Auto Express 1726

I’LL be honest, here: the new BMW 7 Series is possibly one of the ugliest cars I’ve seen in a very long time. There, I’ve said it. I know there will be plenty of people who disagree – do let me know what you think – but I just can’t see this one growing on me at all. BMW has been building up to it with the over-grilled 4 Series and iX, but I’ll admit that I’m coming to terms with the former’s stunning proportions, if not its face, while the iX’s pioneering tech forgives its visual sins. Yes, the 7 Series above is the all-electric i7, too, but in my eyes the front, side and back just don’t work as a whole. However, step inside and it’s a different…

● First drive of all-new hybrid version of Korean family SUV ● Practicality boosted by longer wheelbase and cabin revamp AS of April this year, Kia was the best-sellingcar brand in the UK, and its family SUVs have accounted for a significant chunk of this impressive performance so far in 2022. And later this year comes another important new SUV: the second-generation Niro, and Auto Express has already driven a pre-production prototype. As with the first Niro, the new model will be available with three powertrains: the full hybrid driven here, a plug-in variant and the fully electric Niro EV. Our hybrid car uses a 1.6-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine and an electric motor that’s fed by a compact 1.32kWh battery. The combined output is 139bhp, but with 43bhp and…

● BMW’s Merc EQS rival arrives ahead of plug-in hybrid versions BMW has been one of the leading premium brands when it comes to pure-electric vehicles. This is the new ‘G70’ 7 Series, and an all-electric i7 model is part of the line-up. Seen here in official images for the first time, the i7 will lead the 7 Series launch in the UK. It will be available before the end of this year, priced from £107,000, while plug-in hybrid 7 Series with combustion engines aren’t due until next spring. The styling of the two cars is similar, with an oversized front grille that’s likely to divide opinion, and the split-headlight design seen on the recently facelifted X7. Targeting the Mercedes EQS, the i7 will first appear in xDrive60 guise. It…

THE new i7 and 7 Series both mix touchscreen displays with BMW’s iDrive rotary controller, a feature that was dropped on the newest 2 Series Active Tourer MPV. When asked about the future of the dial at a preview event for the new limousines, BMW’s Stefan Frick explained to Auto Express that the controller’s inclusion will be model-specific, depending on the driver’s proximity to the screen. “You have to think about the architecture of the car and the ergonomics. If the screen is not close enough it makes no sense [to remove the rotary controller],” Frick said. “In the 2 Series [AT] it’s a different architecture, and the screen is pretty close; it’s quite convenient to control with touch.” BMW is still expected to drop the iDrive controller when it…

GREEN NCAP, the sustainability offshoot of independent crash test body Euro NCAP, has launched a new life cycle assessment (LCA) programme which is designed to help consumers choose the most eco-friendly cars. A total of 61 cars have been assessed for the first phase of the LCA under Euro NCAP’s Green NCAP banner, with the electric Fiat 500 coming out as the car with the smallest whole-life CO2 footprint. However, in contrast to its crash test results, Green NCAP is not offering consumers an easy-to-compare star rating system. Instead it is providing a ‘best and worst case’ range for each model giving an indication of its eco performance. There are two key rating elements that make up the Green NCAP LCA results. One rating is for lifetime greenhouse gas emissions,…

AS you might expect, NCAP’s results show that a large electric vehicle needs a lot more energy than a small one, and that an electric vehicle in general may have similar or even a higher primary energy demand than a comparable conventional car. For all types of powertrain, the organisation says that the highest PED demand is during the usage phase, so it’s important to reduce the consumption of fuel – whether it’s electricity or petrol/diesel – as much as possible. The best and worst-case scenarios given for each car reflect different driving styles, ambient conditions as well as the energy mix prevalent in different countries. For example, the same battery electric vehicle (BEV) may provide low greenhouse gas scores in Sweden, where it’s likely to be charged exclusively from…