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‘This Mazda’s lump really is the Nigel Farage of engines’

Issue 6514 | Volume 312 | No 7

NEWS

Range Rover Sport All-new SUV to keep V8, get BEV 6 Bentley Bentayga EWB Long-wheelbase flagship 10 Aston boss leaves Moers replaced by ex-Ferrari CEO 12 Price hike for new cars Facts behind the latest rises 14

TESTED

Alfa Romeo Tonale Crucial new Evoque rival rated 22 Aston Martin V12 Vantage Fiery 690bhp swansong 26 Volkswagen ID 5 GTX Twin-motor rakish-style SUV 28 Genesis GV60 Alternative to Q4 E-tron and Model Y 29 Peugeot 308 Hybrid 180 Family hatch turns PHEV 29 Toyota Aygo X Limited Edition ROAD TEST 30

AUTOCAR AWARDS 2022 Mate Rimac Self-made tech guru and entrepreneur 40 David Richards Motorsport and engineering hero 44 Alison Jones The brains behind Stellantis in the UK 48 Peter Schreyer The global design boss on amission 50 Gordon Murray High-achieving visionary engineer 54 SangYup Lee Stellar design talent shaping Hyundai 56 Ash Sutton Three-time BTCC champ is not done yet 57 Guy Pigounakis, Dan Geoghegan Great UK leaders 58 Caffeine & Machine How a car culture hub was born 59 Best cars of 2022 18 winners across 14 categories 60 BMW No manufacturer does it better than Munich’s 74

OUR CARS Mazda CX-5 Petrolhead SUV? Plus Audi Q4 E-tron 80 Lexus UX 300e The quest for a charger that works 82 Dacia Duster Everything you need and nothing else 83

EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse EV tech behind the BMW i7’s bold skin 11 Matt Prior How I plan to build a 1.9-litre V12. One day 13 Jim Holder Why we knew Moers was leaving Aston 17 Subscribe Save money and get exclusive benefits 18 Steve Cropley Lotus hero calls time; Aston’s future 19 Damien Smith BTCC and Mountune; Formula E 20 Your Views New car lead times; i3; grazed knuckles 76 On this day Curious EV solution in 1945, plus VE Day79 Slideshow Iconic cars that gained a cult following 98

DEALS

James Ruppert Kuga; Peugeot 206; Fiat Barchetta 84 Cult hero Mk2 Subaru Impreza WRX from £4500 86 As good as new Deals on still-fresh Jeep Wranglers 88 Take it or leave it BMW i8; Golf R; Citroën C-Zero 89 New cars A-Z Key car stats, from Abarth to Zenos 90 Road test index Track down that road test here 97

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THIS WEEK

AUTOCAR AWARDS: CARS, PEOPLE AND MORE 39

ALFA ROMEO TONALE: FIRST DRIVE VERDICT 22

MIGHTY ASTON MARTIN V12 VANTAGE DRIVEN 26

COVER STORY

❝HAD WE SCREWED UP? KEY SOURCES INSISTED WE HADN'T. ‘HOLD YOUR NERVE,’ THEY SAID❞

JIM HOLDER ON BREAKING THIS WEEK’S NEWS ABOUT ASTON’S CEO LEAVING. IN JANUARY 17

COMMENT

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE FUTURE, ASK RIMAC

OUR HIGHEST accolade at this year’s Autocar Awards, the Issigonis Trophy, goes to a man whose amazing entrepreneurial skills have taken him in just over a decade from being a clever young guy messing about with a rusty BMW to the manufacturer of million-pound electric hypercars of his own design. Mate Rimac, founder of Rimac Automobili, will soon be the head of his country’s biggest company, whose technological know-how is now so advanced that prestige clients such as Hyundai, Porsche and Ferrari come to him for hardware, software and manufacturing projects.

Less than a year ago, his company formed a hugely significant joint venture with the Volkswagen Group to take over the running of the Bugatti marque and give it a whole new future, in both financial terms and model structure. Meanwhile, he’s working on a still-secret masstransportation project that he calls “the robotaxi” and is about to put a new self-badged hypercar into production, Rimac’s second.

If anyone understands the shape and the needs of future world transportation, it is Mate Rimac. And at 34, he is just getting started – which is great news for the industry, and of course all of us. Mark Tisshaw Editor mark.tisshaw@haymarket.com

@mtisshaw

ALL NEW RANGE ROVER SPORT: FULL DETAILS 6

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