Auto Express 1759 - 1760

I’M going to take a bit of a flyer declaring this pre-Christmas, but I reckon it’s safe to say the best-selling car of 2022 will be the British-built Nissan Qashqai. Year-to-date numbers give it a lead in the sales charts of more than 4,500, with last year’s number one, the Vauxhall Corsa, in second place. I’m not sure even Vauxhall’s super-salespeople will be able to overturn that during the traditionally slow sales month of December. The Qashqai’s sales success, whether it stays at number one or not, is hugely significant for Nissan in a year that its all-new Ariya was named Auto Express Car of the Year – taking 10 years’ worth of EV learning from the Nissan Leaf and putting it into the stunning and brilliant Ariya. The latest Qashqai’s popularity is…

Steve_Fowler@autovia.co.uk @stevefowler • All-new platform is expected to be used for electric model • Battery will be big enough to deliver 300 miles of range LAND Rover’s Defender is set to go fully electric within the next few years, Auto Express can reveal. The latest version of the popular 4x4 was only introduced in 2020, yet it’s likely that we’ll see fully electric versions of the 90, 110 and 130 arriving as part of a refreshed Defender line-up in 2025, with cars reaching customers in 2026. The move is likely to mean a switch in platform tech, from the current D7 Premium Lightweight Architecture to Land Rover’s advanced new MLA Flex platform. MLA can support fully electric powertrains as well as internal combustion engines, and already underpins the firm’s new Range Rover and Range Rover…

John_McIlroy@autovia.co.uk @johnmcilroy • Fresh face designed to bring SUV up to date with Ioniq 5 and 6 • Line-up expected to include mild hybrid, full hybrid and EV THE Hyundai Kona was one of the first vehicles to really embrace a choice of hybrid and electric across its range – but as the Korean manufacturer has pushed more towards EVs, its small SUV has risked being left behind by progress on design. That should change in 2023 with the second-generation Kona, previewed for the first time in these official images. The Mk2 Kona – which will sit below the Tucson but above the Bayon in Hyundai’s line-up – clearly has a more grown-up approach than the original. It’s larger, for starters – 25mm wider and 150mm longer, at 4,355mm, just 70mm down on the Kia…

Price and full details announced for Ioniq 6 FOLLOWING on from the First Edition model, Hyundai has confirmed prices and specs for the full Ioniq 6 range. The rear-drive 228bhp Premium model starts from £46,745, with the 320bhp 4WD car costing £50,245. Higher-grade Ultimate trim in the same specifications costs £50,245 and 53,745 respectively. Both trims feature the 77kWh long-range battery as standard, with a best range figure of 338 miles for the RWD model. Less tech for Apple car as launch is delayed TECH giant Apple has scaled back its car development programme, with the debut of its first model pushed back until 2026, according to a new report from financial outlet Bloomberg. Dubbed Project Titan, the initiative was initially meant to coincide with full driverless tech, but it’s believed that Apple has abandoned…

sean_carson@autovia.co.uk • Bugatti will focus on tradition • Rimac looks to the hi-tech THE Rimac story is a fascinating one, and in just 13 years since CEO Mate Rimac founded his eponymously named company, Rimac Automobili, Bugatti was knocking at his door to try and join forces. “It’s one of the craziest things,” says Rimac in the boardroom of Rimac Technology’s UK base near Warwick. “When [Stephan] Winklemann was CEO of Bugatti he came to us a couple of times and they were looking to develop the next-generation car [after the Chiron]. It was supposed to be an electric SUV, similar to what the Ferrari Purosangue turned out to be. “Then Volkswagen Group’s head of strategy called me and said he wanted to talk about Bugatti. In the middle of the conversation he just blurted…

JAGUAR has updated its F-Pace SUV, streamlining the range and introducing minor upgrades and efficiency gains. The biggest tech change is a larger 19.2kWh battery for the PHEV model, so the car can travel up to 40.4 miles on electricity alone. This drops it into the eight-per cent Benefit-in-Kind tax bracket for company car users, while also improving its official economy figures to 176.6mpg and 37g/km of CO2 emissions. The simplified range starts with R-Dynamic S, which includes 19-inch alloys, a digital instrument panel and Pivi Pro infotainment set-up with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Customers can order the revised F-Pace now, with prices starting at £48,660 and stretching to £84,940 for the SVR model.…