Autocar

The plug-in hybrid has turned from stop-gap to a do-it-all choice, but which is best for a family? The plug-in hybrid powertrain has had its critics in recent years but, like it or not, its breakthrough moment looks to have arrived. PHEV tech puts a future-proofed car on your driveway that meets your needs without asking you to adapt your habits and journeys to it. That saves on petrol and, of course, carbon dioxide - in much of your daily motoring without making the rest of it any harder. A s

Modern engineering hides mass, but physics wins. Less still remains more A friend texted me to say that he was envious of the cars I've driven recently - Aston Martin Valhalla and Audi RS5 - and to let me know that he's in a Hyundai i10 courtesy car at the moment. Hold on: you are the one envious of me? I will admit that I've had very nice times in some very good cars recently, but to experience the sub-tonne kerb weight of an i10 and revel in the snicketiness of its five-speed manual gearbox,

Geely-badged cars are new to the UK, but the brand is a volume-selling powerhouse at home in China Until quite recently, Geely has been something of an automotive shadow in the UK, a background entity known mainly for its ownership of a number of familiar car makers. Volvo, Polestar, Lotus and LEVC are among its portfolio of brands, and they have received substantial investment (with varying degrees of success). But in China, Geely is a prominent firm in its own right it has been making cars th

Has electrifying the C8 Corvette created a genuine any-season hero? We put it to the test Jack Harrison and I are barrelling into a storm in a borrowed Corvette, exactly as planned. If anything, the plan is working too well: there's too much storm. Through the bleariness of a slender rain-streaked side window, we pick out the silhouette of a jack-knifed lorry on the other side of the motorway just north of Gretna. Only marginally easier to make out, as we make slow progress behind our own littl

1300cc V4 Italian classic is used every day and parked on the street Giuseppe Minetti is looking forward to a Summer in London at the wheel of his 1973 Lancia Fulvia 1.3S. "Winters here aren't that bad, but when it gets super-slippery, I'll definitely take it for a drive. Because these cars were designed for loose gravel and uneven surfaces, it will come into its own. The Fulvia is front-wheel drive but is designed so you can get the back end drifting out. Its very skinny tyres help," he says.

Join Autocar for a look at the some of the world's greatest underground construction projects Tunnels are used to carry traffic through some of the most extreme terrain on the planet and they help ease journeys with reduced travel time. While most tunnels offer a short underground burst of driving, some are much longer. Here are the world’s 10 longest road tunnels that use cutting edge technology to make their construction possible and to keep drivers alert while passing through their extended

American EV start-up stunned on debut with the Air saloon; now it has applied the same principles to a seven-seat SUV To say that the Lucid Gravity is extremely spacious might seem trivial, given that it’s a seven-seat SUV.It’s not trivial, though, because the car industry has produced its fair share of inverse tardises since moving to EVs – big cars that make you wonder where all the space has gone. Take the surprisingly cosy Porsche Taycan, all those rear-driven electric BMWs with no frunk an

Cosmos premium SUV due first; more rugged Earth model rivalling Defender to follow American EV maker Lucid will finally come to the UK in 2027 with the Cosmos, a rival to the BMW iX3 and Volvo EX60. The premium SUV will be unveiled later this year ahead of production starting at the company's recently completed plant in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Lucid will then follow up in 2028 with the more off-road-and adventure-focused Earth and a bigger, more practical derivative of the Cosmos after that. The

Commenters are fuming after we cleaned our A2 with a garage brush, but I’ve had enough of the detailing police Alongside the recent feature that Matt Prior wrote about getting 100mpg out of his Audi A2, there was a video that went on Autocar's YouTube channel. It opens with a shot of Matt at a jet wash, cleaning the A2. Scroll down and, reliable as clockwork, there they are: the commenters lambasting him for ruining the Audi's paintwork by using 'the brush'. Of course, they're ignoring the fact

We take a deep dive into the complex engineering of modern tyres and how it affects your comfort You can’t discuss a car’s ride quality without also talking about tyres. As the only point of contact between the vehicle and the road surface, the rubber wrapped around the wheels are going to play a crucial role in how bumps and lumps are transmitted through to the cabin. Of course, there are many other factors to consider, such as suspension components and geometry, even the stiffness of the car’

Community Speedwatch groups are on the rise as local residents feel threatened by inaction on speeding An increase in the number of speeding drivers across the UK has sparked more members of the public to take speed monitoring into their own hands and these groups claim lawmakers are refusing to act, despite being presented with evidence of reckless driving and even collisions.  Since 2022, speeding fines nationally have increased by around 15%, according to freedom of information requests. In

This is the future of BMW – and maybe the future of electric motoring too Any accusation that European car makers have slept on EVs would probably be taken as an insult by BMW, which has actually played the game rather cleverly.Ignoring 20th-century science projects like the electric 1602e built for the 1972 Olympics, it was the i3 that kicked things off in 2013. Since EV drivetrain technology still wasn’t mature enough to hit the big time, it was quite a canny move to make the i3 experimental

Three-row option returns to Model Y line-up - but only for top powertrain Tesla is taking the fight to the new Mercedes GLB EQ, Skoda Peaq and Peugeot E-5008 with a new seven-seat option for its best-selling Model Y crossover. The US brand offered the Model Y with three rows of seats for a brief period before it was heavily updated last year, but the current car has been exclusively a five-seater until now. As of today, the top-spec Model Y Long Range All-Wheel Drive is available to order with

Ford also retakes crown as fastest American marque around the Nordschleife with 6min 15.977sec lap The Ford GT Mk IV has become the fastest pure-combustion car to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife, rounding the 12.9-mile circuit in 6min 15.977sec. It makes the track-only version of the GT the third-fastest car around the circuit, trailing only the electric Volkswagen ID R (6min 5.336sec) and the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo (5min 19.546sec). There remains potential for Ford to set a faster time with t

New tech reduces lock-to-lock rotation to 170deg, so there's no need to shuffle the 'wheel' Mercedes is the latest manufacturer set to bring steer-by-wire to showrooms, introducing the tech on the updated EQS limousine later this year. Following Tesla and Toyota in removing the mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and road wheels, Mercedes says the new development "elevates the driving experience to a new level and fundamentally transforms the interaction between human and vehicle". Th

The appeal of the Mazda 2 grows more and more as prices become cheaper and cheaper Most mainstream cars have life cycles of seven or eight years, even in today's fast-paced environment - which means the third-generation Mazda 2 was one of the UK's oldest cars when it bowed out in 2025 after more than a decade on sale. More impressive than its longevity, though, is its enduring appeal. When it was new in 2014, we liked it a lot and 10 years later, we still liked it a lot, maintaining its four-st

Dealers tell Autocar they are experiencing a record number of sales, some rising by as much as 60% Rising fuel prices, sparked by the war in the Persian Gulf, and falling energy costs have led to a spike in sales for used EV, dealers have told Autocar. The wholesale cost of crude oil has risen by more than a third since the first US strikes hit Iran on 28 February. This has pushed diesel prices in the UK up by an average of 40p per litre and petrol by 20p – both records for monthly increases,

New images suggest a fresh, more cohesive look for Ioniq cars, with new lights and triangular forms Hyundai will soon reveal a dramatic new look for its future Ioniq line-up.  It has confirmed that it is working on two new concept cars, named Earth and Venus, and has published an image of the duo – although it has yet to confirm which car is which. One image shows the front-quarter flank of a silver-painted, cab-forward car. It has chunky wheel-arch cladding so may hint at the brand’s next wave

Chinese newbie has conquered sales charts, offering strong value and high-tech interior A year ago, nobody had ever even heard of a Jaecoo, let alone seen one. Yet now these SUVs are everywhere. It's an amazing achievement for a totally new brand to the UK. It's easy to see why, however, with a combination of a product that offers big value for money, an impressive seven-year/100,000-mile warranty and, perhaps most importantly, a remarkable dealer network. Learning from that other industry disr

Performance-focused GSE line is key in lifting Vauxhall's "emotional appeal" to fight off Chinese newcomers Vauxhall is working on a hot new electric Astra as the next model in its recently relaunched GSE sub-brand, Autocar understands.  It will be the first Astra hot hatch since the VXR bowed out in 2017 and the third Vauxhall to wear the new GSE badge after the Mokka and upcoming Corsa, with which it is tipped to share its 277bhp FWD powertrain - including an electronic limited-slip different