the option to programme your car’s charging schedule, allowing you to decide when the electricity flows and, crucially, letting you set a cap on exactly how much pours into the cells.

By the same token, it’s best not to completely drain the battery. Most EVs will always make sure there’s a bare minimum of energy left even if it won’t allow the car to move, but storing your car for long periods and allowing electricity to leech away is to be avoided.

Speaking of charging, it’s best to only use DC rapid chargers sparingly. Although fine for topping up on longer journeys or in emergencies when you need a quick burst of energy, a by-product of rapid chargers’ speed is the increased, lithium-ion-damaging temperatures in the battery as it copes with the electrical onslaught.

If the car is to be used in extremes of hot or cold weather, always make sure the car is plugged in to charge (with the maximum limit set to 80%, of course) regardless of range. This trickle-charging technique allows the battery’s thermal management system to continue working and keep the cells at the optimum temperature for longevity.

Finally, the way you drive your EV can affect its battery life. Much like rapid charging, quick depletion of the cells can cause damage that over time will lead to reduced efficiency and range. Ultimately, the faster you drive and the more you make use of an EV’s trademark instant torque for lightning getaways, the more you cause damaging heat build-up in the battery. So it’s best to take it steady if you want longevity.

Electric car battery warranties

Manufacturers are acutely aware that potential electric car buyers could be put off by the possibility of premature and expensive battery failure. The truth is that when treated correctly, most modern lithium ion batteries are likely to last the lifetime of the car. Even so, most firms cover the battery with a separate, extended warranty.

Most car warranties are around three years and 60,000 miles, but this is increased for the battery element in EVs. For instance, Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Nissan and Renault cover the cells for eight years and 100,000 miles, while Hyundai ups the mileage limit to 125,000.

Tesla has the same eight-year timeframe but a mileage limit of 150,000 on the Model S and Model X, 120,000 on the Model 3 Long Range and 100,000 on all other versions.

And apart from Audi and Tesla, most include a maximum allowable capacity (between 70 and 75%) for the battery, which will trigger a replacement if it dips below this figure during the warranty period.