56

‘I point-blank refuse to name it after any famous

Muppet, ogre or Marvel superhero’

Issue 6582 | Volume 317 | No 12

NEWS

Jaguar limo New ‘XJ’ in radical fresh-start EV trio 6 Alpine A310 Reborn as four-seat electric sports car 10 Ford, VW camper vans Next-gen Nugget, California 12 Insurance price hike Why premiums have shot up 14 Kia EV5 Sportage-sized electric SUV on the way 16

TESTED

Range Rover Velar Does this update go far enough? 22 Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer Revised PHEV rated 26 Toyota bZ4X The car behind the alphabet soup 27 Mercedes-AMG EQE 53 Big, 617bhp saloon hits UK 27 Porsche 911 Carrera T ROAD TEST 48

FEATURES Best Fun EV 2023 Supertest of six £40k hatches 28 Unimog driven The unstoppable 4x4 that does it all 38 Mohammed Ben Sulayem FIA boss speaks candidly 44

OUR CARS Audi TT RS Sport Edition arrives for a farewell tour 56 Range Rover PHEV pros and cons on a Loire holiday 57 BMW iX1 iDrive infotainment given real-world test 59

EVERY WEEK Jesse Crosse Tech set to make EVs simpler, cheaper 13 Secret Source Voice control? Computer says ‘nein’ 15 Matt Prior Why the first supercar is ancient history 17 Subscribe Save money and get exclusive benefits 18 Steve Cropley All set for a hillclimb in the BMW i4 19 Damien Smith Lotus Type 66 and the Can-Am days 21 Your Views JLR’s product vision in three words 60 On this day 1986: Subaru’s 4x4 Capri; MVS Venturi 66 Slideshow The most contentious cars GM has made 74

DEALS

Second Chance Land Rover Freelander from £500 62 James Ruppert The cars most likely to pass an MOT 65 Road test index Track down that road test here 67 New cars A-Z Key car stats, from Abarth to Zenvo 68

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THIS WEEK

VAUXHALL ASTRA SPORTS TOURER PHEV 26

THE 4 x4 WITH OFF-ROAD SUPERPOWERS 38

FUN, AFFORDABLE EV s GO HEAD TO HEAD 28

C O V E R STORY

❝ IT SETS THE TEMPLATE FROM WHICH TO TAKE THE ELECTRIC HOT HATCH FORWARD ❞

ILLYA VERPRAET BRINGS GOOD NEWS FROM ANNUAL ELECTRIC CAR ‘HANDLING DAY’ 28

IMAGE

THE CARS SPEARHEADING JAGUAR’S REBOOT 6

COMMENT

WILL EVs EVER BE PURE DRIVER’S CARS? YOU BET

AS RECENTLY AS 2019, there were fewer than 20 different electric cars on sale in the UK. If you go shopping today, you’ll find that figure is far closer to 100 – and it’s growing rapidly. As the number of electric options rises, the cars themselves are becoming more diverse and include a variety of performance machines that put an increased focus on ‘ fun’.

Just take a look at the six contenders in our second annual ‘Best Fun EV’ group test. We considerably narrowed the field this year to concentrate on affordable EVs (although that term remains, sadly, somewhat relative) yet still assembled a field of machines featuring a broad range of sizes, designs and powertrains. Without spoiling the results of our 10-page special (p28), it’s clear electric cars have some way to go before they can truly match petrol hot hatches for thrills – but that doesn’t mean you should dismiss them. Just look how far they’ve come in such a short time.

Electric technolog y is developing fast and the rate of progress isn’t going to slow. Given some of the models coming soon – the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is one of the most anticipated cars of this year for a reason – performance EVs are only going to get better and better. Stay tuned.

James Attwood Acting mag editor james.attwood@haymarket.com

@atters_ j

Rachel Burgess is away youtube.com/autocar facebook.com/autocarofficial twitter.com/autocar autocar_official

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